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By-and-By

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 3, 1879

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 54, No. 2.

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BY-AND-BY.

What will it matter by-and-by, Whether my path below was bright, Whether it wound through dark or light, Under a gray or golden sky, When I look back on it, by-and-by.
What will it matter by-and-by, Whether, unhelped, I toiled alone, Dashing my foot against a stone, Missing the charge of the angel nigh, Bidding me think of the by-and-by?
What will it matter by-and-by, Whether with laughing joy I went Down through the years with a glad content, Never believing, nay, not I, Tears would be sweeter by-and-by?
What will it matter by-and-by, Whether with cheek to cheek I've lain Close by the pallid angel, pain, Soothing myself through sob and sigh,— “All will be elsewise by-and-by?”
What will it matter? Naught, if I Only am sure the way I've trod, Gloomy or gladdened, leads to God, Questioning not of the how, the why, If I but reach him by-and-by.
What will I care for the unshared sigh, If, in my fear of slip or fall, Closely I've clung to Christ through all, Mindless how rough the path might lie, Since he will smooth it by-and-by?
Ah! it will matter by-and-by, Nothing but this: that joy or pain Lifted me skyward, helped to gain, Whether through rack, or smile, or sigh, Heaven—home—all in all, by-and-by!
—Selected.