Poems (Geisse)/A Pastor's Retrospect

by Mary A. Geisse

A PASTOR'S RETROSPECT.

Oft I see the little chapel
 Where I preached in bygone years,
With the courage of a prophet,
 And a faith undimmed by tears.

Ah! those golden days resplendent
 With their promises of good,
When I sang as glad hosannas
 As the wild birds of the wood.

For I labored, never doubting
 That the seed I planted then,
Would be wrought in nobler living,
 Would "uplift the hearts of men."

But to-day the sense of failure
 Is upon me as I preach,
I am saddened by the memory
 Of the truths I could not teach.

Ah! the anguish of that knowledge
 As it slowly, surely grew.
When I felt the "incompleteness"
 Of the work I strove to do.

For the weight of added burdens
 Haunted, pressed me day by day,
Mourners I had failed to comfort.
 Sinners who had turned away.

Questions that I yearned to answer
 Seeking vainly for the truth,
Problems that had never vexed me
 In the happy days of youth.

Yet I know no pain is fruitless
 And no work is vainly wrought,
If it serves to bring us nearer
 To our Lord in deed and thought.

And I know, despite Life's mysteries,
 Secrets that must baffle man,
Naught shall mar the final victory
 Of the great "Eternal Plan."