Uncertainty of Life

I

See! another year is gone!
Quickly have the seasons pass’d!
This we enter now upon
Will to many prove their last:
Mercy hitherto has spared,
But have mercies been improved?
Let us ask, Am I prepared,
Should I be this year removed?

II

Some we now no longer see,
Who their mortal race have run;
Seem’d as fair for life as we,
When the former year begun:
Some, but who God only knows,
Who are here assembled now,
Ere the present year shall close,
To the stroke of death must bow.

III

Life a field of battle is,
Thousands fall within our view:
And the next death-bolt that flies:
May be sent to me or you:
While we preach and while we hear,
Help us, Lord, each one to think
Vast eternity is near,
I am standing on the brink.

IV

If from guilt and sin set free
By the knowledge of thy grace,
Welcome then the call will be
To depart and see thy face:
To thy saints while here below
With new years new mercies come;
But the happiest year they know
Is the last, which leads them home.