---
title: 'Encouragement from W.P. Jacobs'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2019-05-27
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2019-encouragement-from-w-p-jacobs
---

# Encouragement from W.P. Jacobs

Presbyterian minister and founder of Thornwell Orphanage [William Plumer Jacobs](/authors/william-plumer-jacobs) (named for the adoptive father of his mother, [William Swan Plumer](/authors/william-swan-plumer)) was also a poet as evidenced by the various compositions found in his diary and published in journals. The following is one such poem found in *William Plumer Jacobs: Literary and Biographical*, p. 126, edited by his son [Thornwell Jacobs](/authors/thornwell-jacobs), also a poet.

**ENCOURAGEMENT**

> Heaven helps the brave.
> Be strong then, brother, in the war of life
> 'Een to the grave,
> If thou wouldst conquer in its boist'rous strife.
> Dost thou despair?
> Go then to him from whom all courage flows,
> In lowly prayer: —
> Gain strength to deal ‘gainst sin thy
> Fiercest blows.
> 
> Not by thy might.
> Canst thou e'er be victorious in this war.
> But God and Right
> Thy only sure and trusty weapons are.

May these lines serve as an encouragement to you, dear reader, on this Monday morning.