HYMN 88. (L. M.) Life the Day of Grace and Hope, Eccl. x. 4–6, 10.
I
Life is the time to serve the Lord,
The time to insure the great reward
And while the lamp holds out to burn
The vilest sinner may return.
II
Life is the hour that God has given
To 'scape from hell, and fly to heaven,
The day of grace, and mortals may
Secure the blessings of the day.
III
The living know that they must die,
But all the dead forgotten lie,
Their memory and their sense is gone,
Alike unknowing and unknown.
IV
Their hatred and their love is lost,
Their envy bury'd in the dust;
They have no share in all that's done
Beneath the circuit of the sun.
V
Then what my thoughts design to do,
My hands, with all your might pursue,
Since no device, nor work is found,
Nor faith, nor hope beneath the ground.
VI
There are no acts of pardon past
In the cold grave to which we haste,
But darkness, death, and long despair
Reign in eternal silence there.
