A CONSECRATION
To each and several of the Officers of the Brotherhood Welfare Association, on their way, often by faltering steps and slow, but ever upward, reach the ideal.
By Lulu McClure Clark
Local No. 5, St. Louis I.B.W.A.
Mayest though be like unto those Wise Men of the East – seeking always the best things.
Tho’ though cometh, perhaps, from a far country, a weary way, and many evils befall thee, yet keep thou within thy breast, a high courage and an unfaltering hope.
For thee, as for all men, shineth ever a guiding star, if thou but lift thine eyes to behold it. It leadeth to peace and love, to valor and to service, to that God’s country of WORTH-WHILE.
As the wise men found and adored but a babe in swaddling clothes, so mayst thou also have the divine insight to know that to thee, as unto all others, must come the Gift of God in lowly guise. Thou must find it, if at all, in the miracle of the common-place.
Bring thou thy gifts, no mean thing, but the best that in thee lies.
As they returned “into their own country” carrying the “GLAD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY,” so go thou back again they fellows, the blind, the lame and the halt, those who could not fare the way with thee, and tell them that upon their darkness a Star shineth, that a New Spirit is born into the World.
Tho’ they mock thee and hold thee up to scorn, saying “No place wentest thou. Thou hast found nothing.” Possess thy soul in peace for thou knowest what thou knowest, the desert, the light and the angel’s song.
Tho’ thou be reviled and they words fall upon deaf ears, yet know that at least one word of thine will fall aright. Tho’ buried deep and half forgotten, a new circumstance will bring its glad fruition, after thou thyself, perchance, hast long passed by.
And when thou comest at last to that incorporeal world where supremacy of place and power is based upon service to our fellos and the BROTHERHOOD OF MAN, and seekest thou thy task therein, and they ask of thee: “Caust thou qualify for this high place?” Then mayst thou lift thy head proudly, saying in all truth, “Yea, Lord! I have followed the Star. I have seen the Good and worshipped it in all sincerity and in purity of heart. Above the din of strife, I have listened for the Song. I have not neglected to go back to my fellows, but have labored among them my allotted time. Yea, Lord, I qualify.”