Fairer than the Sons of Men

Representative Text

1 Eternal excellence!
Thy Worms would fain declare,
In the divinest sense
How thou art heav'nly fair:
O Prince, Messiah, thou art seen
The fairest of the sons of men.

2 Jesus, thy beauties shine
Bright, infinitely bright;
Both human and divine,
In thee, O Lamb, unite!
Whate'er in heav'n or earth we see,
As beautiful, are types of thee.

3 The son, the moon, the stars,
With all the thrones above,
Thine excellence declare,
Thy beauty, pow'r, and love:
All worlds before thy throne we see,
A sea of glass reflecting thee.

4 Man in his first estate,
Most wonderfully form'd,
With beauty's pow'rs replete,
With holiness adorn'd,
From ev'ry spot and blemish free,
Was but a figure, Lord, of thee.

5 As blood of goats, and lambs,
Is to thy blood divine,
Or, as their altar flames,
Dear Jesus are to thine;
So Adam's purity appears,
To thee no more proportion bears.

6 Self int'rest, Lord, shall fail,
Man's haughtiness sinks low;
Thy beauty, Lord, prevail;
We at thy footstool bow:
Thou know'st our heart, we need no more;
Give us to worship, love, adore.

Source: Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs: selected and original, designed for the use of the Church Universal in public and private devotion #LIII

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Author: James Relly

James Relly was born about 1722 at Jeffreston, Pembrokeshire, Wales, and died in 1778. He was converted to Christianity during the Great Awakening ushered in by George Whitefield. He worked under George Whitefield as a Calvinistic Methodist preacher and missionary. However, Whitefield and Relly separated ways over Relly's seemingly universalist teaching that all humanity was elect (i.e. saved) when Christ took the punishment for all sin when he died. He also departed from both the Calvinists and Methodists by taking the doctrine of Justification further, in teaching that believers no longer sin and the Law's sole purpose is to condemn humanity and point them to Christ. He was the mentor of John Murray, the founder of the Universalist Ch… Go to person page >

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