This hymn has never gone out of my favorites after more than 30 years of being a follower of Christ. It is especially meaningful when I listen to it during the Good Friday and Easter weekends.
I remember how my then Pastor John Hodgkinson once read the lyrics before we sang the song. He read it with such convictions and full of God's anointing that the whole congregation was nearly all in tears. Pastor John Hodgkinson walked what he preached. He and his wife Margaret were Cambridge graduates, full of potential to earn good money and respects in the society. They responded to God's call to become missionaries to East Malaysia in the 1960's and 70's. His years of being our pastor in Manchester Chinese Christian Church have been great blessings to many. It was in his pastoral care and leadership that many of us who found our faith in Manchester were being built up and equipped to walk upright before the Lord, even after we finished our studies in Manchester.
Thank you, Pastor John and Margaret Hodgkinson.
Words: Isaac
Watts, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707. Charles
Wesley reportedly said he would give up all his other hymns to have
written this one.
Music: Hamburg,
Lowell
Mason, 1824; first appeared in The Boston Handel and
Haydn Society Collection of Church Music, third edition, 1825 (MIDI,
score).
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
No comments:
Post a Comment