What a wonderful invitation Jesus extends in Matthew 11:28, “Come unto Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest for your souls.” This continues to be an evangelistic invitation from Jesus, the greatest evangelist of all time! Who can tell how many gospel sermons have been preached from this passage, urging sinners to come to Jesus? These are not just those living in settled wickedness and open defiance of God, as they realize more and more the debilitating, destructive effects of their ungodly lifestyle and all the misery this is bringing upon them and those they care about. It is also for those living in spiritual complacency and devotional indifference, as they realize the emptiness this brings and the futility of trying to live based on their own efforts, and the growing uncertainty about whether or not they will find themselves in heaven in God’s favor. As C. S. Lewis wrote, “No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.”
But it is also a powerful and compassionate invitation to believers who find themselves in hard times. It may be the difficulty of living with chronic pain or a fearful medical diagnosis. It may the pain of rejection or even betrayal by those you thought were trusted friends. It may be the anguish of continuing to pray for the salvation of a spouse or child. It may be the unrelenting attack of Satan through discrimination or opposition or persecution for your unwavering commitment to the Lord. Or it may be the ongoing struggle to overcome temptation in an area where you have repeatedly fallen and find it hard to believe that there can be forgiveness or victory. To all such “weary and heavy laden” souls, Jesus says, “Come to Me … and I will give you rest for your souls.”
Horatius Bonar (1808 – 1889) has given us a marvelous hymn based directly on those words from Jesus, “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say.” The three stanzas of the hymn are not only solid biblical exposition. They are also wonderfully simple and clear and easy to understand, so much so that it is almost entirely expressed in single syllable words. In fact, he wrote it in 1846 as one of his many hymns for children. This Scottish Presbyterian preacher was one of eleven children, so he related well to children. He and his wife lost five of their own children in a short period of time, and that most certainly must have made his love and concern for other little ones especially intense and lasting. He began writing hymns only after becoming a pastor in the town of Kelso in the Scottish Borders. Later, at his famous church in Edinburgh, only the Scottish metrical versions of the Psalms were sung, as was typical in most Presbyterian and Anglican churches at the time. Only the children were permitted to sing Bonar’s hymns. On one occasion, when a “hymn of human composure” was announced, two church leaders walked out in protest! The Free Church did not sanction a hymnal until “The Scottish Psalmody” of 1873, and Bonar’s Edinburgh congregation continued to disallow hymns for many more years. It has been reported that Bonar never heard his hymns sung in Sunday services by his own congregations.
He was a staunch evangelical who preached solid doctrinal sermons full of devotional content. He also had great interest in things related to the Second Coming of Christ. At the “Great Disruption” in 1843, he followed the leading example of his revered university teacher, Dr. Thomas Chalmers, and joined the Free Church, along with more than 400 other pastors. In 1883 he was elected as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church. In addition to his sermons, he was a prolific writer of letters, books, tracts, and about 600 hymns, which were championed by the American composer and evangelist Ira Sankey (Dwight Moody’s song-leader). Sankey used 23 of Bonar’s hymns in his famous collection “Sacred Songs and Solos.” In turn, Bonar supported the evangelistic crusades of the Moody / Sankey team in Scotland. One of the by-products of these crusades was that the gospel songs with organ in the style Moody and Sankey were introducing began to be accepted in the worship of many (but not all) of the churches in Scotland.
Bonar was described by theologian and Bible translator James Moffat as “the prince of Scottish hymn writers.” Among his most enduring hymns are “O Love of God, How Strong and True,” “Blessing and Honor and Glory and Power,” “Here, O My Lord, I See Thee Face to Face,” “Not What My Hands Have Done,” “No, Not Despairingly, Come I to Thee,” “I Lay My Sins on Jesus,” “Thy Works, Not Mine, O Christ,” “A Few More Years Shall Roll,” “Go, Labor On,” “When the Weary, Seeking Rest,” and “Thy Way, Not Mine, O Lord.” There is a common theme that stands out just in these titles, and this is the wonderful theme of salvation from sin through Jesus Christ.
He wrote this hymn, “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say,” with each stanza based on a promise of Jesus. These are found in Matthew 11:28 (“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”), John 4:14 (“But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into him everlasting life”), and John 8:12 (“I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”). Bonar preached his last sermon at the age of almost eighty. He asked that no biography of him be written, but that all glory for anything in his life and ministry be given to Christ.
