Ultima Veritas

By Washington Gladden

In the bitter waves of woe,
Beaten and tossed about
By the sullen winds that blow
From the desolate shores of doubt--

When the anchors that faith had cast
Are dragging in the gale,
I am quietly holding fast
To the things that cannot fail :

I know that right is right ;
That it is not good to lie ;
That love is better than spite,
And a neighbor than a spy ;

I know that passion needs
The leash of a sober mind ;
I know that generous deeds
Some sure reward will find ;

That the rulers must obey ;
That the givers shall increase ;
That Duty lights the way
For the beautiful feet of Peace ;

In the darkest night of the year,
When the stars have all gone out,
That courage is better than fear,
That faith is truer than doubt ;

And fierce though the fiends may fight,
And long though the angels hide,
I know that Truth and Right
Have the universe on their side ;

And that somewhere, beyond the stars,
Is a Love that is better than fate ;
When the night unlocks her bars
I shall see Him, and I will wait.

Love the Brothers

This was written by our Claire and sent out to everyone by email this morning. I can add nothing to this gem but gladly share it.

---

Dear brothers and sisters,

Something has been on my heart lately, and I have felt led to write about it to everyone. I don't mean to teach anybody anything they don't already know, but simply to encourage everyone.

I'll jump right in.

The thing about the truth is that when you know you have it, you don't mind if others don't fully grasp it. If we have seized this eternal truth, that God is love and that we as his children must love too, then we are liberated from trying to make people agree with us. We brothers and sisters don't have to agree. Seven of us makes a big family. With our spouses it will one day make fourteen, without counting children and in-laws. 

It would be difficult for us to try to stay in agreement on every point. But we don't have to. We simply have to love each other as fellow Christians, as brothers and sisters in the flesh and in Christ. Yes, it's fun to all like the same things. It's fun to have a family around you who understands the Bible the same way you do, who thinks the same things about health, science, history, politics. But it is not necessary. It is necessary that we love one another right through our differences and see the value each person has in the eyes of God. "For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" Love people as they are. Don't try to change them in order to love them. Don't love them in order to change them. Just love. Love because God loved first, because God is love. Love Olly as he is. Don't make it your project to change him. Make it your project to love him and be his friend.

This is the most important issue of our lives. It is more important than our reputation in the community or with our friends, than the education of our children, than our health, than any of the choices we have made over the years for our lifestyle. Think of the importance which is placed on love in the New Testament. Think of how much Jesus, Paul, John and the others talked about it. Upon our love for each other depends whether we make a success or failure of our entire lives, for all eternity. Think how long we will have, after our death, to regret not having stayed close together in our spirit. Eternity is long enough to look back at every moment of our lives. It is long enough to bitterly regret and to ask : why? Why should we prefer our pride to helping our brother? Maybe it was because of reputation, maybe we were annoyed at him, maybe we had been entertaining thoughts unworthy of a Christian so that when the test came, we failed. And we have all eternity to regret.
 
But it's not too late yet. Every one of us is still here. Every bitter word, every offence can be undone. Don't let time settle on the matter. Don't let the devil rob you of your brother or sister. Each one of us has six brothers and sisters, plus parents, spouses, nieces and nephews. God has given them to us. If a quarrel has separated you from one of them, you are the loser and the devil has won. Your pride remained intact, but you lost what could have been such a wonderful blessing in your life. You'll never get a new one to replace him. You'll never have another brother or sister. But the old one is still alive. Go see him. Love him. Ask God for the strength to make up. He will grant it to you. Then you will have made a step forward and the devil a step backwards.
Love.

Love Raph. Don't wish he were some other way. Love him because he is him.
Love Lilly. You may not understand what happened. Maybe you never will. But maybe that doesn't matter. You don't have to understand to continue loving.
Love Roo. You don't have to think like him. You don't have to live the way he wants to live. You have to love him because God gave His life for him.
Love Becky.
See everyone's wonderful qualities. Becky has childlikeness. Remember all the Bible says about being childlike. Maybe you think this wasn't what was meant. Never mind.
Love Becky.
Love Christopher. He is the only one of him who exists. He is so precious in the eyes of God. It's more important to live out our love for him daily than it is to raise animals, succeed at work, acquire new skills.
Love Olly. Though he is still a child, remember that he will one day be a man and that his man's memory will reach back to his childhood, to the kindnesses shown, to the acts of love you have done for him. These acts will seal him closely to us and ensure his place in our midst.

If anyone is going through difficulties and seems distant, we don't know when they will get out of it and become one of us once again. We don't even know whether they ever will. Because of this we must love them in advance.

