Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul Part 32

A smile, a word, a touch, And each is easily given; Yet one may win A soul from sin Or smooth the way to heaven.

A smile may lighten a falling heart, A word may soften pain's keenest smart, A touch may lead us from sin apart-- How easily each is given!

WORKING WITH CHRIST

O matchless honor, all unsought, High privilege, surpa.s.sing thought That thou shouldst call us, Lord, to be Linked in work-fellows.h.i.+p with thee!

To carry out _thy_ wondrous plan, To bear _thy_ messages to man; "In trust," with Christ's own word of grace To every soul of human race.

THE "NEW LOGION"

"Jesus saith," and His deep Saying who shall rightly understand, Rescued from the grasp of ages, risen from its grave of sand?

Who shall read its mystic meaning, who explain its import high: "Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me, cleave the wood and there am I"?

Does it mean the stone-built altar, and the cleft-wood for its fire, That with sacrificial offering shall the soul to G.o.d aspire, Purged and pure from sin's defilement, lifting holy hands on high, "Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me, cleave the wood and there am I"?

Does it mean that toil and action are the price that man shall pay, Striving the strait gait to enter, pressing on the narrow way, Clearing it from shade and hindrance, with strong arm and purpose high, "Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me, cleave the wood and there am I"?

Does it mean that he who seeketh may Thy presence always see In the common things around him, in the stone and in the tree, Underlying, all-pervading, Soul of Nature, ever nigh, "Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me, cleave the wood and there am I"?

Yea, in all our work and wors.h.i.+p, in our quiet, in our strife, In the daily, busy handwork, in the soul's most ardent life, Each may read his own true meaning of the Saying deep and high, "Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me, cleave the wood and there am I."

--Mrs. Henry B. Smith.

He's true to G.o.d, who's true to man; wherever wrong is done, To the humblest and the weakest, 'neath the all-beholding sun, That wrong is also done to us; and they are slaves most base Whose love of right is for themselves, and not for all their race.

--James Russell Lowell.

HER CREED

She stood before a chosen few, With modest air and eyes of blue; A gentle creature, in whose face Were mingled tenderness and grace.

"You wish to join our fold," they said; "Do you believe in all that's read From ritual and written creed, Essential to our human need?"

A troubled look was in her eyes; She answered, as in vague surprise, As though the sense to her were dim.

"I only strive to follow Him."

They knew her life, how oft she stood, Pure in her guileless maidenhood, By dying bed, in hovel lone, Whose sorrow she had made her own.

Oft had her voice in prayer been heard, Sweet as the note of any bird; Her hand been open in distress; Her joy to brighten and to bless.

Yet still she answered, when they sought To know her inmost, earnest thought, With look as of the seraphim "I only strive to follow Him."

--Sarah Knowles Bolton.

WAKING THOUGHTS

Another day G.o.d gives me, pure and white.

How can I make it holy in his sight?

Small means have I and but a narrow sphere, Yet work is round me, for he placed me here.

How can I serve thee, Lord? Open mine eyes; Show me the duty that around me lies.

"The house is small, but human hearts are there, And for this day at least beneath thy care.

Someone is sad--then speak a word of cheer; Someone is lonely--make him welcome here; Someone has failed--protect him from despair; Someone is poor--there's something you can spare!

"Thine own heart's sorrow mention but in prayer, And carry suns.h.i.+ne with thee everywhere.

The little duties do with all thine heart And from things sordid keep a mind apart; Then sleep, my child, and take a well-earned rest, In blessing others thou thyself art blest!"

LONELY SERVICE

Methought that in a solemn church I stood; Its marble acres, worn with knees and feet, Lay spread from door to door, from street to street.

Midway the form hung high upon the rood Of Him who gave his life to be our good.

Beyond, priests flitted, bowed, and murmured meet Among the candles, s.h.i.+ning still and sweet.

Men came and went, and wors.h.i.+pped as they could-- And still their dust a woman with her broom, Bowed to her work, kept sweeping to the door.

Then saw I, slow through all the pillared gloom, Across the church a silent figure come; "Daughter," it said, "thou sweepest well my floor."

"It is the Lord!" I cried, and saw no more.

--George Macdonald.

SHARE YOUR BLESSINGS

Dig channels for the streams of love, Where they may broadly run, And love has overflowing streams To fill them every one.

But if at any time thou cease Such channels to provide, The very founts of love to thee Will soon be parched and dried.

For thou must share if thou wouldst keep That good thing from above; Ceasing to share you cease to have; Such is the law of love.

ONLY A LITTLE

Only a seed--but it chanced to fall In a little cleft of a city wall, And taking root, grew bravely up Till a tiny blossom crowned its top.

Only a thought--but the work it wrought Could never by tongue or pen be taught; For it ran through a life like a thread of gold, And the life bore fruit--a hundred fold.

Only a word--but 'twas spoken in love, With a whispered prayer to the Lord above; And the angels in heaven rejoiced once more, For a new-born soul "entered in by the door."

PAUL AT MELITA

Secure in his prophetic strength, The water peril o'er, The many-gifted man at length Stepped on the promised sh.o.r.e.

He trod the sh.o.r.e; but not to rest, Nor wait till angels came; Lo! humblest pains the saint attest, The firebrands and the flame.

But when he felt the viper's smart, Then instant aid was given.

Christian, hence learn to do thy part, And leave the rest to Heaven.