St. James' Church, Westgate & Garlinge

Brave Heart

A little book for those for whom
the road winds uphill.

COURAGE

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

Joshua I. 9

Though I am frailest of mankind.

And apt to waver as the wind. ---

My Soul on God relies,

And I your fierce, redoubled shocks despise.

Bishop Ken, ‘The Defeat of Pain’

I think we all know well what courage is:

Not thews, not blood, not bulk, not bravery:

Its highest title, patience.

John Davidson

The great sufferers have been the great believers. .... Hardly an outstanding champion of faith who has left an indelible impress on man’s spiritual life can anywhere be found, who has not won his faith and confirmed it in the face of trouble.

Dr. Fosdick, ‘The meaning of Faith’

We should thank our creator three times daily for courage. This courage is a proof of our immortality ..... Pray for it. Who rises from prayer a better man, his prayer is answered. Be not merely courageous, but light hearted and happy.

J.M. Barrie

I think I am the poorest wretch that lives; but I love God; or rather , am beloved of God......... I am a conqueror, through Christ that strengtheneth me.

Oliver Cromwell (In an hour of extreme suffering).

A Prayer

O loving Father, grant to me in this time of bodily weakness a renewing of my spirit, that I may be brave and hopeful. increase my faith, and be near to me through all adversity, that by Thy love sustained, I may bear all pain with courage, and by thy grace be able to help others to endure and to overcome.

Amen

HE WILL NOT FAIL THEE

I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Joshua I. 5

I watch them drift --- The youthful aspirations.

Shores, landmarks, beacons, drift alike, Yet overhead the boundless arch of heaven still fades to night, still blazes into day.

Ah, God! My God! Thou wilt not drift away.

Charles Kingsley

We are all dependent on the breath of God. Trial soon forces us to feel this. As well might the clouds that surround the setting sun, tinged with gold and vermilion, boast that they shone by their own light: The coming night would soon show them to be but a dim, dark, dense bank of vapour. We hang from hour to hour on God.

F.W. Robertson

The eternal God is thy dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

Deut. xxxiii. 27

These arms are always holding me fast, whether I feel them or not. It is not my grasp of God that matters most, but his grasp on me. The thing that matters most is not even my consciousness that he holds me fast, but just the blessed fact of it.

Francis B. James

When I look back I have no doubt that Providence guided us, not only across those snowfields, but across the storm-white sea. I know that during that long and racking march of thirty-six hours over the un-named mountains and glaciers of South Georgia, it seemed to me often that we were four, not three. I said nothing to my companions, but afterwards Worsley said to me "Boss, I had a curious feeling on that march that there was another person with us".

Sir Ernest Shackleton

A Prayer

Thou art always near me, Lord. Let me know Thy presence now, so shall my fear be gone.

Amen

LIMITS TO SUFFERING

For he knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.

Psalm ciii. 14

Think of that when you are tempted to question the gentleness of the leading. He is remembering all the time; and not one step will he make you take beyond what your foot is able to endure. Never mind if you think it will not be able for the step that seems to come next; either He will so strengthen it that it shall be able, or He will call a sudden halt and you shall not have to take it at all.

F.R. Havergal

There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

2 Cor. xii 7-9

And so

God lays a little on us every day,

And never I believe on all the way.

Will burdens bear so deep,

Or pathways lie so steep,

But we can go, if by God’s power

We only bear the burden of the hour.

George Klinge

He taketh the bairns in his arms when they come to a deep water; at least, when they lose ground, and are put to swim, then His hand is under their chin.

Samuel Rutherford

There hath no temptation taken you, but such as man can bear, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted (tried) above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it.

1 Cor. x. 13

A Prayer

Grant, O Lord, that I may have strength to bear my cross, and when it’s burden is too heavy for me wilt thou share it, that I may, with thee, carry it to the end.

Amen

WHEN I CANNOT UNDERSTAND

God does not prune rotten trees........

The trials of the Saints are not signs of the divine anger, but means of grace to sanctify them who are exercised thereby.

The fertility of a tree is wonderfully stimulated by skilful pruning, and the afflictions of the righteous ripen character.

W.L Watkinson

When I cannot understand anything, it seems to me as though God had set a chair there for me to kneel down and worship. The mysteries are intended to be altars of devotion.

C.H. Spurgeon

The Roses of joy are red;

The roses of pain are white;

But I think when the day is sped,

And I stand by the gate at night,

I shall know just this, when the day is dead -

That a rose is sweet, be it white or red.

