We wonder if serenity is real.
Can it be found in ever changing life,
Despite the negativity we feel,
Beneath the rolling boil of strain and strife?
Serenity is really in plain view,
A Purloined Letter*, right before our eyes.
So simple that we think it can’t be true
And close enough to touch, but in disguise.
Serenity is deep within the mind,
At center where the heart and soul are one.
As nature does, it’s something we can find,
Returning through the gate from which we’ve come.
Our birth right, we have only to un-learn
The concept that serenity is earned.
*Purloined Letter: Reference to the story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe.
Charles H. Gabriel wrote this hymn in 1890. The melody is a tune he entitled “Mccabe.” With its march tempo and evangelical lyrics, “Send the Light” is one of the most popular missionary hymns of all time.
Personally, I marched down the church aisle as a child, singing what lyrics I knew with the rest of the congregation, during the Alabaster Offering. Alabaster is an offering specifically designated for building mission churches around the world and is participated in by many traditional Christian denominations. I don’t mind admitting that as a 3-5-year-old, it was more of a play break from the usual order of service. 🙂
As time passed, I, too, had an Alabaster Box containing whatever change I had to contribute. I put my little box inside the one shaped like a church building and marched back down the aisle to one of the 2 back pews that my parents, grandparents, siblings and I filled to capacity.
Besides the marching, the most memorable part were our pastor and a young man who played trumpets, and the 2 ladies who played piano and organ. Needless to say, the semiannual Alabaster Offering became a treat of sorts, that I still remember many years later.
I’ve come to realize that “Send the Light” is not all about money. It’s about sharing whatever you do, whatever you have (your time, talent, and treasure), and above all, whatever you are. It’s not for their conversion to your belief system, but for the love of other people. We are all God’s creations, whether we want to admit it or not. Because God loves each and every one of us equally, the same Presence within us can help us love ourselves and others as much, if we invoke the Spirit of Healing and Love to work through us.
I hope you enjoy hearing this hymn on lyre! More importantly, I pray you send your own light to those you know, those you love, and those you haven’t met yet! We are all eternally connected in the Light of God, and that will never change!
Play or download this Metaphysical Prayer Treatment
(also called Spiritual Mind Treatment or Affirmative Prayer) with lyre accompaniment.
I turn away from the world that surrounds me for a few moments. I leave the worn outer world and mind behind me.
Planted habits and thought patterns fall away as I traverse the stepping stones leading deep within myself.
Here, I open the doors of my ordinary mind to the Higher, Greater Truth that I Am.
Light permeates my mind, and I realize I Am One with Love, Wisdom, Creativity, Power, and Healing. Whatever I need is already here within me. I can access my Divine Attributes at any moment, simply by looking higher and deeper to the Spirit within the center of my own mind. This is my True Self.
For this realization I give thanks! I return to my daily activities renewed, refreshed, relaxed, and ready to accomplish the Divine Plan for me this day.
Every soul has the seed of a dream,
Planted within by the Spirit unseen.
Let it grow into a fruit-bearing tree
Over your path of life.
Your path may be winding through heather and hills.
You might become lost in the forest at will.
But seek and you’ll find it, the path to fulfill
The dream for your tree of life.
Repeat from beginning.
Seek and you’ll find it, the path to fulfill
The dream for your tree of life.
“In the Garden” is a much loved hymn, as I know from personal experience. It seems like one of those songs, hymns and Christmas carols in particular, that I was born knowing. I must have been so young when I first heard it, that the song is woven into the fiber of my childhood memory.
Although it’s a mystery when I learned the words, I vividly remember learning to play “In the Garden” on piano. It was a request from my uncle, Al, near the end of his battle with cancer. I not only learned the hymn, but recorded a cassette tape of myself playing it, along with other hymns. On our last trip to Connecticut from Pennsylvania, I was able to sing and play the song for uncle Al. It was a precious gift to him and is still a precious memory to me.
I hope you enjoy my zither arrangement of “In the Garden.” It was written by American songwriter C. Austin Miles in 1912 and is still very popular today.
Mystical Strings 
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