Christ My Song - 457
No, not the love without the blood - The blood that speaketh better things (Horatius Bonar/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
The blood that speaketh better things.
1. No, not the love without the blood, –
that were to me no love at all;
it could not reach my sinful soul,
nor hush the fears which me appal. (PDF - Midi)
2. I need the love, I need the blood,
I need the grace, the cross, the grave;
I need the resurrection power,
a soul like mine to purge and save.
3. The love I need is righteous love,
inscribed on the sin-bearing tree;
love that exacts the sinner's debt,
yet in exacting sets him free.
4. Love that condemns the sinner's sin,
yet in condemning pardon seals;
that saves from righteous wrath, and yet,
in saving, righteousness reveals.
5. Love boundless as Jehovah's self,
love holy as his righteous law;
love unsolicited, unbought,
the love proclaimed on Golgotha.
6. This is the love that calms my heart,
that soothes each conscience-pang within,
that pacifies my guilty dread,
and frees me from the power of sin.
7. The love that blotteth out each stain,
that plucketh hence each deadly sting,
that fills me with the peace of God,
unseals my lips and bids me sing.
8. The love that liberates and saves,
that this poor straitened soul expands,
that lifts me to the heaven of heavens,
the shrine above, not made with hands.
9. The love that quickens into zeal,
that makes me self-denied and true,
that leads me out of what is old,
and brings me into what is new.
10. That purifies, and cheers, and calms,
that knows no change and no decay;
the love that loves for evermore,
celestial sunshine, endless day.
Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope III, 1878, 92-93.