Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
BIBLE
REFERENCE:
Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh
and Shen, and called
the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.
1 Samuel 7:12
O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will
praise thy name; for thou hast done
wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness
and truth.
Isaiah 25:1
Blessings are upon the head of the just: but violence
covereth the mouth of the wicked.
Proverbs 10:6
A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that
maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.
Proverbs 28:20
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Ephesians 1:3
Robert Robinson - Lyrics
1735-1790
Born: September 27, 1735, Swaffham, Norfolk, England.
Died: June 8, 1790, Showell Green, Warwickshire, England.
Buried: Key Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, England.
John Wyeth - Composer
1770-1858
Born: March 31, 1770, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Died: January 23, 1858, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
HYMN HISTORY:
JRobert Robinson was born of lowly parents in Swaffham,
Norfolk, England, on September 27,1735. His father died when Robert was eight and at the age of
fourteen he was sent by his mother to London to learn the barbering trade.
Here for the next he was associated with a notorious gang of hoodlums and lived a debauched life. At
the age of seventeen he attended a meeting where George Whitefield was preaching. Robinson and his
friends went for thepurpose of �scoffing at the deluded Methodists.
However, Whitefield�s strong evangelistic preaching so impressed young Robinson that he was
converted to Christ. Several years later he felt called to preach and entered the ministry of the
Methodist Church. Subsequently, he left the Methodist Church when he moved to Cambridge and became
aBaptist pastor.
Here he became known as an able theologian through his writings of many theological works as well as
several hymns.
The hymn, text, written when Robinson was only twenty-three years of age, contains an interesting
expression in the second stanza, �Here I raise mine Ebenezer-Hither by Thy help I�m come.� This
language is taken from 1 Samuel 7:12, where the Ebenezer is a symbol of God�s faithfulness.
An expression in the third verse, �Prone to wander-Lord, Ifeel it-Prone to leave the God I Love,�
seems to have been prophetic of Robinson�s later years, as once again his life became characterized
by sin, unstableness, and an involvement with the doctrines of Unitarianism.
The story is told that Robinson was on day riding a stage-coach with a lady, an entire stranger, who
in the course of conversation spoke of Robinson�s hymn and the blessing it had brought to her soul.
The author vainly attempted to turn the conversation into other channels,
but when the lady persisted in referring tohis hymn, he became agitated beyond control, and
exclaimed, �Madam, I am the poor, unhappy man who composedthat hymn many years ago; and I would give
a thousand worlds,, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.�
The tune, �Nettleton,� was named for the Asahel Nettleton noted American evangelist of the early
eighteen century. Its composer, John Wyeth, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 31, 1770, was a
printer and lay musician. This hymn first appeared in his hymnal, Wyeth�s Repository of Sacred
Songs, published in 1813.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in
Christ,
We as Christians find it hard to see the blessings of God in our own lives because so often our eyes
are on others, seeing what they have and continue to gain, feeling somehow that we have been
cheated. Some wrongly feel thattrue blessings are to be found in the amount of earthly
possessions we obtain.
God wants us to be thankful in whatever state of life we are in. Philippians 4:19 tells us to be
content in whatever state you are in. Paul speaking of himself writes; "I know both how to be
abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and
to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
Philippians 4:12. And then in verse 19 he writes, But my God shall supply all your needs
according to his riches inglory by Jesus Christ. The Lord shall supply your needs not you
every wants.
Proverbs 30:8,9 states that God will make us content in our lives knowing that we are secure in his
love and that hewill supply our every need. We continue to make this a prayer for our
lives
We thank those that continue to support this ministry and count every one of you an awesome blessing
from our Godand Savior Jesus Christ.
Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient
for me: Lest Ibe full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and
take the name of my God in vain. Proverbs 30:8,9