No. 32 Look Out or When I Was Young, Osh 90
Hexatonic, mode 3 A (I II III — V VI VII)
When I was young of tender years,
My Savior did arrest me;
I then was fill’d with many fears,
But Satan still did tempt me.
He told me that I was too young
To leave my earthly pleasure;
That I might live till I was old,
And serve God at my leisure.
Again the spirit came one day
With his almighty power,
Which caused me to forsake my way
And tremble every hour;
And he caused me to weep and mourn,
Saying, Lord Jesus, save me,
If mercy thou canst me afford,
And to thy glory raise me.
When Jesus heard the rebel cry,
He sent his kind compassion;
Down at his feet my soul did lie,
There pleading for a blessing.
My heart was filled with tenderness.
My mouth was filled with praises,
While Abba, Father, I did cry,
And glory to my Savior.
B. F. White, compiler of the Sacred Harp, is given as the composer. It is dated 1842. The text is supplied from Good Old Songs, No. 154. A secular setting is ‘Three Crows’, Davis, p. 562, tune “P”. Both ‘Look Out’ and ‘Three Crows’ are adaptations of ‘Ye Banks and Braes’, or ‘Bonnie Doon’, see Kennedy, Handbook of Scottish Song, p. 27. In Church Harmony, p. 134, we find the ‘Bonnie Doon’ tune in its original form under the little ‘Star of Bethlehem’. A variant tune in this collection is ‘’Tis a Wonder’.