Lamenting the Loss of First Love

Representative Text

1 O that my soul were now as fair
As it hath sometimes been!
Devoid of that distracting care
Without, and fear within!

2 There was a time when I could tread
No circle but of love:
That joyous morning now is fled,
How heavily I move!

3 Unhappy soul, that thou should'st force,
Thy Savior to depart,
When he was pleased with so coarse
A lodging in thy heart!

4 How sweetly I enjoyed my God!
With how divine a frame!
I thought, on every plant I trod,
I read my Savior's name;

5 I lived, I loved, I talked with thee,
So sweetly we agreed,
And thou no stranger wast to me
Till I became a weed.

6 The tempter robbed me, and I must
I fear be ever poor;
May this suffice, to roll in dust
Before thy temple door!

7 My dearest Lord, my heart flames not
With love that sacred fire;
But since my love has wore that blot
Repentance runs the higher.

8 O might those days return again,
How welcome they should be!
Shall my petition be in vain,
Since grace is ever free?

9 Lord of my soul, return, return,
To chase away this night;
Let not thine anger ever burn;
God once was my delight.

The Christian's duty, exhibited in a series of hymns, 1791

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Author: Thomas Shepherd

Shepherd, Thomas, son of William Shepherd, sometime Vicar of Tilbrook, Bedfordshire, and subsequently a Nonconformist Minister at Oundle, and at Kettering, was born in 1665. Taking Holy Orders he held for some time preferment in Huntingdonshire, and in Buckinghamshire. Seceding from the Church of England, he became, in 1694, pastor of the Castle Hill Meeting House (Independent), Nottingham, of which Dr. Doddridge was subsequently pastor. In 1700 he removed to Bocking, near Braintree, Essex, where he began his work in a barn. A chapel was erected for his congregation in 1707. He died Jan. 29, 1739. His publications consisted chiefly of Sermons, His Penitential Cries were a continuance of those by John Mason, who wrote the first six and the v… Go to person page >

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