The Cyber Hymnal ‎#3742

3742. Life Is the Time to Serve the Lord

1. Life is the time to serve the Lord,
The time to ensure the great reward;
And while the lamp holds out to burn,
The vilest sinner may return.

2. Life is the hour that God has given
To ’scape from hell and fly to Heav’n;
The day of grace, and mortals may
Secure the blessings of the day.

3. The living know that they must die,
But all the dead forgotten lie;
Their memory and their sense is gone,
Alike unknowing and unknown.

4. Their hatred and their love is lost,
Their envy is buried in the dust;
They have no share in all that’s done
Beneath the circuit of the sun.

5. Then what my thoughts design to do,
My hands, with all your might pursue;
Since no device nor work is found,
Nor faith, nor hope, beneath the ground.

6. There are no acts of pardon passed
In the cold grave, to which we haste;
But darkness, death, and long despair,
Reign in eternal silence there.

Text Information

• First Line: Life is the time to serve the Lord
• Title: Life Is the Time to Serve the Lord
• Author: Isaac Watts (1707)
• Meter: LM
• Language: English
• Source: Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707, Book I, number 88
• Copyright: Public Domain

Tune Information

• Name: HINGHAM
• Composer: Samuel Holyoke, 1762-1820
• Meter: LM
• Incipit: 11214 33223 45654
• Key: F Major
• Copyright: Public Domain