Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/249

 Mother for ea,ch one of Her children. Not the healthy but the sickly, not the affluent but the needy, not the faithful but the prodigal can tell how eager, careful, watchful, interested, intensely solicitous is the Mother. Thus even unto me, the ignorant* the erring, the blemished, the tarnished, the fallen, the abject, is granted the occasion to be able, from pure personal experience, to say, 'Thou art, Thou livest, Thou abidest for ever as the eternal Mother of all.' Do Thou grant that on this occasion a word, a single word, uttering Thine own eternal truth, might find its way to the hearts of these sisters and brothers, even through the soiled lips and the sullied heart of this reprobate sinner. Do Thou grant that, like the sun shining through the densest clouds, like the rose scenting through the thickest brambles, like the stream rippling up from the lowest abyss, one word of truth might well up even from this abased heart, just as it is Thy word, Thy sweet word, Thy sovereign word, Thy sanctifying word, Thy immortal word,