One from the vault

Pastor Sam (Dr. Waldron) loves good hymns and often uses them to illustrate his points while teaching. In his class on soteriology, he used John Kent's 1803 hymn "Twixt Jesus and the chosen race" to open up the point of our union with Christ. 

The hymn appears in several hymnals of its time; Gadsby (#405) called it "Exulting in eternal union with Jesus," then listed John 17:21-23. It's a dense text and requires careful treatment, I think.

The opening stanza reads, "'Twixt Jesus and the chosen race, subsists a bond of sovereign grace, that hell, with its infernal train, shall ne'er dissolve nor rend in twain." This is his theme -- Kent wants us to rejoice in the breadth of our indissoluble union with Jesus -- from eternity, in the history of redemption, and in our own experience.

Kent provided 8 stanzas; apparently few sang all 8 stanzas, even when it was new. In a note from the preface of his hymnal, Wm. Gadsby suggests that, if a hymn be thought too long to sing, one may safely omit stanzas marked with brackets, "without destroying the sense." On this hymn he brackets stanzas 3,5 and 7 -- in other words, sing only 1,2,4,6,8.

The version Pastor Sam used contained only stanzas 3,4,5,6,8.

Spurgeon, in his hymnal, only includes stanzas 1,4,5,6.

I put our singing of it to a LMD tune from sovereigngrace, "Before the throne of God above." I needed, then, an even number of stanzas. So our version: 3/4, 5/6, 8/2.

I'm open to suggestions for other arrangements. I've included the hymn below just the way Kent wrote it. Have at it!

1. 'Twixt Jesus and the Chosen Race
Subsists a bond of sov'reign grace,
That hell, with its infernal train,
Shall ne'er dissolve, or rend in twain.

2. This sacred bond shall never break,
Though earth should to her center shake;
Rest, doubting saint, assured of this,
For God has pledged His holiness.

3. He swore but once the deed was done;
'Twas settled by the great Three One;
Christ was appointed to redeem
All that the Father loved in Him.

4. Hail, sacred union, firm and strong
How great thy grace, how sweet the song,
That rebel worms should ever be
One with incarnate Deity!

5. One in the tomb, one when He rose,
One when he triumphed o'er His foes
One when in heav'n He took His seat,
While seraphs sung at hell's defeat.

6. This sacred tie forbids their fears,
For all he is or has is theirs;
With hium, their Head, they stand or fall--
Their Life, their Surety, and their All.

7. The Sinner's Peace, the Daysman he,
whose blood should set his people free;
On them his fond affections ran,
Before creation-work began.

8. Blessed by the wisdom and the grace,
Th' eternal love and faithfulness,
That's in the gospel scheme revealed,
And is by God the Spirit sealed.