For this year’s Good Friday, here’s one from John Newton.
This was published in the Olney Hymns, 1779, Bk. ii., No. 57, under the title ‘Looking at the Cross’.
In spite of it being one of his lesser-known hymns, it carries his trademarks. Note the preponderance of monosyllabic words and the theologically-informed piety.
In my home church back in the day, we sung it with a refrain after each verse:
O, can it be, upon a tree
The Saviour died for me?
My soul is thrilled, my heart is filled,
To think He died for me!
In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopped my wild career:
I saw One hanging on a Tree,
In agonies and blood,
Who fix’d His languid eyes on me,
As near His Cross I stood.
Sure never, till my latest breath,
Can I forget that look:
It seem’d to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke:
My conscience felt and owned the guilt,
And plunged me in despair,
I saw my sins His blood had spilt,
And helped to nail Him there.
Alas! I knew not what I did!
But now my tears are vain;
Where shall my trembling soul be hid?
For I the Lord had slain!
A second look He gave, which said,
‘I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid;
I die, that thou may’st live.’
Thus, while His death my sin displays,
In all its blackest hue,
Such is the mystery of grace,
It seals my pardon too.
With pleasing grief, and mournful joy,
My spirit now is fill’d,
That I should such a life destroy,
Yet live by Him I kill’d.
