Never Able to Sing Again
Our Daily Bread, January 15
Louis Albert Banks tells of an elderly Christian man, a fine singer, who learned that he had cancer of the tongue and that surgery was required. In the hospital after everything was ready for the operation, the man said to the doctor, "Are you sure I will never sing again?" The surgeon found it difficult to answer his question. He simply shook his head no. The patient then asked if he could sit up for a moment. "I've had many good times singing the praises of God," he said. "And now you tell me I can never sing again. I have one song that will be my last. It will be of gratitude and praise to God." There in the doctor's presence the man sang softly the words of Isaac Watts' hymn:
I'll praise my Maker while I've breath, And when my voice is lost in death,
Praise shall employ my nobler power;
My days of praise shall ne'er be past,
While life, and thought, and being last,
