How Fleet the Precious Moments Roll!

Lyrics

• Copyright: Public Domain

Lyrics from A Collection of Sacred Hymns for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Europe, 1840

Hymn 263
L.M.
1. How fleet the precious moments roll!
How soon the harvest will be o'er,
The watchmen seek their final rest,
And lift a warning voice no more!

2. Another year has rolled away,
And took its thousands to the tomb;
Its sorrows and its joys are fled
To hasten on the general doom.

3. The moments that we labour here
Are rolling swiftly on the wing,
And soon the leaves and tendrils thrive,
A token of returning spring.

4. The fullness of the gospel shines
With glorious and resplendent rays;
The earth and heavens show forth their signs
As tokens of the latter days.

SECOND PART.

5. Ye chosen twelve, to you are given
The keys of this last ministry -
To every nation under heaven,
From land to land, from sea to sea.

6. First to the Gentiles sound the news
Throughout Columbia's happy land,
Prepare on Europe's shores to stand.

7. Let Europe's towns and cities hear
The gospel tidings angels bring;
The Gentile nations, far and near,
Prepare their hearts His praise to sing.

8. India's and Afric's sultry plains
Must hear the tidings as they roll -
Where darkness, death, and sorrow reign,
And tyranny has long controlled.

9. Listen, ye islands of the sea,
For every isle shall hear the sound;
Nations and tongues before unknown,
Though long since lost, shall soon be found.

10. And then again shall Asia hear,
Where angels first the news proclaimed;
Eternity shall record bear,
And earth repeat the loud Amen.

11. The nations catch the pleasing sound,
And Jew and Gentile swell the strain,
Hosanna o'er the earth resound,
Messiah then will come to reign.