Lyrics
Come every soul by sin oppressed,
There's mercy with the Lord,
And He will surely give you rest,
By trusting in His Word.
Only trust Him, only trust Him,
Only trust Him now;
He will save you, He will save you,
He will save you now.
For Jesus shed His precious blood
Rich blessings to bestow;
Plunge now into the crimson flood
That washes white as snow.
Yes, Jesus is the Truth, the Way,
That leads you into rest;
Believe in Him without delay,
And you are fully blest.
Come, then, and join this holy band,
And on to glory go,
To dwell in that celestial land,
Where joys immortal flow.
Public domain hymn text (published 1874). Words and music by John H. Stockton.
The Story Behind the Hymn
John Hart Stockton was born in 1813 and became a Methodist minister deeply involved in the camp meeting and revival culture that defined much of nineteenth-century American Methodism. He served for a time in ministry connected to Civil War soldiers before spending much of his later career as a pastor and traveling revival preacher, a role that put him regularly in front of large crowds gathered specifically to hear an urgent call to conversion.
Unlike many hymn writers of the era who wrote words only and relied on a separate composer, Stockton wrote both the words and the music for many of his songs, including this one, published in 1874. Its structure reflects the practical needs of revival preaching directly: a short, simple verse followed by a repeated, insistent refrain — “only trust Him now” — meant to function almost as a spoken invitation set to music, sung again and again while a congregation was invited to respond immediately rather than delay.
Songs built this way were the working tools of the great revival campaigns of the era, most famously those led by the evangelist Dwight L. Moody and his song leader Ira Sankey, whose widely circulated “Gospel Hymns” collections carried songs like Stockton's to congregations across America and, eventually, Britain. The repeated refrain was not incidental to the song's purpose but central to it: revival preachers relied on exactly this kind of simple, memorable chorus to hold a congregation's attention through the extended, emotionally charged invitation period at the close of a service.
Stockton died in 1877, only a few years after writing this hymn, but “Only Trust Him” continued to be sung at revivals and evangelistic services well into the twentieth century, valued for exactly the directness that made it useful in its original setting: no elaborate theology, no lengthy narrative, only a plain invitation repeated until it could not be missed.
