There is a green hill

Monday, 13 September 2010 12:52

There is a green hill, sung by the choir of King's College, Cambridge.

Mrs Cecil Frances Alexander wrote this hymn as she sat up one night with her seriously sick daughter. Many times, travelling to town to shop, she had passed a small grassy mound, just out side the old city wall of Derry, Ireland. It always made her think of Calvary, and it came to mind as she wrote this hymn. Music by William Horsley.

There is a green hill far away,
outside a city wall,
where our dear Lord was crucified
who died to save us all.

We may not know, we cannot tell,
what pains he had to bear,
but we believe it was for us
he hung and suffered there.

He died that we might be forgiven,
he died to make us good,
that we might go at last to heaven,
saved by his precious blood.

There was no other good enough
to pay the price of sin,
he only could unlock the gate
of heaven and let us in.

O dearly, dearly has he loved!
And we must love him too,
and trust in his redeeming blood,
and try his works to do.