A boy sat on the curbstone and dangled his feet in the gutter,
On a Sunday, too;
And a Deacon, passing, stopped to reprimand him, and passed on
at the lad’s mutter:
“What’s it to YOU?”
The Deacon forgot all about it, and the boy grew up to be a
prize sample
Of What Not To Be;
But the Deacon’s attitude seems an even worse example,
At least to me.
Not that Deacons, particularly, are in this respect lax,
But all of us,
While we ere engaged in helping God, seem a bit afraid we’ll
overtax–
How curious!
For we’ve the greatest tenacity, and prolific ambition,
Working for money;
Yes, we can muster a truly prodigious effort at our job or position,
And still be sunny- –
A half-hearted effort is just s half-hearted effort, whether
for good put forth,
Or in search of plunder.
I conclude by questioning: If my earning efforts just equalled
my Church-efforts’ worth,
Would I STARVE, I wonder?
by Ray Romine Sunday, October 17, 1943
