Baptist Missionary Training School - Beacon Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

Page 19 text:

THE BEACON ALICE W. S. BRIMSON ll

Page 18 text:

--i- THE BEACON ll THE PATH SHE TROD An Appreciation of Miss Brimson Y 1 'f Watching her quiet strength, I sought one day To find the path to such unfailing calm: Surely, I thought, There is some hidden way, Some secret source of peace, some strange And magic pathway known to her alone. And so I sought to find it: far behind I followed: I could not have found The way, had not it been that in each place Where she had passed, the trail was blazed for me By the glad radiance of joy That shone from some uplifted human face. I saw the hands Of those who had once been hopeless men Building a ruined house again, Building with courage renewed - and then I knew that she must have passed. I heard the note of a happy song, And was told that it came from the heart of a chi Who never had sung until yesterday - Whom no one had loved until yesterday: And they said: She has sung since yesterday. When a woman stopped and smiled. I found a girl with a faith regained: A heart that had ceased to contemplate Its grief, and had served instead: a soul Whose swift impatience had learned to wait: A wrong forgiven: a will resigned To a higher power: an eager mind Helped in its feverish search to find The truth, and be satisfied. And I knew, at last, that the way she had found Had no finality, And to find the end of that path was given Neither to her nor to me: Mortal feet could not come to the end Of the pathway that still she trod - For the pathway was ceaseless service, And it led to an infinite God. 10

Page 20 text:

--l- THE BEACON PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE iff In martial array she marches down the centuries-that little peasant maid of Domremy. Five hundred years ago she saved her country, and lost her life. Conquering now and still to conquer, she sways our hearts as surely today as once she bent a hostile court to her desires. Joan of Arc is a meaningful ideal for the Christian young woman of today. She was a woman of action. She was alert to the need of the world in which she lived. She had an intelligent understanding of the significance of events. She had a passion for liberty -liberty from restricting conventions and outgrown -cus- toms. She had to the full the joy of that self-expression which is the expression of God in human life. - There is rare beauty in the simple purity of her life. Mingling with soldiers and courtiers, talking with dukes and kings and simple attendants-in bar- rack or courtroom, in scene of battle or Coronation, she insulated herself with an aura of goodness. She was in the world lighting its battles, but she learned to keep herself uunspotted from the world. Her own life measured up to her profession. And oh! the courage of her! She was not afraid to do the unconventional thing, Xvhen common sense told her it was wise. She faced new experiences with eager expectancy. She undertook tasks too large With modest confidence. The jeers of courtiers left her unabashed: the threats of royalty did not alarm her: even the darkening clouds of danger did not overwhelm her. Courage carried her, on her white horse, with banner lifted high, up to the walls of Orleansg and courage went with her to the stake. Her courage was based on faith. She knew whom she had believed, and she, like Paul, was persuaded that He is able. The Eternal God was to her a present reality. He guided the affairs of men and of nations if they would but yield to Him. With Him all things were possible: for Him no task was too difficult: through His power ultimate victory was sure. Joan knew because she heard voices, Across the poppy fields she heard them, when the vesper bells were ringing. She heard them in the battle's din. They spoke to her in the great cathedral: she listened and followed-followed to great adventures, to victorious living - and death. It was Eenelau who said, How rare a thing it is to find a soul still enough to hear God speak. l2