Go to dark Gethsemane,
Ye that feel the tempter's power;
Your Redeemer's conflict see,
Watch with Him one bitter hour:
Turn not from his griefs away,
Learn of Jesus Christ to pray.

Follow to the judgment-hall;
View the Lord of Life arraign'd;
O the wormwood and the gall!
O the pangs His soul sustain'd!
Shun not suffering, shame, or loss;
Learn of Him to bear the cross.

Calvary's mournful mountain climb,
There, adoring at His feet,
Mark that miracle of time,
God's own sacrifice complete:
It is finish'd;"--hear the cry;
Learn of Jesus Christ to die.

Early hasten to the tomb,
Where they laid His breathless clay:
All is solitude and gloom;
Who hath taken Him away?
Christ is risen!--He meets our eyes.
Saviour, teach us so to rise.

Sacred Poems and Hymns, 1854

Scripture References:
st. 1 = Mark 14:32-42
st. 2 = John 18:28, John 19:16, 1 Pet. 2:21
st. 3 = John 19:17-30

James Montgomery (PHH 72) wrote two versions of "Go to Dark Gethsemane," the first of which appeared in Thomas Cotterill's Selection of Psalms and Hymns in 1820. The second version, originally published in his Christian Psalmist (1825), is the more common one found in hymnals today. Small alterations have been made in the text, most notably the change from a command ("learn of Jesus Christ to pray") to a prayer of petition in the final phrase in each stanza. Many hymnals delete his original fourth stanza, which focused on Christ's resurrection.

The text exhorts us to follow Christ as we meditate on his sorrow in the Garden of Gethsemane (st. 1), on his suffering on the cross (st. 2), and on his sacrificial death (st. 3); each stanza ends with a corresponding petition.

Liturgical Use:
Holy Week, especially on Good Friday.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook