January 31
A Short and Sufficient Creed
In the Hour of Silence"The Lord is nigh."—Psalms 145:18.
THE LORD is nigh. How musical and fragrant the old words are! Yes, and how very true!
The Fatalist tells me: Chance, or law, or nature, or heredity, or society, or some other careless and impersonal and unloving power, determines your life, and you have no liberty; you are the poor and helpless slave of circumstance. No, no; the Lord is nigh, and He can emancipate me from all confining bonds and fetters.
The Worldling tells me: There is nothing better, nothing higher, nothing more precious, than what this earth can give you—its money, its pleasure, its fame. You had best eat and drink and be merry; there is no nobler life than that. But he is wrong; the Lord is nigh, and to His glory I can consecrate my days and nights.
The Pessimist tells me: The world is a wilderness, and it is a misfortune to live at all. Youth is a blunder, manhood is a struggle, old age is a regret. It is winter, winter, winter, the whole year round. But he does not understand the possibilities of life—the Lord is nigh, and when He uses me I am more than a conqueror.
The Sceptic tells me: There is no future. When you die, the spirit dies as well as the body, and the dust is your everlasting home.
"Shall the dead take thought for the dead to love them?
What love was ever as deep as a grave?"
But I know that he is mistaken. I am in union with a God who permits me to share His own eternity; the Lord is nigh, and where He is there will His servant be.
I shall ring it forth against all fears within and fightings without.
C
February.
RAIN.
RAIN: and the graves are budding fast,
And now the dead shall be alive.
God's vegetation sprouts with haste;
The grave is busier than a hive.
For all God's flowers begin to bloom,
And all His gardens, parched with drought;
And all God's seedlings in the gloom
Send a small tender herald out.
Rain: and the Dead, late lost, long lost,
Lapped in Death's wintry quilt of snow,
Waving their verdant palms, a host,
Put on their robes of green and go.
KATHARINE TYNAN HINKSON.