Raph and Camille know what it is to have a big family. They know how much they would like for every one of their children to grow up loved and surrounded by the others. They want their children to stay close, even after they will be gone, as we all do. Let us therefore remember that we are the ideal towards which these children will almost inevitably strive. If we fail to keep our love alive, our children will not even try to do so, because they will firmly believe it is impossible, even if we tell them it is. And if in half a century, when Amos and Ruben are 55, there is no more love between them than there is between worldly brothers and sisters, for example, then our lives will have been a failure. We may still go to heaven, but we will have had a useless life. There is so much good to be done in the world. This is the reason we did not go straight to heaven when we became Christians.

Amos and Ruben are best friends, not because they are the same age, but because their parents are so close. Because their fathers spend their days working together and their mothers spend their days helping each other. If we adults fail to love each other enough, Amos and Ruben will most certainly follow in our steps. If David does not hear of Raph's love for Lilly his sister, despite all that happened, think what could happen between him and Susanne later on. These lovely children will one day be adults and our sample will either help them or hinder them in their challenges. Our sample will not be without effect. It will most certainly have an effect, for better or for worse. Christine must know that Becky loves Olly, or what might happen between her and Paul, when the angelic charm of infancy will be dispelled and the man will be revealed?

We have an enormous responsibility, not only toward each other, but toward our children. Raph and Camille's children will admire and follow us, and my children will admire and follow them. The consequences of how we act today are almost immeasurable. Let's not fail. too bad for our pride. Too bad for that extra thing you really want. Too bad if you're so sure you're the only one who's right. Maybe you are. Jesus didn't say, This is my commandment, that ye be right about everything as I have been right about everything.

On the eternal scale, when you will see your children and grand-children bickering and arguing, you will turn to your brother and say : " I don't care any more about what was my life-time project. I don't care about that issue that annoyed me for my whole life and that caused unkindness and contention between us. I was right about it but I don't care any more. I just love you." But you will be powerless to act on earth. You will have to watch and regret for all eternity. And that big all-important thing will seem so small. This matters more than the success of Microtec, more than building a house, more than learning to do all the interesting arts and crafts from before. These things must serve our main purpose, which is to live in Christian harmony. If they seem incompatible, we know which must surrender. Think then, on the grand scale of things, what a glorious and Christ-like action it would be, to be conciliative to such an extent that you would give up your life-project for the brothers. Lay down your life for the brethren. "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another."

The good news is that it's easy. It's so much easier to love than it is to hate. Sometimes your pride has to suffer, but always remember that's a good thing. Jesus is humble and lowly of spirit. Ask him in when you know you can't love. The old man can't love, but the new man can't help loving. When Jesus comes in and overwhelms you, you can't help loving. You feel so free. You don't have to hold on to that grudge. You don't have to join a camp. It's so easy, so empowering to love. You don't have to remember the detail of what unkind thing he said, of how hurt you are, of how wrong he is. Just love. Love with child-like simplicity. Love each other for your own sake, because every one of us needs our love, whether they admit it or not.

Lilly needs our love. Camille and Debbie need our love. Christopher and Olly need our love. Love each other for our parents' sake. They forsook all and made themselves strangers for life so that they could raise a Christian family. We have been the purpose of their lives. Let's not disappoint them. Love each other for our children's sake. They need a model. When we will be gone, our good sample will remain to help them through the confusion of the world. Love each other for the world's sake, because they cannot believe in Christianity unless they see that it truly exists. Love each other for God's sake. Because God loves each one of us so much that we cannot love him truly without loving each other.

We love each other, not because any one of us has anything loveable in him, but because God loved us so much that he considered us worth dying for, so that it would be blasphemous to despise someone who means so much to God. Notice God doesn't love someone because they are good, kind, loveable or right. God loves every last sinner. God loves people because He is who He is, not because they are who they are. We all have terrible faults. No one of us is good, kind, loveable or right. Every one of us is wrong on at least one issue. Don't love your brother because there's something about him that makes you love him. Love him because there's something about you that makes you love him. It's not too late. Just do it. Crucify your pride. Love.

Risks

We took risks, we knew we took them ; things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to the will of Providence, determined still to do our best to the last ...

Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman.

These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale, but surely, surely, a great rich country like ours will see that those who are dependent on us are properly provided for.  

-Robert Falcon Scott, 1912

Contentment

My Lord, how full of sweet content
I pass my years of banishment!
Where e'er I dwell, I dwell with Thee,
In heaven, in earth, or on the sea.

