Everlasting Arms

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 153, 1 July 1938, Page 15

Everlasting Arms

km-lt ,1..v„ „„.! fn ,. e<l ~e r pnib J li'Hi-a t-liil.l. There were ...an; >u.-h I'l-oiil-iii-* iii London—, liilili-r v:?h iiiikii.tHn father-, children uit in--..- f«th,.|v. eliiWron with ilniiik.' iitlier.-. .-hlldriMi with tl.Mil father-. A:vv »\-- "t the .;„„.. h « K < ii ...■..!,!.-„, '"' ,1; " "■••''•■-■■. .Mi.l lor vr;,:-. ~..... ..,,. •"•" !«:<•:•. si i .-..1.],.,,, 1.',,- ,;... ~;,;]',!' , Aii '"••" ! "1 «":«■ 1.-.-.-. .1,,,,,-su,!.. ~. '"''"' 1 "'"-*" Nisili-ioli.. crowded J .„-. "'■»-■'■"«> ami rou, „! ],„„,,.. mil: , '»' I i»: :I— ~• -tit,,.. And in ~u . r v -treet there w.i,. a ,„■,.',. »'ll. Ilk.- 11c1... ' < i.ihlleii r.Miie-tll..li> i i,„N and t1.0.l •aii<U »t the:... The worM ha.. ..., p...: ■>.• then.. \„ ~n e carpfl. \„ flI „, „<,,..„,', ••■ "slut tn li.'!|i. I'll" |-i.-tlliv ~f the .-Iti!.? -eaicd in l '' i ' l "' 'iiitte:-.-.i|!-. with it. am •tivt.-iml ~i!t !■, th,- 1.1 i,,. h.-.Men-. |~.,k7 ':•■' •. lie -the '.l.biiMtinn ~f ~'„:] | Vll >} 111. si t'a -le. At les.-t that «.,. „],.,, ,]„. mixv :||:., n- the;- th. It-lit. It «:i- •■'■ l! vcrj well for til—e «\; '•""» ■> »•■ him i Iheni ..v.-r t.. niir..,-. ! vv ■• - esi«\ :..- th..-.. I'njnj, i n ~-,,.,. ~,;„,; 1,1:1 "*■ i 11-i - to »;i-li then, in the mori "- ; "" 1 -■»■> ,; '''"' "ii" '■• --I |. an ""lie when th-v rctllllle.l. I«UI here, in a r..t l>«-i.le her. W.i,. •s.lamity. -What .1-. ne.th.M-. do „;,), ~]] ,]„.. children V „hi» wondered. There u.-i w«irkli..ii»tv. now politely called "in.tit. ti-.n-." There were adoption lvene- at -■■ietie-. But oil. how •'he dreaded t! formally ~f all that, and the que thuiing:

Motherhood once was sacred, a thing, which poete had exalted, ami about which the novelists had written down thousands and thousands of words. Xow they wrote statistics instead. And the Machine Age grew nearer and nearer, an age in which children more and more would become unwelcome. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Then she thought of the Labour Exchange queues and the streams of work less. And then she did what thousands of other women have done' before in extremity. She prayed. Clergymen did not want her kind, she had thought, passing a church door. She was only another of those "problems," alas, now too many for solution even by the men of God! She had kept the first commandment. "Increase, and multiply and replenish the earth." But the increasing seemed multiplied too much, and the replenishment had become overstocked. She felt a criminal. Women would pull their skirts to one side as they passed, if they only knew. A policeman might ;>.;•-. e something to say.

