WHAT GOOD? by Edith G. Winans

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 30, 1880

WHAT GOOD?

By Edith G. Winans

WHAT good in striving long and faithfully To conquer self—to overcome the ills That meet us in the pathways, so to mock Our swifter progress? Ah! the spirit wills To be so strong in strife; so brave, and yet We view our losses with despairing eyes— With hearts grown faint that were so worldly-wise. Defeats and losses, yet no time to weep, Or waste the moments in unguarded sleep. Alone to watch and strive, with foes beset! What good?

What good, in lifting weak hands helplessly To Thee? The radiant buds and blossoms sweet, We gathered in the early, brighter hours, Lying all faded, withered at our feet; The pearly gates we can no longer see In mystic beauty at the journey’s close; We miss the Guiding Hand, while rougher grows The pathway. Ay! more wearisome and steep; And closer yet the deepening shadows creep. In lifting weak hands helplessly to Thee, What good?

What good, in sowing patiently beside The quiet waters, or in broader fields Spending the hours in earnest, ceaseless toil, Hoping for harvests that the Sometime yields? Or what the good, amid the harvest sheaves In ripened fields to glean the scattered grain, Unnoticed, scorned by others, when we fain Would bind the golden sheaves the others claim? Only gleaners! In bringing thus with shame Only the scattered grain instead of sheaves, What good?

What good, in patient, unremitting strife? It may be this, that we at last shall grow More patient, brave, and true; that these defeats And losses yet may lead us on to know A stronger, truer life than we have known. Nay! not alone we strive, and watch, and pray, His tender love will guide us all the way; And what we deem defeat and loss may be The way He leads us on to victory— To rest from strife, and to a victor’s crown.

What good, in lifting weak hands helplessly To Thee? It may be this, that we shall learn From this same helplessness of ours to lean More trustingly on Thee. That we shall turn In childlike faith to Thee; thus by and by Gaining sweet knowledge when the Guiding Hand Shall lead us safely through the lonely land So shadow-filled, until we see afar The pearly gates that ever stand ajar; There we shall find the answer to each cry.

What good, in toiling and in waiting long? The Sometime brings a rich reward to crown Such waiting. Ay! the harvest time will come, And where with toil the weary ones have sown, The golden grain shall wave and ripen, while We wait the reaping time. What though we find We are but gleaners, while the others bind Their many sheaves. Our joy shall be complete At last, when at the Master’s blessed feet We lay our offering, meeting but His smile. —Edith G. Winans.