The Rich and Poor Together Meet

The rich and poor to­ge­ther meet

In death

and at the mer­cy seat;

Then why should a dis­tinct­ion be

Made here

by worms so vile as we?

It is not wealth

or rank

or might

Lord! makes a dif­fer­ence in Thy sight;

But who has most Thy gifts of grace

He holds with Thee the high­est place.

Thou art the Mak­er of us all

Both rich and poor

and great and small;

And all we are

and all we own

Comes but from Thee

and Thee alone!

All com­mon child­ren of one God

All jour­ney­ing home

the self-same road

All born to death

we dai­ly die

And all up­on one hope re­ly!

With but one sac­ri­fice to plead

One Sav­ior God to in­ter­cede

One bar

at which all must ap­pear

Why should we be dis­sev­ered here?

The gild­ed glo­ry of to­day

Tomorrow droops

and fades away;

And youth

and pride

and vi­sions high

Live but to blos­som and to die!

The cot­tage serf

and crown­èd head

Must both lie in one com­mon bed

And lose all dif­fer­ence of birth

When ga­thered to their com­mon earth.

He on­ly who can trace from high

His pa­tent of no­bi­li­ty

Sealed with the blood of Him

who gave

His life as ran­som for the slave

He on­ly

in that aw­ful day

When Heav’n and earth shall pass away

Can feel

up­on God’s word se­cure

That his in­her­it­ance is sure.

Lord! if Thy hand hath placed me low

Make me con­tent­ed to be so!

But oh! if it hath raised me high

Vouchsafe me Christ’s hu­mil­ity!