Hymns, Selected and Original ‎#232

232. And am I only born to die?

1 And am I only born to die?
And must I suddenly comply
With nature’s stern decree?
What after death for me remains?
Celestial joys, or hellish pains,
To all eternity?

2 How then ought I on earth to live,
While God prolongs the kind reprieve,
And props the house of clay;
My sole concern, my single care,
To watch, and tremble, and prepare
Against the fatal day!

3 No room for mirth or trifling here,
For worldly hope, or worldly fear,
If life so soon is gone;
If now the Judge is at the door,
And all mankind must stand before
Th'inexorable throne!

4 No matter which my thoughts employ;
A moment’s misery, or joy;
But oh! when both shall end,
Where shall I find my destin'd place?
Shall I my everlasting days
With fiends or angels spend?

5 Nothing is worth a thought beneath
But how I may escape the death
That never, never dies!
How make mine own election sure;
And when I fail on earth, secure
A mansion in the skies.

6 Jesus, vouchsafe a pitying ray,
Be thou my guide, be thou my way
To glorious happiness!
Ah! write the pardon on my heart!
And whensoe’er I hence depart,
Let me depart in peace.

Text Information

• First Line: And am I only born to die?
• Meter: P. M.
• Publication Date: 1828
• Topic: Holy Spirit: The certaintiy of death and Judgment
• Notes: Now Public Domain.

Tune Information

(No tune information)