Christ My Song - 105
When o'er Judea's vales and hills - Hymn to the Redeemer
(A. Cleveland Coxe/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
Hymn to the Redeemer.
1. When o'er Judea's vales and hills,
or by her olive-shaded rills,
thy weary footsteps went of old,
or walked the lulling waters bold,
how beauteous were the marks divine,
that in thy meekness used to shine,
that lit thy lonely pathway, trod
in wondrous love, O Lamb of God! PDF - Midi
2. Oh! who like thee, so mild, so bright,
thou Son of Man, thou Light of Light,
oh! who like thee, did ever go
so patient, through a world of woe,
oh! who like thee, so humbly bore
the scorn, the scoffs of men before,
so meek, so lowly – yet so high,
so glorious in humility!
3. The morning saw thee, like the day,
forth on thy light bestowing way;
and evening in her holy hues,
shed down her sweet baptismal dews,
where bending angels stooped to see
the lisping infant clasp thy knee,
and smile, as in a father's eye,
upon thy mild divinity.
4. The hours when princes sought their rest
beheld thee, still, no chamber's guest;
but when the chilly night hung round,
and man from thee sweet slumber found,
thy wearied footsteps sought, alone,
the mountain to thy sorrows known,
and darkness heard thy patient prayer,
or hid thee in the prowler's lair.
5. And all thy life's unchanging years,
a man of sorrows and of tears,
the cross, where all our sins were laid
upon thy bending shoulders weighed;
and death, that sets the prisoner free,
was pang, and scoff, and scorn to thee;
yet love through all thy torture glowed,
and mercy with thy life blood flowed.
6. O wondrous Lord! my soul would be
still more and more conformed to thee,
would lose the pride, the taint of sin,
that burns these fevered veins within,
and learn of thee, the lowly One,
and like thee, all my journey run,
above the world, and all its mirth,
yet weeping still with weeping earth.
A. Cleveland Coxe, in: Philip Schaff: Christ in Song, 1870, 112-113.