The Cyber Hymnal ‎#15782

15782. Old Age, With All Its Sickly Train

1 Old age, with all its sickly train,
Soon makes its dread approach;
Languor, debility and pain,
Insensibly encroach.

2 Life’s gaieties have charms no more,
Its pleasures but appall:
The busy scenes and toils are o’er,
The honey turned to gall.

3 The lucid orbs of vision fail,
And give a glimmering light;
Successive clouds of grief prevail,
Transforming day to night.

4 Associates and friends once dear,
On earth are known no more;
Minds uncongenial now appear,
A race unknown before.

5 How dark the scene, how full of woe,
Alas for hoary age;
Yet grace will still a balm bestow,
Their sorrows to assuage.

6 There is a friend who still abides,
More dear than all that’s lost:
And he who in this friend confides,
May yet of comforts boast.

7 ’Tis Jesus, who will ne’er forsake,
But make His friends His care;
To Him your griefs and sorrows take,
And He your griefs will share.

8 Soon will He bring your weary feet
To His eternal rest;
Then shall your joys be all complete,
When in His mansion blessed.

Text Information

• First Line: Old age, with all its sickly train
• Title: Old Age, With All Its Sickly Train
• Author: Benjamin Beddome, 1717-1795
• Meter: CM
• Language: English
• Source: Hymns Adapted to Public Worship (London: Burton & Briggs, 1818)
• Copyright: Public Domain
• Notes: Alternate tunes: GERONTIUS by John B. Dykes, FARNHAM, traditional English, FAR AND NEAR by Johann K. Spazier

Tune Information

• Name: GRÄFENBURG
• Composer: Johann Crüger (1647)
• Meter: CM
• Key: F Major or modal
• Copyright: Public Domain