ABIDING WITH GOD | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 25, 1873

ABIDING WITH GOD.

Let every one, whate’er his calling be, Therein abide with God: so wrote of old Saint Paul to them at Corinth, and to me, With loving lips, to-night, that truth was told. I had grown weary with my strifes and cares, And murmured o’er the service of the day, Wherein I had forgotten, unawares, That thus I still might honor and obey.

Therein abide with God: would I might ne’er forget, That evermore I might with him abide: What matters how or where the stamp is set, Or what the furnace where the gold is tried, So that the metal has the sterling ring, So that the likeness of the King is shown; God’s coinage still, that to the soul may bring Such wealth as merchant princes have not known.

In market places where the race is swift, And competition on temptation waits; In quiet homes where unseen currents drift A thousand petty cares through open gates; Let each and all, whate’er the calling be, Therein abide with God; from break of day Till set of sun, they shall his purpose see, And serve him in his own appointed way.

So let me see and serve, and thus abide; Not simply patient, or at best content, Not with eye-service, wherein, love denied, In rounds of duty solemn days are spent; Give me, O Lord, a joy that is divine; Touch thou my lips with constant themes of praise; Since, having thee, all things I need are mine, Whate’er my lot, whate’er my length of days.

—New York Observer.