Bible Songs — Invitation

Why Not Come to Jesus?

No. 1280
Tune WHY NOT COME TO JESUS?
Words F. E. B.
Music F. E. Belden.
Key F major
Time 4/4
4 stanzas

Words

Why not come to Jesus?There is hope for thee;There is wondrous pardon,Offered full and free.Only trust his mercy,Ask and be forgiven;Why not come to Jesus?He is the way to heav'n.

Doubt his love no longer,Count all else but loss;Faith and hope grow strongerTaking up the cross.'T is a burden precious,Giving peace within;Why not come to Jesus,And leave thy load of sin?

Who has love so constant,Love so tried and true,Thus to die for sinners,Thus to die for you?At your heart he's knocking,Turn him not away;Why not come to Jesus?O, why not come to-day?

Now the Holy SpiritWhispers his dear name,Angels bending near youBid you speak the same.Speak it while he's waiting,Speak it while you may;Why not come to Jesus?He waits to hear you pray.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: the page (printed 496) opens with the hymn number «1280» (large, left) and the title «WHY NOT COME TO JESUS?» centred (condensed capitals and small capitals); under it, in two lines of small roman type, the epigraph «"The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst / come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."—Rev. 22 : 17.» (old-style figures); on the next line «F. E. B.» at the left (words) and «F. E. BELDEN.» at the right (music), in capitals and small capitals. No meter, no tune name other than the title, no tempo word and no reference line are printed. The four stanzas are interlinear, numbered «1.»-«4.», between the staves of all three systems; there is no chorus. Under the music, centred: «Copyrighted 1886 by F. E. Belden.». Each stanza is given here in its eight verse lines; the printed lines of words follow the staves, not the verses — a new verse line is shown in the print by its capital. The system breaks fall inside verse lines, which are joined here: «There is wondrous / par-don,» (stanza 1), «Faith and hope grow / strong-er» (2), «Thus to die for / sin-ners,» (3), «An-gels bend-ing / near you» (4). The words divided under the notes are joined here («Je - sus», «long - er», «con - stant», «Ho - ly», «Spir - it», «Whis - pers», «An - gels», «bend - ing», «par - don», «Of - fered», «Tak - ing», «On - ly», «bur - den», «pre - cious», «mer - cy», «knock - ing», «wait - ing», «for-given», «Giv - ing», «with-in», «a - way», «to - day»); the divisions are in `lyrics_syllables.txt` («wondrous», stanza 1, is printed solid under two notes). The print sets a thin space before «? ; »; it is closed up here; curly quotes and apostrophes are written straight. Spelling, punctuation and capitals are the print's, including «'T is» (apostrophe, capital T, space), «he's», «heav'n», «to-day», the lower-case «he»/«his»/«him», «Faith and hope grow stronger / Taking up the cross.» (no comma after «stronger») and «O, why not come to-day?».