Poems (Odom)/Baptism in the Sea
BAPTISM IN THE SEA.INSCRIBED TO DR. AND MRS. DUNKLIN, CHURCH STREET, GALVESTON.
The golden sunlight trembles down Upon the sea's broad breast, The blue waves roll Like eager soul Toward the land of rest.
They bow their crested heads to meet The pilgrims on the shore, Who turn to-day In tears away From sin forever more.
Beneath the blue baptismal wave, All human struggles cease; Since Jesus stood In Jordan's flood, And found the Dove of Peace.
At God's command they quit the land, Like Israel's hosts of yore, The waves divide As side by side They humbly leave the shore.
And as I stand to-day and gaze Upon the wave-washed strand, And watch the foam Come tossing home To die upon the sand,
The thoughts arise of other years, Of precious hopes long past— Our friends and foes, Our joys and woes, On life's great ocean cast.
And dearer than all other days That breathe of you, my wife, I hold the one When you begun Your higher, purer life.
'T was here, on this same beach you stood, So many years ago, The seal of grace On your sweet face Beside the water's flow.
The same bright surf, yet not the same, That flowed above your brow, Baptismal graves— Redeeming waves— Where are those waters now?
Gone murmuring to the boundless sea Of God's eternal love,Or like the mist by sunbeams kissed They veil the blue above.
Perchance again they fall in dew Upon some marble tomb,Sparkling and bright, like living light, They gem its pallid gloom.
Or trembling o'er some lowly grave By daisy blooms up-borne,They softly speak to death's pale cheek Of Resurrection Morn.
Those sacred waves are scattered now, And fresher billows flow,While strangers stand upon the strand Where you stood years ago.
Buried with Christ—how sweet the thought, To each regenerate breast,That humbly bears, yet proudly wears, God's seal upon it pressed.