Scripture Verse

I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. Revelation 16:1

Introduction

portrait
John Newton (1725–1807)

Words: John New­ton, Ol­ney Hymns (Lon­don: W. Ol­iv­er, 1779), Book 2, num­ber 44, alt. On the com­mence­ment of hos­ti­li­ties in Am­eri­ca.

Music: This En­dris Nyght 15th Cen­tu­ry (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

Lyrics

The ga­ther­ing clouds, with as­pect dark,
A ris­ing storm pre­sage;
Oh! to be hid with­in the ark,
And shel­tered from its rage!

See the com­mis­sioned an­gel frown!
That vi­al in his hand,
Filled with fierce wrath, is pour­ing down
Upon our guil­ty land!

Ye saints, unite in wrest­ling pray­er;
If yet there may be hope;
Who knows but Mer­cy yet may spare,
And bid the an­gel stop?

Already is the plague begun,
And fired with hos­tile rage;
Brethren, by blood and in­ter­est one,
With breth­ren now en­gage.

Peace spreads her wings, pre­pared for flight,
And war, with flam­ing sword,
And has­ty strides draws nigh, to fight
The bat­tles of the Lord.

The first alarm, alas, how few,
While dist­ant, seem to hear!
But they will hear, and trem­ble too,
When God shall send it near.

So thun­der, o’er the dist­ant hills,
Gives but a mur­mu­ring sound,
But as the tem­pest spreads, it fills,
And shakes the sky around.

May we, at least, with one con­sent,
Fall low be­fore the throne
With tears the na­tion’s sins la­ment,
The Church’s, and our own.

The hum­ble souls who mourn and pray,
The Lord ap­proves and knows;
His mark se­cures them in the day
When ven­geance strikes His foes.

illustration
The Coming Storm
George Inness (1825–1894)