THE MAN WITH THE BATTERED BIBLE

The Bible he carried was well-worn, yes, aged,
With highlights and notations on about every page.
The cover was shabby, the pages dog-eared,
And some, perhaps many, were stained by his tears,
Tears that he shed for the souls of the lost,
Out on life’s wild seas, by the world’s tempests tossed,
Or for some poor lost soul he had met on the street,
Who was begging for handouts, with nothing to eat,
Or for the widow next door, whose family didn’t care
Whether she lived or died. They just left her there.
He cried for the family with six children just down the street
Who could hardly afford shoes to cover their feet,
And he’d spent his last dollar at the grocery store
To give them a meal, and wished he’d has more.
Oft times, in the evening, he’d kneel down by his chair
And just talk with the Lord in intimate prayer;
He’d tell Him the burdens he had for the lost
And thank Him for Jesus, Who died on the cross.
He’d pray for the hungry and the sick and the poor
As he knelt by his chair on the sitting-room floor.
When he’d finish his talk and get up off his knees,
He’d take that battered old Bible down, and he’d read
About Jesus and His parables and the sick that He healed,
Or the wondrous insights to old John He revealed,
About David the shepherd boy who was born to be king,
Then he’d lift his eyes heavenward and prayerfully sing:

What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege carry Every thing to God in prayer!

Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood, From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath and make me pure.

And each night, when at last he lay to rest on his bed,
He’d place that old Bible right next to his head.
It’s precepts he’d hidden long ago in his heart,
And he vowed he would never from those precepts depart

While I draw this fleeting breath, When my eyes shall close in death,
When I rise to worlds unknown, and behold Thee on Thy Throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.

a. franklin staples

1994
Copyright © 1994 by A. Franklin Staples

"What A Friend We Have In Jesus", written by Joseph Schrivner, and "Rock Of Ages", written by Augustus Toplady, were songs that I heard my father sing many times in my younger days.