Our Lord ascends His lofty throne,
Arrayed in majesty unknown:
His luster all the temple fills,
And spreads o'er all th' ethereal hills.

The holy, holy, holy Lord
Is by the seraphim adored;
And, while they stand beneath His seat,
They veil their faces and their feet.

And can a sinful worm endure
The presence of a God so pure?
Or these polluted lips proclaim
The honors of so grand a name?

O for Thine altar's glowing coal
To touch my lips, to fire my soul,
To purge the sordid dross away,
And into crystal turn my clay!

Philip Doddridge

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him who cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

Then said I, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

The flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, “Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.”

Isaiah 6:1-7

---

Copied from my grandmother’s hymnal, Hymn Book, Methodist Episcopal Church, South: Nashville, TN, 1901, Hymn #15.

Note: The hymns in this hymnal are not titled. So when I do not know the hymn, I make up a title or simply use the first line.

Photo taken in Milton, FL, 2021