


1 Come, weary souls with sin distressed,
Come, and accept the promised rest;
The Saviour's gracious call obey,
And cast your gloomy fears away.
2 Oppressed with guilt, a painful load,
O, come and spread your woes abroad!
Divine compassion, mighty love,
Will all the painful load remove.
3 Here mercy's boundless ocean flows,
To cleanse your guilt, and heal your woes;
Pardon, and life, and endless peace;
How rich the gift! how free the grace!
4 Lord, we accept, with thankful hearts,
The hopes thy gracious word imparts;
We come with trembling, yet rejoice,
And bless the kind, inviting voice.
5 Dear Saviour, let thy powerful love
Confirm our faith, our fears remove;
And sweetly influence every breast,
And guide us to eternal rest.
Source: The Seventh-Day Adventist Hymn and Tune Book: for use in divine worship #388
First Line: | Come weary souls! with sin distressed |
Title: | Pardon and Rest for the Weary Soul |
Author: | Anne Steele |
Meter: | 8.8.8.8 |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
Come, weary souls, with sin distressed. Anne Steele. [Invitation.] First published in her Poems on Subjects chiefly Devotional, 1760, vol. i. p. 27, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled, “Weary souls invited to rest" (2nd ed., vol. i. p. 27); and in Sedgwick’s reprint of her Hymns, 1863. It is in extensive use both in Great Britain and America, and sometimes with "sins" for "sin" in the opening line. It was introduced into the Nonconformist hymnals through the Bristol Collection, 1769, of Ash & Evans, and into those of the Church of England by Conyers, 1772, and Toplady, 1776.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)