This Altar is the Lord

Verse 1
This Altar is The Lord,
Our Lord and God most high,
By all his saints beneath ador’d,
By all above the sky:
Rais’d by Almighty hands,
To Adam’s offspring given,
Twixt God and man this Altar stands,
And earth unites to heaven.

Verse 2
This Altar ever lives,
And did for sin atone,
Hallows the offerings it receives,
And bears them to the throne:
Us to the throne it bears,
Mixt with the sacred flame,
And God accepts his worshippers,
Who bow to JESUS’ name.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Ye shall worship before this Altar.’—[Isa.] 36:7.” This hymn appears in the 1783 manuscript “MS Scriptural Hymns.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/576, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 9 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 406.
Publishing: Public Domain