The Cyber Hymnal ‎#204

204. Adam, Our Father and Our Head

1. Adam, our father and our head,
Transgressed, and justice doomed us dead;
The fiery law speaks all despair:
There’s no reprieve nor pardon there.

2. But, O unutterable grace!
The Son of God takes Adam’s place;
Down to our world the Savior flies,
Stretches His arms, and bleeds, and dies.

3. Justice was pleased to bruise the God,
And pay its wrongs with heav’nly blood:
What unknown racks and pangs He bore!
Then rose; the law could ask no more.

4. Amazing work! look down, ye skies,
Wonder and gaze with all your eyes;
Ye heav’nly thrones, stoop from above,
And bow to this mysterious love.

5. Lo! they adore th’incarnate Son,
And sing the glories He hath won;
Sing how He broke our iron chains,
How deep He sunk, how high He reigns!

6. Triumph and reign, victorious Lord,
By all the flaming hosts adored;
And say, dear Conqueror, say how long
Ere we shall rise to join their song.

7. Send down a chariot from above,
With fiery wheels, and paved with love;
Raise us beyond th’ethereal blue,
To sing and love as angels do.

Text Information

• First Line: Adam, our father and our head
• Title: Adam, Our Father and Our Head
• Author: Isaac Watts (1707)
• Meter: LM
• Language: English
• Source: Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book I, 1707, number 43
• Copyright: Public Domain
• Notes: Alternate tunes: A BABE IS BORN, 15th Century carol; CLOLATA, W. St. Clair Palmer, 1893; DEUS TUORUM MILITUM, Grenoble Antiphoner, 1753

Tune Information

• Name: ALSTONE
• Composer: Christopher Edwin Willing (1868)
• Meter: LM
• Incipit: 55651 32123 45653
• Key: C Major
• Source: Appendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1868
• Copyright: Public Domain