My thoughts on aweful subjects roll

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General information

This is an hymn by Isaac Watts, 1709, from Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Hymn 2 of Book 2, entitled The death of a sinner. Meter is 86. 86 (C.M.).

Settings by composers (automated)

Alexander Gillet — New England English SATB

Text and translations

English text

1. My thoughts on aweful subjects roll,
Damnation and the dead;
What horrors seize the guilty soul
Upon a dying bed!

2. Ling'ring about these mortal shores,
She makes a long delay,
Till, like a flood, with rapid force
Death sweeps the wretch away.

3. Then swift and dreadful she descends
Down to the fiery coast,
Amongst abominable fiends,
Herself a frightful ghost.

4. There endless crowds of sinners lie,
And darkness makes their chains;
Tortured with keen despair they cry,
Yet wait for fiercer pains.

5. Not all their anguish and their blood
For their old guilt atones,
Nor the compassion of a God
Shall hearken to their groans.

6. Amazing grace! that kept my breath,
Nor bid my soul remove,
Till I had learned my Savior's death,
And well insured his love!