Scripture Verse

Abraham…looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. Genesis 19:27–28

Introduction

portrait
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)

Words: Ho­ra­ti­us Bo­nar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, sec­ond ser­ies (Lon­don: James Nis­bet, 1861), pag­es 255–56, alt.

Music: Llef Grif­fith H. Jones, in Ga­mau Mawl, by Da­vid Jen­kins, 1890 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

  • Erhalt uns, Herr Geist­liche Lied­er (Wit­ten­berg, Ger­ma­ny, 1543) (🔊 pdf nwc)

If you know where to get a bet­ter pho­to of Jones,

portrait
Griffith H. Jones (1849–1919)

Lyrics

Dark hills of Mo­ab! fling­ing down
Your sha­dows on this gloomy vale;
Wild chasms! through which des­ert wind
Rushes, in ev­er­last­ing wail.

Mountains of si­lence! keep­ing watch
Above this stag­nant, sull­en wave,
Where sun­shine seems to smile in vain
O’er So­dom’s mel­an­cho­ly grave.

Day’s young­est beau­ty and its last
Bathes your broad fore­heads, stern and bare;
Yet all un­soft­ened is their frown;
No cheer, no love, no beau­ty there.

I may not climb your aw­ful slopes;
Yet, stand­ing on this hun­gry shore,
By this poor reed-brake of the sand,
I count your sha­dows o’er and o’er.

In this lone lake, your an­cient roots
Lie steeped in bit­ter­ness and death;
Your sum­mits rise all ver­dure­less,
Scorched by its hot and hell­ish breath.

Yon sea! its molt­en sil­ver spreads,
And steams in­to the burn­ing air;
Yon sun­light that across it plays,
How sad, and yet how strange­ly fair.

Haunt of old ri­ot and lewd song,
When So­dom spread its splen­dor here;
O sea of wrath, how si­lent now!
The shroud of ci­ties and their bier.

O val­ley of the shade of death!
O sea, of an­cient sin the tomb!
O hills, sin’s hoa­ry mo­nu­ment,
And type of the eter­nal doom!

Well might the pro­phet’s curse have come
From peaks where hor­rors on­ly dwell;
And idol al­tars smoke on cliffs
That seem the ve­ry gates of hell!

And yet ye gaze on Ju­dah’s vales,
Ye hear the rush of Jor­dan’s flood!
Ye looked on Zi­on’s pa­lace hill,
And saw the tem­ple of our God!