Come, ye sinners, poor and needy

Come ye sinners, poor and needy. Joseph Hart* (1712-1768). First published in Hart’s Hymns Composed on Various Subjects, with the Author’s Experience (1759) in seven 6-line stanzas, with the title ‘Come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ’. The first line was ‘Come ye sinners, poor and wretched’, a line which is found in some books, such as those of the Presbyterian Church of England (see Presbyterian Church of England hymnody*) and MHB. It was included in hymn collections of a Calvinist persuasion such as Richard Conyers*’s Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1767) and Toplady's Psalms and Hymns (1776; see also A. M. Toplady*), and it became well known. The hymn has undergone many textual changes...