Five Minutes After I Die

Loved ones will weep o'er my silent face,
Dear ones will clasp me in sad embrace
Shadows and darkness will fill the place,
Five minutes after I die.

Faces that sorrow I will not see,
Voices that murmur will not reach me
But where, oh where will my spirit be?
Five minutes after I die.

Here I have rested and roved and ranged
Here I have cherished and grown estranged
There and then it will all be changed,
Five minutes after I die.

Naught to repair the good I lack
Fixed to the goal of my chosen track,
No room to repent, no turning back
Five minutes after I die.

Mated for aye with my chosen throng
Long is eternity, O so long
Then woe is me if my soul be wrong,
Five minutes after I die.

Oh what a fool, hard the word but true,
Passing the Savior with Death in view,
Doing a deed I can never undo,
Five minutes after I die.

If I am flinging a fortune away
If I am wasting salvations day
Just is my sentence, my soul shall say
Five minutes after I die.

Thanks be to Jesus for pardon free
He paid my debt on Mt. Calvary's tree,
Paradise gates will enfold even me
Five minutes after I die.

Oh how marvelous grace that rescued me
Oh joyous moment when Jesus I see,
Oh happy day when like him I'll be,
Five minutes after I die.

This poem written by Mary Virginia Mackey Stillion
© 2000