Bible Songs — Invitation

Father, We Come to Thee

No. 1277
Tune FATHER, WE COME TO THEE.
Words F. E. Belden.
Music W. J. Bostwick.
Key F major
Singing key E♭ major
Time 4/4
3 stanzas

Words

Father, we come to thee,No other help have we;Thou wilt our refuge be,On thee we call.Earth is but dark and drearWithout thy presence near;Be thou our comfort here,Father of all.

Chorus.

Father, we come to thee,Turn not away;Helpless we come to thee,Hear while we pray.

Save from our many foes,Save from our earthly woes;Be thou our soul's reposeIn time of need.Doubting are we, and weak,To us sweet courage speak;Thy mighty arm we seekFor strength indeed.

Give us thy grace divine,Seal us forever thine;Our wayward feet inclineFrom sin to flee.Oh, guide us, we implore,Till weary life is o'er,And on a brighter shoreWe dwell with thee.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: hymn number «1277» (large, left), title «FATHER, WE COME TO THEE.» centred (condensed capitals with larger initials, «TO» wholly in the smaller capitals); on the next line the epigraph «"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."—Ps. 46 : 1.» (old-style figures, thin spaces around the colon); under it «F. E. BELDEN.» at the left (words) and «W. J. BOSTWICK.» at the right (music), capitals and small capitals; no meter, no tune name other than the title, no reference line and no running head. The three stanzas are interlinear, three lines between the staves of systems 1 and 2 and of the first four bars of system 3, numbered «1.»–«3.» in system 1 only; each stanza is eight verse lines, given here as the verse lines of the poem (each printed line of words carries three or four of them). «CHORUS.» (bold capitals) is printed over the treble staff above the fifth bar of system 3; its words stand once, in one line under the soprano, and are given here once, after stanza 1, as printed. Syllable hyphens are joined («Fa-ther», «oth-er», «ref-uge», «ma-ny», «re-pose», «for-ev-er», «With-out», «Doubt-ing», «im-plore», «wea-ry», «com-fort», «might-y», «in-deed», «bright-er», «a-way», «Help-less»); «divine,», «earthly», «wayward», «incline», «presence» and «courage» are printed whole under two notes. Words set without a word space in the tight lines («Savefromourma-ny», «Savefromourearthly», «Giveus», «Fromsin», «ussweetcouragespeak», «forthere,», «Forstrength») are separated. The print sets a thin space before «;» («we ;», «woes ;», «thine ;», «near ;», «a-way ;»); it is closed up here; the curly apostrophes are written straight («soul's», «o'er»). Spelling, capitals and punctuation are the print's (no stop after «drear», «repose», «seek», «incline», «shore»). Under the music, centred: «Copyrighted 1880 by J. E. White.» (the year is heavily inked — see uncertainties.md) and the folio «493».