Deeper than the stain has gone

Nearly 10 years ago I posted two stanzas of the hymn Dark the stain that soiled man’s nature. Since then I have found that it has four stanzas and a chorus. Here they are:

1. Dark the stain that soiled man’s nature,
Long the distance that he fell.
Far removed from hope and heaven,
Into deep despair and hell.
But there was a fountain opened,
And the blood of God’s own Son,
Purifies the soul and reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone!

2. Conscious of the deep pollution,
Sinners wander in the night,
Tho’ they hear the Shepherd calling,
They still fear to face the light.
This the blessed consolation,
That can melt the heart of stone,
That sweet Balm of Gilead reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone!

3. All unworthy we who’ve wandered,
And our eyes are wet with tears;
As we think of love that sought us
Through the weary wasted years.
Yet we walk the holy highway,
Walking by God’s grace alone
Knowing Calv’ry’s fountain reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone!

4. When with holy choirs we’re standing
In the presence of the King,
And our souls are lost in wonder,
While the white robed choirs sing;
Then we’ll praise the name of Jesus,
With the millions round the throne;
Praise Him for the pow’r that reaches,
Deeper than the stain has gone!

Chorus:
   Praise the Lord for full salvation,
   God still reigns upon His throne.
   And I know the blood still reaches
   Deeper than the stain has gone.

I also found it being sung HERE and HERE. My source attributed the song to Raymond Browning (so also in The Sanctified South: John Lakin Brasher and the Holiness Movement). On other hand, several online mentions of the song attribute it to Adger M. Pace. The resolution is that Raymond Browning wrote the words and Adger M. Pace wrote or arranged the music. There is a 1956 copyright renewal by Browning’s wife in Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series that attributes it this way.

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“The Rev. Raymond Browning, 74, former pastor of the Church of the Nazarene in Asheville, died Friday night at this home in Bethany, Oklahoma, after a heart attack.

“The funeral service will be held there on Tuesday.

“Dr. Browning served as pastor of the Asheville church from 1949 until May 1952. He was a native of North Carolina and had been a minister of both Methodist and Nazarene churches. He received his doctorate from Trevecca Nazarene College at Nashville, Tenn. He was a song writer and poet.

“Surviving are the widow; a son, David, missionary to British Honduras, and four daughters.”

(“Nazarene Minister Victim of Death,” The Times-News, Hendersonville, NC, Monday August 24, 1953, page 4)