My Hiding Place

(Verses found in the pocket of Major André after his execution during the Revolutionary War)

Hail sov’reign 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 cry’d 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 beaming face,

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.

– Henry Livingston, Jr. (1748–1828)