“Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.” (Joel 2:12-13)
See, gracious God, before Thy throne
Thy mourning people bend!
’Tis on Thy sovereign grace alone,
Our humble hopes depend.
Tremendous judgments from Thy hand,
Thy dreadful power display:
Yet mercy spares this guilty land,
And yet we live to pray.
Great God, and why this nation spare,
Ungrateful as we are?
O be these awful warnings heard,
While mercy cries, Forebear.
What numerous crimes increasing rise,
Where Satan shows his smile?
What land so favored of the skies,
And yet what land so vile?
How changed, alas! are truths divine,
For error, guilt and shame!
What impious numbers, bold in sin,
Disgrace the Christian name!
O bid us turn, almighty Lord,
By Thy resistless grace;
Then shall our hearts obey Thy word,
And humbly seek Thy face.
Then should insulting foes invade,
We shall not sink in fear;
Secure of never failing aid,
If God, our God, is near.
Anne Steele
1716–1778
