THE PRESENT by L. D. Santee

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 18, 1869

THE PRESENT.

By L. D. Santee

Dark lowering clouds are floating o'er the plain, Fitful the breeze that wildly sweeps along, Dark is the air, and thick with falling rain, Fit emblem of the tide of crime and wrong.

Weary and long the ages that have passed, Since sang in joyful strains the morning stars, Since then is borne upon the evening blast, The captives sighing through the prison bars.

The wail of sorrow, and the cry of pain, Arises from the worn earth's troubled breast, We seek the city's crowded mart in vain, Or loneliest groves in earnest search of rest.

Man bears a heavy load of care and grief, Mid polar snows, 'neath equatorial suns; He lives in sorrow, and his days are brief, His breath soon passes, and his race is run.

But thanks to Him, who mighty is to save; He pitied us, and for us he has died; Now we have hope that goes beyond the grave, Through Christ our Lord, who once was crucified.

L. D. SANTEE. Princeville, Ill.