The words
Stanza 1. Time, with an unwearied hand,Pushes round the seasons past,And in life’s frail glass, the sandSinks apace, not long to last:Many, well as you or I,Who last year assembled thus;In their silent graves now lie,Graves will open soon for us!
Stanza 2. Daily sin, and care, and strife,While the Lord prolongs our breath,Make it but a dying life,Or a kind of living death:Wretched they, and most forlorn,Who no better portion know;Better ne’er to have been born,Than to have our all below.
Stanza 3. When constrained to go alone,Leaving all you love behind;Ent’ring on a world unknown,What will then support your mind?When the Lord his summons sends,Earthly comforts lose their pow’r;Honors, riches, kindred, friends,Cannot cheer a dying hour.
Stanza 4. Happy souls who fear the LORDTime is not too swift for you;When your Savior gives the word,Glad you’ll bid the world adieu:Then he’ll wipe away your tears,Near himself appoint your place;Swifter fly, ye rolling years,LORD, we long to see thy face.
Olney Hymns (1779), Book 2, Hymn 2. John Newton. Public domain. CCEL transcription with modernized spelling. www.praylock.com/olney-hymns/2-2
