Where Your Treasures Are
Last night I could not go to sleep,
I had not even knelt to pray;
My heart was filled with bitterness
And tears I'd kept in check all day.
I try to live a Christian life
And do the things I ought to do;
Then why must my life be so hard
While my neighbor seems to breeze right thru?
So many children 'round the table,
So little food to pass around;
My neighbor's larder is well-filled,
I've seen their table laden down.
Thick carpets on the floors have they;
Plush furniture to sit upon;
While we must keep on mending ours
And padding when the springs are gone.
When down the street their Cadillac
Purrs noiselessly along,
I'd like to hide that wreck of ours
Or say to us it doesn't belong.
I must have fallen asleep because
I suddenly heard the sound
Of a trumpet, and immediately knew
We were Heaven bound.
My dear mate was beside me
As we journeyed through the sky,
And I counted all our children
As one by one they floated by.
Then I saw my neighbor's children -
Little tots too young to know -
And my neighbor mutely watching
The innocent children upward go.
I seemed to linger there a moment
While the scene below me changed;
Neighbors wildly searching 'round
Like people suddenly deranged.
Yet another scene I witnessed
As the earth began to swell
Then seemed to split wide open
And I was looking into Hell.
One by one I saw my neighbors
Swallowed in the Lake of Fire;
Then I closed my eyes and pleaded,
"Oh, dear Jesus, take me higher."
Now I know that I was dreaming
For I woke up in a sweat;
But the horrors of that nightmare
I never will forget.
Tumbling out of bed that night
I fell, sobbing, to my knees;
A new peace my Saviour gave me
In answer to my anguished pleas.
I shall herewith be content
With my meager, earthly lot;
For my treasures are laid up,
With his Blood we have been bought.
May I be less mindful of the fancy homes
In which my neighbors dwell;
And more concerned about their souls
Which now are bound for Hell.