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Come Sinner, Come
Public Domain hymn; Words by the Rev. W. K. Witter; Music by H. R. Palmer
ARTIST: from Words by the Rev. W. K. Witter; Music by H. R. Palmer
SHEET MUSIC:
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel
DATE: 1887
RECORDING INFO: Come Sinner, Come; Words by the Rev. W. K. Witter; Music by H. R. Palmer
OTHER NAMES: "Come Sinner"
RELATED TO:
SOURCES: Google
NOTES: "Come Sinner, Come" is a public domain hymn with words by the Rev. W. K. Witter and music by H. R. Palmer in 1887. Curiously a traditional spiritual with the same title and form was collected by Howard W. Odum and Guy B. Johnson and published in their The Negro and His Songs: A Study of Typical Negro Songs in the South by Howard W. Odum, Guy B. Johnson.
COME, SINNER, COME- Howard W. Odum, Guy B. Johnson 1925
Won't you come, won't you come?
Come, sinner, come;
That great day of wrath is comin',
Come, sinner, come
Look over yonder what I see;
Come, sinner, come;
Two tall angels comin' after me,
Come, sinner, come
COME SINNER COME- William Whitter 1887
While Jesus whispers to you,
Come, sinner, come!
While we are praying for you,
Come, sinner, come!
Now is the time to own Him:
Come, sinner, come!
Now is the time to know Him:
Come, sinner, come!
Are you too heavy laden?
Come, sinner, come!
Jesus will bear your burden:
Come, sinner, come!
Jesus will not deceive you:
Come, sinner, come!
Jesus can now redeem you:
Come, sinner, come!
O hear His tender pleading:
Come, sinner, come!
Come and receive the blessing:
Come, sinner, come!
While Jesus whispers to you,
Come, sinner, come!
While we are praying for you,
Come, sinner, come!
Google book: A singular case of the same tune originating in the brain of both author and composer is presented in the history of this hymn of Rev. William Ellsworth Witter, D.D., born in La Grange, N.Y., Dec. 9, 1854. He wrote the hymn in the autumn of 1878, while teaching a district school near his home. The first line—
While Jesus whispers to you,
—came to him during a brief turn of outdoor work by the roadside and presently grew to twenty-four lines. Soon after, Prof. Horatio Palmer, knowing Witter to be a verse writer, invited him to contribute a hymn to a book he had in preparation, and this hymn was sent. Dr. Palmer set it to music, it soon entered into several collections, and Mr. Sankey sang it in England at the Moody meetings.
Ira Sankey, pp. 127-8: Mr. Witter has said regarding this hymn: “I may say that the origin of ‘While Jesus whispers to you’ is forever linked with some of the most sacred experiences of my life. I see the old farmhouse in New York State, overlooking the beautiful Wyoming Valley, and those Western hills, which to my childhood eyes were the rim of the world. It was in the summer of 1877 and I was home from college to nurse my sainted mother through her last illness, and at the same time I was teaching a term in school. The biography of P. P. Bliss was in our home, and his sweet songs were running through my mind from morn till evening. I prayed that even I might be inspired to write such hymns as would touch hard hearts and lead them to Christ. One Saturday afternoon, while bunching the hay which had been mown along the roadside, the words of this little hymn seemed to sing themselves into my soul, and with music almost identical with that to which they were later set by the sweet singer Palmer. I hastened to the house and, running upstairs, knelt beside the bed of a brother, for whose salvation my mother was in constant prayer. There, upon my knees, I transcribed the words to paper, and with a strange consciousness that they were God-given and that God would use them.”
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