Featured Hymn: "Come, Ye Disconsolate"

“Come, Ye Disconsolate, Where'er Ye Languish” by Thomas Moore

Bulletin Blurb

Every stanza of this hymn ends with the declaration that “earth has no sorrow” that is beyond the power of God in heaven to remove. Whether our anguish comes from feelings of guilt from sins committed or from the loss of a loved one, God has sent a Comforter to us – the Holy Spirit – who wants to help us through those difficult times.

Text

The original text was written by Thomas Moore for his own collection of Sacred Songs in 1816. He revised his poem in 1824. Thomas Hastings took Moore's poem and edited it, replacing the third stanza with one of his own. This text was published in Spiritual Songs for Social Worship in 1831 by Hastings and Lowell Mason, and has become the standard text for this hymn.

Moore's original third stanza began “Come, ask the infidel what boon he brings us,” which challenged unbelievers to find a remedy for sorrow equal to God's comfort. This also gives some insight on what Moore meant by “you disconsolate” in the first stanza – believers only, with their troubles and sadness. With Hastings's third stanza replacing Moore's, it is now easier to read the first stanza as appealing both to believers in need of comfort and to unbelievers who have never felt God’s peace. The three stanzas of this poem all have a similar final line comparing the sorrows of earth to the power of God in heaven. The first stanza is a call to all of humanity who are downtrodden and sorrowful, while the second describes the comforting God to whom the disconsolate come with their troubles. The final stanza depicts heaven.

When/Why/How

This hymn is best suited to services of confession or of comfort and encouragement. Terre Johnson wrote a moving setting of “Come, Ye Disconsolate” for choir with piano accompaniment in memory of the victims of a 2007 tornado in Alabama. Much of the setting is sung in unison or two-part harmony, with the full choir on the final stanza. This setting was also published for vocal solo in “Three Hymns of Hope.”

View this hymn at Hymnary.org.