Scripture Verse

They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for His only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. Zechariah 12:10

Introduction

portrait
Thomas Olivers
1725–1799
National Portrait Gallery

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Words: Tho­mas Ol­iv­ers, writ­ten as a po­em in the mid-18th Cen­tu­ry. Nu­mer­ous cen­tos have sub­se­quent­ly been ex­tract­ed from it: The ver­sion be­low was pub­lished in 1804 in Dal­ry, Scot­land.

Music: Co­ro­nae Will­iam H. Monk, 1871 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
William H. Monk (1823–1889)
National Portrait Gallery

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Lyrics

Come, im­mor­tal King of Glo­ry!
Now with all Thy saints ap­pear;
While as­ton­ished worlds adore Thee,
And the dead Thy cla­ri­ons hear.
Shine re­ful­gent,
And Thy de­ity main­tain.

Hail! the world’s adored cre­at­or!
In Thy ra­di­ant ves­ture seen.
Hail! the Lord of life and na­ture!
Hail th’al­migh­ty Na­za­rene!
They who pierced Him,
Every eye shall see Him come.

But how dif­fer­ent the sen­sa­tion!
Saints, with joy and rap­ture filled,
Glow with ho­ly ex­ul­ta­tion,
To re­demp­tion’s glo­ry sealed;
While the wick­ed
Wail His com­ing’s dread de­sign.

Lo! He comes with clouds des­cend­ing:
Hark! the trump of God is blown:
And th’arch­an­gel’s voice at­tend­ing,
Makes the high pro­ces­sion known.
Sons of Ad­am,
Rise, and stand be­fore your God!

Crowns and scep­ters fall be­fore Him,
Kings and con­quer­ors own His sway;
Haughtiest mon­archs now adore Him,
While they see His light­nings play.
How tri­um­phant
Is the world’s Re­deem­er now!

Light prim­ev­al, in its lus­ter,
Doth in Je­su’s as­pect shine;
Blazing co­mets are not fierc­er
Than His eyes of flame di­vine;
Oh! how dread­ful!
Doth the Cru­ci­fied ap­pear!

Hear His voice as migh­ty thun­der,
Sounding in eter­nal roar,
While its ec­ho rends in sun­der
Rocks and moun­tains, sea and shore.
Hark! His ac­cents
Through th’un­fa­thomed deep re­sound!

See His throne of jas­per white­ness,
Throne of jus­tice and of grace,
See Je­ho­vah’s eq­ual bright­ness
Shining in Em­ma­nu­el’s face.
Saints ex­ult­ing,
Shout with joy th’ac­comp­lished pray­er.

Come, Lord Je­sus, O come quick­ly,
Oft has prayed the mourn­ing Bride.
Lo, He an­swers, I come quick­ly.
Who Thy com­ing may abide?
All who loved Him,
All who longed to see His day.

See the aw­ful ex­pec­ta­tion!
See the heav’ns them­selves on fire!
Melting in the con­fla­gra­tion,
See the ele­ments ex­pire
While the trum­pet
Blows around, Ye dead, arise!

Lo! the dead arise, and stand­ing
At their great cre­at­or’s bar:
While the Judge of all com­mand­ing,
Cries, To meet your God pre­pare.
All whose judg­ments
And His way are eq­ual found.

Now the dread­ful vol­umes op­en­ing,
Scenes of va­ri­ous deeds dis­close,
While the Judge pro­claims the sen­tence,
Righteous sen­tence on His foes;
Wrath to sin­ners;
To His saints, the crown of life!

Gather ye His saints to­ge­ther,
Now with Him in judg­ment sit:
See the vile as stub­ble wi­ther,
Ashes now be­neath your feet!
While His ven­geance
Seals their ev­er­last­ing doom.

Hark! the uni­ver­sal groan­ing;
Hark! the cries of guilt and fear:
Hear them each his fate be­moan­ing,
Each the cause be­moan­ing hear.
God no long­er
Patient, mer­ci­ful, or kind.

Come, ye moun­tains, fall up­on us,
Come, ye rocks, our heads con­ceal;
For the day is now come on us,
Day of wrath that burns to hell
;
Where the gnaw­ing
Worm of con­science ne­ver dies.

Where no more for them re­main­ing,
Hope no more awaits their call;
But in iron bonds de­tain­ing,
Heav’n’s high jus­tice binds up all;
While His mer­cy
To re­morse­less judg­ment turns.