Percy Ainsworth

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

Isaiah xl. 31

GOD KNOWS - GOD CARES

Psalm of Life

No longer forward nor behind

I look in hope and fear;

But, grateful, take the good I find,

The best of now and here.

All as God wills, who wisely heeds

To give or to withhold,

And knoweth more of all my needs

Than all my prayers have told.

That all the jarring notes of life

Seem blending in a psalm,

And all the angles of it’s strife

Slow rounding into calm.

And so the shadows fall apart,

And so the west winds play;

And all the windows of my heart

I open to the day

John Greenleaf Whittier

Give to the winds thy fears:

Hope and be undismayed:

God hears thy sighs, and counts thy tears,

God shall lift up thy head

Paul Gerhardt

Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot Heal.

Thomas Moore

COMPENSATIONS

And I will give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places.

Isaiah xlv. 3

Tried at once by pain, danger, poverty, obloquy and blindness, John Milton mediated, undisturbed by the obscene tumult which raged all around him, a song so sublime and so holy that it would not have misbecome the lips of those ethereal Virtues whom he saw, with that inner eye which no calamity could darken, flinging doen on the jasper pavement their crowns of amaranth and Gold

Macaulay, on John Milton, blind

This deafness has been a great advantage to me in many ways. When in a telegraph office I could hear only the instrument on the table at which I sat and unlike the other operators in the room, I was not distracted by the other instruments. Another very great advantage is that I have been enabled to preserve my nerves intact. Broadway is as quiet to me as a country village is to a person with normal hearing.

Thomas A. Edison, the inventor

"Rheumatiz is bad, indeed; but I must be thankful I still have a back to ave it in".

-- From one who suffers

When God shuts a door He opens a window.

Italian proverb quoted by Helen Keller.

It is in facing hardships and difficulties that we get our fitness for doing the work God sends us to do.

F.J Rae

Where we cannot fight and overcome suffering, we are to take such an attitude to it that by co-operation with God, we may bring a great harvest which shall enrich the spiritual wealth of the world and make glad the heart of God.

Leslie D. Weatherhead.

A Prayer

In my hour of weakness help me to discover Thy strength, O God, who hast created me to do Thy will. Even as I lament my helplessness, show me that I may still work with Thee. So reveal the gifts I have not used, that I may learn new ways of serving now.

Amen

NEVER ALONE

Fear not, for I am with thee; I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. When you passest through the waters, I will be with thee ... when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned.

Isaiah xliii. 1,2

There is no place where earth’s sorrows are more felt than up in Heaven.

There is no place where earth’s failings have such kindly judgement given.

Faber

Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Isaiah liii. 4

God’s help is nearer than the door.

Irish Proverb

A Prayer

Almighty and everlasting God, the comfort of the sad, the strength of sufferers, let the prayers of those that cry out of any tribulation come unto Thee, that all may rejoice to find that Thy mercy is present with them in their afflictions; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Gelasian Sacramentary, A.D. 494

RESOLUTION

I argue not against Heaven’s hand or will, nor bate a jot.

Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer.

Right onward

John Milton

Doctors gave me up years ago. It is faith in God that has kept me going. I am amazed at the strength that comes to me when I pray and trust God. ... With faith in God’s guidance I will run through the dark to the uttermost of my strength.

Kagawa

If suffering were the will of God, then Jesus, in healing men, was working in opposition to the will of God; which is unthinkable

Leslie D. Weatherhead

A Prayer

Let me accept Thy will, O God, not with dumb resignation, but with Holy Joy; not only with the absence of murmur but with a song of praise.

Adapted from George Matheson

THE SURPRISING BLESSING

Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy- laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

St. Matthew xi. 28, 29

Suddenly an enormous wave swept towards him. It was impossible to escape it. Terror- stricken he uttered an agonised prayer. The wave reached him -- and bore him safely ashore,

Sadhu Sundar Singh

The blind, who once sat brooding through long, sad interminable days of emptiness, now look with rapt gaze upon the universe as they read with their eyes in their fingers ... they can now work, they can study, they can sing, they can add their share to the goodness and happiness of the world. And it was the blind Louis Braille, a captive bearing a yoke as cruel as their own, who found the golden key to unlock their prison door.

Helen Keller,

at Braille’s Centenary, 1929

HE LEADETH THEE

I know not the way I am going,

But well do I know my guide;

With a child-like trust I give my hand

To the mighty Friend by my side.

The only thing that I say to him,

As He takes it, is--’Hold it fast:

Suffer me not to loose my way,

And Bring me home at last.’

