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Good Christians young and old, come listen to my story,
These few lines I will unfold, come listen unto me;
In tears I do lament, oh, what a sinful life I spent,
It is time now to repent and think on eternity.
Good Christians, we well know how our souls they are exposed
To every sinful mode in which we take great delight;
Cursing and blaspheming, cheating and stealing,
Injuring our neighbours, both morning, noon and night.
On the holy Sabbath day, which God himself hath made,
In pious prayers and works, that day we all should spend;
For to join the congregation with a pious exultation,
At the holy elevation of a mass we should attend.
Instead of going to mass on Sunday, we spend our time till Monday,
Drinking and squand'ring on our poor family;
The pledge we violated which Father Matthew gave us,
Brought a desolation into our country.
When sickness it do seize us, and death upon us gazes,
How can we face the God whom we do offend,
Who shed his blood to save us from hell's dark burning rages,
Where the devil and his angels in torments never end.
When death will strike us stark, it will wound us in the heart,
From this world we must depart, with our souls burst in tears;
Our sins we can't deny them, it's useless for to try them,
They're written down in black and white, our actions deeds and words.
Prepare now for confession with penitent contrition,
That ye might gain remission, all ye that's gone astray;
Pray both late and early to the Blessed Virgin Mary,
That God will grant you pardon on that last accounting day.
And the cross of thirty feet of our Redeemer's make,
His sacred hands and feet they nailed with iron pins;
They crowned his head with thorns, they treated him with scorn,
Until our dear Redeemer he suffered for our sins.
Collected in 1951 from Mrs. K. McCarthy of St. Shott's, NL, and published in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
