LIFT UP YOUR HEARTS

THE spent nerve and the lowered pulse,

The sluggish current of the blood

Which feels no glad abounding flow,

No bound or joyousness, but slow,

And, as it were, reluctantly,

Fills the dull veins,— all these may be

Reasons why life should not seem good.

Happiness is an easy thing

When summer airs fan summer skies,

And birds in all the branches sing;

Or in the budding days of spring,

When life springs up renewed and fair,

And joy is in the very air,

And laughter readier is than sighs.

But in the ebb-times of the soul,

When Hope’ s bright tide has turned and fled,

Leaving bare sands and thirsting shells,

When dried are the sweet water-wells,

And leaden moments, slow with pain,

Pass, and the wave turns not again,

And life seems all uncomforted,—

Then is the time of test, when Faith

Cries to the heart which inly fails:

“Courage! nor let thy forces dim.

Although He slay thee, trust in Him

Who giveth good and tempereth ill,

And never fails, and never will,

To be the refuge of his saints.

“To yield to grief without a blow

Is to doubt God: with him for guide,

The pleasant pathway, and no less

The hot and thorn-set wilderness,

Alike are roads to heaven, and He,

Even where thou waitest beside the sea,

Can with a word recall the tide.”