Hymn 121. The Exalted Saviour

Now let us raise our cheerful strains,

And join the blissful choir above;

There our exalted Saviour reigns,

And there they sing his wonderous love.

While seraphs tune th’ immortal song,                                    

O may we feel the sacred flame;

And every heart, and every tongue

Adore the Saviour’s glorious name.

Jesus, who once upon the tree

In agonizing pains expir’d,

Who dy’d for rebels – yes, ’tis he!

How bright!  how lovely!  how admir’d!

Jesus, who dy’d that we might live,

Dy’d in the wretched traitor’s place –

O what returns can mortals give, 

For such immeasurable grace?

Were universal nature ours,

And art with all her boasted store,

Nature and art with all their powers,

Would still confess the offerer poor!                                                                

Yet though for bounty so divine,

We ne’er can equal honours raise,

Jesus, may all our hearts be thine,

And all our tongues proclaim thy praise.

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 1, pp. 150-51; Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship, no. 121 (all stanzas); Poems, 1780, vol. 1, pp. 173-74; MS, Steele Collection, STE 3/1/1 no. 97, Angus Library, Regents Park College,  Oxford.