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.
Hear 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.
Oh 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.
Words-1758-Robert Robinson
Music-Wyeth’s repository of sacred music-1813
As I stood to sing this grand old hymn recently in church….
I found to my amazement that I didn’t need a hymnal!
I am this person who is having trouble recalling yesterday...
and here I was singing all three verses without even glancing at my book! How could
this be? Are the words so powerful that they have made such an
impression on my life that I can never forget them? I don’t think so.
“Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by thy help I’m come…”I don’t
even know what that really means but how my heart is lifted up as I sing
these old , old, lyrics.
I was never required to memorize these songs,
but I sang them every Sunday of my life. I watched older folks sing
them and draw strength from them.
“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it, prone to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart, O take and seal it..”
This part is a little easier to understand, but there again, It is not the
words, but the songs----the songs of my heritage. The foundation of my
faith. The songs that make my soul come alive and lift me up!
If I could offer an encouraging word to parents dealing with children who
all at some time during their growing up years, balk at the idea of going to
church, Take them anyway! You are giving them a wonderful strength
to draw from as they experience the difficulties of life.
On a lighter note, I remember when our seven year old granddaughter was visiting and
on our way to church, she was complaining that church was “boring”. I
replied that I understood and that sometimes, I too, became bored. I
shared that when that happened I just sat quietly and counted my blessings.
In an exasperated voice she said, “Mimi, I only know two blessings,“God our Father…..and God is great“….now how long can that take?”
First published on bcpmylife.com
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