Ah! whither should we fly

Verse 1
Ah! Whether [whiither] should we fly
In peril and distress,
While all the dogs of war are nigh,
The enemies of peace!
Almighty God of love,
On thee our souls we cast:
Hide thou our hunted lives above,
And save the land at last.

Verse 2
A leopard watches o’er
Our cities night and day,
Prepar’d with unrelenting power
To spring upon the prey:
The alien armies wait,
Lur’d by the scent of blood,
As awful ministers of fate,
As thunder-bolts of God.

Verse 3
Yet if our sin demands,
Its just reward of pain,
O let us fall into the hands
Of God, and not of man:
His tender mercies wound,
Remorseless as the grave;
But pity in thy wrath is found,
Which only strikes to save.

Verse 4
In measure then reprove,
In love thine own chastise,
But baffle, and far off remove,
Our threat’ning enemies;
Blast their devices, Lord,
Nor let their counsel stand,
Knap thou the spear, and wrest the sword
Out of the ruffians’ hand.

Verse 5
Thyself the men refrain
Who our destruction seek,
So shall they fiercely strive in vain
The secret bar to break:
Their bound they cannot pass,
If God assign their bound,
And Jesus, as a wall of brass,
Our favour’d isle surround.

Verse 6
But our defence is sure,
Whate’er event betide,
Beneath th’ almighty shade secure
Thy faithful ones abide;
’Till all the tyranny,
Of earth and hell is o’er,
Jesus, thy mighty name shall be
Our adamantine tower.

Verse 7
Tho’ famine, plague, and sword
Hung o’er our sinful land,
The means of swift prevention, Lord,
Are in thine only hand:
Or if the curse descend,
By sovereign love subdu’d,
The curse shall bless, the ill shall end
In everlasting good.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: "For the British Nation." Introduced in Charles Wesley, Hymns of Intercession for All Mankind (Bristol: E. Farley, 1758). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 6 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 124.
Publishing: Public Domain