The Day of Judgment

Representative Text

1 And must I be to judgment brought,
And answer in that day
For every vain and idle thought,
And every word I say?

2 Yes, every secret of my heart
Shall shortly be made known,
And I receive my just desert
For all that I have done.

3 How careful, then, ought I to live!
With what religious fear!
Who such a strict account must give
For my behavior here!

4 Thou awful Judge of quick and dead,
Thy watchful power bestow;
So shall I to my ways take heed,
To all I speak or do.

5 If now Thou standest at the door,
O let me feel Thee near!
And make my peace with God, before
I at Thy bar appear.

Source: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal #472

Author: Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepene… Go to person page >

Notes

And must I be to judgment brought? C Wesley. [The Judgment.] First published in his Hymns for Children, 1763, No. 33, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed "A thought on Judgment." It is not in common use in Great Britain, but in America stanzas i.-v. are given in the American Methodist Episcopal Collection, 1849; the Hymn Book of the Evangelical Association, Cleveland, Ohio, 1882, No. 839, and others. Full text in Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. vi. p. 401.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

PASSING AWAY (Watson)


MARTYRDOM (Wilson)

MARTYRDOM was originally an eighteenth-century Scottish folk melody used for the ballad "Helen of Kirkconnel." Hugh Wilson (b. Fenwick, Ayrshire, Scotland, c. 1766; d. Duntocher, Scotland, 1824) adapted MARTYRDOM into a hymn tune in duple meter around 1800. A triple-meter version of the tune was fir…

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African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal #472

The Sacred Harp #445

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The Cyber Hymnal #161

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