The Home Circle by Mary Rowles

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 17, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 48.

The Home Circle.

By Mary Rowles

QUIETNESS AND ASSURANCE.

God works in silence, and his vast designs Are brought to pass in quietness and peace; Unheralded the sun comes forth at morn, And without tumult on the nations shines; Unwept again his ministrations cease, And twilight worlds are born.

The years sweep onward; but their chariot wheels Vouchsafe no echo to our yearning call. The swift attendant seasons as they pass Are shod with silence, and no sound reveals The rapid hours, whose steps are as the fall Of snow-flakes on the grass.

In quietness through dreary winter days The buds of next year's summer take their rest, Assured of happy waking by and by; Though long the sweetness of the spring delays, Though tempests move in wrath from east to west, They neither strive nor cry.

Patient in long reserve of hidden power, God's judgments tarry their appointed time; But from his love, wherein all fullness dwells, Mute tokens come about us hour by hour, In silence sweeter than the voiceless chime Of fragrant lily bells.

The perfect bliss for which his people crave— The final victory—he sees across The cloud and sunshine of a thousand years; While the frail garland on a baby's grave May circumscribe life's utmost gain and loss To eyes grown dim with tears!

O troubled heart, no storms of adverse fate, No wave of circumstance, may overleap The jasper borders of eternity; Acquaint thyself with Him, and soon or late He shall appoint a resting-place for sleep Wherein no dreams shall be.

He giveth quietness and peace serene Here and hereafter, unto those who rest Soul-centered on his own eternal calm; While sweet assurance, entering realms unseen, Leads onward to the triumph of the blest, The white robe and the palm!

—Mary Rowles, in Leisure Hours.