Friend of Sinners

Representative Text

1 Friend of sinners! Lord of Glory!
Lowly, Mighty! Brother, King!
Musing o’er Thy wondrous story,
Grateful we Thy praises sing:
Friend to help us, comfort, save us,
In whom power and pity blend—
Praise we must the grace which gave us
Jesus Christ, the sinners’ Friend!

2 Friend who never fails nor grieves us,
Faithful, tender, constant, kind!–
Friend who at all times receives us,
Friend who came the lost to find.–
Sorrow soothing, joys enhancing,
Loving until life shall end–
Then conferring bliss entrancing,
Still, in heaven, the sinners’ Friend.

3 O to love and serve Thee better!
From all evil set us free;
Break, Lord, every sinful fetter;
Be each thought conformed to Thee:
Looking for Thy bright appearing,
May our spirits upward tend;
Till no longer doubting, fearing,
We behold the sinners’ Friend!

AMEN.

Source: The A.M.E. Zion Hymnal: official hymnal of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church #245

Author: Christopher Newman Hall

Hall, Christopher Newman, LL.B., son of J. Vine Hall, was born at Maidstone, May 22, 1816, and educated at Totteridge School, and Highbury College, London. In 1841 he graduated B.A. at the University of London, and LL.B. in 1856. From 1842 to 1854 he was minister of Albion Church, Hull; and from 1854 he has been in charge of Surrey Chapel, and its continuation, Christ Church, Westminster. He was also chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales in 1876. In addition to several prose works, and numerous tracts (one of which, "Come to Jesus," has been translated into 30 languages and has reached a circulation of two millions), he published:— (1) Hymns composed at Bolton Abbey, and Other Rhymes, Lond., Nisbet, 1858; (2) Cloud an… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Friend of sinners, Lord of glory
Title: Friend of Sinners
Author: Christopher Newman Hall
Meter: 8.7.8.7 D
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

Friend of sinners, Lord of glory. C. N. Hall. [Jesus, the Friend.] "Composed for the author's father, the writer of the well-known tract The Sinner's Friend," Bolton Abbey, Sept., 1857, in 5 stanzas of 8 lines, and first published in his Hymns composed at Bolton Abbey, 1858. It is usually given in an abbreviated form, as in the author's Christ Church Hymnal, 1876, or that in Spurgeon's Our Own Hymn Book, 1866. It is also in common use in America.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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