Scripture Verse

They had as king over them the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon. Revelation 9:11

Introduction

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns of In­ter­ces­sion for All Man­kind (Bris­tol, Eng­land: E. Far­ley, 1758), num­ber 2.

Music: St. Ca­the­rine (Wal­ton) ar­ranged by James G. Wal­ton, in Crown of Je­sus Mu­sic, by Hen­ri F. He­my (Lon­don: 1864) (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of He­my or Wal­ton (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Lyrics

Our earth we now la­ment to see
With floods of wick­ed­ness o’er­flowed,
With vio­lence, wrong, and cru­el­ty,
One-ex­tend­ed field of blood,
Where men, like fiends, each oth­er tear,
In all the hell­ish rage of war.

As list­ed on Abad­don’s side,
They man­gle their own flesh, and slay:
Tophet is moved, and op­ens wide
Its mouth for its enor­mous prey;
And my­ri­ads sink be­neath the grave,
And plunge into the flam­ing wave.

O might the uni­vers­al Friend
This ha­voc of His crea­tures see!
Bid our un­na­tur­al dis­cord end;
Declare us re­con­ciled in Thee;
Write kind­ness on our in­ward parts,
And chase the mur­der­er from our hearts!

Who now against each oth­er rise,
The na­tions of the earth con­strain
To fol­low af­ter peace, and prize
The bless­ings of Thy right­eous reign,
The joys of uni­ty to prove,
The pa­ra­dise of per­fect love.