AFTERWARD

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 7, 1876

Not while the surging billows roll And overwhelm the struggling soul, While darkness black as Egypt’s night Shuts out all gleams of heavenly light; Not then the blessing comes to show The fruits that from afflictions grow— But afterward.

Not while with quivering lip and eye We watch our dearest treasures die, And gaze into the open grave Feeling our impotence to save; Then only grievous seems the care; The peaceful fruits of righteousness Come afterward.

When the first tempest’s gust is o’er, Calmed by a voice unheard before; When God’s own hand the cloud uplifts, And stars beam brightly through the rifts; ’Tis then the heart begins to know What fruits from secret grief below Come afterward.

When some sweet flower, till then unknown, Springs, with a power and grace its own, Beside the path so dark before, And lives a blessing evermore; Then the lone heart may learn to smile, Counting its treasures less the while— Thus afterward.

But ah! not yet may we discern One half the blessedness, nor learn The hidden good that lurks within Each painful stroke of discipline. Till Jesus comes we ne’er shall know All the rich fruits which earthly woe Brings afterward.

—Sel.