Scripture Verse

From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. Matthew 27:45

Introduction

portrait
Christian G. Neefe (1748–1798)

Words: Mat­thew Bridg­es, The Pas­sion of Je­sus (Lon­don: Ri­chard­son & Son, 1852), pag­es 123–24.

Music: Mei­ring­en Chris­tian G. Neefe, 1777 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Bridg­es (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

O’er hill and vale and tem­ple proud
When Je­sus died for man,
There hung in air a sa­ble shroud
To mark the bit­ter ban—
The ban of death on sin­ners laid,
The dread­ful debt Em­ma­nu­el paid!

Well might the sun of na­ture hide
Its match­less lamp of light,
And veil, while its cre­at­or died,
All ra­di­an­cy in night:
How could the small­est star il­lume
The depth of such in­fer­nal gloom!

Oh! dire­ful dark­ness—un­al­loyed,
Of hor­ror most pro­found—
Emblem of what the cross de­stroyed
And le­veled with the ground;
When, burst­ing through the reams of hell,
It beamed with light in­ef­fa­ble!

Lord! by that dark­ness, from this soul
All dark­ness roll away—
Nor let a shade of sin co­ntrol
My pro­gress t’wards the day:
That day, with an un­cloud­ed sky,
Of Heav’n—in full eter­ni­ty!