And Am I Only Born to Die?

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?

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.

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

The in­ex­or­able throne!

No mat­ter which my thoughts em­ploy

A mo­ment’s mi­se­ry

or joy;

But O! when both shall end

Where shall I find my des­tined place?

Shall I my ev­er­last­ing days

With fiends

or an­gels spend?

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.

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.