Scripture Verse

…looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. 2 Peter 3:12

Introduction

portrait
Philip Doddridge
(1702–1751)

Words: Phi­lip Dodd­ridge (1702–1751). Pub­lished post­hu­mous­ly in Hymns Found­ed on Va­ri­ous Texts in the Ho­ly Scrip­tures, by Job Or­ton (Shrop­shire, Eng­land: Jo­shua Ed­dowes & John Cot­ton, 1755), num­ber 342: The cir­cum­stanc­es of Christ’s se­cond ap­pear­ing.

Music: Mi­nal, Ger­man cho­rale, ar­ranged from Con­rad Koch­er (1786–1872) in Car­mi­na Sac­ra, by Lo­well Ma­son (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: John H. Wil­kins & Ri­chard B. Car­ter, 1844), page 45 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Conrad Kocher (1786–1872)

Lyrics

My wak­ened soul, ex­tend thy wings,
Beyond the verge of mor­tal things;
See this vain world in smoke de­cay,
And rocks and mount­ains melt away.

Behold the fie­ry del­uge roll,
Through Heav’n’s wide arch, from pole to pole;
Pale sun, no more thy lus­ter boast:
Tremble and fall, ye star­ry host.

This wreck of na­ture all around,
The an­gel’s shout, the trum­pet’s sound,
Loud the des­cend­ing Judge pro­claim,
And ec­ho His tre­men­dous name.

Children of Ad­am, all ap­pear
With re­ver­ence round His aw­ful bar;
For, as His lips pro­nounce, ye go,
To end­less bliss, or end­less woe!

Lord, to my eyes this scene dis­play
Frequent through each re­volv­ing day;
And let Thy grace my soul pre­pare
To meet its full re­demp­tion there.