Having said that I would not have time to write anything on Christmas Day, I find myself in the lull period after lots of food and before we have energy enough to do anything else, and am able to post something wonderful that I read last night. It's by my favourite eighteenth-century poet and hymnist, William Cowper, a man who deep depression forced to cling more closely to the truth than more stable minds might have done. This is the last in a sequence of hymns about the names of God, and is wonderfully appropriate for Christmas Day.
Jehovah-Jesus
My song shall bless the LORD of all,
My praise shall climb to his abode;
Thee, Saviour, by that name I call,
The great Supreme, the mighty GOD.
Without beginning, or decline,
Object of faith, and not of sense;
Eternal ages saw him shine,
He shines eternal ages hence.
As much, when in the manger laid,
Almighty ruler of the sky;
As when the six days' works he made
Fill'd all the morning-stars with joy.
Of all the crowns JEHOVAH bears,
Salvation is his dearest claim;
That gracious sound well-pleas'd he hears,
And owns EMMANUEL for his name.
A cheerful confidence I feel,
My well-plac'd hopes with joy I see;
My bosom glows with heav'nly zeal,
To worship him who died for me.
As man, he pities my complaint,
His pow'r and truth are all divine;
He will not fail, he cannot faint,
Salvation's sure. and must be mine.
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