Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

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Come, Thou Fount of every blessing

Author: Robert Robinson (1758); Alterer: Martin Madan (1760)
Tune: NETTLETON
Opening Hymns
Published in 2195 hymnals

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	Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

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	Come, Thou Fount - Six Hymn Settings for…

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	We Rejoice to be Gods Chosen

Representative Text

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 God’s 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 rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

3 O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, 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.

Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal (2003)

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Author: Robert Robinson

Robert Robinson was born at Swaffham, Norfolk, in 1735. In 1749, he was apprenticed to a hairdresser, in Crutched Friars, London. Hearing a discourse preached by Whitefield on "The Wrath to Come," in 1752, he was deeply impressed, and after a period of much disquietude, he gave himself to a religious life. His own peculiar account of this change of life is as follows:--"Robertus Michaelis Marineque Robinson filius. Natus Swaffhami, comitatu Norfolciae, Saturni die Sept. 27, 1735. Renatus Sabbati die, Maii 24, 1752, per predicationem potentem Georgii Whitefield. Et gustatis doloribus renovationis duos annos mensesque septem, absolutionem plenam gratuitamque, per sanguinem pretiosum i secula seculorum. Amen." He soon after began to pr… Go to person page >

Alterer: Martin Madan

Madan, Martin, son of Colonel Martin Madan, and brother of Dr. Spencer Madan, sometime Bishop of Peterborough, was born in 1726. He was to have qualified for the Bar, but through a sermon by J. Wesley on the words "Prepare to meet thy God," the whole current of his life was changed. After some difficulty he received Holy Orders, and subsequently founded and became chaplain of the Lock Hospital, Hyde Park Corner. He was popular as a preacher, and had no inconsiderable reputation as a musical composer. He ceased preaching on the publication of his work Thelyphthora, in which he advocated the practice of polygamy. He died in 1790. He published A Commentary on the Articles of the Church of England; A Treatise on the Christian Faith, &c, and:-… Go to person page >

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Related Texts

First Line:	Come, Thou Fount of every blessing
Title:	Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Author:	Robert Robinson (1758)
Alterer:	Martin Madan (1760)
Meter:	8.7.8.7 D
Place of Origin:	England
Language:	English
Notes:	French translation: "Viens, toi, Source de la grâce" by F. Augé-Daullé; Spanish translation: See "Fuente de las bendiciones" by George P, Simmonds, "Fuente de la vida eterna" by Thomas M. Westrup
Copyright:	Public Domain
Liturgical Use:	Opening Hymns

Year A, Christmas season, Holy Name of Jesus (Mary, Mother of God)
Year A, Holy Week season, Monday of Holy Week
This is recommended for Year A, Holy Week season, Monday of Holy Week by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #475.
Year A, Easter season, Fifth Sunday
Related to 1 Peter 2 (LUYH)
Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 9 (14)
This is recommended for Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 9 (14) by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #475.
Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 16 (21)
Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 21 (26)
This is recommended for Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 21 (26) by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #475 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #521.
Year B, Epiphany season, Seventh Sunday
This is recommended for Year B, Epiphany season, Seventh Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #475.
Year B, Lent, Fourth Sunday
This is recommended for Year B, Lent, Fourth Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #521.
Year B, Holy Week season, Monday of Holy Week
This is recommended for Year B, Holy Week season, Monday of Holy Week by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #475.
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 8 (13)
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 10 (15)
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 23 (28)
This is recommended for Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 23 (28) by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #475 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #521.
Year C, Christmas season, Holy Name of Jesus (Mary, Mother of God)
Year C, Epiphany season, Second Sunday
This is recommended for Year C, Epiphany season, Second Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes.
Year C, Holy Week season, Monday of Holy Week
This is recommended for Year C, Holy Week season, Monday of Holy Week by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #475.
Year C, Ordinary Time, Proper 16 (21)
Year C, Ordinary Time, Proper 19 (24)
This is recommended for Year C, Ordinary Time, Proper 19 (24) by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes.
Year C, Ordinary Time, Proper 26 (31)
This is recommended for Year C, Ordinary Time, Proper 26 (31) by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes.

Chinese

生命聖詩 - Hymns of Life, 1986 #76

English

10 shown out of 1375

French

Community of Christ Sings #87

Korean

찬송과 예배 = Chansong gwa yebae = Come, Let Us Worship: the Korean-English Presbyterian hymnal and service book #127

Spanish

Welsh

Mawl a chân = praise and song : llyfr hymnau a thonau i Gymru ar Wasgar = hymnal for Welsh and English church worship / crynhoad pwyllgor Eglwys Gymraeg, Detroit, Michigan #118

