Prepare to meet thy God.
Amos 4:12
Words: Eleanor W. Long, in Gospel Hosannas, edited by Clarence B. Strouse et al. (Chicago, Illinois: Glad Tidings Publishing, 1911), number 107.
Music: Charles H. Gabriel, alt. (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good photo of Long (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
There were sleeping virgins lying
Just outside the festal door;
And they murmured in their dreaming,
Time enough, full time, and more,
But the cry rang, Lo, the Bridegroom
Cometh quickly to the feast-room!
Go to meet Him—Go!
Refrain
Awake! awake!
Turn from sin, turn from sorrow
Today! today!
For there is no tomorrow!
Your lamps are gone out,
And no oil can you borrow—
Prepare to meet thy God!
Then they rose and hastened forward,
From the thrall of dreams released;
Those with burning lamps to enter
With the Bridegroom to the feast;
But the others stood benighted,
With their empty lamps unlighted—
And the doorway shut.
Refrain
Rouse ye from your sleep, O dreamers,
While the door stands open wide,
Fill your lamps, and trim them, light them—
You can have no light beside.
Then into the realms immortal
You shall enter thro’ the portal,
Ere the door is shut.
Refrain