LOW TIDE

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 14, 1871

O busy world! forever planning, building, Yet ever incomplete! Thy monuments are children's mimic castles, Where land and ocean meet.

Toil on, all ye who rear your golden palace, That ye may there hold sway; The tide is low, but waves of time are coming, To sweep your wealth away.

Delve, man, with miser's weary care, to gather All knowledge for thine own; Strive, cunning craftsman, that no hand more skilful May shape the waiting stone.

Build on, ye toilers all, for self and mammon, Upon the shifting sand; But even now the floods await your structures, To dash them from the strand.

Build, ye who draw the sword for truth and justice, Lay deep the ponderous base! Your pile a fortress rises from the waters, A sure abiding-place.

Build on, ye souls who upward lead the erring, And dry the sufferer's tear; Above the shining spray gleams on, forever, The beacon light ye rear.

Build on, ye toilers all, for God and Heaven, Build patiently and sure! The tide will flow, but 'mid the foaming breakers, Your work shall stand secure. —Sel.