Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched

So helpful to be urged to come in the midst of weakness, failure and suffering. He lay prostrate praying; surely I can crawl to kneel before Him and beg His help, knowing that He ever lives to intercede.

This is music with sound biblical doctrine. I miss singing these hymns.

In seminary in 1971, not long after my conversion to Christ at L'Abri, a Welsh professor teaching at Gordon Conwell opened class with this hymn and taught as a refrain in Welsh that I remember as meaning, "He is able, he is able, he is willing, doubt no more. He is willing, doubt no more." I'm looking to confirm the spelling of the Welsh words I remember. I am blessed to find all the verses noted here, and to learn the story of Joseph Harts' journey to faith. Those of us who came to Christ from the utter darkness are graced with a deep knowledge of his radiance.

I enjoyed verse 3. Let not conscience make you linger, not of fitness fondly dream; all the fitness he requireth is to feel your need of Him: this He gives you, this He gives you, ‘it’s the Spirit’s rising beam.

All He requires of us is for us to feel our need of Him. We need You Lord Jesus!

Man is worthy of our love. All sins can be forgiven; we can sympathize with all weaknesses and activities of the flesh. We are sinners, and we know what sinners are like. Yet, at the same time, we know that man is precious. Brothers and sisters, the Lord did not die for men because there was a great number of them. He said that the Good Shepherd forsook all to seek one lost sheep. He did not come to seek to save the lost sheep because there were ninety-nine of them. The Good Shepherd came for one lost sheep. In other words, even if only one person in the whole world were lost, the Lord would still have come to the earth. Of course, historically, all men needed to be saved. But as far as the love in His heart is concerned, He was ready to come for one man, for one lost sheep. The Holy Spirit did not begin searching because ten coins were lost; He searched because one coin was lost. The Father did not wait for His prodigal because all of His sons had become prodigal; He opened His arms to one prodigal who returned. In the parables in Luke 15, we see that in His work of redemption, the Lord was willing to spend Himself freely to meet the need of even one soul. He did not wait for the needs of many to arise before He would work. This shows us the intense love that the Lord has for man.

Watchman Nee (The Character of the Lord's Worker)

Steve Miller, I think you may have meant "audacious apostate" in the quote of Joseph Hart in your Aug. 20, 2013 comment here. Perhaps, however, and hopefully so, following his conversion he was an "audacious apostle." :-) [Audacious, adjective 1.showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks]

There is an additional stanza at the end:

Saints and angels joined in concert,
Sing the praises of the Lamb;
While the blissful seats of Heaven
Sweetly echo with His name.
Hallelujah, hallelujah!
Sinners here may sing the same.

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 45 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. - Great Songs of Faith by Brown & Norton