He was a 47-year-old confessor (in 1759), who’d only a few years earlier finally ‘found himself’ while worshipping at a Moravian Church in London (see its flag here). The year 1757 was indeed a pivotal year for Joseph Hart, a rather obscure language teacher who admitted that he was not a very ardent believer. And then, he heard a message from long ago, one that was intended for another church far away. Somehow, what an isolated apostle on a lonely island said to another body of believers centuries earlier spoke to Joseph, compelling him to admit who he was before his Creator. The time for delay was over. It was an admission through which Joseph found a release, a freedom from the gnawing feeling in his gut that he was missing something. Joseph’s feeling and the poem-song he composed are not worn-out, useless relics, since others have taken up his thoughts and added their own to them centuries later. What Joseph felt and said is always fresh and relevant for those who are willing to look inside themselves, and see who they really are.
Joseph Hart had been on something like a spiritual roller-coaster in the first half of the 18th Century in London, though he would have been the first to say that the peaks of that ride had not been very high; instead, he’d spent most of his adult life feeling at odds with his faith, thereby occupying the lower levels of a faith commitment. He was bouncing between loose convictions and repentance – a repeating pattern that left him with guilt, obviously. So, sleepless at times, he searched for tranquility and a path to a more solid commitment, a state he finally found after hearing a sermon on Revelation 3:10 at a Moravian church (Fetter Lane, in central London). He’d found hope in the Apostle John’s brief exhortation to the ancient Philadelphia church (in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey). From that moment through the next few years, Joseph wrote a large number of his most well-known hymns that affirmed his new devotion, including ‘Come Ye Sinners…’. His words echo with the former condition in which he’d wandered for so long, and an urgency he wanted hearers to embrace. You are ‘poor and wretched’ (his original words, v.1), so do not ‘tarry till you’re better, (or) you will never come at all’ (v. 3); another verse pair in his poem (vv. 2 and 6) carries the same thoughts – you’re guilty, but don’t let that stop you from getting what you need from Him. Two of Joseph’s verses (vv. 4 and 5) also have us focus on Jesus – in a way, echoing the condition of the sinner and a redemptive opportunity that he poses in the other four verses. Jesus is convicted, then risen to glory where ‘hallelujahs’ are the overriding reaction of the once-condemned, now-saved. It’s a theme that hasn’t grown old, and never will as long as human beings are made from the same mold.
It's not any mystery that contemporary musicians and songwriters have found Hart’s poetry still affecting. Fernando Ortega and John Andrew Schreiner, two of those who have borrowed Joseph Hart’s song, are singing and promoting what was first written some 250 years ago. Other versions with varying words (like the Zoe Group, see link below to their rendition) are still being born, really a tribute to how meaningful are Hart’s original words, and more so how true is the Healer-God to whom they all sing. ‘He is able’, one of the contemporary versions exudes. That is what Joseph Hart finally figured out in 1757, when he was middle-aged. (Actually, Hart was in the last 11 years of life when he finally, fully devoted himself to God – so well past middle-age for him.) That should say something to anyone who thinks faith acceptance happens only for the young, before life’s events weigh one down. God is patient, accepting anyone, anytime. You and I are His anyones, and this is anytime.
See here for biographic info on the original author: J. Hart | Hymnary.org
See more information on the song story here: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006.
See here for original words, and a second version the author wrote: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/c/o/m/e/y/comeyspn.htm
Come Ye Sinners, Poor And Needy - YouTube (Zoe Group version)
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