A Roundabout Journey

I cannot see, with my small human sight,

Why God should lead this way or that for me;

I only know He saith, “Child, follow Me”;

But I can trust.

 

I know not why my path should be at times

So straitly hedged, so strangely barred before;

I only know God could keep wide the door;

But I can trust.

 

I find no answer, often, when beset

With questions fierce and subtle on my way,

And often have but strength to faintly pray;

But I can trust.

 

I often wonder as with trembling hand

I cast the seed along the furrowed ground,

If ripened fruit for God will there be found;

But I can trust.

 

I cannot know why suddenly the storm

Should rage so fiercely round me in its wrath;

But this I know, God watches all my path,

And I can trust.

 

I may not draw aside the mystic veil

That hides the unknown future from my sight,

Nor know if for me waits the dark or light;

But I can trust.

 

I have no power to look across the tide,

To see, while here, the land beyond the river;

But this I know, I shall be God’s forever,

So I can trust.

 

—London Evening Magazine