18. How Precious and Pure Is the Truth

8s.
1
How precious and pure is the truth!
 
How simple and lovely its words!
 
’Tis suited for age and for youth,
 
As shown in this type of the birds.
 
A bird of the air was to die,
 
Instead of the leper unclean;
 
And Jesus, whose home was on high,
 
Descended to suffer for sin.
2
The bird must be clean of its kind,
 
Or else ’twere unfit to be slain;
 
And none could in Jesus e’er find
 
A blemish, a spot or a stain.
 
The bird in a vessel of earth
 
Must yield up its blood and its breath;
 
And Jesus, of heavenly birth,
 
In form as a man suffered death.
3
The blood of the bird that was slain
 
The living one bore to the sky;
 
So Jesus, in rising again,
 
The worth of His blood took on high.
 
The leper, with blood seven times
 
Was sprinkled to render him clean;
 
So sinners are cleansed from their crimes
 
In blood which atoned for their sin.
Echoes of Grace Hymnbook Index