I am coming to the cross

I had being experiencing hardships in trying to balance between my faith and worldly preasures but I found that mostly I was taken by the world. But not until I read this hymn that I decided to dedicate my life fully to serving Christ for it says,"I will cleanse you from all sins." Blessed!

Thank you Lord for everything I love you

Praise God this is what He wants of us ..... and causing us to want also

What an awesome song.

Indeed am going to the cross... dear Lord please help my life to grow higher and higher in You God.

Praise the Lord! Today I can say: I am on the cross! "I am crucified with Christ"! No more working, willing, or trying! For "it is Christ who lives in me"! Amen! Hallelujah!

Great gospel song. I just learnt it and now can't stop singing it. I like it how it puts together salvation and consecration, as they should not be separate events. When we see how sinful we are and experience the Lord's forgiveness, we should treasure His salvation and there should be such a response in us: "Here I give my all to Thee".

"The hymn was writ­ten in 1870 in the ci­ty of Brook­lyn, New York, while I was pas­tor in that ci­ty. I had felt the need of a hymn to aid seek­ers of heart pur­i­ty while at the al­tar. I had de­sired some­thing, sim­ple in ex­press­ion, true to ex­per­i­ence, and end­ing in the full­ness of love. The tune com­posed by Mr. Fisch­er, with the first two lines of the chor­us, I had seen, and was much pleased with their sim­pli­ci­ty. And as I was sit­ting in my stu­dy one day, the line of thought came rush­ing in­to my mind, and I be­gan to write, and in a few minu­tes the hymn was on pa­per. It was first sung at a Na­tion­al Camp­meet­ing, be­ing held at Ham­il­ton, Mass., June 22, 1870. It has been trans­lat­ed into many lang­uag­es, and sung all round the globe." - William McDonald

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McDonald, Rev. William. (Belmont, Maine, March 1, 1820--September 11, 1901, Monrovia, California). Becoming a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church at age 19, he was admitted to the Maine Conference in 1843, being transferred to that of Wisconsin in 1855 and of New England in 1859. For a number of years he was editor of the "Advocate of Christian Holiness". In addition to being a writer of biographies and religious books, he compiled, or assisted in compiling, a number of song books of the gospel song type, among them being the Western Minstrel (1840), Wesleyan Minstrel (1853), Beulah Songs (1870), Tribute of Praise (1874). From 1870 he spent many years in evangelistic work before his retirement to Monrovia. - DNAH Archives by Robert G. McCutchan

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In the 2nd stanza line 2, "evil dwelt" is usually changed to "evil reigned" because evil still is in us. McDonald's "The Tribute of Praise" 1874 says "dwelt", but "Precious Hymns" 1870 says "reigned". It seems that McDonald originally wrote "reigned" and later changed it to "dwelt".

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There is an additional last stanza which is sometimes omitted because it may reflect a Wesleyan perfectionism:

Jesus comes! He fills my soul!
Perfected in Him I am;
I am every whit made whole:
Glory, glory to the Lamb!

There is so much stuff that keeps a person away from coming to God. The pleasures of sin, a scientific argument, or a religious profession all seem to create such a resistance to hear and receive what the Savior has done. The God of this age has blinded the thoughts of those who have not yet believed. It was so hard for me to make my first decision to come to Christ, yet when I look back He would not let me go! His Word finally made it through that I could see Him as my Savior! May the Lord of the harvest send us forth in love to bring release to the captives around us.