A PSALM OF LIFE by Sel.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 14, 1875

A PSALM OF LIFE.

By Sel.

TELL me not in pleasing numbers, Death is but a phase of life, For the soul is dead that slumbers, And death ends its weary strife.

He who reads the word in earnest, Finds in searching for the goal: “Dust thou art, to dust returnest,” God has spoken to the soul.

Man was placed upon his merits, With an endless life in trust; Failing that, his seed inherits Sickness, death, decay and dust.

At the portals of the garden, When the hapless pair went by, God had placed a faithful warden, Guarding immortality.

And the punishment as given, Dying, thou shalt surely die, Sealed their fate ’gainst life in Heaven, Nailing fast the serpent’s lie.

But the blessed Father left them Not alone in Satan’s power; For when sin of life bereft them, ’T was of hope the natal hour.

In the fullness of the ages, Christ, the Lord, was born to earth: “Search the word,” its holy pages Tell you of his wondrous birth.

He in whom the graces blended— Mercy, truth and perfect love— Suffered, died, arose, ascended, To his Father’s courts above.

In our faith we hail him Saviour, Promised help from days of yore, On whose merits our behavior Seals our fate for evermore.

If we trust him, though this mortal Wither, die, and turn to earth, From the grave we’ll rise, immortal, Quickened by the second birth.

When he cometh in his glory, His reward is in his hand; Then will close probation’s story, Abraham’s seed possess the land.

—Sel.