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Text:Devout Retirement and Meditation
Author:Watts

221. Devout Retirement and Meditation

My God! permit me not to be
A stranger to myself and Thee;
Amidst a thousand thoughts I rove,
Forgetful of my highest love.

Why should my passions mix with earth,
And thus debase my heavenly birth?
Why should I cleave to things below,
And let my God, my Saviour, go?

Call me away from flesh and sense;
One sovereign word can draw me thence;
I would obey Thy voice divine,
And all inferior joys resign.

Be earth, with all her strife, withdrawn;
Let noise and vanity be gone;
In secret silence of the mind,
My heaven, and there my God, I find.

Text Information
First Line: My God! permit me not to be
Title: Devout Retirement and Meditation
Author: Watts
Meter: L. M.
Language: English
Publication Date: 1866
Tune Information
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