• “Much of my experience of life has cost me a great price and I wish to use it for strengthening and comforting other souls.” – E. Prentiss

Guests by Martha Snell Nicholson


Pain knocked upon my door and said
That she had come to stay;
And though I would not welcome her
But bade her go away,

She entered in. Like my own shade
She followed after me,
And from her stabbing, stinging sword
No moment was I free.

And then one day another knocked
Most gently at my door.
I cried, “No, Pain is living here,
There is no room for more”.

And then I heard His tender voice,
” ‘Tis I, be not afraid”.
And from the day He entered in —
The difference it made!

For though He did not bid her leave,
(My strange, unwelcome guest,)
He taught me how to live with her.
Oh, I had never guessed

That we could dwell so sweetly here,
My Lord and Pain and I,
Within this fragile house of clay
While years slip slowly by!

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2 Responses to Guests by Martha Snell Nicholson

  • James Murdoch says:

    Since 1987 I have lived with chronic low back pain and mobility problems. In November 1989 I almost gave up on life but God's? presence is very real. This poem 'Guests' expresses my experience so well.

  • Randi F says:

    There are different kinds of pain. For me, it has been the pain of family that do not believe in God or Jesus, or betrayal by one who you should be able to trust. Jesus faced these kinds of pain even more than His physical pain and suffering, as bad as that was. I believe the pain of rejected love is greater than any other pain, but even that pain Jesus will carry for us if we rely upon Him and invite Him to live in our home at all times. I will follow Him forever and He will never leave me!

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  • “They only did what God permitted them to do, which enabled me always to keep God in sight… When we suffer, we should always remember that God inflicts the blow. Wicked men, it is true, are not infrequently His instruments; and the fact does not diminish, but simply develops their wickedness. But when we are so mentally disposed that we love the strokes we suffer, regarding them as coming from God, and as expressions of what He sees best for us, we are then in the proper state to look forgivingly and kindly upon the subordinate instrument which He permits to smite us.” – Madame Guyon

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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. — Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)

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