How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours

Above:  Part of the Text

Image Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

Hymn Source = The Methodist Hymnal (1935), Methodist Episcopal Church; Methodist Episcopal Church, South; and Methodist Protestant Church to 1939; The Methodist Church from 1939

Words by John Newton (1725-1807)

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1.  How tedious and tasteless the hours

When Jesus no longer I see!

Sweet prospects, sweet birds, and sweet flowers,

Have all lost their sweetness to me;

The midsummer sun shines but dim,

The fields strive in vain to look gay;

But when I am happy in Him,

December’s as pleasant as May.

2.  His Name yields the richest perfume,

And sweeter than music His voice;

His presence disperses my gloom,

And makes all within me rejoice;

I should, were He always thus nigh,

Have nothing to wish or to fear;

No mortal so happy as I,

My summer would last all the year.

3.  Content with him beholding His face,

My all to His pleasure resigned,

No changes of season or place

Would make any change in my mind:

While blest with a sense of His love,

A palace a toy would appear;

And prisons would palaces prove,

If Jesus would dwell with me there.

4.  Dear Lord, if indeed I am Thine,

If Thou are my sun and my song,

Say, why do I languish and pine,

And why are my winters so long?

O drive these dark clouds from my sky,

Thy soul-cheering presence restore;

Or take me to Thee up on high,

Where winter and clouds are no more.