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Pruning
From POEMS by Annie Johnson Flint. Used by permission of the publishers, Evangelical Publishers, Toronto. The Disciplines of Life, by Raymond V. Edman (Minneapolis: World Wide Publ., 1948), p. 228.
Pruning
From POEMS by Annie Johnson Flint. Used by permission of the publishers, Evangelical Publishers, Toronto. The Disciplines of Life, by Raymond V. Edman (Minneapolis: World Wide Publ., 1948), p. 228.
It is the branch that bears the fruit Though every budding twig be lopped Oh, thou whose life of joy seems reft, Rejoice, though each desire, each dream, With tenderest touch, - Annie Johnson Flint.
That feels the knife,
To prune it for a larger growth
And fuller life,
And every grace
Of swaying tendril, springing leaf
Be lost a space.
Of beauty shorn,
Whose aspirations lie in dust,
All bruised and torn,
Each hope of thine
Shall fall and fade; it is the hand of love divine
That holds the knife, that cuts and breaks
That thou, whose life hast borne some fruit,
