Come, Sinners, to the Gospel Feast

Author: Charles Wesley

Come, sinners, to the gospel feast, Let every soul, &c. C. Wesley. [Invitation.] First published in his Hymns for those who seek and those who have Redemption, &c, 1747, in 24 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled "The Great Supper " (Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. iv. p. 274). Two centos, both beginning with stanza i., are in common use:—(1) that which was included in M. Madan's Collection, 1760, No. 22, in 8 stanzas, and is the source of the text as given in the Church of England hymnals; and (2) the Wesleyan Hymn Book cento given in that Selection, 1780, and repeated in various Nonconformist collections. A cento for Holy Communion is also in the earliest editions of the Lady Huntingdon Collection beginning:—

"Come, sinners, to the gospel feast;
Jesus invites you for His guest."

In late editions of the same Collection it begins "Come, sinner," &c. It is compiled from stanzas i., xii., xxii., xxiii. A hymn beginning:—

"Come, sinners, to the gospel feast;
0 come without delay,"

is included in many American collections, as Dr. Hatfield's Church Hymn Book, 1872; the Baptist Praise Book 1871, &c. It has been traced to the Baptist Psalmist of Stow & Smith, 1843, No. 418. In some of those collections it is taken for granted that it is the same cento as lhat in the Lady Huntingdon Collection. It has, however, nothing in common with that cento, nor with Wesley's original, except the first line. In stanza i., line 3 reads, "or there is room in Jesus' breast," and through the remaining four stanzas the changes are rung on the expression, “There's room," a style of composition altogether foreign to C. Wesley's usual method. It is Anon., 1843.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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