n, every affliction,
every pang, every heartache!

"The ills we see--
The mystery of sorrow deep and long,
The dark enigmas of permitted wrong,
Have all one key--
This strange, sad world is but our Father's school;
All chance and change His love shall grandly overrule."

Rarely has the author been stirred, thrilled, as he was while
listening to an audience of a thousand colored people of the South
sing the following hymn. Some of them had been slaves; many were poor;
many uneducated; some Greek scholars; some were destitute; some were
half-invalids; some were aged and infirm; but few had the comforts of
life; all were heavy burden-bearers. White people from New York and
Texas, from Mississippi and Kansas, were moved to tears, as that
audience sang with such rhythm, such cadence, such pathos, such
sweetness, such soul-power, as only they can sing:--

"We are tossed and driven
On the restless sea of time,
Sombre skies and howling tempest
Oft succeed the bright sunshine.
In that land of perfect day
When the mists have rolled away,
We will understand it better by and by.

"By and by when the morning comes
And all the saints of God are gathered home,
We'll tell the story, how we've overcome,
For we'll understand it better by and by.

"We are often destitute
Of the things that life demands,
Want of shelter and of food
Thirsty hills and barren lands.
We are trusting in the Lord,
And according to His word,
We will understand it better by and by.

"Trials dark on every hand,
And we cannot understand
All the ways that God would lead us
To the blessed promised land,
But He guides us with His eye
And we'll follow till we die,
For we'll understand it better by and by.

"Temptations, hidden snares,
Often take us unawares,
And our hearts are made to bleed
For a thoughtless word or deed,
And we wonder why the test
When we try to do our best,
But we'll understand it better by and by."

But they are not the only ones who

"Wonder why the test
When we try to do our best."

They are not the only ones who can say,

"Trials dark on every hand
And we cannot understand,"

But they and all the redeemed, God's real children, can say,

"We will understand it better by and by."

Till then they can rest upon His word, that "the trial of your fait