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AND AM I ONLY BORN TO DIE?

Discussion in 'Music Ministry' started by David Michael Harris, May 4, 2005.

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  1. David Michael Harris

    David Michael Harris Active Member

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    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.

    Charles Wesley.
     
    #1 David Michael Harris, May 4, 2005
  2. rlvaughn

    rlvaughn Well-Known Member
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    Baptist
    Also by Wesley:

    And am I born to die?
    To lay this body down?
    And must my trembling spirit fly
    Into a world unknown -
    A land of deepest shade,
    Unpierced by human thought,
    The dreary regions of the dead,
    Where all things are forgot?

    Soon as from earth I go,
    What will become of me?
    Eternal happiness or woe
    Must then my portion be;
    Waked by the trumpet's sound,
    I from my grave shall rise,
    And see the Judge with glory crowned,
    And see the flaming skies.

    How shall I leave my tomb?
    With triumph or regret?
    A fearful or a joyful doom,
    A curse or blessing meet?
    Will angel-bands convey
    Their brother to the bar?
    Or devils drag my soul away,
    To meet its sentence there?

    Who can resolve the doubt
    That tears my anxious breast?
    Shall I be with the damned cast out,
    Or numbered with the blest?
    I must from God be driven,
    Or with my Saviour dwell;
    Must come at his command to heaven,
    Or else - depart to hell.

    O thou that wouldst not have
    One wretched sinner die,
    Who died'st thyself; my soul to save
    From endless misery!
    Show me the way to shun
    Thy dreadful wrath severe,
    That when thou comest on thy throne
    I may with joy appear.

    Thou art thyself the Way;
    Thyself in me reveal;
    So shall I spend my life's short day
    Obedient to thy will;
    So shall I love my God,
    Because he first loved me,
    And praise thee in thy bright abode,
    To all eternity.
     
    #2 rlvaughn, May 4, 2005
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