Scripture Verse

The Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. Mark 13:26

Introduction

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Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems 1749.

Music: Me­ri­bah Lo­well Ma­son, 1839 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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Lowell Mason (1792–1872)

This is cer­tain­ly one of the grand­est, most per­fect, and most po­et­ic­al of all Charles Wes­ley’s hymns. Tra­di­tion says that the im­age­ry of the se­cond stan­za was sug­gest­ed by a vi­sit to Land’s End, Eng­land. This can­not now be ver­i­fied. All we can say with cer­tain­ty is that the hymn was writ­ten not long after a vis­it to that fa­mous spot.

Standing on Land’s End, with the broad Eng­lish Chan­nel on the one hand and the wide At­lan­tic on the oth­er, may have re­mind­ed him of the thought, which is old­er than his time and has been used by more than one au­thor. Ad­di­son says (Spec­ta­tor, No. 590): Ma­ny wit­ty au­thors com­pare the pre­sent time to an isth­mus or nar­row neck of land that ris­es in the midst of an ocean im­mea­sur­a­bly dif­fused on eit­her side of it.

Nutter, p. 392

Lyrics

Thou God of glo­ri­ous ma­jes­ty,
To Thee, against my­self, to Thee,
A worm of earth, I cry;
A half-awak­ened child of man;
An heir of end­less bliss or pain;
A sin­ner born to die!

Lo! on a nar­row neck of land,
’Twixt two un­bounded seas I stand,
Secure, in­sen­si­ble;
A point of time, a mo­ment’s space,
Removes me to that hea­ven­ly place,
Or shuts me up in hell.

O God, mine in­most soul con­vert!
And deep­ly on my thought­ful heart
Eternal things im­press:
Give me to feel their so­lemn weight,
And trem­ble on the brink of fate,
And wake to right­eous­ness.

Before me place, in dread ar­ray,
The pomp of that tre­men­dous day,
When Thou with clouds shalt come,
To judge the na­tions at Thy bar;
And tell me, Lord, shall I be there
To meet a joy­ful doom?

Be this my one great bu­si­ness here,
With se­ri­ous in­dus­try and fear
Eternal bliss to en­sure;
Thine ut­most couns­el to ful­fill,
And suffer all Thy right­eous will,
And to the end en­dure.

Then, Sav­ior, then my soul re­ceive,
Transported from this vale to live
And reign with Thee above;
Where faith is sweet­ly lost in sight,
And hope in full su­preme de­light,
And ev­er­last­ing love.