Before the dying hour.
76
There the Weary Are at Rest
By Newton
I
Courage, my soul! behold the prize
The Saviour’s love provides
Eternal life beyond the skies
For all whom here he guides.
II
The wicked cease from troubling there,
The weary are at rest;
Sorrow and sin and pain and care
No more approach the blest.
III
A wicked world and wicked heart
With Satan now are join’d;
Each acts a too successful part
In harassing my mind.
IV
In conflict with this threefold troop,
How weary, Lord, am I!
Did not thy promise bear me up
My soul must faint and die:
V
But fighting in my Saviour’s strength,
Though mighty are my foes,
I shall a conq’ror be at length
O’er all that can oppose.
VI
Then why, my soul, complain or fear?
The crown of glory see!
The more I toil and suffer here,
The sweeter rest will be.
77
The Day of Judgment
By Newton
I
Day of judgment, day of wonders!
Hark! the trumpet’s awful sound,
Louder than a thousand thunders,
Shakes the vast creation round!
How the summons will the sinner’s heart confound!
II
See the Judge our nature wearing,
Clothed in majesty divine!
You who long for his appearing
Then shall say—“This God is mine!”
Gracious Saviour, own me in that day for thine.
III
At his call the dead awaken,
Rise to life from earth and sea.
All the powers of nature, shaken
By his looks, prepare to flee.
Careless sinner, what will then become of thee?
IV
Horrors past imagination
Will surprise your trembling heart,
When you hear your condemnation,
“Hence, accursed wretch, depart!
Thou with Satan and his angels have thy part!”
V
Satan, who now tries to please you,
Lest you timely warning take,
When that word is past, will seize you,
Plunge you in the burning lake:
Think, poor sinner, thy eternal all’s at stake.
VI
But to those who have confessed,
Loved and served the Lord below,
He will say—“Come near, ye blessed,
See the kingdom I bestow:
You for ever shall my love and glory know.”
VII
Under sorrows and reproaches,
May this thought your courage raise,
Swiftly God’s great day approaches,
Sighs shall then be changed to praise.
We shall triumph when the world is in a blaze.
78
The Day of the Lord.24
By Newton
I
God with one piercing glance looks through
Creation’s wide-extended frame;
The past and future in his view,
And days and ages are the same.
II
Sinners who dare provoke his face,
Who on his patience long presume,
And trifle out his day of grace,
Will find he has a day of doom,
III
As pangs the labouring woman feels,
Or as the thief in midnight sleep,
So comes that day for which the wheels
Of time their ceaseless motion keep!
IV
Hark! from the sky the trump proclaims
Jesus the Judge approaching nigh!
See the creation wrapt in flames,
First kindled by his vengeful eye!
V
When thus the mountains melt like wax;
When earth and air and sea shall burn;
When all the frame of nature breaks;
Poor sinner, whither wilt thou turn?
VI
The puny works which feeble men
Now boast or covet or admire;
Their pomp and arts and treasures then
Shall perish in one common fire.
VII
Lord, fix our hearts and hopes above,
Since all below to ruin tends;
Here may we trust, obey, and love,
And there be found amongst thy friends.
79
The Great Tribunal
By Newton
Revelation 20:11–12.
I
John in vision saw the day
When the Judge will hasten down;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
From the terror of his frown.
Dead and living, small and great,
Raised from the earth and sea,
At his bar shall hear their fate:
What will then become of me?
II
Can I bear his awful looks?
Shall I stand in judgment then,
When I see the open’d books,
Written by th’Almighty’s pen?
If he to remembrance bring,
And expose to public view,
Every work and secret thing,
Ah, my soul, what canst thou do?
III
When the list shall be produced
Of the talents I enjoy’d,
Means and mercies how abused,
Time and strength how misemploy’d,
Conscience, then compell’d to read,
Must allow the charge is true;
Say, my soul, what canst thou plead—
In that hour what wilt thou do?
IV
But the book of life I see;
May my name be written there:
Then from guilt and danger free,
Glad I’ll meet him in the air.
That’s the book I hope to plead—
’Tis the gospel open’d wide.
Lord, I am a wretch indeed—
I have sinn’d, but thou hast died.
V
Now my soul knows what to do;
Thus I shall with boldness stand,
Number’d with the faithful few,
Own’d and saved at thy right hand.
If thou help a feeble worm
To believe thy promise now,
Justice will at last confirm
What thy mercy wrought below.
IV
Creation
80
The Old and New Creation
By Newton
I
That was a wonder-working word
Which could the vast creation raise!
Angels, attendant on their Lord
Admired the plan, and sung his praise.
II
From what a dark and shapeless mass
All nature sprang at his command!
Let there be light! and light there was,
And sun and stars and sea and land.
III
With equal speed the earth and seas
Their mighty Maker’s voice obey’d;
He spake, and straight the plants and trees
And birds and beasts and man were made.
IV
But man, the lord and crown of all,
By sin his honour soon defaced,
His heart (how alter’d since the fall!)
Is dark, deform’d, and void and waste.
V
The new creation of the soul
Does now no less his power display,
Than when he form’d the mighty whole,
And kindled darkness into day.
VI
Though self-destroy’d, O Lord, we are,
Yet let us feel what thou canst do;
Thy word the ruin can repair,
And all our hearts create anew.
81
The Book of Creation
By Newton
I
The book of nature open lies,
With much
