Who hath believed the tidings? Who?

Or felt the joys our words impart?

Gladly confess’d our record true,

And found the Saviour in his heart?

Planted in nature’s barren ground,

And cherish’d by Jehovah’s care,

There shall the Immortal Seed be found,

The Root Divine shall flourish there.

See the Desire of Nations comes,

Nor outward pomp bespeaks Him near:

A veil of flesh the God assumes,

A servant’s form He stoops to wear.

He lays His every glory by;

Ignobly low, obscurely mean,

Of beauty void, in reason’s eye,

The Source of Loveliness is seen.

Rejected and despised of men,

A Man of griefs, inured to woe;

His only intimate is pain,

And grief is all His life below.

We saw, and from the irksome sight

Disdainfully our faces turn’d;

Hell follow’d Him with fierce despite,

And earth the humble Object scorn’d.

Surely for us He humbled was,

And grieved with sorrows not His own:

Of all His woes were we the cause,

We fill’d His soul with pangs unknown.

Yet Him the Offender we esteem’d,

Stricken by Heaven’s vindictive rod,

Afflicted for Himself we deem’d,

And punish’d by an angry God.

But, O! with our transgressions stain’d,

For our offence He wounded was;

Ours were the sins that bruised and pain’d

And scourged, and nail’d Him to the cross.

The chastisement that bought our peace,

To sinners due, on Him was laid:

Conscience, be still! Thy terrors cease!

The debt’s discharged, the ransom’s paid.

What though we all as wandering sheep

Have left our God, and loved to stray,

Refused His mild commands to keep,

And madly urged the downward way?

Father, on Him Thy bolt did fall,

The mortal law Thy Son fulfill’d,

Thou laid’st on Him the guilt of all,

And by His stripes we all are heal’d.

Accused, His mouth He open’d not;

He answer’d not, by wrongs oppress’d.

Pure though He was from sinful spot,

Our guilt He silently confess’d.

Meek as a lamb to slaughter led,

A sheep before His shearers dumb,

To suffer in the sinner’s stead

Behold the Spotless Victim come!

Who could His heavenly birth declare,

When bound by man He silent stood;

When worms arraign’d Him at their bar,

And doom’d to death the Eternal God!

Patient the sufferings to sustain,

The vengeance to transgressors due,

Guiltless He groan’d and died for man:

Sinners, rejoice, He died for you!

For your imputed guilt He bled,

Made sin a sinful world to save;

Meekly He sunk among the dead:

The rich supplied an honour’d grave!

For, O! devoid of sin, and free

From actual or entail’d offence,

No sinner in Himself was He,

But pure and perfect innocence.

Yet Him the Almighty Father’s will

With bruising chastisements pursued,

Doom’d Him the weight of sin to feel,

And, sternly just, required His blood.

But, lo! the mortal debt is paid,

The costly sacrifice is o’er;

His soul, for sin an offering made,

Revives, and He shall die no more.

His numerous seed He now shall see,

Scatter’d through all the earth abroad,

Blest with His immortality,

Begot by Him, and born of God.

Head to His Church o’er all below,

Long shall He here His sons sustain;

Their bounding hearts His power shall know,

And bless the loved Messiah’s reign.

’Twixt God and them He still shall stand,

The children whom His Sire hath given;

Their cause shall prosper in His hand,

While RIGHTEOUSNESS looks down from heaven:

While pleased He counts the ransom’d race,

And calls and draws them from above;

The travail of His soul surveys,

And rests in His redeeming love.

’Tis done! My justice asks no more,

The satisfaction’s fully made

Their sins He in His body bore,

Their Surety all the debt has paid.

My Righteous Servant and My Son

Shall each believing sinner clear;

And all who stoop to abjure their own,

Shall in His righteousness appear.

Them shall He claim His just desert,

Them His inheritance receive,

And many a contrite humble heart

Will I for His possession give.

Satan He thence shall chase away,

Assert His right, His foes o’ercome;

Stronger than hell, retrieve the prey,

And bear the spoil triumphant home.

For charged with all their guilt He stood,

Sinners from suffering to redeem;

For them He pour’d out all His blood,

Their Substitute, He died for them.

He died, and rose His death to plead,

To testify their sins forgiven:

And still I hear Him intercede,

And still He makes their claim to heaven.