HYMN TO THE REDEEMER.

1.

When o’er Judea’s vales and hills,

Or by her olive-shaded rills,

Thy weary footsteps went of old,

Or walked the lulling waters bold,

How beauteous were the marks divine,

That in thy meekness used to shine,

That lit thy lonely pathway, trod

In wondrous love, O Lamb of God!

2.

Oh! who like thee, so calm, so bright,

Thou Holy child, Thou Light of Light,

Oh! who like thee, did ever go

So patient, through a world of wo,

Oh! who like thee, so humbly bore

The scorn, the scoffs of men before,

So meek, so lovely—yet so high,

So glorious in humility!

3.

The morning saw thee, like the day,

Forth on thy light-bestowing way;

And evening in her holy hues,

Shed down her sweet baptismal dews,

Where bending angels stoop’d to see,

The lisping infant clasp thy knee,

And smile, as in a father’s eye,

Upon thy mild Divinity!

4.

The hours when princes sought their rest

Beheld thee, still, no chamber’s guest;

But when the chilly night hung round,

And man from thee, sweet slumber found,

Thy wearied footsteps sought, alone,

The mountain to thy sorrows known,

And darkness heard thy patient prayer,

Or hid thee, in the prowler’s lair.

5.

And all thy life’s unchanging years,

A man of sorrows, and of tears,

The cross, where all our sins were laid,

Upon thy bending shoulders weigh’d;

And death, that sets the pris’ner free,

Was pang, and scoff, and scorn to thee;

Yet love through all thy torture glow’d,

And mercy with thy life-blood flow’d.

6.

O wondrous Lord! my soul would be

Still more and more conform’d to thee,

Would lose the pride, the taint of sin,

That burns these fever’d veins within,

And learn of Thee, the lowly One,

And like thee, all my journey run,

Above the world, and all its mirth,

Yet weeping still with weeping earth.

7.

Oh! in thy light, be mine to go,

Illuming all my way of wo;

And give me ever, on the road,

To trace thy footsteps, O my God!

My passions lull, my spirit calm,

And make this lion-heart a lamb;

And give me, all my life, to be

A sacrifice to love and thee!