The Joy of Pardon

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Trembling before Thine awful throne

Author: Augustus L. Hillhouse
Published in 67 hymnals

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Representative Text

1. Trembling before Thine awful throne,
O Lord, in dust my sins I own;
Justice and mercy for my life
Contend; O smile, and heal the strife.

2. The Savior smiles; upon my soul
New tides of hope tumultuous roll;
His voice proclaims my pardon found,
Seraphic transport wings the sound.

3. Earth has a joy unknown to Heaven,
The newborn peace of sins forgiven;
Tears of such pure and deep delight,
Ye angels, never dimmed your sight.

4. Ye saw, of old, on chaos rise
The beauteous pillars of the skies;
Ye know where Morn exulting springs,
And Evening folds her drooping wings.

5. Bright heralds of the eternal will,
Abroad His errands ye fulfill;
Or, throned in floods of beamy day,
Symphonious in His presence play.

6. Loud is the song, the heavenly plain
Is shaken with the choral strain;
And dying echoes, floating far,
Draw music from each chiming star.

7. But I amid your choirs shall shine,
And all your knowledge shall be mine:
Ye on your harps must lean to hear
A secret chord that mine will bear.

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #6511

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Author: Augustus L. Hillhouse

Hillhouse, Augustus Lucas, younger brother of James Hillhouse (commonly known as the poet Hillhouse), was born at New Haven, Connecticut, 1792, and educated at Yale, where he graduated in 1810. For some time he conducted a school in Paris; and died near that city, March 14, 1859. His hymn:— Trembling before Thine awful throne (Joy in the Forgiveness of Sins) was written cir. 1816, and published in the Christian Spectator, New Haven, April, 1822. It is a good hymn, and is in extensive use, but usually in an abbreviated form. The hymn, "Earth has a joy unknown to heaven," found in a few American hymnbooks, begins with st. iii. of this hymn. Original text in Christ in Song, 1870. -- John Julian, Dictionary… Go to person page >

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