REDEMPTION.
With the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption.—Psalm cxxx. 7.
But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who, of God, is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.—I. Corinthians, i. 30.
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.—Hebrews, ix. 12.
Redemption! ’twas creation more sublime;
Redemption! ’twas the labour of the skies;
Far more than labour, it was death in Heaven:
A truth so strange! ’twere bold to think it true,
If not far bolder still, to disbelieve.
Young.
Harp! lift thy voice on high! shout, angels, shout!
And loudest ye redeemed! Glory to God,
And to the Lamb, who bought us with His blood,
From every kindred, nation, people, tongue;
And washed, and sanctified, and saved our souls;
And gave us robes of linen pure, and crowns
Of life, and made us kings and priests to God!
Shout back to ancient time! sing loud, and wave
Your palms of triumph! sing, where is thy sting,
O death? where is thy victory, O grave?
Thanks be to God, eternal thanks, who gave
Us victory through Jesus Christ, our Lord!
Harp! lift thy voice on high! shout, angels, shout!
And loudest ye redeemed! Glory to God,
And to the Lamb, all glory and all praise!
All glory and all praise, at morn and even,
That come and go eternally, and find
Us happy still, and Thee for ever blest!
Glory to God and to the Lamb! Amen.
For ever and for evermore! Amen.
Robert Pollok.
Redemption was no after-thought, by Sin
Awakened from thy depths, celestial Love!
When first Humanity the fiend obeyed,
For in the councils of Almighty Grace
Thy priesthood, Oh Incarnate! was designed
Before Creation out of nothing sprang.
But when at length the hour predestined came,
Eternity a form of Time assum’d;
Then from His throne of perfect glory stoop’d
The second in the Godhead, and Himself
In mortal limbs and lineaments array’d;
Then did Emmanuel on this blighted earth
Of sin and suffering, body forth such grace
As made our orb a miracle of worlds,
By there achieving what the God Triune
Determined when their master-work was plann’d,
The vast atonement blood divine unveils.
R. Montgomery.
Nor hymn, nor harp, nor song divine,
Nor myriad orbs created Thine,
Thy measureless display of love
To earth below, and heaven above,
By their unmingled power could tell,—
That ends the curse, and conquers hell!
Lo! the manger where He lies,
A world-redeeming sacrifice:
“Peace on earth! to man good-will!”
Let the skies our anthem fill!
R. Montgomery.
Hark! ’tis the prophet of the skies
Proclaims redemption near;
The night of death and bondage flies,
The dawning tints appear.
Zion, from deepest shades of gloom,
Awakes to glorious day;
Her desert wastes with verdure bloom,
Her shadows flee away.
To heal her wounds, her night dispel,
The heralds cross the main;
On calvary’s awful brow they tell,
That Jesus lives again.
From Salem’s towers, the Islam sign,
With holy zeal is hurled:
’Tis there Immanuel’s symbols shine,
The gladdening news, conveyed afar,
Remotest nations hear;
To welcome Judah’s rising star,
The ransomed tribes appear.
Again in Bethlehem swells the song,
The choral breaks again;
While Jordan’s shores the strains prolong,
“Good-will and peace to men!”
W. P. Tappan.
Redemption! O, thou beauteous mystic plan!
Thou salutary source of light to man!
What tongue can speak thy comprehensive grace?
What thought thy depths unfathomable trace?
When lost in sin our ruined nature lay,
When awful justice claimed her righteous pay,
See the mild Saviour bend His pitying eye,
And stop the lightning just prepared to fly!
Boyse.
Be every knee
To Christ in homage bent! Be every heart
In adoration, and in fervent prayer,
To Him poured forth! From His all-gracious birth,
The day-spring from on high descends: grim death,
Stripped of his boasted empire, prostrate falls:
The cerements of the dank, victorious grave
Are burst asunder: th’ adamantine gates
Of Paradise unbarred: man’s forfeit race
From the deep gulf of Erebus redeemed,
To life, to immortality arise.
Samuel Hayes.
The grand Redemption of degenerate man
Is not a single, independent act,
But one great system; that, perchance, involved
In the one only greater, God’s high law
Pervading and supporting every part
Of the stupendous universe: to thee,
Dark are the system’s limits; nay, the whole
To thee unknown, save some minuter spots,
Displayed to show the parts thou hast to act
In the alarming scene.
John Hey.