I Heard Thee by J. B. D.

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Aug 1, 1878

I Heard Thee.

By J. B. D.

I HEARD thee, O Almighty, when the day Of innocence had passed, and twilight gray Bade me remember how earth's joys decay.

Oh, how I sought to hide me from thy sight 'Mid forest shades! and, though bedewed with night, I found seclusion in its sullen light.

I wandered from thy presence in the gloom Of ignorance and sin, and knew not whom To trust to save me from the threatened doom.

Again I heard thee : thou didst ask me why I was determined recklessly to die. When thou to help and ransom me wast nigh.

I open'd to thee, but thou was not there; The streets I searched; I asked the watchman "where Is my beloved, wet with midnight air?"'

They wounded me with error, for they said "Since thou dost seek him, thou of him art led; Thy work is done; to sleep lay down thy head.

I laid me down; but thou didst me awake: "If thou would'st follow me, then all forsake, And, with thy Lord, thy cross submissive take."

I left the city, and, with hope inspired, Unto the garden and the cross retired, And there I found him whom my soul admired.

"Tis done" I hear. He bore the cross that I Might holy be, and shall I idly lie, And say "There is no reckoning by-and-by?"

O, pure and holy Jesus, may I be An overcomer, and received of thee The morning gifts of immortality!

J. B. D. San Francisco, Cal.