Eternity, most awful word

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Eternity, most awful word

Author: Johann von Rist
Tune: O EWIGKEIT
Published in 2 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Eternity! most awful word!
Within the heart a piercing sword!
Beginning without ending!
Eternity, unmeasured time!
I sink beneath the thought sublime
That to Thee I am tending:
Deep horrors fill my quaking hear,
My lips in speech refuse to part.

2 Eternity! oh what a pang!
Eternity! No serpent's fang
Could send that thrill of terror;
When I revolve Thy clanking chains,
The dark abyss of deathless pains,
My soul is filled with horror.
Oh, search this universe around,
No equal terror can be found.

3 Awake, O man, from sinful sleep;
Henceforth thy feet from wandering keep:
Seek God by true repentance!
Awake, behold thy wasting sand,
Eternity is just at hand,
And brings thine awful sentence.
This is perchance thy final day:
This hour thy soul may haste away.

4 Eternity! most awful word!
Within the heart a piercing sword!
Beginning without ending!
Eternity! unmeasured time!
I sink beneath the thought sublime,
That I to thee am tending;
Lord Jesus, when it pleaseth Thee,
Grant me Thy blest eternity!

Source: Hymnal and Order of Service: for churches and Sunday-schools #332

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Author: Johann von Rist

Rist, Johann, son of Kaspar Rist, pastor at Ottensen, near Hamburg, was born at Ottensen, March 8, 1607, and from his birth was dedicated to the ministry. After passing through the Johanneum at Hamburg and the Gymnasium Illustre at Bremen, he matriculated, in his 21st year, at the University of Rinteln, and there, under Josua Stegmann (q. v.), he received an impulse to hymn-writing. On leaving Rinteln he acted as tutor to the sons of a Hamburg merchant, accompanying them to the University of Rostock, where he himself studied Hebrew, Mathematics and also Medicine. During his residence at Rostock the terrors, of the Thirty Years War almost emptied the University, and Rist himself also lay there for weeks ill of the pestilence. After his r… Go to person page >

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