Introduction

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Short Hymns on Se­lect Pas­sag­es of the Ho­ly Scrip­tures (Bris­tol, Eng­land: E. Far­ley, 1762), cen­to.

Music: St. Mi­chael me­lo­dy by Lou­is Bour­geois in the French Ge­ne­van Psal­ter, 1551. Adapt­ed by Will­iam Crotch in his Psalm Tunes, 1836 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Rev. Will­iam In­glis was a pi­ous and use­ful Wes­ley­an lo­cal preach­er. One of his val­ued ad­mo­ni­tions was: When the world as­saults you, watch and pray; when the flesh, flee and pray; when the de­vil, fight and pray.

The last pub­lic ser­vice that he con­duct­ed was a se­ven o’clock morn­ing pray­er meet­ing. He gave out this hymn and read with spe­cial em­pha­sis and im­press­ive­ness the third and fourth stan­zas.

That ev­en­ing, in re­turn­ing to the same cha­pel, he sud­den­ly fell to the ground, and life was ex­tinct. They re­called then how so­lemn­ly he had read at the close of the morn­ing pray­er meet­ing:

And soon or later then translate
To my eternal bliss.

Nutter, pp. 195–96