NAWSA GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Beatley, Margaret B. A TEACHER'S PRAYER In Memory of JAMES AUGUSTUS BEATLEY September 8, 1851--July 11, 1917 A PRAYER FOR YOUTH A Tribute to CLARA BANCROFT BEATLEY January 12, 1858--October 20, 1923 A TEACHER'S PRAYER O God, as we approach this new day, the beginning of a new year, rich with opportunities for service, give us strength and wisdom to do thy will. Grateful for the days and weeks past for rejuvenation and refreshment guide us now in the paths of our daily duties. Help us to be sweet to the youth entrusted to our care. Help us to be considerate with the parents as they present their trying problems for solution. May we be ever mindful of our associates and our superiors in meeting the joys and difficulties that beset our path as we go forward day by day. Our Father, we would also give thanks for those who lives we have tried to mold in years gone by. Protect them and guide them now wherever they may be. Again we ask Thee for courage, strength and serenity of mind to greet the new year now beginning. Bless us and everyone everywhere. In Christ's name we ask it. Peggy Kelsey September 8, 1943 Read at The Faculty Meeting Samuel Adams District, East Boston A PRAYER FOR YOUTH O thou infinite One, ever-present in our searching lives, we approach Thee for containing guidance and ever-increasing wisdom in the leadership of youth. Do thou, who understandeth all things, give us patience, fore-bearance and sympathy in our privileged association with the young, reminding us that they, too, like ourselves, are expressions of Thy love. At this time we remember most gratefully one whose life was dedicated to youth and their problems, one whose interest was constantly for you betterment. Strengthen Thou in us the desires for good against the forces of evil leading us to stir noble aspirations in these awakening souls. Communicate to us and to them a steadfast purpose, a clear vision, and an unfailing zeal for worthy endeavor. And now, O Gracious One, let they heavenly love flood our hearts, opening the windows of the soul to they ever-increasing light in the search for truth for the good of the world. Amend. Peggy Kelsey October 20 ,1943 Read at The Boston Teacher's Club Tea Hotel Statler, Boston Margaret Bancroft Beatley September 8, 1942 My Dear Miss Blackwell - Instead of returning for the "Gas Rationing" as intended when I left for Boothbay Harbor the last day of school I stayed on for nine weeks because it seemed wiser. I had selected out of the Church of the Disciples Library the "Life of Lucy Stone" for summer reading, and it greeted me on my return twelve days ago. I read Will Rogers Life and Mary Ellen Chases during the three weeks I was at the Village - after I turned the house over to my brother. This afternoon I have reached the chapter telling of your own birth and discover you have a birthday, the fourteenth. This is my Father's - 91 if he had lived. I wish you to know I am enjoying Lucy Stone very much indeed. We certainly owe her much. We hope somehow she rejoices in the Unseen World at what has been accomplished in recent years. On your birthday - while I shall be busy with my own children - I shall have some thoughts for the Boothbay Harbor Kindergarten which begins its third year that day. Our later opening made it possible for me to be present on the opening day the first two years. The new Vocational Unit begins its second year. It was a pleasure to be of some little assistance in these new ventures - successful ventures. My sister spent last year on a farm in Vermont to build up. She is very well but has become interested in Nursing. So she is staying in Maine and is living at the Nurse's Home as a Nurse's Aid. She expects to resume teaching eventually, but this is a pleasant change. My brother's family returns to-morrow and the other brother in about ten days. Our big house will remain open until November 1st, for my sister's use in free time. The summer service for water will be turned off until May first. I have turned to the end of Lucy Stone and was delighted to find that my own dear Dr. [Aures?] had charge of the funeral. The church of the Disciples is now affiliated with Arlington Street Church and it was decided in the Spring to have a "[going?] person for Clerk. I accepted and while I try to keep 16 in spirit I am a little over 50 - as also my sister Emilie Poulson who did so much for children had the same birthday as Father and I think of her gratefully to-day - along with many others. Sincerely Margaret Bancroft Beatley 458 Huntington Ave. Boston CLARA BANCROFT BEATLEY "Mrs. Beatley's last work" Ro the Editor of the Christian Register: The last work of Mrs. Clara B. Beatley was upon a Christmas Service for church schools, containing new carols, readings, prayer, etc. in the form of her excellent earlier services. Now that Mrs. Beatley has passedon, the work has been completed by her daughter. Had she lived, she would have had great pleasure in knowing that the Service was being used, and now it may be a memorial to her. Though published with private funds, the Service may be secured for six cents a copy fromthe Beacon Press, 16 Beacon St. Boston, Mass. If it could be computed, as it can never be, it would be found that the amount of valuable and gratuitous work which Mrs. Beatley has done for our schools and churches is very large. And arduous as that work in committees and elsewhere has been, she herself found he pleasure in it, as she had told others [?] to do when she spoke often of "The Joys of Responsibility". I hope many schools will use her last Christmas Service. Henry T. Secrist Melrose, Mass. Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.