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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, August 20, 1867

FromReview and Herald, Vol. XXX, No. 10

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“SO RUN THAT YE MAY OBTAIN.”

By H. Goodwin

OH! could we remember that life is a race, And a bright crown of glory is hung at its goal, That to turn back is death, and to look back disgrace, We should tremble indeed for the indolent soul!
What pains should we take the reward to secure! How scornfully cast off the garments of pride— View power as distraction, and wealth as a lure, More apples of gold thrown to draw us aside?
Each hour would seem lost that no progress could show, And a hindrance each tie that our limbs did not brace; Nought more should we seek than a “plain path” below, And a glimpse of the prize at the end of the race.
But alas! though we know with what struggles are gained E’en the honors of earth, that so soon fade away, Yet with minds all undisciplined, bodies untrained, We presume on a crown that can never decay.
But this crown incorruptible will not be given, Save only to him, amongst all who contend, That with foot spurning earth, and with eye fixed on Heaven, In patience and faith shall endure to the end.
The fleetest in starting are sometimes the last, And many are hinder’d who once did run well; The self-confident stumble, the faint are soon pass’d, And the proud are earth-bound, as it were with a spell.
O then be it ours to arise from our sleep, And forsaking, forgetting the things left behind, To press forward boldly, and evermore keep In subjection the body, in patience the mind.
H. Goodwin.