37

Praise for the Incarnation

I

Sweeter sounds than music knows
Charm me in Emmanuel’s name;
All her hopes my spirit owes
To his birth and cross and shame.

II

When he came the angels sung⁠—
“Glory be to God on high!”
Lord, unloose my stamm’ring tongue,
Who should louder sing than I?

III

Did the Lord a man become,
That he might the law fulfill,
Bleed and suffer in my room,
And canst thou, my tongue, be still?

IV

No, I must my praises bring,
Though they worthless are and weak;
For should I refuse to sing,
Sure the very stones would speak.

V

O my Saviour, Shield, and Sun,
Shepherd, Brother, Husband, Friend,
Every precious name in one,
I will love thee without end.

Where this text comes from

First published in Olney Hymns (1779). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1] [2] [3]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-15.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/john-newton_william-cowper_olney-hymns, book-2.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (2)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L20.

Cite this poem

John Newton (1725–1807). “Praise for the Incarnation.” First published in Olney Hymns (1779). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/john-newton/praise-for-the-incarnation/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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