The Cyber Hymnal ‎#7205

7205. Welcome! Wanderer, Welcome!

1. In the land of strangers,
Whither thou art gone,
Hear a far voice calling,
My son! my son!

Refrain
Welcome, wand’rer, welcome!
Welcome back to home!
Thou hast wandered far away:
Come home! come home!

2. From the land of hunger,
Fainting, famished lone,
Come to love and gladness,
My son! my son! [Refrain]

3. Leave the haunts of riot,
Wasted, woebegone,
Sick at heart and weary
My son! my son! [Refrain]

4. See the door still open!
Thou art still my own;
Eyes of love are on thee,
My son! my son! [Refrain]

5. Far off thou hast wandered,
Wilt thou farther roam?
Come, and all is pardoned,
My son! my son! [Refrain]

6. See the well-spread table,
Unforgotten one!
Here is rest and plenty,
My son! my son! [Refrain]

7. Thou art friendless, homeless,
Hopeless, and undone;
Mine is love unchanging,
My son! my son! [Refrain]

Text Information

• First Line: In the land of strangers
• Title: Welcome! Wanderer, Welcome!
• Author: Horatius Bonar
• Refrain First Line: Welcome, wand'rer, welcome!
• Language: English
• Copyright: Public Domain
• Notes: "An ed­it­or of a pa­per in the South," says one who was con­nect­ed with the Flo­rence Miss­ion at the time this in­ci­dent oc­curred, “lost all through drink and dis­si­pa­tion, and one day left his wife and five child­ren to look af­ter them­selves. With­out bid­ding them goodbye he left home, de­ter­mined not to re­turn un­til he was a man and could live a so­ber life. In New York he sank still low­er. One night he pawned some of his cloth­ing; but soon he was again pen­ni­less an had no place to sleep. He then wrote a note to his wife, bid­ding her goodbye, say­ing they would ne­ver see each other again, as he had de­cid­ed to die that night. He was walk­ing to­ward East Ri­ver when the sound of music at­tract­ed his at­ten­tion. He looked up and saw the sign, ‘The Flo­rence.’ That was the name of his old­est daugh­ter. He list­ened; a lady was sing­ing a song his wife used to sing on Sun­day af­ter­noons at home, words that went to his heart, ‘In the land of strang­ers, whi­ther thou art gone’… The song, cou­pled with the name that was his daug­hter’s led him to think we were pray­ing for him. He came in, drunk as he was, and asked us to do so. He be­came a con­vert and an ear­nest Chris­tian work­er, and has a held a po­si­tion of re­spon­si­bil­i­ty in bus­i­ness for ma­ny years, he and his fam­i­ly hav­ing been re­unit­ed.” Written for me by Dr. Bo­nar, in 1883, this hymn be­came the fa­vo­rite song of the choir of over fif­teen hun­dred voices, led by Per­cy S. Fos­ter, at our meet­ings in the great Con­ven­tion Hall in Wash­ing­ton dur­ing the win­ter of 1894. Sankey, pp. 294-5

Tune Information

• Name: [In the land of strangers]
• Composer: Ira David Sank­ey (1884)
• Key: F Major