The Seventh-Day Adventist Hymn and Tune Book ‎#572

572. My God, permit me not to be

1 My God, permit me not to be
A stranger to myself and thee;
Amidst a thousand thoughts I rove,
Forgetful of my highest love.

2 Why should my passions mix with earth.
And thus debase my heavenly birth?
Why should I cleave to things below,
And let my God, my Saviour, go?

3 Call me away from flesh and sense;
One sovereign word can draw me thence:
I would obey the voice divine,
And all inferior joys resign.

4 Be earth, with all her scenes, withdrawn;
Let noise and vanity be gone;
In secret silence of the mind,
My heaven, and there my God, I find.

Text Information

• First Line: My God, permit me not to be
• Author: Isaac Watts
• Publication Date: 1886
• Topic: The Christian: Unfaithfulness Lamented
• Notes: Now Public Domain.

Tune Information

• Name: BACA
• Composer: William B. Bradbury
• Meter: L. M.
• Key: E♭ Major
• Notes: Now Public Domain. Alternate tunes: #538, 101, or 136.