55

Jesus Hasting to Suffer

I

The Saviour, what a noble flame
Was kindled in his breast,
When, hasting to Jerusalem,
He march’d before the rest!

II

Good-will to men, and zeal for God,
His every thought engross;
He longs to be baptized with blood,
He pants to reach the cross.

III

With all his suff’rings full in view,
And woes to us unknown,
Forth to the task his spirit flew;
’Twas love that urged him on.

IV

Lord, we return thee what we can!
Our hearts shall sound abroad,
Salvation to the dying Man,
And to the rising God!

V

And while thy bleeding glories here
Engage our wond’ring eyes,
We learn our lighter cross to bear,
And hasten to the skies.

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

William Cowper (1731–1800). “Jesus Hasting to Suffer.” First published in Olney Hymns (1779). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/william-cowper/jesus-hasting-to-suffer/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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