A hymn for poor and wretched sinners (so, everyone).
Joseph Hart’s hymn praises our able and willing Savior.
I was in the middle of sermon prep when was pleasantly interrupted by these astoundingly evangelistic lines. They’re from a hymn by 18th-century songwriter, Joseph Hart. May you, too, be enriched by them:
Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore,
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Fully of pity join’d with power.
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 tarry, ’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!”
Sinners, will not this suffice?
Lo! th’ Incarnate God, ascended,
Pleads the merit of his blood.
Venture on him, venture wholly;
Let not 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.
(133–34)
These lines are brimming with gospel truth. Each stanza deserves my deep consideration. I am made to think of such references as Isaiah 55:1–3, Mark 2:17, Luke 5:31–32, Luke 19:10, among several others. Such, I think, is what good hymns do: they conjure Scripture to bring to your mind the far-reaching truth and never-ceasing love of the Savior. We who belong to the Lord have been redeemed wholly on account of our prostrate Incarnate God, who descended into the depths of my sin in order to bring me up to the heights of his righteousness. Praise the Lord, I am welcomed by “none but Jesus.”
Works cited:
Joseph Hart, Hymns, &c. Composed on Various Subjects (London: H. Trapp, 1777).