WHAT SHALL I ASK? by M. A. W. Cooke

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 11, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 23.

WHAT SHALL I ASK?

By M. A. W. Cooke

“Ask, and ye shall receive.”

SHALL I ask health, with pulses musical, Keeping glad time and tune the whole year round? Shall troops of friends, responsive to my call, With welcome footsteps make it holy ground?

Shall wealth and fame with choicest gifts draw near, And pleasure yield her sparkling joys for me, All wreathed in smiles, forgetful that a tear In such a world as this might ever be?

What shall I ask? What is that gift supreme That lifts the soul on wings of joy and peace, More than the worldling’s joys that come to him In the glad time when corn and wine increase?

What shall I ask? ’Tis for thy grace, my God; For daily grace as well as daily bread, Feed me, O Christ, according to thy word, Till this soul-hunger is forever fled!

And still, dear grace of God, abide with me, And lead me safely, kindly, all the way, That when life’s day-beam sinks beneath the sea The hill-tops gleam with glory’s morning ray.

—Mrs. M. A. W. Cooke.