Thy call to lay this body down

Verse 1
Thy call to lay this body down,
And venture on a world unknown
Resign’d I woud attend,
With humble thankfulness embrace
My Saviour’s kindly warning grace,
And meekly meet my end.

Verse 2
I feel the fatal moment nigh,
And tremble at the point to die
A sinner unforgiven,
Without that Witness of thy grace,
Without that real holiness
Which qualifies for heaven.

Verse 3
Oft have I for thy Spirit pray’d,
Ten thousand times invok’d his aid,
And found his presence near,
Yet still unsav’d, and unrenew’d
I want the sanctifying God,
Th’ indwelling Comforter.

Verse 4
That Spirit purchas’d by thy death
Jesus, on me vouchsafe to breathe
Before I hence depart:
Now let him testify of Thee,
And take, and show thy blood to me,
And fill my sprinkled heart.

Verse 5
With all my heart I then shall love
My Friend, and Harbinger above
Who here unveils his face,
Who waits to catch my parting sigh,
Who bids me get me up, and die,
And die, in his embrace.

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. 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 397.
Publishing: Public Domain