I love hymns. That’s where African Americans (women in particular) would draw much needed strength in ages past. However, the mood swing has shifted through the centuries from slave ship spiritual survivors to present era gospel swing.
A not so popular hymn is, “O for a faith that will not shrink, though pressed by every foe; that will not tremble on the brink of any earthly woe. That will not murmur or complain beneath the chastening rod; But in the hour of grief and pain will lean upon its God, A faith that shines more bright and clear when tempests rage without; That when in danger knows no fear; in darkness knows no doubt. Lord give me such a faith as this, and then what ere may come, I’ll taste, even here, the hallowed bliss of my eternal home.”
I learned every word of this one from hearing my mother sing it while playing the old upright piano that sat at the foot of the stairs. She didn’t just sing it. She lived it–while bravely encountering every conceivable physical and emotional trial one could encounter–without malice or embitterment.
Another more cheerful one, applicable to all ages, was “Brighten the corner where you are…” which some people automatically do when entering a room while others do by leaving it.
“There is very little difference in people,” began an article I once read many years ago in Reader’s Digest. But that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it’s negative or positive.
I am old enough to have been brought up through a more negative era that ironically incorporated more positive attitudes–of hope and unity of purpose. I have watched generations stand upon the shoulders of one another to reach impossible dreams and heights only to watch it all crumbling before our eyes through modern mankind’s insatiable greed, selfishness and inhumanity to man continue on ever widening and more sophisticated scale–at home and abroad.
The present state of world affairs is ample evidence that, with rare exception, people of all religions need to be reawakened to the real meaning of their religion. That reawakening is an important mission of Baha’u’llah, believed by Baha’is to be the most recent in the succession of Progressive Revelation of Manifestations. He comes to make Christians better Christians, to make Muslims real Muslims and to make all men true to the spirit that inspired their respective Prophet–the first giant step toward bringing the prophesied “all sheep into one fold with One Shepherd.” Such unimaginable goal would best begin with the spiritual as well as academic education of children–of which volumes have been written for this new Day.
Therefore, “Quench ye the lamps of error and follow instead the eternal flame of Divine Guidance that you may of a certainty “brighten the corner where you are.”(Ivestigate! – 1-800-22unite)
