_You who are loudly crying out for peace_,
_You who are wanting love to vanquish hate_,
_How is it in the four walls of your home_
_The while you wait_?
Do those who form your household welcome your approach in the morning
As the earth welcomes the presence of dawn,
Or do they dread your coming lest you censure and complain?
Do you begin the day with praise to God for each blessing you possess,
and do you speak frequent words of commendation to those about you?
Do those you claim to love often hear you talking in love’s language,
Or is your softest tone and your sweetest speech saved for the
sometime guest,
While the harsh voice and the sharp retort are used with those you
love the best?
_You who are praying for the Christ’s return_
_And for the coming of the Promised Day_,
_How is it in the four walls of your home_
_The while you pray_?
Are you trying to make your home a reflection of what you believe
heaven will be?
Unless you are you will never find heaven anywhere;
The foundations of our heavenly mansions must first be built on earth.
Unless you are striving to put in use some of the angelic virtues here
and now,
No angelhood will be accorded you hereafter.
Unless you are illustrating your desire for peace by a peaceful,
love-ruled home,
You have no right to clamour for a cessation of hostilities among
nations;
Nations are only chains of individuals.
When each individual expresses nothing but love and peace in his daily
life, there will be no more war.
_You who are loudly crying out for peace_,
_You who are wanting love to vanquish hate_,
_How is it in the four walls of your home_
_The while you wait_?
‘LET US GIVE THANKS’
For the courage which comes when we call,
While troubles like hailstones fall;
For the help that is somehow nigh,
In the deepest night when we cry;
For the path that is certainly shown
When we pray in the dark alone,
Let us give thanks.
For the knowledge we gain if we wait
And bear all the buffets of fate;
For the vision that beautifies sight
If we look under wrong for the right;
For the gleam of the ultimate goal
That shines on each reverent soul:
Let us give thanks.
For the consciousness stirring in creeds
That love is the thing the world needs;
For the cry of the travailing earth
That is giving a new faith birth;
For the God we are learning to find
In the heart and the soul and the mind:
Let us give thanks.
For the growth of the spirit through pain,
Like a plant in the soil and the rain;
For the dropping of needless things
Which the sword of a sorrow brings;
For the meaning and purpose of life
Which dawns on us out of the strife:
Let us give thanks.
For the solace that comes to our grief
In knowing earth’s season is brief;
For the certitude given by faith
Of the continents out beyond death;
For the glorious thought that each day
Is speeding us the reward away:
Let us give thanks.