The Music of Daniel Carter: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

When I was a young man attending church regularly, this hymn was one of my favorites. I have fond memories of singing it in small groups of my friends and family. Around 1999, I composed the arrangement that you hear on the video below.

Sheet music for this piece is available at heartrisemusic.com.

Here is a complete list of all the pieces of music I have published.

Eric Hanson and Larry Blackburn collaborated in recording several of my arrangements for solo voice and piano, including Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Their CD, Sabbath Songs 3 is available at www.heartrisemusic.com.

You can listen to his recording here.

Robert Robinson was born Sep­tem­ber 27, 1735, Swaff­ham, Nor­folk, Eng­land, and died June 8, 1790, Show­ell Green, War­wick­shire, Eng­land. He was buried at Key Hill Cem­e­te­ry, Birm­ing­ham, Eng­land.

Robinson's father died while he was young, and his widowed mother had great hopes of young Robert entering the ministry. At age 14 his mother sent him to London to become a barber and hair dresser. However his interest focused primarily on reading and studying, which only complicated his apprenticeship, and lead to his dismissal.

At age 17, his reading and interest in religion culminated in his conversion to the Methodist church, and he became a minister. During this time, Robinson penned the words to Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing as a conclusion to a sermon he delivered on Whitsunday in 1758. He was only 23 years old at the time. The hymn was published the following year in A Collection of Hymns used by the Church of Christ in Angel Alley, Bishopsgate (1759).

He later left this post and served in the Baptist church as pastor in Cambridge, England. He wrote a number of hymns and sermons.

His later life seemed to be filled with doubt and question about his former faith. At one point, he en­count­ered a wo­man studying ­his very hymn from her hymn­al. Inquisitively, she asked how he liked the hymn she was hum­ming. In tears, Robinson re­plied, “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.” During this part of his life, it is said that Robinson was troubled, and searching. His faith during the later part of his life leaned toward Unitarianism.

There is a statement in stanza two, "Here I raise my Ebenezer" which refers to I Samuel 7:12, "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us." Ebenezer is the Hebrew word for "Stone of Help." Israel was defeated because of sin, but when they had repented, they became victorious. Samuel placed the "Ebenezer" stone as a reminder to Israel that their victory was because of their obedience to God.

The words to the hymn as Robinson penned them are:
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 his Name, I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I'll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve 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;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, 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.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

Originally the hymn had five stanzas, but the fourth and fifth were omitted, starting with Martin Madan in Psalms and Hymns, 1860 and have not been used since.

Robinson's words have been adapted and modified several times. but in most modern hymnals the words appear as follows:
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.

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.

For a more complete detail of adaptations and versions go to wikipedia.org

John Wyeth was born March 31, 1770, Cambridge, Massachusetts and died January 23, 1858, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

After Wyeth apprenticed with a printer, he became manager of a print shop in the republic of Santo Domingo at the age of 21. He was fortunate to have very narrowly escaped the insurrection there. In 1792, he returned to America, where he continued his trade in publishing, where he co-owned a newspaper in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Although in 1793, George Washington, first president of the United States, appointed him postmaster, it was only five years later that President John Adams declared the position to be "incompatible" (or in today's language, "conflict of interest") with his occupation as newspaper publisher.

Wyeth compiled two books of hymns, which were, Repository of Sacred Music, 1810 and Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, 1813. They were very successful, selling over 150,000 copies. In the preface to his work, Wyeth provided three reasons for compiling the two books:

1. Wyeth's years of attention to the charms of church music
2. His acquaintance with the taste of eminent teachers, and
3. His possession of more than a thousand pages of music to use

The first book was prepared for use by moderate evangelicals. About 79 of the 122 texts are from Isaac Watts, 53 being psalm paraphrases. The book focused on evangelical themes and stayed away from sectarian or controversial doctrine. The second book was for revival and camp-meetings, containing more lively texts and songs, and much less of Isaac Watts reverent texts of adoration. Included in the book were melodies taken from folk hymns, such as NETTLETON, to which we sing Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.

It is interesting to note that in many hymnals Wyeth is credited as the composer of the hymn tune, but in actual fact, he is not. He collected and compiled numerous hymn tunes and texts, and hence was able to publish two volumes of hymns including Come Thou Fount.

It is also interesting to note that the text of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing is sometimes matched to other tunes than the one with which we are most familiar. It is the tradition of Christian hymnody to pair words and music in many different ways, and therefore, each hymn tune has a name separate from each hymn text. Hence, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing is the name of the text, while the most commonly used tune for the music is named NETTLETON.