Come Thou Fount

June 1, 2025 service. Ephesians 1:3

Born in 1735, seventeen year old Robert Robinson ran the streets of London in gangs, caring not for anything spiritual. He was just a small boy when his dad died. In 18th century England, there was little in the way of a social welfare system and this meant that he had to go to work while still very young. Without a father to guide and steady him, Robert fell in with bad companions.

One day his gang of rowdies harassed a drunken gypsy. Pouring liquor into her, they demanded she tell their fortunes for free. Pointing her finger at Robert she told him he would live to see his children and grandchildren. This struck a tender spot in his heart. “If I’m going to live to see my children and grandchildren,” he thought, “I’ll have to change my way of living. I can’t keep on like I’m going now.”

A few nights later, Robert Robinson, half serious and half in fun, decided to go to a tent meeting to hear the Methodist preacher George Whitefield. To cover his “weak” urge, he suggested that the boys go with him and heckle the gathering. “Let’s go laugh at the deluded Methodists” was his invitation to his gang. Whitefield preached on the text: “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Matthew 3:7. Robert left in dread, under a deep sense that George Whitefield was preaching to him alone.

Finally, at the age of twenty, Robert made peace with God and immediately set out to become a preacher himself. He wrote a letter to George Whitefield and told him that he envied the happiness that he saw on the faces of those people in that tent. Two years later, in 1757, he wrote a hymn which expressed his joy in his new faith:

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.
Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit, Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit, Here Thy praises I'll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer; Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, Safely to arrive at home.
1 Samuel 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.”
Ebenezer means “stone of help.”
Psalm 62:6-7 He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

Years later Robert did wander away from God. In a spiritually backslidden condition, Robert was traveling in a stage coach one day. His only companion was a young woman unknown to him. In the providence of God, and not realizing who it was she spoke with, the woman quoted Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, saying what an encouragement it had been to her.
Try as he might, Robinson could not get her to change the subject. She asked him what he thought of the hymn she was humming. He responded, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.” Gently, she replied, “Sir, the ‘streams of mercy’ are still flowing.”
He was deeply touched by that. As a result of the encounter he repented. His fellowship with the Lord was restored through the ministry of his own hymn, and a Christian’s willing witness.

Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger, Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me, Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me, I cannot proclaim it well.
Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

O 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.

Fetter - shackle : to restrain from motion, action, or progress

O that day when freed from sinning, I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen, How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry, Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry, Me to realms of endless day.

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.