Adventist Pioneer Library

The Church — Baptism

How blest the hour when first we gave

  • No. 1081
  • Words S. F. Smith.
  • 4 stanzas
  • Words only in the original

Words

⤢ Full screen
1

How blest the hour when first we gaveOur guilty souls to thee, O God!A cheerful sacrifice of love,Bought with the Saviour's precious blood.

2

How blest the vows we here record!How blest the grace we here receive!Buried—to rise with Christ our Lord,New lives of holiness to live.

3

How blest the solemn rite that sealsOur death to sin, our guilt forgiven!How blest the emblem that revealsGod reconciled, and peace with heaven!

4

Thus through the emblematic graveThe glorious suffering Saviour trod;Thou art our Pattern, through the waveWe follow thee, blest Son of God.

About this hymn

As printed Words only. As printed: hymn number «1081» (large) at the head of the right column of p. 370, with the italic reference line «914, 927, 108.» beside it (= sing to the tunes of hymns 914 WOODWORTH, 927 MALVERN or 108 MIGDOL, all L. M.; no meter is printed: 8.8.8.8). Four stanzas of four lines, numbered «1»–«4» without periods (written «1.»–«4.» here, as in the other deliveries of this book); lines 2 and 4 of each stanza are indented in the print. Stanza 1, line 4 is too long for the column and is broken before its last word («Bought with the Saviour's precious» / «blood.», the second part on an extra, deeper-indented line); it is one verse line here. The first word «How» is set in ordinary roman, not in capitals and small capitals (its «ow» has the x-height and shapes of the «ow» of «How» in stanza 2). «S. F. Smith.» in italics, right-aligned after stanza 4. The print sets a thin space before «!» («God !», «record !», «receive !», «forgiven !», «heaven !») and «;» («trod ;»); it is closed up here. The printer's curly apostrophe is written straight («Saviour's»). Spelling, punctuation and capitals are the print's.

Source
The Seventh-day Adventist Hymn and Tune Book (Battle Creek: Review & Herald, 1886/1888)
Where
The Church — Baptism · No. 1081 · printed page 370
Checked
lyrics verified (fork reading; parent check pending) · 2026-10-02