This hymn has won its place in the “hall of faith” of Christian hymnody as a true classic, one that combines solid doctrine with deep personal devotion. In approaching the overall substance of Bonar’s hymn, hymnologist Louis Benson offered this summary:
It belongs to the class known as “subjective hymns” or “hymns of inward experience.” Like so many of Bonar’s, it mirrors the life of Christ in the soul. If the writer [Benson] understands it, it pictures human life as a pilgrimage (Bonar seems to have thought of life in no other aspect). The pilgrim has sought far and wide for things unattained. As night comes on he is weary of it all, he hears “The Voice from Galilee,” and heeding it finds rest. But the new peace in the heart must be sustained, and the pilgrim reaches out his hand to take from Christ’s the offered water of life. And thus refreshed he rests in the Lord. At dawn he awakes, at peace but a pilgrim still. It is another day and he must go on—but not to resume the old quest. It is a new day of which Christ is the Light, and a transfigured world through which Christ is the Way. And in that Light and by that Way he will walk “till traveling days are done.
In stanza 1, we hear Jesus offering us rest. How we need that, because we are weary. And how bountifully Jesus provides that, enabling us to lay our heads down upon His breast. When we come to Him, “so weary and worn and sad,” resting in Him makes us glad.
I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto Me and rest;
lay down, thou weary one, lay down thy head upon My breast!”
I came to Jesus as I was, so weary worn and sad;
I found in Him a resting-place, and He has made me glad.
In stanza 2, we hear Jesus offering us living water. How we need that, because we are thirsty. And how bountifully Jesus provides that, enabling us to “stoop down, and drink, and live!” Our spiritual thirst is quenched, our soul is revived, and we “now live in Him.”
I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Behold, I freely give
the living water; thirsty one, stoop down, and drink, and live!”
I came to Jesus, and I drank of that life-giving stream;
my thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in Him.
In stanza 3, we hear Jesus offering us light. How we need that, because we live in the dark. That dark not only surrounds us in our culture, we also find it in our own hearts. And how bountifully Jesus provides that as the Light of the World, becoming our star and sun for our entire journey.
I heard the voice of Jesus say, “I am this dark world’s Light;
look unto Me, thy morn shall rise, and all thy day be bright!”
I looked to Jesus, and I found in Him my Star, my Sun;
and in that Light of life I’ll walk, till all my journey’s done.
The two tunes which are most widely used are VOX DILECTI (which means “beloved voice”) and KINGSFOLD. Most common in America is the first, and may have contributed significantly to the hymn’s popularity. It was written specifically for this text by John Bacchus Dykes (1823-1876). He was an Anglican clergyman and musician from an evangelical family who embraced the Anglo-Catholicism of the Oxford Movement. He was a prominent musician of the Victorian era, composer of more than 300 hymn tunes including the ones we use for “Holy, Holy, Holy!”, “O for a Closer Walk with God,” “Lead, Kindly Light,” “Eternal Father, Strong to Save,” and “Nearer, My God, to Thee.”
A noteworthy feature of his VOX DILECTI tune, which we have already noted was written specifically for this text, is the way it matches the sense of the words. In the first two lines of the hymn, each stanza tells us what we have heard Jesus say, inviting us to come to Him for the needs we have. Dykes’ music sets these lines plaintively in the key of G minor. Then the last two lines are testimonies to what we have found when we have come to Jesus in response to His invitation, and these are dramatically changed, with a simple modulation, into the more joyful key of G major. It is regarded as a clever musical device, resulting in a near-perfect combination of word and music.
The second commonly used tune is KINGSFOLD, and is found in the 1906 “English Hymnal,” edited by the great British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). The tune is sometimes found as the music for the Christmas hymn, “O Sing a Song of Bethlehem.” And Vaughan Williams used it in his magnificent composition “Dives and Lazarus,” as the tune is heard repeatedly in a variety of musical settings through that orchestral work.
Here is a beautiful rendition to the KINGSFOLD tune:
Here is the more common VOX DILECTI tune, as sung in London’s Metropolitan Tabernacle (where Spurgeon preached for years at the end of the 19th century).