My lovely gourd is withered in an hour! I droop, I faint beneath the scorching sun; My Shepherd, lead me to some sheltering bower; There where thy little flock "lie down at noon"; Though of my dearest earthly joy bereft Thou art my portion still; thou, thou, my God, art left. --Charlotte Elliott. Says God: "Who comes towards me an inch through doubtings dim, In blazing light I do approach a yard towards him." --Oriental, tr. by William Rounseville Alger. The light of love is round His feet, His paths are never dim; And He comes nigh to us, when we Dare not come nigh to Him. --Frederick William Faber. Not in our waking hours alone His constancy and care are known, But locked in slumber fast and deep He giveth to us while we sleep. --Frederick Lucian Hosmer. HIS CARE God holds the key of all unknown, And I am glad. If other hands should hold the key, Or if he trusted it to me, I might be sad. What if to-morrow's cares were here Without its rest? I'd rather he unlock the day, And as the hours swing open say, "Thy will be best." The very dimness of my sight Makes me secure; For groping in my misty way, I feel his hand; I hear him say, "My help is sure." I cannot read his future plan, But this I know: I have the smiling of his face, And all the refuge of his grace, While here below. Enough; this covers all my want, And so I rest; For what I cannot he can see, And in his care I sure shall be Forever blest. --John Parker. Forever, from the hand that takes One blessing from us, others fall; And soon or late our Father makes His perfect recompense to all. --John Greenleaf Whittier. Nothing pays but God, Served--in work obscure done honestly, Or vote for truth unpopular, or faith maintained To ruinous convictions. --James Russell Lowell. He did God's will, to him all one, If on the earth or in the sun. --Robert Browning. I am Part of that Power, not understood, Which always wills the bad And always works the good. (Mephistopheles, in Faust.) --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. I have no answer, for myself or thee, Save that I learned beside my mother's knee: "All is of God that is, and is to be; And God is good." Let this suffice us still, Resting in childlike trust upon his will Who moves to his great ends unthwarted by the ill. --John Greenleaf Whittier. He knows, he loves, he cares, Nothing his truth can dim; He gives his very best to those Who leave the choice to him.