Today’s hymn comes from Anne Steele (1717-1778). Her hymns were widely circulated amongst Calvinistic Baptist circles, partly due to her father being a Baptist pastor. This hymn was written with a reference to John 7:37 (“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink”). I hope you have accepted this invitation and drunk from the Immortal Fountain that is Christ; enjoy!

Meter: 8.6.8.6

The Saviour calls; let ev’ry ear
Attend the heav’nly sound.
O doubting souls, dismiss your fear;
Hope smiles reviving round.

For every thirsty, longing heart
Here streams of bounty flow
And life and health and bliss impart
To banish mortal woe.

Here springs of sacred pleasures rise
To ease your every pain,
Immortal fountain, full supplies:
Nor shall you thirst in vain.

O sinners, come, hear mercy’s voice;
The gracious call obey;
Mercy invites to heav’nly joys,
And can you yet delay?

Dear Saviour, draw reluctant hearts;
To you let sinners fly
And take the bliss your love imparts,
Revive, and never die.

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Today’s hymn comes from Charles Wesley, and it speaks of the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit, the changed heart, and the transformed life as ways we can know we’ve been born again. I hope you can have the confidence today that Christ has forgiven you; enjoy!

Meter: 6.6.8.6

How can we sinners know
Our sins on earth forgiven?
How can my gracious Saviour show
My name inscribed in heaven?

What we have felt and seen,
With confidence we tell,
And publish to the ends of earth
The signs infallible.

We who in Christ believe
That He for us hath died,
We all His unknown peace receive
And feel His blood applied.

Exults for joy our rising soul,
Disburthened of her load,
And swells, unutterably full
Of glory and of God.

His love surpasses far
The love of all beneath,
We find within, and dare
The pointless darts of death.

Stronger than death, or sin, or hell,
The mystic power we prove,
And conquerors of the world we dwell
In heaven, who dwell in love.

We by His Spirit prove
And know the things of God,
The things which freely of His love
He hath on us bestowed.

The meek and lowly heart
That in our Saviour was,
To us that Spirit doth impart
And sign us with His cross.

Our nature’s turned, our mind
Transformed in all its powers,
And both the witnesses are joined,
The Spirit of God with ours.

His glory is our sole design,
We live our God to please,
And rise with filial fear divine
To perfect holiness.

The Spirit of my God
Hath certified Him mine,
And all the tokens showed,
Infallible, divine.

Hereby the pardoned sinner knows
His sins on earth forgiven,
And thus my gracious Saviour shows
My name inscribed in Heaven.

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Today’s hymn is from British Anglican churchman Edwards Burns (b. 1938). This hymns speaks of all the elements we should mention in our sharing of the gospel: Christ’s birth, death and resurrection, as well as the praise and glory due His name. I hope you have an opportunity to tell someone the gospel today; enjoy!

We have a gospel to proclaim,
Good news for all throughout the earth;
The gospel of a Saviour’s name:
We sing his glory, tell his worth.

Tell of his birth at Bethlehem,
Not in a royal house or hall
But in a stable dark and dim:
The Word made flesh, a light for all.

Tell of his death at Calvary,
Hated by those he came to save;
In lonely suffering on the cross
For all he loved, his life he gave.

Tell of that glorious Easter morn:
Empty the tomb, for he was free;
He broke the power of death and hell
That we might share his victory.

Tell of his reign at God’s right hand
By all creation glorified;
He sends his Spirit on his church
To live for him, the Lamb who died.

Now we rejoice to name him King:
Jesus is Lord of all the earth;
This gospel-message we proclaim:
We sing his glory, tell his worth.

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Today’s hymn comes from Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) the beloved Scottish churchman and hymn writer. This hymn reminds me of the quote that is attributed to Jonathan Edwards: “You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” May this hymn lead you to rejoice in our great Saviour Jesus Christ!

All that I was, my sin, my guilt,
My death, was all my own;
All that I am I owe to Thee,
My gracious God, alone.

The evil of my former state
Was mine, and only mine;
The good in which I now rejoice
Is Thine, and only Thine.

The darkness of my former state,
The bondage, all was mine;
The light of life in which I walk,
The liberty, is Thine.

Thy Word first made me feel my sin,
It taught me to believe;
Then, in believing, peace I found,
And now I live, I live!

All that I am, e’en here on earth,
All that I hope to be,
When Jesus comes and glory dawns,
I owe it, Lord, to Thee.

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Today’s hymn is from Only Methodist Episcopal Church minister John H. Stockton (1813-1877) Stockton worked with D L Moody and Ira Sankey in their Philadelphia meetings in 1874, writing several songs for use in the revivals. When it was published in Moody and Sankey’s Sacred Songs and Solos (1875), Matthew 11:29 appeared on the page with the hymn, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; . . . and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” This hymn also seems to be inspired by Charles Wesley’s famous hymn “Come, sinners to the gospel feast”¹. Enjoy the below version sung by a choir.

Come, every soul by sin oppressed,
There’s mercy with the Lord;
And He will surely give you rest,
By trusting in His word.
Only trust Him, only trust Him,
Only trust Him now;

Refrain:
He will save you, He will save you,
He will save you now.

For Jesus shed His precious blood
Rich blessings to bestow;
Plunge now into the crimson flood
That washes white as snow.
Come to Jesus, come to Jesus,
Come to Jesus now.

Refrain

Yes, Jesus is the truth, the way,
That leads you into rest;
Believe in Him without delay,
And you are fully blest. 
Don’t reject Him, don’t reject Him,
Don’t reject Him now.

