Who Hath Believed the Tidings?

Who hath be­lieved the tid­ings? Who?

Or felt the joys our words im­part?

Gladly con­fessed our re­cord true

And found the Sav­ior in his heart?

Planted in na­ture’s bar­ren ground

And cher­ished by Je­ho­vah’s care

There shall th’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 turned;

Hell fol­lowed Him with fierce des­pite

And earth the hum­ble Ob­ject scorned.

Surely for us He hum­bled was

And grieved with sor­rows not His own:

Of all His woes were we the cause

We filled His soul with pangs un­known.

Yet Him th’Of­fende­r we es­teemed

Stricken by Heav’n’s vin­dict­ive rod

Afflicted for Him­self we deemed

And pun­ished by an an­gry God.

But

O! with our trans­gress­ions stained

For our of­fense He wound­ed was;

Ours were the sins that bruised and pained

And scourged

and nailed 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 ful­filled

Thou laid on Him the guilt of all

And by His stripes we all are healed.

Accused

His mouth He op­ened not;

He an­swered not

by wrongs op­pressed.

Pure though He was from sin­ful spot

Our guilt He si­lent­ly con­fessed.

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 heav’n­ly birth de­clare

When bound by man He si­lent stood;

When worms ar­raigned Him at their bar

And doomed to death th’eter­nal God!

Patient the suf­fer­ings to sus­tain

The ven­geance to trans­gress­ors due

Guiltless He groaned 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 hon­ored grave!

For

O! de­void of sin

and free

From ac­tu­al or en­tailed of­fense

No sin­ner in Him­self was He

But pure and per­fect in­no­cence.

Yet Him th’al­migh­ty Fa­ther’s will

With bruis­ing chas­tise­ments pur­sued

Doomed 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

Scattered 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 giv’n;

Their cause shall pros­per in His hand

While Right­eous­ness looks down from Heav­en:

While pleased He counts the ran­somed 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 poured out all His blood

Their sub­sti­tute

He died for them.

He died

and rose His death to plead

To tes­ti­fy their sins for­giv’n:

And still I hear Him in­ter­cede

And still He makes their claim to Heav’n.