Poem by Isaac Watts

Hymn 88 (Life is the time to serve the Lord)

Life the day of grace and hope.

Eccl. 9:4-6,10.

Life is the time to serve the Lord,
The time t' insure the great reward;
And while the lamp holds out to burn,
The vilest sinner may return.

[Life is the hour that God has giv'n
To 'scape from hell and fly to heav'n;
The day of grace, and mortals may
Secure the blessings of the day.]

The living know that they must die,
But all the dead forgotten lie;
Their mem'ry and their sense is gone,
Alike unknowing and unknown.

[Their hatred and their love is lost,
Their envy buried in the dust;
They have no share in all that's done
Beneath the circuit of the sun.]

Then what my thoughts design to do,
My hands, with all your might pursue;
Since no device nor work is found,
Nor faith, nor hope, beneath the ground.

There are no acts of pardon passed
In the cold grave, to which we haste;
But darkness, death, and long despair,
Reign in eternal silence there.

1. Psalm 34. Part 1 (Lord, I will bless thee all my days)
2. Psalm 121 (To heav'n I lift my waiting eyes)
3. Psalm 16. Part 1 (Preserve me, Lord, in time of need)
4. Psalm 11 (My refuge is the God of love)
5. Psalm 42. Part 1 (With earnest longings of the mind)

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