Behold the Man! How Heavy Lay

Behold the Man! How hea­vy lay

On Him the sin­ner’s bur­den!

What griev­ous price had He to pay

That we might hope for par­don!

Such sor­rows

since the world began

Before ere nev­er seen by man

Nor since on earth been wit­nessed.

The Prince of life

to glo­ry born

Our Sav­ior here

here­af­ter

No bears the Jew­ish rul­ers’ scorn

Their taunts

and jeer­ing laugh­ter;

As ma­le­fac­tor He is seized

Accused

de­famed—the crowds are pleased

And join the proud de­ri­sion.

Their fury

rag­ing un­re­strained

To gross­er in­sult urg­es;

With fet­ters bound

with blood dis­tained.

With buf­fets bruised and scourg­es

A reed His scep­ter

thorns His crown

In pur­ple robes for mock­ery shown—

He stands be­fore re­vil­ers.

His hea­then judge

of for­eign birth

Is with com­pas­sion tak­en;

He brings Him to His breth­ren forth

Their pity to awak­en—

Behold the Man! There’s no of­fense

I can’t con­demn while in­no­cence

So strong­ly pleads to save him.

’Twas vain! Al­as

’twas all in vain

This plea of Gen­tile strang­er;

The mad

in­fu­ri­ate

Jew­ish train

Grow bold in Je­sus’ dan­ger.

His death alone can sa­tis­fy

Their rage—with deaf­en­ing shout they cry

To Pi­late

Cru­ci­fy Him!

Thou canst not

but with hor­ror

think

That this de­vot­ed na­tion

Thus mix their cup of wrath to drink

To dist­ant ge­ne­ra­tion.

Think too

my soul

who ’tis with thee!

What are thy sins? and art thou free

From guilt for death of Je­sus?

Behold the Man! It as for thee

His shame and griefs were suf­fered;

No hear Him say

Be­hold

in Me

The Vic­tim for thee of­fered!

The guilt was thine—its fear­ful load

I bore

aton­ing with My blood

I died

from death to save thee!

Blest Je­sus

God’s be­lov­èd Son!

Who all my sins re­mov­est—

Exalted to Thy Fa­ther’s throne

Show that my soul Thou lov­est!

And let Thy griefs and death

O Lord

New life and peace to me af­ford—

Thus glo­ri­fy Thy mer­cy!

And when the world

when flesh and blood

To paths of sin al­lure me;

That I may keep the heav’n­ly road

From wan­der­ing to secure me

In mercy cry to me

Be­hold

The Man

who suf­fered ills un­told

For thee! Wilt thou for­sake Me?

Redeemer

I have sworn to thee

Let not my pur­pose wa­ver!

As my God liv­eth—that in me

Thy love shall rule for­ev­er:

And may the me­mo­ry of Thy death

And sor­rows

while I have my breath

Constrain me to be faith­ful!