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Life is the time to serve the Lord (William Billings)
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- Editor: Michael Lauer (submitted 2009-05-11). Score information: Letter, 2 pages, 79 kbytes Copyright: Personal
- Edition notes:
General Information
Title: Life is the time to serve the Lord
Composer: William Billings
Tune: Cohasset
Lyricist: Isaac Watts, from "Hymns and Spiritual Songs Book I", Hymn 88.
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Sacred, Hymn
Language: English
Instruments: a cappella
Published: 1794
Description: Published on pages 59-60 of The Continental Harmony (1794).
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
Life is the time to serve the Lord,
The time t’ insure the great reward;
And while the lamp holds out to burn,
The vilest sinner may return.
[Life is the hour that God has giv’n
To ’scape from hell and fly to heav’n;
The day of grace, and mortals may
Secure the blessings of the day.]
The living know that they must die,
But all the dead forgotten lie;
Their mem’ry and their sense is gone,
Alike unknowing and unknown.
[Their hatred and their love is lost,
Their envy buried in the dust;
They have no share in all that’s done
Beneath the circuit of the sun.]
Then what my thoughts design to do,
My hands, with all your might pursue;
Since no device nor work is found,
Nor faith, nor hope, beneath the ground.
There are no acts of pardon passed
In the cold grave, to which we haste;
But darkness, death, and long despair,
Reign in eternal silence there.
