SO SEND I YOU By Margaret Clarkson

So send I you to labor unrewarded,
To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,
To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing-
So send I you to toil for Me alone.

So send I you to bind the bruised and broken,
O’er wand’ring souls to work, to weep, to wake,
To bear the burdens of a world aweary-
So send I you to suffer for My sake.

So send I you to loneliness and longing,
With heart ahung’ring for the loved and known,
Forsaking home and kindred, friend and dear one-
So send I you to know My love alone.

So send I you to leave your life’s ambition,
To die to dear desire, self-will resign,
To labor long, and love where men revile you-
So send I you to lose your life in Mine.

So send I you to hearts made hard by hatred,
To eyes made blind because they will not see,
To spend, tho’ it be blood, to spend and spare not-
So send I you to taste of Calvary.

Second set of words done years later:

So send I you—by grace made strong to triumph
O’er hosts of hell, o’er darkness, death and sin,
My name to bear and in that name to conquer
So send I you, My victory to win.

So send I you—to take to souls in bondage
The Word of Truth that sets the captive free,
To break the bonds of sin, to loose death’s fetters
So send I you, to bring the lost to me.

So send I you—My strength to know in weakness,
My joy in grief, My perfect peace in pain,
To prove my pow’r, My grace, My promised presence
So send I you, eternal fruit to gain.

So send I you—to bear My cross with patience,
And then one day with joy to lay it down,
To hear My voice, “Well done, My faithful servant
Come share My throne, My kingdom and My crown!”

“Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. (John 20:21)”

By Margaret Clarkson

 

Calvin comments:

Margaret has articulated for us our deepest inmost feelings. May these words burn in our souls and fire up our zeal.