Wesley Corpus

Jesus, Lord, to whom we cry, The true repentance give, Give us at thy feet to lie, And tremble, and believe; On the Rock of Ages place Our souls, till all the wrath is o'er, Ground, and stablish us in grace, And bid us sin no more. Hymn III. Tremendous Lord of earth, and skies, Most holy, high, and just, We fall before thy glorious eyes, And hide us in the dust: Thine anger's long suspended stroke With deepest awe we feel, And tremble on, so lately shook Over the mouth of hell. Appall'd, o'erwhelm'd with conscious fear, Beneath thy frown we mourn, And shudder at the judgment near, And dread its swift return. So oft, and terribly reprov'd, Our land is warn'd in vain, For O! The cause is unremov'd, The sin doth still remain. Page 6 3Changed to "Harden their hearts yet more, and mock" in 2nd edn. (1750) and following. 4Changed to "And sink with gay indifference down" in 2nd edn. (1750) and following. 5"Strangly" changed to "strongly" in 2nd edn. (1750) and 3rd edn. (1755-56); back to "strangely" in 2nd edn. 6"Should" changed to "must" in 2nd edn. (1750) and following. 7"Clifts" changed to "clefts" in 2nd edn. (1750) and following. The crowd, the poor unthinking crowd, Refuse thy hand to see, They will not hear thy loudest rod, They will not turn to thee. As with judicial blindness struck, They all thy signs despise, Harden their hearts, and madly mock3 The anger of the skies. But blinder still, the rich and great In wickedness excel, And revel on the brink of fate, And sport, and dance to hell. Regardless of thy smile or frown, Their pleasures they require, And calmly sink together down4 To everlasting fire. But O! Thou dreadful righteous Lord, The praying remnant spare, The men that tremble at thy word, And see the coming snare: Our land if yet again thou shake, Or utterly break down, A merciful distinction make, And strangly5 save thine own. If earth its mouth should6 open wide, To swallow up its prey, Jesu, thy faithful people hide In that vindictive day: Firm in the universal shock We shall not then remove, Safe in the clifts7 of Israel's Rock, Our Lord's expiring love.