Softly And Tenderly Jesus Is Calling
Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling
Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling for you and for me;
See, on the portals He’s waiting and watching,
Watching for you and for me.
Come home, come home,
Ye who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!
Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,
Pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not His mercies,
Mercies for you and for me?
Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,
Passing from you and from me;
Shadows are gathering, death’s night is coming,
Coming for you and for me.
O for the wonderful love He has promised,
Promised for you and for me!
Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon,
Pardon for you and for me.
WILL THOMPSON was called the bard of Ohio. From his home in East Liverpool, Ohio, he went to New York City to sell some of the secular songs he had written. Music dealers picked them up, and soon people across the country were singing “My Home on the Old Ohio” and “Gathering Shells from the Seashore.” He made so much money from his compositions that newspapers called him “the millionaire songwriter.”
But Thompson, a Christian, soon began concentrating on hymnwriting and set up his own firm for publishing hymnals. Two million copies of his gospel quartet books were sold. Sometime around 1880, when Thompson was thirty-three years old, he wrote this invitation hymn, “Softly and Tenderly.”
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
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