Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing was written by the 18th century pastor and hymnist Robert Robinson. Robert Robinson penned the words at age 22 in the year 1757. In the USA, the hymn is usually set to an American folk tune known as Nettleton, composed by printer John Wyeth.
The lyrics, which dwell on the theme of divine grace, are based on 1 Samuel 7:12, in which the prophet Samuel raises a stone as a monument, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” The English transliteration of the name Samuel gives to the stone is Ebenezer, meaning Stone of Help.
Robert Robinson was from Norfolk England. Robinson’s widowed mother sent him at age 14 to London, to learn the trade of barber and hair dresser. However, his teacher found he enjoyed reading more than work. Converted to Christ at age 17, Robinson became a Methodist minister. He later moved to the Baptist church and pastored in Cambridge, England. He wrote a number of hymns, as well as on the subject of theology.
His later life was evidently not an easy one, judging from a well known story about his hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” One day, he encountered a woman who was studying a hymnal, and she asked how he liked the hymn she was humming. In tears, he replied, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.”
John Wyeth was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a boy, Wyeth was apprenticed to a printer. At age 21, he became the manager of a printing company in Santo Domingo, only to barely escape with his life in the insurrection there. In 1792, he returned to America, and settled in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he became involved in the publishing business and co-owned a newspaper (The Oracle of Dauphin). After only a year in Harrisburg, President George Washington appointed him postmaster; he lost his office five years later when President John Adams declared the position to be incompatible with involvement in newspapers. His works include:
• Repository of Sacred Music, 1810
• Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: 1813)
These two volumes were hugely successful, selling 150,000 copies.
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