Joy Of My Life While Left Me Here!

Joy of my life while left me here!

              And still my love!

How in thy absence thou dost steer

              Me from above!

              A life well led

              This truth commends,

              With quick or dead

              It never ends.

Stars are of mighty use; the night

              Is dark, and long;

The road foul; and where one goes right,

              Six may go wrong.

              One twinkling ray,

              Shot o'er some cloud,

              May clear much away,

              And guide a crowd.

God's saints are shining lights: who stays

              Here long must pass

O'er dark hills, swift streams, and steep ways

              As smooth as glass;

              But these all night,

              Like candles, shed

              Their beams, and light

              Us into bed.

They are, indeed, our pillar-fires,

              Seen as we go;

They are that city's shining spires

              We travel to:

              A swordlike gleam

              Kept man for sin

              First

out

; this beam

              Will guide them

in.