Evolutionary Hymn

Lead us, Evolution, lead us

Up the future's endless stair:

Chop us, change us, prod us, weed us.

For stagnation is despair: 

Groping, guessing, yet progressing, 

Lead us nobody knows where.

To whatever variation 

Our posterity may turn

Hairy, squashy, or crustacian, 

Bulbous-eyed or square of stern,

Tusked or toothless, mild or ruthless,

Towards that unknown god we yearn.

Ask not if it's god or devil,

Brethren, lest your words imply

Static norms of good and evil

(As in Plato) throned on high;

Such scholastic, inelastic, 

Abstract yardsticks we deny.

On then! Value means survival-

Value. If our progeny

Spreads and spawns and licks each rival,

That will prove its deity

(Far from pleasant, by our present

Standards, though it well may be).1

C. S. Lewis

"Evolutionary Hymn"

1.  C. S. Lewis, Poems [Harvest/HBJ; 1977] pp. 55-56

Perfected in Weakness

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater

He sendeth more strength when the labors increase

To added affliction He addeth His mercy

To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace

When we have exhausted our store of endurance

When our strength has failed ere the day is half done

When we reach the end of our hoarded resources

Our Father's full giving is only begun

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision

Our God ever yearns His resources to share

Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing

The Father both thee and thy load will upbear

His love has no limit; His grace has no measure

His power has no boundary known unto men

For out of his infinite riches in Jesus

He giveth and giveth and giveth again

Annie Johnson Flint

"He Giveth More Grace"

And He said unto me, 

     'My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.' 

     Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Paul of Tarsus 

II Cor. 12:9

By the Brook Cherith

                                                   "...hide thyself by the brook Cherith... thou shalt drink of the brook...
                                                            And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up..."
  
                                                                                                                   (1 Kings 17:3-7)




When flowed the brook of Cherith, God sent Elijah there,
And fed him by its waters, though all the land was bare.

While flower the brook of Cherith, Elijah rested there,
No drought could touch his fountains, nor blight his soul with care.

When failed the brook of Cherith, beside its channel bare,
What thought Jehovah's prophet?  Did faith become despair?

But God had long provided new sources of supply,
The morsel that should waste not, the cruse that should not dry.

When fails some brook of Cherith that long for us availed,
Do we recall His promise and think that too has failed?

Nay, He has other rivers whose waters will not dry;
His love is ever meeting new need with new supply.

When dries our brook of Cherith and leaves its channel bare,
The cruse, long since made ready, is waiting.  He knows where.

                                                                       -- Annie Johnson Flint
                                                                       "By the Brook Cherith"

Eden's Courtesy

One of my favorite poems by C. S. Lewis:

Such natural love twixt beast and man we find

That children all desire an animal book, 

And all brutes, not perverted from their kind, 

Woo us with whinny, tongue, tail, song, or look;

So much of Eden's courtesy yet remains.

But when a creature's dread, or mine, has built

A wall between, I think I feel the pains

That Adam earned and do confess my guilt.

For till I tame sly fox and timorous hare

And lording lion in my self, no peace

Can be without; but after, I shall dare

Uncage the shadowy zoo and war will cease;

Because the brutes within, I do not doubt,

Are archetypal of the brutes without.1

1.  C. S. Lewis, Poems [Harvest/HBJ edition; 1977] p. 98

Not Ever

"...He hath said, 'I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.'"

(Hebrews 13:5; Deuteronomy 31:8)

God hath not promised
Skies always blue
Flower-strewn pathways
All our life through
God hath not promised 
Sun without rain
Joy without sorrow
Peace without pain

But God hath promised 
Strength for the day
Rest for the labor
Light for the way
Grace for the trials
Help from above
Unfailing sympathy
Undying love

                      -- Annie Johnson Flint
                    "What God Has Promised"

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

O Love that wilt not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in thee;

I give thee back the life I owe,

That in thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be.

O Light that followest all my way

I yield my flickering torch to thee;

My heart restores its borrowed ray,

That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day

May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that sleekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to thee;

I trace the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not vain

That morn shall tearless be.

O cross that liftest up my head,

I dare not ask to fly from thee;

I lay in dust life’s glory dead,

And from the ground there blossoms red

Life that shall endless be.

                                             -- George Matheson, 1882

                                            “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go”