The evening is advancing, And soon will He draw nigh. See that your lamps are burning, Proclaim the Bridegroom near: Go meet Him as He cometh, Ye wise and holy virgins, Now raise your voices higher, Until, in songs of triumph, They meet the angel-choir. Ye saints who here in patience When sorrow is no more. LO! HE COMES WITH CLOUDS. Around the throne of glory, The Lamb ye shall behold; There flourish palms of victory; There radiant garments are; There, after stormy winter, Our Hope and Expectation, LO! HE COMES WITH CLOUDS. 385 By CHARLES WESLEY, 1758. This hymn, the English Dies Ira, was originally part second of a hymn in three parts, entitled "Thy Kingdom come," published in Wesley's Hymns of Intercession for all Mankind, 1758. A somewhat similar hymn, in the same metre, was published by the Rev. JOHN CENNICK (first a Methodist then A Moravian, d. 1755), in 1752, commencing, — "Lo, He cometh! countless trumpets VOL. 1.-25 In 1760, the Rev. MARTIN MADAN amalgamated, with some alterations, these hymnz of Wesley and Cennick, adopting the first, second, and fourth stanzas of Wesley, the third and fifth stanzas of Cennick, and substituting one of his own for the third of Wesley. About 1758, THOMAS OLIVERS Composed, in the same metre, a judgmenthymn of twenty stanzas, to which he afterwards added sixteen more. Sir ROUNDELL PALMER, NOS. XC. and XCI., gives Madan's compilation (six stanzas), and eleven out of the thirty-six stanzas of Olivers. I prefer the original form of Wesley. There is much confusion about the text and authorship of these hymns. Compare the note of ROGERS, Lyra Brit., p. 675. L O! He comes with clouds descending, Once for favored sinners slain ! Thousand, thousand saints attending, Hallelujah! God appears on earth to reign! Every eye shall now behold Him Those who set at nought and sold Him, Shall the true Messiah see.1 1 After this, MADAN inserts two stanzas from Cennick, with some variations, as follows: "Every island, sea, and mountain, Heaven and earth, shall flee away; Come to judgment, come away! CENNICK, orig.: "Stand before the Son of Man."] "Now redemption, long expected, See in solemn pomp appear! LO! HE COMES WITH CLOUDS. The dear tokens of His passion Still His dazzling body bears, To His ransomed worshippers; Gaze we on those glorious scars! Yea, Amen! let all adore Thee, 387 Hallelujah! See the day of God appear !" [CENNICK: "Now the promised kingdom's come."] Then follows, in MADAN'S compilation, a stanza which seems to be his own: PALMER adopted this alteration; but, in the other stanzas, he retained the original readings of Wesley. DAY OF JUDGMENT! JOHN NEWTON, 1725-1807 (Olney Hymns, No. 77). Likewise on the basis of the Dies Ira. AY of judgment! Day of wonders! DAY Hark, the trumpet's awful sound, Louder than a thousand thunders, How the summons Will the sinner's heart confound! See the Judge, our nature wearing, You, who long for His appearing, Own me in that day for Thine. At His call the dead awaken, What will then become of thee? Horrors past imagination Will surprise your trembling heart, |