Soon with Resistless Arm Shall Death

Soon with re­sist­less arm shall death

Assert its sov­er­eign claim

And sum­mon man to yield his breath

To Him whence first it came.

Like crowd­ed for­est trees we stand

And some are marked to fall:

The axe will smite at God’s com­mand

And soon shall smite us all.

Green as the bay tree

ev­er green

With its new fo­li­age on

The gay

the thought­less

I have seen;

I passed—and they were gone.

No pre­sent health can health en­sure

For yet an hour to come

No hu­man pow­er our life se­cure

And save us from the tomb.

Lord! may we mark the aw­ful truth

Revealed in sac­red page—

A worm is in the bud of youth

And at the root of age.

Lord! teach me hence­forth so to live

And num­ber all my days

That in Thy strength I now may strive

To walk in wis­dom’s ways.

And since the fa­tal shafts of death

Are fly­ing all around

Prepare us to re­sign our breath

Nor dread the threat­ened wound.