Thursday's Thoughts: The Hourglass

 

"My times are in Your hands; deliver me from the hands of my foes and
 those who pursue and persecute me.  Let Your face shine on Your servant;
 save me for Your mercy's sake and in Your loving-kindness."
(Psalm 31:15-16)

John Quincy Adams

July 11, 1767-February 23, 1848

6th President of the United States of America

*The Hourglass
By John Quincy Adams

Alas! How swift the moments fly!

How flash the years along!

Scarce here, yet gone already by,

The burden of a song.

See childhood, youth, and manhood pass,

And age, with furrowed brow;

Time was-Time shall be-drain the glass

But where in Time is now?

Time is the measure but of change;

No present hour is found;

The past, the future, fill the range

Of Time's unceasing round.

Where, then, is now?

In realms above,

With God's atoning Lamb,

In regions of eternal love,

Where sits enthroned I AM.

Then, pilgrim, let thy joys and tears

On Time no longer lean;

But henceforth all thy hopes and fears

From earth's affections wean;

To God let votive accents rise;

With truth, with virtue, live;

So all the bliss that Time denies

Eternity shall give.

*President John Quincy Adams wrote this hymn for the 200th anniversary
celebration of the First Congregational Church held on September 29, 1839
in Quincy, Massachusetts.