How Goes the Battle? by S. R. Chaplin

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 24, 1885

"How Goes the Battle?"

By S. R. Chaplin

"How goes the battle?" O watchman tell! Look from your hights where the pilgrims dwell! Are they walking humbly where Jesus trod, And faithfully keeping the truths of God? Is the heavy cross on their shoulders borne, And "the world's proud scorn" as a chaplet worn? Do their lamps gleam bright o'er the darkened plain, Are they trusting still in the Saviour's name?

"How goes the battle?" O watchman tell! Look again where the pilgrims dwell! From the thorny ways of woe and sin, Do they lead the erring wanderers in? Do they visit the sick and the fatherless With a mystic power in their words to bless? Do they clothe the needy and feed the poor, Do they freely give from their earthly store?

"How goes the battle?" Do any fall, Forgetting that Christ is their all in all? Has the light grown dim to their weary eye, And the pearly gates from their view gone by? Has the artful world with its busy cares, Its tempting sweets, and its blinding snares, Turned them away from the narrow road, That leads to Immanuel's blest abode?

"How goes the battle?" Has love grown cold, Or faith been bartered for worthless gold? Or hate crept in, or guilty pride Borne some away on its rushing tide? Does the song of praise and the heartfelt prayer No longer rise in the grateful air? Have they found on earth their rest and home, That they seek no longer for joys to come?

"How goes the battle?" Oh! list the strains! "We are almost over these dreary plains! We have waited long for our Lord's return, But brightly now do our trimmed lamps burn! The weary battle is almost o'er, We can catch the gleam of the new-earth shore! The mists of time from our sight are gone, The morning breaks, we are ALMOST HOME! [S. R. CHAPLIN in Voice of the West.