Anonymous

Doubtless a great anguish may do the work of years, and we may come out of that baptism of fire with a soul full of new awe and new pity.

George Eliot

Prayer

Lead me, O Lord, in a plain path, that my mind may not wander in loneliness and fear. Though the way be rough and steep, my heart shall rejoice if it be Thy way. So, even in hours of anguish and uncertainty, let me feel the touch of Thine hand and hear the sound of Thy voice within, that I may keep on, with steps unfaltering, to the end.

Amen

HE NEEDS YOU

And Saul ... astonished, said, Lord, what wilt Thou have me do?

Acts ix. 6

Instruments that the world would have flung on the scrap heap with infinite contempt, have again and again, in the hand of the Master, worked wonders.

W.L. Watkinson

The best letters in English literature are said to have been written by the mortally wounded. There is such a thing as the sieve of blindness which sifts out the worthless from the imperishable and leaves in the mind an exquisite and enduring residue.

Sydney Walton

It has seemed to me that the greatest sufferers have been the greatest Saints. It is they who have raised most perfect flowers in what seemed to us the barren, desolate little patch of their shut in lives. The blossoming of sorrow bravely borne has brought a richer beauty and a sweeter fragrance than aught else I know.

Leslie F. Church

NOW IS YOUR CHANCE

Now is your chance! It seems absurd to say that to people who are ill. We even speak of them as ‘laid aside’, or ‘shut in’. The active world outside the sick room seems to make the suffering greater by comparison. One feels ‘out of it’ This isn’t true.

Have you ever thought than when you are unfit for the rough and tumble of wage-earning or house-keeping, you are being fitted for special service?

I know a man who was a busy financier in the North of England. He had a keen brain and an active body. Suddenly he became paralysed. People had to help him to make the smallest movements. He might have been a burden to them; instead he became a blessing. He let nothing quench his courage or smother his hope. He took a new and more tender interest in everyone round him. Before, he had concentrated on getting the better of his business associates; now his heroism and smiling endurance brings the best out of them. He is a far more useful member of society then he was.

The finest Preacher I ever heard had been quite an ordinary man. Suddenly his baby daughter was blinded. She grew up a fragile girl, unable to see the glorious hills amongst which they lived, but her winsomeness made her father a great messenger of God. Before he went to his pulpit he used to sit with the blind child, whose simple love sent him from her presence inspired with a message which brought hope to thousands of lives.

It is quite wrong to imagine that when you are ill you are useless. It is just then that you learn to understand the people who are well. You have a double experience. Suffering, heroically borne, is one of the strengthening and sweetening forces of life. You may not be able to move hand or foot, yet you may move hearts and help to transfigure lives.

Don’t be discouraged or think you are shut out of life. Don’t even think you are alone. You belong to a fellowship of suffering. As Dr. Schweitzer the great medical missionary in Central Africa, said, "those who have learned by experience what physical pain and bodily anguish mean, belong together all the world over; they are united by a secret bond".

You are the people who challenge the rest of us to live more bravely. You are the folk who cheer us when we falter. If a strong robust man slaps me on the back and says, "Cheer up", I don’t take much notice, but if someone who is suffering pain and physical weakness smiles through it all, I’ve got to do my bit better.

You are not out of things because you are ill. When Rudyard Kipling went to America he lived in a little house on one side of a valley. One day he went a long tramp to the opposite side. At a lonely farmhouse he spoke to a woman who said, "Be you the new light ‘crost the valley yonder? Ye didn’t know what a comfort they’ve been to me this winter. Ye aren’t ever going to shroud ‘em up -- or be ye?"

Do you know you are the little house on the other side to us? We watch your windows, and you do help -- not only us, but God, who gives Himself that the world may overcome evil and enter into His joy.

My Father used to say, "Nothing is against us that draws us nearer to God -- not even pain". Your illness may do that for you; and people who are near to God help all the world.

Leslie F. Church

HOPE AND OUR INNER RESOURCES

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Psalm xlii. 11

In hope, the ploughman sows his seed; thus hope helps thousands at their need.

Then faint not, heart, among the rest;

Whatever chance, hope Thou the best.

Anon

And not by Eastern windows only,

When daylight comes, comes in the light;

In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly,

But westward, look, the land is bright.

Arthur Hugh Clough

The soul of man is stronger than anything that can happen to him.

Robert F. Scott

After all, the kind of world one carries about within one’s self is the important thing, and the world outside takes all it’s grace, colour, and value from that.

J.R. Lowell

I cannot see the stars that you see in the heavens tonight, but there are other stars just as bright that shine in my soul.

