HE was better to me than all my hopes,

He was better than all my fears

He made a bridge of my broken works

And a rainbow of my tears.

The billows that guarded my sea-girt path

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 mine 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 He sought was trusting in Him

And nothing on earth beside.

He guided my steps where I could not see,

 By ways that I had 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 cloud by day.

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 brow, 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

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.

Hath He changed for me? Nay, He changeth not;

He will bring me by some new way,

Through fire and flood and each crafty foe

 As safely as yesterday.

Never a watch in the dreariest halt

But some promise of love endears;

I   read from the past that the 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

In the covenant care of my God.

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