Translated by H. A. Hodges
I - V | VI
- X | XI - XV | XVI - XX
| XXI - XXV | XXVI - XXX
I
1. There’s an open door before me,
Means of victory in store,
Through the gifts he purchased for us
Who a servant’s form once wore.
Principalities, dominations,
He their overthrow procured,
Spoiled them all, and jailed the jailer,
Through the passion he endured.
2. When I think upon that battle,
My sad soul leaps up with glee;
See! the law is held in honour,
Yet transgressors walk forth free;
See! our Resurrection’s buried,
And our Life laid underground;
See! our earth with highest heaven
In eternal peace is bound.
3. When on high he reascended,
All his work fulfilled below,
Lofty gates their heads uplifted,
All their wondering joy to show;
Doors flew open, choirs sang welcome
To the Incarnate in that land,
And the Father, glad and radiant,
Bade him sit at his right hand.
4. ’Tis enough ’mid flooding waters,
’Tis enough ’mid flames of fire;
Cling to him, my soul, for ever,
Follow him, and never tire;
On Arabia’s desert pathways
Foes unnumbered wait for me;
Grant a share in his dear passion
Who was slain on Calvary.
II
1. Here within the tent of meeting
Is the blood that can atone,
Here the slayer’s place of refuge,
Here a healer’s power made known;
Here a place, hard by the Godhead,
For the sinner’s nest to lie,
While the righteousness of heaven
Smiles on him perpetually.
2. Sinner is my name and nature,
Fouler none on earth can be;
In the Presence here – O wonder! –
God receives me tranquilly;
See him there, his law fulfilling,
For his foes a banquet laid,
God and man ‘Enough!’ proclaiming
Through the offering he has made.
3. Boldly I will venture forward;
See the golden sceptre shine;
Pointing straight towards the sinner;
All may enter by that sign.
On I’ll press, beseeching pardon,
On, till at his feet I fall,
Cry for pardon, cry for washing
In the blood which cleanses all.
4. O to come, like smoky pillars,
From the desert to the throne
Where with countenance unclouded
Sits our royal Solomon.
Faithful Witness, never changing,
God’s Amen ere time began,
He displays the Triune glory
In his saving work for man.
III
1. Pilgrim, faint and tempest-beaten,
Lift thy gaze, behold and know
Christ the Lamb, our Mediator,
Robed in vestments trailing low;
Faithfulness his golden girdle;
Bells upon his garments ring
Free salvation for the sinner
Through his priceless offering.
2. Think on this when to your ankles
Scarce the healing waters rise –
Numberless shall be the cubits
Measured to you in the skies.
Children of the resurrection,
They alone can venture here;
Yet they find no shore, no bottom
To Bethesda’s waters clear.
3. O the deeps of our salvation!
Mystery of godliness!
He, the God of gods, appearing
In our fleshly human dress;
He it is who bore God’s anger,
In our place atonement made,
Until Justice cried ‘Release him,
Now the debt is fully paid.’
4. Blessed hour of rest eternal,
Home at last, all labours o’er;
Sea of wonders never sounded,
Sea where none can find a shore;
Access free to dwell for ever
Yonder with the One in Three;
Deeps no foot of man can traverse –
God and man in unity.
IV
1. Wholly counter to my nature
Is the path ordained for me;
Yet I’ll tread it, yes, and calmly,
While thy precious face I see;
Count the cross a crown, and bear it,
Cheerful live ’mid all life’s woes –
This the Way which, straight though tangled,
To the heavenly city goes.
2. Old it is, yet never aging,
And its name is Wonderful;
Ne’er begun, yet new for ever,
Making dead men rise up whole;
Winning all who travel by it;
Head and Husband ’tis to me;
Sacred way, I’ll pass along it
Till in it my rest shall be.
3. Eye of kite could ne’er discern it,
Though it shines with noontide blaze;
None can tread it, none can see it,
Save where faith its light displays;
Breaking ne’er the law of justice,
Godless souls it justifies,
Leads them to God’s peace and favour,
Bids the dead to life arise.
4. Way made straight before creation,
Kept to be revealed at need,
When in days of old, in Eden,
God proclaimed the woman’s Seed;
His new covenant’s foundation,
Once decreed ere time began,
’Tis the wine whose ample virtue
Glads the heart of God and man.
V
1 . Now the royal seed are summoned
To their land beyond the sea,
Freed from bondage in the brickworks,
There to reign eternally.
Yonder, faith is turned to vision,
Hope enjoys its promised good;
There they all, in endless anthem,
Glorify the precious blood.
