Your ShelfYour Projects

MY OWN STORY

11%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 28, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 22.

Read the full edition

MY OWN STORY.

By Maggie A. Pulver

MAGGIE A. PULVER.
As my thoughts oft go back to the years of the past, When my lot with the guilty and wretched was cast, And I think how my Saviour, the King from above, Has followed my footsteps with infinite love, My heart overflows for the blessings so sweet,— I would cast all the treasures of earth at His feet.
Again and again, when a child, did they tell Me that I must serve God, or be cast into hell, And burn while the years of eternity roll,— The flesh of my body, for the sins of my soul,— For the sins of my life, the few years earth I trod, To appease the great wrath of a merciful (?) God.
They told me that Jesus sometime, by and by, Would return to this earth, from His home in the sky, And summon the wicked their sad doom to hear, And Oh! how my guilty heart trembled with fear! I wished that some secret place earth could provide, Where I from His wrath and His vengeance might hide.
I tried, but in vain; for I could not draw near To a God I was trying to worship through fear. The tortures of hell haunted me in the night; I hated myself; for I could not do right. I thought of the day when my deeds must be met, Till at last I gave up all, and tried to forget.
How oft, ’neath the strains of some beautiful song, My heart has been stirred, and my soul made to long For the bliss that was promised the sinless and free, But my sad heart would say, “Not for me—no, not me!” I oft heard that still small voice speaking within, And I thought God delighted to twit me of sin!
Oh, how thankful I am now, that Jesus could see My tempest-tossed soul, and have pity for me, And send me His message of pardoning love, Take me into His ark, like a poor, weary dove, Give me joy for my sorrow, and peace for unrest, Covering all my dark sins with His own righteousness.
For now all those beautiful songs I can sing With a heart that’s attuned to the praise of my King; For I’m washed in His blood; from my sins I’m set free, And rejoice in the knowledge that Jesus loves me. And now my heart throbs but with joy, not with fear, When the messenger tells me my Saviour is near.