1 Oh! what a sad and doleful night
Preceded that day’s morn,
When darkness seized the Lord of light,
And sin by Christ was borne!
2 When our intolerable load
Upon his soul was laid,
And the vindictive wrath of God
Flamed furious on his head!
3 We in our Conqueror well may boast;
For none but God alone
Can know how dear the victory cost,
How hardly it was won.
4 [Forth from the garden fully tried,
Our bruisèd Champion came,
To suffer what remained beside
Of pain, and grief, and shame.
5 Mocked, spit upon, and crowned with thorn,
A spectacle he stood;
His back with scourges lashed and torn;
A victim bathed in blood.
6 Nailed to the cross through hands and feet,
He hung in open view;
To make his sorrows quite complete,
By God deserted too!]
7 Through nature’s works the woes he felt
With soft infection ran;
The hardest thing could break or melt,
Except the heart of man.
8 This day before thee, Lord, we come;
O melt our hearts, or break;
For, should we now continue dumb,
The very stones would speak.
9 [True, thou hast paid the heavy debt,
And made believers clean,
But he knows nothing of it yet,
Who is not grieved at sin.
10 A faithful friend of grief partakes;
But union can be none
Betwixt a heart like melting wax
And hearts as hard as stone;
11 Betwixt a head diffusing blood
And members sound and whole;
Betwixt an agonising God
And an unfeeling soul.]
12 Lord, my longed happiness is full,
When I can go with thee
To Golgotha; the place of skull
Is heaven on earth to me.
Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #785
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