Arrangement ©2021 WordSown.com

Text:

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
God whose power shaped Creation
and knit every person seen,
God, thy love past explanation
stays at work to, each, redeem.

Here I raise my Ebenezer:
"Hither by thy help I've come";
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wand'ring from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.
             
Oh, to grace, how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be;
let that grace now like a fetter
bind my wand'ring heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;
prone to leave the God I love.
Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above.

This beloved hymn, arranged as a solo, is offered for personal use or even for church special music. A few of the words have been changed—which has been common with this hymn—so feel free to try the music with your own favorite version of the text.

(I personally love the version that has "Ebenezer" in the second verse, which means "stone of help." See 1 Samuel 7:12 for the backstory.
However, if "Ebenezer" is too strange for your congregation, you could use "Here, I set stone to remember:" to begin the second verse.)


Sample audio of one treatment
(clarinet for voice)

Sheet Music Audio File

 

 

 

arranged for solo voice and guitar

 

Musical Details:

The text is by Robert Robinson (1735-1790), altered by Martin Madan (1726-1790), Constance Morgenstern, and probably others. (You can see many versions of this hymn at hymnary.org.) The tune is NETTLETON.

The voice range for this is from G to an A about an octave higher. Using a capo on the guitar could raise this a bit (and gives a nice sound), but this is probably not for a soprano!

The guitar part goes beyond a basic hymnal accompaniment, but there is considerable leeway in how it's approached.

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