I once heard Dr. Jerry Rushford tell a story about the origins of the hymn, “Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing.” Somewhere along in the annals of history in 20th century Churches of Christ, someone decided to change the title to “O Thou Fount of Every Blessing…” Not for any real reason, other than they needed a good 1/2 page song to fit in the “O” Section of their hymnal…
That leads me to a question. Which version of this lasting hymn do you sing? There are a couple of variations of the lyrics.
One is this version from Robert Robinson, written around 1758; it first appeared in his A Collection of Hymns Used by the Church of Christ in Angel Alley, Bishopgate, 1759. Here, it’s complete with several oft omitted verses from CofC and many other 20th century American hymnbooks:
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.
Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve 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;
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.
O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.
We in Churches of Christ have yet again changed the lyrics…or at least sung lyrics that folks come before us have changed with what I’ll call too much “Spirit Talk.”
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 ever to adore to adore thee
May I still thy goodness prove
While the hope of endless glory
Fills my heart with joy and love.
Here I raise my Ebenezer.
Hither by Thy help I’ve 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.
Never let me wander from Thee,
never leave the God I love.
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it
seal it for Thy courts above.
By the way, if you are a Michael Card fan, you should listen to his new Hymns album.
On it, there is a simple, classic version of this time-honored hymn.
We Baptists generally sing these verses:
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 to thy help I’m come;
And I hope, by thy good measure
Safely to arrive at home;
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wand’ring form 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 grace, Lord, 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, Lord, take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above.