Judge will bid Thee soon appear.

p. 126

p. 129THE WORLD’S END.

p. 129

The gates of heaven are opened, and, behold, The herald comes upon the wings of night, When men in slumber lie, and when abroad The robber goes to plunder what he can; And when the lusty have gone forth to cull A night’s defilement in an evil way; The gambler sitteth at his dizzy game, The sotted drunkard feeds his bestial thirst, And revel dancers are aloud in mirth. Alike the heedless and the godly sleep, When from the herald’s waking trumpet comes The awful and sonorous cadence, which Shall roll around the earth from pole to pole— More grand, more great, and more tremendous than The voice of terror in the stormy sky, As when a thousand thunders war therein An angry war among the heavy clouds. And at the sound the wicked tremble sore, For now they know an awful doom at hand, And quail to find no rescue from its power. The robber drops the plunder from his hand; p. 130The lusty startle at the mighty sound, And from their beds of sin turn wildly forth; And from his game the gambler leaps amazed And terror-struck; whereas the drunkard wakes— The sotted drunkard—from his stupid sleep, And feels the awful terrors of the hour. But by the righteous is the sound received As the glad tidings which they long have sought; For well they know the glory of the sign, When He, their true Deliverer, shall come. The earth shall tremble and rebound, and all The graves shall ope their darkened mouths, until The long-forgotten dead shall come therefrom. Then He who is the Judge appears forth from The heavenly gates; upon the lurid flame His chariot shall roll, and on the clouds Of sable smoke, down through the stormy sky, Where roar tremendous thunders, mid the cries Of agony and fear, which rise anon, Heartrending, from the lost, in anguish sore, Who call for shelter, but have no reply, Save terrors still more awful than before; Who seek for mercy, when their fearful doom Shall echo in their ear, “Too late! too late!” Then all the earth shall be engrossed in flame From sea to sea, and high the lurid glare p. 131Shall rise in streams amid the gloomy clouds; And the great waters, laving on the flame Their boiling waves, shall feed its power ten times, And lend their vapors to the burning air. All things shall be consumed excepting man; And through the flames the righteous shall be led Unhurt, as though there were no flame; whereas The wicked shall of tortures be conceived More deep in power than ever known before. Then on His throne, mid glories so immense, The Judge in dreadful majesty appears, And looks in 

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