Scripture Verse

Cities for refuge from the avenger. Numbers 35:12

Introduction

portrait
Fanny Crosby (1820–1915)

Words: Fan­ny Cros­by, in The Gos­pel Awak­en­ing, ed­it­ed by Fran­cis A. Black­mer (Spring­field, Mas­sa­chu­setts: F. A. Black­mer, 1888), num­ber 27.

Music: Ho­race N. Lin­coln (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Horace Lincoln (1859–1948)

Lyrics

O, guil­ty one, haste
To the ci­ty of re­fuge,
Where mer­cy awaits thee,
So bound­less and free;
O, haste with thy bur­den
Of sin and of sor­row;
Thy lov­ing Re­deem­er
Is wait­ing for thee.

Refrain

O fly to the re­fuge!
To the re­fuge sure and free;
With thy sin and sor­row;
Jesus waits for thee.

O, guil­ty one, haste!
For the day beams are fad­ing,
Afar on the de­sert;
Say, why wilt thou roam?
The arms of the Sav­ior
Will glad­ly en­fold thee;
He longs with for­give­ness
To wel­come thee home.

Refrain

O, wea­ry one, haste!
For the night clouds pur­sue thee;
How dark­ly they frown
On the cold mount­ain’s brow;
The voice of the tem­pest
Is wail­ing around thee,
And none but the Sav­ior
Can shel­ter thee now.

Refrain