The Two Seas

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 29, 1902

“THERE is a sea which, day by day, Receives the rippling rills, And streams that spring from wells of God, Or fall from cedared hills; But what it thus receives it gives With glad, unsparing hand, And a stream more wide with a deeper tide Pours out to a lower land; But doth it lose by giving?—Nay; Its shores of beauty see The life and health and fruitful wealth Of Galilee!

“There is a sea which, day by day, Receives a fuller tide; But all its store it keeps, nor gives To shore nor sea beside; What gains its grasping greed?—Behold! Barrenness round its shore, Its fruit of lust but apples of dust, Rotten from rind to core; Its Jordan water, turned to brine, Lies heavy as molten lead, And its dreadful name doth e’er proclaim That sea is—Dead.”