Behold the Man! How hea­vy lay
On Him the sin­ner’s bur­den!
What griev­ous price had He to pay
That we might hope for par­don!
Such sor­rows, since the world began,
Before were ne­ver seen by man,
Nor since on earth been wit­nessed.

The Prince of life, to glo­ry born,
Our Sav­ior here, here­af­ter,
Now bears the Jew­ish rul­ers’ scorn,
Their taunts, and jeer­ing laugh­ter;
As ma­le­fac­tor He is seized,
Accused, de­famed—the crowds are pleased,
And join the proud de­ri­sion.

Their fury, rag­ing un­re­strained,
To gross­er in­sult urg­es;
With fet­ters bound, with blood dis­tained.
With buf­fets bruised and scourg­es,
A reed His scep­ter, thorns His crown,
In pur­ple robes for mock­ery shown—
He stands be­fore re­vil­ers.

His hea­then judge, of for­eign birth,
Is with com­pas­sion tak­en;
He brings Him to His breth­ren forth,
Their pity to awak­en—
Behold the Man! There’s no of­fense,
I can’t con­demn while in­no­cence
So strong­ly pleads to save him.

’Twas vain! Al­as, ’twas all in vain,
This plea of Gen­tile stran­ger;
The mad, in­fu­ri­ate, Jew­ish train
Grow bold in Je­sus’ dan­ger.
His death alone can sa­tis­fy
Their rage—with deaf­en­ing shout they cry
To Pi­late, Cru­ci­fy Him!

Thou canst not, but with hor­ror, think
That this de­vot­ed na­tion
Thus mix their cup of wrath to drink
To dist­ant ge­ne­ra­tion.
Think too, my soul, how ’tis with thee!
What are thy sins? and art thou free
From guilt for death of Je­sus?

Behold the Man! It was for thee
His shame and griefs were suf­fered;
Now hear Him say, Be­hold, in Me,
The Vi­ctim for thee of­fered!
The guilt was thine—its fear­ful load
I bore, aton­ing with My blood,
I died, from death to save thee!

Blest Je­sus, God’s be­lov­èd Son!
Who all my sins re­mov­est—
Exalted to Thy Fa­ther’s throne,
Show that my soul Thou lov­est!
And let Thy griefs and death, O Lord,
New life and peace to me af­ford—
Thus glo­ri­fy Thy mer­cy!

And when the world, when flesh and blood
To paths of sin al­lure me;
That I may keep the heav’n­ly road,
From wan­der­ing to secure me,
In mercy cry to me, Be­hold
The Man, who suf­fered ills un­told
For thee! Wilt thou for­sake Me?

Redeemer, I have sworn to thee,
Let not my pur­pose wa­ver!
As my God liv­eth—that in me
Thy love shall rule for­ev­er:
And may the me­mo­ry of Thy death
And sor­rows, while I have my breath,
Constrain me to be faith­ful!