This hymn was written in 1890 and found in Precious Times of Refreshing and Revival. After emigrating to America, Bottome be came a Methodist Episcopal minister in 1850. Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, awarded him an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1872.
Lyrics: Francis Bottome
Music: William J. Kirkpatrick
O spread the tidings ’round, wherever man is found,
Wherever human hearts and human woes abound;
Let ev’ry Christian tongue proclaim the joyful sound:
The Comforter has come!
Refrain:
The Comforter has come, the Comforter has come!
The Holy Ghost from Heav’n, the Father’s promise giv’n;
O spread the tidings ’round, wherever man is found-
The Comforter has come!
The long, long night is past, the morning breaks at last,
And hushed the dreadful wail and fury of the blast,
As o’er the golden hills the day advances fast!
The Comforter has come!
Lo, the great King of kings, with healing in His wings,
To ev’ry captive soul a full deliverance brings;
And through the vacant cells the song of triumph rings;
The Comforter has come!
O boundless love divine! How shall this tongue of mine
To wond’ring mortals tell the matchless grace divine-
That I, a child of hell, should in His image shine!
The Comforter has come!
This hymn is an excellent one to mark Pentecostal Sunday, which falls on 31 May 2009 this year.
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