Scripture Verse

The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Isaiah 60:19

Introduction

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James Montgomery (1771–1854)
National Portrait Gallery

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Words: James Mont­gom­ery, The Chris­tian Psalm­ist (Glas­gow, Scot­land: Chal­mers & Col­lins, 1825), page 411. The day af­ter judg­ment.

Music: Klein, ar­ranged from Klein in Laud­es Do­mi­ni, ed­it­ed by Charles S. Ro­bin­son (New York: Cen­tu­ry Com­pa­ny, 1884), page 340 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Lyrics

The days and years of time are fled,
Sun, moon, and stars have shone their last;
The earth and sea gave up their dead,
Then van­ished, at th’arch­an­gel’s blast;
All sec­ret things have been re­vealed,
Judgment is passed, the sen­tence sealed,
And man to all eter­ni­ty
What he is now hence­forth must be.

From Ad­am to his young­est heir,
Not one es­caped that mus­ter roll,
Each, as if he alone were there,
Stood up, and won or lost his soul;
These from the Judge’s pre­sence go
Down into ev­er­last­ing woe;
Vengeance hath barred the gates of hell,
The scenes with­in no tongue can tell.

But lo! far off the right­eous pass
To glo­ry from the King’s right hand;
In si­lence, on the sea of glass,
Heaven’s num­bers with­out num­ber stand,
While He who bore the cross lays down
His priest­ly robe and vic­tor crown;
The me­dia­to­ri­al reign com­plete,
All things are put be­neath His feet.

Then ev­ery eye in Him shall see—
While thrones and pow­ers be­fore Him fall—
The full­ness of the De­ity,
Where God Him­self is all in all;
O how eter­ni­ty shall ring
With the first note the ran­somed sing!
While in that strain all voic­es blend,
Which once be­gun shall ne­ver end.

In that un­ut­ter­able song,
Shall I em­ploy im­mor­tal breath?
Or with the wick­ed borne along,
For ev­er die the se­cond death?
Jesus, my life, my light, Thou art;
Thy word is in my mouth, my heart:
Lord, I believe, my spi­rit save
From sink­ing low­er than the grave.