…looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
2 Peter 3:12
Words: Philip Doddridge (1702–1751). Published posthumously in Hymns Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures, by Job Orton (Shropshire, England: Joshua Eddowes & John Cotton, 1755), number 342: The circumstances of Christ’s second appearing.
Music: Minal, German chorale, arranged from Conrad Kocher (1786–1872) in Carmina Sacra, by Lowell Mason (Boston, Massachusetts: John H. Wilkins & Richard B. Carter, 1844), page 45 (🔊 pdf nwc).
My wakened soul, extend thy wings,
Beyond the verge of mortal things;
See this vain world in smoke decay,
And rocks and mountains melt away.
Behold the fiery deluge roll,
Through heaven’s wide arch, from pole to pole;
Pale sun, no more thy luster boast:
Tremble and fall, ye starry host.
This wreck of nature all around,
The angel’s shout, the trumpet’s sound,
Loud the descending Judge proclaim,
And echo His tremendous name.
Children of Adam, all appear
With reverence round His awful bar;
For, as His lips pronounce, ye go,
To endless bliss, or endless woe!
Lord, to my eyes this scene display
Frequent through each revolving day;
And let Thy grace my soul prepare
To meet its full redemption there.