He was better to me than all my hopes,
He was better than all my fears;
He made a road of my broken works
And a rainbow of my tears.
The billows that guarded my sea girt path
But carried my Lord on their crest;
When I dwell on the days of my wilderness march
I can lean on his love for the rest.
He emptied my hands of my treasured store
And his covenant love revealed;
There was not a wound in my aching heart
But the balm of his breath hath healed.
Oh! tender and true was the chastening sore,
In wisdom, that taught and tried,
Till the soul that he sought was trusting in him
And in nothing on earth beside.
He guided by paths that I could not see,
By ways that I have not known,
The crooked was straight and the rough made plain,
As I followed the Lord alone.
I praise him still for the pleasant palms
And the water springs by the way;
For the glowing pillars of flame by night
And the sheltering clouds by day.
There is light for me on the trackless wild
As the wonders of old I trace,
When the God of the whole earth went before
To search me a resting place.
Has he changed for me? Nay! He changes not.
He will bring me by some new way,
Through fire and flood and each crafty foe,
As safely as yesterday.
And if to warfare he calls me forth,
He buckles my armor on;
He greets me with smiles and a word of cheer
For battles his sword hath won;
He wipes my brows as I droop and faint,
He blesses my hand to toil;
Faithful is he as he washes my feet,
From the trace of each earthly soil.
Never a watch on the dreariest halt
But some promise of love endears;
I read from the past that my future shall be
Far better than all my fears.
Like the golden pot of the wilderness bread,
Laid up with the blossoming rod,
All safe in the ark, with the law of the Lord,
Is the covenant care of my God.
--Anna Shipton.