Hast thou heard Him, seen Him, known Him

B248 C333* CB437 E437 G437 K333 R308 S186 Tc333
1
Hast thou heard Him, seen Him, known Him?
  Is not thine a captured heart?
Chief among ten thousand own Him;
  Joyful choose the better part.
 
Captivated by His beauty,
Worthy tribute haste to bring;
Let His peerless worth constrain thee,
  Crown Him now unrivaled King.
2
Idols once they won thee, charmed thee,
  Lovely things of time and sense;
Gilded thus does sin disarm thee,
  Honeyed lest thou turn thee thence.
3
What has stripped the seeming beauty
  From the idols of the earth?
Not a sense of right or duty,
  But the sight of peerless worth.
4
Not the crushing of those idols,
  With its bitter void and smart;
But the beaming of His beauty,
  The unveiling of His heart.
5
Who extinguishes their taper
  Till they hail the rising sun?
Who discards the garb of winter
  Till the summer has begun?
6
’Tis that look that melted Peter,
  ’Tis that face that Stephen saw,
’Tis that heart that wept with Mary,
  Can alone from idols draw:
7
Draw and win and fill completely,
  Till the cup o’erflow the brim;
What have we to do with idols
  Who have companied with Him?
29

The issue of experiencing God's appearing is always consecration. When we meet God, we spontaneously say, "Lord, everything that is mine is for You. I let You live in every situation." We often give messages on consecration. However, our messages cannot produce consecration. Consecration is not produced from our speaking. Consecration is brought forth after a person has met God. We can give people a mental understanding of consecration and teach them the significance of consecration. But no amount of listening to messages can cause a person to consecrate himself. A genuine and meaningful consecration is brought forth only after a person experiences God's appearing. Only "the sight of peerless worth" (Hymns, #437, stanza 3) can cause us to offer ourselves to the Lord.

Only the face of tears that Peter saw, only the face of glory into which Stephen looked, and only the heart that wept with Mary can keep us away from the idols, the attractions, of this world. The Bible tells us that Jesus wept with Mary (John 11:35). Have you ever heard that God weeps? Many say that Jesus came to express God, but they mainly refer to the miracles He did, not to the tears that He shed.

Piano Hymns