LYRICS
| Meter: | 8 6 8 6 D (D.C.M.)
| | Writer(s): | John Quincy Adams
| | Transl/Adapt: |
| | Dates: | 1839-09-29
| | Bible Refs: | Gen 6:3
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| 1. 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?
2. 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.
3. Then pilgrim, let
thy joys and tears
On Time no longer lean;
But henceforth all
thy hopes 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.
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