“SORE IN NEED WAS I OF A FAITHFUL FRIEND”

Sore in need was I of a faithful friend,

And it seemed to me that life

Had come to its much desired end —

Just then God gave me a wife.

I had seen the beauty of fairy things,

And seen the women walk;

I had heard the voice of the seven sins

And all the wonderful talk.

Ah, the promising earth that seems so kind,

And the comrades with outstretched hand —

But did you ever stand alone

In a black, forsaken land?

Then the wonderful things that God can do

One comes to understand:

How He turns the desert dust to a dream,

And the lonely wind to a friend,

And makes a bright beginning

Of what had seemed the end:

‘ Twas in such an hour God placed in mine

The moonbeam hand of a friend.