OUR FURLOUGH by Mary E. Allbright

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jul 12, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 28.

OUR FURLOUGH.

By Mary E. Allbright

[Mary E. Allbright, in Missionary Herald.]

"Let me go back to China." Words of a missionary.

LET me go back! I am homesick For the land of my love and toil, Tho I thrill at sight of my native hills, The touch of my native soil. Thank God for the dear home country, Unconquered and free and grand! But the far-off shores of the East, for me, Are the shores of the Promised Land.

No longer young—I know it— And battered and worn and gray, I bear in my body the marks that tell Of many a toil-filled day. But 'tis long to the end of a lifetime, And the hour for its sun to set; My heart is eager for years to come; Let me work for the Master yet!

My brain is dazed and wearied With the New World's stress and strife, With the race for money and place and power, And the whirl of the nation's life. Let me go back! Such pleasures And pains are not for me; But O! for a share in the Harvest Home Of the fields beyond the sea!

For there are my chosen people, And that is my place to fill; To spend the last of my life and strength In doing my Master's will. Let me go back! 'Tis nothing To suffer and do and dare; For the Lord has faithfully kept His word, He is with me alway there!