Millions go smoothly on

Verse 1
Millions go smoothly on
By lawful things undone,
Life’s most innocent affairs
Keep them fatally employ’d,
Pleasure, and bewitching cares
Make the world forget their God.

Verse 2
To earthly things they cleave,
The life of nature live,
Sleep in sin, till death oppress:
Judg’d, they then lift up their eyes,
Tost on ever-flaming seas,
Gnaw’d by guilt that never dies!

Verse 3
O that my life might be
Devoted all to Thee!
Lord, I would thy warning take,
Tremble at thy vengeful power,
Up to righteousness awake,
Stand in awe, and sin no more.

Verse 4
Preserve my conscience pure,
And give me faith t’ endure,
Humble hope, and love sincere:
Then I cannot dread surprize,
Glad to see thy judgments near,
Sure to meet thee in the skies.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘As in the days that were before the floud they were eating and drinking &c.’—[Matt. 24,] v. 38, 39.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Matthew.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/577, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 377.
Publishing: Public Domain