Thursday, June 29, 2023

What timorous worms we mortals are!

1070 L. M.
Christ’s presence makes death easy.

WHY should we start, and fear to die?
   What tim’rous worms we mortals are!
   Death is the gate to endless joy,
   And yet we dread to enter there.

2 The pains, the groans, the dying strife,
   Fright our approaching souls away;
   And we shrink back again to life,
   Fond of our prison and our clay.

3 O would my Lord his servant meet,
   My soul would stretch her wings in haste,
   Fly fearless through death’s iron gate,
   Nor feel the terrors as she pass’d;

4 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.
                         Isaac Watts
                         Methodist Episcopal hymnal (1870 edition)

No comments: