Belief

The pain we have to suffer seems so broad,
Set side by side with this life’s narrow span,
We need no greater evidence that God
Has some diviner destiny for man.

He would not deem it worth His while to send
Such crushing sorrows as pursue us here,
Unless beyond this fleeting journey’s end
Our chastened spirits found another sphere.

So small this world! So vast its agonies!
A future life is needed to adjust
These ill-proportioned, wide discrepancies
Between the spirit and its frame of dust.

So when my soul writhes with some aching grief.
And all my heart-strings tremble at the strain,
My Reason lends new courage to Belief,
And all God’s hidden purposes seem plain.