The Man That Lives Must Learn To Die

For Christmas

Words and Music: English Traditional

Meter: 86 86

Source: G. Walters, A Good Christmas Box (Dudley: G. Walters, 1847, Reprinted by Michael Raven, 2007), pp. 36-37.

The man that lives must learn to die,
Christ will no longer stay;
Our time is short, death's near at hand
To take our lives away.

What is our life that we must live,
And what's our carcase then,
That's food for worms to feed upon,
Christ knows the time and when.

Our lives are like the grass, O Lord,
Like flowers in the field,
So welcome death, praise ye the Lord,
Willing I am to yield.

Now we must die and leave this world
That we have lived in,
Nothing but one poor winding sheet
To wrap our bodies in.

Happy the man that never swore,
Against the living Lord,
And never took God's name in vain
At any trifling word.

When shall we see that happy heaven,
That blessed resting place,
Where we like angels there shall feed
Upon God's royal grace.

The bitter plagues, the fiery hell,
Where sinners they are slain;
His beast shall die, his sheep shall rot,
Cold clay shall be his grave.

Besides, himself sickness shall have,
No physic shall him cure;
We ne'er shall live to see old age,
Our lives will not endure.

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