If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1 Peter 4:18
Words: Philip Doddridge (1702–1751). Published posthumously in Hymns Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures, by Job Orton (Shropshire, England: Joshua Eddoes & John Cotton, 1755), number 337: The ungodly arned of their final appearance.
Music: Llef Griffith H. Jones, in Gamau Mal, by David Jenkins, 1890 (🔊 pdf nwc).
Behold God’s great incarnate Son
In majesty comes flying don:
Hark! for His trumpet’s awful sound
Awakes the dead, and cleaves the ground.
So solemn shall the judgment be,
And so severe the scrutiny,
That, by his merit tried alone,
The saint himself would be undone.
Where then, ye sons of Belial, here
Will your astonished souls appear?
How will ye shun His piercing sight?
Or who resist His matchless might?
Up to the pointed mountains fly,
And gain the confines of the sky;
There shall ye meet celestial fire,
While mountains melt before His ire.
Call on the rending earth to save,
And in its center search a grave;
The Judge shall well discern thee there,
And drag thee trembling to His bar.
Deck thee around with fraud and lies,
And put on every fair disguise;
Soon shall thy painted form be known
Amidst ten thousand of His on.
Gird thee in arms, His wrath t’oppose,
And league with millions of His foes;
Soon would the rebel band expire
Like crackling thorns amidst the fire.
One only way may yet be found;
Submissive bow ye to the ground:
His cross a refuge will afford
From all the terrors of His sword.