2 Hark! how he groans, while nature shakes, And earth's strong pillars bend:

The temple's veil in sunder breaks,-
The solid marbles rend.

3 'Tis done! the precious ransom's paid!
Receive my soul! he cries:

See where he bows his sacred head;

He bows his head, and dies.

4 But soon he 'll break death's envious chain, And in full glory shine:

O Lamb of God, was ever pain,
Was ever love, like thine?

135

The hidings of the Father's face.

FROM Calvary a cry was heard,—

A bitter and heart-rending cry;
My Saviour! every mournful word
Bespeaks thy soul's deep agony.
2 A horror of great darkness fell
On thee, thou spotless, holy One!
And all the swarming hosts of hell
Conspired to tempt God's only Son.

L. M.

3 The scourge, the thorns, the deep disgrace,These thou couldst bear, nor once repine; But when Jehovah veil'd his face,

Unutterable pangs were thine.

4 Let the dumb world its silence break; Let pealing anthems rend the sky; Awake, my sluggish soul, awake!

He died, that we might never die.

5 Lord! on thy cross I fix mine eye:
If e'er I lose its strong control,

O, let that dying, piercing cry,
Melt and reclaim my wand'ring soul.

136

The crucifixion.

C. M.

ROM whence these direful omens round,
Which heaven and earth amaze?

And why do earthquakes cleave the ground?
Why hides the sun his rays?

2 Well may the earth, astonish'd, shake,
And nature sympathize,-

The sun, as darkest night, be black ;
Their Maker, Jesus, dies!

3 Behold, fast streaming from the tree,
His all-atoning blood:

Is this the Infinite? 'tis he,

My Saviour and my God.

4 For me these pangs his soul assail;
For me this death is borne ;

My sins gave sharpness to the nail,
And pointed every thorn.

5 Let sin no more my soul enslave;
Break, Lord, its tyrant chain 1;

O, save me, whom thou cam'st to save,
Nor bleed nor die in vain.

137

L. M.

Expiring on the cross.

XTENDED on a cursed tree,

EXTE

Cover'd with dust, and sweat, and blood, See there, the King of glory see!

Sinks and expires the Son of God.

2 Who, who, my Saviour, this hath done? Who could thy sacred body wound? No guilt thy spotless heart hath known,No guile hath in thy lips been found. 3 I, I alone have done the deed;

'Tis I thy sacred flesh have torn; My sins have caused thee, Lord, to bleed,— Pointed the nail, and fix'd the thorn.

4 For me the burden to sustain

Too great, on thee, my Lord, was laid: To heal me, thou hast borne the pain;

To bless me, thou a curse wast made. 5 My Saviour, how shall I proclaim, How pay, the mighty debt I owe? Let all I have, and all I am,

Ceaseless, to all, thy glory show. 6 Still let thy tears, thy groans, thy sighs, O'erflow my eyes, and heave my breast, Till, loosed from flesh and earth, I rise, And ever in thy bosom rest.

138

The water and the blood.

THIS, this is He that came,

By water and by blood Jesus is our atoning Lamb,Our sanctifying God.

S. M.

2 See from his wounded side
The mingled current flow;
The water and the blood applied
Shall wash us white as snow.
3 The water cannot cleanse,
Before the blood we feel,
To purge the guilt of all our sins,
And our forgiveness seal.

4 But both in Jesus join,

Who speaks our sins forgiven,

And gives the purity divine

139

That makes us meet for heaven.

L. M.

The fountain gushing from his side.

YE the Pass Priefs condemn'd for you;

E that pass by, behold the Man—

The Lamb of God, for sinners slain,
Weeping to Calvary pursue.

2 To us our own Barabbas give,-
Away with him,-(they loudly cry :)
Away with him, not fit to live,—
The vile seducer crucify!

3 His sacred limbs they stretch, they tear;
With nails they fasten to the wood;
His sacred limbs, exposed and bare,
Or only cover'd with his blood.

4 Behold his temples, crown'd with thorn;
His bleeding hands, extended wide;
His streaming feet, transfix'd and torn;
The fountain gushing from his side!
5 0 thou dear suff'ring Son of God,
How doth thy heart to sinners move;
Sprinkle on us thy precious blood,
And melt us with thy dying love.

140

11th P. M. 76, 76, 77, 76.

The mystery of the cross.

YOD of unexampled grace,

GR of mexor mankind,

Redeemer of mankind,

Matter of eternal praise
We in thy passion find:
Still our choicest strains we bring;
Still the joyful theme pursue;
Thee the Friend of sinners sing,
Whose love is ever new.

2 Endless scenes of wonder rise,
With that mysterious tree,-
Crucified before our eyes,

Where we the Saviour see:
Jesus, Lord, what hast thou done?

Publish we the death divine;

Stop, and gaze, and fall, and own
Was never love like thine!

3 Never love nor sorrow was
Like that my Jesus show'd;
See him stretch'd on yonder cross,
And crush'd beneath our load!
Now discern the Deity;

Now his heavenly birth declare;
Faith cries out,-'Tis He,-'tis He,-
My God that suffers there!

141

1st P. M. 6 lines 8s.

His universal, everlasting love.

WOULD Jesus have the sinner die?

Why hangs he then on yonder tree? What means that strange expiring cry? (Sinners, he prays for you and me ;) Forgive them, Father, O forgive! They know not that by me they live.

2 Jesus, descended from above, Our loss of Eden to retrieve, Great God of universal love,

If all the world through thee may live,

In us a quick'ning spirit be,

And witness thou hast died for me.

3 Thou loving, all-atoning Lamb,—
Thee, by thy painful agony,

Thy bloody sweat, thy grief and shame,
Thy cross and passion on the tree,
Thy precious death and life-I pray,
Take all, take all my sins away.

4 0 let thy love my heart constrain,-
Thy love, for every sinner free,-
That every fallen son of man

May taste the grace that found out me; That all mankind with me may prove Thy sov'reign, everlasting love.