1.
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 unchanging love

2.
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by thy help I'm come;
And I hope, by thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to save my soul from danger,
Interposed his precious blood.

3.
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 from thy courts above.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
We are on our journey home;
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Jesus smiles and bids us come.

The Southern Harmony

Scripture References:
st. 1 = Rev. 21:6, Rev. 7:17
st. 2 = 1 Pet. 2:9-10, Col. 1:21-22
st. 3 = Eph. 2:7-8, 1 Cor. 1:22

Robert Robinson (b. Swaffham, Norfolk, England, 1735; d. Birmingham, England, 1790) wrote this text in four stanzas for Pentecost Sunday in 1758 when he was a pastor in Norwich. The text was published in A Collection of Hymns used by the Church of Christ in Angel-Alley, Bishopsgate (1759). Three of his four stanzas are included with some alterations, especially in stanza 2, which originally began "Here I raise my Ebenezer" (see 1 Sam. 7: 12).

In his youth, Robinson was apprenticed to a London barber. Although raised in the Church of England, he did not become a Christian until 1755 after hearing a sermon on "the wrath to come" by George Whitefield. He then became a pastor and briefly served a Calvinist Methodist chapel in Mildenhall, Suffolk, England, and an Independent congregation in Norwich. In 1759 he was rebaptized and began a long association with the Stone Yard Baptist Church in Cambridge, England. Following his retirement in Birmingham in 1790, he was influenced by Unitarianism. Robinson published a new edition of William Barton's Psalms (1768) and A History of Baptism (1790) and wrote thirteen hymns.

This fine text about divine grace and providence contains various biblical images: Christ is the "fountain of life" (Ps. 36:9; Zech. 13:1) from which "streams of mercy" come. But Christ is also our "rock" (often used in the psalms along with "mount" or "Ebenezer," which means "stone of help"); he "rescues me from danger." Christ also "sought me when a stranger" (Col. 1:21) and "binds" or "seals" his own even when they are "prone to wander" (see Matt. 18:11-14). That phrase may have had special meaning for Robinson, who became successively a Calvinist Methodist, Congregationalist, Baptist, and finally a Unitarian.

Liturgical Use:
A testimony hymn about Christ's love for us, which could be used throughout the church year at the beginning of worship, after confession/ assurance, or after the sermon.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook