My Castles in the Air by Henry W. Teller

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 23, 1879

My Castles in the Air.

By Henry W. Teller

I had built them strong and high, In the sunny days gone by, And had seen the fairest of them fade and fall; Childhood’s visionary dream, Manhood’s best and broadest scheme, Like the changeful hearth-fire gleaming on the wall.

Youth and hope together wrought, From afar the stones were brought, And I thought the walls and towers securely laid; But upon an evil day The foundations slid away, And the disappointed workmen stood dismayed.

Then the Master Builder came, Not a look or word of blame, Only gentleness and love in every tone. Was that counsel a command, By the which he set my hand To a nobler work than it had ever known?

The foundations He had laid, And the corner stone was red, As if hewn from out that pitying heart of love. Not so fast the building grew; There was careful work to do— Work my fitness and my faithfulness to prove.

But its rising towers shine With a light almost divine, And I hold a title to it, full and clear. Never was there home so fair As my castle in the air; Though its perfect glory doth not yet appear.

It will brave the wildest blast Of these earth-storms, and outlast All the floods that round its deep foundations roll. It shall stand through endless day, Though the earth may pass away, And the heavens be rolled together like a scroll.

—Henry W. Teller.