1 Who hath believed the tidings? Who?
Or felt the joys our words impart?
Gladly confessed our record true,
And found the Savior in his heart?
Planted in nature’s barren ground,
And cherished by Jehovah’s care,
There shall th’immortal Seed be found,
The Root divine shall flourish there.
2 See the Desire of Nations comes,
Nor outward pomp bespeaks Him near:
A veil of flesh the God assumes,
A servant’s form He stoops to wear.
He lays His every glory by;
Ignobly low, obscurely mean,
Of beauty void, in reason’s eye,
The source of loveliness is seen.
3 Rejected and despised of men,
A man of griefs, inured to woe;
His only intimate is pain,
And grief is all His life below.
We saw, and from the irksome sight
Disdainfully our faces turned;
Hell followed Him with fierce despite,
And earth the humble Object scorned.
4 Surely for us He humbled was,
And grieved with sorrows not His own:
Of all His woes were we the cause,
We filled His soul with pangs unknown.
Yet Him th’Offender we esteemed,
Stricken by Heav’n’s vindictive rod,
Afflicted for Himself we deemed,
And punished by an angry God.
5 But, O! with our transgressions stained,
For our offense He wounded was;
Ours were the sins that bruised and pained
And scourged, and nailed Him to the cross.
The chastisement that bought our peace,
To sinners due, on Him was laid:
Conscience, be still! Thy terrors cease!
The debt’s discharged, the ransom’s paid.
6 What though we all as wandering sheep
Have left our God, and loved to stray,
Refused His mild commands to keep,
And madly urged the downward way?
Father, on Him Thy bolt did fall,
The mortal law Thy Son fulfilled,
Thou laid on Him the guilt of all,
And by His stripes we all are healed.
7 Accused, His mouth He opened not;
He answered not, by wrongs oppressed.
Pure though He was from sinful spot,
Our guilt He silently confessed.
Meek as a lamb to slaughter led,
A sheep before His shearers dumb,
To suffer in the sinner’s stead
Behold the spotless Victim come!
8 Who could His heav’nly birth declare,
When bound by man He silent stood;
When worms arraigned Him at their bar,
And doomed to death th’eternal God!
Patient the sufferings to sustain,
The vengeance to transgressors due,
Guiltless He groaned and died for man:
Sinners, rejoice, He died for you!
9 For your imputed guilt He bled,
Made sin a sinful world to save;
Meekly He sunk among the dead:
The rich supplied an honored grave!
For, O! devoid of sin, and free
From actual or entailed offense,
No sinner in Himself was He,
But pure and perfect innocence.
10 Yet Him th’almighty Father’s will
With bruising chastisements pursued,
Doomed Him the weight of sin to feel,
And, sternly just, required His blood.
But, lo! the mortal debt is paid,
The costly sacrifice is o’er;
His soul, for sin an offering made,
Revives, and He shall die no more.
11 His numerous seed He now shall see,
Scattered through all the earth abroad,
Blest with His immortality,
Begot by Him, and born of God.
Head to His Church o’er all below,
Long shall He here His sons sustain;
Their bounding hearts His power shall know,
And bless the loved Messiah’s reign.
12 ’Twixt God and them He still shall stand,
The children whom His Sire hath giv’n;
Their cause shall prosper in His hand,
While Righteousness looks down from Heaven:
While pleased He counts the ransomed race,
And calls and draws them from above;
The travail of His soul surveys,
And rests in His redeeming love.
13 “Tis done! My justice asks no more,
The satisfaction’s fully made:
Their sins He in His body bore,
Their Surety all the debt has paid.
My righteous Servant and My Son
Shall each believing sinner clear;
And all who stoop to abjure their own,
Shall in His righteousness appear.
14 “Them shall He claim His just desert,
Them His inheritance receive,
And many a contrite humble heart
Will I for His possession give.
Satan He thence shall chase away,
Assert His right, His foes o’ercome;
Stronger than hell, retrieve the prey,
And bear the spoil triumphant home.
15 "For charged with all their guilt He stood,
Sinners from suffering to redeem;
For them He poured out all His blood,
Their substitute, He died for them.
He died, and rose His death to plead,
To testify their sins forgiven:
And still I hear Him intercede,
And still He makes their claim to Heaven."
Source: The Cyber Hymnal #12133
Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepene… Go to person page >
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