A Rousing Prayer for the New Year

Frank W. Boreham

1871-1959

Frank Boreham's writings are among my favorites. There is a shelf of him, well as shelf and a half to be more accurate, in my cloister chair corner. Forty titles in all, and this is not all of his books. I have read my forty all, at least once. Some repeatedly.

Today's quotation begins a compilation Daily Readings from F. W. Boreham. Mine is a battered paper back copy, a treasure found in a used book shop in North Bay, Ontario. It is a treasure by its content but also because it was found on a most memorable trip trans-Canada the Husband and I made in 2000.

Boreham was a preacher, pastor, essayist. He had the poet's gift and the human touch. He was staunchly evangelical. He wrote with gentle humor but also thrilling passion. While his writings sometimes seem too sanguine, possibly verbose for our times, still Dear Reader, I recommend him to you. He will lift your spirits, open your eyes to the common place wonders of Creation, and encourage your walk with the Creator.

"Come, O Thou Conqueror Renowned", I cry,

"and repeat on the battlefield of my heart

Thine ancient and glorious triumphs!

In all my daily warfare with the world, the flesh, the devil,

let me feel Thee slaying Thine old-foes all over again!

By Thine Almighty Power -

the Power by which the worlds were made;

the Power of Thy resurrection -

secure in me the victory

over everything that cools my affection for Thyself,

over everything that impedes or arrests my spiritual pilgrimage,

over everything that obscures my vision of life's real issues

and of life's true goal!"

The faith that overcomes is a living faith in a Living Conqueror.

I place my hand in His.