“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.”