Helen Keller (in her blindness)

When I thought I had come to the end, it proved but the turn in the road. I went to the mountains to die -- I found there the beginning of a new life ... The struggle with tuberculosis has brought me experiences, and left me recollections which I never would have known otherwise, and which I would not exchange for the wealth of the Indies.

Dr. E.L. Trudeau

No one else realises the fullness of God’s love as do those who suffer, yet in faith believe.

Anon

A Prayer

Though all else fail, O Lord, Thou wilt not leave me desolate. Even now light again the lamp of hope within my heart, for in Thee do I put my trust.

Amen

SIMPLY TRUSTING

How do Thy mercies close me round! For ever be Thy name adored! I blush in all things to abound; The servant is above his Lord!

Inured to poverty and pain, A suffering life my Master led;

The Son of God, the Son of Man, He had not where to lay his head.

But, lo, a place he hath prepared For me, whom watchful angels keep;

Yea, He Himself becomes my guard, He smoothes my bed and gives me sleep.

Jesus protects; my fears, begone! What can the rock of ages move?

Safe in Thy arms I lay me down, Thy everlasting arms of love.

While Thou are intimately nigh, Who, who shall violate my rest?

Sin, earth and hell I now defy; I lean upon my Saviour’s breast.

I rest beneath the Almighty’s shade, My grief’s expire, my trouble’s cease:

Thou, Lord, on whom my soul is stayed, Wilt keep me still in perfect peace.

Me for thine own Thou lov’st to take, In time and in eternity;

Thou never, never wilt forsake A helpless soul that trusts in Thee.

Charles Wesley

Let his great love have the gladness of Thy fullest faith; like a little child, be Thine a love untroubled in it’s utter confidence, complete in it’s deep satisfaction. With him as Thy Father, neither the past nor the future can ever work thee harm, nor in anything can that Almighty goodness fail thee.

Mark Guy Pearse

Eh, there’s trouble I’ this world, and there’s things as we can never make out the right on. And all as we’ve got to do is to trusten. Master marner -- to do the right thing as far as we know and to trusten. For if us, as knows so little, can see a bit o’ good and a rights bigger nor what we can know -- I feel it I’ my own inside as it must be so.

George Eliot, Dolly Winthrop to Silas Marner

A Prayer

O my Lord, in Thine arms I am safe; keep me and I have nothing to fear; give me up, and I have nothing to hope for.

I know nothing about the future, but I rely upon Thee ... I leave it all to Thee, because Thou knowest and I do not ....

John Henry Newman

UNCONQUERABLE

Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.

Canticles viii. 7

Love watcheth, and sleeping, slumbereth not. Though weary, love is not tired; though pressed, it is not straightened; thou alarmed, it is not confounded; but as a lively flame and burning torch, it forces it’s way upwards, and securely passes through all.

Thomas A Kempis

A wound does not pierce the Soul.

Macrobius

Men are not the creatures of circumstances; Circumstances are the creatures of men.

Benjamin Disraeli

If thou bear the cross cheerfully, it will bear thee, and lead thee to the desired end, namely, where there shall be an end of suffering, though here there shall be not.

Thomas A. Kempis

HOURS OF WAITING

As I waited patiently for the Eternal, He turned and listened to my cry; He raised me from a lonesome pit, a muddy bog, He set my foot upon a rock and steadied my steps.

Psalm xl. 1,2 (Moffatt)

I hold on -- or try to hold on -- to duty and love; and through love to touch the larger hope.

Henry Sidgewick, just before an operation

I still go on my simple way, loving flowers, and birds, and the sunlight on the apples, and the sunset. And like to think more and more of the verse -- "With Thee is the well of life, and in Thy light shall we see light".

Bishop Edward King, in old age

A Prayer

Grant to me Lord, the grace of endurance that I may never surrender to my fears.

Give to me a vision of the joy that follows sorrow, and the peace that follows pain.

Help me to overcome for Christ’s sake and in His strength.

Amen

OTHERS SUFFER TOO

And there were also with Him other little ships.

St. Mark iv. 36

A sorrow shared is but half a trouble,

But a joy that’s shared is a joy made double.

Old Proverb

What a comfort it was to see Florence Nightingale pass by! She would speak to one and nod to another; She could not do it to all, you know, for we were lying there by hundreds, but we could kiss her shadow as it fell and lay our heads on the pillow, again content.

Letter from a wounded soldier in the Crimea

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

2 Cor. I, 3,4

IN THE NIGHT

Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness

Psalm cxii. 4

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm xxvii. 1

And hear at times a sentinel,

Who moves about from place to place,

And whispers to the worlds of space,

In the deep night, that all is well.

