OVERRULED by Whittier

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 19, 1902

OVERRULED

By Whittier

The threads our hands in blindness spin No self-determined plan weaves in; The shuttle of the unseen powers Works out a pattern not as ours.

Ah! small the choice of him who sings What sound shall leave the smitten strings; Fate holds and guides the hand of art; The singer’s is the servant’s part.

The wind-harp chooses not the tone That through its trembling threads is blown; The patient organ can not guess What hand its passive keys shall press.

Through wish, resolve, and act, our will Is moved by unseen forces still; And no man measures in advance His strength with untried circumstance.

As streams take hue from shade and sun, As runs the life the song must run, But, glad or sad, to His good end God grant the varying notes may tend.

—Whittier.