Old Testament Gospel

I

Isr’el, in ancient days,
Not only had a view
Of Sinai in a blaze,
But learn’d the gospel too:
The types and figures were a glass
In which they saw a Saviour’s face.

II

The paschal sacrifice,
And blood be-sprinkled door,
Seen with enlighten’d eyes,
And once applied with power,
Would teach the need of other blood
To reconcile an angry God.

III

The Lamb, the Dove, set forth
His perfect innocence,
Whose blood of matchless worth
Should be the soul’s defence:
For He who can for sin atone
Must have no failings of his own.

IV

The scape-goat on his head
The people’s trespass bore,
And to the desert led,
Was to be seen no more:
In him our Surety seem’d to say,
“Behold! I bear your sins away.”

V

Dipt in his fellow’s blood,
The living bird went free;
The type, well understood,
Express’d the sinner’s plea;
Described a guilty soul enlarged,
And by a Saviour’s death discharged.

VI

Jesus, I love to trace
Throughout the sacred page
The footsteps of thy grace,
The same in every age!
O grant that I may faithful be
To clearer light vouchsafed to me!