Surrender

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 11, 1910

LAID on thine altar, O my Lord divine! Accept this gift to-day, for Jesus' sake. I have no jewels to adorn thy shrine, Nor any world-famed sacrifice to make; But here I bring, within my trembling hand, This will of mine,—a thing that seemeth small,— And thou alone, O Lord! canst understand How when I yield thee this, I yield thee all.

Hidden therein thy searching gaze can see Struggles of passion, visions of delight; All that I have, or am, or fain would be— Deep loves, fond hopes, and longings infinite. It hath been wet with tears and dimmed with sighs, Clenched in my grasp till beauty it hath none; Now from thy footstool, where it, vanquished, lies, The prayer ascendeth: May thy will be done.

Take it, O Father! ere my courage fail, And merge it so in thine own will, that e'en If in some desperate hour my cries prevail, And thou give back my gift, it may have been So changed, so purified, so fair have grown, So one with thee, so filled with peace divine, I may not know or feel it as mine own, But, gaining back my will, may find it thine.

—Selected.