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Notes

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing. [Whitsuntide.] As various and conflicting statements concerning this hymn abound, it will be necessary to trace, first its History, so far as known; and 2nd, to discuss the question of its Authorship.
i. Its History. This in detail is:—
1. In a Church Book, kept by Robert Robinson (q.v.), of Cambridge, and in the possession of the Rev. William Robinson, of Cambridge, his biographer, there is an entry in Robert Robinson's handwriting which reads:— “Mr. Wheatley of Norwich published a hymn beginning "Come, Thou Fount of every blessing" (1758). This entry forms part of a manuscript list of the works which R. Robinson had written and published. This gives us a definite date, 1758.
2. Nothing has yet been found which can be identified as being issued by "Mr. Wheatley of Norwich" in which this hymn can be found.
3. The earliest known text in print is in A Collection of Hymns used by the Church of Christ in Angel-Alley, Bishopsgate, 1759, now in the library of the Drew Theological College, Madison, New Jersey, U.S.A. It is No. i., and in 4 stanzas, beginning respectively:—
Stanza i. “Come, Thou Fount of every blessing."
Stanza ii. “Here I raise my Ebenezer."
Stanza iii. “O, to grace how great a debtor."
Stanza iv. “O, that day when free from sinning."
4. This text was repeated in the Hearers of the Apostles Collection of Hymns, Nottingham, 1777; and in a Dublin Collection, 1785. Shortly afterwards, however, it seems to have fallen out of use.
5. The second and well-known form of the hymn in the first three stanzas as given above is found in M. Madan's Psalms & Hymns, 1760; G. Whitefield's Psalms & Hymns, 14th ed., 1767; the Countess of Huntingdon's Collection, 1764; and most of the hymn-books published during the latter part of the last century. The text, as in Madan's Psalms & Hymns, 1760, which is the 1759 text with the omission of stanza iv., is that usually adopted by modern compilers, and is given in Lyra Britannica, 1867, p. 479.

ii. Authorship.
This has been claimed for Robert Robinson, on the one part, and for the Countess of Huntingdon on the other. The evidence in each case is:—
(1) For Robert Robinson.
1. The entry in his own handwriting in the Cambridge Church Book, in which he enumerates it with his various productions as noted above.
2. His name is added to it in the 3rd ed. of A Collection of Hymns adapted to Public Worship, 1778; and has since been repeated in almost every collection in which authors' names are given from that date to the present.
3. Mr. Dyer, in his Memoirs of the Life & Writings of S. Robinson, 1796, states that amongst Robinson's papers there was a letter from Dr. Rippon, the compiler of the well-known Baptist Selection of Hymns, 1787, in which he acknowledges that one or two hymns in that Selection were by Robinson, and names "Come, Thou Fount of every blessing" as one. Dr. Rippon gives it as No. 509, and for the "New Year." It is in 3 stanzas, and signed Robinson.
4. It is included in Benjamin Flower's ed. of Robinson's Miscellaneous Works, Harlow, 1807, vol. iv. p. 346.
5. The Rev. W. Robinson, in Select Works of the Rev. Robert Robinson, 1861, claims it for him.

ii. For the Countess of Huntingdon.
1. Bound up with a copy of J. & C. Wesley'sHymns & Sacred Poems, Dublin, 1747, are 21 leaves of writing paper. On the first leaf is written a list of several of the poetical publications of the Wesleys. Following it are hymns copied from Cennick, Watts, &c.; one by "Mrs. D. B.”, and this hymn. These fill 10 leaves of the 21, and the rest are blank. On the title page of this book is written in the same hand¬writing "Diana Bindon, 1759." On the inside of the cover of the book is pasted a Wesleyan Methodist quarterly ticket containing a small engraving of Christ washing one of the disciples' feet. On this is written, “Nov. 6, Diana Vandeleur," but the year is not given. The Wesley publications named on the first leaf reach down to 1756.
2. Amongst the manuscript hymns is "Come, Thou Fount of every blessing." It is headed, “Hymn by the Countess of Huntingdon." It is in 5 stanzas, i.-iv. being the same, with slight differences in the text, as that noted above as being in the Collection of Hymns used by the Church of Christ in Angel Alley, Bishopsgate, 1759; and stanza v. beginning, "If Thou ever didst discover," from C. Wesley's hymn "Jesu, help Thy fallen creatures," from his Hymns & Sacred Poems, 1749, vol. ii., No. 51.
3. Upon this evidence alone (we write with the Diana Bindon manuscript and D. Sedgwick's manuscript correspondence before us) Sedgwick carried on a long controversy in the Notes and Queries and other periodicals, in 1858-9, contending throughout that "Diana Bindon" was a personal friend of Lady Huntingdon's, and that she had made her manuscript copy direct from another ms. by the Countess. And this he did not only upon the worthless evidence here given, but also whilst receiving, privately, direct testimony to the contrary, together with a positive denial made to him by Lady Huntingdon's biographer. His manuscripts show that having committed himself, he held it to be beneath him, and damaging to his reputation, to acknowledge his error.

From the foregoing account very much that appeared in the correspondence and is found in the S. MSS. is omitted, and the bare facts alone are given. These facts conclusively show that the author was Robert Robinson, and not Selina, Countess of Huntingdon.
The original text is probably that given in the Angel Alley Collection (see above, i. 3), 1759, in 4 stanzas, but the accepted text, and that which is in very extensive use in all English-speaking countries, is that given in 3 stanzas of 8 lines in Madan's Psalms & Hymns, 1760 (see above, i. 5).

