Your ShelfYour Projects

The Merciful

6%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Aug 22, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 34.

Read the full edition

The Merciful

By Edith Silvia Colburn

EDITH SILVIA COLBURN
"Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." Matt. 5:7.
THE Father's name for mercy stands; And, as the children of our God, The deeds that mercy's aim demands Will mark the pathway we have trod.
No bitter cry of human grief Can reach in vain the heart divine; But in his wisdom, just relief God sends by your hand and by mine.
And if we selfishly withhold The mercies meant for others' need, Our own share lessens many fold In just return for human greed.
To him who is compassionate, The Father will all mercy show; And blessings without end await Those merciful to human woe.
But oftentimes more sternly just Than God himself has ever been, We may forget that we are dust, And harshly censure others' sin.
Unmindful that, with smiles or tears, Each one must reap what he has sown, We fail to fill the passing years With deeds that are to mercy known.
Yet God asks not if we are worth The love he constantly bestows; But that we are of feeble earth, In sympathy, our Father knows.
And not for punishment he came To seek for wayward, erring man, But only that he might reclaim, And take away the mortal ban.
And that at last might be removed From earth sin's every gloomy trace, God sacrificed his Son, and proved His mercy toward a rebel race.
And if, sometimes, he seems severe, And sends his blessings in disguise, It is because he counts so dear The purchase of his Sacrifice;
For never willingly he grieves The ransomed of the Son of God. But every one that he receives Must sometime feel the chastening rod,
Since in no other way than this Can human hearts be purified; Eternity each one must miss If chastenings should be denied.
So then while Mercy's kindly reign Checks Justice's unrelenting vim, God can not spare the bitter pain That leads his wandering ones to him.
Then for God's mercy we should pray; And may we by that prayer be taught, Along life's pathway, day by day, To show the mercy that we sought.