There Is a Green Hill Far Away

Sheet Music

• Using the tune Meditation, with all five verses and the ending AMEN
  • PDF
  • MIDI
  • LilyPond
  • Copyright: Public Domain
  • Contributer: Veramet 14:23, 11 September 2007 (MDT)
• C.M.D. version from Deseret Sunday School Songs, 1909 (no. 252): using an arrangement from an old melody
  • PDF
  • MIDI
  • LilyPond
  • Copyright: Public Domain
  • Contributer: Veramet 14:23, 11 September 2007 (MDT)

External Sheet Music

• Flash printable/playable sheet music from LDS.org

LDS Notes

It seems likely that the reason the third verse is missing in the current LDS hymnal is that the tune meditation, commonly used with this song (which is in common meter), was not published in early church hymnals, but rather another tune written in common meter double was used in Deseret Sunday School Songs, 1909; there were five verses in the original hymn, and so to make it fit common meter double one of the verses had to be dropped.

Tunes

• Meditation, by John Henry Gower (1855–1922), 1890
• Tune used in Deseret Sunday School Songs, 1909 (no. 252)
• Horsley, by William Horsley (1774–1858), 1844
• Green Hill, by George Coles Stebbins (1846–1945), 1878

Lyrics

• Poet: Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander (1823–1895), 1847—the Cyberhymnal says she was born in 1818, though several public domain sources say she was born in 1823.
• Copyright: Public Domain

Lyrics from Service Book and Hymnal: for Evening Prayer and Sunday-Schools, 1891 (no. 76)

1. There is a green hill far away
Without a city wall,
Where the dear Lord was crucified,
Who died to save us all.

2. We may not know, we cannot tell,
What pains He had to bear;
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.

3. He died that we might be forgiv'n,
He died to make us good,
That we might go at last to heav'n
Saved by His precious blood.

4. There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin.
He only could unlock the gate
Of heav'n, and let us in.

5. O, dearly, dearly has He loved,
And we must love Him too,
And trust in His redeeming blood,
And try His works to do.

AMEN.

Lyrics from Deseret Sunday School Songs, 1909 (no. 252)

1. There is a green hill far away,
Without a city wall,
Where the dear Lord was crucified,
Who died to save us all.
We may not know, we cannot tell,
What pains He had to bear;
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.

2. There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin;
He only could unlock the gate
Of heav'n, and let us in.
Oh, dearly, dearly has He loved,
And we must love Him too,
And trust in His redeeming blood,
And try His works to do.

External Lyrics

• Lyrics from Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1985

External Links

• Cyber Hymnal™ article