Letter from the Rectory - July 2025

Dear Friends,

I recently discovered this poem written by a first cousin of my father’s, Rev. Peter Beresford-Pierce, to his uncle. It was dated 17th April 1957 and was probably to celebrate a wedding anniversary. It is entitled ‘Time on your
hands.’ I checked online to see if it was someone else’s work. Although that title is shared by such diverse forms of entertainment as a song by an aging Ringo Starr and an episode of the BBC sitcom ‘Only Fools and Horses’ almost 30 years ago, it does appear to be original.

When you and I grow old, my dear, how blessed we then shall be 

There will be time to start again and learn tranquillity.

Time to regret, as we look back and mark the path we trod
The jostling hours of fuss and fret, so little time for God.

The proud assurance of our words, loud for the world to hear
The tongue so ready to condemn, the lip so quick to sneer.

Time to regret, time too, pray God for memory to move
The mountain of our stubborn hearts, in gratitude for love.

Time, as our older steps grow slow and the young world speeds by
To thread the lower, humbler paths of human sympathy.

Time when our hands are weak to grasp the prizes of success
To heal whatever we have scarred, where we have hurt, caress.

Time as our duller ears refuse the din of earthly strife
To hear the music of the spheres, the still small voice of life.

Time as our eyes grow dim to trace the beauty of a tree
And all the stars are dark to us, time, Lord, to gaze on thee.

When you and I grow old, my dear, how blessed we two shall be
If we can take time by the hand and find eternity.

Although written in a previous era, it does retain a certain resonance for our world of today.

​

James Campbell