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| SOMETIME, when all life’s lessons have been learned, | |
| And sun and stars forevermore have set, | |
| The things which our weak judgments here have spurned, | |
| The things o’er which we grieved with lashes wet, | |
| Will flash before us, out of life’s dark night, | 5 |
| As stars shine most in deeper tints of blue; | |
| And we shall see how all God’s plans are right, | |
| And how what seems reproof was love most true. | |
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| And we shall see how, while we frown and sigh, | |
| God’s plans go on as best for you and me; | 10 |
| How, when we called, he heeded not our cry, | |
| Because his wisdom to the end could see. | |
| And e’en as prudent parents disallow | |
| Too much of sweet to craving babyhood, | |
| So God, perhaps, is keeping from us now | 15 |
| Life’s sweetest things, because it seemeth good. | |
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| And if sometimes, commingled with life’s wine, | |
| We find the wormwood, and rebel and shrink, | |
| Be sure a wiser hand than yours or mine | |
| Pours out this potion for our lips to drink. | 20 |
| And if some friend we love is lying low, | |
| Where human kisses cannot reach his face, | |
| Oh, do not blame the loving Father so, | |
| But wear your sorrow with obedient grace! | |
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| And you shall shortly know that lengthened breath | 25 |
| Is not the sweetest gift God sends his friend, | |
| And that, sometimes, the sable pall of death | |
| Conceals the fairest bloom his love can send. | |
| If we could push ajar the gates of life, | |
| And stand within, and all God’s workings see, | 30 |
| We could interpret all this doubt and strife, | |
| And for each mystery could find a key. | |
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| But not to-day. Then be content, poor heart! | |
| God’s plans like lilies pure and white unfold. | |
| We must not tear the close-shut leaves apart, | 35 |
| Time will reveal the calyxes of gold. | |
| And if, through patient toil, we reach the land | |
| Where tired feet, with sandals loosed, may rest, | |
| When we shall clearly know and understand, | |
| I think that we will say, “God knew the best!” | 40 |
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