The Cyber Hymnal ‎#8875

8875. When The Fierce North Wind

1 When the fierce north wind with his airy forces
Rears up the Baltic to a foaming fury;
And flame of lightning, with a storm of hail comes
Rushing amain down.

2 How the poor sailors stand amazed and tremble!
While the hoarse thunder, like a bloody trumpet,
Roars a loud onset to the gaping water
Quick to devour them.

3 Such shall the noise be, and the wild disorder,
If things eternal may be like these earthly;
Such the dire terror when the great archangel
Shakes all creation.

4 Tears the strong pillars of the vault of Heaven,
Breaks up old marble, the repose of princes;
See the graves open, and the bones arising,
Flames all around them!

5 Hark, the shrill outcries of the guilty wretches!
Lively bright horror, and amazing anguish;
Stare through their eyelids, while the living worm lies
Gnawing within them.

6 Thoughts, like old vultures, prey upon their heart strings,
And the smart twinges, when their eye beholds the
Lofty Judge frowning, and a flood of vengeance
Rolling afore Him.

7 Hopeless immortals! how they scream and shiver
While devils push them to the pit wide yawning,
Hideous and gloomy, to receive them headlong
Down to the center.

8 Stop here, my fancy: all away, ye horrid
Doleful ideas, come, now arise to Jesus;
How he sits Godlike! And the saints around Him
Throned, yet adoring!

9 O may I sit there when He comes triumphant,
Dooming the nations! Then ascend to glory,
While our hosannas all along the passage
Shout the Redeemer.

Text Information

• First Line: When the fierce north wind with his airy forces
• Title: When The Fierce North Wind
• Author: Isaac Watts
• Meter: 11.11.11.5
• Language: English
• Source: Horae Lyricae Book I, 1706, alt.
• Copyright: Public Domain
• Notes: Alternate tunes: FLEMMING by Friedrich F. Flemming; ISTE CONFESSOR from Poitiers Antiphoner

Tune Information

• Name: HERZLIEBSTER JESU
• Composer: Johann Crüger (1640)
• Meter: 11.11.11.5
• Key: g minor
• Source: Newes vollkömliches Gesangbuch Augsburgisher Confession (Berlin: 1640)
• Copyright: Public Domain