And Are Thy Plagues and Mercies, Lord

And are Thy plagues and mer­cies

Lord

Already out of mind?

Thy threat­en­ing and pre­serv­ing word

So quick­ly cast be­hind?

The crowd alarmed with short sur­prise

And spared

alas! In vain

Started

and half un­sealed their eyes

And dropped to sleep again.

If trou­ble for a mo­ment seize

Their un­awak­ened breast

The trou­ble but con­firms their peace

The earth­quake rocks to rest.

Thy words be­hind their back they cast

Thy pa­tient pi­ty scorn

Nor thank Thee for the judg­ment past

Nor dream of its re­turn.

But whe­ther they Thine hand will see

Or still Thine an­ger dare

Savior of men

we turn to Thee

With thank­ful­ness

and pray­er.

We own Thy mer­cy in the stroke

Thy praise to Thee we give

That when the earth be­neath us shook

Thou wouldst not let it cleave.

The cause of all

our na­tion’s sin

We mourn­ful­ly con­fess;

But Thou who didst the shock be­gin

Hast made the mo­tion cease.

Vapors and damps con­fessed their God

And did Thy word ful­fill

And earth ob­served its mak­er’s nod

And trem­bled

and was still.

Accepting our de­liv­er­ance

Lord

Our long

or short

re­prieve

Thy won­drous good­ness we re­cord

And to Thy glo­ry live.

We nev­er will the grace for­get

But thank­ful­ly im­prove

And still in songs of praise re­peat

Thy pro­vi­den­tial love.