Poems (Carter)/The whitsun gift
THE WHITSUN GIFT.
My Father, yesterday I visited
A worldly Church, where neither middle class
Nor poor can find a welcome and a home.
Today a letter comes, brim full of zeal
And faith in Christian Science giving facts
Within the writer's own experience
That cannot be gainsaid, nor seemingly
Explained, except as proving God's own seal
Of fruits—His blessing on the means employed.
And everywhere I find these sealing fruits,
And my poor mind is fain to ask the stand
That Christ would have me take in things of faith,
To give an answer clear to him who asks.
Then to my memory come the words of Christ:
"'Tis not for you to know, but power I give.
To witness for Me thro' the Holy Ghost."
This, then, my mission—trusting Him who knows,
And knowing that "He doeth all things well,"
To visit widows and the fatherless,
Abide in Him, the meek of heart, and learn
To pray and strive for that for which He prayed:
"That all our children may be one in Us."
A worldly Church, where neither middle class
Nor poor can find a welcome and a home.
Today a letter comes, brim full of zeal
And faith in Christian Science giving facts
Within the writer's own experience
That cannot be gainsaid, nor seemingly
Explained, except as proving God's own seal
Of fruits—His blessing on the means employed.
And everywhere I find these sealing fruits,
And my poor mind is fain to ask the stand
That Christ would have me take in things of faith,
To give an answer clear to him who asks.
Then to my memory come the words of Christ:
"'Tis not for you to know, but power I give.
To witness for Me thro' the Holy Ghost."
This, then, my mission—trusting Him who knows,
And knowing that "He doeth all things well,"
To visit widows and the fatherless,
Abide in Him, the meek of heart, and learn
To pray and strive for that for which He prayed:
"That all our children may be one in Us."
Whitsun-day, 1914.