When In Dark And Dreadful Gloom

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When in dark and dreadful gloom

Author: James Montgomery
Tune: OUSELEY
Published in 9 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, Noteworthy Composer
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 When in dark and dreadful gloom,
Clouds on clouds portentous spread,
Black as if the day of doom
Hung o'er nature's shrinking head:
When the lightning breaks from high,
God is coming--God is nigh!

2 Then we hear his chariot wheels,
As the mighty thunder rolls;
Nature, startled nature reels,
From the centre of the poles:
Then the ocean, earth, and sky,
Tremble as he passes by!

3 Darkness, wild with horror, forms
His mysterious hiding-place:
Should he from his ark of storms,
Rend the veil and show his face,
At the judgment of his eye,
All the universe would die.

4 God of vengeance! from above,
While thine awful bolts are hurl'd,
O remember thou art love!
Spare!--O spare a guilty world!
Stay thy flaming wrath awhile,
Let the bow of promise smile!

Source: Hymns, Selected and Original: for public and private worship (1st ed.) #24

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Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

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