Come weary souls! with sin distressed

Author: Anne Steele

Anne Steele was born at Broughton, Hampshire, in 1717. Her father was a timber merchant, and at the same time officiated as the lay pastor of the Baptist Society at Broughton. Her mother died when she was 3. At the age of 19 she became an invalid after injuring her hip. At the age of 21 she was engaged to be married but her fiance drowned the day of the wedding. On the occasion of his death she wrote the hymn "When I survey life's varied scenes." After the death of her fiance she assisted her father with his ministry and remained single. Despite her sufferings she maintained a cheerful attitude. She published a book of poetry "Poems on subjects chiefly devotional" in 1760 under the pseudonym "Theodosia." The remaining works were published… Go to person page >

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)