OUR HUMBLE KIN by Agnes Maule Machar

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 9, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 32.

OUR HUMBLE KIN.

By Agnes Maule Machar

[By Agnes Maule Machar, in Our Dumb Animals.]

SEE a countless multitude about us, Claiming sympathy—our humble kin; Sadly have they learned to fear and doubt us, Driven from our side by human sin; Yet, tho dumb, their hearts to ours are speaking, Help and kindness from us ever seeking,— Kindness hard to win!

Inarticulate voices, groans of anguish, Patient sighs, 'neath burdens hard to bear; From lone places where dumb victims languish, Plaintive moans are floating on the air!

Soft eyes, seeking ours with wistful pleading,— Can we turn away with hearts unheeding That unuttered prayer?

Innocent of wrong, our own transgression Lays on them a heavy load of pain, Sharing all the misery and oppression Man has wrought beneath his iron reign, Touch all hearts, O Thou Divine Compassion, Till they burn with generous love and passion To remove the stain.

They and we are in our Father's keeping, Whose compassion clasps both great and small; Not one wrong eludes that Eye unsleeping, Not one humblest life unseen shall fall. None can serve Him with a heart unheeding His dumb creatures' inarticulate pleading, For He loveth all.

Kingston, Ont.