I rose up at the dawn of day.
“Get thee away! get thee away!
Pray’st thou for riches? Away! away!
This is the throne of Mammon grey.”
I said, “This sure is very odd,
I took it to be the throne of God.
Everything else besides I have,
It’s only riches I can crave.
“I have mental joys and mental health,
Mental friends and mental wealth.
I’ve a wife that I love and that loves me,
I’ve all but riches bodily.
“I am in God’s presence night and day,
He never turns His face away.
The Accuser of Sins by my side does stand,
And he holds my money-bags in his hand.
“For my worldly things God makes him pay,
And he’d pay for more if to him I would pray.
And you may do the worst you can do;
Be assured, Mr. Devil, I won’t pray to you.
“Then if for riches I must not pray,
God knows, I little of prayers need say.
So, as a church is known by its steeple,
If I pray, it must be for other people.
“He says, if I don’t worship him for a god,
I shall eat coarser food and go worse shod;
But as I don’t value such things as these,
You must do, Mr. Devil, just as God please.”
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