Before its strong arrest I feel,
Give me my death’s approach to see,
And having liv’d to serve thy will,
Lord, let me then depart in thee.
Before its strong arrest I feel
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “The time drew nigh that Israel must die.”—[Gen.] xlvii. 29. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 1 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 9 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 30.
Publishing: Public Domain