Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I’m come.
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
The prophet Samuel set up a great stone as a memorial to remind his people that God had saved them in battle. He called the stone “Eben-ezer,” or “stone of help.” (1 Samuel 7:10–12.)
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
English pastor and hymn writer Robert Robinson had a life-changing experience at age 16. One night he attended a religious revival meeting in London, not to worship, but to heckle the minister. He later wrote that he went to the meeting “to pity the folly of the preacher, the infatuation of the hearers, and to abhor the doctrine.” Instead, Robinson left the meeting changed, deeply convinced of his own sinfulness. In his early 20s, he became a preacher himself and wrote “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” his powerful plea for God’s mercy and forgiveness.
This text was included in Emma Smith’s second hymn collection, published in Nauvoo in 1841. Like the original 1835 hymnal, the Nauvoo hymnal contained only texts, which could be sung with any tunes that matched their meter. “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” next appeared in the Church’s 1948 hymnal, paired with the American folk tune we know today. By 1985 it was not being sung frequently by members of the Church and was not included in Hymns (1985). Later an arrangement by Mack Wilberg, director of The Tabernacle Choir on Temple Square, created a new appreciation for the hymn, and “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” returned in Hymns—For Home and Church.
