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MARAH AND ELIM

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 18, 1878

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 51, No. 16.

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MARAH AND ELIM

By Bonar

To-day ’tis Elim, with its palms and wells And happy shade for desert weariness; ’Twas Marah yesterday, all rock and sand, Unshaded solitude and bitterness.
Yet the same desert holds them both; the same Soft breezes wander o’er the lonely ground; The same low stretch of valley shelters both, And the same mountains compass them around.
So is it here with us on earth; and so I do remember it has ever been; The bitter and the sweet, the grief and joy, Lie near together, but a day between.
Sometimes God turns our bitter into sweet; Sometimes he gives us pleasant water-springs; Sometimes he shades us with his pillar-cloud, And sometimes to a blessed palm-shade brings.
What matters it? The time will not be long;— Marah and Elim will alike be past; Our desert-wells and palms will soon be done; We reach the city of our God at last.
O happy land! beyond these lonely hills, Where gush in joy the everlasting springs; O holy Paradise! above these heavens, Where we shall end our desert-wanderings. —Bonar.