Songs of the Redeemed Here I Raise My Ebenezer

Robert Robinson wrote it at twenty-two, a young man freshly captured by grace, who could not stop marveling at what had found him. He spent the rest of his life trying to mean it.The legend that Robinson died having forgotten the hymn - told that it was a beautiful piece and replying, not knowing who had written it, that he was very unhappy with it - may or may not be true. What is true is that the hymn has outlasted his struggles, because the grace it celebrates is more durable than the man who celebrated it. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace - the prayer of a soul that knows it needs the tuning, that the heart left to itself will wander, and that the only remedy for wandering is the One whose streams of mercy never cease.Here I Raise My Ebenezer is the sixth volume in the Songs of the Redeemed series. Moving phrase by phrase through Robinson's beloved hymn, Elias Hartwell traces the whole arc of the Christian life as the hymn sings it: the streams of mercy that flow without ceasing, the Ebenezer stones that mark God's faithfulness along the road, the rescuing grace that found the soul when it could not find itself, and the honest confession that the heart prone to wander has not yet finished wandering - and that the grace prone to follow has not yet finished pursuing. Here is the Reformed doctrine of perseverance sung from the inside of the struggle. Here is praise that does not pretend.For the believer who knows the wandering from personal experience. For every pilgrim who needs to raise another stone and remember -Thus far the Lord has helped.