IN CHRIST'S KEEPING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2287, 30 December 1897, Page 41

IN CHRIST'S KEEPING.

" Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on His gentle ! breast " — > Oh, sweetly the hymn floats out from the choir and bids my sad heart rest. " J But memory shows me a darkened room in the ; dear home tar away "Where that hymn swelled round our coffined dead just a year ago to-day. Oh, when will we cease to weep and wail for our dead who have entered in ? I They have passed thro' this vale of woe and paJD, of sorrow, temptation, and sin ! 'Tis the living, the living who claim our tears; they are still on the earth below, "Where the tempter prowls by day and by night, a subtle yet powerful foe. Ana at times they yield to his baneful spell and are stayed in their upward climb, Or they buffet the winds, and waves of earth and are hurt by the winter's rime. Yet,. Christ, str.etch forth Thine. arm of might when they wander from Thee afar, ■J^nd bid them return and at-Thy side equip themselves for war. •Now boldly we come to Thy throne of grace ere dyeth the dying year, And we place the living within Thy care — forgive us that we did fear. Guide them and guard them and keep them, oh, Christ, from now even evermore, And pour out the oil from Thy comfort phial where sorrow's waves roll o'er ; Bay " Peace be still " to Thy billows dark— then with smile instead of tear ,IVe shall greet ia Thy name, oh, Saviour blest, the swiftly opening year ! — Maiiian Campbell P>iddle. Jfobia, December 20.