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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, January 21, 1868

FromReview and Herald, Vol. XXXI, No. 6

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THE CHANGEFUL—THE UNCHANGING.

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.”
How beautiful thou art, O green, bright earth! How sweet thy tones of music and of mirth! Thou hast bright, laughing halos poured from heaven; Thou hast the cool, pale beams by moonlight given; And stars that flash out from their jewelled skies And smile on thee, O earth, with watchful eyes. <center>How beautiful! how beautiful!</center>
Thou hast small flow’rets and green forest trees, Old silent hills, and summer bird and breeze; Thou hast the melody, so clear and sweet, Of winds and waters when their voices meet; Thou hast bright faces round the clustered hearth, The infant’s laugh—the songs of love and mirth. <center>How beautiful! how beautiful!</center>
O earth! thou home of lovely things and fair! Hath CHANGE a dwelling midst thy beauty rare? Go ask yon angry cloud that veils the sky; Go ask yon bud that blossoms but to die; Go ask the storm-wreathed hills, the leafless trees— The turbid streams—the wildly surging seas! <center>How mournful! Oh, how mournful!</center>
Go ask each cherished home of happy years! The babe’s sweet laugh hath changed to troubled tears! The heart that clung to heart now clings no more; Forsaken is the joyful love of yore; Death calls the loving and the loved away, And others fill their vacant seats to-day. <center>How changeful! Oh, how changeful!</center>
And dost thou, CHANGE, bear universal sway? Can mortals pass not from thy realms away? There was a day of darkness and of doom, Which raised pale dwellers from the risen tomb; When angels trembled, and men fearless gazed; When on the quivering earth a cross was raised! <center>How awful! Oh, how awful!</center>
Upon that blood-red cross a MONARCH hung! An ELDER BROTHER’S bleeding brow was wrung! For man he bore the purple gauds of scorn, His kingly crown, a diadem of thorn! His heart, which thrilled with love, so deep, so strange, For man was probed! Thou wert not there, O CHANGE! <center>How wonderful! how wonderful!</center>
Ah no; He cannot change, that SAVIOUR, KING! Whose songs triumphal saints and angels sing; The same, when crushed to earth his cross he bears— The same, when soul-gemmed coronet he wears, The same, when coming in his bright array— The same forever, yesterday, to-day! <center>How glorious! how eternal!</center>