Our earth we now lament to see
with floods of wickedness overflowed,
with violence, wrong, and cruelty,
one wide-extended field of blood,
where men like fiends each other tear
in all the hellish rage of war
As listed on Abaddon’s side,
they mangle their own flesh, and slay;
Tophet is moved, and opens wide
its mouth for its enormous prey;
and myriads sink beneath the grave,
and plunge into the flaming wave.
O might the universal Friend
this havoc of his creatures see!
Bid our unnatural discord end,
declare us reconciled in thee!
Write kindness on our inward parts
and chase the murderer from our hearts!
Who now against each other rise,
the nations of the earth constrain
to follow after peace, and prize
the blessings of thy righteous reign,
the joys of unity to prove,
the paradise of perfect love!
A hymn by Charles Wesley, 1758
