This week’s service is recorded at Ballee Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church, county Down. We are pleased again to have the services of John Strain, our Ballee organist, who plays some music at the start and end of the service as well as the two hymns:

‘Through all the changing scenes of life’ (Hymns of Faith and Freedom 48)

‘Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father’ (Hymns of Faith and Freedom 54)

Readings:

Lamentations ch.3 v.21-26

Don’t Quit by John Greenleaf Whittier (with special thanks to Emma McConnell)

Don’t Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low but the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh.

 

When care is pressing you down a bit, rest if you must but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns as every one of us sometimes learns.

And many a failure turns about when he might have won if he stuck it out.

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow, you may succeed with another blow.

 

Success is failure turned inside out, the silver tint of the clouds of doubt.

And you never can tell how close you are, it may be near when it seems so far.

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit, it’s when things seem worse that you must not quit.

 

Recent videos on the churches’ channel also include a reflection on Time which includes consideration of J.R.R. Tolkien:

‘All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’

(J.R.R. Tolkien)

And a prayer for VE Day also by Sue Steers which includes an account of the life of George Cross who took part in the D Day landings and returned to Normandy at the age of 100: