Hope of our hearts, O Lord, appear,

Thou glorious star of day!

Shine forth, and chase the dreary night,

With all our tears, away.

2 Strangers on earth, we wait for thee;

O leave the Father’s throne;

Come with a shout of victory, Lord,

And claim us as thine own.

3 O bid the bright archangel now

The trump of God prepare,

To call thy saints—the quick, the dead,

To meet thee in the air.

4 No resting-place we seek on earth,

No loveliness we see;

Our eye is on the royal crown,

Prepared for us and thee.

5 But, dearest Lord, however bright

That crown of joy above,

What is it to the brighter hope

Of dwelling in thy love?

6 What to the joy, the deeper joy,

Unmingled, pure and free,

Of union with our living Head,

Of fellowship with thee?

7 This joy e’en now on earth is ours;

But only, Lord, above

Our heart without a pang shall know

The fullness of thy love.

8 There, near thy heart, upon the throne,

Thy ransomed Bride shall see

What grace was in the bleeding Lamb,

Who died to make her free.

The Church has waited long

Her absent Lord to see;

And still in loneliness she waits,

A friendless stranger she.

Age after age has gone,

Sun after sun has set,

And still in weeds of widowhood

She weeps a mourner yet.

Come, then, Lord Jesus, come!

2 Saint after saint on earth

Has lived, and loved, and died;

And as they left us, one by one,

We laid them side by side;

We laid them down to sleep,

But not in hope forlorn;

We laid them but to ripen there,

Till the last glorious morn.

Come, then, Lord Jesus, come!

3 The whole creation groans,

And waits to hear that voice

That shall restore her comeliness,

And make her wastes rejoice.

Come, Lord, and wipe away

The curse, the sin, the stain,

And make this blighted world of ours

Thine own fair world again.

Come, then, Lord Jesus, come!

When the King of kings comes,

When the Lord of lords comes;

We shall have a joyful day,

When the King of kings comes:

To see the nations broken down,

And kingdoms once of great renown,

And saints now suffering wear the crown,

When the King of kings comes.

2 When the trump of God calls,

When the last of foes falls;

We shall have a joyful day,

When the King of kings comes:

To see the saints raised from the dead,

And all together gatheréd,

And made like to their glorious Head,

When the King of kings comes.

3 When the foe’s distress comes,

When the church’s rest comes;

We shall have a joyful day,

When the King of kings comes:

To see the New Jerusalem,

Its fullness and its matchless frame,

Surpassing all report and fame,

When the King of kings comes.

4 When the world’s course is run,

When the judgment is begun;

We shall have a joyful day,

When the King of kings comes:

To see the sons of God well known,

All spotless to their Father shown,

And Jesus all his brethren own,

When the King of kings comes.

5 When our Lord in clouds comes,

When he with great power comes;

We shall have a joyful day,

When the King of kings comes:

To see all things by him restored,

And God himself alone adored,

By all the saints with one accord,

When the King of kings comes.

Saviour, haste: our souls are waiting

For the long expected day,

When, new heavens and earth creating,

Thou shalt banish grief away;

All the sorrow

Caused by sin and Satan’s sway.

2 Haste, O hasten thine appearing,

Take thy mourning people home;

’Tis this hope our spirits cheering,

While we in the desert roam,

Makes thy people

Strangers here till thou dost come.

3 Lord, how long shall the creation

Groan and travail sore in pain,

Waiting for its sure salvation

When thou shalt in glory reign,

And like Eden

This sad earth shall bloom again?

4 Reign, O reign, almighty Saviour,

Heaven and earth in one unite;

Make it known, that in thy favor,

There alone is life and light;

When we see thee

We shall have supreme delight.

Lo! he cometh—countless trumpets

Wake to life the slumbering dead;

’Mid ten thousand saints and angels,

See their great exalted Head:

Hallelujah!—

Welcome, welcome, Son of God!

2 Full of joyful expectation,

Saints behold the Judge appear;

Truth and justice go before him—

Now the joyful sentence hear;

Hallelujah!—

Welcome, welcome, Judge divine!

3 “Come, ye blesséd of my Father!

Enter into life and joy:

Banish all your fears and sorrows;

Endless praise be your employ;”

Hallelujah!—

Welcome, welcome, to the skies.

Lo! he comes, with clouds descending,

Once for favored sinners slain,

Thousand thousand saints attending,

Swell the triumph of his train!

Hallelujah!

Jesus now shall ever reign!

2 Every eye shall now behold him,

Robed in dreadful majesty;

Those who set at naught and sold him,

Pierced and nailed him to the tree,

Deeply wailing,

Shall the true Messiah see.

3 Every island, sea, and mountain,

Heaven and earth, shall flee away;

All who hate him, must, confounded,

Hear the trump proclaim the day,

Come to judgment!

Come to judgment! come away!

4 Now redemption, long expected,

See in solemn pomp appear!

