When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
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Organ and orchestra: an introduction, then each of the 5 verses. Tap a verse’s number to start there.
- When I survey the wondrous crossOn which the Prince of glory died,My richest gain I count but loss,And pour contempt on all my pride.
- Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,Save in the death of Christ my God!All the vain things that charm me most,I sacrifice them to His blood.
- See, from His head, His hands, His feet,Sorrow and love flow mingled down!Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
- His dying crimson, like a robe,Spreads o'er His body on the tree;Then am I dead to all the globe,And all the globe is dead to me.
- Were the whole realm of nature mine,That were a present far too small;Love so amazing, so divine,Demands my soul, my life, my all.
About this hymn
- Words
- Isaac Watts, 1707. As printed in Watts, Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1793 ed.), book III, no. 7.
- Tune
- HAMBURG, Lowell Mason, 1824.
- Harmony
- The Northfield Hymnal, 1904. Score from the Open Hymnal Project.
- Recordings
- Arranged and recorded by Fish the Right, from the harmony above: the melody note for note and every chord the hymnal’s own. Played on the Salamander Grand Piano V3 by Alexander Holm (CC BY 3.0), with organ, strings, brass and timpani from VSCO 2 Community Edition by Versilian Studios (the organ sampled by Simon Dalzell); drums from Virtuosity Drums and bass from Black And Blue Basses by Versilian Studios and Karoryfer Samples; pads from GeneralUser GS by S. Christian Collins; made with abcMIDI, sfizz, FluidSynth and FFmpeg.
- Rights
- Words 1707, tune 1824, setting 1904: all published before 1931, so public domain in the United States. Checked: words (hymnary.org), tune (hymnary.org), harmony (openhymnal.org).
- Scripture
- Galatians 6:14