“One thing I do”

“Brethren, I count not myself yet to have apprehended: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

A runner fleet sped o’er the way!

“One thing I do,” they heard him say;

“Yon shining goal I must attain!

While I this vital breath retain—

“One thing I do.”

They saw a friend beside him run,

Then turn aside, and only one

Kept on the path: his eager tread

And earnest bearing plainly said,

“One thing I do.”

No backward look to view the road

Left far behind, gave he, but trode

In haste the upward way before;

His voice rang sweet o’er hill and moor,

“One thing I do.”

“Stay, Paul, thy fathers knew the truth;

Gamaliel trained thy springing youth;

Return to Moses! Christ is dead!”

Like cornet clear his answer said,

“One thing I do.”

Forward he pressed! they marked his track,

Framed Jewish plots to turn him back,

By slander, persecution, sword;

Still he proclaimed in work and word,

“One thing I do.”

Through darkening night and brightening day,

He lingered not along the way:

Storm-clouds may frown, the sun may smile,

Exulting, sounds that voice the while,

“One thing I do.”

Hark! Caesar’s friends join in the cry;

“Stop! stop this dauntless enemy!”

Bound in a cell, they heard him sing

Praise in the night—“With thanksgiving,

One thing I do.”

None could his spirit bind; upward

It rose to where his well-loved Lord

Had gone; echoed the prison tower—

That I may know His rising power—

“One thing I do.”

The calling high which beams before

Cheers on his steps where torrents roar;

“The excellence of Christ,” said he,

“Fills my glad heart with melody—

One thing I do.”

“I have not yet attained!” he cried

As swift he scaled the mountain side;

“Nor yet have apprehended all

For which I heard the Saviour’s call—

One thing I do.”

“Not perfected am I, but Christ,

My risen Lord, in glory waits;

And that He might become my gain

I’m running still, nor yet in vain

One thing I do.”

With stones beset; cast out as dead;

The watchers saw him lift his head;

They gently tended to his need;

They caught his whisper, “On I speed,

One thing I do.”

Well meaning friends to cool his zest

Attempt, but when be forward pressed

They meekly said, “God’s will be done”;

Responded he—“I onward run,

One thing I do.”

That figure lone on yon steep way,

They see, through tears, pass far away;

His form fades from the straining eye,

His voice still sounds through air and sky—

“One thing I do.”

The lion saw, the nations heard;

He showed the path, he spake the word,

He kept the faith and won the prize;

His stirring message never dies—

“One thing I do.”