1.“What is thine occupation?”
2.“Whence comest thou?”
3.“What is thy country?”
‘Tell me, children, time is flying,
Is it your delight,
All you can, to do for Jesus,
Morning, noon and night?
Is it all your “occupation”
Through this “little while,”
Just to work, and win from Jesus
His approving smile?
Are you His? He’d have you bidding
Others welcome, too;
O! there’s much that even children
May for Jesus do.
Patience, love and swift obedience
Every moment yield.
Be the Lord’s own little workers
In the harvest field.
Next the question, “Whence thou comest?”
Searches well the heart,
If you all are seeking truly,
Each to do his part.
Has an earnest prayer each morning
Winged its way above?
Do you come from sweet communion
With the God of love?
Rest assured that simplest accents
From the youngest one
God will listen to, if pleading
His beloved Son;
This, and this alone will keep you,
This the promised word;
Strength shall be renewed if always
Waiting on the Lord.
Tell me, should I ask your “country,”
Are you now a band—
Youthful pilgrims trav’ling onward
Through a stranger-land?
O’er this very earth your Saviour
Did, uncared for, roam.
Tell me, can you call this country
“Fatherland” and “home?”
Sorrow, pain and death around you,
All so sadly drear;
Hollow pleasures, quickly fading,
Nothing good is here.
Answer true, “We’re going to Jesus,
For He bids us come,
Bids us call His own fair country
Fatherland and home.”
Once again, O! say what “people”
Claim you for their own?
Are they those who follow Jesus,
Who God’s grace have known?
Those who take God’s Word and use it
As their light and guide?
Those who seek His mind and counsel,
And in Him confide?
Children, to these plain “heart-ques tions”
Give an answer clear;
God will strengthen, God will keep you,
He is always near.
Spread abroad the name of Jesus
All the journey through,
Then how sweet will sound His welcome,
When He calleth you.
ML 08/11/1918