Scripture Verse

Come unto Me. Matthew 11:28

Introduction

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William E. Witter (1854–1931)

Words: Will­iam E. Wit­ter, 1877.

Music: Ho­ra­tio R. Pa­lmer, 1879 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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Horatio Palmer (1834–1907)

Origin of the Hymn

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.

Sankey, pp. 143–44

Lyrics

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!

Why will you long­er doubt Him?
Come, sin­ner, come!
What will you do with­out Him?
Come, sin­ner come!
For you His heart is yearn­ing,
Come, sin­ner, come!
Why not to Him be turn­ing?
Come, sin­ner come!*

Far off you may have wan­dered,
Come, sin­ner, come!
God’s gifts you may have squan­dered,
Come, sin­ner come!
Cease now, your heart to hard­en,
Come, sin­ner, come!
Jesus will free­ly par­don,
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!

* Added by He­len C. Al­ex­an­der in Al­ex­an­der’s Gos­pel Hymns No. 2 (New York: Flem­ing H. Re­vell, 1910), num­ber 33