Refrain

Come then and join this holy band,
And on to glory go,
To dwell in that celestial land,
Where joys immortal flow.
I will trust Him, I will trust Him,
I will trust Him now.

Refrain

¹umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-only-trust-him

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Today’s hymn is all about the gospel.The writer, Matthew Loy (1828-1915) was President of the Capital University, Columbus, Ohio, and contributed several original hymns, and translations from German, to the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnal. Enjoy meditating on this one!

The Gospel shows the Father’s grace,
Who sent His Son to save our race,
Proclaims how Jesus lived and died
That we might thus be justified.

It sets the Lamb before our eyes,
Who made the atoning sacrifice,
And calls the souls with guilt oppressed
To come and find eternal rest.

It brings the Saviour’s righteousness
To robe our souls in royal dress;
From all our guilt it brings release
And gives the troubled conscience peace.

It is the pow’r of God to save
From sin and Satan and the grave;
It works the faith which firmly clings
To all the treasures which it brings.

It bears to all the tidings glad
And bids their hearts no more be sad;
The weary, burdened souls it cheers
And banishes their guilty fears.

May we in faith its message learn
Nor thanklessly its blessings spurn;
May we in faith its truth confess
And praise the Lord, our righteousness.

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Today’s hymn is by Isaac Watts. This hymn is written to the tune of “Old Hundredth”, the same tune that we commonly use to sing “All People That On Earth Do Dwell” and The Doxology. Enjoy reading this one as a reminder of the use of the Law and the blessing of the Gospel.

The Law commands and makes us know
What duties to our God we owe;
But ’tis the gospel must reveal
Where lies our strength to do His will.

The Law discovers guilt and sin
And shows how vile our hearts have been;
The gospel only can express
Forgiving love and cleansing grace.

What curses doth the Law denounce
Against the man that fails but once!
But in the gospel Christ appears,
Pard’ning the guilt of num’rous years.

My soul, no more attempt to draw
Thy life and comfort from the Law.
Fly to the hope the Gospel gives;
The man that trusts the promise lives.

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Today’s hymn comes from Charles Wesley. It first appeared in 24 stanzas in Hymns for Those That Seek and Those That Have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ (1747). Nine stanzas were later chosen for the Wesleys’ famous Collection of Hymns for the People Called Methodists (1780). This hymn tells of the call to all of mankind to repent and believe the gospel. Enjoy reading this one.

Come, sinners, to the gospel feast,
Let every soul be Jesus’ guest;
Ye need not one be left behind,
For God hath bidden all mankind.

Sent by my Lord, on you I call;
The invitation is to all:
Come, all the world; come, sinner, thou!
All things in Christ are ready now.

Come, all ye souls by sin oppressed,
Ye restless wanderers after rest,
Ye poor, and maimed, and halt, and blind,
In Christ a hearty welcome find.

His love is mighty to compel;
His conquering love consent to feel,
Yield to His love’s resistless power,
And fight against your God no more.

This is the time; no more delay!
This is the Lord’s accepted day;
Come in, this moment, at His call,
And live for Him who died for all

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The famous Scottish preacher and hymn author Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) wrote this text, first published in his Hymns of Faith and Hope (2nd series, 1861). Bonar subtitled the text “Salvation through Christ alone,” and that is surely the theme of this wonderful hymn. Enjoy!

Not what these hands have done
can save this guilty soul;
not what this toiling flesh has borne
can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do
can give me peace with God;
not all my prayers and sighs and tears
can bear my awful load.

Thy work alone, O Christ,
can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God,
can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine,
O Lord, to Thee,
can rid me of the dark unrest,
and set my spirit free.

Thy grace alone, O God, 
to me can pardon speak;
Thy pow’r alone, O Son of God, 
can this sore bondage break.
I bless the Christ of God;
I rest on love divine;
and with unfalt’ring lip and heart,
I call this Saviour mine.

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Joseph Hart (1712-1768) was born in London, where he became an independent Calvinist preacher converted by the Moravians. This hymn never made it into any of the collections published by John and Charles Wesley, perhaps because Hart was critical of one of John Wesley’s sermons in a tract he published, “The Unreasonableness of Religion, Being Remarks and Animadversion on the Rev. John Wesley’s Sermon on Romans 8:22”, however it was included in Spence’s Pocket Hymn-Book (1785); Carlton Young notes that Hart’s “hymns ranked with those of Isaac Watts in popularity among independent hymn writers. Later in the 19th century, Ira D. Sankey, the musical partner of evangelist Dwight L. Moody, included this hymn in his famous Gospel Hymns, Nos. 1 to 6 Complete (1894). The anonymous refrain, beginning with “I will arise and go to Jesus,” was found in Southern hymnbooks as early as 1811, and the opening line changed from “poor and wretched” to “poor and needy” by Augustus Toplady¹.

Come, you sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, joined with pow’r.

Refrain
I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Saviour,
O there are ten thousand charms.

Come, you thirsty, come, and welcome,
God’s free bounty glorify;
True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings you nigh.

Refrain

Come, you weary, heavy laden,
Bruised and broken by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all.

Refrain

View Him prostrate in the garden;
On the ground your Maker lies.
On the bloody tree behold Him;
Sinner, will this not suffice?

Refrain

Lo! Th’incarnate God ascended,
Pleads the merit of His blood:
Venture on Him, venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude.

Refrain

Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.

Refrain

¹umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-come-ye-sinners-poor-and-needy

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