WORK AND WAIT | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 13, 1879

WORK AND WAIT.

A husbandman who many years Had plowed his fields and sown in tears, Grew weary with his doubts and fears.

“I toil in vain! these rocks and sands Will yield no harvest to my hands; The best seeds rot in barren lands.

“My drooping vine is withering; No promised grapes its blossoms bring; No birds among its branches sing.

“My flock is dying on the plain; The heavens are brass—they yield no rain; The earth is iron—I toil in vain!”

While yet he spake, a breath had stirred His drooping vine, like wing of bird, And from its leaves a voice he heard:

“The germs and fruits of life must be Forever hid in mystery, Yet none can toil in vain for me.

“A mightier hand more skilled than thine Must hang the clusters on the vine, And make the fields with harvest shine.

“Man can but work; God can create; But they who work, and watch, and wait, Have their reward, though it come late.

“Look up to heaven! behold and hear The clouds and thundering in thy ear— An answer to thy doubts and fear.”

He looked, and lo! a cloud-draped car, With trailing smoke and flames afar, Portending elemental war;

And every thirsty flock and plain Was rising up to meet the rain, That came to clothe the fields with grain.

And on the clouds he saw again The covenant of God with men, Re-written with his rainbow pen;

“Seed time and harvest shall not fail, And, though the gates of hell assail, My truth and promise shall prevail.”

—Selected.