An Old Hymn

I happened to listen to the old hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” yesterday on-line.  The tune was familiar; however, the first verse was different than what we sing in our fellowship, and was the same as what we used to sing in the Old Mennonite tradition, as I recall.

This morning, I started in on some research to the words of the song, wanting to find the original text.  I found out that the song has been modified many times from the original by several different people, and has at least five verses.  We usually only sing three, and two of those three verses are changed from the original.

I’m not going to put all five original verses in this post.  If you want to see them, see the Wikipedia article on the song.  I will post the first verse, however, along with the verse that we sing in our tradition so you can see the very substantial change in the tone of the entire song, just from the change in the words of the first verse.

Our version:

Come, thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me ever to adore Thee; may I still Thy goodness prove,

While the hope of endless glory fills my heart with joy and love.

Original version:

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it, Mount of Thy redeeming love.

I don’t know why the words were changed, and the “melodious sonnet” and “flaming tongues above” were deleted from our version.  I suspect that someone thought that the original words were too fanciful, or perhaps too figurative.  However, in my estimation, the entire message of the song is reduced by the substitution of words.

I see the hymn-writer coming into such a state of thanksgiving and praise in that first verse…thanksgiving and praise for the grace that floods in streams never-ceasing, that he longs to break out in a heavenly song known to the angels of heaven.  And I might even use the word “ecstatic” to describe his feelings at the time he sings this verse.

The altered first verse, however, quickly brings one back down from the “streams of mercy” thought to one of something more down-to-earth and practical.  And while I indeed am filled “with joy and love,” there’s nothing ecstatic or supernatural about my experience.  It’s…well…practical.

You may well have different thoughts about these verses than I have.  The words in this post are my own.  And that’s OK.  You may not be able to relate well to “flaming tongues” and “sonnets.”  But you need to know that the original writer of the song had specific thoughts and ideas in mind…and someone else has modified those thoughts and ideas to suit his or her own taste and belief.  That’s not, unfortunately, an unusual occurrence with older hymns.  Many have suffered the indignity of having words, thoughts, and entire verses altered, removed, or added because of someone’s personal belief and preference.  Obviously, you can detect my bias here toward singing the hymns as written.

In any event, know that we don’t sing the “old songs” just because they’re old.  We sing them because they’re good, powerful, grateful reminders of God and His relationship with His creation.  Don’t dismiss the old songs just because they’re old and traditional.  Use them.  Use them in your worship, thanksgiving, and adoration of God the Father and Jesus Christ our redeemer.