See! Another Year Is Gone!

Uncertainty of life by John Newton


 * See! another year is gone!
 * Quickly have the seasons passed!
 * This we enter now upon
 * May to many prove our last.
 * Mercy hitherto has spared,
 * But have mercies been improved?
 * Let us ask, am I prepared
 * Should I be this year removed?


 * Some we now no longer see,
 * Who their mortal race have run;
 * Seemed 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.


 * 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.


 * 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 their last, which leads them home.