1 WHAT sinners value I resign:
Lord, 'tis enough that Thou art mine!
I shall behold Thy blissful face,
And stand complete in righteousness.
2 This life's a dream, an empty show;'
But the bright world to which I go
Hath joys substantial and sincere:
When shall I wake and find me there?
3 O glorious hour! O blest abode!
I shall be near and like my God;
And flesh and sin no more control
The sacred pleasures of the soul.
4 My flesh shall slumber in the ground,
Till the last trumpet's joyful sound;
Then burst the chains with sweet surprise,
And in my Savior's image rise.
1 'Tis sweet to rest in lively hope,
That when my change shall come,
Angels will hover round my bed,
And waft my spirit home."
2 There shall my disimprisoned soul
Behold Him and adore;
Be with His likeness satisfied, -50 &
And grieve and sin no more.
3 Shall see Him wear that very flesh
On which my guilt was lain;
His Love intense, His merit fresh,
As though but newly slain.
4 Soon too my slumbering dust shall hear
The trumpet's quickening sound;
And, by my Savior's power rebuilt,
At His right hand be found.
5 These eyes shall see Him in that day,
The Lord that died for me:
And all my rising bones shall say,
Lord, who is like to Thee!
6 If such the views which grace unfolds,
Weak as it is below,
What raptures must the Church above
In Jesus' presence know!
Augustus M. Toplady. 1777. a.
1 "SPIRIT, leave thy house of clay:
Lingering dust, resign thy breath!
Spirit, cast thy chains away;
Dust, be thou dissolved in death!"
Thus the mighty Savior speaks,
While the faithful Christian dies;
Thus the bonds of life he breaks,
And the ransomed captive flies.
2 "Prisoner, long detained below,
Prisoner, now with freedom blest;
Welcome from a world of woe,
Welcome to a land of rest!"
Thus the choir of angels sing,
As they bear the soul on high,
While with hallelujahs ring
All the regions of the sky.
3 Grave, the guardian of our dust,
Grave, the treasury of the skies,
Every atom of thy trust
Rests in hope again to rise.
Hark! the judgment-trumpet calls,
"Soul, rebuild thy house of clay;
Immortality thy walls,
And eternity thy day!"
James Montgomery. 1803. a.
1 THE Lord will come! the earth shall quake, The hills their fixed seat forsake; And withering, from the vault of night The stars withdraw their feeble light." 2 The Lord will come! but not the same As once in lowly form He came,
A silent Lamb to slaughter led,
The bruised, the suffering, and the dead.
3 The Lord will come! a dreadful form,
With wreath of flame, and robe of storm,
On cherub wings, and wings of wind,
Anointed Judge of human kind!
4 Can this be He who wont to stray
A pilgrim on the world's highway,
By power opprest, and mocked by pride?
O God, is This the Crucified?
5 Go, tyrants, to the rocks complain !
Go, seek the mountain's cleft in vain!
But faith, victorious o'er the tomb, I'
Shall sing for joy, the Lord is come!
Reginald Heber. 1827.
1 Lo! He comes, with clouds descending,
Once for favored sinners slain!
Thousand thousand saints attending,
Swell the triumph of His train.
Hallelujah!
God appears on earth to reign.
2 Every eye shall now behold Him
Robed in dreadful majesty;
Those who set at naught and sold Him,
Pierced and nailed Him to the tree,
Deeply wailing,
Shall the true Messiah see.
3 The dear tokens of His Passion
Still his dazzling Body bears:
Cause of endless exultation
To His ransomed worshippers;
With what rapture
Gazę we on these glorious scars!
4 Yea, Amen! let all adore Thee,
High on Thine eternal throne!
Savior, take the power and glory,
Claim the kingdom for Thine own!
Come, Lord Jesus!
Everlasting God, come down!
1 GREAT God, what do I see and hear!
The end of things created!
The Judge of man I see appear,
On clouds of glory seated.
The trumpet sounds: the graves restore
The dead which they contained before;
Prepare, my soul, to meet Him.
2 The dead in Christ shall first arise,
At the last trumpet's sounding,
Caught up to meet Him in the skies,
With joy their Lord surrounding;
No gloomy fears their souls dismay;
His presence sheds eternal day
On those prepared to meet Him.
3 But sinners, filled with guilty fears,
Behold His wrath prevailing,
For they shall rise, and find their tears
And sighs are unavailing;
The day of grace is past and gone;
Trembling they stand before the throne,
All unprepared to meet Him.
4 Great God, what do I see and hear!
The end of things created!
The Judge of all men doth appear,
On clouds of glory seated:
Beneath His Cross I view the day
When heaven and earth shall pass away,
And thus prepare to meet Him.
Partly William Bengo Collyer. 1812.
L. M.
1 THAT Day of wrath, that dreadful Day,
When heaven and earth shall pass away,
What power shall be the sinner's stay?
How shall he meet that dreadful Day?
2 Whensh, rivelling like a parched scroll,
The flaming heavens together roll;
When louder yet, and yet more dread,
Swells the high trump that wakes the dead:
3 Lord! on that Day, that wrathful Day,
When man to judgment wakes from clay,
Be Thou, O Christ, the sinner's stay,"
Though heaven and earth shall pass away.
Sir Walter Scott. 1805. a.
1 THE angel comes, he comes to reap
The harvest of the Lord!"
O'er all the earth, with fatal sweep,
Wide waves his flaming sword.
2 And who are they, in sheaves to bide
The fire of vengeance bound?
The tares, whose rank luxuriant pride
Choked the fair crop around.
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