Lord, if Thou Dost Not Soon Appear

Lord

if Thou dost not soon ap­pear

Virtue and truth will fly away;

A faith­ful man amongst us here

Will scarce be found

if Thou de­lay.

The whole dis­course when neigh­bors meet

Is filled with tri­fles

loose and vain;

Their lips are flat­tery and de­ceit

And their proud lang­uage is pro­fane.

But lips that with de­ceit ab­ound

Shall not main­tain their tri­umph long;

The God of ven­geance will con­found

The flat­ter­ing and blas­phem­ing tongue.

Yet shall our words be free

they cry;

Our tongues shall be con­trolled by none:

Where is the Lord will ask us why?

Or say our lips are not our own?

The Lord

who sees the poor op­pressed

And hears th’op­press­or’s haugh­ty strain

Will rise to give His child­ren rest

Nor shall they trust His Word in vain.

Thy Word

O Lord

though oft­en tried

Void of de­ceit shall still ap­pear;

Not sil­ver se­ven times pu­ri­fied

From dross and mix­ture shines so clear.

Thy grace shall in the dark­est hour

Defend the ho­ly soul from harm;

Though when the vil­est men have pow­er

On ev­ery side will sin­ners swarm.