Come, Ye Sinners, Poor And Needy
Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy
Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love, and power;
He is able, He is able,
He is willing; doubt no more.
Now, ye needy, come and welcome;
God’s free bounty glorify;
True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings you nigh;
Without money, without money,
Come to Jesus Christ and buy.
Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him:
This He gives you, this He gives you;
’Tis the Spirit’s glimmering beam.
Come, ye weary, heavy laden,
Bruised and mangled by the Fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all;
Not the righteous, not the righteous;
Sinners Jesus came to call.
LONDON-BORN Joseph Hart struggled against God for years. When he attended church, he went to find fault. He responded to a sermon by John Wesley by writing a tract, “The Unreasonableness of Religion.” He was (in his own words) a “loose backslider, an audacious apostle, and a bold-faced rebel.” Then he came under conviction. At times he was afraid to sleep, fearing he would “awake in hell.” He went from church to church, but as he said, “everything served only to condemn me.”
Finally at the age of forty-five he wandered into a Moravian chapel in London and heard words of hope. On returning home he knelt in prayer.
Three years later he became a minister and began writing hymns to touch the hearts of others who had experienced similar spiritual struggles.
When the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?” When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
Mark 2:16-17
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