MORE life we thirst for, but how can we take?
We sit like children by the surging sea,
Dip with our shallow shells all day, and make
A boast of the scant measure, two or three
Brief drops caught from the immensity;
But what are these the long day’s thirst to slake?
There is the sea, which would not be less full,
Though all the lands should borrow of its flood;
The sea of Life, fed by the beautiful
Abounding river of the smile of God,
Source of supply and fountain of all good,
Boundless and free and inexhaustible.
There is the sea; and close by is our thirst,
Yet here we sit and gaze the waters o’er,
And dip our shallow shells in as at first.
Just where the ripples break to wash the shore,
And catch a tantalizing drop, nor durst
The depth or distance of the wave explore.
Ah, mighty ocean which we sport beside,
One day thy wave will rise and foam, and we,
Lost in its strong, outgoing, refluent tide,
Shall be swept out into the deeper sea,
Shall drink the life of life, and satisfied
Smile at the shore from far eternity.