Hymn 39, Common Meter
The shortness and misery of life.
Our days, alas! our mortal days
Are short and wretched too;
"Evil and few," the patriarch says,
And well the patriarch knew.
'Tis but at best a narrow bound
That Heav'n allows to men,
And pains and sins run through the round
Of threescore years and ten.
Well, if ye must be sad and few,
Run on, my days, in haste;
Moments of sin and months of woe,
Ye cannot fly too fast.
Let heav'nly love prepare my soul,
And call her to the skies,
Where years of long salvation roll,
And glory never dies.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book II, 1707
2 comments:
For if we knew the time that death was appointed unto us, what would our outlook be? Would it be an outlook filled with pleasure and fleshly desires? Or would the outlook be one of living and taking in the full measure of life for what it really is? Humanity that is occupied on this mass which is called Earth was put here to give glory unto God. Today, man seems bent to outdo and outrun one another. Let us join together and run the race which is set before us.
The first breath of life in which man takes matters not. His very last also shall be of no good unto him. But it is those moments in between that man will ultimately be responsible for. Will he be a man after God's own heart and bring honor unto the Saviour? Shall he be in line and seek the things which God has instituted from the beginning of time? Oh let us not be as a mere audible sound without a heart full of thankfulness and meditation upon Him.
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