Why start men at death, so vain a thing. When Christ himself hath taken out the sting Live unto him in godliness and fear And then believe me there’s no cause to fear It’s but a passage and a step to be crown’d With a crown of immortality.

Full Text: Why start men at death, so vain a thing. When Christ himself hath taken out the sting Live unto him in godliness and fear And then believe me there’s no cause to fear It’s but a passage and a step to be crown’d With a crown of immortality.
Listed on Page Number: 292
Sampler Worked By: Mary Ann Edington
Date of Sampler: 1812
Place Sampler Made: n.p.
Sampler Listed on Page: 153
Author/Publication/Country/Date: Young, Edward. The Complaint or Night Thoughts…London: R.Dodsley, 1743. Pg. 3 and Sternhold, Thomas and John Hopkins. The whole book of Psalmes collected into English Meter, 1564. pg. 84 and The King James Bible, London: Robert Barker, 1611. I Corinthians 15:55.
Notes: “Why start at Death?” is the opening line of the fourth night in Edward Young’s Night Thoughts. Our stitcher completes the phrase with “so vain a thing.” possibly drawn from “so vayne a thing is man,” from Sternhold and Hopkin’s early book interpreting the Psalms into English verse. The reference to the sting of death refers to 1 Corinthians 15:55-57, “O Death , where is thy sting” . After these opening lines our stitcher may have chosen favorite phrases or perhaps made her own verses. Although phrases such as “godliness and fear” and “crown of immortality” appear commonly at this time, nothing occurs in a similar context as these lines. Further, the rhyming pattern follows no set structure or rhythm suggesting such an assortment of ideas and sources.