"Almighty love, arrest that man!"

I love hymns. I know all the words to all the verses of perhaps 50-60 hymns and I know one or two verses to perhaps another 200. By hymns, I mean God-centered spiritual songs, rich in theological content, (usually the older, the better), intended to be sung by a congregation in worship. This morning, we sang five, and I knew all the words to all the verses of all five: All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name, O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing, O Worship the King, Fairest Lord Jesus, and Amazing Grace. In addition to singing them, I also love to read and write hymns. I highly recommend a volume called Gadsby's Hymns. It's a collection of lyrics of his hymns and others, first published in the 1800s, and makes for wonderful devotional reading. If you read only one a day, it would take over three years to read through the 1,156 selections included. One of my favorites, called Hiding Place, was first published in 1776 by Jehoida Brewer (1752-1817).

Hail, sovereign love, that first began
The scheme to rescue fallen man!
Hail, matchless, free, eternal grace,
That gave my soul a hiding-place!

Against the God who rules the sky
I fought with hand uplifted high;
Despised the mention of his grace,
Too proud to seek a hiding-place.

But thus the eternal counsel ran:
"Almighty love, arrest that man!"
I felt the arrows of distress,
And found I had no hiding-place.

Indignant Justice stood in view;
To Sinai's fiery mount I flew;
But Justice cried, with frowning face,
"This mountain is no hiding-place!"

Ere long a heavenly voice I heard,
And Mercy's angel-form appeared;
She led me on, with placid pace,
To Jesus as my Hiding-place.

Should storms of seven-fold thunder roll,
And shake the globe from pole to pole,
No flaming bolt could daunt my face,
For Jesus is my Hiding-place.

On him almighty vengeance fell,
That must have sunk a world to hell;
He bore it for a chosen race,
And thus became their Hiding-place.

A few more rolling suns, at most,
Will land me on fair Canaan's coast,
Where I shall sing the song of grace,
And see my glorious Hiding-place.

GOODY: Happy 6th anniversary to Emily and Dave!