Pardon and Rest for the Weary Soul

Come weary souls! with sin distressed

Author: Anne Steele
Published in 301 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, Noteworthy Composer
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 Come, weary souls with sin distressed,
Come, and accept the promised rest;
The Saviour's gracious call obey,
And cast your gloomy fears away.

2 Oppressed with guilt, a painful load,
O, come and spread your woes abroad!
Divine compassion, mighty love,
Will all the painful load remove.

3 Here mercy's boundless ocean flows,
To cleanse your guilt, and heal your woes;
Pardon, and life, and endless peace;
How rich the gift! how free the grace!

4 Lord, we accept, with thankful hearts,
The hopes thy gracious word imparts;
We come with trembling, yet rejoice,
And bless the kind, inviting voice.

5 Dear Saviour, let thy powerful love
Confirm our faith, our fears remove;
And sweetly influence every breast,
And guide us to eternal rest.

Source: The Seventh-Day Adventist Hymn and Tune Book: for use in divine worship #388

Author: Anne Steele

Anne Steele was the daughter of Particular Baptist preacher and timber merchant William Steele. She spent her entire life in Broughton, Hampshire, near the southern coast of England, and devoted much of her time to writing. Some accounts of her life portray her as a lonely, melancholy invalid, but a revival of research in the last decade indicates that she had been more active and social than what was previously thought. She was theologically conversant with Dissenting ministers and "found herself at the centre of a literary circle that included family members from various generations, as well as local literati." She chose a life of singleness to focus on her craft. Before Christmas in 1742, she declined a marriage proposal from contemporar… Go to person page >

Notes

Come, weary souls, with sin distressed. Anne Steele. [Invitation.] First published in her Poems on Subjects chiefly Devotional, 1760, vol. i. p. 27, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled, “Weary souls invited to rest" (2nd ed., vol. i. p. 27); and in Sedgwick’s reprint of her Hymns, 1863. It is in extensive use both in Great Britain and America, and sometimes with "sins" for "sin" in the opening line. It was introduced into the Nonconformist hymnals through the Bristol Collection, 1769, of Ash & Evans, and into those of the Church of England by Conyers, 1772, and Toplady, 1776.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

DESIRE (Woodbury)


ST. CRISPIN

Composed by George J. Elvey (PHH 48) in 1862 for 'Just as I Am, without One Plea" (263), ST. CRISPIN was first published in the 1863 edition of Edward Thorne's Selection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes. The tune title honors a third-century Roman martyr, Crispin, who, along with Crispinian, preached in Gaul…

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HEBRON (Mason)


Timeline

Media

The Cyber Hymnal #9480
  • PDF (PDF)
  • Noteworthy Composer Score (NWC)

Instances

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The Cyber Hymnal #9480

Include 300 pre-1979 instances
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