1 Lo, from the desert homes,
where he hath hid so long,
the new Elijah comes,
in sternest wisdom strong;
the voice that cries
of Christ from high,
and judgement nigh
from opening skies.
2 Your God e’en now doth stand
at heaven’s opening door;
his fan is in his hand,
and he will purge his floor;
the wheat he claims
and with him stows,
the chaff He throws
to quenchless flames.
3 Ye haughty mountains, bow
your sky-aspiring heads;
ye valleys, hiding low,
lift up your gentle meads;
make his way plain
your king before,
for evermore
he comes to reign.
4 May thy dread voice around,
thou harbinger of Light,
on our dull ears still sound,
lest here we sleep in night,
till judgement come,
and on our path
the Lamb's dread wrath
shall burst in doom.
5 O God, with love’s sweet might,
who dost anoint and arm
Christ’s soldier for the fight
with grace that shields from harm
thrice blessèd Three,
heaven’s endless days
shall sing thy praise
eternally.
Source: CPWI Hymnal #775
Isaac Williams was born in London, in 1802. His father was a barrister. The son studied at Trinity College, Oxford, where he gained the prize for Latin verse. He graduated B.A. 1826, M.A. 1831, and B.D. 1839. He was ordained Deacon in 1829, and Priest in 1831. His clerical appointments were Windrush (1829), S. Mary the Virgin's, Oxford (1832), and Bisley (1842-1845). He was Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, from 1832 to 1842. During the last twenty years of his life his health was so poor as to permit but occasional ministerial services. He died in 1865. He was the author of some prose writings, amongst which are Nos. 80, 86 and 87 of the "Oxford Tracts." His commentaries are favourably known. He also published quite a large num… Go to person page >
Coffin, Charles, born at Buzaney (Ardennes) in 1676, died 1749, was principal of the college at Beauvais, 1712 (succeeding the historian Rollin), and rector of the University of Paris, 1718. He published in 1727 some, of his Latin poems, for which he was already noted, and in 1736 the bulk of his hymns appeared in the Paris Breviary of that year. In the same year he published them as Hymni Sacri Auctore Carolo Coffin, and in 1755 a complete ed. of his Works was issued in 2 vols. To his Hymni Sacri is prefixed an interesting preface. The whole plan of his hymns, and of the Paris Breviary which he so largely influenced, comes out in his words.
"In his porro scribendis Hymnis non tam poetico indulgendunv spiritui, quam nitoro et pietate co… Go to person page >
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