Hosea 2:6-7 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.… There is a story told of Robert Robinson, the hymn-writer, which forcibly illustrates Browning's words, "Stand back the man I am behind the man I used to be." In his early ministry, Robinson, the Baptist minister at Cambridge, wrote that beautiful and well-known hymn — "Come, Thou Fount of every blessing." In the latter part of his life, Robinson's views of evangelical truth had changed, and he seemed to have lost a good deal of his spiritual fervour. Riding one day on a stage-coach, a lady, who was quite a stranger to him, entered into conversation. The subject of hymns came up, and she asked, little knowing that he was the author, what he thought of the hymn, "Come, Thou Fount of every blessing." But he waived the subject, and turned her attention to some other topic; but, after a short period, she contrived to return to it, and described the benefits she had often derived from the hymn, and her strong admiration of its sentiments. At length, Robinson, entirely overcome by the power of his feelings, burst into tears, and said, "Madam, I am the poor, unhappy man who composed that hymn many years ago; and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I then had." (A. Hampden Lee.) Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. |
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