The Pillar of the Cloud
By Priscilla Leonard
“ALL sunshine makes the desert,”
The Arab proverb says;
The verdure and the harvest
Come through the rainy days;
The flowers in their fragrance,
The forests in their pride,
Come through the clouds that darken,
The storm which rages wide. “All sunshine makes the desert.”
The soul that knows not pain
Lies in its careless blisses,
And barren must remain.
Not till the storm-clouds gather,
Not till the tempests break,
Can seeds of greatness quicken,
Can powers of good awake. “All sunshine makes the desert.”
The highest ends of life
Lie not within its raptures,
But on through stress and strife;
And all our noblest powers
Of faith and hope and love
Come with the falling showers
From out God's heaven above. —Priscilla Leonard, in Youth's Companion.