The Crucifixion

Representative Text

1 From whence these direful omens round,
Which heav'n and earth amaze?
Wherefore do earthquakes cleave the ground?
Why hides the sun his rays?

2 Well may the earth astonish'd shake,
And nature sympathize!
The sun as darkest night be black!
Their Maker, Jesus, dies!

3 Behold, fast streaming from the tree,
His all-atoning blood!
Is this the Infinite? ’tis he,
My Saviour and my God!

4 For me these pangs his soul assail,
For me the death is borne;
My sins gave sharpness to the nail,
And pointed ev'ry thorn.

5 Let sin no more my soul enslave,
Break, Lord, the tyrant chain,
Oh save me, whom Thou cam’st to save,
Nor bleed, nor die in vain!


Source: A Selection of Psalms with occasional hymns (Charleston hymnal) #H.VI

Author: Samuel Wesley

Samuel Wesley, M.A., the younger, was the eldest child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born in or near London in 1691. He received his early education from his mother, who always took a special interest in him as her firstborn. In 1704 he went to Westminster School, where he was elected King's Scholar in 1707. Westminster had, under the mastership of Dr. Busby for 55 years, attained the highest reputation for scholarship, and Samuel Wesley, as a classical scholar, was not unworthy of his school. In 1709, Dr. Spratt, Bishop of Rochester, patronised the young scholar, and frequently invited him to Bromley. In 1711 he went with a Westminster studentship to Christ Church, Oxford, and having taken his degree, returned to Westminster as an… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: From whence these direful omens round
Title: The Crucifixion
Author: Samuel Wesley
Meter: 8.6.8.6
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

From whence these dire portents around. S. Wesley, jun. [Good Friday.] First published in his Poems on Several Occasions, 1736, p. 136, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed, "On the Passion of Our Saviour." In 1737, 6 stanzas were given in J. Wesley's CharlesTown (America) Collection of Psalms & Hymns, as No. 6 of the "Psalms & Hymns for Wednesdays and Fridays." It was repeated in the Wesley Psalms & Hymns, 1741, and in the 1830 Supplement to the Wesleyan Hymn Book, but omitted from the revised edition of 1875. It is found in several modern collections in Great Britain and America. In one or two of the latter it reads, "From whence these direful omens round?"

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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The Cyber Hymnal #10966

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