Samuel Crossman (1664)

Verse 1
My song is love unknown–
My Savior’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
Oh, who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take frail flesh and die?

Verse 2
He came from His blest throne
Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed for Christ would know.
But oh, my Friend, my Friend indeed,
Who at my need His life did spend!

Verse 3
Sometimes they strew His way,
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King.
Then “Crucify!” is all their breath,
And for His death they thirst and cry.

Verse 4
Why, what hath my Lord done?
What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run;
He gave the blind their sight.
Sweet injuries! Yet they at these
Themselves displease,
And ‘gainst Him rise.

Verse 5
They rise, and needs will have
My dear Lord made away.
A murderer they save;
The Prince of Life they slay.
Yet cheerful He to suff’ring goes,
That He His foes from thence might free.

Verse 6
In life, no house, no home
My Lord on earth might have;
In death, no friendly tomb
But what a stranger gave.
What may I say? Heav’n was His home;
But mine the tomb wherein He lay.

Verse 7
Here might I stay and sing–
No story so divine!
Never was love, dear King,
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend, in whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend.