Canon for Apocreos. Ode IX

Hymns of the Eastern Church, by J.M. Neale, [1884], at sacred-texts.com

p. 181

Canon for Apocreos

ODE IX.

by Theodore of the Studium

Ὁ Κύριος ἔρχεται.

The Lord draws nigh, the righteous Throne's Assessor,
The just to save, to punish the transgressor:
        Weep we, and mourn, and pray,
        Regardful of that day;
When all the secrets of all hearts shall be
Lit with the blaze of full eternity.

Clouds and thick darkness o’er the Mount assembling,
Moses beheld the Eternal's glory, trembling:
        And yet he might but see
        God's feebler Majesty. p. 182
And I—I needs must view His fullest Face:
O spare me, Lord! O take me to Thy grace!

David of old beheld, in speechless terror,
The session of the Judge—the doom of error:
        And what have I to plead
        For mercy in my need?
Nothing save this: O grant me yet to be,
Ere that day come, renewed and true to Thee!

Here, fires of deep damnation roar and glitter:
The worm is deathless, and the cup is bitter:
        There, day that hath no morrow,
        And joy that hath no sorrow:
And who so blest that he shall fly the abyss,
Rais’d up to God'S Right Hand, and speechless bliss!

My soul with many an act of sin is wounded:
With mortal weakness is my frame surrounded: p. 183
        My life is well nigh o’er:
        The Judge is at the door
How wilt thou, miserable spirit, fare,
What time He sends His summons through the air?