Both the words and the tune of this song expressing one’s desire to surrender to Christ were written by Lewis Hartsough. He graduated from seminary in 1852, was ordained as a Methodist minister, and served in the Oneida Conference in New York. Due to health reasons, he moved west and became the director of the Utah Mission and presided over the Wyoming District. He became pastor of the Methodist Church in Epworth, Iowa, in 1871 and wrote “I Am Coming, Lord!” while conducting a revival meeting there a year later.
The song first appeared in the 1872 edition of “The Revivalist,” a popular collection of evangelistic hymns edited by Hartsough. Soon after that, “I Am Coming, Lord!” was published in a monthly magazine called “The Guide to Holiness,” in 1873, a copy was sent to Ira Sankey in England, where he was holding meetings with D. L. Moody. Sankey included it in his 1875 “Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs,” and it was often used as a song of invitation in England and America.
Ira Sankey told a story about how this song was used to bring a businessman to Christ. While passing by a church in Washington, D.C., a man heard it being sung. The man hadn’t been in a church for twenty years and stopped to listen to the words. He became convicted of his sin and went inside to join the others at the altar to accept Christ as his Saviour. After that, he often sang this hymn at home, on the street, and in his store. One morning, his wife heard him singing it when he left for work. A few moments later, the doorbell rang, and when she answered the door, men carried her husband's dead body into the house. He’d slipped on the icy street and was instantly killed. The memory of him triumphantly singing, “I am coming, Lord, coming now to Thee,” was a lasting comfort to her broken heart.
Hartsough wrote a number of hymns and tunes during his lifetime, but this one was the most popular and continues to be used. It’s been sung to encourage people to realize their spiritual need to be cleansed by the blood of Christ that was shed on Calvary…. and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
That calls me, Lord, to thee;
For cleansing in thy precious blood
That flowed on Calvary.
I am coming, Lord!
Coming now to thee!
Wash me, cleanse me, in the blood
That flowed on Calvary!
Though coming weak and vile,
Thou dost my strength assure;
Thou dost my vileness fully cleanse,
Till spotless all, and pure.
'Tis Jesus calls me on
To perfect faith and love,
To perfect hope, and peace, and trust,
For earth and heav'n above.
'Tis Jesus who confirms,
The blessed work within,
By adding grace, to welcomed grace,
Where reigned the pow'r of sin.
And he the witness gives
To loyal hearts and free,
That ev'ry promise is fulfilled,
If faith but brings the plea.
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