O suffering Friend of human kind

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O suffering Friend of human kind

Author: Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch
Tune: FEDERAL STREET
Published in 31 hymnals

Representative Text

O suffering Friend of human kind!
How, as the fatal hour drew near,
Came thronging on thy holy mind
The images of grief and fear.

Gethsemane’s sad midnight scene,
The faithless friends, the exulting foes,
The thorny crown, the insult keen,
The scourge, the cross, before thee rose.

Did not thy spirit shrink dismayed,
As the dark vision o’er it came;
And though in sinless strength arrayed,
Turn, shuddering, from the death of shame?

Onward, like thee, through scorn and dread,
May we our Father’s call obey,
Steadfast thy path of duty tread,
And rise, through death, to endless day.

Source: A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion (15th ed.) #129

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Author: Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch

Bulfinch, Stephen Greenleaf, D.D. This Unitarian minister was born at Boston, June 18, 1809, and removed to Washington in 1818, his father being the architect of the Capitol. He graduated at Columbian College and the Cambridge Theological School. In 1831 lie was ordained at Charleston, S.C., as assistant to Dr. Gilman. Subsequently he was pastor at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Washington, 1838; Nashua, New Hampshire, 1845; Dorchester, Mass., 1852; and "East Cambridge, Mass., 1865. He died at the last place, Oct. 12, 1870. His works include:— (1) Contemplations of the Saviour; A Series of Extracts from the Gospel History, with Reflections and Original and Selected Hymns. Boston, Carter and Hendee, 1832. This has been reprinted in England. (… Go to person page >

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First Line:	O suffering Friend of human kind
Author:	Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

Matthew 26:38
(hymns)

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Notes

0 suffering friend of human kind. Passiontide. The hymn in 4 stanzas of 4 lines appended to Sect. xxxv. on "Peter's confession of Christ," in the Contem¬plations, &c, p. 109. It ranks next in popularity to ”Hail to the Sabbath day."

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Tune

FEDERAL STREET

Henry Kemble Oliver (b. Beverly, MA, 1800; d. Salem, MA, 1885) composed FEDERAL STREET in 1832, possibly as an imitation of earlier psalm tunes in long meter. He took it to a music class taught by Lowell Mason (who may have contributed to the harmony); Mason (PHH 96) published it in his Boston Acade…

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SOLITUDE (Taylor)

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