From sudden unexpected death

Verse 1
From sudden, unexpected death,
Jesus, thy servant save,
Nor let me gasp my latest breath
Unmindful of the grave;

Verse 2
Unconscious of the yawning deep
And death eternal nigh;
Ah, do not suffer me to sleep,
Till in my sins I die.

Verse 3
Warn’d of the sure-approaching day,
I now thy grace desire,22
In mercy take my sins away,
And then my soul require.

Verse 4
Thy favor, and thy image, Lord,
O may I first retrieve,
And meet for my immense reward
To thy great glory live.

Verse 5
Wise to foresee my latter end,
With humble, loving fear
I woud continually attend
The welcome messenger;

Verse 6
And summon’d to the mountain-top,
Without a lingring sigh
Render my ransom’d spirit up,
And to thy glory die.

Hymnal/Album: This hymn appears in the manuscript “MS Preparation for Death.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/578, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Preparation for Death, in Several Hymns (London, 1772). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 7 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 409.
Publishing: Public Domain