Ah! Whither Would Ye Fly?

Ah! Whi­ther would ye fly

To screen your guil­ty heads?

Danger and death are al­ways nigh

Where’er a sin­ner treads:

Impenitent

ye strive

To ’scape with fruit­less haste

Whom earth must swal­low up alive

Or hell re­ceive at last.

Tremble

ye Christ­less crowd

Whom death and hell pur­sue

Strangers

and en­em­ies to God

Alas! What will ye do?

In vain ye change your place

If still un­changed your mind

Or fly to dist­ant climes

un­less

Ye leave your sins be­hind.

Your sins for ven­geance call

Your sins the scourge de­mand

Your sins have judg­ment brought on all

The sad pol­lut­ed land:

Cursed for your on­ly sake

The earth reels to and fro

And lo! Its deep foun­da­tions shake

And To­phet yawns be­low.

The na­tions to re­buke

When God His pow­er dis­plays

Earth trem­bles at His threat­en­ing look

And moves

and shifts its place:

Infernal thun­ders roar

And speak His kin­dled ire

And hills dis­solve like wax be­fore

The sin con­sum­ing fire.

Who can es­cape the wreck

In that vin­dic­tive day?

The mount­ains at His pre­sence quake

In fear they flee away;

The rocks He rends and tears

And vio­lent­ly throws down;

And na­ture in con­vul­sions bears

The ter­ror of His frown.

Strong tow­ers

and mas­sy walls

From their foun­da­tions leap

The Heav’n in­vad­ing ci­ty falls

Into a ru­in­ous heap;

His des­tined prey to seize

Old ocean bursts his chain;

The fount­ains of the great abyss

Are brok­en up again.

On hell’s ap­par­ent brink

Who shall the sin­ner save?

See ci­ties

men

and kin­gdoms sink

Into a com­mon grave!

What man the earth sur­vives

The earth to cha­os hurled

While fi­nal ruin fierce­ly drives

Her plough­share o’er the world!

Does re­fuge yet re­main?

Yes

it shall e’er en­dure!

A place where peace and safe­ty reign

And sin­ners rest se­cure;

A hid­den place ab­ove

Where once the pro­phet stood

And saw the ma­jes­ty of love

And saw the pass­ing God.

Hither

ye worms

come up

Who from His judg­ments fly

And meet Him on the mount­ain top

And on His love rely;

Safe in the sac­red Rock

Look down on all be­neath

And at de­struct­ion smile

and mock

The point­less darts of death.

What though the earth re­move

Believers need not fear

Hid in the cleft of dy­ing love

While death and hell are near;

A house be­liev­ers have

Eternal in the skies

And find a life be­yond the grave

A life that nev­er dies.