HYMN I.
[Merciful God, almighty King]
Merciful God, almighty King,
To Thee with trembling hearts we turn,
To Thee our last distress we bring,
And prostrate at Thy footstool mourn:
Our own, our nation's sins confess,
Which justly all Thy plagues demand;
The weight of public wickedness,
That sinks to hell our guilty land.
Yet hath Thy kind compassion spared
The objects of Thy righteous ire,
While all Thy threaten'd woes we dared,
And mock'd that everlasting fire;
While more obdurate still, Thy word
Of proffer'd mercy we withstood,
Denied our all-redeeming Lord,
And trampled on our bleeding God.
Even then Thou didst our Guardian stand,
Our Help in danger's blackest hour,
Nor let the sword go through our land,
Nor let the yawning earth devour.
By heavenly indignation struck,
The conscious earth began to reel,
Beneath our load of guilt it shook;
Again it trembled; and was still.
The earthquake turn'd its fatal course,
Through distant realms the judgment spread,
And arm'd with heaven's resistless force
In ruinous heaps whole cities laid.
O might we by their downfall rise,
Thy sudden chastisements to' avert,
Present Thy grateful sacrifice,
The broken, poor, obedient heart.
O might we all our sins forsake,
The imminent destruction shun,
Before Thy heaviest judgments shake
Our land, and turn it upside down:
Before Thou all Thy wrath reveal,
With Sodom and Gomorrah's hire
Reward, and leave Thy foes to feel
The vengeance of eternal fire.
