Hail, sovereign love, which first
began
That scheme to rescue fallen man!
Hail, matchless, free, eternal grace,
Which gave my soul a hiding place.
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.
And thus the eternal counsels 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!”
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.
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.
J. Brewer