It has been quite some time since I’ve done a post on the history of one of our hymns! Life has been a bit crazy for me. But I decided it’s about time to do another one.

Come Thou Fount, one of the most well known hymns in Christianity, had its beginning in London, England.

Robert Robinson was born in 1735, to a lower class family in Swaffam, England. His father died when he was quite young, leaving him to be the sole breadwinner in his family.

It was for this reason that he journeyed to London when he was fourteen years old, to apprentice with a barber there. While in London, he began to be influenced by a group of boys his age to fall into a wicked lifestyle. He lived on the streets of London, getting into brawls and living for pleasure.

Back home, his family didn’t even want to claim him, because of how wickedly he was living. One day in particular, he and the other boys decided to attend a gospel meeting being held by George Whitefield. Their soul purpose in attending was to disrupt it in any way they could.

Little did young Robinson know, this day would forever change him.

Whitefield was preaching from Matthew 3:7, “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

The message convicted Robinson very deeply. He knew the Holy Spirit was calling him to repent and be saved. Later, he would state it this way:

“Those words sunk into my heart like lead in the water. I wept … and for weeks, I could think of little else.”

Robert Robinson

He didn’t act on the conviction right away, but waited for three whole weeks. During this time period, he was miserable. It weighed on his mind constantly, non stop.

Finally three weeks after hearing the gospel preached, Robert Robinson repented and accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior. As he put it, he “found full and free forgiveness through the precious blood of Jesus Christ.”

From this point on, Robinson experienced a dramatic change in his life. He was no longer interested in running with the same crowd, or doing the same things. He hungered and thirsted for the Word of God.

So much so that he traveled all through England, following the gospel meetings and listening to preachers. Soon it became evident to him that God was calling him to preach.

He obeyed the call, eventually pastoring Stone Yard Baptist Church in Cambridge for over twenty years. Some years after being converted, Robinson penned the words to the famous hymn, Come Thou Fount.

“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!

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.”

The song was a biographical testimony of his salvation story, and quickly gained popularity.

Sometime later, Robinson backslid and fell away from the Lord. It was during this time that a providential appointment took place.

He was riding in a stagecoach, bound for some destination. His fellow passenger aboard was a young woman who carried with her a book. During the ride, in order to break the monotony of it, this young woman began to sing a song. These were the words she sung:

“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.”

Upon finishing her joyful singing, she looked at Robinson and asked him what he thought of the song, stating it had been of great encouragement to her.

In a state of heartbrokenness, Robinson answered through tears, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.”

The young woman must’ve been quite shocked at first that the man she had just sung such a spiritually powerful song to was not only the man who wrote it, but he was also living in the very state he wrote about in the last stanza—prone to wander and leave the God he loved.

In a quiet, sincere voice she said, “Sir, the ‘streams of mercy’ are still flowing.”

Robinson was greatly moved. God had used an unknowing young woman and his own words to break the hardness that had grown in his heart.

Because of that moment on the stagecoach, Robinson surrendered his life to the Lord. Indeed, he was prone to wander. But God’s grace was also indeed able to bind Robinson’s wandering heart to Him.

Many do not know the lost stanza of this hymn, but I believe it deserves to be heard and sung, because it reminds us of the hope that is yet to come.

“O that Day when freed from sinning,
I shall see thy lovely Face;
Clothed then in blood-washed Linnen [sic]
How I’ll sing thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransom’d Soul away;
Send thine Angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless Day.“

Robert Robinson

Robert Robinson could sing of the Day when he would finally be free from sinning, free from wandering, free from leaving his God. His heart’s plea was for his Savior to carry him away to Heaven’s splendor, never to wander anymore.

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What do you think about this powerful testimony? Had you ever heard this hymn history before? Let me know! I would love to hear.

A. M. Watson

Hebrews 13:8