"Come, Thou Fount"

Last night, I picked up a little booklet of devotionals from hymn stories.  I opened it at random, and began to read ---
     "Robert Robinson was born in Norfolk, England, in September, 1735.  His father passed away when he was only eight years of age.  As soon as he was old enough, he got a job as an apprentice to a barber.  As he grew older, he came under the influence of that great evangelist, George Whitefield.  He became convicted of his terrible, sinful ways.  On December 10, 1755, Robinson could not escape from a particular phrase used by Mr. Whitfield in one of his sermons:  'Oh, my hearers!  the wrath to come!  the wrath to come!'  He was wondrously converted and became a minister of the gospel!

      Later, after pastoring for several years, for some unknown reason, he became unstable, unhappy, and ended up in a backslidden state, far away from God.  He found himself one day the fellow passenger of a young lady on a stagecoach.  It is reported that she began to sing to break the monotony of the trip.  And what did she sing?  This beautiful song --
   
     "Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace.
Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for song of loudest praise.
      Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount!  I'm fixed upon it, mount of God's unchanging love.

      Here I raise my Ebenezer; hither by Thy help I'm come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.
      Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering 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 yielded heart to Thee.
      Let me know Thee in Thy fullness; guide me by Thy mighty hand
Till, transformed, in Thine own image in Thy presence I shall stand."

When she had finished singing these beautiful words, she asked him what he thought about the song.  His startling reply was -- 'Madam, I am the unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago; and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, if I could feel now as I felt then.'"

Such sad, sad, words!  I wonder -- what would cause the writer of this lovely hymn to begin to stray away from His wonderful Lord?  I don't know the answer to that question, but I do know that it is a sobering reminder that we must guard carefully our never-dying soul, walk in the beautiful light of God, and keep the fire burning in our souls until one day---in His presence we shall stand!