593. Hymn of Reproach

This hymn has been cooking on my back burner for a good long while. I thought about turning it into a paraphrase of the Reproaches from the Good Friday liturgy, but that didn't really stir my creative juices much, so nothing materialized until I decided to go back to my initial idea, which arose while listening to a Sunday sermon I know not how many weeks ago. The tune I have in mind is NUN LASST UNS DEN LEIB from Georg Rhau’s Geistliche Gesänge, Wittenberg, 1544, best known in connection with the burial hymn "Now lay we calmly in the grave."

Unholy age, hear my reproach:
Beware the Judge's swift approach!
Do now, ere He convenes His court,
Acts that with penitence comport!

Think you the world t'ward Jesus turns,
Grows and progresses, upward yearns?
Lo, hist'ry proves the flat reverse:
Each epoch wickeder and worse!

Think you the faithful will arise
To better all before God's eyes?
Open your own, and take concern:
Can faith endure till He return?

Think you God's Word somehow complies
With reason? Mark how man denies
The very words He pledges plain:
Repent and hear His Word again!

Think you Christ's suffering and blood
Suffice not for all sinners' good?
Spew out faith's bane, uncertainty:
His sov'reign will declares you free.

Think you His Spirit's calling voice
Completes or answers your free choice?
Let grace assure your doubting heart
Which ere all worlds set you apart.

Think you, in floods of peril dark,
Your quav'ring faith will be your ark?
Would that the water Jesus pours
Float it from sin to safer shores!

Think you the bread and cup we share
Are merely signs of mystic fare?
Think but how Jesus would emboss
Upon our flesh His lively cross!

O people, see the ages' wreck!
Away, heart hardened, stiffened neck!
The incense of repentance burn;
Watch, pray for Jesus' swift return!