This great consecration hymn by Isaac Watts had a major role to play in the conversion of American hymn writer Fanny Crosby.
The following is Fanny Crosby’s own account:
[In] the autumn of 1850…revival meetings were being held in the Thirtieth Street Methodist Church [, New York City]. Some of us went down evÂery evening; and, on two occasions, I sought peace at the atlar, but did not find the joy I craved, until one evening, November 20, 1850, it seemed to me that the light must in deed come then or never; and so I arose and went to the altar alone. After a prayer was offered, they began to sing the grand old consecration hymn, “Alas, and did my Saviour bleed, And did my Sovereign die?” And when they reached the third line of the fourth stanza, “Here Lord, I give my self away,” my very soul was flooded with a celestial light. I sprang to my feet, shouting “HalleluÂjah,” and then for the first time I realized that I had been trying to hold the world in one hand and the Lord in the other.
Lyrics: Isaac Watts
Chorus: Ralph E. Hudson
Music: Ralph E. Hudson
Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?
Refrain:
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!
Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!
Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.
But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give my self away
‘Tis all that I can do.
There is another tune to this hymn without the refrain which I will be publishing in my next post.
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