When child­ren give their hearts to God,
’Tis pleas­ing in His eyes;
A flow­er, when of­fered in the bud,
Is no vain sac­ri­fice.

’Tis bet­ter far, if we be­gin
To fear the Lord be­times;
For sin­ners, who grow old in sin,
Are hard­ened by their crimes.

It saves us from a thou­sand snares
To mind re­li­gion young;
Grace will pre­serve our fol­low­ing years,
And make our vir­tues strong.

To Thee, al­migh­ty God, to Thee
May we our hearts re­sign;
’Twill please us to look back and see
That our whole lives were Thine.

Let the sweet work of pray­er and praise
Employ our young­est breath;
Thus we’re pre­pared for long­er days,
Or fit for ­ death.