LET ME LEAN HARD by Ella Wheeler

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 15, 1883

LET ME LEAN HARD.

By Ella Wheeler

LET me lean hard upon the Eternal Breast. In all earth’s devious ways I sought for rest And found it no.

I will be strong, said I, And lean upon myself! I will not cry And importune all Heaven with my complaint— But now my strength fails, and I fall, I faint. Let me lean hard.

Let me lean hard upon the unfailing Arm. I said I will walk on, I fear no harm ; The spark divine within my soul will show The upward pathway where my feet should go. But now the heights to which I most aspire Are lost in clouds. I stumble, and I tire. Let me lean hard.

Let me lean harder yet. That swerveless Force That speeds the solar systems on their course Can take, unfelt, the burden of my woe Which bears me to the dust, and hurts me so. I thought my strength enough for any fate, But lo! I sink beneath my sorrow’s weight. Let me lean harder yet.

Let me lean hard, with that abandonment Of self to God that means complete content. I said, I do not fear the hosts of sin; I will be true to the divine within. But lo! I find I am not great enough To make my way o’er places that are rough, And through strange valleys, dark with shades of doubt, Unless help comes from some high source without. Let me lean hard.

—Ella Wheeler.