Favourite Welsh Hymns Translated into English

Excerpt

PRELUDE.

I would sing Thy love, my Saviour,

O, how can I silent be!

Though more sweetly, more sublimely

Many touch the chords to Thee.

In thy mercy in abundance,

Not a stream but boundless main:

Let me but rehearse the riches

JESUS doth for worlds contain!

I.
EARTH’S CROWN.

Thorns had the Saviour of mankind

His only Crown while here below:

Could Earth no other garland find

With which to deck his holy brow?

Was he a King? yea; to his throne

Heaven, Earth, and Hell allegiance owe;

Nor glory his, nor power alone,—

What heart such depths of grief can know?

Should Earth, dear Lord, crown me with thorns,

Give strength to glory in the shame;

To feel that every thing adorns

My brow, if Jesus wore the same.

I now behold Him on a seat

Of majesty o’er angels raised;

The crowns of heaven laid at his feet,

His Holy Name by myriads praised.

And, Lord, among the crowns which heaven

Adoring, at thy footstool lays,

By contrite Earth may soon be given

A chaplet—not of shame, but praise.

For Thou hast crownèd her with flowers,

And, more than all, with saving love:

What debt so great can be as hers;

What diadem may worthy prove?

II.
“BEHOLD THE MAN.”

Jesus Christ is my Creator,—

He formed sea and earth and air;

Nature’s pillars stand unshaken

On his power and constant care.

By his fingers for a dwelling

Was heaven’s vault sublime upreared:

Jesus suffered when to save us

He as man on earth appeared.

Lofty Angels! God-like spirits,

Clad in robes of ‘living light’:

He who gave you all your glories,

Him you worship day and night,

Made his tent in human nature

That in Him should man confide:

Your Delight, your Source, and Centre

Died—for man a Ransom died.

Vast encircling Space! whose confines

Stretch beyond creation’s pole!

Worlds of magnitude appalling

In thee unobstructed roll:

He in whom thou art containèd,

Spread at first and peopled thee,

Lay, an infant, in the manger,

Died, a man, upon the tree.

Countless Stars! through darkness peering;

Silent sentinels of night!

Worlds are ye of radiant brightness—

Points to feeble human sight:

He who spake and ye were kindled,

And will be, when ye grow dim,

Sun of souls, and Noon of heaven—

Grief and death enshrouded HIM.

Planets! with the Earth concentric,

Speeding on your trackless ways,—

Speeding in unbroken order

From your distant primal days!

He whose arm put you in motion—

Who your orbits vast designed,

Here was born a helpless infant,

Here for sin his life resigned.

Sun! the unexhausted fountain,

Whence flow warmth and genial light,

By whom Day to us is given

Loaded with untold delight!

He who hath with glory charged thee

That we may not rudely gaze,

Was on Calvary obscured—

Well thou dark’nedst with amaze.

Moon! who star-attended glidest

Through the sky with queenly grace;

Shining now in placid splendour,

Veiling now with clouds thy face:

He who hides thee—brings light to thee

From that sun, whose Sun is He,

Was eclipsed,—his beams were clouded,

On the ignominious tree.

Thunder!...