Scripture Verse

The Lord…will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth…the mountains shall be molten under Him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. Micah 1:3–4

Introduction

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns Oc­ca­sioned by the Earth­quake, March 8, 1750, Part 2 (Lon­don: Stra­han, 1750), num­ber 4, alt.

Music: Gött­ing­en, in The Pri­mi­tive Me­tho­dist Hym­nal, ed­it­ed by George Booth (Lon­don: Pri­mi­tive Me­tho­dist Pub­lish­ing House, 1889), num­ber 1007 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Lyrics

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.