88. Hail, Sovereign Love, Which First Began

L.M.
1
Hail, sovereign love, which first began
 
That scheme to rescue fallen man!
 
Hail, matchless, free, eternal grace,
 
Which gave my soul a hiding place.
2
Against the God who built the sky
 
I fought, with hands uplifted high;
 
Despised the mention of His grace,
 
Too proud to seek a hiding place.
3
Enwrapt in thick Egyptian night,
 
And fond of darkness more than light,
 
Madly I ran the sinful race,
 
Secure without a hiding place.
4
And thus the eternal counsels ran,
 
"Almighty love, arrest that man!"
 
I felt the arrows of distress,
 
And found I had no hiding place.
5
Indignant Justice stood in view,
 
To Sinai’s fiery mount I flew;
 
But Justice cried with frowning face,
 
"This mountain is no hiding place."
6
On Jesus, God’s just vengeance fell,
 
Which would have sunk a world to hell;
 
He bore it for a sinful race,
 
And thus became their Hiding Place.
7
Should sevenfold storms of thunder roll,
 
And shake this globe from pole to pole,
 
No thunderbolt shall daunt my face,
 
For Jesus is my Hiding Place.
8
A few more rolling suns at most,
 
Shall land me on fair Canaan’s coast,
 
Where I shall sing the song of grace,
 
And see my glorious Hiding Place.
Echoes of Grace Hymnbook Index