"Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?" (256)
From Calvary a cry was heard --
A bitter and heart-rending cry;
My Savior! ev'ry mournful word
Bespoke thy soul's deep agony
2 A horror of great darkness fell
On thee, thou spotless holy One!
And all the eager hosts of hell
Conspired to tempt God's only Son.
3 The scourge, the thorns, the deep disgrace,
These thou could'st bear, nor once repine;
But when Jehovah veiled his face,
Unutterable pangs were thine.
4 Let the dumb world its silence break;
Let pealing anthems rend the sky;
Awake, my sluggish soul, awake!
He died that we might never die.
John W. Cunningham, 1820.