Friday, April 25, 2025

Go to Dark Gethsemane

281 Go to Dark Gethsemane

1 Go to dark Gethsemane,
   You who feel the tempter's pow'r;
   Your Redeemer's conflict see;
   Watch with Him one bitter hour;
   Turn not from His griefs away;
   Learn of Jesus Christ to pray.

2 Follow to the judgment hall;
   View the Lord of life arraigned;
   O the worm-wood and the gall!
   O the pangs His soul sustained!
   Shun not suff'ring, shame, or loss;
   Learn of Him to bear the cross.

3 Calv'ry's mournful mountain climb
   There' adoring at His feet,
   Mark the miracle of time,
   God's own sacrifice complete:
   "It is finished!" Hear the cry;
   Learn of Jesus Christ to die.
                         James Montgomery
                         Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
I've never sung this hymn, although it occurs in more than 800 hymnals. Hymnary.org inserts a fourth verse:

4 Early hasten to the tomb
   Where they laid his breathless clay;
   All is solitude and gloom;
   Who hath taken Him away?
   Christ is ris'n! He meets our eyes:
   Savior, teach us so to rise.
I like that. Without the fourth verse, the hymn seems truncated and hopeless.
</idle musing>

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