Hymnals of the Stone-Campbell Movement

Enos E. Dowling Hymnal Collection

Hymn: Oft as the bell with solemn toll (FL)

Hymnal: A Selection of Christian Hymns

Date: 1818

Compiler: Rice Haggard

Publisher/Printer: John Norvell

First Line: Oft as the bell with solemn toll

Topic: Funeral Hymns

Writer: <no first name given> <no last name given>

Composer:

Meter: LM

Tune:

Hymn Number: 168

Page Number: 168, click to see hymnal pages

Lyics

Oft as the bell with solemn toll,

Speaks the departure of a soul,

Let each one ask himself, "Am I

Prepared, should I be called to die?"



Only this frail, this fleeting breath,

Preserves me from the jaws of death;

Soon as it fails at once I'm gone,

And plunged into a world unknown.



Then leaving all I loved below,

To God's tribunal I must go;

Must hear the judge pronounce my fate,

And fix my everlasting state.



But could I bear to hear him say,

"Depart, accursed, far away:

"With Satan, in the lowest hell,

"Thou art forever doomed to dwell."



Lord Jesus!  Help me now to flee,

And seek my hope alone in thee;

Apply thy blood, thy Spirit give,

Subdue my sin, and let me live.



Then, when the solemn bell I hear,

If saved from sin, I need not fear;

Nor would the thought distressing be -

"Perhaps it next may toll for me."