Scripture Verse

Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes. Matthew 24:6–7

Introduction

portrait
William Croft (1678–1727)

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems 1742.

Music: Ha­no­ver at­trib­ut­ed to Will­iam Croft, in The Sup­ple­ment to the New Ver­sion of Psalms, by Na­hum Tate & Ni­cho­las Bra­dy, 6th edi­tion, 1708 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Charlotte Bro­ntë des­cribes this hymn in Shir­ley, chap. ix, as sung in ‘Bri­ar Cha­pel, a large, new, raw, Wes­ley­an place of wor­ship.’

As there was ev­en now a pray­er meet­ing be­ing held with­in its walls, the il­lum­in­a­tion of its win­dows cast a bright re­flec­tion on the road, while a hymn of a most ex­tra­or­di­na­ry des­crip­tion, such as a ve­ry Quak­er might feel him­self moved by the Spi­rit to dance to, roused chee­ri­ly all the ech­oes of the vic­in­age, O who can ex­plain this strug­gle for life.

Telford, p. 273

Lyrics

Omnipotent Lord, my Sav­ior and king,
Thy suc­cor af­ford, Thy right­eous­ness bring;
Thy pro­mis­es bind Thee com­pass­ion to have,
Now, now let me find Thee al­migh­ty to save.

Rejoicing in hope, and pa­tient in grief,
To Thee I look up for cer­tain re­lief;
I fear no de­ni­al, no dan­ger I fear,
Nor start from the tri­al, while Je­sus is near.

I ev­ery hour in jeo­par­dy stand;
But Thou art my pow­er, and hold­est my hand;
While yet I am call­ing, Thy suc­cor I feel,
It saves me from fall­ing, or plucks me from hell.

O who can ex­plain this strug­gle for life!
This tra­vail and pain, this trem­bling and strife!
Plague, earth­quake, and fa­mine, and tu­mult, and war,
The won­der­ful com­ing of Je­sus de­clare.

For ev­ery fight is dread­ful and loud,
The war­ri­or’s de­light is slaugh­ter and blood,
His foes ov­er­turn­ing, till all shall ex­pire;
But this is with burn­ing and fu­el of fire.

Yet God is above men, dev­ils, and sin,
My Je­sus’ love the bat­tle shall win,
So ter­ri­bly glo­ri­ous His com­ing shall be,
His love all vic­to­ri­ous shall con­quer for me.

He all shall break through; His truth and His grace
Shall bring me into the plen­ti­ful place,
Through much tri­bu­la­tion, through wa­ter and fire,
Through floods of temp­ta­tion, and flames of de­sire.

On Je­sus, my pow­er, till then I rely,
All ev­il be­fore His pre­sence shall fly;
When I have my Sav­ior, my sin shall de­part
And Je­sus for ev­er shall reign in my heart.