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 hath 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 loving-kindness
Whose wisdom sends them all;
The discord that involveth
Some startling change of key,
The Master's hand revolveth
In richest harmony.
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.
--Frances Ridley Havergal.