Come and welcome to Jesus Christ

Come, ye Sinners, poor and wretched,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore.
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of Pity join'd with Pow'r.
He is able, he is able, he is able;
He is willing: doubt no more.

Ho! ye needy; come, and welcome;
God's free Bounty glorify.
True Belief, and true Repentance,
Ev'ry Grace that brings us nigh,
Without Money, without Money, without Money,
Come to Jesus Christ, and buy.

Let not Conscience make you linger;
Nor of Fitness fondly dream.
All the Fitness he requireth
Is, to feel your Need of Him:
This he gives you, this he gives you, this he gives you;
'Tis the Spirit's rising Beam.

Come, ye weary, heavy laden,
Bruis'd and mangled by the Fall;
If you tary, till you're better,
You will never come at all.
Not the Righteous, not the Righteous, not the Righteous;
Sinners Jesus came to call.

View him grov'ling in the Garden;
Lo! your Maker prostrate lies.
On the bloody Tree behold him:
Hear him cry, before he dies;
It is finish'd; it is finish'd; it is finish'd.
Sinner, will not this suffice?

Lo! th' incarnate God, ascended,
Pleads the Merit of his Blood.
Venture on him, venture wholly;
Let no other Trust intrude.
None but Jesus, none but Jesus, none but Jesus,
Can do helpless Sinners good.

Saints and Angels, join'd in Concert,
Sing the Praises of the Lamb;
While the blissful Seats of Heaven
Sweetly echo with his Name.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Sinners here may sing the same.

—Joseph Hart
From Hymns, &c. Composed on Various Subjects, 1769.



Tune: "Bryn Calfaria," William Owen (courtesy of The Cyber Hymnal).

About the Author

Joseph Hart (1712–1768) was a well-educated man, teacher of learned languages, loose—albeit regretfully—liver, but in 1757 his life was changed forever, and he finally found the justification for which he had longed. In the two years afterward, he wrote many hymns, including this one, and published them in 1759 as Hymns composed on various Subjects (the 1769 edition cited above is a reprint). Less than ten years afterward, he joined the saints and angels in their concerted Hallelujahs.

Thoughts

This is a great evangelical hymn; I don't remember exactly how I found it, but I remember liking it. One of the things I enjoy about topical hymns is finding bits of Scripture that the author has crafted in, and the second verse's reference to Isa 55:1 ranks as one of the greatest I have yet encountered. I find that the Welsh tune "Bryn Calfaria" matches the text very well.

There is an alternate version of this hymn, more popular today, that is commonly set to the tune "Arise" (also known as "Redemption"). It removes the last two lines and replaces them with the chorus,

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.

I do not like this version as much. It renders the fifth verse senseless (it is usually omitted), drops the other half of the Isaiah reference in the second, and severely dampens the monergism* of the third. It also makes the hymn a bit schizophrenic; it is addressed to the sinner in the verse, but then switches to his point of view in the chorus. Finally, it diminishes the original's focus on Christ. The last two lines of each verse are what I term "summary couplets," a relatively common feature in hymns and tunes that have six lines; in this hymn, the summary couplet always brings the focus back to Christ and his efficacy, but the chorus changes the hymn's focus to the (redeemed) sinner and his raptures. For these reasons, I advocate the original over the altered version.

In terms of a recommended recording, I didn't have one coming into this blog post, but I found one that I liked on the album Hear My Prayer from The Wilds. You can find it on iTunes or Amazon (MP3 only). While it doesn't run the hymn's full emotional gamut (being limited to two verses), it is a good treatment of the tune.

*Monergism, as I understand it, is the idea that God alone effects man's salvation. Properly understood, it does not deny that man must respond to the grace of God (i.e. in belief), but acknowledges that even faith is a gracious gift of God (Eph 2:8).

Disclaimer: I am a participant in Amazon's affiliate advertising program; if you buy from Amazon link on this page, I will receive a small commission from the sale.