This poem was printed as a broadside in 1780 in America, and is uncredited. It comes from the Library of Congress collection.
Let us adore, and bow before,
The sovereign Lord of might;
Who turns away the shining day,
Into the shades of night.
All nature stands, when He commands,
Or changes in its course;
His mighty hand rules sea and land,
He is the Lord of Host.
Nineteenth of May, a gloomy day,
When darkness veil’d the sky;
The sun’s decline may be a sign,
Some great event is nigh.
Let us remark, how black and dark,
Was the ensuing night;
And for a time the moon decline,
And did not give her light.
Can mortal man this wonder scan?
Or tell a second cause?
Did not our God, then shake His rod,
And check strong nature’s laws?
What great event, next will be sent,
Upon this guilty land?
He only knows who can dispose,
All things at His command.
Our wickedness we must confess,
Is terrible and great;
Sin is the thing, that we should shun,
The thing God’s soul does hate.
Our mighty sins, God’s judgment brings,
But still we hard’ned grow;
Then judgments great may not abate,
Until our overthrow.
How sin abounds, in all our towns,
Now in these gospel days;
How vice prevails and virtue fails,
And godliness decays.
If we reflect, can we expect,
According to our doing–
But that we are, as we may fear,
Just on the brink of ruin.
Awake, awake, your sins forsake,
And that immediately;
If we don’t turn, His wrath will burn,
To all eternity.
This is the day, that sinners may
Repent, and turn to God!
If they delay and won’t obey,
Then they must feel His rod.
How good and kind, would sinners find
Their great Redeemer now;
If they’d awake, their sins forsake,
And to His scepter bow.
The gospel’s call, is unto all–
Repent! why will you die?
Why will you go to endless woe,
And pass my mercy by?
Come unto me! Jesus does say!
All you that weary are;
You shall find rest, you shall be blessed;
For so His words declare.
If after all, His gracious call,
You utterly refuse;
And stop your ear, and will not hear,
But your own ruin choose.
Mercy abuse, and grace refuse,
Justice then takes the throne;
And in some hour Almighty Power,
Will make His vengeance known.
O dreadful state, when ’tis too late,
For sinners to return;
When life and breath are lost in death,
The soul in hell must burn.
What mortal tongue, what human pen,
The terror can declare,
That sinners all in Hell who shall
Those dreadful torments bear?
Eternity! Eternity!
Behold there is no end;
Where sinners lie, and wish to die,
Who into Hell descend.
And now let all, who hear this call,
And saw the day so dark;
Make haste away without delay,
And get into the Ark!
Then safe shall he, forever be,
That does to Jesus come,
He need not fear though death be near,
Since Heaven is his home.
Note: The Dark Day of 1780 was a fulfillment of the first sign in the heavens mentioned in Matthew 24:29 that would take place “after the tribulation of those days,” and before Christ’s return. The Old Testament reference to this same event is in Joel 2:31.
The “tribulation” mentioned in Matthew 24 refers to the period of persecution against the Church conducted first by Pagan Rome, and to a greater extent by Papal Rome in her attempts to crush the the Bible and the Gospel truth. This was coming to an end in the 18th century, and accordingly, these harbingers of Christ’s soon return appeared.
There is one more sign added before the Dark Day in Revelation 6:12: a mighty earthquake. The most famous “mighty earthquake” of the 18th century is the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755.
It is a bit unfortunate that the poem glorifies the doctrine of eternal torment that Protestants borrowed from the Catholic Church. That there will be a fire that destroys the old Earth and makes way for its new creation is clear from many scriptures. But it will not burn without end (see Malachi 4:1-3). The wicked will be destroyed in that fire, and it will be eternal in the sense that there will be no return from that final destruction. But only righteousness can last eternally; sin can never be immortalized because it leads to death, not to life.
Furthermore, it is a view of “the goodness of God [that] leads to repentance.” Romans 2:4. Terrorizing people with a view of the final destruction of sin and sinners may help to awaken them to their fearful condition, but it will not lead them to wholeheartedly submit to God and His ways. We must not only see the consequences of sin, but we must see the goodness of God. Only in this way can we be healed from our rebellion.
