Behold the throne of grace

Behold the throne of grace. John Newton* (1725-1807).  In Book I of Olney Hymns (1779), ‘On select Passages of Scripture’, this was hymn XXXIII, supposedly on II Samuel 3: 5, one of three hymns of which the first was ‘Come, my soul, thy suit prepare’. The verse on which the three hymns were based was given as ‘Ask what I shall give thee’, which is from I Kings 3: 5. The section on I Kings follows that of II Samuel, but the printer in 1779 misplaced the division between the Old Testament books. Because it was the third hymn on this text, it was entitled ‘Another’. It had eight 4-line stanzas, which transform the Old Testament original into a celebration of New Testament grace:      Behold...

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