The Hiding Place

Representative Text

1 Hail, sovereign love, that first began
The scheme to rescue fallen man!
Hail, matchless, free, eternal grace,
That gave my soul a hiding-place!

2 [Against the God who rules the sky
I fought with hand uplifted high;
Despised the mention of his grace,
Too proud to seek a hiding-place.

3 But thus the eternal counsel ran:
“Almighty love, arrest that man!”
I felt the arrows of distress,
And found I had no hiding-place.

4 Indignant Justice stood in view;
To Sinai’s fiery mount I flew;
But Justice cried, with frowning face,
“This mountain is no hiding-place!”

5 Ere long a heavenly voice I heard,
And Mercy’s angel-form appeared;
She led me on, with placid pace,
To Jesus, as my Hiding-place.]

6 Should storms of seven-fold thunder roll,
And shake the globe from pole to pole,
No flaming bolt could daunt my face,
For Jesus is my Hiding-place.

7 On him almighty vengeance fell,
That must have sunk a world to hell;
He bore it for a chosen race,
And thus became their Hiding-place.

8 A few more rolling suns, at most,
Will land me on fair Canaan’s coast,
Where I shall sing the song of grace,
And see my glorious Hiding-place.

Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #134

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Author: Jehoida Brewer

Brewer, Jehoiada, the "Sylvestris" of the Gospel Magazine, 1776, &c, was born at Newport, Monmouthshire, in 1752. He was educated for commercial pursuits, but subsequently became a Congregational Minister, and as such was pastor at Rodborough, Gloucestershire; at Sheffield, to which he went in 1783; at Carr's Lane Chapel, Birmingham (1798); and at the Livery Street Chapel, in the same town. He died Aug. 24, 1817. A Memoir of him appeared in the Evangelical Register, 1835, p. 396. His best-known hymn is—"Hail, Sovereign Love, that first began" (q. v.). -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) Go to person page >

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First Line:	Hail sovereign love! that first began
Title:	The Hiding Place
Author:	Jehoida Brewer
Meter:	8.8.8.8
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Hail, sovereign love, that first began. J. Brewer. [Christ the Hiding Place.] First appeared in the Gospel Magazine, Oct. 1776, in 9 stanzas of 4 lines, and signed "Sylvestris." It was given in full in J. Middleton's Hymns, 1793, No. 279; in Williams and Boden, 1801, No. 226; in undated editions of the Lady Huntingdon Collection, No. 328, and others. Rippon, in the 27th edition of his Selection, 1827, No. 172, Pt. ii., set the example of abbreviation, and this example has been followed in almost all modern collections in Great Britain and America. In addition to abbreviated text there are also three altered forms of the hymn:—
1. Hail, sovereign love, that first began. No. 645 in the first edition of Bickersteth's Christian Psalmody, 1833. This had undergone considerable alteration, and further changes were made in the enlarged edition, 1841.
2. Hail, sovereign love, that form'd the plan. This is in somewhat extensive use in America, including Beecher's Plymouth Collection 1855, No. 548; Songs for the Sanctuary, 1865, No. 450, and others.
3. Hail, boundless love, that first began. In the Methodist Free Church Sunday School Hymns, 1860, No. 62.
Full original text in Lyra Britannica, 1867, p. 87.