The LORD draws nigh, the righteous Throne’s Assessor,

The just to save, to punish the transgressor:

Weep we, and mourn, and pray,

Regardful of that day;

When all the secrets of all hearts shall be

Lit with the blaze of full eternity.

Clouds and thick darkness o’er the Mount assembling,

Moses beheld the Eternal’s glory, trembling;

And yet he might but see

GOD’s feebler Majesty.

And I—I Needs must view His fullest Face:

O Spare me, LORD! O take me to Thy grace!

David of old beheld, in speechless terror,

The session of the Judge—the doom of error:

And what have I to plead

For mercy in my need?

Nothing save this: O grant me yet to be,

Ere that day come, renewed and true to Thee!

Here, fires of deep damnation roar and glitter:

The worm is deathless, and the cup is bitter:

There, day that hath no morrow,

And joy that hath no sorrow:

And who so blest that he shall fly the abyss,

Raised up to GOD’s Right Hand, and speechless bliss!

My soul with many an act of sin is wounded:

With mortal weakness is my frame surrounded:

My life is well nigh o’er:

The Judge is at the door:

How wilt thou, miserable spirit, fare,

What time He sends His summons through the air?