Sensus quis horror percutit?

For Advent

Words: Latin Hymn
Translation: What Terrors Shake My Trembling Soul! by John Chandler

Music: Not Stated

Source: Rev. John Chandler, The Hymns of the Primitive Church (London: John W. Parker, 1837), Hymnus 75, pp. 203-204.

Sensus quis horror percutit?
Coelum profundum scinditur:
Christum sedentem nubibus
Hinc inde stipant agmina.

Feralis ad sonum tubae
Mors jussa reddit mortuos:
Quos ad tribunal Judicis
Urgent coactos angeli.

Ad Judicis sedent latus,
Quicunque spretis omnibus,
Fugere mundum pauperes,
Deum secuti pauperem.

Crux ante Judaeis probrum,
Ludibrium Crux Gentibus,
Terror reis, probis amor,
Summo micabit aethere.

Fixere quem dirae trabi,
Cernent, pavebunt, ingement;
Vultu beabit quo suos
Hoc territabit impios.

Fac, Christe, ne mores bonos
Contage mundus inquinet:
Secerne nos ab improbis,
Ne misceamur sontibus.

Venture Judex seculi
Jesu, tibi sit gloria,
Cum Patre, cumque Spiritu,
In sempiterna secula.

Sheet Music to the tune by Rev. F. A. J. Hervey for Awful Thought Of Endless Doom, Wm. Cook and B. Webb, eds., The Hymnary (London: Novello, Ewer & Company, 1872), #316, p. 284.
Morning Hymn for the Sunday After Ascension Day

Note from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1892), p. 1041.

Sensus quis horror percutit. Jean Baptiste de Santeüil. [Ascension.] In the Cluniac Breviary, 1686, p. 497, this hymn begins "Quid obstupenduni cernimus," but in Santeüil's Hymni Sacri et Novi, 1689, p. 22, and edition 1698, p. 105, it is given as above. It is also in the Paris Breviary, 1736, as the hymn at Matins on the octave of the Ascension. It is also in J. Chandler's Hymns of the Primitive Church, 1837, and Cardinal Newman's Hymni Ecclesiae, 1838 and 1865. Translated as :—

1.  What Horror Profound! The Skies Are Rended By Isaac Williams, in the British Magazine, Dec. 1, 1834 (vol. vi. p. 620, — together with the Latin), and his Hymns translated from the Parisian Breviary, 1839, as What is this horror? The sky is rended.

2. What Terrors Shake My Trembling Soul! By John Chandler, in his Hymns of the Primitive Church, 1837, p. 85, and again in his Hymns of the Church, &c, 1841, No. 49. It is No. 120 in the 1863 Appendix to the Hymnal Noted.

3. Awful Thought Of Endless Doom. By Robert Campbell, in his St. Andrews Hymns and Anthems, 1850, p. 78, and, with slight alterations, in the Hymnary, 1871, 1875. Some portions of this translation are by Miss Jane Campbell, of Ravensdale, Scotland. It is given in O. Shipley's Annus Sanctus, 1884, as Fearful Thought Of Endless Doom.

    Editor's Note: St. Andrews Hymns is also known as S. Ninian's Hymns as it was used in St. Ninian's Cathedral, Perth. It's full title was Hymns and Anthems for use in the Holy Services of the Church, within the United Diocese of St. Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane (Edinburgh: R. Lendrum & Co., 1850).

4. What Terror Every Bosom Shakes By John David Chambers, in his Lauda Syon, 1857, p. 201.

Another tr. is :—

Great God What Terror Fills The Eye By William Palmer, in his Short Poems &c, 1845, p. 50. [ J.J.]

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