We Give Thee But Thine Own
We Give Thee But Thine Own
We give Thee but Thine own,
Whate’er the gift may be:
All that we have is Thine alone,
A trust, O Lord, from Thee.
May we Thy bounties thus
As stewards true receive,
And gladly, as Thou blessest us,
To Thee our first fruits give.
To comfort and to bless,
To find a balm for woe,
To tend the lone and fatherless,
Is angels’ work below.
And we believe Thy word,
Though dim our faith may be:
Whate’er for Thine we do, O Lord,
We do it unto Thee.
LONDON’S EAST END housed the slums of the city. That is exactly where William Walsham How wanted to serve. He had worked faithfully as pastor of the Anglican Church in his farming village of Whittington for a quarter-century. He repeatedly turned down advancements and opportunities to serve as bishop in such places as South Africa, New Zealand, and Jamaica. He was not a scholar, and some people thought he lacked ambition, but when the opportunity came to serve in London’s East End, he took it.
He was known as the poor man’s bishop. He rode public buses rather than private coaches. He always did whatever he could to raise funds to alleviate the poverty around him. His ambition was “not to be remembered but to be helpful.” He was called “a most unselfish man, with a tender fondness for children.”
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Ephesians 2:8-10
From the book
