Attended the funeral of Jerry this afternoon. Something struck me during the singing of the second hymn, a verse of ‘And Can It Be?’ which is not usually sung:
Still the small inward voice I hear,
That whispers all my sins forgiven;
Still the atoning blood is near,
That quenched the wrath of hostile Heaven.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Saviour in my heart.
Took me slightly by surprise, but thinking about it, I think Jerry probably chose it to be like that.
Great verse. When people edit hymns they tend to lose the best verses because they disagree or don’t understand, e.g. last verse of Amazing Grace:
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.
John NewÂton, OlÂney Hymns (LonÂdon: W. OlÂiÂver, 1779)
Much better that the soppy 10,000 years one.