Tremendous Lord of Earth and Skies

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.

Appalled

o’er­whelmed with con­scious fear

Beneath Thy frown we mourn

And shud­der at the judg­ment near

And dread its swift re­turn.

So oft

and ter­ri­bly re­proved

Our land is warned in vain

For oh! the cause is un­re­moved

The sin doth still re­main.

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 yet more

and mock

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 sink with gay in­dif­fer­ence down

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 strong­ly save Thine own.

If earth its mouth must 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 clefts of Is­ra­el’s Rock

Our Lord’s ex­pir­ing love.