The hymns we sing in church often become words or a melody, lacking in true meaning and heartfelt worship. “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” is one which is familiar, but little is known of its story and the heart out of which it was born. Its background and origin, as well as its lyrics, should be heeded to not only begin a relationship with God, but also KEEP a relationship with God.
This beautiful hymn was written by Robert Robinson in 1758. Robinson’s father died when he was 8 years old, and at the age of 14, was sent away by his mother to be apprenticed to a barber in London.
While in London, Robinson became part of a notorious gang and lived a life of dissipation. But at the age of seventeen, inviting his gang to mock Methodists, Robinson persuaded them to visit a revival meeting being conducted by the great evangelist, George Whitfield. Whitfield preached on the text, “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” and convinced Robinson that he was speaking to him personally. He did not respond to the altar call that night, but the words of the evangelist would haunt him for the next three years. On Dec. 10, 1755, at age 20, Robert finally yielded his life to Christ, and very soon thereafter answered a call to the ministry.
Robinson penned these words at the age of 22, out of gratitude to his Lord for saving him out of the sinful life he had led: “Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God.”
Robinson became a supreme preacher in his day and, though not a scholarly man, wrote History of Baptism and Baptists in 1790.
His story is not a thoroughly happy one, though. As he aged, he became much acquainted with a Unitarian philosopher, Joseph Preistly, who greatly influenced him towards a more liberal theology, eventually embracing much of Preistly’s ideas.
Not long before his death, Robinson was riding in a stagecoach and noticed a woman reading a hymnal. As they struck up a conversation, she began to sing “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”. She asked him what he thought of this hymn. Robinson burst out in tears and replied, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds if I had them to enjoy the feeling that I had then.”
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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.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering 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.
T.R.U.T.H. 