1 ’Twas with an everlasting love
That God his own elect embraced;
Before he made the worlds above,
Or earth on her huge columns placed.
2 Long ere the sun’s refulgent ray
Primeval shades of darkness drove,
They on his sacred bosom lay,
Loved with an everlasting love.
3 Then in the glass of his decrees,
Christ and his bride appeared as one;
Her sin, by imputation, his,
Whilst she in spotless splendour shone.
4 O love, how high thy glories swell!
How great, immutable, and free!
Ten thousand sins, as black as hell,
Are swallowed up, O love, in thee!
5 [Loved, when a wretch defiled with sin,
At war with heaven, in league with hell,
A slave to every lust obscene;
Who, living, lived but to rebel.]
6 Believer, here thy comfort stands –
From first to last salvation’s free,
And everlasting love demands
An everlasting song from thee.
Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #10
Kent, John, was born at Bideford, Devonshire, Dec. 1766, and died Nov. 15, 1843. As a working shipwright his opportunities for acquiring the education and polish necessary for the production of refined verse were naturally limited. His hymns are strongly worded, very earnest and simple, and intensely Calvinistic. A few were published in Samuel Reece's Collection, 1799. The first edition of his Collection of Original Gospel Hymns, was published in 1803, and the 10th edition, with "The Author's Experience," in verse, 264 hymns, 15 longer pieces, and a Life by his Son in 1861. The Calvinistic teaching so prominent in his hymns has restricted their use to a limited number of collections. The greatest use made of them in modern hymnbooks has bee… Go to person page >
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