p. 159 | THE CONSECRATED WILL by Sel.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 15, 1877

THE CONSECRATED WILL.

By Sel.

Laid on thy altar, O my Lord divine, Accept my gift this day for Jesus’ sake; I have no jewels to adorn thy shrine, Nor any world-famed sacrifice to make; But here I bring within my trembling hand This will of mine—a thing that seemeth small, And only thou, sweet Lord, canst understand How when I yield thee this, I yield mine all. Hidden therein thy searching eye can see Struggles of passion, visions of delight, All that I love, or am, or hope to be,— Deep loves, fond hopes, and longings infinite. It hath been wet with tears and dimmed with sighs, Clenched in my grasp, till beauty it hath none. Now from thy footstool, where it vanquished lies, The prayer ascendeth, May thy will be done. Take it, O Father, ere my courage fail, And merge it so in thine own will that e’en If in some desperate hour my cries prevail, And thou give back my gift, it may have been So changed, so purified, so fair have grown, So one with thee, so filled with peace divine, I may not know or feel it as mine own, But gaining back my will, may find it thine. —Sel.