436 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED
No gloomy fears their souls dismay, His presence sheds eternal day, On those prepar d to meet Him.
Far over space, to distant spheres,
The lightnings are prevailing ; Th ungodly rise, and all their tears
And sighs are unavailing : The day of grace is past and gone, They shake before the Judgement throne
All unprepar d to meet Him.
Stay, fancy, stay, and close thy wings,
Repress thy flight too daring ; One wondrous sight my comfort brings,
The Judge my nature wearing : Beneath His Cross I view the day, When heaven and earth shall pass away,
And thus prepare to meet Him !
The hymn was sung at the funeral of the Duchess of Kent and that of Prince Albert.
Hymn 847. How weak the thoughts, and vain. CHARLES WESLEY (i).
Hymns occasioned by ike Earthquake, March 8, 1750. Part II. No. 9 ; VVorkS) vi. 43. Four verses are omitted.
On March 8 Charles Wesley was preaching at the Foundery at a quarter-past five in the morning, when the building was shaken so violently that all expected it to fall upon their heads. A great cry arose from the women and children. The preacher repeated the verses from the 46th Psalm, Therefore will we not fear, &c., and adds, God filled my heart with faith and my mouth with words, shaking their souls as well as their bodies. Next day he had a crowded congregation at West Street, where he preached with great awakening power on Psalm xlvi. A dragoon prophesied that Westminster was to be destroyed by an earthquake. People nocked out of town. Charles Wesley s muse was stirred by such scenes, and his sermon, The Cause and Cure of Earthquakes, and several suitable hymns which he gave out, had a great effect on the conregation.
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