Words: , in Welcome Tidings, by , W. Howard Doane, and (New York: Biglow & Main, 1877), number 82. Music: . |
“A short time ago, about twelve o’clock one frosty Saturday night, when the keen winter wind was driving all indoors who had a home, a poor woman, in utter misery and despair, was pacing up and down along the Thames,” writes a friend in England. “She had wandered into a mission hall during the evening and had restlessly come out, carrying no remembrance of anything that had been said; but these lines from a hymn still sounded in her ears: ‘I’ve wandered far away o’er mountains cold’…
“She cried aloud: ’But there is no deliverer for me.’ Very soon she was met by some Christian workers, who were spending the night in seeking to gather in such outcasts as she. They took her to a home. The human tenderness revealed to her the divine love. If strangers had thus received her and cared for her, would not her Heavenly Father, whose love she had heard of, take her? Thus she was led to the feet of Jesus, and to find that her sins were many and all forgiven. She said, ‘Things since then have been up and down with me, but I have never lost the peace I found that morning.’”
O hear my cry, be gracious now to me,
Come, Great Deliverer, come;
My soul bowed down is longing now for Thee,
Come, Great Deliverer, come.
Refrain
I’ve wandered far away o’er mountains cold,
I’ve wandered far away from home;
O take me now, and bring me to Thy fold,
Come, Great Deliverer, come.
I have no place, no shelter from the night,
Come, Great Deliverer, come;
One look from Thee would give me life and light,
Come, Great Deliverer, come.
Refrain
My path is lone, and weary are my feet,
Come, Great Deliverer, come;
Mine eyes look up Thy loving smile to meet,
Come, Great Deliverer, come.
Refrain
Thou wilt not spurn contrition’s broken sigh,
Come, Great Deliverer, come.
Regard my prayer, and hear my humble cry,
Come, Great Deliverer, come.
Refrain