She Has Chosen the World

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C. M. Sheffield

Puritan Board Graduate
Robert Murray M'Cheyne, upon hearing that a friend of the family "was determined to keep close by the world," penned the following lines on her melancholy condition—

She has chosen the world,
And its paltry crowd;
She has chosen the world,
And an endless shroud!
She has chosen the world
With its misnamed pleasures;
She has chosen the world,
Before heaven's own treasures.

She hath launched her boat
On life's giddy sea,
And her all is afloat
For eternity.
But Bethlehem's star
Is not in her view;
And her aim is far
From the harbor true.

When the storm descends
From an angry sky,
Ah! where from the winds
Shall the vessel fly?
When stars are concealed,
And rudder gone,
And heaven is sealed
To the wandering one.

The whirlpool opes
For the gallant prize;
And, with all her hopes,
To the deep she hies!
But who may tell
Of the place of woe,
Where the wicked dwell,
Where the worldlings go?

For the human heart
Can ne'er conceive
What joys are the part
Of them who believe;
Nor can justly think
Of the cup of death,
Which all must drink
Who despise the faith.

Away, then—Oh, fly
From the joys of the earth!
Her smile is a lie—
There's a sting in her mirth.
Come, leave the dream
Of this transient night,
And bask in the beams
Of an endless light.


—Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Memoir and Remains (Banner of Truth, 2012), p. 15.
 
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