AFTERWARDS by Mary Rowles Jarvis

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 20, 1893

AFTERWARDS.

By Mary Rowles Jarvis

BY MARY ROWLES JARVIS.

God's ways are equal; storm or calm, Long nights of peril and of rest, The hurtling dart, the healing balm, Are all apportioned as is best; In judgment oft misunderstood, In ways mysterious and obscure, He brings from evil lasting good, And makes the final gladness sure; By many a fiery test of strength He bids our faith and hope increase, And gives the chastened soul at length His afterward of peace.

When the dread forces of the gale His sterner purposes perform, And human skill can naught avail Against the fury of the storm, The toiler, well-nigh losing heart, Low bending to his baffled oar, The watcher in her harder part Of helpless waiting at the door, Are still beneath his tender care, And he can make the tempest cease, And give them, for the anguish there, An afterward of peace.

The very waves that now appall, As in their wrath they plunge and roar, Some other day shall lightly fall In sunlit ripples on the shore; The cloudy chariots of the skies, That threaten death o'er sea and land, Are filled with many a sweet surprise Of goodness, from his lavish hand; Beneath their soft and gentle rain The buds shall open and increase, And field and wood shall know again His afterward of peace.

Look up, sad heart, no trial can last Beyond the limits God hath set; When its appointed work is past Thou shalt in joy forget; Where grief's sharp plowshare hath swept through, Thy fairest flowers of life shall spring, For God shall clothe thy world anew, And all its wastes shall laugh and sing; Hope thou in him; his plan for thee Must end in triumph and release; Fear not, and thou shalt surely see His afterward of peace.

—Sunday at Home.