Bible Songs — Miscellaneous

O who is this that cometh

No. 1213
Tune MIGHTY TO SAVE.
Words Rev. R. W. Todd.
Music Harry Sanders.
Key A-flat major
Singing key A♭ major
Time 4/4
3 stanzas

Words

O who is this that comethFrom Edom's crimson plain,With wounded side, with garments dyed?O tell me now thy name."I that saw thy soul's distress,A ransom gave;I that speak in righteousness,Mighty to save."

REFRAIN

Mighty to save,Mighty to save,Mighty to save,Mighty to save,Mighty to save;Lord, I trust thy wondrous love,Mighty to save.

O why is thine apparelWith reeking gore all dyed,Like them that tread the wine-press red?O why this bloody tide?"I the wine-press trod alone,'Neath dark'ning skies;Of the people there was noneMighty to save."

O bleeding Lamb, my Saviour!How could'st thou bear this shame?"With mercy fraught, mine own arm broughtSalvation in my name;I the bloody fight have won,Conquer'd the grave,Now the year of joy has come,—Mighty to save."

About this hymn

As printed As printed: hymn number «1213» (large, left), title «MIGHTY TO SAVE.» centred (condensed capitals with larger initials); under it the epigraph in two lines, «"Who is this that cometh from Edom, * * traveling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save."—Isa. 63 : 1.»; «REV. R. W. TODD.» at the left and «HARRY SANDERS.» at the right (capitals and small capitals); no meter, no reference line and no running head are printed. The three stanzas are interlinear, «1.»–«3.» before the lines of system 1; the refrain, headed «REFRAIN.», is printed once (systems 4 and 5) and is sung after every stanza. In the refrain the soprano sings «Mighty to save,» and holds while the alto, tenor and bass answer «Mighty to save,» on a second, lower lyric row (twice); those echo lines are indented below. «By permission.» is printed under the music, above the page number «431». The print sets a thin space before «?», «!», «;» and «:» («strength ?», «Saviour !», «shame ?», «name ;», «63 : 1.»); it is closed up here. Words divided under the notes are joined («ap-par-el», «reek-ing», «blood-y», «Sal-va-tion», «a-lone», «ran-som», «Con-quer'd», «peo-ple», «right-eous-ness», «Might-y», «won-drous» → «apparel», «reeking», «bloody», «Salvation», «alone», «ransom», «Conquer'd», «people», «righteousness», «Mighty», «wondrous»); «wine-press» keeps its hyphen (a compound, printed «wine-press» in stanza 2 twice). Each stanza is set in its eight verse lines (7.6.8.6.7.4.7.4), each beginning with a capital as printed (the print runs two or three verse lines on one staff line). The quotation marks are the print's: in stanzas 1 and 2 Christ's answer opens at «"I» and closes at «save."»; in stanza 3 it opens at «"With mercy fraught» and closes at «save."». Spelling («Saviour», «could'st», «dark'ning», «Conquer'd», «'Neath», «traveling»), punctuation and capitals are the print's.