Early Recollections

I look back to the past, call to mind former days;
When life was all life, all illumined its rays;
When I entered the ball room in pleasing attire,
Having all that my vain mind or wish could desire.PSAS 90.2

I had naught here to check, all elated in mind,
Both pastor and people the gay circle joined; [rare,
When the priest craved a blessing on dainties most
Oh! why should I think any harm could be there?PSAS 90.3

No cloud had come o’er me; all prospects were bright;
This vain course I pursued with exquisite delight;
I dreamed not that tears would these pleasures efface,
That sickness and death would come in for a place.PSAS 90.4

But my own dear loved father, in manhood and bloom,
Was called from life’s stage and consigned to the tomb;
How great such a change, and how solemn the day,
The same priest referred to was with us to pray.PSAS 90.5

Being then in youth’s bloom, in its glory and prime,
My grief wore away with the swiftness of time.
True, a loss I sustained in his death; but, all o’er,
I again joined the song and the dances as before.PSAS 90.6

The scene soon was changed, we could just number years,
When my mother, my dear mother left me in tears;
She died e’re I’d come to the age of eighteen;
How deep was my grief, how afflictive the scene.PSAS 91.1

To cheer, friends and relatives strove but in vain;
From weeping incessant I scarce could refrain;
The wound seemed too deep for this world e’er to heal;
That I’d no hope in God, I was then brought to feel.PSAS 91.2

Repentance moved Jesus my sins to forgive;
I could trust in his word, on his promises live;
But I found no response, none to guide in the place;
Those around had no faith in a change wrought by grace.PSAS 91.3

‘Midst life’s changing scenes, I most happily found
A people who knew Heaven’s own joyful sound;
Our union and love then were truly divine,
I’d the witness, and knew Heaven’s blessings were mine.PSAS 91.4

I could then bless the Lord for this chastening rod;
How far above earth’s this enjoyment in God;
The hight of earth’s pleasures all dwindled away,
In the light and the glory of this blessed day.PSAS 91.5