A Simple Prayer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 8, 1906

My life-bark swings on the billow That rides o’er a boundless sea, And the sea-gull rocks on the pillow That is only for him and me. My vessel is drifting, drifting, To a land that is dim and gray, O’er a tide that is shifting, shifting, But aye to myself I say: Hope for the long to-morrow; Strength for the brief to-day; Faith to guide o’er the waters wide, And love in my heart alway.

Ah well I know the haven, And whither the journey tends, Though my soul at times is craven When the storm-wraith raves and rends. Then a whisper comes to cheer me: “Peace! For the winds obey The One who is ever near thee,” And again to myself I say: Hope for the long to-morrow; Strength for the brief to-day; Faith to guide o’er the water wide, And love in my heart alway.

’Tis a simple refrain only, Unknowing the schoolman’s lore, Yet still when my heart is lonely, It haunteth me more and more; Till I turn to the One who heeds us, Where he sits in the blue divine, And tenderly guides and leads us, And he knows that the prayer is mine: Hope for the long to-morrow; Strength for the brief to-day; Faith to guide o’er the waters wide, And love in my heart alway.

— Youth’s Companion.