Life's Lessons

I learn, as the years roll onward
   And leave the past behind,
That much I had counted sorrow
   But proves that God is kind;
That many a flower I had longed for
   Had hidden a thorn of pain,
And many a rugged bypath
   Led to fields of ripened grain.

The clouds that cover the sunshine
   They can not banish the sun;
And the earth shines out the brighter
   When the weary rain is done.
We must stand in the deepest shadow
   To see the clearest light;
And often thro' wrong's own darkness
   Comes the very strength of light.

The sweetest rest is at even,
   After a wearisome day,
When the heavy burden of labor
   Has born from our hearts away;
And those who have never known sorrow
   Can not know the infinite peace
That falls on the troubled spirit
   When it sees at last release.

We must live thro' the dreary winter
   If we would value the spring;
And the woods must be cold and silent
   Before the robins sing.
The flowers must be buried in darkness
   Before they can bud and bloom,
And the sweetest, warmest sunshine
   Comes after the storm and gloom.

                     ~ John Henry Newman

Three Lessons

There are three lessons I would write--
   Three words as with a burning pen,
In tracings of eternal light,
   Upon the hearts of men.

Have Hope. Though clouds environ now,
   And gladness hides her face in scorn,
Put thou the shadow from thy brow--
   No night but hath its morn.

Have Faith. Where'er thy bark is driven--
   The calm's disport, the tempest's mirth--
Know this: God rules the host of heaven,
   The inhabitants of earth.

Have Love. Not love alone for one,
   But man as man thy brother call;
And scatter like the circling sun
   Thy charities on all.

Thus grave these lessons on thy soul--
   Faith, Hope, and Love--and thou shalt
      find
Strength when life's surges rudest roll,
   Light when thou else wert blind.

~Johann Christopher Friedrich von Schiller