Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling

lyrics and music by will l. thompson

Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling Lyrics

 

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?

 

Come home, come home,
Ye who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!

Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,
Passing from you and from me;
Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming,
Coming 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!

 

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.

 

Come home, come home,
Ye who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!

 

 

Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling Guitar Chords

 

G          G  D7 G  Am C     C   G                          

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,

G           Em6 A7      D                                

Calling for you and for me;

G           G  D7   G    Am  C       C    G                 

See, on the portals He’s waiting and watching,

G        C   G       D7  G                              

Watching for you and for me.
     D7         D G                                   

Come home, come home,

D          E7     A7   D A7 D7                                 

Ye who are weary, come home;

G          G  D7 G   Am C     C   G                          

Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,

G        C G       D7   G                               

Calling, O sinner, come home!

 

Scripture References

  • Mark 10:49 - Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.”
  • Matthew 11:28 - Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
  • Mark 2:17 - On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

The Story

 

Will Lamartine Thompson was born in 1847 in a small town in Ohio. He attended Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio, but because of his great musical talent he went on to study music at the Boston Conservatory of Music and in Leipzig, Germany.

 

Thompson wrote mainly secular and patriotic songs as a young man. When he tried to sell his songs to publishers in Cleveland, he was rejected. But eventually he went to New York, worked with a printer to publish his own music. His music became the big hits of the day, including songs like "My Home on the Old Ohio" and "Gathering Shells from the Sea". We may not be familiar with these songs today, but suffice it to say his music were some of the top pop hits of his day, so much so that he eventually started his own publishing company, sold millions of copies of his music, and became a millionaire. And he achieved all this in his 20's.

 

He didn't let fame or fortune go to his head, though. In his 30's, to give thanks to God for the success he enjoyed, he dedicated himself to writing only Christian songs from that point on. While no one remembers his secular music today, we still sing his hymns. If you've sung Jesus Is All the World To Me, There's a Great Day Coming, or Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling, you're familiar with just a few of the hymns he wrote.

 

In his later life, while he could have been like other famous musicians and travelled to huge cities to huge crowds, Thompson opted to take his upright piano on a two-horse wagon and perform to small church congregations in cities throughout the Midwest.

 

Today, it is said that Softly and Tenderly has been translated into more languages than any other hymn in history. In 1890, as famed evangelist Dwight L. Moody was dying, Thompson came to visit him. Taking Thompson by the hand, Moody told him "Will, I would rather have written 'Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling' than anything else I have been able to do in my whole life.' The hymn was played at Dr. Martin Luther King's memorial services in 1968.

 

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