COME YE SINNERS POOR AND NEEDY

 Every week I try to find an old song or hymn and learn its lyrics and how it came to be written. This past week, I was watching a song service from  Towns Creek United Baptists in Alabama. They unashamedly use instruments while also honoring the "old paths" and always sing some acapella as well. After about 30 minutes of lively songs sung with piano and guitar, they broke out with an old old hymn by Joseph Hart written about 1759 I believe. It is included in several Sacred Harp song books, and was a staple among Old Baptists. I am not sure if the Hardshells still sing it, as it seems to oppose some of their "new" theology, but it is still sung by many United Baptists and Old Regulars.

I especially love the third verse which says

Come, ye weary, heavy laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all.

How true! How many have not come to Christ, saying "I am not good enough" or "I must wait til I am better"? Oh have you not understood the Gospel? Christ did not come to make men "better". He came to make dead men live! A dead man will always be dead, how can he ever be "better"? Ah but when a dead man becomes a living one, he IS better is he not?

It is written of Spurgeon that " Words of kindly encouragement and of loving persuasiveness, were addressed to the timid and retiring ones, who feared to avow themselves to be the Lord's lest they should fall back into sin and dishonor His name." 

Spurgeon knew that some must be persuaded to  come to Christ who is the remedy, for who waits until he is well to go to the doctor?

You can hear the Old School way of the United Baptists here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8AzdIJhWY8&t=2379s) beginning at the 35:15 mark

You can hear a modern version here at Southern Baptist church, which starts by telling the story of how the author came to Christ. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=778008169976299

You can hear a Primitive Baptist African American church in Georgia in this video, which sounds remarkably like the singing of the Old Regulars of Kentucky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSESwHAZfCU