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Sunday, February 26, 2006

Threescore and ten

Yesterday, we sang the following Watts' hymn, to the tune "Exit" by P. Sherman. The text is based on part of Psalm 90. The last two stanzas of the second verse drew some curiosity for his unusual wording.

"Death, like an overflowing stream,
Sweeps us away; our life's a dream,
An empty tale, a morning flower,
Cut down and withered in an hour.

Our age to seventy years is set;
How short the time! how frail the state.
And if to eighty we arrive,
We rather sigh and groan that live."
-- Isaac Watts, Psalm 90, pt. 1

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