The Waits’ Song

The moon shines bright and the stars give a light

A lit­tle be­fore the day:

Our migh­ty Lord He looked on us

And bade us awake and pray.

Awake

awake

good peo­ple all

Awake

and you shall hear

The Lord our God died on the cross

For us He loved so dear.

O fair

O fair Je­ru­sa­lem

When shall I come to thee?

When shall my sor­rows have an end

Thy joy that I may see?

The fields were green as green could be

When from His glo­ri­ous seat

Our bless­èd Fa­ther wa­tered us

With His heav­en­ly dew so sweet.

And for the sav­ing of our souls

Christ died up­on the cross;

We ne’er shall do for Je­sus Christ

As He hath done for us.

The life of man is but a span

And cut down in its flow­er

We’re here to­day

to­mor­row gone

The crea­tures of an hour.

Instruct and teach your child­ren well

The while that you are here;

It will be bet­ter for your soul

When your corpse lies on the bier.

Today you may be alive and well

Worth ma­ny a thou­sand pound;

Tomorrow dead and cold as clay

Your corpse laid un­der­ground.

With one turf at thine head

O man

And an­oth­er at thy feet;

Thy good deeds and thy bad

O man

Will al­to­ge­ther meet.

My song is done

I must be gone

I can stay no long­er here;

God bless you all

both great and small

And send you a joy­ful new year!