The Cyber Hymnal ‎#11230

11230. My Thoughts On Awful Subjects Roll

1 My thoughts on awful subjects roll,
Damnation and the dead;
What horrors seize the guilty soul
Upon a dying bed!

2 Lingering about these mortal shores,
She makes a long delay,
Till, like a flood, with rapid force
Death sweeps the wretch away.

3 Then swift and dreadful she descends
Down to the fiery coast,
Amongst abominable fiends,
Herself a frightful ghost.

4 There endless crowds of sinners lie,
And darkness makes their chains;
Tortured with keen despair they cry,
Yet wait for fiercer pains.

5 Not all their anguish and their blood
For their old guilt atones,
Nor the compassion of a God
Shall hearken to their groans.

6 Amazing grace! that kept my breath
Nor bid my soul remove,
Till I had learned my Savior’s death
And well insured His love.

Text Information

• First Line: My thoughts on awful subjects roll
• Title: My Thoughts On Awful Subjects Roll
• Author: Isaac Watts
• Meter: CM
• Language: English
• Source: Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707-09, Book II
• Copyright: Public Domain
• Notes: Alternate tunes: OLD MARTYRS from Scottish Psalter; THE WAITS' SONG, English traditional

Tune Information

• Name: MANOAH
• Composer: Giocchino Antonio Rossini (1851, arr.)
• Meter: CM
• Key: G Major
• Source: Collection of Church Music by Henry W. Greatorex, 1851
• Copyright: Public Domain