Discouragement
Following the arrest of his son, the Prime Minister, in an address to
Church Leaders in Brighton, posed the question:
"What does faith give us?"
- and answered by saying:
"It gives us strength and that's important."
Tony Blair then drew on these lines by Henry Longfellow:
A Village Church
The day is drawing to its close;
And what good deeds, since it first rose,
Have I presented, Lord, to thee,
As offsprings of my ministry?
What wrong repressed, what right maintained,
What struggle passed, what victory gained,
What good attempted and attained?
Feeble, at best, is my endeavour!
I see, but cannot reach, the height
That lies forever in the light;
And yet forever and forever,
When seeming just within my grasp,
I feel my feeble hands unclasp,
And sink discouraged into night!
For thine own purpose, thou hast sent
The strife and the discouragement!
Blair then added:
"We need the strength when the strife and the discouragement is
there."