The Sinner — Warning and Invitation

Come, weary souls with sin distressed

No. 388
Metre L. M.
Tune DESIRE.
Words Anne Steele.
Music Isaac B. Woodbury.
Key B-flat major
Singing key A♭ major
Time 3/4
5 stanzas

Words

Come, weary souls with sin distressed,Come, and accept the promised rest;The Saviour's gracious call obey,And cast your gloomy fears away.

Oppressed with guilt, a painful load,O, come and spread your woes abroad!Divine compassion, mighty love,Will all the painful load remove.

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!

Lord, we accept, with thankful hearts,The hopes thy gracious word imparts;We come with trembling, yet rejoice,And bless the kind, inviting voice.

Dear Saviour, let thy powerful loveConfirm our faith, our fears remove;And sweetly influence every breast,And guide us to eternal rest.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: running head «THE SINNER—WARNING AND INVITATION.» (the first hymn of the section); hymn number «388» (large), tune name «DESIRE. L. M.» centred over the music (condensed capitals and small capitals), «ISAAC B. WOODBURY.» at the right (capitals and small capitals). Stanza 1 is interlinear, between the staves, one line per system (two verse lines per system), with «1.» before «Come,»: «wea - ry», «ac - cept», «gra - cious», «o - bey,», «a - way.» are hyphenated with spaced dashes, «Sav-iour's» and «gloom-y» with tight hyphens, while «distressed,» and «promised» are printed unbroken although each is sung on two notes. Stanzas 2–5 are printed as text in the left column below the music, under the reference line «787, 431, 212.» in italics (= may also be sung to the tunes of hymns 787, 431 or 212). «Anne Steele.» in italics after stanza 5. The print sets a thin space before «!» and «;» («abroad !», «woes ;», «gift !», «grace !», «imparts ;», «remove ;»); it is closed up here. The printer's curly apostrophes are written straight («Saviour's», «mercy's»). All four lines of each stanza are set flush (no alternate indent). Spelling, punctuation and capitals are the print's («Saviour»).