I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death.
Hosea 13:14
Words: Beverly F. Carradine, in Songs of Calvary and Pentecost, edited by W. C. Dunlap & John Bryant (Atlanta, Georgia: Rigdon M. McIntosh, 1896).
Music: John R. Bryant (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good photo of Bryant (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels), or a better one of Carradine,
There’s a hill lone and grey,
In a land far away,
In a country beyond the blue sea,
Where beneath that fair sky
Went a Man forth to die
For the world and for you and for me.
Refrain
Oh, it bows down my heart
And the teardrops will start,
When in memory that grey hill I see.
For ’twas there on its side,
Jesus suffered and died
To redeem a poor sinner like me.
Behold! faint on the road,
’Neath a world’s heavy load,
Comes a thorn crownèd Man on the way,
With a cross He is bowed,
But still on through the crowd
He’s ascending that hill lone and grey.
Refrain
Hark! I hear the dull blow
Of the hammer swung low;
They are nailing my Lord to the tree,
And the cross they upraised
While the multitude gaze
On the blest Lamb of dark Calvary.
Refrain
How they mock Him in death,
To His last laboring breath,
While His friends sadly weep o’er the way;
But though lonely and faint,
Still no word of complaint
Fell from Him on the hill lone and grey.
Refrain
Then the darkness came down
And the rocks rent around,
And a cry pierced the grief laden air;
’Twas the voice of our king
Who received death’s dark sting,
All to save us from endless despair.
Refrain
Let the sun hide its face,
Let the earth reel apace,
Over men who their Savior have slain;
But behold from the sod,
Comes the blest Lamb of God,
Who was slain and is risen again.
Refrain