Here is a hymn text that ought to bring tears of repentance and joy-filled gratitude to well up within the saint and brim over into praise! Grateful for men like Berridge who weave profound words together into rich poetic text to arouse our passions and affect our souls! Enjoy!
1 What a doleful voice I hear!
What a garden-scene is there!
What a frightful, ghastly flood!
Jesus weltering in his blood!
2 Groaning on the ground he lies;
Seems a slaughtered sacrifice!
Tells me, with a feeble breath,
“Sorrowful, yea, unto death!â€
3 [How his eyes astonished are!
Sure they witness conflict near!
On his face what sadness dwells!
Sure he feels a thousand hells!]
4 O my Jesus, let me know
What has brought this heavy woe;
Swords are piercing through thy heart;
Whence arose the torturing smart?
5 “Sinner, thou hast done the deed;
Thou hast made the Saviour bleed!
Justice drew its sword on me!
Pierced my heart to pass by thee!
6 “Now I take the deadly cup;
All its dregs am drinking up;
Read my anguish in my gore;
Look, and pierce my heart no more.â€
7 O thou bleeding love divine,
What are other loves to thine?
Theirs a drop, and thine a sea,
Ever full, and ever free!
8 If I loved my Lord before,
I would love him ten times more;
Drop into his sea outright,
Lose myself in Jesus quite.
the teacher, because this repetition is safe for the disciple (Phi. 3:1). I remember hearing an anecdotal story about someone in Luther’s ministry telling him that he was always saying the same thing in all his sermons, and by gum, when will Luther say something new. Luther replied, “Well, when you start living what I’m preaching now, then maybe I’ll consider preaching something else!†We are creatures that oft forget, and need continual reminders of what it is we actually believe.Â
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