1. And am I born to die,
To lay this body down?
And must my trembling spirit fly
Into a world unknown,
A world of darkest shade,
Unpierced by human thought,
The dreary regions of the dead,
Where all things are forgot!
2. 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 crown’d,
And see the flaming skies.
3. How shall I leave my tomb?
With triumph or regret?
A fearful, or a joyful doom,
A curse or blessing meet?
Shall angel-bands convey
Their brother to the bar?
Or devils drag my soul away,
To meet its sentence there?
4. Who can resolve the doubt
That tears my anxious breast?
Shall I be with the damn’d cast out,
Or number’d with the blest?
I must from God be driven
Or with my Savior dwell,
Must come, at his command, to heaven,
Or else depart to hell.
5. O thou who would not have
One wretched sinner die,
Who died thyself, my soul to save
From endless misery,
Shew me the way to shun
Thy dreadful wrath severe,
That when thou comest on the throne,
I may with joy appear.
6. Thou art thyself the way:
Thyself in me reveal,
So shall I pass 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
Through all eternity.
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