There are cranks and pulleys, beltings tight or slack,
Some are whirling swiftly, some are turning slowly,
Some are thrusting forward, some are pulling back;
Some are smooth and silent, some are rough and noisy,
Pounding, rattling, clanking, moving with a jerk;
In a wild confusion, in a seeming chaos,
Lifting, pushing, driving, but they do their work.
From the mightiest lever to the tiniest pinion,
All things move together for the purpose planned;
And behind the working is a mind controlling,
And a force directing, and a guiding hand.
So all things are working for the Lord's beloved;
Some things might be hurtful if alone they stood;
Some might seem to hinder; some might draw us backward;
But they work together, and they work for good;
All the thwarted longings, all the stern denials,
All the contradictions, hard to understand.
And the force that holds them, speeds them and retards them,
Stops and starts and guides them, is our Father's hand.
--Annie Johnson Flint
4 comments:
A quote from Mama's book! And one of my favourites!
One of these days we should put our heads together and use our blogs to advertise the book! She just called me today and asked me to take over another box because she had a buyer and she was all out of what she had on hand. I think we are down to the last three boxes now and then she will have to decide whether or not she wants to do another printing. She wanted to have at least one book out in every province and state. I'm not sure what her last count was! Not sure that I'll be up to visions like that when I hit 90!
If we had a dollar for every time we have thought of the same thing at the same time, well...we would be rich, that's what! (Er, make that richer, anyway!)
Today when posting this, I did a Google search and found a PDF file of a newsletter from McMaster University Library listing her book as one that had been produced with the help of their resources. I also found 4 sellers of her book (used) with a huge disparity in prices ranging from about $6 to $60! I thought to myself, "She is an amazing woman!" And I was thinking of the same thing...
What can we do to let people know these are available?? We need to start a list for discussion when I come visit!
Your mother wrote that poem?
It is beautiful. It actually made me cry. I'd love to have a copy.
--r
Oh, Renae, I'm sorry we weren't very clear in what we were saying. You had to know the background to understand us. (We will just have to cut that out!)
Actually, Annie Johnson Flint wrote the poem, but all her poetry had been out of print, so our mother researched and got together as much of Miss Flint's poetry that she could find and had it republished in 1999. If you are interested in the book, let us know. You can get a copy from my mother who lives very close to Carol-Ann in the Toronto, Canada area, and we can give you all the particulars.
More background...our mother will be 91 this year and still going strong.
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