Moments and minutes, hours and days

Moments and minutes, hours and days

Author: James Montgomery
Published in 1 hymnal

Representative Text

Moments and minutes, hours and days,
To weeks, and months, and years amount;
Not one beyond its date delays:
For these we each must soon account.

205
How well, how ill, howe'er employ'd,
Our health, our strength, our talents lent;
All we have suffer'd and enjoy'd,
In wisdom or in folly spent:--

The secret things in darkness seal'd,
All we have felt, thought, spoken, done;
In heaven's pure light must be reveal'd,
When time's last act puts out the sun.

With every twinkling of an eye,
With every step, pulse, motion, breath;
The longest human life draws nigh,
And nigher to the gates of death.

The past we never can recall,
The present none has power to hold;
The future is not--few of all
The millions born on earth grow old.

What, then, are we, and whither bent?
Our Saviour calls--let us obey;
This moment, minute, hour, repent,
And live for ever from this day.

Sacred Poems and Hymns

Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Moments and minutes, hours and days
Author: James Montgomery
Meter: 8.8.8.8
Language: English

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Sacred Poems and Hymns #203

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