Hymnal: The Christian Psalmist
Date: 1850
Compiler: Silas W Leonard and A D Fillmore
Publisher/Printer: S W Leonard
First Line: How tedious and tasteless the hours
Topic: <no topic given>
Writer: <no first name given> Newton
Composer:
Meter: 8s
Tune:
Hymn Number: 171
Page Number: 195, click to see hymnal pages
LyicsHOW tedious and tasteless the hours
When Jesus no longer I see!
Sweet prospects, sweet birds, and sweet flowers,
Have all lost their sweetness to me,-
The midsummer sun shines but dim,
The fields strive in vain to look gay;
But when I am happy in him,
December's as pleasant as May.
His name yields the richest perfume,
And sweeter than music his voice;
His presence disperses my gloom,
And makes all within me rejoice;
I should, were he always thus nigh,
Have nothing to wish or to fear,
No mortal so happy as I,
My summer would last all the year.
Content with beholding his face,
My all to his pleasure resign'd;
No change of the season or place
Would make any change in my mind:
While bless'd with a sense of his love,
A palace a toy would appear;
And prisons would palaces prove,
If Jesus would dwell with me there.
Dear Lord, if indeed I am thine,
If thou art my sun and my song,
Say why do I languish and pine?
And why are my winters so long?
O drive these dark clouds from my sky,
Thy soul-cheering presence restore;
Or take me to thee up on high,
Where winter and clouds are no more.