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AN OLD NEW-YEAR'S POEM

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Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, January 1, 1880

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 1

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AN OLD NEW-YEAR'S POEM.

Though I be poor, yet will I make hard shift But I will send my God a New Year's gift; Nor myrrh nor frankincense Can I dispense, Nor gold of ophir Is in my coffer; With wealth I have so small acquaintance as I scarce know tin from silver, gold from brass.
Oriental rubies, emeralds green, Blue sapphires, sparkling diamonds, I have seen, Yet never yet did touch Or gem or ouch, Nor pearl nor amber Is in my chamber; These things are in my mind, but never yet Vouchsafed to lodge within my cabinet.
My ever-living, ever-loving King Yet shall from me receive a better thing; For princes' diadems, Flaming with gems, With riches drest Of East and West, Match not this gift, which, if God shall own, I'd not change lots with him that wears a crown.
A heart with penitence made new and clean, Filled with faith, hope, and love, must be my strain; My God, who didst not slight The widow's mite, Accept of this Poor sacrifice, Though I but give that which before was thine, A treasure taken out of thine own mine.
—London “Notes and Queries,” from the fly-leaf of an old book.