Scripture Verse

Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The Lord hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month. Jeremiah 28:15–17

Introduction

portrait
Philip Doddridge
(1702–1751)

Words: Phi­lip Dodd­ridge (1702–1751). Pub­lished post­humously in Hymns Found­ed on Va­ri­ous Texts in the Ho­ly Scrip­tures, by Job Or­ton (Shrop­shire, Eng­land: Jo­shua Ed­dowes & John Cot­ton, 1755), num­ber 134: The pos­si­bi­li­ty of dy­ing this year.

Music: Tru­ro from Psal­mo­dia Ev­an­ge­li­ca, by Tho­mas Will­iams, 1789 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Lyrics

God of my life, Thy con­stant care,
With bless­ings crowns each op­en­ing year;
This guil­ty life Thou dost pro­long,
And wake anew mine an­nu­al song.

How ma­ny pre­cious souls are fled
To the vast re­gions of the dead,
Since from this day the chang­ing sun
Through his last year­ly pe­ri­od run.

We yet sur­vive; but who can say,
Or through the year, or month or day,
I will re­tain this vi­tal breath;
Thus far at least in league with death.

That breath is Thine, eter­nal God,
’Tis Thine to fix my soul’s abode;
It holds its life from Thee alone,
On earth, or in the world un­known.

To Thee our spir­its we re­sign,
Make them and own them still as Thine;
So shall they smile, se­cure from fear,
Though death should blast the ris­ing year.

Thy child­ren ea­ger to be gone,
Bid time’s im­pe­tu­ous tide roll on,
And land them on that bloom­ing shore,
Where years and death are known no more.