The Two Seas

The Two Seas: A Parable of Giving and Hoarding.

"It is more blessed to give than to receive."

1. There is a sea which, day by day, 

Receives the rippling rills

And streams that spring from wells of God, 

Or fall from cedared hills;

But what it thus receives it gives 

With glad, unsparing hand.

A stream more wide with deeper tide 

Flows to a lower land.

But doth it lose by giving? Nay! 

Its shores of beauty see--

The life and health and fruitful wealth 

Of Galilee!

2. There is a sea which, day by day, 

Receives a fuller tide,

But all its store it keeps, nor gives 

To shore nor sea beside;

What gains its grasping greed? Behold! 

Barrenness round its shore.

Its fruit of lust, but fruit of dust 

Rotten from rind to core:

Its Jordan water turned to brine 

Lies heavy as molten lead;

Its dreadful name doth e'er proclaim

That sea is---Dead!

-- written by Richard Glover, from The Church Missionary Gleaner, Volume XVI, No. 182, Feb. 1889, p. 22