And am I only born to die?

Verse 1
And am I only born to die? (Heb. 9:27)
And must I suddenly comply
With nature’s stern decree?
What after death for me remains?
Celestial joys, or hellish pains (Matt. 25:46)
Thro’ all eternity.

Verse 2
How then ought I on earth to live,
While God prolongs the kind reprieve,
And props the house of clay! (II Cor. 5:1)
My sole concern, my single care,
To watch, and tremble, and prepare
Against that fatal day.

Verse 3
No room for mirth or trifling here,
For worldly hope, or worldly fear,
If life so soon is gone, (James 4:14)
If now the judge is at the door, (James 5:9)
And all mankind must stand before (Rom. 14:10)
Th’ inexorable throne. (Matt. 25:31, Rev. 20:11-12)

Verse 4
No matter which my thoughts employ,
A moment’s misery or joy:
But O, when both shall end,
Where shall I find my destin’d place?
Must I my everlasting days
With fiends, or angels spend? (Matt. 25:41)

Verse 5
Nothing is worth a thought beneath,
But how I may escape the death
That never never dies, (Matt. 16:26, Mark 8:36, Isa. 66:24, Mark 9:44, Mark 9:46, Mark 9:48)
How make my own salvation[1] sure, (II Pet. 1:10)
And when I fail on earth, secure
A mansion in the skies. (John 14:2-3)

Verse 6
Jesus, vouchsafe a pitying ray,
Be thou my strength, be thou my way
To glorious happiness,
Ah, write the pardon on my heart, (Jer. 31:33, Heb. 8:10, Heb. 10:16)
And whensoe’er I hence depart,
Let me depart in peace. (Luke 2:29)

[1] Wesley changed “salvation” to “election” in 1768.