Looking back… 100 years ago

From The Australian Christian Commonwealth – July 21, 1916…

A poem from the Rev. O. Lake
(seemingly inspired by Acts 26:12-13 and his own conversion)

“To my distracted life there came a calm
Like that upon the sea at Christ’s rebuke;
I seemed to breathe the sunshine, all the world
Was changed to share the rapturous joy with me
That day stands out, with memory’s best replete,
My day of joyous days, filled out, complete.

The storms since then have thundered round my way,
And days have passed relieved with scanty light,
But I have never lost the afterglow
Of that great day, the heavenly prototype;
Let all the coming years bring what they may,
they cannot memory rob of that great day.

In coming days the floods may rise and roar
And strife may thrust aside the thoughts of peace;
But He who gave me that wide liberty
Can in the fettered flesh the soul release.
In my conversion was the earnest given
Of tearless, sinless, joyous life in heaven.”