AN EVANGELIST used to say he was very fond of that hymn, “Come!—Oh word of words the sweetest!” And he told the story of a man who once was persuaded against his own will to come to a gospel meeting.
When he got to the meeting, they were all singing the chorus of this hymn — “Come, come! come!” He said afterward he thought he never saw so many fools together in his life before. The idea of people standing and singing, “Come! come! come!”
When he started for home again he could not get this little word out of his head. It kept coming back all the time. He went into a tavern and ordered a drink, thinking to drown it. But he could not; it kept coming back. Farther on he entered another tavern and took another drink; but the words kept ringing in his ears "Come! come! come!” He said to himself, “What a fool I am for allowing myself to be troubled in this way!” He stopped at another tavern, had another glass; and finally got home.
He went off to bed, but could not sleep. It seemed as if the very pillow kept whispering the word, “Come! come!” He began to get angry with himself — “What a fool I was forever going to that meeting at all!” When he got up he took the little hymn book, found the hymn, and read it over. “What nonsense!” he said to himself; “the idea of a sensible man being disturbed by that hymn.” He set fire to the hymn book; but he could not burn up that little word “Come!”
“For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.... That He may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.... Then He is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.” Job 33:14, 17, 18, 2414For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. (Job 33:14)
17That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. 18He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. (Job 33:17‑18)
24Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. (Job 33:24).
He declared he would never go to another of the meetings; but the next night he came again. When he got there, strange to say, they were singing the same hymn. “There is that miserable old hymn again,” he said; “what a fool I am for coming!” But when the Spirit of God lays hold of a man he does a good many things he did not intend to do.
To make a long story short, some weeks later, that man rose in a meeting of young converts and told this story about himself. Pulling out a little hymn book — he had bought another copy — and opening it at this hymn, the very hymn that he had despised, he said: “I think this hymn is the sweetest and the best in the English language. God blessed it to the saving of my soul.”
“Come!”
“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly: Amen.
ML-09/29/1963