To me remains nor place nor time,

My country is in every clime;

I can be calm and free from care

On any shore, since God is there.

While place I seek, or place I shun,
The soul finds happiness in none;
But with my God to guide my way,
Tis equal joy, to go or stay.

-- Jeanne Guyon

Stay at home !

“Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest;
Home-keeping hearts are happiest,
For those that wander they know not where
Are full of trouble and full of care;
To stay at home is best."

 

(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

If...

If I should die and leave you here a while,
Be not, like others, sore undone,
Who keep long vigils by the silent dust, and weep.
For my sake - turn again to life and smile,
Nerving thy heart and trembling hand to do
Something to comfort other hearts than thine.
Complete those dear unfinished tasks of mine
And I, perchance, may therein comfort you.

Love is eternity

Time is too slow for those who wait,

Too swift for those who fear,

Too long for those who grieve,

Too short for those who rejoice,

But for those who love,

Time is eternity.

The Greek Genius

The teasing perfection of Greek literature will perhaps excite the world long after modern literature is forgotten. Shakespeare may come to his end and lie down among the Egyptians, but Homer will endure forever. We hate to imagine such an outcome, because, while we love Shakespeare, we regard the Greek classics merely with an overwhelmed astonishment. But the fact is that Homer floats in the central stream of History, Shakespeare in an eddy. There is, too, a real difference between ancient and modern art, and the enduring power may be on the side of antiquity. 

The classics will always be the playthings of humanity, because they are types of perfection, like crystals. They are pure intellect, like demonstrations in geometry. Within their own limitations they are examples of miracle ; and the modern world has nothing to show that resembles them in the least. As no builder has built like the Greeks, so no writer has written like the Greeks. In edge, in delicacy, in proportion, in accuracy of effect, they are as marble to our sandstone. The perfection of the Greek vehicle is what attacks the mind of the modern man and gives him dreams. 

-- John Jay Chapman, "Euripides and the Greek Genius", Greek Genius and Other Essays, New York, 1915.

It Couldn't Be Done

Somebody said that it couldn't be done,
  But he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn't," but he would be one
  Who wouldn't say so till he'd tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
  On his face.  If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
  That couldn't be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you'll never do that;
  At least no one ever has done it";
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
  And the first thing we knew he'd begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
  Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
  That couldn't be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
  There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
  The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
  Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
  That "cannot be done," and you'll do it.
 

-- Edgar Guest 

From : http://sofinesjoyfulmoments.com/index.htm

The Weaver

The patter of rain on the roof,
The glint of the sun on the rose;
Of life, these the warp and the woof,
The weaving that everyone knows.
Now grief with its consequent tear,
Now joy with its luminous smile;
The days are the threads of the year--
Is what I am weaving worth while?

What pattern have I on my loom?
Shall my bit of tapestry please?
Am I working with gray threads of gloom?
Is there faith in the figures I seize?
When my fingers are lifeless and cold,
And the threads I no longer can weave
Shall there be there for men to behold
One sign of the things I believe?

God sends me the gray days and rare,
The threads from his bountiful skein,
And many, as sunshine, are fair.
And some are as dark as the rain.
And I think as I toil to express
My life through the days slipping by,
Shall my tapestry prove a success?
What sort of weaver am I?

Am I making the most of the red
And the bright strands of luminous gold?
Or blotting them out with the thread
By which all men's failure is told?
Am I picturing life as despair,
As a thing men shall shudder to see,
Or weaving a bit that is fair
That shall stand as the record of me?

From: Just Folks by Edgar A. Guest
Copyright 1917 by The Reilly & Britton

Can't

Edgar Guest - 1916 - A Heap o' Livin'

Can't is the worst word that's written or spoken;
Doing more harm here than slander and lies;
On it is many a strong spirit broken,
And with it many a good purpose dies.
It springs from the lips of the thoughtless each morning
And robs us of courage we need through the day;
It rings in our ears like a timely sent warning
And laughs when we falter and fall by the way.

Can't is the word that is foe to ambition
An enemy ambushed to shatter your will;
Its prey is forever the man with a mission
And bows but to courage and patience and skill.
Hate it, with hatred that's deep and undying,
For once it is welcomed 'twill break any man;
Whatever the goal you are seeking, keep trying
And answer this demon by saying: "I can." 

True Nobility

Who guards his post, no matter where,
Believing God must need him there,
Although but lowly toil it be,
Has risen to nobility.

For great and low there's but one test:
`Tis that each man shall do his best.
Who works with all the strength he can
Shall never die in debt to man.

