3 From vital air, from cheerful light,
To the cold grave's perpetual night,
From scenes of duty, means of grace,
Must we to God's tribunal pass!
4 Important journey! awful view.
How great the change! the scenes how new:
The gate of heaven or hell display'd-
The realms of light, or gloomy shade!
5 Awake! my soul, for death prepare,
And lose in this each mortal care;
With steady feet that path be trod,
Which through the grave conducts to God.
6 Jesus, to thee my all I trust,
And if thou call me down to dust,
Give me to know thy voice and hand,
And die in peace at thy command.
132. 8. 6. Wesley's Coll.
The Serious Concern.
NO room for mirth or trifling here,
For worldly hope or worldly care,
If life is but a span;
The Judge of all the earth shall soon
Pronounce the everlasting doom
Of every child of man!
2 How then ought I on earth to live,
While God prolongs the kind reprieve,
And props this house of clay!
My sole concern, my single care,
To watch, and tremble, and prepare
Against that fatal day!
3 Nothing is worth a thought beneath,
But how I may escape the death
That never, never dies!
How make my own election sure,
And when I fail on earth, secure
A mansion in the skies
4 Jesus, vouchsafe a pitying ray;
Be thou my guide, be thou my way,
To glorious happiness!
O, write forgiveness on my heart,
And whensoe'er I hence depart,
Bid me depart in peace!
The time of my departure is at hand. 2 Tim. iv. 6.
HE time draws nigh, I must go home,
Resign my body to the tomb;
I leave you all in Jesus' arms,
Whose bosom bears the tender lambs.
2 He saw me wandering far from God,
He call'd me oft and very loud,
Till by th' entreaties of his tongue,
He rous'd my heart and brought me home.
3 He's kept me safe these many years,
Sometimes thro' hope, sometimes thro' fears,
Sometimes my soul would mount on high,
Like warbling larks towards the sky.
4 Sometimes I'm like the lonesome dove,
Mourning, she flies through all the grove:
With notes of grief I then complain,
Till my dear Lord returns again.
5 My sun has past the meridian line,
My body's to the dust inclined,
But still my mind moves gently on,
To meet my Lord upon his throne.
6 Then fly, my sun, fast to the west,
Since I shall be with Jesus blest,
And join the song near to the throne,
Where sin and sorrow ne'er are known.
7 Farewell, my brethren, all in pain,
The Lord who hears you oft complain,
Your darkness soon will turn to day,
And chase your doubts and fears away.
8 Farewell, dear people, whom I love,
Prepare to meet me soon above,
Where we shall join to sing and tell,
How Jesus saved our souls from hell.
9 There we shall be with Jesus blest,
In that eternal world of rest,
On golden harps to sing and tell
Redemption thro' Emanuel.
The rapid flight of time, and the solemnities of eternity.
Y days, my weeks, my months, my years,
Fly rapid as the whirling spheres
Around the steady pole.
Time, like the tide, its motion keeps,
And I must launch the boundless deeps
Where endless ages roll.
2 The grave is near the cradle seen,
How swift the moments pass between!
And whisper as they fly-
'Unthinking man, remember this,-
Though fond of sublunary bliss,
That thou must gasp and die.'
3 My soul attend the solemn call,
Thine earthly tent must shortly fall,
And thou must take thy flight
Beyond the vast extensive blue,
To sing above as angels do,
Or sink in endless night.
4 Eternal bliss or endless woe,
Hangs on this inch of time below-
On this precarious breath;
The God of nature only knows,
Whether another year shall close
Fre I expire in death.
5 Long ere the sun shall run his round,
I may be buried under ground,
And friends the loss deplore;
Alas! one hour may close the scene,
And ere twelve months shall roll between
My name be heard no more.
6 But shall my soul be then extinct,
And cease to live, and cease to think?
It cannot, cannot be :-
No, my immortal cannot die :
What wilt thou do, or whither fly,
When death shall set thee free?
7 Will mercy then her arms extend?
Will Jesus be thy guardian friend,
And heaven thy dwelling place?
Or shall insulting fiends appear,
To drag thee down to keen despair
Beyond the reach of
grace.
8 A heaven or hell, and these alone,
Beyond the present life are known;
There is no middle state.
To-day attend the call divine,
To-morrow may be none of thine,
Or it may be too late.
9 O! do not pass this life in dreams :
Vast is the change, whate'er it seems,
To poor unthinking men!
Lord, at thy foctstool I would bow,
Bid conscience tell me plainly now
What it must tell me then.
10 If irf destruction's road I stray,
Help me to choose that better way
Which leads to joys on high:
Thy grace impart, my guilt forgive,
Nor let me ever dare to live
Such as I would not die.
Young people expostulated with to come to Christ.
Y youthful friends, to ruin bound,
Amid the gospel's joyful sound,
Come, go with us, and seek to prove
The joys of Christ's redeeming love.
2 To-day, if you will hear his voice,
Now is the time to make your choice;
Say, will you to Mount Zion go?
Say, will you have this Christ or no?
3 Say, would you be for ever blest?
Come to the Saviour, in him trust:
From guilt and pain would you be free?
Flee from your sins, to Jesus flee.
4 [If we must leave you bound to hell,
Resolv'd with foulest fiends to dwell,
To rush in carnal pleasures on
And sink in endless ruin down ;-
5 If you 're determin'd not to pray,
And put far off the evil day,
Farewell, my friends, a long farewell,
For I'm resolv'd with Christ to dwell.]
6 And since his love is still the same,
I once more ask you in his name,
Say, will you to Mount Zion go?
Say, will you have this Christ or no?
136. 8.8.8.8. 7. Altered.
Opposers expostulated with.
W and veil their faces with their wings;
WHILE angels strike their tuneful strings,
Each saint on earth his Jesus sings,
And joins to praise the King of kings,
That sav'd his soul from ruin.
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