Scripture Verse

The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. Revelation 21:8

Introduction

Words: Jo­seph Hart, 1759.

Music: Clau­di­us Ar­thur H. Mann, in The Me­tho­dist Hym­nal (New York: Me­tho­dist Book Con­cern, 1905), num­ber 595 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Hart (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Arthur H. Mann (1850–1929)

Lyrics

Vain man, thy fond pur­suits for­bear—
Repent, thine end is nigh;
Death at the far­thest can’t be far:
Oh! think be­fore thou die.

Reflect, thou hast a soul to save;
Thy sins, how high they mount!
What are thy hopes be­yond the grave?
How stands that dark ac­count?

Death en­ters, and there’s no de­fense;
His time there’s none can tell;
He’ll in a mo­ment call thee hence,
To Hea­ven, or to hell.

Thy flesh, per­haps thy great­est care,
Shall crawl­ing worms con­sume;
But, ah! de­struc­tion stops not there;
Sin kills be­yond the tomb.

Today, the Gos­pel calls, to­day,
Sinners, it speaks to you;
Let ev­ery one for­sake his way,
And mer­cy will ensue.

Rich mer­cy, dear­ly bought with blood,
How vile soe’er he be;
Abundant par­don, peace with God,
All giv’n en­tire­ly free.