“Who died for us.”
(I Thessalonians 1:10)

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THE Saviour died for sinners, taught to view
Themselves of scarlet and of crimson hue,
And surely none more filthy or more base,
Than they elected of eternal grace,
Completed, perfected, [before] time began,
Cleans’d in the life-blood of the Son of man.

The Saviour died, and full atonement made,
For foul transgressions on his person laid;
His people’s scape-goat he became, and bore
Far in the desert, to defile no more,
The whole enormous and appalling sum
Of Jacob’s crimes, past, present, and to come.

The Saviour died, his vesture stained with blood,
And thus exposed to wrath’s devouring flood;
In imputation’s purple robe arrayed,
What matchless love the dying Lamb displayed!
Himself immaculate, distinct from guile,
To stand accursed, the vilest of the vile.

The Saviour died, (stupendous act of grace!)
Nor shunn’d the hidings of his Father’s face;
Breasting alone the fearful storm of wrath,
That bore the avenger on his bloody path;
Enduring sin’s concentred curse and shame,
To shield the objects of his love from blame.

The Saviour died! He gasped and groaned for me,
All black and infamous beyond degree;
A fiend-like rebel, that resists control
With brazen brow and adamantine soul;
Yet, though I thus an ingrate monster prove,
His loving-kindness doth he never remove.

The Saviour died! Oh, may I love the cross!
Counting the pleasures of the worldling dross;
Esteeming vain earth’s most exalted things,
The pride of nobles, and the pomp of kings;
Abasing intellect, nor ever boast,
Unmoved thereto by God the Holy Ghost.

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Gospel Standard – 1836