Scripture Verse

Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Genesis 3:19

Introduction

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Pre­pa­ra­tion for Death 1772.

Music: Ster­ling Ralph Har­ris­on, 1786 (🔊 pdf nwc)

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

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Lyrics

Tremendous God, with hum­ble fear,
Prostrate be­fore Thy aw­ful throne,
The ir­re­vo­ca­ble word we hear,
The so­ve­reign right­eous­ness we own.

’Tis fit we should to dust re­turn
Since such the will of the Most High;
In sin con­ceived, to trou­ble born,
Born on­ly to la­ment and die.

Submissive to Thy just de­cree,
We all shall soon from earth re­move;
But when Thou send­est, Lord, for me,
O let the mes­sen­ger be love!

Whisper Thy love in­to my heart,
Warn me of my ap­proach­ing end;
And then I joy­ful­ly de­part,
And then I to Thy arms as­cend.