Tho landlady, herself a victim nfi economic uwo>~ity. threatened to turn ni"ther and child into the street. ! Ii there were no 1.a1.y there might, hy some lucky chance, be work. But there I could not he bmh. ■ . Ami so she prayed. ... , she had heard of v niiiii.»teriiijr angels*' , ! ai:.l -he had read: "Lo. I it in with von , alway... even unto the end of the earth.'* | j An.l there «„< the phra-e •" lilt- ever-li-tmg arm-," that came to her mind. | v ;' : ". i; '"'y .i«i'-t beautiful phraser. ' i'rythmic Word-, all Imilt <'ii a delu.don? i ' I'. - '•'..- there something behind it all'; A':d -o she prayed. ... ' j : I iicu there- came what Hinl to he' | way out. She would |.im> her child! .Mid ica\e it to the •'eveihi-t inir arms." j Sac would entru-t it to the "iniilictfrinj; I She iiad knelt down de-pairingly. Sin- i ■ I -i! ■-»■ <lelermimle<lly. i j SJie clutched her child. She went tr. I '■'■"• door. She walked out into the night. Out.ddc it thick fog had fallen.' It i | !d-.itt.-,l out all London. Strange shapes -i •'•'■ lit by which none could reeojfli!•=■'. j I j N"W and then a light ju~' managed I aj :■■ peer through the all-concealing ft.g. ; When -lie had walked a tew yard* and I - ' : -■ i i--*l -a corner or two, her w hei eahdiit> ' j .' !'ii! lea e\ en from herself. I . j II i\ e y.iii e\ er been out ill oil' of t he- ■■• ! , '•■ - winch, unco a year perhaps, envelop i :.•■:.:■.n": They -eem In blanket e\en the i- -.iiml ..;• the trallic You m>i- a railing i , m..w and then, nr the shape c»f a door. I I'm otherwise you might be sightle.--a j a- yon blunder mi. It all seems like -" dark. <lank underworld. The tootc in-.' nf horns and the ringing of bells ■c i;,ike raucous the night. Hut otherwise i it is ju-t blackness. . . . d (>u ami one she walked, it *eei.ied folic mill'.. Now tdie turned to the right and then, far on. to tlie left again. Sense I of direction had long since gone.

Clutching her child, she walked for i miles. _ i Did something totiA her then? > It seemed that there waa a, friendliness surrounding her. Once, when she '. nearly fell, it seemed to hold her up. It eeemed to be guiding, leading somewhere. . . . She walked right on. She went by houses that she could not see. She blundered, now and then, through traffic dimly feeling its way. It all moved so slowly. But. apart from the hooting and the bells. London was eilent and still. And all the time, inside her being, there was echoing a prayer. She did not want to see her child again. Nor did she wnnt to know what had become of it. She merely asked that it should find a home where it would be safe. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ And on and on she walked, hoping that the fog would blot out all her knowledge of that night and its persistent pilgrimage. Even the fog seemed an answer to her prayer. It promised obli\,k>n —a new beginning. Then something seemed to stop her. and a voice whispered. "Here," it said.

Short Story By Hannen Swaffer

She felt her way to a door--and on the step she laid the child. She kissed it oiep and *airt "(Jnod-bve" and left it on the step. Then, with tear-stained cheeks, she blundered on again—alone. Then for another hour she walked. "I have left my past behind." she said. "I can start afresh.'' Hut. determined that her ..Id life should be so far behind t'nr .-he and it would be for all time separate, she still walked on. to lose in the fog all knowledge of where, on a doorstep in the night, her child waited for someone to foster it. And as she walked, blunderim; on. she still prayed. ".Mother of «Jod." she said. "look after my child. Civc it the be-t liotue that any child can find. Find for it a perfect mother. Knsure its future. And bathe us both in your love.'' And still on into the' niyht she wandered. ... Then, after what seemed hours, she asked her way. She sought her own address. \\ here. with a new courage, a new independence and a new hope, she could face life afre>li. The fnjr he-run to lift. A* ipiickly as it had -ome it disappeared. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ London was ll( it a place ot mystery then, but the old London with it-' thousand drama- and its myriad of comedies and its pushful, restless life~-its I'ejhts ami shadows, its gaieties and its gloom. She saw the corner of her own street. and then t lie house in which she lodged. With streaming eves she reached the door. And there, on the step—miracle of miracles! — was her child. With an ecstasy of wonder she knelt and gathered it to her breast. The '■ministering anjrels" had been at wink. The "everlastin™ arms'' had sheltered her and Iter baby. It was her job, this child, she knew now. It was a problem that she alone

:ould solve. It was not a waif for some>ne else to nurture, but the flesh of her >wn flesh and the blood of her own ■>lood, for her to care for and to love. [t was a responsibility that she could lot shirk. And as she opened th« door, with her burden stirring in her arms, she seemed to hear inside her: "Lo, I am with you always." . • . Then she knew that the 'ends of the earth"' were something that not even the fog could wipe out, but that love pervaded everything and was the universal law. It was the same problem that she faced, the problem which had taken her out into the night. But she was different. She knew that *he was not alone—that around her. in her trials, were everlasting arms that had neither shape nor substance, but which encircled all human miseries and encompassed all human fears. She had led herself into temptation— and been delivered from evil. And the fog that had enveloped London had gone, too, from her mind. She could see a future that patience could endure. The child smiled in her arms. ...