Good Friday

O! what a sad and doleful night

Author: J. Hart
Published in 9 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Oh! what a sad and doleful night
Preceded that day’s morn,
When darkness seized the Lord of light,
And sin by Christ was borne!

2 When our intolerable load
Upon his soul was laid,
And the vindictive wrath of God
Flamed furious on his head!

3 We in our Conqueror well may boast;
For none but God alone
Can know how dear the victory cost,
How hardly it was won.

4 [Forth from the garden fully tried,
Our bruisèd Champion came,
To suffer what remained beside
Of pain, and grief, and shame.

5 Mocked, spit upon, and crowned with thorn,
A spectacle he stood;
His back with scourges lashed and torn;
A victim bathed in blood.

6 Nailed to the cross through hands and feet,
He hung in open view;
To make his sorrows quite complete,
By God deserted too!]

7 Through nature’s works the woes he felt
With soft infection ran;
The hardest thing could break or melt,
Except the heart of man.

8 This day before thee, Lord, we come;
O melt our hearts, or break;
For, should we now continue dumb,
The very stones would speak.

9 [True, thou hast paid the heavy debt,
And made believers clean,
But he knows nothing of it yet,
Who is not grieved at sin.

10 A faithful friend of grief partakes;
But union can be none
Betwixt a heart like melting wax
And hearts as hard as stone;

11 Betwixt a head diffusing blood
And members sound and whole;
Betwixt an agonising God
And an unfeeling soul.]

12 Lord, my longed happiness is full,
When I can go with thee
To Golgotha; the place of skull
Is heaven on earth to me.

Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #785

Author: J. Hart

Hart, Joseph, was born in London in 1712. His early life is involved in obscurity. His education was fairly good; and from the testimony of his brother-in-law, and successor in the ministry in Jewin Street, the Rev. John Hughes, "his civil calling was" for some time "that of a teacher of the learned languages." His early life, according to his own Experience which he prefaced to his Hymns, was a curious mixture of loose conduct, serious conviction of sin, and endeavours after amendment of life, and not until Whitsuntide, 1757, did he realize a permanent change, which was brought about mainly through his attending divine service at the Moravian Chapel, in Fetter Lane, London, and hearing a sermon on Rev. iii. 10. During the next two years ma… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: O! what a sad and doleful night
Title: Good Friday
Author: J. Hart
Meter: 8.6.8.6
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Timeline

Instances

Instances (1 - 9 of 9)
Page Scan

Hymn and Tune Book for Use in Old School or Primitive Baptist Churches #142

Hymns, etc. composed on various subjects #34

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Hymns, etc. #34

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Hymns #34

Old School Sonnets, or a Selection of Choice Hymns #d195

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The Baptist Hymn Book #420

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The Choice #H22

The Choice #H22

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