“TO DIE IS GAIN.”
Draw nigh, thou long expected hour!
O, come, and make me free!
My God! I would not always thus
A fetter’d pris’ner be!
My spirit longs to soar away,
But, ah! this mighty chain
From which I struggle to escape,
Binds me to earth again.
Time after time thy sov’reign power
Has some strong link removed,
And I have nearer seem’d to Heaven,
And more my Savior loved.
But still in weakness fetter’d thus,
How can I rise to thee?
Draw nigh, thou long expected hour,
And set the pris’ner free!
June 6, 1840.