A Retrospect

It is many a day since our gracious God
In His tenderness made us one.
It is many a day since we walked abroad
In the spring of our sponsal days, and trod
Together the rugged and tender sod,
Amid shadow and sheen of sun.
Our hopeful hearts held no lurking fear,
No cloud o’er our future frowned;
Love perfumed the ambient atmosphere.
If the black night thundered, the Lord was near,
And His voice in the hurricane we could hear,
And His mercy swathed us round.
We have traversed the ocean tempest-tost,
But the harbour is nearing now.
The danger Zones have been safely crost,
The burning heat, and the biting frost,
The rocks upon which were the reckless lost,
We have passed, and we scarce know how.
But oft with shame we must fears confess,
When the seas rose mountains high;
Tho’ a look from our Lord dispelled distress;
And a peace no mortal mind could guess
Possessed our souls, tho’ none the less
The tempests rent the sky.
And again would our Sun’s immortal rays
From the throne of the highest shine,
With a glory too great for mortal gaze,
Dispelling the momentary haze,
That had well nigh stifled the voice of praise
For mercy and grace divine.
His love for one moment was not in doubt,
Nor His power to bear us thro’,
But oft would the dark cloud close Him out,
And then would the foe seem strong and stout,
Fit to put feeble faith to rout,
And confidence undo.
But now is the end of our journey nigh,
And at hand is the home and rest,
And together our raptured souls descry
The white robed multitude on high,
Whose songs enravishing testify
The the joyance of the blest.
We praise the Saviour who early sought
Our souls in His love so great,
And us, as His own blood-ransomed, brought
From the far off land, where worse than naught
We pleasures pursued, nor gave one thought
To our utterly lost estate.
And the mercy that made us one we bless,
One, that we might pass on
Together, not lone and comfortless,
Thro’ dangers, and deaths, and deep distress,
But helps of each other’s helplessness,
Till the cloudless day shall dawn.