Hymnal: The Christian Hymn Book
Date: 1865
Compiler: Alexander Campbell
Publisher/Printer: Central Book Concern
First Line: He knelt the Saviour knelt and prayed
Topic: Christ/Sufferings
Writer: <no first name given> Hemans
Composer:
Meter: CHM
Tune:
Hymn Number: 165
Page Number: 102, click to see hymnal pages
LyicsHe knelt; the Saviour knelt and prayed,
When but his Father's eye
Looked, through the lonely garden shad,
On that dread agony;
The Lord of high and heavenly birth
Was bowed with sorrow unto death.
The sun went down in fearful hour;
The heavens might well grow dim,
When this mortality had power
Thus to o'ershadow him;
That he who came to save might know
The very depths of human wo.
He knew them all, -- the doubt, the strife,
The faint, perplexing dread;
The mists that hang o'er parting life
All darkened round his head;
And the Deliverer knelt to pray;
Yet passed it not, that cup, away.
It passed not, though the stormy wave
Had sunk beneath his tread;
It passed not, though to him the grave
Had yielded up its dead;
But there was sent him, from on high,
A gift of strength, for man to die.
And was his mortal hour beset
With anguish and dismay?
How may we meet our conflict yet
In the dark, narrow way?
How, but through him that path who trod:
"Save, or we perish, Son of God."