BROWNING'S BALM

The Satisfied Mind discovered this poem by Robert Browning and thought it would be of great encouragement to those of you who read my blog.

If I forget,
Yet God remembers! If these hands of mine
Cease from their clinging, yet the hands divine
Hold me so firmly that I cannot fall;
And if sometimes I am too tired to call
For him to help me, then he reads the prayer
Unspoken in my heart, and lifts my care.

I dare not fear, since certainly I know
That I am in God's keeping, shielded so
From all that else would harm, and in the hour
Of stern temptation strengthened by his power;
I tread no path in life to him unknown,
I lift no burden, bear no pain, alone;
My soul a calm, sure hiding-place has found:
The everlasting arms my life surround.

God, thou art love! I build my faith on that.
I know thee who hast kept my path, and made
Light for me in the darkness, tempering sorrow
So that it reached me like a solemn joy
It were too strange that I should doubt thy love.