And all is well, though faith and form

Be sundered in the night of fear;

Well roars the storm to those that hear

A deeper voice across the storm.

In Memorium

Prayer at Nightfall

Lord Jesus, grant us Thy peace in sleepless hours, that in patience we may endure and in faith receive Thy strength to bring us victory.

Amen

JOY COMETH

The ransomed of the Lord ... shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighting shall flee away.

Isaiah xxxv. 10

Never was day so over sick with showers, But that it had some intermittent hours;

Never was night so tedious but it knew the last watch out and saw the dawning too;

Never was dungeon so obscurely deep, wherein or light or day did never peep;

Never did moon so ebb, or seas so wane, But they left hope -- seed to fill up again.

Robert Herrick

Here in the maddening maze of things, when tossed by storm and flood.

To one fixed ground my spirit clings; I know that God is good.

And if my heart and flesh are weak to bear an untried pain,

The bruised reed He will not break, but strengthen and sustain.

I know not where His Islands lift, their fronded palms in air;

I only know I cannot drift beyond his love and care.

John Greenleaf Whittier

THE HEALING OF GOD

She said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned Him about, and when he saw her, He said, ‘Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole’.

St. Luke viii. 44

The healing of his seamless dress is by our beds of pain.

We touch Him in life’s throng and press and we are whole again. John Greenleaf Whittier

From the Most High cometh healing; The Lord created medicines out of the earth;

And He gave men skill, that he might be glorified in his marvellous works.

Ecclesiasticus xxxviii. 2,4,6

A Prayer

O Lord Jesus, who dost dispense Thy healing grace through the service of Doctors and nurses and all who tend the sick, grant to these Thy servants, skill and patience’s, sympathy and understanding. Give to us who are suffering, high courage to endure and quiet confidence to commit ourselves to Thy care. Thou art planning for us in love. Help us each to help the other, that Thy will may be done through us.

Amen

FOR EVER AND EVER

Let not your heart be troubled ... I go to prepare a place for you.

St. John xiv. 1,2

Those who love God never meet for the last time.

W. Robertson Nicoll

Those who have once found each other through God’s hand will, clinging to His hand, find each other again.

Max Müller

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Cor. iv. 17,18

It was on the night of October 3, 1226, that he breathed his last, praising God to the end. With his songs were mingled those of the little birds he loved so well, for we are told that a great multitude of larks came above the roof of the house wherein he lay, and flying a little way off, made a circle round the roof, and by their sweet singing seemed to be praising the Lord along with him.

Of Francis of Assisi

Think of ---

Stepping on shore, and finding it Heaven!

Of taking hold of a hand, and finding it God’s hand.

Of breathing a new air, and finding it celestial air.

Of feeling invigorated, and finding it immortality.

Of passing from storm and tempest to an unbroken calm.

Of waking up, and finding it Home.

Anonymous

Don’t be unhappy -- all is for the best, We are playing a good part in a great scheme arranged by God Himself ... All the things I had hoped to do with you are as nothing now, but there are greater things for us to do in the world to come.

Dr. Wilson’s last letter

A Prayer

Save us Lord, from being shut in by present circumstance. Help us to look around this little hour of dawning of eternal day.

Amen

PRAYERS

For Other Sufferers

O Almighty God, who hast made us all one in Thee, we pray Thy blessing upon all who suffer pain or are in any kind of distress. Relieve them and, if it may be, restore them to health. Help us, who suffer with them, so to endure that they may be helped, and seeing Thy grace sufficient for us, may be led to trust Thee who art our everlasting strength.

Amen

For Our Loved Ones

Bless, we beseech Thee, those from whom we are now separated. Grant that they may be kept from all that would hurt them, and restore us to them in Thine own good time.

Amen

For Ourselves

Hear us now for ourselves, that this time of testing may be made, for us, a time of unexpected blessing. May we discover unrealised resources in Thy great love. Give us patience and serenity of mind that we may meet all changing circumstance without fear, trusting in Thee, our Lord and our Deliverer. Fill us now with new hope; give us some vision of Thy loving purpose, and steady our steps, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Saviour

Amen

Retyped from the original

compilation by F.W. Church.

(Note: The text on this page was retyped by me from a very old book that belonged to my Grandmother. It has given much comfort over the years to many members of our family in times of grief. I have tried in vain to find the original publishers. I presume they are long gone! Any copyright issues are with myself not St. James' church - Nigel Hadley (Web Ed.))

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