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Unto the Uttermost

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 2, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 22.

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Unto the Uttermost

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Shuttle

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Shuttle

I.

WEARY and wrinkled and thin and gray, The tired head on the pillow lay, And the look of pain that the white lips wore Told that the journey was almost o'er. The fading rays of the setting sun Were spent, for the weary day was done, While the flickering light that the pale moon shed, Fell on the pauper's dying bed.

II.

Gone, all gone are the misspent years, Bearing their record of sin and tears, Bearing their burden of hopes and fears. But the sick man smiled as he breathed a prayer, And his pallid features grew almost fair: “Tho' I am wretched and poor and lost, Christ can save to the uttermost.”

III.

Merrily singing a low, sweet song, A beautiful maiden tripped along; Her gentle spirit was kind and true, And her soul was pure as the morning dew.
Years passed, and the form that was once so fair, Was pale and rigid and cold and bare; With never a friend to watch and weep And close her eyes in their last, long sleep.

IV.

Not one in the careless throng was seen To pity the poor lost Magdalene; Her beautiful sisters all passed by With a curling lip and a scornful eye, With never a tear and never a sigh. And even the church in her haughty pride Passed coldly by on the other side. “For I am pure, and thou art vile,” She said to herself with a bitter smile; Nor dreamed, as she uttered her idle boast, That Christ can save to the uttermost.

V.

With a ghastly look in his sunken eye, I saw the victim of rum pass by. Poor and wretched and desolate, His doom seemed sealed by the hand of fate. His tattered garments were old and torn, And his face was haggard and thin and worn. There was never an outstretched hand to save The wretched soul from the drunkard's grave; The priest and the Levite each passed by With a cruel sneer and a scornful eye. Then, from the heavenly mercy-seat Echoed a Voice that was sad and sweet: “Jesus pleads for the vile and lost; He can save to the uttermost.”