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Why thou Almighty Saviour, why
Didst thou descend to bleed and die?
‘Twas pity for the lost, ‘twas love
Beyond all thought that did thee move.
The love of whom? of sinners base,
A hardened world, a rebel race;
Who mocked thy pain, who shed thy blood,
Refused thy grace, thy love withstand.
When rocks were rent as though with dread,
And gaping graves gave up their dead,
When the fair sun withdrew his light,
As though he shunned the dreadful sight,
There stood the men of human race,
With cruel heart, and scornful face,
And scoffed and railed, while nature shook,
At him whom men and God forsook.
Hard as the rocks and mountains are,
Waging with God perpetual war,
Men saw, unmoved, his life-blood stream,
Although it flowed from love to them.
Such was the race of sinful men
That gained the great salvation then;
And still the same contempt we see,
Such are men still, and such were we.
Soldiers with thorns his temple crowned,
And scourged him when his hands were bound;
But thorns, and knotted whips, and bands,
Our sins had furnished to their hands.
They nailed him to the accursed tree,
Accursed deed, but so have we;
His side received the soldier’s spear,
But ‘twas our sins that placed him there.
Oh, love of the unexampled kind!
It leaves all human love behind;
Its length and breadth, and depth and height,
Stretch out beyond all human sight.
For love of us, the Son of God
His labours and his life bestowed;
Nor will he cease to bless and guide,
Till heaven shall see us at his side.
He who this only Saviour slights,
In whom the eternal God delights,
Must find at length how God has viewed
His proud and base ingratitude.
O Jesus, thou hast dearly bought
Our hearts with all our powers of thought;
Now fill us with thy grace divine,
And make us henceforth wholly thine.
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marker 99
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LIST OF LYRIC SOURCES
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Hymn/Song Book
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Year
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Song #
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| 1853 | # 666 |
echo ' | ';
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Hymn Writer
