Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.

" Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.Prone to leave the God I loveTake my heart, O take and seal itSeal it for thy courts above. "

In the 17^th century, there was a little boy named Robert, whose father had passed away at his early age. So, he had begun to labor since his childhood days. He lived with his mother. Without fathers guidance he fell in with bad companions.

Once along with his gang of rowdies harassed a drunken gypsy. Pouring liquor into her and demanding her to tell their fortunes for free. Pointing at Robert the gypsy told him that he would live to see his children and grandchildren. By hearing this, Robert felt a change in his heart. He said himself,”If I’m going to live to see my children and grandchildren.” He thought, “I’ll have to change my way of living. I can’t keep on like I’m going now.”

Robert decided to go and hear the Preaching of Methodist preacher George Whitefield. To cover his “weak”, Urge. Robert also suggested other boys to come and attend the gathering. Those days George Whitefield had been preaching based on Matthew 3:7 (the preaching of John the Baptist).

Robert was left in dread, under the deep sense of sin that lasted around 3 years. . And this Robert who finally became Robert Robinson. The one who wrote the Hymn “come thou fount of Every Blessing”. Which is sung in most of the churches today?   Finally, by the age of 20 he became closely associated with the word of God. In order, to make peace with God he immediately set out to be a Methodist preacher.  After 2 years, by then it was 1757. He wrote a Hymn to express his joy in his new faith.

Come, thou fount of every blessing,

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace

Streams of Mercy, never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me songs melodious praise,

Sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,

Mount of Thy redeeming love.

In the last stanza he had written,

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.

Prone to leave the God I love

Take my heart, O take and seal it

Seal it for thy courts above.

He was prone to wander. He left the Methodists church and became a Baptist. Later on, having become a close friend of Joseph Priestly (The scientist who discovered Oxygen).  He was accused of becoming Unitarian (The church Joseph Priestly belonged).

 Robert Robinson died on June 9, 1790. By then,

 he wasn’t that closely associated with the word of God.

A widely known, but unverifiable, story says that once he was riding on a stagecoach. A lady asked him what he thought of the hymn she was humming. He responded, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand words, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.”

One thing is recommendable, no matter what happened to Robert Robinson’s life.

He has clearly depicted the human propensity of wandering away from God.

As he has written in the last stanza,

“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.

  Prone to leave the God I love “

He is prone to leave the God, whom he loved so dearly. He realizes his love for God

And writes in the next line. After realizing he humbles back to God and gives his heart to God.

”Take my heart, O take and seal it

Seal it for thy courts above.”

By Israel Hembrom.