Ye who fear its sulfur smoke,
Ye who would be rent asunder
By the very law you broke:
Come and feel the Saviour's breezes;
From the depths of hell he seizes
And shall never let thee choke.
Ye who long have sat in darkness,
Bound and chained to walls of stone,
Ye who languish, hungered, artless
To supply your famished groan,
Come and taste the glorious Godlight;
He has made for thee a mansion bright
To replace your heart of stone.
Ye that tire of inward fighting
With your demons and your ghosts,
Ye that cannot stay the biting
Of the devil's deadly boasts,
Drop thy ramparts' dull pretenses;
Come embrace the sure defenses
Of the Saviour's heav'nly hosts.
Tune: "Come and Fly", Zachary Pletan (PDF)
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I suppose that I first started this while listening to a sermon at our church. The only thing that could have made my somewhat-shame at concentrating more on this than on the sermon was that I was running the sound that day! For some reason—it might have even been just a metaphor that caught my ear in one of the hymns we sang—the first few lines popped into my head, and then I couldn't set it down. The other thing that in no small part inspired it was the following from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.
So Christian turned out of his way to go to Mr. Legality’ house for help: but, behold, when he was got now hard by the hill, it seemed so high, and also that side of it that was next the way-side did hang so much over, that Christian was afraid to venture further, lest the hill should fall on his head; wherefore there he stood still, and wotted not what to do. Also his burden now seemed heavier to him than while he was in his way. There came also flashes of fire, [Ex. 19:16, 18], out of the hill, that made Christian afraid that he should be burnt: here therefore he did sweat and quake for fear. Heb. 12:21. And now he began to be sorry that he had taken Mr. Worldly Wiseman’ counsel
. . .
He to whom thou wast sent for ease, being by name Legality, is the son of the bond-woman which now is, and is in bondage with her children, Gal. 4:21-27, and is, in a mystery, this Mount Sinai, which thou hast feared will fall on thy head. Now if she with her children are in bondage, how canst thou expect by them to be made free? This Legality, therefore, is not able to set thee free from thy burden. No man was as yet ever rid of his burden by him; no, nor ever is like to be: ye cannot be justified by the works of the law; for by the deeds of the law no man living can be rid of his burden: Therefore Mr. Worldly Wiseman is an alien, and Mr. Legality is a cheat; and for his son Civility, notwithstanding his simpering looks, he is but a hypocrite, and cannot help thee. Believe me, there is nothing in all this noise that thou hast heard of these sottish men, but a design to beguile thee of thy salvation, by turning thee from the way in which I had set thee. After this, Evangelist called aloud to the heavens for confirmation of what he had said; and with that there came words and fire out of the mountain under which poor Christian stood, which made the hair of his flesh stand up. The words were pronounced: "As many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." [Gal. 3:10.]
I eventually finished it—somehow the last verse always takes the longest—and then tried to get the tune I wanted out of my head and onto paper. I have succeeded in that, though I don't think I will add any harmony line like I have on other tunes. It takes too long, and anyway, this isn't exactly a four-part-harmony song. It would probably sound nice with guitar and/or piano accompaniment, though.
Update: I wanted to play it, so I added the chords to the PDF download. Enjoy!
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