1 God of all power, and truth, and grace,
Thou hast increased the holy seed;
Thou hast increased the chosen race,
The souls from sin for ever freed.
2 Thou in Thy saints art glorified,
Thou hast in them Thine image shown;
Shepherdless souls they wandered wide,
Till called and perfect made in One.
3 All we like sheep have gone astray,
To earth’s remotest bounds removed,
Till Jesus showed Himself the Way,
And kindly chastened whom He loved.
4 To Thee we in our trouble turned,
Constrained Thy chastisements to bear,
We then our sin and folly mourned,
And poured out all our soul in prayer.
5 As women, when their time draws nigh,
Cry out in sore distress, and pain,
So have we travailed, in Thine eye,
And struggled to be born again.
6 In anguish, agony, and grief,
For years our laboring souls have been,
Nor could we bring ourselves relief,
Nor could we save ourselves from sin.
7 Our toil and strife availed us not,
Abortive proved our hope, and vain,
For we have no deliverance wrought,
For yet we were not born again.
The world did not before us fall,
We still had not the victory,
The mighty faith that conquers all,
And makes the soul for ever free.
8 But they who sank in self despair,
Death’s sentence in themselves receive;
The quickening Voice divine shall hear,
And dead with Christ, with Christ, shall live.
9 The Spirit that raised Him from the dead,
My mortal body shall inspire,
Shall raise us all with Christ our head,
And hallow and baptize with fire.
10 Awake and sing, ye souls that dwell
Indignant in the shade of death;
Our Lord, who burst the gates of hell,
Shall bear you from the gulf beneath.
11 As herbs revived by vernal dew,
Spring from the earth, and flourish fair,
Ye all shall rise with verdure new,
And fruit unto perfection bear.
12 The hour shall come, the Gospel hour,
When all that wait, His power shall prove,
His resurrection’s glorious power,
And live the life of faith and love.
13 They from the death of sin shall rise,
Preventing here the general doom,
When Christ the Lord shall bow the skies,
And all mankind to judgment come.
14 The earth shall then cast out its dead,
While all who perished unforgiv’n,
Horribly lift their guilty head,
And rise, to be shut out from Heav’n.
15 “Come, little flock (My people now
My Israel, if thy heart be clean);
Enter into thy chamber thou,
Exclude the world, the hell of sin.
16 “Betake thee to the secret place,
Safe in My tabernacle rest,
O hide thee for a little space,
Be sheltered in thy Savior’s breast.
17 “Rest, till the storm is all o’erpast,
For lo! the Lord from Heav’n shall come,
Judgment to execute at last,
And seal the guilty sinner’s doom.
18 “The sea shall then its dead restore,
The earth shall then disclose her blood,
Shelter their carcasses no more,
Or screen them from an angry God.
19 “Dragged from their graves, they then shall call
On rocks their quickened dust t’entomb,
And bid the burning mountains fall
To hide them from the hell to come.
20 The wrath is come, the curse takes place,
The slaves of sin receive their hire,
And punished from My glorious face,
They sink into eternal fire.
Source: The Cyber Hymnal #14674
Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepene… Go to person page >
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