If They Were Our ...

IF THEY WERE OUR OWN

If you boy or my girl were in darkness –

Were groping alone in the night,

Soul—weary and helplessly seeking

In vain for a glimmer of light,

Thro’ the dangerous depths of a forest,

Bewildered and frightened and lost,

Would I be at home by the fireside

Demurring and counting the cost

Of an organized search for the lost one,

Or grumbling because we must pay,

For the service of guides and for torches,

To drive the dark shadows away?

If you girls of my boy were in danger –

In imminent peril of death –

Were standing unwarned in its pathway,

Do you think we would waste any breath

In complaining about the depression –

Bewailing our loss and our lack,

When a clarion call should be ringing

To summon the wanderer back?

Oh, what if our own were in peril!

Would the sacrifice then be too great?

Even tho’ we must strain to the utmost,

To save them before ‘twere too late?

Then away with delays and excuses!

There are souls lost in sin’s dark ways,

And the voice of the great Guide is calling

For searchers, with torches ablaze

To carry the light to the hopeless

In the homeland and over the sea,

For the Father who sees the unsaved ones

Is depending on you and me!