Today your mercy calls us

Authors:
Themes:
Scriptures:
  • Psalms 119:176
  • Psalms 145:19
  • Psalms 65:2
  • Psalms 95:7
  • Micah 7:7
  • Matthew 7:13-14
  • Luke 13:24
  • Luke 15:11-24
  • John 10:11
  • John 10:15
  • John 10:7-9
  • Acts 22:16
  • 1 Corinthians 6:11
  • 2 Corinthians 6:2
  • Ephesians 2:4-8
  • 1 Timothy 1:13-16
  • 2 Timothy 4:18
  • 2 Timothy 4:8
  • Titus 3:4-7
  • Hebrews 10:22
  • Hebrews 3:13
  • Hebrews 3:7-13
  • Hebrews 4:7
  • James 1:12
  • James 5:19-20
  • 1 Peter 5:4
  • 1 John 1:7-9
Book Number:
  • 677

Today your mercy calls us
to wash away our sin,
however great our trespass,
whatever we have been;
however long from mercy
our hearts have turned away,
your blood, O Christ, can cleanse us
and set us free today.

2. Today your gate is open,
and all who enter in
shall find a father’s welcome
and pardon for their sin;
the past shall be forgotten,
a present joy be given,
a future grace be promised,
a glorious crown in heaven.

3. Today the Father calls us;
the Holy Spirit moves;
the Son has given his lifeblood
for every soul he loves.
No question will be asked us
why we so late have come,
or why we always wandered:
this is our Father’s home!

4. O all-embracing mercy!
O ever-open door!
What should we do without you,
how can we ask for more?
When all things seem against us,
to drive us to despair,
we know one gate is open,
and you will hear our prayer.

Oswald Allen 1816-78

The Gospel - Invitation and Warning

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The story behind the hymn

‘Today’ is a strong word, linked with the gospel invitation explicitly in 2 Corinthians 6:2 and implicitly in Acts 22:16. It was the word heading Oswald Allen’s hymn, written with both texts in mind and published in his Hymns of the Christian Life, 1861–62. The small number of British books to include it nevertheless span a wide range of church tradition, from A&M (1861, 1904) to Pentecostal and Brethren hymnals, as well as CH and other evangelical collections. With the possible exception of his O Holy Spirit, come, this has outlasted all his other hymns. It is also sung in N America. In its original form, 1.8 was ‘… make us white today’; the other main changes come in stz 3 (which CH omits), from ‘… his Holy Spirit waits;/ the blessed angels gather/ around the heavenly gates:/ no question will be asked us/ how often we have come; although …’ Hymns of Light and Love prints stzs 1 and 2, as Today God’s mercy calls thee.

DAY OF REST is the tune most associated (since the 1875 A&M) with 901, though composed by James W Elliott for Christopher Wordsworth’s O day of rest and gladness and first appearing with those words in the 1874 Church Hymns. It has attracted considerable criticism but retains its popularity with congregations in spite of its absence from many standard books. As well as the alternative 440, the hymn has been set to PENLAN (748), Lowell Mason’s MISSIONARY [HYMN] =HEBER, Haydn’s GREENLAND and the Welsh PEN-YRYRFA.

A look at the author

Allen, Oswald

b Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmorland (Cumbria) 1816, d K Lonsdale 1878. Educated at home in Kirkby Lonsdale and suffering from a spinal disorder from boyhood onwards, he followed his father into the banking profession. A brief remission enabled him to move to Glasgow, where he worked in the Scottish Stock Exchange, but recurring ill-health forced him to return. In 1848 he joined the Lancashire Banking Co, eventually becoming its manager. While shut in at home in the severe winter of 1859–60 he took the opportunity of assembling his 148 hymns, published in 1861 as Hymns of the Christian Life. James Allen (qv) was his great uncle. No.677.