1261
C. M.
During a pestilence.
Let the land mourn through all its coasts!
And humble all its state;
Princes and rulers, at their posts,
Awhile sit desolate.
2 Let all the people, high and low,
Rich, poor, and great and small,
Invoke, in fellowship of woe,
The Maker of them all.
3 For God hath summoned from his place,
Death, in a direr form,
To waken, warn, and scourge our race,
Than earthquakes, fire, or storm.
4 Let churches weep within their pale,
And families apart;
Let each in secrecy bewail
The plague of his own heart.
5 So while the land bemoans its sin,
The pestilence may cease,
And mercy, tempering wrath, bring in
God’s blesséd health and peace.
Montgomery.