FRANCIS M. WILCOX by Francis M. Wilcox

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 5, 1907

FRANCIS M. WILCOX

By Francis M. Wilcox

From Darkness to Light

FRANCIS M. WILCOX

DEEP darkness and despair My inmost soul possess; No light, no fire of love, Or joy of life, I share. To failure and defeat I now confess; My hope hath vanished from above.

The smiling sun doth shine In mockery and hate; Each twinkling star of sky Becomes to me and mine A harbinger of fate, Of hopeless death now nigh.

'Twas thus in sin's wild way I lived in doubts and fears; By God oft wooed and sought, But singing my mournful lay In anguish and in tears, While sin my bondage wrought.

But hope, in pity kind, Came to my darkened cell; The heavy cloud did part, Light entered my poor mind,— The change I can not tell,— It purified my heart.

Now all the world looks bright, The dark has turned to day; God's thoughts which seemed so wrong. Appear now best and right, And he doth choose my way, And he is now my song.

Despair to hope doth bow, Sorrow to joy doth turn, My Father's plans are best; This trust sustains me now. With longing heart I yearn For his eternal rest.

Boulder, Colo.