Tuesday, November 8, 2011

With Glorious Clouds Emcompassed 'Round

I found this hymn, #22 in the Methodist Pocket Hymn-Book (1791), to be quite beautiful and moving:
With glorious clouds encompassed 'round,
Whom angels dimly see,
Will the unsearchable be found,
Or God appear to me?

Will he forsake his throne above,
Himself to worms impart?
Answer thou man of grief and love,
And speak it to my heart.

In manifested love explain
Thy wonderful design:
What meant the suffering son of man?
The streaming blood divine?

Didst thou not in our flesh appear,
And live and die below,
That I may now perceive thee near,
And my Redeemer know?

Come then, and to my soul reveal
The heights and depths of grace,
The wounds which all my sorrows heal,
That dear disfigured face.

Before my eyes of faith confessed,
Stand forth a slaughtered Lamb:
And wrap me in thy crimson vest,
And tell me all thy name.

Jehovah in thy person show,
Jehovah crucified!
And then the pardoning God I know,
And feel the blood applied.

I view the Lamb in his own light,
Whom angels dimly see:
And gaze transported at the sight,
To all eternity.