-- Edgar Guest, 1916 - A Heap o' Livin' 

Kindness

It is a fine, a noble thought 
When day is done and night has brought 
The contemplative hours and sweet, 
And rest to weary hearts and feet, 
If man can stand in truth and say: 
I have been useful here to-day. 
Back there is one I chanced to see 
With hope newborn because of me. 

This day in honor I have toiled; 
My shining crest is still unsoiled; 
But on the mile I leave behind 
Is one who says that I was kind; 
And someone hums a cheerful song 
Because I chanced to come along. 
Sweet rest at night that man shall own 
Who has not lived his day alone.

- Edgar Guest, "The Finer Thought"

The Joys We Miss

by Edgar Guest 

There never comes a lonely day but that we miss the laughing ways
Of those who used to walk with us through all our happy yesterdays.
We seldom miss the earthly great--the famous men that life has known--
But, as the years go racing by, we miss the friends we used to own.

The chair wherein he used to sit recalls the kindly father true
For, Oh, so filled with fun he was, and, Oh, so very much he knew!
And as we face the problems grave with which the years of life are filled.
We miss the hand which guided us and miss the voice forever stilled.

We little guessed how much he did to smooth our pathway day by day,
How much of joy he brought to us, how much of care he brushed away;
But now that we must tread alone the thorough-fare of life, we find
How many burdens we were spared by him who was so brave and kind.

Death robs the living, not the dead--they sweetly sleep whose tasks are done;
But we are weaker than before who still must live and labor on.
For when come care and grief to us, and heavy burdens bring us woe,
We miss the smiling, helpful friends on whom we leaned long years ago.

We miss the happy, tender ways of those who brought us mirth and cheer;
We never gather round the hearth but that we wish our friends were near;
For peace is born of simple things--a kindly word, a goodnight kiss,
The prattle of a babe, and love--these are the vanished joys we miss.

From :  http://sofinesjoyfulmoments.com/quotes/The-Joys-We-Miss.htm

No Children !

by Edgar Guest 

No children in the house to play--
It must be hard to live that way!
I wonder what the people do
When night comes on and the work is through,
With no glad little folks to shout,
No eager feet to race about,
No youthful tongues to chatter on
About the joy that's been and gone?
The house might be a castle fine,
But what a lonely place to dine!

No children in the house at all,
No fingermarks upon the wall,
No corner where the toys are piled--
Sure indication of a child.
No little lips to breathe the prayer
That God shall keep you in His care,
No glad caress and welcome sweet
When night returns you to your street;
No little lips a kiss to give--
Oh, what a lonely way to live!

No children in the house! I fear
We could not stand it half a year.
What would we talk about at night,
Plan for and work with all our might,
Hold common dreams about and find
True union of heart and mind,
If we two had no greater care
Than what we both should eat and wear?
We never knew love's brightest flame
Until the day the baby came.

And now we could not get along
Without their laughter and their song.
Joy is not bottled on a shelf,
It cannot feed upon itself,
And even love, if it shall wear,
Must find its happiness in care;
Dull we'd become of mind and speech
Had we no little ones to teach.
No children in the house to play!
Oh, we could never live that way!

Thanks to http://sofinesjoyfulmoments.com/quotes/  

Stay together !

The Stick-Together Families
Edgar Guest

The stick-together families are happier by far
Than the brothers and the sisters who take separate highways are.
The gladdest people living are the wholesome folks who make
A circle at the fireside that no power but death can break.
And the finest of conventions ever held beneath the sun
Are the little family gatherings when the busy day is done.

There are rich folk, there are poor folk, who imagine they are wise,
And they're very quick to shatter all the little family ties.
Each goes searching after pleasure in his own selected way,
Each with strangers likes to wander, and with strangers likes to play.
But it's bitterness they harvest, and it's empty joy they find,
For the children that are wisest are the stick-together kind.

There are some who seem to fancy that for gladness they must roam,
That for smiles that are the brightest they must wander far from home.
That the strange friend is the true friend, and they travel far astray
And they waste their lives in striving for a joy that's far away,
But the gladdest sort of people, when the busy day is done,
Are the brothers and the sisters who together share their fun.

It's the stick-together family that wins the joys of earth,
That hears the sweetest music and that finds the finest mirth;
It's the old home roof that shelters all the charm that life can give;
There you find the gladdest play-ground, there the happiest spot to live.
And, O weary, wandering brother, if contentment you would win,
Come you back unto the fireside and be comrade with your kin.

From "Just Folks", The Reilly & Lee Co., (c) 1917

Thanks to http://sofinesjoyfulmoments.com/quotes/