A New Old Hymn

I am making an effort to stay fair and balanced musically.

The last post had a contemporary song about sin and its consequences.

Here is an old, old hymn that I discovered recently.

I found it very moving.

It was written by Ora Rowan (1834-1879) and describes how the captivating beauty of Christ sets one free from captivity to all idols.

1. Hast thou heard Him, seen Him, known Him?
Is not thine a captured heart?
Chief among ten thousand own Him;
Joyful choose the better part

2. Idols oft they win thee, charm thee
Lovely things of time and sense
Gilded thus does sin disarm thee
Honeyed lest thou turn thee hence

Chorus: Captivated by His beauty
Worthy tribute haste to bring;
Let His peerless worth constrain thee
Crown Him now unrivaled King.

3. What has stripped the seeming beauty
From the idols of the earth?
Not a sense of right or duty
But the sight of peerless worth

4. Not the crushing of those idols
With its bitter void and smart
But the beaming of His beauty
The unveiling of His heart

5. Who extinguishes the taper
Till they hail the rising sun
Who discards the garb of winter
Till the summer hath begun

6. ‘Tis the look that melted Peter
‘Tis the face that Stephen saw
‘Tis the heart that wept with Mary
Can alone from idols draw

Chorus: Captivated by His beauty
Worthy tribute haste to bring;
Let His peerless worth constrain thee
Crown Him now unrivaled King.