O darkest night that ever fell! Before the sun had set, The light was blotted from the heavens, And death, and darkness met. II For God had turned His face away From all the sin He bore, Whom in His love to earth He sent, To bear our suffering sore. III Ah! darkest night that ever falls On soul of human race, When God in anger turns away The brightness of His face; IV Then, sun and moon, and stars are lost, Amid' our hopeless night; And all the radiant bliss of life Is curtained from our sight. V O Christ, Thou art our Light, and Sun, Our Hope 'mid guilty fears; No night surrounds Thy presence now, Nor threatening cloud appears; VI And sin and death no longer reign, Nor day to dark declines, For, from the Father's face, a light Of reconcilement shines. I Nailed to the cross the Saviour dies, While earth is moved with sore dismay, And e'en the sun, though high at noon, In anguish veils the light of day. II Then hell and darkness riot held, And sin and death combined their power To crush the Christ Whom sinful men Had hastened to that awful hour. III But O, 'twas darkness deeper still Than o'er the earth in blackness lay, When God beheld the suffering Son, And turned from Him His face away. IV Ah! whence that suffering? Whence that woe? The horror felt by earth and sky? The victory of the powers of night, That doomed the God-man there to die? V My soul distressed, look up! behold! With light from heaven the earth is filled;-- The Christ that awful conflict met, Because a God of wisdom willed. VI Now sin its latest shaft has hurled, And death put forth its utmost might, But, lo, the Christ the conflict stood, And sin and death are vanquished, quite. VII Glory to Thee our souls proclaim, Great Son of God, Thou Victor strong; Thy love inspires our hearts to sing, The victory fills our endless song. I O Son of God, afflicted, And slain for sinful men, My soul hath oft' depicted What Thou didst suffer then,-- The pain, the grief, the sighing, The burden of Thy woe, The cross, the shame, the dying That filled Thy life below. II