Lo! the God of all con­tend­ing,
Calls the hea­vens from afar,
Bids, O earth, thy sons, at­tend­ing,
Hear Him, for Him­self, declare!
All His wis­dom,
All His right­eous acts un­fold.

Stop for ev­er all com­plain­ing;
Stop the mouth of mur­mur­ing pride.
Fools no more their God dis­dain­ing,
Atheists now no more de­ride,
But with trem­bling
Wait His judg­ments last award!

Go from Me, He saith, ye curs­èd!
Ye, for whom I bled in vain,
Who My ut­most grace re­sist­ed,
Go ye to un­end­ing pain
;
Lord al­migh­ty,
True and right­eous are Thy ways!

Come, He saith, ye heirs of glo­ry!
Come, ye pur­chase of My blood,
Claim the king­dom now be­fore you,
Rise, and fill the mount of God,
Fixed for ev­er,
Where the Lamb on Si­on stands!

See ten thou­sand burn­ing se­raphs
From their thrones as lightn­ings fly!
Take, they cry, your seats above us,
Nearest Him that rules the sky.
Patient suf­fer­ers,
How re­ward­ed are you now!

Ransomed vic­tors, see His en­sign,
Waving high in pur­pled air!
Jesus with His an­cients reign­ing,
Shall to each His con­quest share:
He who made them
More than con­quer­ors through His blood.

Now their tri­als all are end­ed,
Now the du­bi­ous war­fare’s o’er;
Joy no more with sor­row blend­ed;
They shall sigh and weep no more;
God for ev­er
Wipes the tear from ev­ery eye.

Through His pass­ion, all vic­to­ri­ous,
How they drink im­mor­tal wine;
In Em­ma­nu­el’s like­ness glo­ri­ous,
As the fir­ma­ment they shine;
Shine for ev­er
With the bright and morn­ing Star.

Where His scep­ter’s sway ex­tend­ing,
Jesus high His right main­tains;
Heaven, and earth, and hell com­mand­ing,
God om­ni­po­tent He reigns;
Prince of princ­es!
King of kings and Lord of lords!

Shining in His bright ex­pan­sion
King of saints be­hold Him be!
Joy of each adorn­ing man­sion,
Sunk for ev­er at His feet.
Lord of glo­ry!
And His king­dom with­out end!

Shout aloud, ye ethe­re­al choirs,
Triumph in Je­ho­vah’s praise,
Kindle all your hea­ven­ly fires,
All your palms of vic­to­ry raise:
Shout His con­quests,
Shout, Sal­va­tion to the Lamb.

See in sac­red pomp as­cend­ing,
Jesus and His glo­ri­ous train;
Countless my­ri­ads, now at­tend­ing,
Hail the em­py­re­an plain.
Hallelujah,
First and last, and Lord of all!

In full tri­umph see them march­ing,
Through the gates of mas­sy light;
While the ci­ty walls are spark­ling,
With me­ri­di­an glo­ry bright.
O how love­ly
Are the dwell­ings of the Lamb!

See His beau­ty all re­splen­dent:
See Him in the God­head shine;
See Him above all tran­scend­ent,
Full of dei­ty di­vine.
Hail! Eter­nal!
Sovereign Lord of worlds un­known!

On His throne of sap­phired az­ure,
High above all height He reigns:
Reigns the fount of end­less plea­sure;
Self-sub­sist­ent He re­mains.
How dif­fus­ive
Shines the un­cre­at­ed blaze!

Hosts an­gel­ic all adore Him,
Circling round His ori­ent seat,
Elders cast their crowns be­fore Him,
Fall and wor­ship at His feet.
O how holy,
And how re­ver­ent is Thy name!

Shout aloud the new crea­tion,
All ye heav’n­ly arch­es ring,
Echo to the Lord—Sal­va­tion,
Glory to th’eter­nal King!
Dread Je­ho­vah!
God with God! and Son of man!

I am Al­pha and Ome­ga,
I the First and Last am He:
He who was, and is to come.
Who am, and will for ev­er be:
Jah, Je­ho­vah!
Jah, Je­ho­vah is My name!

Hail! Thou Al­pha and Ome­ga,
First and last of all alone!
He that is, and was, and shall be,
And be­side whom there is none.
Take the glo­ry,
Great eter­nal Three in One!