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Hymns of My Youth: Come to Calvary’s Holy Mountain

This hymn is listed in the hymnal under “Call and Repentance,” intended to be used in conjunction with evangelistic sermons. I’m no fan of that kind of hymn, or of using music for evangelistic purposes at all, as music cannot help but move people emotionally. However, I think it is perfectly appropriate for us to sing the gospel to one another in our worship, and this hymn expresses that gospel beautifully.

253 Come to Calvary’s Holy Mountain

Come to Calv’ry’s holy mountain,
Sinners, ruined by the Fall;
Here a pure and healing fountain
Flows to you, to me, to all,
In a full, perpetual tide,
Opened when our Savior died.

Come in poverty and meanness,
Come defiled, without, within;
From infection and uncleanness,
From the leprosy of sin,
Wash your robes and make them white;
Ye shall walk with God in light.

Come in sorrow and contrition,
Wounded, impotent, and blind;
Here the guilty free remission,
Here the troubled peace may find:
Health this fountain will restore;
He that drinks shall thirst no more.

He that drinks shall live forever;
’Tis a soul renewing flood.
God is faithful; God will never
Break His covenant of blood,
Signed when our Redeemer died,
Seal’d when He was glorified.

—The Concordia Hymnal (Augsburg Publishing House), 1960.