WE SING THE PRAISE OF HIM WHO DIED. 201
Inscribed upon the cross we see
The shining letters "God is love: "
He bears our sins upon the tree,
He brings us mercy from above.
The cross, it takes our guilt away,
It holds the fainting spirit up;
It cheers with hope the gloomy day,
And sweetens every bitter cup.
It makes the coward spirit brave,
And nerves the feeble arm for fight;
It takes its terror from the grave,
And gilds the bed of death with light.
The balm of life, the cure of woe,
The measure and the pledge of love,
The sinner's refuge here below,
The angels' theme in heaven above.
COME TO CALVARY'S HOLY MOUNTAIN.
JAMES MONTGOMERY (born 1771; died at Sheffield, 1854). Zech. xiii. 1: “In that day, there shall be a Fountain opened." 1819.
'OME to Calvary's holy mountain,
Sinners ruined by the fall;
Here a pure and healing fountain
Flows to you, to me, to all,
In a full, perpetual tide,
Opened when our Saviour died.
Come in poverty and meanness,
Come defiled, without, within;
From infection and uncleanness,
From the leprosy of sin,
Wash your robes, and make them white:
Ye shall walk with God in light.
Come, in sorrow and contrition,
Wounded, impotent, and blind;
Here the guilty, free remission,
Here the troubled, peace may find;
Health this fountain will restore,
He that drinks shall thirst no more.
FLING OUT THE BANNER! LET IT Float. 203
He that drinks shall live for ever;
'Tis a soul-renewing flood:
God is faithful, - God will never
Break His covenant in blood;
Signed when our Redeemer died,
Sealed when He was glorified.
FLING OUT THE BANNER! LET IT
Bishop G. W. DOANE. Died at Burlington, N.J., 1859.
FLING out the Banner! let it float
Skyward and seaward, high and wide;
The sun, that lights its shining folds,
The Cross, on which the Saviour died.
Fling out the Banner! Angels bend,
In anxious silence o'er the sign;
And vainly seek to comprehend
The wonder of the love divine.
Fling out the Banner! Heathen lands
Shall see, from far, the glorious sight;
And nations, crowding to be born,
Baptize their spirits in its light.
Fling out the Banner! Sin-sick souls,
That sink and perish in the strife,
Shall touch in faith its radiant hem,
And spring immortal into life.
Fling out the Banner! Let it float
Skyward and seaward, high and wide;
Our glory, only in the Cross,
Our only hope, the Crucified.
Fling out the Banner! Wide and high,
Seaward and skyward, let it shine:
Nor skill, nor might, nor merit, ours;
We conquer only in that sign.
WHEREFORE WEEP WE OVER JESUS? (Weint nicht über Jesu Schmerzen.)
By the Rev. PHILIP SPITTA, died 1859. Translated by RICHARD MASSIE, 1860 "Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves." — Luke xxiii. 28.
'HEREFORE weep we over Jesus,
O'er His death and bitter smart?
Weep we rather that He sees us
Unconvinced and hard of heart;
For His soul was never tainted
With the smallest spot or stain:
"Twas for us He was acquainted
With such depths of grief and pain.
WHEREFORE WEEP WE OVER JESUS?
Oh! what profits it with groaning
Underneath His cross to stand;
Oh! what profits our bemoaning
His pale brow and bleeding hand?
Wherefore gaze on Him expiring,
Railed at, pierced, and crucified,
Whilst we think not of inquiring,
Wherefore, and for whom He died?
If no sin could be discovered
In the pure and spotless Lord,
If the cruel death He suffered
Is sin's just and meet reward:
Then it must have been for others
That the Lord on Calvary bled,
And the guilt have been a brother's,
Which was laid upon His head.
And for whom hath He contended
In a strife so strange and new?
And for whom to hell descended?
Brothers! 'twas for me and you!
Now you see that He was reaping
Punishment for us alone;
And we have great cause for weeping,
Not for His guilt, but our own.
If we then make full confession,
Joined with penitence and prayer,
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