See, World, upon the Bloody Tree

See

world

up­on the bloody tree

Thy life there sinks in death;

Covered with stripes and wounds for thee

Thy Sav­ior yields His breath.

Thou Prince of Glo­ry knew’st no sin;

What caused

Thee

then Thy pain?

Thou harm­less

un­de­filed and clean

What caused Thee to be slain?

My sins

as nu­mer­ous as the sands

Upon the ocean shore

Have been the cru­el mur­der­ous hands

That wound­ed Thee so sore.

Thy ang­uish

Thy tor­ment­ing pain

And ev­ery dread­ful woe

Thou didst so will­ing­ly sus­tain

My soul should un­der­go.

Thou on Thy shoul­ders tak’st the whole

To ease my bur­dened heart:

Thou bear’st the curse

to bless my soul

And heal’st me with Thy smart.

Thy won­drous love to evi­dence

Thou wouldst my sure­ty be;

Thyself would’st pay my debt im­mense

Thereby to set me free.

Thou art dest­ruct­ion to the grave;

Death’s ene­my severe;

That each who was be­fore his slave

Might now be saved from fear.

My debt to Thee

Thou God of Love!

Weak words can­not ex­press;

I can­not here

if there above

Show pro­per thank­ful­ness.

Grant me but this while I am here

Since I can no­thing give

Thy suf­fer­ings in my heart to bear

And in Thy death to live!