Hymnal: The Christian Hymn Book
Date: 1865
Compiler: Alexander Campbell
Publisher/Printer: Central Book Concern
First Line: Why should we start and fear to die
Topic: The Present and the Future/Life and Death
Writer: <no first name given> Watts
Composer:
Meter: LM
Tune:
Hymn Number: 1043
Page Number: 618, click to see hymnal pages
LyicsWhy should we start and fear to die?
What tim'rous worms we mortals are!
Death is the gate of endless joy,
And yet we dread to enter there.
The pains, the groans, and dying strife
Fright our approaching souls away,
Still we shrink back again to life,
Fond of our prision and our clay.
O if my Lord would come and meet,
My soul would stretch her wings in haste,
Fly fearless through death's iron gate,
Nor feel the terrors as she pass'd!
Jesus can make a dying bed
Feel soft as downy pillows are.
While on his breast I lean my head,
And breathe my life out sweetly there.