ARK! a thrilling voice is sounding,
Christ is nigh,' it seems to say;
'Cast away the works of darkness,
O ye children of the day!'
Startled by the solemn warning,
Let the earth-bound soul arise;
Christ, our Sun, all clouds dispelling,
Shines upon the morning skies.
Once the Lamb, so long expected,
Came in great humility :
Once again behold He cometh,
Robed in dreadful majesty.
Hark! a thrilling voice is sounding,
Christ is nigh,' it seems to say;
Cast away the works of darkness,
O ye children of the day!'
! He comes, with clouds descending, Once for favoured sinners slain;
Thousand thousand saints attending
Swell the triumph of His train:
Alleluia !
God appears, on earth to reign.
Every eye shall now behold Him,
Robed in dreadful majesty :
Those who set at nought and sold Him,
Pierced, and nailed Him to the Tree,
Deeply wailing,
Shall the true Messiah see.
Now Redemption, long expected,
See in solemn pomp appear;
All His saints, by man rejected,
Now shall meet Him in the air
See the day of God appear.
Yea, Amen! let all adore Thee,
High on Thine eternal throne;
Saviour, take the power and glory;
Claim the kingdom for Thine own:
Oh! come quickly,
Thou shalt reign, and Thou alone.
Solvet saeclum in favilla,
Crucis explicans vexilla.
Quantus tremor est futurus,
Quando Judex est venturus
Cuncta stricte discussurus.
Tuba, mirum spargens sonum
Per sepulcra regionum,
Coget omnes ante thronum.
Liber scriptus proferetur,
In quo totum continetur
De quo mundus judicetur.
Judex ergo quum sedebit,
Quidquid latet apparebit,
Nil inultum remanebit.
Quid sum miser tum dicturus,
Quem patronum rogaturus,
Quum vix justus sit securus?
Recordáre, Jesu pie,
Quod sum causa Tuae viae,
Ne me perdas illa die.
Quaerens me sedisti lassus,
Redemisti Crucem passus :
Tantus labor ne sit cassus.
Oro supplex et acclinis,
Cor contritum quasi cinis:
Gere curam mei finis.
'HAT day of wrath, that dreadful day, When heaven and earth shall pass away! What power shall be the sinner's stay? How shall he meet that dreadful day?
When, shrivelling like a parched scroll,
The flaming heavens together roll;
When louder yet, and yet more dread,
Swells the high trump that wakes the dead;
Oh! on that day, that wrathful day,
When man to judgement wakes from clay,
Be Thou the trembling sinner's Stay,
Though heaven and earth shall pass away.
AY of wrath and doom impending,
David's word with Sibyl's blending!
Heaven and earth in ashes ending!
O, what fear man's bosom rendeth,
When from heaven the Judge descendeth,
On Whose sentence all dependeth!
Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth,
Through earth's sepulchres it ringeth,
All before the throne it bringeth.
Death is struck, and nature quaking,
All creation is awaking,
To its Judge an answer making.
Lo! the book exactly worded,
Wherein all hath been recorded;
Thence shall judgement be awarded.
When the Judge His seat attaineth,
And each hidden deed arraigneth,
Nothing unavenged remaineth.
What shall I, frail man, be pleading?
Who for me be interceding,
When the just are mercy needing?
King of majesty tremendous,
Who-dost free salvation send us,
Fount of pity, then befriend us!
Think, kind Jesu !-my salvation
Caused Thy wondrous Incarnation;
Leave me not to reprobation.
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