Impatience | AdventAI

California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists · Oakland, Cal. · Dec 17, 1874

Impatience.

WHY are we so impatient of delay, Longing forever for the time to be? For thus we live to-morrow in to-day, Yet that to-morrow we may never see.

We are too hasty; and not reconciled To let kind nature do her work alone; We plant our seed, and like a foolish child We dig it up to see if it has grown.

The good that it is to be we covet now, We cannot wait for the appointed hour; Before the fruit is ripe, we shake the bough, And seize the bud that folds away the flower.

When midnight darkness reigns we do not see, That the dark night is mother of the morn; We cannot think our own sharp agony, May be the birth-pang of a joy unborn.

Into the dust we see our idols cast; And cry that death has triumphed, life is void! We do not trust the promise, that the last Of all our enemies shall be destroyed.

With rest almost in sight the spirit faints, And heart and flesh grow weary at the last, Our feet would walk the city of the saints, Even before the silent gate is passed.

Teach us to wait until Thou shalt appear To know that all Thy ways and times are just; Thou seest that we do believe and fear, Lord make us also to believe and trust!