My favorite show on TV (Netflix) is the AMC show Turn. My curiosity of the show lead me to the internet to find out more about the true story of George Washington’s spy ring. One click lead to another, as Wikipedia always does, and I was reading about Major John Andre of the British Army. I found out, John Andre was converted just two days before he died. After his death, a poem was found in his coat pocket called The Hiding Place. The hymn was mistakenly credited to Andre as the author. In fact, it was published four years before my a man named Jehoida Brewer with the actual title being Hail, Sovereign Love. John Andre quoted the hymn from memory and held it to his chest as he hung from the gallows. The content is so good I am compelled to share it.
Hail, Sovereign Love
Hail, sovereign love, which first began
The scheme to rescue fallen man!
Hail, matchless, free, eternal grace,
That gave my soul a Hiding Place!
Against the God who built the sky
I fought with hands uplifted high,
Despised the mention of His grace,
Too proud to seek a Hiding Place.
Enwrapt in thick Egyptian night,
And fond of darkness more than light,
Madly I ran the sinful race,
Secure without a Hiding Place.
But thus the eternal counsel ran:
“Almighty love, arrest that man!”
I felt the arrows of distress,
And found I had no hiding place.
Indignant justice stood in view.
To Sinai’s fiery mount I flew;
But justice cried, with frowning face:
“This mountain is no hiding place”.
Ere long a heavenly voice I heard,
And Mercy’s angel soon appeared;
He led me with a placid pace
To Jesus, as a Hiding Place.
On Him almighty vengeance fell,
Which must have sunk a world to hell.
He bore it for a sinful race,
And thus became their Hiding Place.
Should sevenfold storms of thunder roll,
And shake this globe from pole to pole,
No thunderbolt shall daunt my face,
For Jesus is my Hiding Place.
A few more setting suns at most,
Shall land me on fair Canaan’s coast,
Where I shall sing the song of grace,
And see my glorious Hiding Place.
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