Monday, January 16, 2006

Come, Thou Fount


Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above;
Praise the mount-I’m fixed upon it-mount of Thy redeeming love.


Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither by Thy help I’m come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, wand’ring from the fold of god;
He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.


O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wand’ring heart to Thee;
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it; seal it for Thy courts above.


"Robert Robinson (1735-1790) was saved under the ministry of George Whitefield. He even entered into the Christian ministry, but he still tended to wander from God. He wrote the hymn “Come Thou Fount” as an autobiographical sketch. His heart would get out of tune, causing him to neglect God. In stanza two he tells of his conversion. And stanza three he admits that he has a daily debt to Grace and asked God to help his wandering heart. One day, in his latter years, while he was on a stagecoach, a female passenger wanted to share her faith with him. His actions that day spoke as one not knowing Christ. She quoted this hymn saying, “These words might help you as they have helped me.” He sobbed, “Madam, I am the poor, unhappy man who composed that hymn many years ago. I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.” "

1 comment:

Bonita said...

That is a poignant story. Thank goodness she was there to console him with his own words.