Hymn 136. Hymn to Jesus

Jesus, – in thy transporting name,

What blissful glories rise!

Jesus, the Angels’ sweetest theme!

The wonder of the skies!

Well might the skies with wonder view                                               

A love so strange as thine!

No thought of angels ever knew,

Compassion so divine!

Didst thou forsake thy radiant crown,

And boundless realms of day,                                                               

(Aside thy robes of glory thrown,)

To dwell in feeble clay?

Jesus, – and didst thou leave the sky

For miseries and woes?

And didst thou bleed, and groan and die,                                           

For vile rebellious foes?

Through the deep horrors of thy pain

Then Love triumphant smil’d;

Earth trembled at the dreadful scene,

And Heaven was reconcil’d.                                                                  

Victorious Love!  can language tell

The wonders of thy power,

Which conquer’d all the force of Hell

In that tremendous hour?

Is there a heart that will not bend                                            

To thy divine controul?

Descend, O sovereign Love, descend,

And melt the stubborn soul.

O may our willing hearts confess

Thy sweet, thy gentle sway;                                                                   

Glad captives of resistless grace,

Thy pleasing rule obey.

Come, dearest Lord, extend thy reign,

Till rebels rise no more;

Thy praise all nature then shall join,

And Heaven and earth adore.

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 1, pp. 147-48; Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship, no. 136 (stanzas 1-4, 6-9); Poems, 1780, vol. 1, pp. 169-70; MS, Steele Collection, STE 3/1/1 no. 93, Angus Library, Regents Park College,  Oxford.