Say, boy! with your freckles and shock of bright hair,
With your positive chin and your confident air!
(In a way ‘twould be easy to guess at your age,
But there’s something about you as wise as a sage.)
There’s a tug at my heart as I look in your face:
Some day you’ll be up and right out of this place.
No trees to swing low, nor high fences to scale!
No pig tails to pull, nor young buddies to hail!
Say, boy, you’ll be leaving that school before long—
All your books tossed aside with a whistle and song;
You’ll be taller than Dad in a year now, or two;
And be wanting a job as the other boys do.
How sad it would be if you spent all your days
Indulgent and restless, just seeking men’s praise!
Just walking the road of respectable sin
With the crowd that is anxious to gather you in!
Say, boy! There’s a Saviour for fellows like you,
A Friend who can help you and carry you through!
Have you met Him, my lad, have yet heard that He died;
That they crowned Him with thorns — thrust a spear in His side?
Did you know ‘twas for you that He hung all alone,
On that terrible cross, shut out from the sun;
That there in His body He suffered for sin,
That you might have peace with the Father in heav’n?
Say, boy! did you know that He’: living again?
That He rose from the dead, and receives sinful men?
O son, won’t you thank Him for dying for you?
Won’t you ask Him to come and abide with you, too?
For He says in His Word, if you’ll ask Him to come,
He will enter your heart, and will make it His home.
He never will leave you. He always will stay.
Say, boy! Won’t you ask Him to do it today?
— Eleanor Jacques
ML 06/11/1967