Scripture Verse

The whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. Romans 8:22

Introduction

Words: Ano­ny­mous, in Sac­red Me­lo­dies for Se­cond Ad­vent, Con­fer­ence and Camp Meet­ings (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Jo­sh­ua V. Himes, 1843), alt.

Music: El­ez Ben­ja­min F. Al­le­man, in Augs­burg Songs (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Lu­ther­an Pub­li­ca­tion So­ci­ety, 1885), num­ber 2 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

If you know the au­thor, or where to get a good pict­ure of him or Al­le­man (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

The groan­ing cre­ation doth wait,
Together they tra­vail in pain;
The watch­men who stand in the gate
Are long­ing the morn­ing to gain.
O! when will the Bride­groom ap­pear,
His long-wait­ing Bride to re­ceive?
We know that His com­ing is near;
He will not His peo­ple de­ceive.

He waits for His bride to ap­pear
In right­eous­ness ful­ly ar­rayed;
While lack­ing, He can­not draw near—
Make rea­dy, and be not afraid.
The scoff­ers who mock at His word
Must al­so stand ful­ly re­vealed,
Ere they can re­ceive their re­ward,
Or judg­ment be fin­al­ly sealed.