Scripture Verse

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of His blood—to be received by faith. Romans 3:25

Introduction

portrait
William Tans’ur (1700–1783)

Words: Ben­ja­min Bed­dome (1717–1795). Pub­lished post­hu­mous­ly in Hymns Adapt­ed to Pub­lic Wor­ship (Lon­don: Bu­rton & Briggs, 1818), num­ber 276, alt. Through the Atone­ment.

Music: Ban­gor Will­iam Tan­s’ur, 1734 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

  • St. Ma­ry ar­ranged from Prys’ Welsh Psal­ter, 1621 (🔊 pdf nwc)
  • The Waits’ Song Eng­lish tra­di­tion­al tune (🔊 pdf nwc)
  • York me­lo­dy from the Scot­tish Psal­ter, 1615 (🔊 pdf nwc)

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

Lyrics

Great God, the ter­rors of Thy wrath,
What mor­tal tongue can tell?
A fie­ry stream comes is­su­ing forth,
And lights the flames of hell.

No mi­ti­ga­tion can it know,
Nor ev­er have an end;
Its great­ness and du­ra­tion, too,
All finite thought tran­scend.

But Thou, oh Lord, hast formed a plan,
Replete with won­drous grace.
To raise the fall­en crea­ture, man,
To per­fect hap­pi­ness.

Through the atone­ment of my Lord,
All sin may be for­giv’n;
‘Tis He rem­oves the flam­ing sword,
Which barred the way to Hea­ven.

Should all the pow’rs of earth and hell
Their force against me join,
His cross will all my fears di­spel,
And fill with peace di­vine.