“The course of time!” Oh, can we scan
Its streams since first our lives began;
The past with all its joys and tears,
Its sunny hopes, and cloudy fears;
Nor trust that He, whose tender arm
Has crowned with good, preserved from harm,
Will never cease our Guide to be,
Through time and through eternity?
A few years since, without a guide,
I launched on life’s deceitful tide;
My chart despised, my compass lost,
By each temptation tempest-tossed:
Where pleasure’s treacherous meteor flashed,
Fearless of ill, I reckless dashed;
And sought — but God and heaven forgot —
For happiness, and found it not.
Thus wandering from my Savior’s fold,
In sin and mad rebellion bold;
Lo! suddenly, on Calvary reared
The Cross, the wondrous Cross, appeared;
I saw Emmanuel crucified,
His bleeding hands, His pierced-side;
I felt my sins, I knew my guilt,
For them His precious blood was spilled.
And did my gracious Savior die
For such a sinful wretch as I?
Did He for me God’s wrath endure,
My peace and pardon to procure?
Yes, blessed Jesus, Thou alone
For sins, like mine, couldst e’er atone;
Thee will I serve, and Thee adore,
Forever, and forevermore!
A few years more! how sweet the thought!
Each fear dispelled, and safely brought
Life’s sea of storms and troubles o’er
To heavenly Canaan’s happy shore;
Arrayed in robes of spotless white,
Forever shall our souls unite
To golden harps, divinely strung,
In hymns on earth once feebly sung.
J. G. Deck