Scripture Verse

Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counselors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Daniel 3:24–25

Introduction

Words: Charles Wes­ley (1707–1788), in The Un­pub­lished Po­et­ry of Charles Wes­ley, by S. T. Kim­brough, Jr., & Ol­iv­er A. Beck­er­leg­ge (Nash­ville, Ten­nes­see: Ab­ing­don Press, 1992), pag­es 129–30.

Music: Er­halt uns, Herr Geist­liche Lied­er (Wit­ten­berg, Ger­ma­ny: 1543) (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Lyrics

illustration
Three Men in the Fiery Furnace

Where is the God of Shad­rach? Where
Abednego’s and Me­shach’s pow­er,
Through whom we may the fur­nace bear,
The vi­olence of hell’s hot­test hour!

Be Thou om­ni­po­tent­ly near,
Whose form is as the Son of Man,
Amidst the rag­ing flames ap­pear,
And all their burn­ing pow­er re­strain.

Thou know­est, O Lord, in Thy great name,
Unshaken con­fi­dence we have,
Send us the pro­mised help we claim,
Now, Je­sus, and for­ev­er, save.

The world’s in­fer­nal king ex­claims,
Whose im­age we dis­dained t’ad­ore,
At his com­mand the fur­nace flames,
Flames se­ven times hot­ter than be­fore.

His migh­ty chiefs have cast us in,
Behold, ye hea­then, and ad­mire,
Loose from our bands we here are seen
And walk un­hurt amidst the fire.

We walk through­out our ev­il day,
Our lead­er in the fur­nace see,
The lam­bent flames around us play,
And own the pre­sent De­ity.