Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
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,
Wandering 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 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
THIS HYMN WAS WRITTEN by Robert Robinson whose father died when he was eight years old. As Robinson grew older, he gave his mother a difficult time. When he was 14, his mother sent him to London to train as a barber. Robinson chose to join a street gang and took to a life of drinking and gambling.
One evening, when Robinson was 17, he and his gang succeeded in getting a poor fortune-teller to read their fortune for free. But the words of the fortune-teller haunted Robinson: “You young man, you will live to see your children and grandchildren!” This comment made Robinson think about his future.
On the same evening, Robinson gathered his friends and persuaded them to go and mock the revival meeting being led by the great evangelist George Whitfield. “Let us go down and laugh at the poor and deluded Methodists!” he said. Whitfield preached on the text Matthew 3:7 “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Upon hearing Whitfield’s message, Robinson felt that it was directed at him.
At the age of 20, he turned from his foolish ways and followed the way of the Lord.
He then joined the Methodists. Soon he felt the call to preach and was appointed by John Wesley to the Calvinist Methodist Chapel, Norfolk, England.
In 1858, he wrote his autobiography in the words of the hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”.
Robinson recalls the prophet Samuel’s gesture after defeating the Philistines: Samuel erected a stone to commemorate God’s help.
“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the LORD has helped us.’ ” 1 Samuel 7:12
Inspired by the story of Samuel, Robinson wrote the second stanza and alluded to 1 Samuel 7:12 as he expressed his realisation that it was only by God’s grace that he had been saved from his foolish ways.
This hymn was Robinson’s “Ebenezer”. What might ours be?
Judith Mosomos is a Lecturer in Church Music at the Methodist School of Music.
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Telugu MC members donate blood
TELUGU METHODIST CHURCH (SINGAPORE) conducted a successful blood donation drive on June 2, 2012.
Held at Bloodbank@HSA, situated at the Health Sciences Authority building in Outram, the event saw 35 participants donating blood, with more than 15 other people providing joyous and enthusiastic support.
The blood donation drive was an initiative of the church to give back to society in return for all that Singapore has done for the Telugu people here.
The church is grateful for the opportunities for many Telugu friends who have come from Andhra Pradesh, India to work in Singapore.
Telugu Methodist Church members continue to be inspired by the Bible to contribute their best to the precious lives of people, regardless of nationality.