Scripture Verse

I love them that love Me…those that seek Me early shall find Me. Proverbs 8:17

Introduction

portrait
Isaac Watts (1674–1748)

Words: At­trib­ut­ed to Is­aac Watts (1674–1748). Nu­mer­ous va­ri­ants of this text have been pub­lished, but we have not found the orig­in­al in any of Watts’ works. The ver­sion be­low comes from The Bos­ton Sun­day School Hymn Book, ed­it­ed by Lew­is G. Pray (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Ben­ja­min H. Greene, 1844), num­ber 93.

Music: Pom­peii Hen­ry E. H. Be­ne­dict, in Har­mo­nies of Praise (New York: Ben­ja­min M. Chase, 1909), num­ber 18 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Lyrics

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 ear­ly death.