1 O’er hill and vale and temple proud
When Jesus died for man,
There hung in air a sable shroud
To mark the bitter ban—
The ban of death on sinners laid,
The dreadful debt Emmanuel paid!

2 Well might the sun of nature hide
Its matchless lamp of light,
And veil, while its Creator died,
All radiancy in night:
How could the smallest star illume
The depth of such infernal gloom!

3 Oh! direful darkness—unalloyed,
Of horror most profound—
Emblem of what the cross destroyed
And leveled with the ground;
When, bursting through the reams of hell,
It beamed with light ineffable!

4 Lord! by that darkness, from this soul
All darkness roll away—
Nor let a shade of sin control
My progress t’wards the day:
That day, with an unclouded sky,
Of Heav’n—in full eternity!