From paths of darkness and despair,
Lord, we are come with Thee to dwell,
Glad to enjoy Thy presence here.
It cost Him death to save our lives,
To buy our souls it cost His own,
And all the unknown joys He gives,
Were bought with agonies unknown.[101]
The ‘sacramentarian’ element is naturally absent from Watts’s twenty-five hymns ‘prepared for the holy ordinance of the Lord’s Supper,’ which are, with a few exceptions, much less solemn and impressive than those of Wesley. Two have, however, a permanent place among our Communion hymns. The seventh of the series, ‘Crucifixion to the World by the Cross of Christ’—
When I survey the wondrous Cross
is so great a hymn, and consecrated by so many hallowed associations, that comment is superfluous and criticism impertinent. The third, ‘The New Testament in the Blood of Christ, or The New Covenant Sealed,’ is absent from the chief hymnals to-day with the exception of the Methodist, to which it was added in 1830. It begins—