How Shall the Young Secure Their Hearts?

How shall the young secure their hearts,
And guard their lives from sin?
Thy word the choicest rules imparts
To keep the conscience clean.

When once it enters in the mind,
It spreads such light abroad,
The meanest souls instruction find,
And raise their thoughts to God.

'Tis, like the sun, a heavenly light,
That guides us all the day;
And through the dangers of the night
A lamp to lead our way.

The men that keep Thy law with care
and meditate thy word,
Grow wiser than their teachers are,
And better know the Lord.

Thy precepts make me truly wise
I hate the sinner's road;
I hate my own vain thoughts that rise,
But love Thy law, my God.

Thy word is everlasting truth;
How pure is every page!
That holy book shall guide our youth,
And well support our age.