Scripture Verse

Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God. Luke 14:15

Introduction

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns for Those That Seek and Those That Have Re­demp­tion in the Blood of Je­sus Christ 1747, num­ber 50.

Music: Hurs­ley Ka­thol­isch­es Ge­sang­buch (Vi­en­na, 1774). Adapt­ed from the Met­ric­al Psal­ter, 1855 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Anecdote

Sarah Bak­er, of Culms­tock, Ti­ver­ton, lived more than for­ty years ig­no­rant of God and un­con­cerned about her soul’s sal­va­tion. In the year 1799, she was go­ing one Sab­bath af­ter­noon to church.

Mr. Rouse, a lo­cal preach­er, was preach­ing in a house on her way; from cur­io­si­ty, she stayed to list­en at the win­dow, and it pleased the Lord to ap­ply the word spok­en with pow­er to her heart, and to give her to feel the need of a Sav­iour.

As the preach­er was giv­ing out the words of the hymn—

This is the time, no more de­lay, &c

She re­solved to ac­cept the of­fered mer­cy; she sought the Lord, and found Him, to the joy of her heart. She ne­ver lost her con­fi­dence in God; and, though poor in this world’s goods, she was rich in faith, giv­ing glo­ry to God.

In great peace she fell asleep in Je­sus, 29th June, 1838, aged eigh­ty-two.

Stevenson, p. 18

Lyrics

Come, sin­ners, to the Gos­pel feast;
Let ev­ery soul be Je­sus’ guest.
Ye need not one be left be­hind,
For God hath bid all hu­man­kind.

Sent by my Lord, on you I call;
The in­vi­ta­tion is to all.
Come, all the world! Come, sin­ner, thou!
All things in Christ are rea­dy now.

Come, all ye souls by sin op­pressed,
Ye rest­less wan­der­ers af­ter rest;
Ye poor, and maimed, and sick, and blind,
In Christ a hear­ty wel­come find.

Come, and par­take the Gos­pel feast;
Be saved from sin; in Je­sus rest;
O taste the good­ness of your God,
And eat His flesh, and drink His blood!

You vag­rant souls, on you I call;
(O that my voice could reach you all!)
You all may now be jus­ti­fied,
You all may live, for Christ hath died.

My mes­sage as from God re­ceive;
Ye all may come to Christ and live.
O let His love your hearts con­strain,
Nor per­mit Him to die in vain.

His love is migh­ty to com­pel;
His con­quer­ing love con­sent to feel,
Yield to His love’s re­sist­less pow­er,
And fight against your God no more.

See Him set forth be­fore your eyes,
That pre­cious, bleed­ing Sac­ri­fice!
His of­fered be­ne­fits em­brace,
And free­ly now be saved by grace.

This is the time, no more de­lay!
This is the Lord’s ac­cept­ed day.
Come thou, this mo­ment, at His call,
And live for Him who died for all.

These vers­es are com­mon­ly omit­ted:

Jesus to you His full­ness brings,
A feast of mar­row and fat things.
Do not be­gin to make ex­cuse,
Ah! do not you His grace re­fuse.

Your grounds for­sake, your ox­en quit,
Your ev­ery earth­ly thought for­get,
Seek not the com­forts of this life,
Nor sell your Sav­ior for a wife.

Have me ex­cused, why will ye say?
Why will ye for dam­na­tion pray?
Have you ex­cused—from joy and peace!
Have you ex­cused—from hap­pi­ness:

Excused from com­ing to a feast!
Excused from be­ing Je­sus’ guest!
From know­ing now your sins for­giv­en,
From tast­ing here the joys of Hea­ven.

Excused, al­as! why should you be
From health, and life, and li­ber­ty,
From en­ter­ing into glo­ri­ous rest,
From lean­ing on your Sav­ior’s breast?

Sinners my gra­cious Lord re­ceives,
Harlots, and pub­li­cans, and thieves;
Drunkards, and all ye hell­ish crew,
I have a mes­sage now to you.

The worst un­to My sup­per press,
Monsters of dar­ing wick­ed­ness,
Tell them My grace for all is free.
They can­not be too bad for Me.

illustration
The Last Supper
Titian (1488–1576)