To God's incensed justice and hot wrath
Exposed, due victim of eternal death

And utter wo-Harp, lift thy voice on high!
Ye everlasting hills! ye angels! bow,

Bow, ye redeemed of men !—God was made flesh,
And dwelt with man on earth! the Son of God,
Only begotten and well beloved, between
Men and his Father's justice interposed;
Put human nature on; His wrath sustained;
And in their name suffered, obeyed, and died,
Making his soul an offering for sin;
Just for unjust, and innocence for guilt,
By doing, suffering, dying unconstrained,
Save by omnipotence of boundless grace,
Complete atonement made to God appeased;
Made honourable his insulted law,

Turning the wrath aside from pardoned man.
Thus Truth with Mercy met, and Righteousness,
Stooping from highest heaven, embraced fair Peace,
That walked the earth in fellowship with Love.

O love divine! O mercy infinite!
The audience here in glowing rapture broke,
O love, all height above, all depth below,
Surpassing far all knowledge, all desire,
All thought! The Holy One for sinners dies!
The Lord of life for guilty rebels bleeds,
Quenches eternal fire with blood divine!
Abundant mercy! overflowing grace!

There, whence I came, I something heard of men.
Their name had reached us, and report did speak

Of some abominable horrid thing,

Of desperate offence they had committed.

And something too of wondrous grace we heard.
And oft of our celestial visitants

What man, what God had done, inquired; but they,
Forbid, our asking never met directly,

Exhorting still to persevere upright,

And we should hear in heaven, though greatly blest
Ourselves, new wonders of God's wondrous love.
This hinting, keener appetite to know

Awaked; and as we talked, and much admired
What new we there should learn, we hasted each
To nourish virtue to perfection up,

That we might have our wondering resolved,
And leave of louder praise to greater deeds
Of loving kindness due. Mysterious love!
God was made flesh, and dwelt with men on earth!
Blood holy, blood divine for sinners shed!
My asking ends, but makes my wonder more.
Saviour of men! henceforth be thou my theme;
Redeeming love, my study day and night.
Mankind were lost, all lost, and all redeemed!

Thou errst again, but innocently errst,
Not knowing sin's depravity, nor man's
Sincere and persevering wickedness.

All were redeemed? Not all, or thou hadst heard
No human voice in hell. Many refused,
Although beseeched, refused to be redeemed,
Redeemed from death to life, from wo to bliss!

Canst thou believe my song when thus I sing?
When man had fallen, was ruined, hopeless, lost-
Ye choral harps! ye angels that excel

In strength and loudest, ye redeemed of men!
To God, to Him that sits upon the throne
On high, and to the Lamb, sing honour, sing
Dominion, glory, blessing sing, and praise!—
When man had fallen, was ruined, hopeless, lost,
Messiah, Prince of Peace, Eternal King,

Died, that the dead might live, the lost be saved.
Wonder, O heavens! and be astonished, earth!

Thou ancient, thou forgotten earth! ye worlds admire !
Admire and be confounded! and thou hell,

Deepen thy eternal groan!-men would not be

Redeemed, I speak of many, not of all,—
Would not be saved for lost, have life for death!

Mysterious song! the new arrived exclaimed,
Mysterious mercy! most mysterious hate!
To disobey was mad, this madder far,
Incurable insanity of will!

What now but wrath could guilty men expect?
What more could love, what more could mercy do?

No more, resumed the bard, no more they could. Thou hast seen hell. The wicked there lament! And why? for love and mercy twice despised. The husbandman, who sluggishly forgot

In spring to plough and sow, could censure none, Though winter clamoured round his empty barns. But he who, having thus neglected, did

Refuse, when autumn came, and famine threatened,
To reap the golden field that charity

Bestowed; nay, more obdurate, proud, and blind,
And stupid still, refused, though much beseeched,
And long entreated, even with Mercy's tears,
To eat what to his very lips was held,
Cooked temptingly, he certainly, at least,
Deserved to die of hunger, unbemoaned.
So did the wicked spurn the grace of God;
And so were punished with the second death.
The first, no doubt, punition less severe
Intended; death, belike, of all entire.

But this incurred, by God discharged, and life

Freely presented, and again despised,

Despised, though bought with Mercy's proper blood,

"Twas this dug hell, and kindled all its bounds With wrath and inextinguishable fire.

Free was the offer, free to all, of life
And of salvation; but the proud of heart,
Because 'twas free, would not accept ; and still

To merit wished; and choosing, thus unshipped,
Uncompassed, unprovisioned, and bestormed,
To swim a sea of breadth immeasurable,

They scorned the goodly bark, whose wings the breath
Of God's eternal Spirit filled for heaven,

That stopped to take them in, and so were lost.

What wonders dost thou tell! To merit, how! Of creature meriting in sight of God,

As right of service done, I never heard

Till now.
We never fell; in virtue stood
Upright, and persevered in holiness;

But stood by grace, by grace we persevered.
Ourselves, our deeds, our holiest, highest deeds
Unworthy aught; grace worthy endless praise.
If we fly swift, obedient to his will,

He gives us wings to fly; if we resist
Temptation, and ne'er fall, it is his shield
Omnipotent that wards it off; if we,
With love unquenchable, before him burn,
'Tis he that lights and keeps alive the flame.
Men surely lost their reason in their fall,
And did not understand the offer made.

They might have understood, the bard replied;
They had the Bible. Hast thou ever heard
Of such a book? The author, God himself;

The subject, God and man, salvation, life

And death-eternal life, eternal death

Dread words! whose meaning has no end, no boundsMost wondrous book! bright candle of the Lord!

Star of eternity! the only star

By which the bark of man could navigate
The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss
Securely! only star which rose on Time,
And, on its dark and troubled billows, still,
As generation, drifting swiftly by,
Succeeded generation, threw a ray

Of heaven's own light, and to the hills of God,
The eternal hills, pointed the sinner's eye.

By prophets, seers, and priests, and sacred bards,
Evangelists, apostles, men inspired,

And by the Holy Ghost anointed, set
Apart and consecrated to declare

To Earth the counsels of the Eternal One,

This book, this holiest, this sublimest book,

Was sent. Heaven's will, Heaven's code of laws entire, To man, this book contained; defined the bounds

Of vice and virtue, and of life and death;

And what was shadow, what was substance taught.
Much it revealed; important all; the least

Worth more than what else seemed of highest worth,
But this of plainest, most essential truth:
That God is one, eternal, holy, just,
Omnipotent, omniscient, infinite;

Most wise, most good, most merciful and true;
In all perfection most unchangeable :

That man, that every man of every clime
And hue, of every age and every rank,
Was bad, by nature and by practice bad;
In understanding blind, in will perverse,
In heart corrupt; in every thought, and word,
Imagination, passion, and desire,

Most utterly depraved throughout, and ill,

In sight of Heaven, though less in sight of man;
At enmity with God his maker born,

And by his very life an heir of death:

That man, that every man was, farther, most
Unable to redeem himself, or pay

One mite of his vast debt to God; nay, more,

Was most reluctant and averse to be
Redeemed, and sin's most voluntary slave:
That Jesus, Son of God, of Mary born
In Bethlehem, and by Pilate crucified
On Calvary, for man thus fallen and lost,
Died; and, by death, life and salvation bought,