Joseph Hart was born in London in 1712 and at an early age resisted the truths of Christianity, going so far as to write a pamphlet entitled, “The Unreasonableness of Religion, Being Remarks and Animadversions on the Rev. John Wesley Sermon on Romans 8:32.” He was converted at a Moravian Chapel in Fetter Lane, London, after hearing a sermon on Revelation 3:10, and eventually became a Non-Conformist pastor and hymn writer. One of his best known hymns is “Come, Ye Sinners,” but I came across a hymn that I don’t ever remember singing, but it is a marvelous testimony of God’s grace to sinners, “A Man There Is, a Real Man.”
The hymn is written in common meter which means it can be sung to the tune of “Amazing Grace” or “How Sweet and Awesome is This Place” (or “The House of Rising Sun,” but I wouldn’t recommend that [snicker]). I am curious, has anyone ever sung this hymn in corporate worship, and if so, to what hymn tune was it sung?
A Man there is, a real Man,
With wounds still gaping wide,
From which rich streams of blood once ran,
In hands, and feet, and side.
‘Tis no wild fancy of our brains,
No metaphor we speak;
The same dear Man in heaven now reigns,
That suffered for our sake.
This wondrous Man of whom we tell,
Is true Almighty God;
He bought our souls from death and hell;
The price, His own heart’s blood.
That human heart He still retains,
Though throned in highest bliss;
And feels each tempted member’s pains;
For our affliction’s His.
Come, then, repenting sinner, come;
Approach with humble faith;
Owe what thou wilt, the total sum
Is canceled by His death!
His blood can cleanse the blackest soul,
And wash our guilt away;
He will present us sound and whole
In that tremendous day.
The Rankin File 