Hymn
Why Should We Start, and Fear to Die?
Why should we start, and fear to die?
What timorous worms we mortals are!
Death is the gate to endless joy,
And yet we dread to enter there.
The pains, the groans, the dying strife
Fright our approaching souls away;
And we shrink back again to life,
Fond of our prison and our clay.
Oh, if my Lord would come and meet,
My soul would stretch her wings in haste,
Fly fearless through death’s iron gate,
Nor feel the terrors as she passed.
Jesus can make a dying bed
Feel soft as downy pillows are,
While on his breast I lean my head,
And breathe my life out sweetly there!
Why Should We Start, and Fear to Die? — Text from Laudes Domini, 1884. Public domain. https://yeshuanow.com/hymns/why-should-we-start-and-fear-to-die
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Questions about this hymn
Who wrote Why Should We Start, and Fear to Die?
The words of Why Should We Start, and Fear to Die were written by Isaac Watts; the version here was published in 1884. The library holds 248 more hymns by Isaac Watts, including Victory Over the Fears of Death and Let every tongue thy goodness speak.
Is Why Should We Start, and Fear to Die public domain?
Yes. The words here are taken from Laudes Domini, published in 1884. Works published before 1931 are out of copyright in the United States, so you can print, project, perform and record this hymn freely. How we source and check every hymn.
What is the metre of Why Should We Start, and Fear to Die?
Why Should We Start, and Fear to Die is in Long Metre (8.8.8.8). Hymns in the same metre can usually be sung to the same tunes — for example, Christ's Passion, and Sinners Salvation, My Dear Redeemer and My Lord and The Lord our Righteousness.