Now let us for awhile return

And see the startled world,

With all its pride and all its sin

Swift into ruin hurl'd.

The waters now are rising fast,

And men are in despair;

They can themselves no succur find,

No ear now hears their prayer.

They once derided him who preached

To them the coming wo,

But now no voice cries out, Repent;

Ah! whither shall they go?

The ark to them is firmly closed,

They cannot enter in;

They see the flood is rising round;

They perish in their sin.

Not highest trees can shelter them,

Nor mountain caverns hide,

For caves and heights are fill'd and lost,

As onward sweeps the tide.

Ah! would that they had heard the word

That faithful Noah preach'd;

Accepted of Jehovah's grace

Which he to them out-reach'd.

But now, alas! it is too late;

No human power can save

A single soul from perishing,

Beneath the flooding wave.

Oh! let us not provoke our God;

But of His grace partake;

And feel our sins are blotted out

For His own mercy's sake.