p. 174 | THE PILGRIM

The Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · November 27, 1879

THE PILGRIM.

I WALK as one who knows that he is treading A stranger soil; As one ’round whom the world is spreading Its subtle coil.

I WALK as one but yesterday delivered From a sharp chain, Who trembles lest the bond so newly severed Be bound again.

I WALK as one who feels that he is breathing Ungenial air; For whom, as wiles, the tempter still is wreathing The bright and fair.

My steps, I know, are on the plains of danger, For sin is near; But, looking up, I pass along, a stranger, In haste and fear.

This earth has lost its power to drag me downward; Its spell is gone; My course is now right upward and right onward To yonder throne.

Hour after hour of time’s dark night is stealing In gloom away; Speed thy fair dawn of light, and joy, and healing, Thou star of day.

For thee, its God, its King, the long rejected, Earth groans and cries; For thee, the long beloved, the long expected, Thy church still sighs.

—Selected.