Scripture Verse

Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Matthew 25:41

Introduction

portrait
Isaac Watts (1674–1748)

Words: Is­aac Watts, Hymns and Spir­it­ual Songs 1707–09, Book 2, num­ber 107. The ev­er­last­ing ab­sence of God in­to­ler­able.

Music: Wind­sor Chris­to­pher Tye, 1533. Ar­ranged in Booke of Mu­sicke, by Will­iam Da­man, 1591 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Tye (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

That aw­ful day will sure­ly come,
Th’ap­point­ed hour makes haste,
When I must stand be­fore my judge,
And pass the so­lemn test.

Thou love­ly chief of all my joys,
Thou so­ver­eign of my heart,
How could I bear to hear Thy voice
Pronounce the sound, De­part!

The thun­der of that dis­mal word
Would so tor­ment my ear,
’Twould tear my soul asun­der, Lord,
With most tor­ment­ing fear.

What! to be ban­ished from my Life,
And yet for­bid to die!
To lin­ger in eter­nal pain,
Yet death for­ev­er fly!

O, wretch­ed state of deep des­pair!
To see my God re­move,
And fix my dole­ful sta­tion where
I must not taste His love.

Jesus! I throw my arms around,
And hang up­on Thy breast;
Without a gra­cious smile from Thee
My spir­it can­not rest.

O, tell me that my worth­less name
Is grav­en on Thy hands;
Show me some pro­mise in Thy book,
Where my sal­va­tion stands!

Give me one kind as­sur­ing word
To sink my fears again;
And cheer­ful­ly my soul shall wait
Her three­score years and ten.