p. 183 | Untitled article

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · September 3, 1867

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. XXX, No. 12

LOSING ALL.

A godly merchant one day reached his home, With anxious heart, by trouble overcome; Failures in trade his earthly hopes had crossed, And bitterly he cried, “My all is lost!” His loving family around him stood, To give him consolation if they could:— “All lost?” his good wife said, in tones of cheer, “I still am left; your children, too, are here.

“And then, my husband, you possess your health, A greater boon than mines of golden wealth.” “And father dear,” the children also cried, Pressing more closely to their parent’s side— “You have your hands to work, your eyes to see, And we will try how useful we can be.” Then tenderly their loving mother strove To raise her husband’s thoughts to things above.

“You have your God,” she said, “your Helper nigh, Your every need he surely will supply; You have his promises, so sweet and sure, And Heaven to go to when this life is o’er.” “May God forgive me!” then the merchant said— “I have not lost my all, though wealth has fled: What is the gold of which I am bereft, Compared with all these blessings that are left?”

Though in their place earth’s riches useful are, Yet there are other things more precious far. A child of God can never lose his all, For though a thousand evils may befall, And all his worldly wealth may pass away, His heavenly treasures never can decay. But if the soul is lost, ’tis very sure We lose our all, and that forevermore. —Bapt. Messenger.