Fellowship With Christ

To pray as Jesus prayed,
    When faithless brethren sleep,--
To weep the ruin sin has made--
    The only ones that weep,--
To bear the heavy cross,--
    To toil, yet murmur not,--
To suffer pain, reproach, and loss,--
    Be such our earthly lot.

Yet oh, how richly blessed
    The Master's cup to share,--
The aching grief that wrung His breast,--
    His broken-hearted prayer,--
If thus we may but gain
    One sheaf of golden wheat
Gleaned from Earth's sultry harvest-plain,
    To lay at His dear feet!--

If thus we may but win
    One precious earthly gem
Snatched from the mire of vice and sin,
    For His rich diadem!--
Here, sorrow, patience, prayer;
    In Heaven, the rich reward!
Here, the sharp thorns, the cross,--and there
    "Forever with the Lord"!
Jan Bagwell
God Bless !