The Cyber Hymnal ‎#12644

12644. O Hark Unto The Sounding Bell

1 O hark unto the sounding bell,
What doth each stroke of tolling tell?
’Tis news to each attentive ear,
Some one is fitted for the bier.

2 Since death is licensed here to rage
Without respect to any age;
The hoary head, and youth in bloom,
Depart to their eternal home.

3 Death with an uncontrollèd force,
Will take his way and have his course;
Infectious air and pestilence
Are not repulsed by man’s defense.

4 They who had thought the world their own
Are with the meanest class cut down;
Both king and princes have to die.
And lay their pow’rs and honors by.

5 This is our just reward indeed,
What can we say, what can we plead?
Were we not warned, and warned again?
But all we heard, we heard in vain.

6 But now we feel, we learn to fear,
God’s threatened punishments are here:
What can we do, but plead and pray,
That God may turn His wrath away?

Text Information

• First Line: O hark unto the sounding bell
• Title: O Hark Unto The Sounding Bell
• Author: Paul B. Henkel
• Meter: LM
• Language: English
• Source: Church Hymn Book (New Market, VA: Solomon Henkel, 1816)
• Notes: Alternate tunes: ISCAH by Lowell Mason, KANSAS CITY by William J. Kirkpatrick, LEFFINGWELL by Thoro Harris; "On a fast-day in time of the plague, or oth­er rav­ag­es of death." Note: The 1816 ed­i­tion of this hym­nal does not name the au­thor. Hen­kel’s son, Am­brose Hen­kel, iden­ti­fies his fa­ther as the au­thor by a dou­ble dag­ger symb­ol (‡) in the 1838 ed­i­tion, page 439.

Tune Information

• Name: IRAE
• Composer: Joseph Barnby, 1838-1896
• Meter: LM
• Key: c minor or modal
• Copyright: Public Domain