Scripture Verse

The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

Introduction

portrait
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)

Words: Ho­ra­ti­us Bo­nar, Songs for the Wil­der­ness, first edi­tion, 1843. This hymn is some­times pub­lished in cen­to form, be­gin­ning with Je­sus, whom an­gel-hosts adore.

Music: Pad­dock, in The Sun­day School Chant and Tune Book (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: E. P. Dut­ton, 1866), num­ber 24 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

  • St. Alkmund Ea­sy Mus­ic for Church Choirs, 1853 (🔊 pdf nwc)

Lyrics

The Son of God in migh­ty love,
Came down to Beth­le­hem for me;
Forsook His throne of light above,
An in­fant on the earth to be.

In love, the Fa­ther’s sin­less child,
Sojourned at Na­za­reth for me;
With sin­ners dwelt the un­de­filed,
The Ho­ly One in Ga­li­lee.

Jesus, whom an­gel hosts adore,
Became a man of griefs for me;
In love, though rich, be­com­ing poor,
That I through Him en­riched might be.

Thou Lord of all, above, be­low,
He went to Ol­iv­et for me;
There drank my cup of wrath and woe,
When bleed­ing in Geth­se­ma­ne.

The ev­er bless­èd Son of God
Went up to Cal­va­ry for me;
There paid my debt, there bore my load,
In His own bo­dy on the tree.

Jesus, whose dwell­ing is the skies,
Went down in­to the grave for me;
There ov­er­came my ene­mies,
There won the gra­cious vic­to­ry.

In love the whole dark path He trod,
To con­se­crate a way for me;
Each bit­ter foot­step marked with blood,
From Beth­le­hem to Cal­va­ry.

’Tis fin­ished all; the veil is rent,
The wel­come sure, the ac­cess free;
Now then we leave our ban­ish­ment,
O Fa­ther, to re­turn to Thee.