Lay Not This Book Aside!

How shall a mortal find the way,
To serve his God aright?
We are but creatures of a day,
And He the infinite.

The Bible is the only rule,
In which we dare confide.
The wisest man is but a fool,
Who lays this book aside.

All that we know of future things,
Of God, of heaven, of hell;
From this important volume springs,
Like water from a well.

Lost in a wilderness, a wood,
I every day should be,
Unless this precious Book of God
Were still a guide to me.

HOw guilty, and how wretched they,
Who lay this book aside!
O! may I make it, night and day,
My counseller and guide.

—by Samuel Deacon (1746-1816)

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