Prepare ye the way!

209 L.M.
Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

COMFORT, ye ministers of grace,
   Comfort the people of your Lord;
   O lift ye up the fallen race,
   And cheer them by the Gospel word.

2 Go into every nation, go;
   Speak to their trembling hearts, and cry,—
   Glad tidings unto all we show:
   Jerusalem, thy God is nigh.

3 Hark in the wilderness a cry,
   A voice that loudly calls,—Prepare;
   Prepare your hearts, for God is nigh,
   And waits to make his entrance there.

4 The Lord your God shall quickly come;
   Sinners, repent, the call obey:
   Open your hearts to make him room;
   Ye desert souls, prepare the way.

5 The Lord shall clear his way through all;
   Whatever obstructs, obstructs in vain;
   The vale shall rise, the mountain fall,
   Crooked be straight, and rugged plain.

6 The glory of the Lord display’d
   Shall all mankind together view;
   And what his mouth in truth hath said,
   His own almighty hand shall do.
                  Charles Wesley
                  Methodist Episcopal hymnal (1870 edition)