Your ShelfYour Projects

IN THE HIGHWAYS

17%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 30, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 31.

Read the full edition

IN THE HIGHWAYS.

By William Brickey

WILLIAM BRICKEY. (Kimball, Minn.)
Once I sought my blessed Saviour in the haunts of selfish pride, But I could not find His presence, though I sought Him far and wide; In the crowded church I sought Him, as I walked the quiet street, In the gilded halls of fashion, longed to worship at His feet; In the lonely woods I sought Him, and at night upon my bed, But the earth seemed iron beneath me, heaven was brass above my head. Anxious for my own salvation, scarce a thought had I bestowed On my blinded, helpless neighbor, struggling ’neath his heavy load.
In my selfishness so centered, it was hard for me to see That although my blessed Saviour gave His precious life for me, He, likewise, in loving kindness, gave His life for all mankind,— All, of every race and kindred, poor and maimed, and halt and blind; And that He is Elder Brother to the fallen human race. Little difference what the color of the skin upon the face, ’Tis no matter what surroundings and no matter what his speech, He belongs to Christ by purchase, and salvation’s in his reach.
But in seeking for my duty, as I cast one searching look, Lo, I read it plainly written on the pages of His Book:— “I have set thee for a watchman on the walls of Zion’s mount; Thou shalt watch for souls as they, who to their Master must account. Go out quickly to the byways, to the dens and haunts of shame, Many trophies, precious, costly, may be gathered for my name. In the highways, in the hedges, I have many jewels there; Go and gather up the lost ones, bright and shining, rich and rare.”
Then I sought among the lowly for the purchase of His blood,— Sought that I might give them comfort of the blessed word of God. In the prisons and the almshouse, down amid the dirt and grime, In the slums, and in the rum-holes, in the dens of vice and crime, ’Mid the sick and the afflicted, homesick, heart-sick, too, within, Naked, destitute, discouraged, branded with the doom of sin; But amid their wretched hovels as I ministered the word To the lowest, most degraded, lo! I found my blessed Lord.