p. 300 | TOO OFTEN by Mrs. Annie E. Thomson

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, May 6, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 19

TOO OFTEN.

By Mrs. Annie E. Thomson

Too often we idly sit and dream, When we should be up and working; Too often we think, and plan, and scheme, When dangers are round us lurking; Then wake to cry, when these truths we see, Alas! alas! that these things must needs be.

Too often we fold our hands in sleep, In the summer sunshine lying, While the hay lies there in a tangled heap, And the vines and flowers are dying; Then rise, when the winds blow bleak and cold, To fret o’er the ruin, the rust, and the mold.

Too often we view with a careless eye Some tired face, wan with sorrow, Forgetful that storms may dull our sky, And burst o’er us to-morrow; And we in our blindness and anguish crave The love and pity we never gave.

Too often we turn with a scornful look From a weak and erring brother, Forgetting the precept in “The Book,” “Children, love one another;” And live to regret, when he’s passed away, That we had neglected to warn and to pray.

Too often, great God, we dance and sing On the brink of deathless ruin, Turning away from life’s boundless spring, And thy voice so sweet and wooing, And the beckoning light of the pearly gate, Till death and eternity seal our fate.

Blest Father, thy grace on us bestow, And thy mind to us be given; Then at last we’ll stand in the lambent glow Of the jasper walls of Heaven, And hear thee say to each crown-wreathed one, “Well and faithfully hast thou done.”

—Mrs. Annie E. Thomson.