2. Gladly would I leave behind me
All the idols I have known,
Since I bear inscribed the likeness
Of a more exalted One;
Worthy of unending worship,
Love, and reverence is he;
By his precious death were myriads
From the jaws of death set free.
3. Sweetly spreads my spikenard’s fragrance
While I feast on love unbought,
Flame with zeal against all evil,
Cherish every holy thought;
Eye and right hand flinging from me,
Lofty looks to earth bring down;
Jesus over all exalting,
Him alone with worship crown.
4. Let me only live to hallow
God’s pure name till life shall end,
Bow before his will, and welcome
All his providence may send,
Vow, and pay my vows, receiving
From the Lord’s rich treasure-store
Grace to strengthen and to crown me
Victor in the conflict sore.
5. Let me, clothed in thine own likeness,
In thy hand a terror be,
Hell, ungodliness, corruption
Tremble at the sight of me.
Seal me with thy Name, whose fragrance
Is diffused in every place,
Salting all the world, and sweetening
With the beauteous gifts of grace.
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VI
1. O might I gain faith’s insight,
With angel-minds on high,
Into Heaven’s secret counsels,
Its saving mystery;
Two natures in one Person
Joined indivisibly,
True, pure and unconfounded,
Perfect in unity.
2. Behold him all-sufficient,
My soul, thy need to fill;
Take heart, and cast upon him
The weight of every ill;
True man, in all thy weakness
He truly feels for thee;
True God, o’er world, flesh, Satan
He reigns victoriously.
3. Each day from the fierce conflict
I long to turn aside –
Not leave the ark, or Israel,
But turn from human pride,
And come to the King’s table,
Who bids me go up higher,
When in the dust to love him
Was all I durst desire.
4. Though strong may be the tempests
And swellings of the sea,
Yet Wisdom is the pilot;
A mighty Lord is he;
Though sin comes flooding round me,
Its billows rising fast,
The ark is God almighty,
And all is safe at last.
VII
1. Even when the soul most ardent
Burns the most with living fire,
It can ne’er to the perfection
Of God’s holy law aspire;
O that I might pay it honour
By accepting his free grace,
And in that most sweet communion,
Through the blood, might find a place.
2. I shall feel a mighty wonder
When that blessed hour finds birth
When my mind, that here goes wandering
After the mean toys of earth,
Finds its undistraught devotion
To his Person henceforth given,
And unshakably conforming
To the holy laws of heaven.
VIII
1. Wonderful to come out living
From the fiery furnace-blast,
But yet more, that after testing
I shall be fine gold at last;
Time of cleansing! Time of winnowing!
Yet ’tis calm, without dismay;
He who soon shall be my refuge
Holds the winnowing-fan today.
2. Weary is my life, by foemen
Thick beset in savage throng,
For like bees they come about me,
Harass me the whole day long;
They of mine own house and kindred
Captain the infernal brood;
But, through grace the strife sustaining,
I’ll contend even unto blood.
IX
1. Since I’m so corrupt by nature,
Straying from thee constantly,
’Tis for me a grace transcendent
On thy holy mount to be;
Here the veils are rent asunder,
All concealment done away;
Thou thine all-excelling glory
Over all things dost display.
2. Let me drink for ever deeply
Of salvation’s mighty flood,
Till I thirst no more for ever
After any earthly good;
Live expectant of his coming,
Watchful every hour abide,
Haste to open, and be fully
With his likeness satisfied.
X
1. O that all my head were waters,
Weeping ever, day and night,
Since the bannered hosts of Zion
Flinch and falter in the fight.
O reveal the shining pillars
Given of old her strength to be,
Promises divine, unchanging,
Won for us on Calvary.
2. Lord, thy fainting bride remember,
As a hart leap to her side;
Let not Amalek o’erthrow her
Utterly in warlike pride;
Prowling foxes wander through her,
Spoil her clusters day by day;
The Shekina of God’s presence
Slowly, slowly draws away.
3. Lord, awake! display thy valour,
Thy great covenant maintain;
See thy Name traduced and blackened
Where thy witnesses lie slain;
Thou who art the Resurrection,
Speak the word, and they shalt rise,
Thy new Name inscribed upon them,
Radiant as the morning skies.
4. Thy new Name is precious ointment,
Fragrant, powerful and free,
Rendering foemen worthy objects
Of the love of One in Three;
For with God is no repentance;
None shall e’er his work delay
Till his sheaves lie in his bosom,
Gathered in, and safe for aye.
