Advice to Youth

1 Now is the time, O lovely youth,
To think on your creator God;
Attend the words of sacred truth,
While in the days of youthful blood.

2 This is the only way to find,
The paths of peace and endless joy;
The way to store your youthful mind
With pleasure that will never cloy.

3 But if you foolishly delay,
And hearken to the tempter's breath,
To walk in the destructive way,
Till age comes on, or sudden death.

4 O think what dreadful risk you run,
You hazard your immortal soul,
To be eternally undone,
And plunged where endless sorrows roll.

5 Behold the wretch advanced in years,
And with his years grown old in sin;
No more repentance now appears,
That when his life did first begin.

6 Lo still upon the horrid brink
Of everlasting wrath he goes;
Anon with horror down to sink,
Into the gulf of endless woes.

7 Young sinners then a warning take,
Now in your precious days of youth;
All flattering vanities forsake,
And take the advice of sacred truth.

Divine Hymns, or Spiritual Songs: for the use of religious assemblies and private Christians 1800