"Lord, It belongs not to my care
Whether I die or live;
To love and serve Thee is my share,
And this Thy grace must give.
2 If life be long, I will be glad
That I may long obey;
If short, yet why should I be sad
To soar to endless day?
3 Christ leads me through no darker rooms
Than He went through before;
He that into God's kingdom comes
Must enter by this door.
4 Come, Lord, when grace hath made me meet
Thy blessed Face to see;
For, if Thy work on earth be sweet,
What will Thy glory be?
5 My knowledge of that Life is small;
The eye of faith is dim;
But 'tis enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with Him."
"This hymn on 'The Covenant and Confidence of Faith' the author wrote for himself, but in a note he adds: 'This covenant my dear wife, in her former sickness, subscribed with a cheerful spirit'. It is found in his 'Poetical Fragments', 1681. It has, as there published, eight double stanzas. The original has been improved by a few verbal changes. In verse one above, which is the fourth verse of the original, the author wrote: 'Now it belongs not to my care'. In verse two, line four, he wrote: 'That shall have the same pay.'. It is based on Philippians 1:21: 'For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain'. It is indeed a beautiful hymn of love, trust, and hope."
-Taken from, "The Hymns And Hymn Writers Of The Church: An Annotated Edition Of The Methodist Hymnal", by Charles S Nutter and Wilbur F Tillet; 1911; hymn #470, found on pages 248-249.
