HAIL, SOVEREIGN LOVE

Hail, Sovereign Love that formed the plan
To save rebellious, ruined man!
Hail, matchless, free, Eternal Grace,
That gave my soul a hiding-place!

Against the God that rules the sky,
I fought, with weapons lifted high,
Despised the mention of His grace
Too proud to seek a hiding place.

Enwrapt in thick Egyptian night
And fond of darkness more than light,
Madly I ran the sinful race,
Secure without a hiding place.

But thus th’ eternal counsel ran,
Almighty Love, arrest that man!
I felt the arrows of distress,
And found I had no hiding place.

Indignant justice stood in view;
To Sinai’s fiery mount I flew,
But Justice cried with frowning face,
"This mountain is no hiding place!"

Ere long a heavenly voice I heard,
And mercy's angel-form appeared;
She led me on with placid pace
To Jesus as my hiding-place.

Should storms of sevenfold vengeance roll,
And shake the globe from pole to pole;
No flaming bolt could daunt my face,
For Jesus is my hiding place.

On Him Almighty vengeance fell,
That must have sunk a world to hell;
He bore it for the chosen race
And thus became their hiding-place.

A few more rolling suns, at most,
Shall land me on fair Canaan's coast.
There I shall sing the song of grace,
And see my glorious hiding place!

Jehoida Brewer
1752-1817