Reflection for Monday in Holy Week

Rescue of John Wesley from the fire at the Epworth Rectory, 1709

Each day during Holy Week, a hymn will be offered here for your meditation.

Behold, the Saviour of mankind. Samuel Wesley, Sr.

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Written previous to the fire at his Rectory of Epworth, which was burnt down in 1709. At this fire John Wesley was saved from death by being rescued through the bedroom window by some of the parishioners. During the fire the manuscript of this hymn was blown into the Rectory garden, where it was subsequently found.

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It was first published in J. Wesley's Psalms & Hymns, Charlestown, South Carolina, 1736-7, p. 46; also in the Wesley Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1739, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines; and again in the Wesleyan Hymn Book in 1780, revised edition, 1875, No. 22. From that collection it has passed into various hymnals both in Great Britain and America. The original contains 6 stanzas of 4 lines. Stanzas ii. and v. are usually omitted.

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-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Behold The Savior Of Mankind

Behold the Savior of mankind
Nailed to the shameful tree!
How vast the love that Him inclined
To bleed and die for thee!

Hark, how He groans, while nature shakes,
And earth's strong pillars bend!
The temple's veil in sunder breaks;
The solid marbles rend.

'Tis done! the precious ransom's paid!
"Receive my soul!" He cries;
See where He bows His sacred head!
He bows His head and dies!

But soon He'll break death's envious chain,
And in full glory shine;
O Lamb of God, was ever pain,
Was ever love, like Thine?