When time seems short, and death is near,
And I am pressed by doubt and fear,
And sins, an overflowing tide,
Assail my peace on every side,
This thought my refuge still shall be,
I know my Savior died for me.
His name is Jesus, and He died—
For guilty sinners crucified;
Content to die, that He might win
Their ransom from the death of sin.
No sinner worse than I can be,
Therefore I know He died for me.
I read God’s holy Word, and find
Great truths which far transcend my mind
And little do I know beside
Of thought so high and deep and wide.
This is my best theology—
I know the Savior died for me.
My faith is weak, but ‘tis Thy gift;
Thou canst my helpless soul uplift,
And say, “Thy bonds of death are riv’n,
Thy sins by Me are all forgiv’n,
And thou shalt live, from guilt set free;
For I, thy Savior, died for thee.”
About the writer: George Washington Bethume, a minister in the Reformed Dutch Church, was born in New York in 1805. He graduated from Dickinson College in 1823, and studied theology at Princeton. In 1827 he became pastor of a Reformed Dutch Church at Rhinebeck, New York. In 1861 he went abroad for his health. He died in Florence, Italy in 1862 suddenly after preaching. Dr. Bethune wrote occasional hymns and poems for more than 30 years. A collection of his poems, Lays of Love and Faith, was published in Philadelphia in 1847.
Key Verse: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. –Romans 5:8