Questions & Answers
Angels throng; the day is blessed! Now withdraws the crucial test, Which was given but to prove Sole dependence on His love. Did the trial seem severe? Did a very bitter tear Fall from pity-centered self? Ah, but think of all the wealth, Joy, and gladness that has come, And the victory that is won, And the freedom and the health! It is surely worth the while Thus to see the heavens smile, Blazon on the tears of earth Crystal globes, of Spirit's birth.
Seems hard the journey—all the way uphill? Prolonged, the weary conflict with the foe? "The battle is the Lord's"! Be still, and know That He is God, and peace your days will fill. Lay down the insufficient human will, Unresting as the tides that come and go; Give place to Him; and in your heart will glow That changeless Love which knows nor storm nor ill.
Blest word, thy sweetness permeates my thought With perfume as of first-born violets Found in awakening woodlands in the spring— Just this word, "Surely. " Truth is not lost; Love has not fled; Life lives eternal— " I AM THAT I AM.
Thou , O Love, art all I want. Perfect friend in Thee I find— Love that knows and understands, Love unchanging, ever kind, Love whose tender, healing beams On both just and unjust shine, Boundless, universal Love, Love impartial, Love divine.
The morning sun rose o'er the earth And kissed the sleeping flowers That bloomed along the hillside steep And in the woodland bowers. The flowers looked up, all smiling bright, And each one seemed to say: We bloom to gladden all the earth; We 'II do our best to-day! So shines into each waiting heart God's radiant beams of love; Oh, wondrous light, that fills our thought With joy all else above! Now loving service for Thy sake Our highest aim shall be, To spread the healing truth, the truth That makes Thy children free.
"Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way. "—Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 454.
As full-blown crimson tulips in a bowl Hold in their cups the glory-bringing sun That floods the room in shafts of yellow light, Yield to its radiance warm, and lo! shine Luminous, living, glad, twice-beautiful; So to the light of Thy great love, dear God, Lift I the chalice of my soul in deep Humility. Thus must it be that I, As they, shall luminous be, transparent, Brimmed with living beauty that men may see, And turn to praise the Love that giveth life.
Teach us to pray, O Lord. The age-long cry Of hungry hearts for bread rings in my ears.
To know that Spirit, God, is ever near, Perfect, unchangeable, the Father dear; To know that He regards His children all As equally beloved, their slightest call The signal and response to every need— Oh, this is interceding prayer indeed! To know that Spirit, God, is All-in-all, To know the answer is before the call, To know that God, intelligence divine, His gracious gifts bestowing all the time, Is ever waiting, watching, tender, kind— Oh, this is joy replete in prayer to find! To know that God is substance, Love divine, The living bread, the water, and the wine, To know He will not fail, whate'er betide, That right desire will prove Him at our side, That we can never from His presence flee— On, this is prayer that will from sense set free! This is the prayer our Master voiced when he Out of the amplitude of love set free The weary, sick, and sinning, maimed and blind, And taught a God of mercy, near and kind; And this the prayer that we must humbly make, If we would our great Master's footsteps take.
Thou Love by whom The Son was sent, Heal me of discontent. When calls the distant shore, Or far retreat, Show me life's pearl Beneath my feet.