Hymn: Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched

Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready waits to save you,
Full of pity, love and pow’r:
He is able, He is able,
He is willing, doubt no more.

Come, ye needy, come and welcome;
God’s free bounty glorify;
True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings us 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 rising beam.

Come, ye weary, heavy laden,
Lost and ruined 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.

Agonizing in the garden,
Your Redeemer prostrate lies;
On the bloody tree behold Him!
Hear Him cry, before He dies,
“It is finished!” “It is finished!”
Sinner, will not this suffice?

Lo! th’ incarnate God, ascended,
Pleads the merit of His blood;
Venture on Him, venture wholly;
Let no other trust intrude:
None but Jesus, none but Jesus,
Can do helpless sinners good.

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Jul 21 2025

Michele Moore

Avonhead, Canterbury, United Kingdom

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.

Jul 7 2023

Harry

Indianapolis, Indiana, United States

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

Jun 10 2023

Debby Topliff

Fort Myers, FL, United States

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.

Mar 18 2022

Brian

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!

Aug 31 2019

Samuel R. O

Teresópolis, R. J, Brazil

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)

Jul 28 2015

Brad Pilkington

Granville, OH, United States

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]

Sep 16 2014

Steve Miller

Detroit, MI, United States

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.

Aug 20 2013

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

In experience, are we full? Many saints would probably say, "We are truly empty; we are not in the least bit full." We need to know that without the fullness, there is no Body. Though we are the church, we do not manifest much of the Body because the fullness has not been manifested in us. Though we have received of this fullness, we do not allow this fullness to be manifested; this fullness cannot be seen in us. Though we partake of this fullness, it is as if we have not received of this fullness; we feel that we are still empty and void. It seems as if we have nothing within us, and we are too poor.

This is not a matter merely of feeling; this is our actual situation. We need to look at our condition. We can say that our services, our prayers, and all our spiritual conditions are in utter destitution and that we are weak and poor. This is similar to Hymns, #1032, which says: "Poor and wretched, / Weak and wounded, sick and sore." This is our condition. Where is the Body? Is the church manifested? Can God's authority and glory be seen? We see poverty and weakness, we see emptiness and weariness, and we see that the saints do not rise up. This means that we suppress and push aside the fullness that is in us. We are people who have the source, the fullness, yet we live as if we do not have this fullness.

The Church as the Body of Christ, chapter 7 (LSM)

Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched

Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched

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Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched

Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched

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