A Hidden Life

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A THANKSGIVING.


I Thank Thee, boundless Giver,

  That the thoughts Thou givest flow In sounds that like a river

  All through the darkness go. And though few should swell the pleasure,

  By sharing this my wine, My heart will clasp its treasure,

  This secret gift of Thine.

My heart the joy inherits,

  And will oft be sung to rest; And some wandering hoping spirits

  May listen and be blest. For the sound may break the hours

  In a dark and gloomy mood, As the wind breaks up the bowers

  Of the brooding sunless wood.

For every sound of gladness

  Is a prophet-wind that tells Of a summer without sadness,

  And a love without farewells; And a heart that hath no ailing,

  And an eye that is not dim, And a faith that without failing

  Shall be complete in Him.

And when my heart is mourning,

  The songs it lately gave, Back to their fount returning,

  Make sweet the bitter wave; And forth a new stream floweth,

  In sunshine winding fair; And through the dark wood goeth

  Glad laughter on the air.

For the heart of man that waketh,

  Yet hath not ceased to dream, Is the only fount that maketh

  The sweet and bitter stream. But the sweet will still be flowing

  When the bitter stream is dry, And glad music only going

  On the breezes of the sky.

I thank Thee, boundless Giver,

  That the thoughts Thou givest flow In sounds that like a river

  All through the darkness go. And though few should swell the pleasure

  By sharing this my wine, My heart will clasp its treasure,

  This secret gift of Thine.





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