, Lord, that all my joy
Is touched with pain;
That shadows fall on brightest hours;
That thorns remain;
So that earth's bliss may be my guide,
And not my chain.

Would'st thou from sorrow find a sweet relief?
Or is thy heart oppressed with woes untold?
Balm would'st thou gather for corroding grief?
Pour blessings round thee like a shower of gold.

Art thou weary, tender heart?
Be glad of pain;
In sorrow sweetest things will grow
As flowers in rain.
God watches; and thou wilt have sun
When clouds their perfect work have done.

--Lucy Larcom.

'Tis sorrow builds the shining ladder up,
Whose golden rounds are our calamities
Whereon our firm feet planting nearer God
The spirit climbs, and hath its eyes unsealed.

--James Russell Lowell.

In the pleasant orchard closes,
"God bless all our gains," say we;
But "May God bless all our losses,"
Better suits with our degree.

--Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Our toil is sweet with thankfulness,
Our burden is our boon;
The curse of earth's gray morning is
The blessing of its noon.

--John Greenleaf Whittier.

I hold it true, whate'er befall,
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

--Alfred Tennyson.

The fountain of joy is fed by tears,
And love is lit by the breath of sighs;
The deepest griefs and the wildest fears
Have holiest ministries.

--Josiah Gilbert Holland.

I held it truth, with him who sings
To one clear harp in divers tones
That men may rise on stepping stones
Of their dead selves to higher things.

--Alfred Tennyson.

When God afflicts thee, think he hews a rugged stone,
Which must be shaped or else aside as useless thrown.

--Richard Chenevix Trench.

My sorrows have not been so light
Thy chastening hand I could not trace,
Nor have my blessings been so great
That they have hid my Father's face.

Put pain from out the world, what room were left
For thanks to God, for love to man?

--Robert Browning.

Heaven is not always angry when he strikes,
But most chastises those whom most he likes.

--John Pomfret.

The good are better made by ill,
As odors cr