I Stand Amazed

I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how He could love me,
A sinner, condemned, unclean.

Refrain

O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!

For me it was in the garden
He prayed: “Not My will, but Thine.”
He had no tears for His own griefs,
But sweat drops of blood for mine.

In pity angels beheld Him,
And came from the world of light
To comfort Him in the sorrows
He bore for my soul that night.

He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own;
He bore the burden to Calvary,
And suffered and died alone.

When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see,
’Twill be my joy through the ages
To sing of His love for me.

by Charles H. Gabriel, 1856-1932

Hymn Background  

Charles Gabriel grew up on an Iowa farm and taught himself music by playing his family's reed organ. He is credited with between 7,000 and 8,000 songs, thirty-five gospel song collections and a variety of song books, choir collections and cantatas.  Gabriel wrote under a good number of pseudonyms, which makes it even more difficult to know exactly how many hymns he wrote. He is credited as the composer for Civilla Martin's "His Eye Is on the Sparrow as well as Ada Habershon's "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?"