HEAVENLY TRUST | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 10, 1872

HEAVENLY TRUST.

If the hard heart must be smitten e’er the spring of life can flow, As the waters locked in Horeb gushed beneath the prophet’s blow, If the vail before the temple where our idols are enshrined Must be rent in twain, to teach us we are weak, and frail, and blind, If the whirlwind and the fire must the still small voice precede, Waking in our souls the echo, Earth is but a failing need, If the waves which overwhelm us may not in their wrath be stayed, Grant us still to feel, O Father, “It is I, be not afraid.”

If beside our household altars, we grow weary of our trust, If the wing of faith is broken, and her pinions trail in dust, If we faint beneath our burden as we vainly question why All our springs of consolation and our wells of hope are dry, If our cup from Marah’s fountain be replenished o’er and o’er, Till the dregs and drops of bitter, earth has not a solace for, Though our strength be born of suffering, tho’ our hearts be sore dismayed, O sustain us with thy presence, “It is I, be not afraid.”

If our pleasant pictures, fading, have a background of despair, Let a ray of light from Heaven beam upon the darkness there, As in some old, time-worn painting, which the dust has gathered o’er, Light discloses to the gazer, beauty all unknown before, So the bright rays piercing downward thro’ the mist which round us lies, May illume life’s darkened canvas, and reveal before our eyes Glimpses sweet of pleasant waters, where our footsteps shall be stayed, As we listen to the whispers, “It is I, be not afraid.”