Roberta Montgomery McKinney

Evening Thought

The place wherein I labor is remote,
Strange scenes about me, loved ones distant far;
But work, though often long, hath much that's sweet,
Since all is wrought for Thee. I only ask
A little respite, when the day is done,
To kneel with those who round Thine altars wait,
(O blest communion, that, of severed hearts),
And in the stillness know that Thou art God,
While rise, like incense from the sunset fires,
The best which this day men have thought and done.
Enough, if aught from mine own hand shall worthy be
To mingle there, and I, with them, to worship Thee.

Roberta Montgomery McKinney
Kiating, West China, 1905

Roberta was my great grandmother, a missionary to China with her husband William Ayer McKinney before they had my grandfather and his two sisters. In rooting around our attic today, we found a box of family genealogies and odds and ends, including a little card with this prayer written on it.