SWEET ARE HIS WAYS WHO RULES ABOVE.

Sweet are His ways who rules above,

He gives from wrath a sheltering place;

But covert none is found from grace,

Man shall not hide himself from love.

What though I take to me the wide

Wings of the morning and forth fly,

Faster He goes, whoso care on high

Shepherds the stars and doth them guide.

What though the tents foregone, I roam

Till day wax dim lamenting me;

He wills that I shall sleep to see

The great gold stairs to His sweet home.

What though the press I pass before,

And climb the branch, He lifts his face;

I am not secret from His grace

Lost in the leafy sycamore.

What though denied with murmuring deep

I shame my Lord,— it shall not be;

For He will turn and look on me,

Then must I think thereon and weep.

The nether depth, the heights above,

Nor alleys pleach'd of Paradise,

Nor Herod's judgment-halls suffice:

Man shall not hide himself from love.