In the Language of Canaan by Worthie Harris Holden

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 20, 1914

In the Language of Canaan

By Worthie Harris Holden

WORTHIE HARRIS HOLDEN

Small room has criticism in God's realm!

The business of the King requires haste, And all his faithful envoys swift employ Their ardent voice to herald far and wide His messages.

So urgent is the call To snatch the dying from eternal doom, And rouse the sleepers from their threatening woe, No time remains to loiter on the way, To spend the final hours in idle tales Of shame or ill. No sin-polluted mouth Should e'er befoul the melodies of heaven, Nor tongue defiled with filthy mire of earth Frame words to speak Jehovah's utterance.

Forth stand we from the throng, apart and lone, And cry aloud, “Unclean!” Then comes a voice From heaven itself, “I will ordain thy lips And sanctify them, even with a coal From mine own altar. Thou shalt bless mankind. I, God, alone am Judge of all the world, Speak thou a word in season in my name.”

Lord, may this hallowed influence abide, As forth from holy lips an incense sweet Ascends to heaven from all God's children here. So shall they learn to speak in Canaan's tongue Where'er their lives a solemn witness bear, And soon their eager voices swell the song Of Moses and the Lamb before the throne.

Portland, Oregon.