Scripture Verse

Introduction

Origin of the Hymn

The text is based on Mat­thew Hen­ry’s com­men­ta­ry on Le­vit­i­cus:

We have ev­ery one of us a charge to keep, an eter­nal God to glor­i­fy, an im­mor­tal soul to pro­vide for, need­ful du­ty to be done, our gen­er­a­tion to serve; and it must be our dai­ly care to keep this charge, for it is the charge of the Lord our Mas­ter, who will short­ly call us to ac­count about it, and it is our ut­most per­il if we ne­glect it. Keep it that ye die not; it is death, eter­nal death, to be­tray the trust that we are charged with; by the con­sid­er­a­tion of this we must be kept in awe.