Scripture Verse

Introduction

Background

This was the hymn John Downes gave out on Fri­day, No­vem­ber 4, 1774, when death seized him in West Street Cha­pel, Lon­don. Wes­ley took great pride in this preach­er’s me­chan­ic­al ge­ni­us, and in the por­trait which Downes made of him.

In the af­ter­noon be­fore his ap­point­ment, Downes said, I feel such a love to the peo­ple of West Street, that I would be con­tent to die with them. I do not find my­self ve­ry well; but I must be with them this ev­en­ing.

His text was Come un­to Me, all ye that la­bour and are hea­vy la­den, and great pow­er at­tend­ed the mes­sage; but when he had spok­en for ten min­utes his strength was gone, and he gave out the lines—

Father, I stretch my hands to Thee,
No other help I know.

His voice failed. He fell on his knees, as if he in­tend­ed to pray, but he could not be heard. The preach­ers who were pres­ent raised him up and bore him to bed, where he soon breathed his last breath. He was on­ly fif­ty-two.

Telford, pp. 228–29