Poems and Short Features

Home

To little children "home" is that dear place where Mother is,
Where every wound doth ever find the healing kiss of love,
And little sobbing hearts are soothed to rest upon her breast.
In latter years that dear word "home" awakes the precious thought
Of loving wife and happy little ones, and peace and rest,--
A refuge sweet where outside cares and worries cannot come.
And when the sun of life is sinking in the west, we dream
Of "home" as that blest gathering place where often through the year
Our children, and their children, come with wealth of grateful love,
That makes our heart forget the pain and toil of former years.

But to the Christian, though the earthly loves be near and dear,
The thought of "home" belongs to that most heavenly place where God,
And Christ, and all the holy angels are, where sorrow finds
No place, and every longing heart is fully satisfied;
Where we shall love and serve Him perfectly, and meet again,
Not ever part from former pilgrims on "the narrow way;"
Where we shall sit with Christ upon His throne, and bless with peace
And joy the whole creation, groaning now in pain and tears!

And year by year the golden chain grows longer, that doth draw
Us closer to our heavenly home, as one by one, "the priests"
In silence pass beneath "the veil." each one an added link.
Ah! then, to gain an entrance to that blest abode shall we
Not count the present things but "loss and dross," and lightly touch
Each object that might hold our heart's affections to this earth,--
For where our treasure us, e'en there our hearts will also be.

--Gertrude W, Siebert, Poems of the Way, p. 100

Duties

Duties may at times seem to conflict, but they do not really do so. A Christian’s first duty is his hearty acknowledgment of his Creator and Lord, in all his ways. His second duty, if he be a husband and father, is toward his wife and children; or if she be a wife and mother, it is toward her husband and children. In the divine arrangement the husband is made the provider of the family, and is not obeying the divine law if he neglect this duty—no matter for what reason, unless it be disability through sickness. Likewise, the wife’s first duty is that of care-taker; looking after the comfort and encouragement of her husband and children along the path of duty. The marriage contract, by divine arrangement, comes in as a first mortgage upon every husband’s time and upon every wife’s time—the demands of this mortgage must be reasonably met before anything can be properly done to or for outsiders.

—Reprints, p. 2488

 The Wife

[A wife] is not to wait for outsiders to admonish her that she is deficient in wifely respect toward her husband, nor to wait for her husband to indicate that he thinks she is not treating him with the respect due him according to the marriage covenant and according to the Scriptural delineations of a wife’s duty.  On the contrary, in looking about her to see what are the responsibilities and duties of a wife, let her see that she reverence her husband and realize that nothing short of this is the meaning of her marriage vow according to the Scriptures —whatever it may mean according to the world and various human conceptions.  Reverence toward the husband means much, and really enters into all of life’s affairs, and touches and ­influences every act and word and thought respecting the home and its interests.

—Studies in the Scriptures, vol. 6, p. 498

 Patience

The purple grape must be crushed
    To make the sweet, red wine,
And furnace fires must fiercely burn,
    The drossy gold to refine;
The wheel must cruelly grind,
    Else where the jewel’s light?
And the steel submit to the polishing,
    Or how would the sword grow bright?

How then, my soul, wilt thou
    The Spirit’s fruits posses,
Except thou lovingly yield thyself
    To the Hand that wounds to bless?
Then patiently let the fire
    Consume all earthly dross—
Thou canst not hope to wear the Crown,
    If thou refuse the Cross!

—Poems of Dawn, p. 175