Behold the Man! by all condemn’d,

Assaulted by a host of foes;

His person and his claims contemn’d,

A man of sufferings and woes.



Behold the Man! he stands alone,

His foes are ready to devour;

Not one of all his friends will own

Their Master in this trying hour.



Behold the Man! though scorn’d below,

He bears the greatest name above;

The angels at his footstool bow,

And all his royal claims approve.

My heart dissolves to see thee bleed.

This heart so hard before;

I hear thee for the guilty plead,

And grief o’erflows the more.

Twas for the sinful thou didst die,

And I a sinner stand:

What love speaks from thy dying eye,

And from each piercèd hand!

I know this cleansing blood of thine

Was shed, dear Lord, for me,—

For me, for all—oh, grace divine!—

Who look by faith on thee.

Tis finish’d! all the debt is paid;

Justice divine is satisfied;

The grand and full atonement made;

God for his people’s guilt hath died.



Saved from the legal curse I am,

My Saviour hangs on yonder tree:

See there the meek expiring Lamb!

‘Tis finish’d! He expired for me!



Accepted in the Well-Beloved,

And clothed in righteousness divine,

I see the bar to heaven removed,

For all thy merits, Lord, are mine.

Here lies of life th’ immortal Prince,

Under arrest for all our sins;

Prisoner of death, and silent here

He lies till the third morn appear.



My faith with joy and wonder sees,

Jesus, thy sacred obsequies;

A burial which has power to save

From death, a burial of the grave!



Oh, that I now my wish might have,

And sink into my Saviour’s grave;

Then with my Head triumphant rise,

And wear his glories in the skies.

Twas not the insulting voice of scorn

So deeply wrung his heart;

The piercing nail, the pointed thorn,

Caused not the saddest smart:

But every struggling sigh betray’d

A heavier grief within,

How on his burden’d soul was laid

The weight of human sin.

O thou who hast vouchsafed to bear

Our sins’ oppressive load,

Grant us thy righteousness to wear,

And lead us to our God.

The enormous load of human guilt

Was on my Saviour laid;

With woes as with a garment, he

For sinners was array’d.

And in the horrid pangs of death

He wept, he pray’d for me;

Loved and embraced my guilty soul

When nailèd to the tree.

Oh, love amazing! love beyond

The reach of human tongue;

Love which shall be the subject of

An everlasting song.