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XI
1. I shall tread the Vale of Weeping
Till the blood divine is seen
Pouring from the Rock, a river
That has made ten thousand clean;
If his light pierce the night
I shall find my way aright.
2. I am longing for the moment
That shall all my right disclose –
Jesus, tree of life immortal,
Source whence all our justice flows;
Boldly there I’ll repair,
No more useless fig-leaves wear.
XII
O wonder always, happy bride.
To whom thou art in love allied;
Ye ransomed seed, his wonders tell,
Who o’er ten thousand doth excel.
XIII
1. There he stands among the myrtles,
Worthiest object of my love;
Yet in part I know his glory
Towers all earthly things above;
One glad morning
I shall see him as he is.
2. He’s the beauteous Rose of Sharon,
White and ruddy, fair to see;
Excellent above ten thousand
Of the world’s prime glories he.
Friend of sinners.
Here’s their pilot on the deep.
3. What have I to do henceforward
With vain idols of this earth?
Nothing can I find among them
To compete with his high worth.
Be my dwelling
In his love through all my days.
XIV
1. Earth cannot, with all its trinkets,
Slake my longings at this hour;
They were captured, they were widened,
When my Jesus showed his power.
None but he can now content me,
He, the Incomprehensible;
O to gaze upon his Person,
God in man made visible.
2. Let my days be wholly given
Jesus’ blood to glorify,
Calm to rest beneath his shadow,
At his feet to live and die,
Love the cross, and bear it daily,
(’Tis the cross my Husband bore,)
Gaze with joy upon his Person,
And unceasingly adore.
XV
Lapped in a sea of wonders
O might I spend my days,
Upon the blood depending
The while I tread earth’s ways,
And find my thoughts made captive
To Christ’s authority,
And, with his law conforming,
His faithful witness be.
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XVI
God’s table could provide no food,
While sin was reigning,
But shadows of a future good,
Our hope sustaining;
When came the day of Jubilee,
The veil was riven;
The law, in Jesus on the tree,
Saw justice given.
XVII
Let not any, for my blackness,
Gaze upon me doubtingly;
’Tis the sun that, high in splendour,
Shoots his fiery shafts at me;
Yet I’m covered –
Solomon’s curtains give me shade.
XVIII
When the primal pair fell captive
’Neath the law of sin and fate,
God, the God of love, by nature
Found himself compelled to hate;
Yet though wrathful, still he loved them,
Rescued them in their distress,
Nothing bated of his justice,
Perfect in his changelessness.
XIX
1. O to pierce into the knowledge
Of the one, true, living Lord,
Slaying all imaginations,
Holding solely by the Word;
To believe what there stands written,
What from thence is clearly known: –
Sinners cannot live before him;
He, he only, must atone.
2. Where this truth is seen and pondered,
Lofty looks are overthrown;
Man is little, weak and loathsome,
God is great, and God alone;
Christ, our precious Mediator,
Can alone our state repair;
Guilty souls, his work beholding,
Worship God incarnate there.
XX
1. God, though infinite in mercy,
God of love although he be,
When I think on him, affrights me,
Troubles me, disquiets me;
Yet within the tent of meeting
Throned he sits as God of grace,
Peace and reconciliation
Gently radiant in his face.
2. There my food and drink are furnished,
There my rest and refuge are,
There my healing and my treasure,
There my stronghold in the war;
There I find my warlike harness,
Arming me to face the foe;
There my life is safely hidden
When to conflict forth I go.
3. God my Father, God my Refuge,
God my Stronghold, Rock and Tower –
More I cannot ask when round me
Fire and flood put forth their power;
He my every want supplying,
I’ll repel an armed host;
Lacking him, I’m weak and strengthless,
And the day is truly lost.
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XXI
His left hand, in heat of noonday,
Lovingly my head upholds,
And his right hand, filled with blessings,
Tenderly my soul enfolds.
I adjure you, nature’s darlings,
Beautiful in field and grove,
Stir not up, till he be willing,
Him who is my glorious Love.
XXII
1. Wondrous sight for men and angels!
Wonders, wonders without end!
He who made, preserves, sustains us,
He our Ruler and our Friend,
Here lies cradled in the manger,
Finds no resting-place on earth,
Yet the shining hosts of glory
Throng to worship at his birth.
2. When thick cloud lies over Sinai,
And the trumpet’s note rings high,
In Christ the Word I’ll pass the barrier,
Climb, and feast, nor fear to die;
For in him all fullness dwelleth,
Fullness to restore our loss;
He stood forth and made atonement
Through his offering on the cross.
