Verse 1
Solemn, memorable day
That snatch’d my darling Son away,
Calm I welcome thy return
Which summons me again to mourn,
After a sad length of years
To pour again my selfish tears,
To bleed with undiminish’d smart,
And feel the recent wound of heart.
Verse 2
Time may gently bring relief,
Assuage, or cure a common grief,
I no end of sorrow see,
Till harbour’d in eternity:
Then, my God, and not before
My penal woes shall all be o’re,
And gloomy sorrow flee away
At the first dawn of endless day.
Verse 3
Now accepting my distress,
I suffer out my evil days,
Softly toward the tomb I tread,
Myself lamenting, not the dead;
Till my Life in death appears,
And Jesus, banishing my fears,
Chears by the beauties of his Face
Or’ewhelms me with the glorious Blaze!