Five Little Pebbles.

''And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the shepherd's bag which he had, even in his scrip; and his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine."  (1 Samuel 17. 40).

 Five little pebbles lay in a brook,
Five little pebbles hid in a nook,
"What are we good for?" said one to another;
"Little or nothing, I'm thinking, my brother."
Wearing away there day after day,
Seemed that as useless those pebbles would stay
Hid in obscurity just where they lay.

 If they were flowers, gaudy and gay,
Some person doubtless would bear them away.
If they were stones such as builders might use
Doubtless some builder those pebbles might choose.
But, whoever heard of builders who took
Such little pebbles out of a brook,
Such little pebbles hid in a nook?

 Five little pebbles, rounded and clean!
Long had they lain there, unnoticed, unseen.
God has a future waiting for you,
Five little pebbles, though you are few.
Just little pebbles hid in a brook,
Just little pebbles hid in a nook.

 David the shepherd passes that way
Where they were lying on that wondrous day,
Out goes his arm, down goes his hand,
Now he has made them great in the land.
They are now his to be used in his might,
Smooth little pebbles, a slinger's delight.

 See now the armies in battle array,
Boldly those pebbles are borne to the fray.
One is now chosen and placed in the sling;
Swift flies that pebble, as bird on the wing.
Onward it sped, with a might not its own,
Onward it sped, by the boy David thrown.
One little pebble out of the brook,
One little pebble out of its nook.

 Swift as an arrow, and straight as a dart,
For the whole nation that stone played its part,
Smiting the giant, full square in the head,
Prostrate he lies now, that mighty man, dead.
The Philistines' might in that day God shook
By one little pebble out of a brook.

 Five little pebbles which lay in a brook,
Mentioned with honour in God's Holy Book.
Be thou as a pebble, humble and low
Ever kept clean by the Scriptures' pure flow,
Waiting the time the Lord Jesus will look
For stones He is needing, out of His brook.
"Eagles' Wings" 1944