The School of Difficulty

From the Evening Star, March 29, 1914. By Harvey S. Irwin.

Is not the way to heavenly gain
    Through earthly grief and loss?
Rest must be won by toil and pain—
    The crown repays the cross.
As woods when shaken by the breeze
    Take deeper, firmer root;
As winter’s frosts but make the trees
    Abound in summer fruit;
So every heaven-sent pang and throe
    That Christian firmness tries
But nerves us for our work below
    And forms us for the skies.