Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say,
Ecclesiastes 12:1I have no pleasure in them.
Words: From Scottish Translations and Paraphrases, 1781.
Music: Holy Cross James C. Wade, 1865 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good picture of Wade (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
In life’s gay dawn, when sprightly youth
With vital ardor glows,
And shines in all the fairest charms
Which beauty can disclose;
Deep on thy soul, before its powers
Are yet by vice enslaved,
By thy creator’s precious name
And character engraved.
For soon the shades of grief shall cloud
The sunshine of thy days,
And cares and ills, in endless round,
Encompass all thy ways.
Soon shall thy heart the woes of age
In mournful sighs deplore,
And sadly muse on former joys,
That now return no more.