SCHOOL LIFE by Elizabeth A. Godwin

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 5, 1873

SCHOOL LIFE.

By Elizabeth A. Godwin

I sat in the school of sorrow, The Master was teaching there; But my eyes were dim with weeping, And my heart was full of care.

Instead of looking upward, And seeing his face divine, So full of the tenderest pity For weary hearts like mine—

I only thought of the burden, The cross that before me lay, So hard, and heavy to carry, That it darkened the light of day.

So I could not learn my lesson, And say, “Thy will be done!” And the Master came not near me, As the weary hours went on.

At last, in my heavy sorrow, I looked from the cross, above; And I saw the Master watching, With a glance of tender love.

He turned to the cross before me, And I thought I heard him say, “My child, thou must bear thy burden, And learn thy task to-day.

“I may not tell the reason; ’Tis enough for thee to know That I, the Master, am teaching, And give this cup of woe.”

So I stooped to that weary sorrow; One look at that face divine Had given me power to trust him, And say, “Thy will, not mine.”

And thus I learned my lesson, Taught by the Master alone, He only knows the tears I shed; For he has wept his own.

But from them came a brightness, Straight from the home above, Where the school life will be ended, And the cross will show the love.

— Elizabeth A. Godwin.