Invitation to Follow the Lamb

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Humble souls, who seek salvation

Author: John Fawcett
Published in 126 hymnals

Piano/Organ
	Wondrous Love: Five Hymn Settings for Or…

Instrumental
	Early American Hymns - for Bass Instrum…

Handbells
	ARISE ("Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy"…

Representative Text

1 Humble souls, who seek salvation
Through the Lamb’s redeeming blood,
Hear the voice of revelation;
Tread the path that Jesus trod.
Flee to him, your only Saviour;
In his mighty name confide;
In the whole of your behaviour,
Own him for your Sovereign Guide.

2 Hear the blest Redeemer call you;
Listen to his gracious voice;
Dread no ills that can befall you,
While you make his ways your choice.
Jesus says, “Let each believer
Be baptizèd in my name.”
He himself, in Jordan’s river,
Was immersed beneath the stream.

3 Plainly here his footsteps tracing,
Follow him without delay;
Gladly his command embracing;
Lo! your Captain leads the way.
View the rite with understanding;
Jesus’ grave before you lies;
Be interred at his commanding;
After his example rise.

Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #428

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Author: John Fawcett

An orphan at the age of twelve, John Fawcett (b. Lidget Green, Yorkshire, England, 1740; d. Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, 1817) became apprenticed to a tailor and was largely self-educated. He was converted by the preaching of George Whitefield at the age of sixteen and began preaching soon thereafter. In 1765 Fawcett was called to a small, poor, Baptist country church in Wainsgate, Yorkshire. Seven years later he received a call from the large and influential Carter's Lane Church in London, England. Fawcett accepted the call and preached his farewell sermon. The day of departure came, and his family's belongings were loaded on carts, but the distraught congregation begged him to stay. In Singers and Songs of the Church (1869), Josiah Miller te… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Humble souls, who seek salvation
Title:	Invitation to Follow the Lamb
Author:	John Fawcett
Meter:	8.7.8.7 D
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Humble souls who seek salvation. J. Fawcett. [Follow the Lamb.] The earliest date to which we have traced this hymn (although probably it previously appeared in a magazine with which we are unacquainted) is in John Fellows's Hymns on Believers’ Baptism, 1773, No. 25, in 3 stanzas of 8 lines. It next appeared in John Fawcett's Hymns, &c, 1782, No. 117, with the heading "Invitation to follow the Lamb, Matt. iii. 15," and the following note:—

"The Author lays claim to this hymn, tho' it has appear'd under another name: he hopes the insertion of it, and the following ["Ye saints, with one accord"] will give no offence to those of his friends who are differently minded, as to the subject to which they refer."

With this note before us, we have no hesita¬tion in ascribing this hymn to John Fawcett. Its use is mainly confined to America.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Tune

RESTORATION (Southern Harmony)

ARISE is an anonymous American folk melody. Set to "Mercy, O Thou Son of David," the tune was published in William Walker's (PHH 44) Southern Harmony (1835) with the title RESTORATION. Its name was changed to ARISE (after the refrain in the ballad about the prodigal son) when it was set to Hart's te…

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MILWAUKEE (Zundel)

[Come, ye sinners poor and needy] (Ingalls)

All tunes published with 'Invitation to Follow the Lamb'^ top