Light in Darkness + 

We’ve room to build holy altars + 

Where our crumbling idols lay; + 

We’ve room for heavenly visions, + 

When our earth dreams fade away. + 

Through rifts and rents in our fortune + 

We gazed with blinding tears, + 

Till glimpses of light and beauty + 

Gilded our gloomy fears. + 

An angel stood at our threshold, + 

We thought him a child of night, + 

Till we saw the print of his steps + 

Made lines of living light. + 

We had much the world calls precious; + 

We had heaps of shining dust; + 

He laid his hand on our treasures, + 

And wrote on them moth and rust. + 

But still we had other treasures, + 

That gold was too poor to buy, + 

We clasped them closer and closer, + 

But saw them fade and die. + 

Our spirit grew faint and heavy, + 

Deep shadows lay on our years, + 

Till light from the holy city, + 

Streamed through our mist of tears. + 

And we thanked the chastening angel + 

Who shaded our earthly light, + 

For the light and beautiful visions + 

That broke on our clearer sight. + 

Our first view of the Holy City + 

Came through our darken’d years, + 

The songs that lightened our sorrows, + 

We heard ’mid our night of tears. + 