GOD'S ANVIL by Julius Sturm

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 30, 1868

GOD'S ANVIL.

By Julius Sturm

PAIN's furnace-heat within me quivers, God's breath upon the flames doth blow, And all my heart in anguish shivers, And trembles at the fiery glow: And yet I whisper—As God will, And, in his hottest fire, hold still.

He comes and lays my heart, all heated, On his hard anvil, minded so Into his own fair shape to beat it With his great hammer, blow on blow. And yet I whisper—As God will, And at his heaviest blows, hold still.

He takes my softened heart and beats it, And sparks fly off at every blow; He turns it o'er and o'er, and heats it, And lets it cool, and makes it glow; And yet I whisper—As God will, And, in his mighty hand, hold still.

Why should I murmur? for the sorrow Thus only longer lived will be; Its end may come and will to-morrow, When God has done his work in me; So I say, trusting—As God will, And trusting to the end, hold still.

He kindles for my profit, purely, Affliction's glowing, fiery brand, For all his heaviest blows are surely Inflicted by a master hand: So I say, praying—As God will, And hope in him, and suffer still.

—Julius Sturm.