 | Songs of salvation |  |
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CONVERSION.
THE PITMAN TO HIS WIFE.
Sit ye down on the settle, here by me, I've got something to say to thee, wife;
I want to be a new sort of man, and to lead a new sort of life:
There's but little pleasure and little gain in spending the days I spend,
Just to work like a horse all the days of my life, and to die like a dog at the end.
I want to be a new sort of man, and to lead a new sort of life:
There's but little pleasure and little gain in spending the days I spend,
Just to work like a horse all the days of my life, and to die like a dog at the end.
For where's the profit and where's the good, if one once begins to think,
In making away with what little sense one had at the first, through drink?
Or in spending one's time and one's money, too, with a lot of chaps that would go
To see one hang'd, and like it as well as any other show?
In making away with what little sense one had at the first, through drink?
Or in spending one's time and one's money, too, with a lot of chaps that would go
To see one hang'd, and like it as well as any other show?
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And as to the pleasure that some folks find in cards or in pitch and toss,
It's little they've ever brought to me but only a vast of loss;
We'd be sure to light on some great dispute, and then to set all right,
The shortest way was to argue it out in a regular stand-up fight.
It's little they've ever brought to me but only a vast of loss;
We'd be sure to light on some great dispute, and then to set all right,
The shortest way was to argue it out in a regular stand-up fight.
I've got a will, dear wife, I say, I've got a will to be
A kinder father to my poor bairns, and a better man to thee,
And to leave off drinking, and swearing, and all, no matter what folks may say;
For I see what's the end of such things as these, and I know this is not the way.
A kinder father to my poor bairns, and a better man to thee,
And to leave off drinking, and swearing, and all, no matter what folks may say;
For I see what's the end of such things as these, and I know this is not the way.
You'll wonder to hear me talk like this, as I've never talked before;
But I've got a word in my heart, that has made it glad, yet has made it sore.
I've got a word like a fire in my heart that will not let me be,
“Jesus, the Son of God, who loved, and who gave Himself for me.”
But I've got a word in my heart, that has made it glad, yet has made it sore.
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“Jesus, the Son of God, who loved, and who gave Himself for me.”
I've got a word like a sword in my heart, that has pierced it through and through.
When a message comes to a man from Heaven he needn't ask if it's true;
There's none on earth could frame such a tale, for as strange as the tale may be,
Jesus, my Saviour, that thou should'st die for love of a man like me!
When a message comes to a man from Heaven he needn't ask if it's true;
There's none on earth could frame such a tale, for as strange as the tale may be,
Jesus, my Saviour, that thou should'st die for love of a man like me!
Why, only think, now! if it had been Peter, or blessed Paul,
Or John, who used to lean on his breast, one couldn't have wondered at all,
If He'd loved and He'd died for men like these, who loved him so well,—but you see
It was me that Jesus loved, wife! He gave Himself for me!
Or John, who used to lean on his breast, one couldn't have wondered at all,
If He'd loved and He'd died for men like these, who loved him so well,—but you see
It was me that Jesus loved, wife! He gave Himself for me!
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It was for me that Jesus died! for me, and a world of men
Just as sinful and just as slow to give back His love again;
He didn't wait till I came to Him, but He loved me at my worst;
He needn't ever have died for me if I could have loved Him first.
Just as sinful and just as slow to give back His love again;
He didn't wait till I came to Him, but He loved me at my worst;
He needn't ever have died for me if I could have loved Him first.
And could'st thou love such a man as me, my Saviour! then I'll take
More heed to this wand'ring soul of mine, if it's only for Thy sake.
For it wasn't that I might spend my days just in work, and in drink, and in strife,
That Jesus, the Son of God, has given His love and has given His life.
More heed to this wand'ring soul of mine, if it's only for Thy sake.
For it wasn't that I might spend my days just in work, and in drink, and in strife,
That Jesus, the Son of God, has given His love and has given His life.
It wasn't that I might spend my life just as my life's been spent,
That He's brought me so near to His mighty cross, and has told me what it meant.
He doesn't need me to die for Him, He only asks me to live;
There's nothing of mine that He wants but my heart, and it's all that I've got to give!
That He's brought me so near to His mighty cross, and has told me what it meant.
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There's nothing of mine that He wants but my heart, and it's all that I've got to give!
I've got a friend, dear wife, I say, I've got a Heavenly friend,
That will show me where I go astray, and will help me how to mend,
That'll make me kinder to my poor bairns, that'll make me better to thee;—
Jesus, the Son of God, who loved, and who gave Himself for me!
That will show me where I go astray, and will help me how to mend,
That'll make me kinder to my poor bairns, that'll make me better to thee;—
Jesus, the Son of God, who loved, and who gave Himself for me!
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