Scripture Verse

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. Ezekiel 37:1

Introduction

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Short Hymns (Bris­tol, Eng­land: E. Far­ley, 1762), Vol­ume 2, num­bers 1272–74.

Music: Al­ford John B. Dykes, in Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern, 1875 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Lyrics

illustration
The Vision of Ezekiel
Gustave Doré (1832–1883)

Caught by th’Al­migh­ty hand,
That Spi­rit of the Lord,
Carried be­yond my­self I stand,
A wit­ness of His Word;
I see the book un­sealed,
Least of the pro­phets’ sons,
I mark Eze­ki­el’s val­ley filled
With vi­sion­ary bones!

Many they are and dry,
Spread thro’ the op­en vale,
Millions of life­less souls they lie
Within the Chris­tian pale:
I pass the church­es thro’,
The scat­tered bones I see,
And Chris­ten­dom ap­pears in view’
A hi­de­ous Cal­va­ry.

Can these dry bones per­ceive
The quick­en­ing pow­er of grace,
Or Chris­tian in­fi­dels re­trieve
The life of right­eous­ness?
All-good, al­migh­ty Lord,
Thou know’st Thine own de­sign,
The vir­tue of Thine own great Word,
The ener­gy di­vine.

Now for Thy mer­cy’s sake,
Let Thy great Word pro­ceed,
Dispensed by whom Thou wilt, to wake
The spi­rit­ual­ly dead;
Send forth to pro­phe­sy
Thy chos­en mes­sen­ger,
And Thou the Gos­pel word ap­ply,
And force the world to hear.

Hear, ye dry bones, and feel
The word of truth and grace:
I will in you My­self re­veal,
I will your spi­rits raise,

Je­ho­vah speaks the word!
The pro­mise is for you,
Ye shall be gra­du­al­ly re­stored,
And fa­shioned all anew.

Covered with flesh and skin
Ye shall your Sav­ior know,
And find the breath of life with­in
Which I on all be­stow;
The joy­ful news re­ceive,
The grace to sin­ners giv’n,
The know­ledge of your Lord, and live
The sin­less life of Heav’n.