Robert Robinson (1735-1790) was riding in a stagecoach. To break the monotony of the trip, a fellow passenger began to sing softly the hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” The young woman asked Robert what he thought of the song. “Madam, I am the unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago and I would give a thousand worlds if I had them, if I could feel now, as I felt then.” Her response is classic, “Sir, the streams of mercy are still flowing,” a line taken straight from the hymn.
It’s not known whether Robinson ever made his way back to God. This widely told story depicts the all-too-common spiritual malady of wandering from God. Robert Robinson used to run with a street gang in London. They planned to heckle the evangelist George Whitefield as he was preaching, but instead his sermon struck a responsive chord in Robert, and he surrendered his life to Christ. He became a Baptist minister, yet he reached a point many years later when his own sermons no longer made sense to him and became tormented with doubt. His hymn about wandering proved prophetic in his own life.
I identify especially with the last verse, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” It’s a hymn that functions like a prayer. “Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wand‘ring heart to Thee.” My sentiments entirely!