Then sorrow, touched by Thee, grows bright With more than rapture's ray; As darkness shows us worlds of light We never saw by day.
If none were sick and none were sad What service could we render? I think if we were always glad We scarcely could be tender. Did our beloved never need Our patient ministration Earth would grow cold, and miss indeed Its sweetest consolation. If sorrow never claimed our heart, And every wish were granted, Patience would die and hope depart-- Life would be disenchanted.
Banish far from me all I love, The smiles of friends, the old fireside, And drive me to that home of homes, The heart of Jesus crucified.
Take all the light away from earth, Take all that men can love from me; Let all I lean upon give way, That I may lean on naught but Thee.
God never would send you the darkness If he felt you could bear the light; But you would not cling to his guiding hand If the way were always bright; And you would not care to walk by faith Could you always walk by sight.
'Tis true he has many an anguish For your sorrowful heart to bear, And many a cruel thorn-crown For your tired head to wear: He knows how few would reach heaven at all If pain did not guide them there.
So he sends you the blinding darkness, And the furnace of seven-fold heat. 'Tis the only way, believe me, To keep you close to his feet, For 'tis always so easy to wander When our lives are glad and sweet.
Then nestle your hand in your Father's And sing, if you can, as you go; Your song may cheer some one behind you Whose courage is sinking low. And--well--if your lips do quiver-- God will love you better so.
I made the cross myself whose weight Was later laid on me. This thought is torture as I toil Up life's steep Calvary.
To think mine own hands drove the nails! I sang a merry song, And chose the heaviest wood I had To build it firm and strong.
If I had guessed--if I had dreamed-- Its weight was meant for me, I should have made a lighter cross To bear up Calvary.
The unpolished pearl can never shine-- 'Tis sorrow makes the soul divine.
--From the Japanese, tr. by Frederic Rowland Marvin.
A Sower went forth to sow; His eyes were dark with woe; He crushed the flowers beneath his feet, Nor smelt the perfume, warm and sweet, That prayed for pity everywhere. He came to a field that was harried By iron, and to heaven laid bare; He shook the seed that he carried O'er that brown and bladeless place. He shook it, as God shakes hail Over a doomèd land. When lightnings interlace The sky and the earth, and his wand Of love is a thunder-flail. Thus did that Sower sow; His seed was human blood, And tears of women and men. And I, who near him stood, Said: When the crop comes, then There will be sobbing and sighing, Weeping and wailing and crying, Flame, and ashes, and woe.