Come Thou Fount Lyrics

Working With the Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing Lyrics

Most people looking for Come Thou Fount Lyrics just want the text. The standard version is by Robert Robinson, published in 1758. It has five verses, though people often skip the fourth. Here's the usual text most hymnals use. 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.
Music of the gospel's gone
Tune my harp and tune it love. Thy grace has followed me these years,
My redemption Thou hast been;
Thy good Spirit thus averred,
Lead me on to glory seen.
Here's my heart O Lord and take it,
Since I do myself resign;
Take it and in Thy heart forever
Keep it, O the center of my all.

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart O Lord and take it,
Send Thy grace to lead and guide.
O that thou wouldst keep me, Lord,
Thy grace shall still go before me,
And in the end the victory. My God, My God, O that thou wouldst keep me,
And in the end the victory. I ran at random ere thy grace,
But now have found my Savior's face,
And in His blood I hide my soul
From every rising fear and doubt.
Here then I'll dwell and make my nest,
For thou hast been my refuge best,
O keep me Lord, O let me sing
To Thy great name my joyful song.

Here is the complete Come Thou Fount Lyrics from the standard Methodist hymnal version. Different denominations print slightly different wording on occasion. The original 1758 text from Solomon Eccles' collection had some variations from what you see in modern hymnals. I ran into an issue once when preparing a wedding service. The organist wanted the full five verses, but the reading frame I was using only had four. It turns out the fifth verse varies wildly between sources. Some editions merge parts of it into the fourth. The version from Francis Havergal's 1870 revision is probably the most common in traditional churches, but many contemporary hymnals use John Wyeth's 1813 tuning with slightly edited text. If you're printing something, verify which edition your congregation uses. I learned this after the third rehearsal when the choir started singing words that weren't on the handout. Took about twenty minutes to track down a copy of the 1758 text and cross-reference it against the 1870 revision. The melody known as Nettleton is by William B. Bradbury, published in 1850. It's the tune you will hear in probably 90 percent of American churches. Some traditions prefer the tune St. Anne, which is slower and more deliberate. There is no single correct version. The lyrics have been adjusted over the years. Robinson wrote the first two verses in his twenties. He may have been responding to earlier hymn writers like Isaac Watts. The text circulated in manuscript form before being printed. That means early copies had differences.

If you are trying to find a clean text for publication or printing, I would avoid scraping random lyric sites. Many have transcription errors. The line about "prone to wander" sometimes gets misquoted as "prone to err." The phrase "center of my all" appears in some versions and not others. The ending of the fourth verse in particular gets butchered constantly. I keep a PDF of the Robinson original from the British Library archives. It costs nothing to access and saves you from hunting through several unreliable sources. The song is public domain in the United States. You can reproduce it without permission for most uses. If you are adapting the lyrics for a new composition or contemporary worship arrangement, check your local copyright law. The melody is also public domain, but recordings of it are not. A choir recording from 2015 is not the same thing as the underlying text. One thing nobody tells you about performing this: the meter is 8.6.8.6 with a refrain in some arrangements. That means the melodic phrasing creates natural pauses that not every singer accounts for. I have seen people rush through "teach me some melodious sonnet" because they treat it like four equal measures. It is not. The second half of each line carries more weight metrically. Spend time on the bridge between the second and third lines. That is where most groups fall apart live.

Another detail: the fourth verse in particular is theologically dense. "Prone to wander" sets up the whole confession structure. If you cut it, you lose the turn from praise to petition. Some modern hymnals drop it entirely, probably thinking it is too long. It is not too long. It is the emotional core of the piece. Removing it makes the transition from verse three to verse five feel abrupt. If you need the words for a service program, copy them from a reputable hymnal website or archive. The Hymnary.org database has multiple versions annotated with sources. I use it when I need to cite which edition a particular word choice comes from. It takes about thirty seconds to find the Robinson original if you know how to search. The lyrics have been set to music by various composers beyond Bradbury. Some contemporary artists have recorded their own arrangements. The text itself is what matters if you are studying it. The meaning is fairly straightforward. It moves from invocation to gratitude to confession to commitment. That arc is worth preserving when you reproduce it. Do not edit it for length unless you have a specific reason. The structure does what it does.

I keep a printed copy in my hymnal folder at church. The spine is cracked. The pages are yellowed. It has been useful for more than thirty years. That is probably enough to say about how I use this text.