The poetical works of John and Charles Wesley

A day of gloominess and dread,
A day of clouds and sore affright,
As mists upon the mountains spread,
Dark as the deepest noon of night,
A day where only meteors shine,
A day of righteous wrath Divine.

Destruction from the Lord is come,
The terrible almighty Lord,
To seal a guilty nation's doom:
Lo! He hath bared the' avenging sword,
And sent His hostile armies forth
To plague, and waste, and shake the earth.

Lo! at His word the' embattled powers
Marching in dread array appear!
A fire before their face devours,
A flame is kindled by their rear,
Plague, famine, fire and sword are join'd,
And ghastly ruin stalks behind.

Before their face an Eden blooms,
But where the grounded staff hath past,
Their breath the paradise consumes,
And lays the pleasant landscape waste,
No more the seat of joy and peace,
But one great dreary wilderness.

As horsemen harness'd for the fight,
They rush impetuous from afar,
Borne headlong with resistless might,
Loud-rattling as the rolling car,

Light o'er the mountain-tops they bound,
The vales with clanging arms resound.

As fire on crackling stubble feeds,
And wins its desolated way,
The mighty host destruction spreads,
Wide-wasting, and devours its prey,
With noise confused, and shoutings loud,
And groans, and garments roll'd in blood.

Where'er they turn, the people fail,
Pain'd and astonied at the sight,
Their face o'erspread with deadly pale,
Their heart o'erwhelm'd with huge affright,
Hopeless to stand the' invaders' force,
Or stop their all-victorious course.

Nothing against their might shall stand,
While firmly rank'd in close array
And marshall'd by Divine command,
Secure they urge their rapid way,
Or rise when fallen on the sword,
Unwounded champions of the Lord.

Swift to the slaughter and the spoil
The fierce invulnerable powers
Shall run, shall fly; their foemen foil,
And scale the walls, and mount the towers:
The earth beneath their rage shall quake,
The battlements of heaven shall shake.

The sun no more shall rule the day,
But set eclipsed in sudden night,
The moon shall lose her paler ray,
The stars withdraw their glimmering light,

The higher powers shall disappear,
When God, the glorious King, is near.

Before His dreadful camp the Lord
Shall utter His majestic voice,
For He is strong, and keeps His word,
And all His vengeful power employs
Against the world in that great day,
When heaven and earth shall flee away.

University of Virginia Library

X. THE SECOND CHAPTER OF JOEL.

PART I.