3. He between a pair of robbers
Hung, our Making-good to be;
He gave power to nerve and muscle
When they nailed him to the tree;
He, his Father’s law exalting,
Paid our debt and quenched our flame;
Righteousness, in fiery splendour,
Freely pardons in his name.
4. See, my soul, where our Peace-maker,
King of kings, was lowly laid,
He, creation’s life and movement,
Of the grave a tenant made,
Yet on souls fresh life bestowing;
Angels view it with amaze;
God in flesh with us adoring;
Heaven’s full chorus shouts his praise.
5. Thanks for ever, thanks ten thousand,
While I’ve breath, all thanks and praise
To the God who all his wonders
For my worship here displays,
In my nature tried and tempted
Like the meanest of our race,
Man – a weak and helpless infant,
God – of matchless power and grace.
6. Gone this body of corruption,
’Mid the fiery hosts on high,
Gazing deep into the wonders
Wrought of old on Calvary,
God, the Invisible, beholding,
Him who lives, yet once was slain,
Clasped in close eternal union
And communion I’ll remain.
7. There, new-fashioned in his likeness,
Veils and fancies done away,
To the Name by God exalted
Highest homage I shall pay.
There, communing in the secret
Seen in those deep wounds he bore,
I shall kiss the Son for ever,
Turning from him nevermore.
XXIII
1. Must I face the stormy river?
There is One to still the wave;
Jesus, my High Priest, is with me,
Strong to hold me, strong to save;
In his bosom I’ll cry conquest,
(Death, and world, and hell defied),
Lacking now all means of sinning,
In his likeness glorified.
2. Sweet to think upon the cov’nant
Made on high ere time began,
Gazing ever on the Person
Who assumed the form of man;
Unto death his soul was troubled,
All the agreement to fulfil;
Now the ransomed seven-score-thousand
Shout and sing on Zion’s hill.
3. There no fiery sun at noonday
Smites; there death itself is slain;
Freed from sorrow, there the blessed
Sing of One in mortal pain;
There they swim in life’s pure river
Flowing from the holy Three,
’Neath those peaceful rays unclouded
Streaming down from Calvary.
XXIV
1. God, make me like a tree well planted grow
In fertile ground where living waters flow,
Wide-rooting, ever green, and fruiting free
’Neath showers from that dire wound on Calvary.
2. God’s promised land is good; it knows no woe;
In all its borders milk and honey flow;
Fine clusters thence are brought on desert ways;
A heavenly land, and none can speak its praise.
3. Jehovah he, and true to his great Name;
His promises are true, his word the same;
He lifts his hand, forth comes a new-born race,
To all a proof of his free boundless grace.
4. Heralds of peace, in evangelic tongue,
Call to the feast far Indian seas among;
Hottentots, black Coranians drawn we see
(Barbaric hosts) into God’s family.
XXV
Must my zeal, that for thy glory
Like a fiery coal once glowed,
And my youthful loving ardour,
Now wax colder towards my God?
Thou whose dwelling is high heaven,
Now thy matchless beauty show;
From the breasts of this creation
Wean my soul for ever now.
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XXVI
The bells are sweetly ringing
Great Jesus’ robes around;
The odour of pomegranates
Suffuses all the ground;
Forgiveness for the sinner,
And peace and joy supplied
Through him whose faultless offering
The Father satisfied.
XXVII
Follow on behind the reapers.
’Mid the sheaves thy dwelling make;
When mount Sinai burns and trembles,
At the cross thy morsel take;
See thy God, in his deep counsels,
At thy feet an altar raise;
God-in-man is suffering on it;
Cry for light to sing his praise.
XXVIII
Still the streams of our salvation,
Filled with living virtue, flow,
Free unfailing gifts of healing
Ever ready to bestow;
Sufferers from the fall in Eden,
Use these waters for your cure;
Never-ending are the virtues
Of Bethesda’s substance pure.
XXIX
I’ll walk on softly day by day,
The cross o’ershadowing all my way,
And as I walk, my course I’ll run,
And as I run I’ll stand and see
The full salvation that shall be
When I’m no more beneath the sun.
XXX
Lo, to us is born a Brother,
Born for hard and troublous days,
Faithful, full of consolation,
Worthy of yet higher praise.
Freedom sealing, sickness healing.
Way to Zion straight and free,
Fount clear-flowing, life bestowing,
God our saving ark is he.
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