Untitled article by Vesta N. Cudworth

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · February 11, 1868

“WHY WILL YE DIE?”

By Vesta N. Cudworth

Dear sinner, hast thou weighed this matter well— God's broken law? And art thou settled? Tell, If with a fearless spirit thou canst brook The future? Hast thou seen within God's book What thou hast scorned, and all which thou hast lost, And what this law transgressed, thy God hath cost?

Oh! is there not reserved some hidden spring, That might be reached by mercy's tears, and win Thy heart of steel? hast thou no tender spot Can yet be touched by gratitude? a thought Unselfish? Is it nothing Christ has done, And is his blood so cheap—God's blessed Son?

Thou hast remorseful hours! when future scenes Put on a dress they have not worn; when springs That quenched thy thirst, seem strangely dry, And vines that fed thee, yield thee no supply; When all earth's pastures seem to thee less green, Till scarce a star, or sunny spot is seen.

If just one glimpse of stern reality, One thought of thy long future destiny, Can banish joy, and bring tormenting fear, Or drip from those deep wells one briny tear, What will it be the truth to realize, When not a star shall light those inky skies? And mercy's dove, grown weary, folds her wing, And far from thee shall take her flight to sing?

Pause but once more! aye, pause before you drink, From sin's sweet chalice; see that fearful brink That lies beneath thee; then if thou wilt drain Its poisoned waters, and with frenzied brain Rush to thy fate, then with the angels, I Will weep, to see so rich a jewel lie In broken fragments, beautiful, but lost, A gem obscured that Jesus' blood has cost.

VESTA N. CUDWORTH. Springfield, Mass.