Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Amen.

Our hymn is hymn number 400 in the hymnal, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.

I invite you to stand if you are able.

of our sons of God.

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number sixty nine one hundred and one hymn stories by carl f price this librivox recording is in the public domain come thou fount of every blessing robert robinson when robert robinson was a very young boy his father died at the age of fourteen robert went to london to work for a hairdresser while there he fell among evil companions one sunday in seventeen fifty two they brought some liquor to an old woman who told fortunes so as to enjoy a good laugh as they listened to her prophecies when she told robinson however that he would live to see his children and grandchildren the prophecy sobered him with the thought of the responsibilities of life shortly afterward he heard george whitefield preach on the wrath to come and he fell under deep conviction which continued for three years at length at the age of twenty hearing the preaching of wesley he came to the fount of every blessing with the prayer here's my heart oh take and seal it and soon afterward he entered the ministry beginning his work in a chapel at mildenhall in suffolk two years later in seventeen fifty seven while pastor in norwich the memory of his conversion brought to his soul anew the joy of that experience and under the influence of that memory he wrote the lines of gratefulness to god come thou fount of every blessing tune my heart to sing thy grace it was published the following year in norfolk years later he became careless in his conduct and while riding in a stage-coach he was reproved for his frivolity by a lady who eventually quoted this very hymn tears came to his eyes as he replied madam i am the poor unhappy man who composed it and i would give a thousand worlds if i had them to enjoy the feelings i had then section

number sixty nine

section seventy of one hundred and one hymn stories by karl f price so in the morn thy seed by james montgomery one day in the month of february eighteen thirty two james montgomery on the way to the city of bath was journeying from gloucester to tewkesbury with his friend roland hodgson as they rode along they passed a field where a number of women and girls were working in rows stopping to inquire what they were doing the travellers were told that after digging little holes in the ground they dropped a few seeds into each hole this process known as dibbling had never been seen by montgomery before and he remarked give me broadcast sowing scattering the seed on the right hand and on the left in liberal handfuls how this led to the writing of this hymn montgomery has told us in his own words i fell immediately into a musing fit and moralized most magnificently upon all kinds of husbandry though i knew little or nothing of any but so much the better perhaps for my purpose making out that each was excellent in its own way and best in its place by degrees my thoughts subsided into verse and i found them running lines like furrows along the field of my imagination and in the course of the next two stages they had already assumed the form of the following stanzas which i wrote as soon as we reached bromsgrove the hymn was used that same year at whitsuntide at the festival of the sheffield sunday school union for which montgomery wrote a hymn every year for nearly forty years section seventy section seventy one of one hundred and one hymn stories by carl f price glorious things of thee are spoken by john newton when john newton an english preacher of the eighteenth century in his old age could no longer read his texts he was urged to give up preaching What, said he, shall the old African blasphemer stop while he can speak? And in these words, he correctly characterized himself as he had been before conversion.

Oh, yes.

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to seek Thy grace.

Streets of mercy never cease me, Call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me, Son of God, Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love. . . .

Then, for the first time, the secret of its authorship became known, for it had already been printed anonymously in a number of hymnals, albeit without the knowledge of its author.

section number sixty nine one hundred and one hymn stories by carl f price this librivox recording is in the public domain come thou fount of every blessing robert robinson When Robert Robinson was a very young boy, his father died.

At the age of 14, Robert went to London to work for a hairdresser.

While there, he fell among evil companions.

One Sunday, in 1752, they brought some liquor to an old woman who told fortunes, so as to enjoy a good laugh as they listened to her prophecies.

When she told Robinson, however, that he would live to see his children and grandchildren, the prophecy sobered him with the thought of the responsibilities of life shortly afterward he heard george whitefield preach on the wrath to come and he fell under deep conviction which continued for three years at length at the age of twenty hearing the preaching of wesley he came to the fount of every blessing with the prayer here's my heart oh take and seal it and soon afterward he entered the ministry beginning his work in a chapel at mildenhall in suffolk two years later in seventeen fifty seven while pastor in norwich the memory of his conversion brought to his soul anew the joy of that experience and under the influence of that memory he wrote the lines of gratefulness to god come thou fount of every blessing tune my heart to sing thy grace it was published the following year in norfolk years later he became careless in his conduct and while riding in a stage-coach he was reproved for his frivolity by a lady who eventually quoted this very hymn tears came to his eyes as he replied madam i am the poor unhappy man who composed it and i would give a thousand worlds if i had them to enjoy the feelings i had then section

number sixty nine

section seventy of one hundred and one hymn stories by karl f price so in the morn thy seed by james montgomery one day in the month of february eighteen thirty two james montgomery on the way to the city of bath was journeying from gloucester to tewkesbury with his friend roland hodgson as they rode along they passed a field where a number of women and girls were working in rows stopping to inquire what they were doing the travellers were told that after digging little holes in the ground they dropped a few seeds into each hole this process known as dibbling had never been seen by montgomery before and he remarked give me broadcast sewing scattering the seed on the right hand and on the left in liberal handfuls how this led to the writing of this hymn montgomery has told us in his own words i fell immediately into a musing fit and moralized most magnificently upon all kinds of husbandry though i knew little or nothing of any but so much the better perhaps for my purpose making out that each was excellent in its own way and best in its place by degrees my thoughts subsided into verse and i found them running lines like furrows along the field of my imagination and in the course of the next two stages they had already assumed the form of the following stanzas which i wrote as soon as we reached bromsgrove The hymn was used that same year at Whitsuntide at the festival of the Sheffield Sunday School Union, for which Montgomery wrote a hymn every year for nearly forty years.

Um, as Christians, we have a job to do, and it's to bring God glory.

We ask God to help us do that in our first song, Come Thou Fount, right? "Tune my heart to sing God's grace." So we sang that.

Then Jocelyn, um, did a great job reading for us from Luke chapter 15 on the Parable of the Lost Sheep.

So the shepherd had 99, but he went to search for his lost sheep.

You know what? I'm just gonna do it.

Do it.

it.Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.

So we've talked about this song before, and you, Christian, noted the fact that, uh, Robint-

And then I would probably, you know, I do love hymns.

I, I would love Come Thou Fount or-

Yeah

... uh, I Don't Know How Great Thou Art.

He said the danger is neglecting so great a salvation, the danger of drifting.

I think one of the greatest hymns that was ever written by a man named Robert Robinson was Come, Thou Fount.

I've got the words for you in your handout sheet for those who are here.

"Come, Thou Fount of every blessing/ Tune my heart to sing Thy grace/ Streams of mercy, never ceasing/ Call for songs of loudest praise" But look at that last verse.

This really hits home in my...

I felt this.

"Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it/ Prone to leave the God I love/ Take my heart, oh, take and seal it/ With Thy Spirit from above" Don't you feel sometimes that you're prone to wander? Back in the day when Robert Robinson had written that, it'd become a popular hymn.

One day there was a Christian young woman who was in a public carriage, you know, for transportation, and across from her was a man who you could tell he'd become an alcoholic.

And the lyrics of it go like this.

Come thou fount of every blessing.

Tune my heart to sing thy grace.

Streams of mercy never ceasing.

He drifted away from him for years.

And then years later, he was in a stagecoach and he was traveling along and there was one other person, a woman in that stagecoach with him.

And as they sat there together, this woman started to hum, come thou fount of every blessing.

So this song had gone on to become a smash worship hit, right? He was elevation worship before elevation worship were a thing.