All his saints by man rejected,

Now shall meet him in the air,

Hallelujah!

See the day of God appear!

5 Lord, thy Bride says by thy Spirit,

Hasten thou the general doom!

Promised glory to inherit,

Take thy weary pilgrims home!

All creation

Travails, groans, and bids thee come.

6 Yes—Amen! Let all adore thee,

High on thy exalted throne;

Saviour, take the power and glory,

Claim the kingdoms for thy own!

O! come quickly!

Hallelujah, come, Lord, come!

We wait for thee, all-glorious One;

We look for thine appearing;

We bear thy name, and on the throne,

We see thy presence cheering.

Faith even now

Uplifts its brow,

And sees the Lord descending,

And with him bliss unending.

2 We wait for thee, through days forlorn,

In patient self-denial;

We know that thou our grief hast borne

Upon thy cross of trial.

And well may we

Submit with thee

To bear the cross and love it,

Until thy hand remove it.

3 We wait for thee; already thou

Hast all our heart’s submission;

And though the spirit sees thee now,

We long for open vision;

When ours shall be

Sweet rest with thee,

And pure, unfading pleasure,

And life in endless measure.

4 We wait for thee in certain hope—

The time will soon be over;

With child-like longing we look up,

The glory to discover.

O, bliss! to share

Thy triumph there,

When home with joy and singing,

The Lord his saints is bringing!

The Lord will come, the earth shall quake,

The hills their fixéd seat forsake;

And withering, from the vault of night,

The stars withdraw their feeble light.

2 The Lord will come, but not the same

As once in lowly form he came;

A silent Lamb to slaughter led,

The bruised, the suffering, and the dead.

3 The Lord will come—a dreadful form,

With wreath of flame, and robe of storm,

On cherub wings, and wings of wind,

Anointed Judge of human kind.

4 While sinners in despair shall call,

“Rocks, hide us! mountains, on us fall!”

The saints, ascending from the tomb,

Shall joyful sing—“The Lord is come!”

That day of wrath! that dreadful day,

When heaven and earth shall pass away!

What power shall be the sinner’s stay?

How shall he meet that dreadful day?

2 When shriveling like a parchéd scroll,

The flaming heavens together roll;

When, louder yet, and yet more dread,

Swells the high trump that wakes the dead;

3 O, on that day, that dreadful day,

When man to judgment wakes from clay,

Be thou, O God, the sinner’s stay,

Though heaven and earth shall pass away.

When, downward, to the darksome tomb,

I thoughtful turn my eyes,

Frail nature trembles at the gloom,

And anxious fears arise.

2 Why shrinks my soul? in death’s embrace

Once Jesus captive slept;

And angels hovering o’er the place,

His lowly pillow kept.

3 Thus shall they guard my sleeping dust,

And, as the Saviour rose,

The grave again shall yield her trust,

And end my deep repose.

4 My Lord, before to glory gone,

Shall bid me come away;

And calm and bright shall break the dawn

Of heaven’s eternal day.

5 Then let my faith each fear dispel,

And gild with light the grave;

To him my loftiest praises swell,

Who died from death to save.

In expectation sweet,

We wait, and sing, and pray,

Till Christ’s triumphal car we meet,

And see an endless day.

2 He comes! the Conqueror comes!

Death falls beneath his sword;

The joyful prisoners burst their tombs,

And rise to meet their Lord.

3 The trumpet sounds—Awake!

Ye dead, to judgment come!

The pillars of creation shake,

While hell receives her doom.

4 Thrice happy morn for those

Who love the ways of peace;

No night of sorrow e’er shall close

Upon its perfect bliss.

Rest for the toiling hand,

Rest for the anxious brow,

Rest for the weary, way-worn feet,

Rest from all labor now;

2 Soon shall the trump of God

Give out the welcome sound

That shakes thy silent chamber-walls,

And breaks the turf-sealed ground.

3 Ye dwellers in the dust,

Awake! come forth and sing;

Sharp has your frost of winter been,

But bright shall be your spring.

4 ’Twas sown in weakness here;

’Twill then be raised in power:

That which was sown an earthly seed,

Shall rise a heavenly flower.

The chariot! the chariot! its wheels roll in fire,

As the Lord cometh down in the pomp of his ire;

Lo! self-moving, it drives on its pathway of cloud;

And the heavens with the burden of Godhead are bowed.

2 The glory! the glory! around him are poured

Mighty hosts of the angels that wait on the Lord;

And the glorified saints, and the martyrs are there,

And there, all who the palm-wreaths of victory wear!

3 The trumpet! the trumpet! the dead have all heard;

Lo! the depths of the stone-covered charnel are stirred!

From the sea, from the earth, from the south, from the north,

All the vast generations of men are come forth.

4 The judgment! the judgment! the thrones are all set,

Where the lamb and the bright-crownéd elders are met!

