All for the Best

All for the Best

By Edgar A. Guest





Things mostly happen for the best.

However hard it seems to-day,

When some fond plan has gone astray

Or, what you've wished for most is lost

An' you sit countin' up the cost

With eyes half-blind by tears o'grief

While doubt is chokin' out belief,

You'll find when all is understood

That what seemed bad was really good.

Life can't be counted in a day.

The present rain that will not stop

Next autumn means a bumper crop.

We wonder why some things must be-

Care's purpose we can seldom see-

An' yet long afterwards we turn

To view the past, an' then we learn

That what once filled our minds with doubt

Was good for us as it worked out.





I've never know an hour of care

But that I've later come to see

That it has brought some joy to me.

Even the sorrows I have borne,

Leavin' me lonely an' forlorn

An' hurt an' bruised an' sick at heart,

An' though I could not understand

Why I should bow to Death's command,

That it was really better so.

Things mostly happen for the best.

So narrow is our vision here

That we are blinded by a tear

An' stunned by every hurt an' blow

Which comes to-day to strike us low.

An' yet some day we turn an' find

That what seemed cruel once was kind.

Most things, I hold, are wisely planned

If we could only understand.