POETRY.
AFTER FOUR YEARS. A. Prayer from Internment.
[Nors.—On October 11th, 1914. some fifteen hundred men of the Royal Naval Division were interned at Groningen and Leeuwarden, in the North of Holland, after their disheartening adventures at Antwerp. The Leeuwarden contingent later joined the others at Groningen. This hymn was written for the third anniversary of the internment, and sung at a Commemoration Service in the Camp. It may possibly be of interest, now that a fourth anniversary finds things still the same, with repatriation trembling in the balance. The psychological effects of internment are among the little-realised tragic by-products of the war. and recent letters from the Camp suggest that, if repatriation falls through, they will be much intensified.—E. A. B.] LORD GOD, Whose ways of wonder
Are past man's finding out, Whose voice is in the thunder, Who teachest faith through doubt : Above man's warring passions We hail Thy flag unfurled.
And know Thy right hand fashions A purpose for Thy world.
Thou, in our day of dangers Who didst provide a way. And in the land of strangers Haat made us still to stay. Forgive us if, unheeding The hand that helped us then, Our hearts have left Thy leading, And turn them back again.
Turn us again, and save US
From self with all its snares, From lusts that soon enslave us, From sordid quests and cares : From swamps of sick depression, • From deserts of unrest.
From every vain obsession, Lift us to love the Best.
Lift us, that, when hereafter Thou eendest us release, And mouths are filled with laughter, And hearts are glad with peace, We then may follow, willing, The path our brothers trod, And fight for the fulfilling Of all the Hopes of God.
Groningen, October 9th, 1917. E. A. BITSHOUGHS.
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