This Good Friday song comes from the father of two famous Wesleys – Rev. Samuel Wesley. On 9 February, 1709, Samuel Wesley was sitting in the Rectory when he wrote this hymn. That night the Rectory caught fire and the whole building, as well as all its contents, were destroyed. In one room slept 5 year old John Wesley with his little siblings and nurse. The nurse called out to the children to follow her as she fled with the young baby, but little John stayed fast asleep. He of course escaped, when a man climbed on the shoulders of his father Samuel and reached him from the window. Samuel Wesley exclaimed “Let us kneel down; let us give thanks to God! He has given me all my eight children; let the house go; I am rich enough!” Later on, someone walking in the Rectory garden near the ruined house, noticed a piece of paper lying on the ground. It was this hymn, blown through the open window from the burning house and saved from the fire!¹ Enjoy the words to this one.

Behold the Saviour 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?

¹W.J. Limmer Sheppard, Great Hymns and Their Stories, page 157-159