XIII.
[In trouble's abyss, To God the Most High]
In trouble's abyss, To God the Most High,
For pardon and peace We mournfully cry:
If mercy entreated Is deaf to our prayer,
We perish unpitied, We die in despair.
In fetters confined Our body complains,
Oppress'd is our mind, With heavier chains;
A burden of evils We horribly feel,
It turns us to devils, And sinks us to hell.
O who can abide Unquenchable fire!
With fiends we reside, And cannot expire,
If sent to our dwelling With spirits beneath,
With weeping and wailing And gnashing of teeth.
The bottomless pit Expects us we know,
But we are not yet In torments below:
Through boundless compassion We cumber the ground,
And try if salvation And grace may be found.
Who consciously doom Ourselves to the flame,
If such may presume To call on Thy name,
Omnipotent Jesus, Thy nature make known,
Our Purchaser, seize us, And claim for Thine own.
Thy wonderful power Of saving exert,
And at our last hour, With love in Thy heart,
With mercy receive us Thy dearly bought prize,
And dying forgive us, And take to the skies.