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, p. 252, i. Sometimes given as "Father, Source of every blessing ; " and as "Jesus, Source of every blessing."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

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Tune

NETTLETON

The authorship of this tune is not clear, with different editors attributing the tune to different composers (or not naming one at all). See the instances list above for the different attributions. From William J. Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal (1976): "Nettleton first appeared as a two-part…

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For Leaders

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In 1752, a young Robert Robinson attended an evangelical meeting to heckle the believers and make fun of the proceedings. Instead, he listened in awe to the words of the great preacher George Whitefield, and in 1755, at the age of twenty, Robinson responded to the call he felt three years earlier and became a Christian. Another three years later, when preparing a sermon for his church in Norfolk, England, he penned the words that have become one of the church’s most-loved hymns: “Come, thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace.”

Using imagery of Christ as the giver of living water and the shepherd gathering his sheep back into the fold, this hymn reminds the worshipper of the ever bountiful grace of God. Like Robinson, we too are “prone to wander,” and are quick to seek redemption through our own power. But God continues to bring us back from our wandering, until, songs of praise on our lips, we dance forever before the mount of His redeeming love.

Text:

The original hymn includes five verses, but most modern versions use only the first three. There are a few common word changes in different versions. In some texts, instead of “Here I find my greatest treasure,” (Psalter Hymnal) the first line of verse two reads “Here I raise mine Ebenezer,” a reference to 1 Samuel 7:12, in which Samuel sets up a stone and names it Ebenezer meaning “The Lord has helped us” (Episcopal Hymnal, Presbyterian Hymnal, Baptist Hymnal, Methodist Hymnal). As well, the last line of the second stanza can be read “Interposed his precious blood” or “bought me with his precious blood.” The two verbs signify different metaphors of the atonement of Christ.

Tune:

The most common tune for the hymn is NETTLETON, an American folk tune, and some hymnals use the tune WARRENTON, from Sacred Harp music, as well as TRUST, composed by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

The NETTLETON tune is easily adapted to different styles of worship. Some examples are:

Sufjan Stevens lilting folk version for banjo and piano
David Crowder’s electric guitar driven version
Mormon Tabernacle Choir's choral and organ rendition, demonstrating the interchange between organ and a cappella, as well as the surge of volume in the second half of each verse that powerfully supports the upward direction of the tune
The Fiddlesticks have a beautiful a capella version with fabulous harmonies on their album, Hymns and Songs of the Mormon Pioneers.

When/Why/How:

A hymn of redemption and dedication, originally written for Pentecost Sunday, but also tied to Christmastime, there are a number of different places where it could be used in a service:

Opening hymn, a prayer of longing for the Holy Spirit to fill us with songs and words pleasing to God in our worship.
Song of response after a sermon, as a song of dedication to God’s call.
It could also be used very powerfully as a hymn of response after the confession and assurance. The hymn is an acknowledgement of our sinfulness or waywardness and God’s redemption and saving grace, and would powerfully frame a confession of our reliance on ourselves. The hymn could be sung as a whole, or the different stanzas could frame spoken words of confession. The first verse is a wonderful transition from an opening time of praise into a prayer of confession, followed by verse two, after which words of assurance could be spoken, with verse three sung as a response of gratitude and dedication.

Suggested Music:

Larson, Lloyd. Fount of Every Blessing - Easy anthem for small choirs
Travis, Albert L. Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing-Organ Variations on Nettleton
Althouse, Jay. Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing - For Choir
Young, Carlton. Come, O Fount of Every Blessing - For SAB Choir
Shackley, Larry. I Am Bound for the Kingdom - For Choir, set to Warrenton

Laura de Jong,
Hymnary.org

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Baptist Hymnal 1991 #15

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The Cyber Hymnal #1016

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Psalter Hymnal (Gray) #486

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Small Church Music #47

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Trinity Hymnal (Rev. ed.) #457

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Timeless Truths #587

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The United Methodist Hymnal #400

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Worship and Rejoice #68

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Psalms and Hymns to the Living God (2023), p.416

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Piano/Organ Come, Thou Fount - Six Hymn Settings for Organ CREATIVE ORGANIST II, THE Then Sings My Soul (Hymns of Faith and Praise for the Piano) More Piano/Organ...
Choral We Rejoice to be Gods Chosen Hymns We Love to Sing Hymns We Love to Sing More Choral...
Instrumental Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing Called to Gather as God's People/Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing - Full Score and Instrument Set More Instrumental...
Handbells Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing COME, THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING Ring New Songs to the Lord, Vol. 2 (easy settings of praise and worship songs blended with traditional hymns) More Handbells...
PowerPoint COME, THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING (Gray Psalter Hymnal 486) COME, THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING (Blue Psalter Hymnal 314) COME, THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING (Celebration 11) More PowerPoint...

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