Hymn
The Soul's Best Portion
Almighty Maker of my frame,
Teach me the measure of my days!
Teach me to know how frail I am,
And spend the remnant to thy praise.
My days are shorter than a span,
A little point my life appears;
How frail at best is dying man!
How vain are all his hopes and fears.
Vain his ambition, noise, and show!
Vain are the cares which rack his mind1
He heaps up treasures mix'd with woe,
And dies and leaves them all behind.
O be a nobler portion mine;
My God, I bow before thy throne,
Earth's fleeting treasures I resign,
And fix my hopes on thee alone.
The Soul's Best Portion — Text from The Hartford Selection of Hymns, 1802. Public domain. https://yeshuanow.com/hymns/the-souls-best-portion
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Questions about this hymn
Who wrote The Soul's Best Portion?
The words of The Soul's Best Portion were written by Anne Steele; the version here was published in 1802. The library holds 47 more hymns by Anne Steele, including All-sufficiency of the Gospel and Pardoning Love.
Is The Soul's Best Portion public domain?
Yes. The words here are taken from The Hartford Selection of Hymns, published in 1802. Works published before 1931 are out of copyright in the United States, so you can print, project, perform and record this hymn freely. How we source and check every hymn.
What is the metre of The Soul's Best Portion?
The Soul's Best Portion is in Long Metre (8.8.8.8). Hymns in the same metre can usually be sung to the same tunes — for example, An Humble Offering to Jehovah, It Is Finished and The Christian Race.