There all flesh is at once in the sight of the Lord,

And the doom of eternity hangs on his word.

Lo! the seal of death is breaking;

Those who slept its sleep are waking;

Heaven opes its portals fair!

Hark! the harps of God are ringing;

Hark! the seraph’s hymn is flinging

Music on immortal air.

2 There, no more at eve declining,

Suns without a cloud are shining

O’er the land of life and love;

There the founts of life are flowing,

Flowers unknown to time, are blowing

In that radiant scene above.

3 There no sigh of memory swelleth;

There no tear of misery welleth;

Hearts will bleed or break no more;

Past is all the cold world’s scorning,

Gone the night, and broke the morning,

Over all the golden shore.

The last lovely morning,

All blooming and fair,

Is fast onward fleeting,

And soon will appear.

CHORUS.

While the mighty, mighty, mighty trump

Sounds, Come, come away,

O, let us be ready to hail the glad day.

2 And when that bright morning

In splendor shall dawn,

Our tears shall be ended,

Our sorrows all gone.

3 The Bridegroom from glory

To earth shall descend,

Ten thousand bright angels

Around him attend.

4 The grave shall be opened,

The dead shall arise,

And with the Redeemer

Mount up to the skies.

5 The saints then immortal

In glory shall reign,

The Bride with the Bridegroom

For ever remain.

When thou, my righteous Judge, shalt come

To take thy ransomed people home,

Shall I among them stand?

Shall such a worthless worm as I,

Who sometimes am afraid to die,

Be found at thy right hand?

2 I love to meet thy people now,

Before thy feet with them to bow,

Though vilest of them all;

But—can I bear the piercing thought—

What if my name should be left out

When thou for them shalt call?

3 O Lord, prevent it by thy grace:

Be thou my only hiding-place,

In this, the accepted day;

Thy pardoning voice, O, let me hear,

To still my unbelieving fear,

Nor let me fall, I pray.

4 And when the final trump shall sound,

Among thy saints let me be found,

To bow before thy face;

Then in triumphant strains I’ll sing,

While heaven’s resounding mansions ring

With praise of sovereign grace.

Behold the day is come;

The righteous Judge is near;

And sinners, trembling at their doom,

Shall soon their sentence hear.

2 Angels, in bright attire,

Conduct him through the skies;

Darkness and tempest, smoke and fire,

Attend him as he flies.

3 How awful is the sight!

How loud the thunders roar!

The sun forbears to give his light,

And stars are seen no more.

4 The whole creation groans;

But saints arise and sing:

They are the ransomed of the Lord,

And he their God and King.

Hark, ye mortals, hear the trumpet

Sounding loud, the mighty roar!

Hark! the archangel’s voice proclaiming,

Thou, old Time, shalt be no more.

Rolling ages,

Now your solemn close appears.

Day of judgment, day of wonders!

Hark! the trumpet’s awful sound,

Louder than a thousand thunders,

Shakes the vast creation round;

How the summons

Will the sinner’s heart confound!

2 See the Judge our nature wearing,

Clothed in majesty divine!

You who long for his appearing,

Then shall say, “This Lord is mine!”

Gracious Saviour,

Own me in that day for thine!

3 At his call the dead awaken,

Rise to life from earth and sea:

All the powers of nature, shaken

By his looks, prepare to flee:

Careless sinner,

What will then become of thee?

4 Horrors past imagination

Will surprise your trembling heart,

When you hear your condemnation,

“Hence, accurséd wretch, depart!

Hence, with Satan

And his angels have your part.”

5 But to those who have confesséd,

Loved and served the Lord below,

He will say, “Come near, you blesséd,

See the kingdom I bestow:

You for ever

Shall my love and glory know.”

6 Under sorrows and reproaches,

May this thought our courage raise!

Swiftly God’s great day approaches,

Sighs shall then be changed to praise:

May we triumph,

When the world is in a blaze!

Ah, guilty sinner, ruined by transgression,

What shall thy doom be, when, arrayed in terror,

God shall command thee, covered with pollution,

Up to the judgement?

2 Stop, thoughtless sinner, stop awhile and ponder,

Ere death arrest thee, and the Judge, in vengeance

Hurl from his presence thy affrighted spirit,

Swift to perdition.

3 Oft has he called thee, but thou wouldst not hear him,

Mercies and judgments have alike been slighted;

Yet he is gracious, and with arms unfolded,

Waits to embrace thee.

4 Come, then, poor sinner, come away this moment,

Just as you are, come, filthy and polluted,

Come to the fountain open for the guilty;

Jesus invites you.

5 But, if you trifle with his gracious message,

Cleave to the world and love its guilty pleasures,

Mercy, grown weary, shall, in righteous judgment,

Leave you for ever.

6 O! guilty sinner, hear the voice of warning;

Fly to the Saviour, and embrace his pardon;

So shall your spirit meet with joy triumphant,

Death and the judgment.