189. Come, thou Fount of every blessing
Robert Robinson, 1735-90
An old hymn that has been a “fount of blessing” itself to multitudes, written only three years after the author’s conversion. It sounds a note of anxiety lest the paths of sin lure the soul away from God. The Scripture reference in the second stanza is to I Sam. 7:12: “Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped me.”
For comments on the author, Robert Robinson, see [Hymn 46].
MUSIC. NETTLETON appeared in John Wyeth’s Repository, 1813, arranged with the melody in the treble. The authorship of the tune is unknown. It has been attributed to Wyeth and to Asahel Nettleton, 1783-1844, a New England evangelist and compiler of Village Hymns. It has been suggested that a friend of Nettleton composed the tune and named it in his honor.
John Wyeth was born in Cambridge, Mass., 1770, and followed the printing and publishing business all his life. He was postmaster at Harrisburg, Pa., under President Washington but was removed by President Adams because of “incompatibility of the office of post master and editor of a newspaper.” He died in Philadelphia, June 23, 1858.