THE SWEETENING BRANCH by Frances E. Bolton

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 26, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 21.

THE SWEETENING BRANCH.

By Frances E. Bolton

LIFE'S bitter wells, to which we all have come, As Israel came to Marah, needs must be. God works love's purpose, tho we seem to roam, Doubt-blinded, aimlessly; Yet there's a branch to sweeten, e'en as then; We need not drink the bitter draught of wo. There is a branch to sweeten it for men, E'en as there was for Israel long ago.

That branch grows on the tree of life divine: It is the branch that bears the healing leaves. Faith plucks, and says, “Thy will, O God, not mine!” And the grieved spirit, wine of love receives. No earthly sorrow can withstand its power; It sweetens every bitter strife and feud. And, lo, we see how in each trying hour Love works all things for good!

The sin that drives us frantic with despair, The grief that makes all life seem nothing worth, The harrowing care that whitens so the hair, The trust betrayed that takes all joy from earth,— These bitter wells from which we shuddering turn, Of our own making, God would sweeten up, And give the draught for which we fainting yearn, And sweeten with His love each bitter cup.

All things, beloved, all things, work for good,— This hour of trial, humiliation, sin, This hour of alienation and of feud, This hour's perplexity which you are in. O, take the branch of “all things work for good,” And how the surge will cease, the storm grow calm, And you will journey on with soul subdued, To rest 'neath Elim's palm!

FRANCES E. BOLTON.