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The United Methodist Hymnal · No. 449 · Words: Charles Wesley
Our Earth We Now Lament to See
Create PowerPoint slides from this hymn →A 1758 Charles Wesley hymn lamenting human warfare and violence, pleading with God to end conflict and reconcile humanity. It appeals to the 'universal Friend' to write kindness on human hearts and bring an end to war's hellish destruction.
Verse 1
Our earth we now
lament to see
with floods of wickedness
overflowed
with violence, wrong, and
cruelty,
one wide-extended field of
blood,
where men like fiends
each other tear
in all the hellish
rage of war.
Verse 2
As listed on Abaddon’s side,
they mangle their own flesh,
and slay;
Tophet is moved, and opens wide
its mouth for its enormous prey;
and myriads sink
beneath the grave,
and plunge into
the flaming wave.
Verse 3
O might the universal Friend
this havoc of his creatures see!
Bid our unnatural discord end,
declare us reconciled in thee!
Write kindness on
our inward parts
and chase the murderer
from our hearts!
Verse 4
Who now against each other
rise,
the nations of the earth constrain
to follow after peace, and prize
the blessings of thy righteous
reign,
the joys of
unity to prove,
the paradise
of perfect love!
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