Behold the Savior of Mankind

Top Text Author Text Info Notes Tune Timeline Arrangements Media Page Scans Instances

Behold the Savior of mankind

Author: Samuel Wesley
Published in 369 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Piano/Organ
	Windsor - No. 2 from Hymns for Harp and…

Choral
	Bless, O My Soul

Instrumental
	All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name

Representative Text

Behold the Savior of mankind
nailed to the shameful tree;
how vast the love that him inclined
to bleed and die for thee!

Hark how he groans! while nature shakes,
and earth's strong pillars bend!
The temple's veil in sunder reads,
the solid marbles rend.

'This done! the precious ransom's paid!
"Receive my soul!" he cries;
see where he bows his sacred head!
He bows his head and dies!

But soon he'll break death's envious chain
and in full glory shine.
O Lamb of God, was ever pain,
was ever love like thine?

Source: The United Methodist Hymnal #293

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

Author: Samuel Wesley

Father of Samuel Wesley, John Wesley, and Charles Wesley. See also in: Hymn Writers of the Church… Go to person page >

^ top

First Line:	Behold the Savior of mankind
Title:	Behold the Savior of Mankind
Author:	Samuel Wesley
Meter:	8.6.8.6
Language:	English

^ top

Notes

Behold the Saviour of mankind. Samuel Wesley, sen. [Good Friday.] Written previous to the fire at his Rectory of Epworth, which was burnt down in 1709. At this fire John Wesley was saved from death by being rescued through the bedroom window by some of the parishioners. During the fire the manuscript of this hymn was blown into the Rectory garden, where it was subsequently found. It was first published in J. Wesley's Psalms & Hymns, Charlestown, South Carolina, 1736-7, p. 46; also in the Wesley Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1739, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines; and again in the Wesleyan Hymn Book in 1780, revised edition, 1875, No. 22. From that collection it has passed into various hymnals both in Great Britain and America. The original contains 6 stanzas of 4 lines. Stanzas ii. and v. are usually omitted. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

^ top

Tune

WINDSOR (OLD 116TH)

COMMUNION (Jenks)

MARTYRDOM (Wilson)

MARTYRDOM was originally an eighteenth-century Scottish folk melody used for the ballad "Helen of Kirkconnel." Hugh Wilson (b. Fenwick, Ayrshire, Scotland, c. 1766; d. Duntocher, Scotland, 1824) adapted MARTYRDOM into a hymn tune in duple meter around 1800. A triple-meter version of the tune was fir…

Go to tune page >

All tunes published with 'Behold the Savior of Mankind'^ top