Page 51-52 Transcribed: Poem (Disappointed)

Page 51-52 Transcribed: Poem (Disappointed)

Disappointed

Our yet unfinished story, is tending all to this:
To GOD the greatest Glory, to us the greatest bliss.
If all things work together for ends so grand and blest,
What need to wonder whether each in itself is best!

If some things were omitted or altered as we would,
The whole might be unfitted to work for perfect good.
Our plans may be disjointed, but we may calmly rest;
What God has once appointed is better than our best.

We cannot see before us, but our all-seeing Friend
Is always watching o’er us, and knows the very end.
What though we seem to stumble? He will not let us fall;
And learning to be humble is not lost time at all.

What though we fondly reckoned a smoother way to go
Than where His hand has beckoned? It will be better so.
What only seemed a barrier a stepping-stone shall be;
Our God is no long tarrier, a present Help is He.

And when amid our blindness His disappointments fall,
We trust His lovingkindness whose wisdom sends them all.
They are the purple fringes that hide His glorious feet;
They are the fire-wrought hinges where truth and mercy meet;

By them the golden portal of Providence shall ope,
And lift to praise immortal the songs of faith and hope.
From broken alabaster was deathless fragrance shed,
The spikenard flowed the faster upon the Saviour’s head.

No shattered box of ointment we ever need regret,
For out of disappointment flow sweetest odors yet.
The discord that involveth some startling change of key,
The Master’s hand resolveth in richest harmony.

We hush our children’s laughter, when sunset hues grow pale;
Then, in the silence after, they hear the nightingale.
We mourned the lamp declining that glimmered at our side; --
The glorious starlight shining has proved a surer guide.

Then tremble not and shrink not when Disappointment nears;
Be trustful still, and think not to realize all fears.
While we are meekly kneeling, we shall behold her rise,
Our Father’s love revealing, an angel in disguise.