How Shall The Young Secure Their Hearts?

 

"Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord, the only Lord.

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your mind and heart

and with your entire being and with all your might.

And these words which I am commanding you this day shall

be first in your own minds and hearts;

You shall whet and sharpen them so as to make them penetrate,

and teach and impress them diligently upon the minds and hearts

of your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house

and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down,

and when you rise up."

(Deuteronomy 6:4-7)

The First Bible Lesson

L. Prange & Co. (Publisher)

Issue Date:(1861-1897)

Image courtesy: Boston Public Library/Wikimedia Commons

How shall the young secure their hearts,

And guard their lives from sin?

Thy Word the choicest rules imparts

To keep the conscience clean.

When once it enters to the mind,

It spreads such light abroad,

The meanest souls instruction find,

And raise their thoughts to God.

'Tis, like the sun, a heav'nly light

That guides us all the day,

And thro' the dangers of the night,

A lamp to lead our way.

The men that keep Thy law with care,

And meditate Thy Word,

Grow wiser than their teachers are,

And better know the Lord.

Thy precepts make me truly wise;

I hate the sinner's road;

I hate my own vain thoughts that rise,

But love Thy law, my God.

The starry heav'ns Thy rule obey,

The earth maintains her place;

And these Thy servants night and day,

Thy skill and power express.

But still Thy law and Gospel, Lord,

Have lessons more divine;

Not earth stands firmer than Thy Word,

Nor stars so nobly shine.

Thy Word is everlasting truth;

How pure is every page!

That holy Book shall guide our youth,

And well support our age.

"For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power,

it is sharper than any two-edged sword, 

penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life, the soul,

and the immortal spirit, and the joints and marrow of the

deepest parts of our nature, exposing and sifting and analyzing

and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart."

(Hebrews 4:12)

"How Shall The Young Secure Their Hearts?"
(1719)
Isaac Watts
(1674-1748)
English Congregationalist Minister
hymn writer, theologian, logician
His most famous works include the songs:
"Joy To The World"  "When I Survey The Wondrous Cross"
and "Our God, Our Help In Ages Past."