THE HOUR-GLASS
"His days shall be an hundred and twenty years." Genesis 6:3
Words: John Quincy Adams. Adams (1767-1848) was the sixth President of
the United States.
Music: "Gerald," Louis Spohr, 1834.
Alas! how swift the moments fly!
How flash the years along!
Scarce here, yet gone already by,
The burden of a song.
See childhood, youth, and manhood pass,
And age, with furrowed brow;
Time was--Time shall be--drain the glass--
But where in Time is now?
Time is the measure but of change;
No present hour is found;
The past, the future, fill the range
Of Time's unceasing round.
Where, then is now? In realms above,
With God's atoning Lamb
In regions of eternal love,
Where sits enthroned I AM.
Then pilgrim, let thy joys and tears
On Time no longer lean;
But hence forth all thy homes and fears
From earth's affections wean:
To God let votive accents rise;
With truth, with virtue, live;
So all the bliss that Time denies
Eternity shall give.