While going through old papers and stuff collected over the years this poem was stuck to the bottom of a book. The paper is faded and torn, but the whole poem is intact!

LIFE’S LESSON

I learn as the years roll onward

And leave the past behind.

That much I had counted sorrow,

But proves that our GOD is kind.

That many a flower I longed for

Had a hidden thorn of pain.

And many a rugged bypath

Led to fields of ripened grain.

The Clouds but cover the sunshine,

They cannot banish the sun.

And the earth shines but the brighter

When the weary rain is done.

We must stand in the deepest shadow

To see the clearest light.

And after from wrongs our darkness

Comes the very strength of right.

We must live through the weary winter

If we would value the spring.

And the woods must be cold and silent

Before the robins sing.

The flowers must be buried in darkness

Before they could bud and bloom.

And the sweetest and warmest sunshine

Comes after the storm and gloom.

So the heart from the hardest trial

Gains the purest joy of all,

And from lips that have tasted sadness

The sweetest songs will fall.

For as peace comes after suffering,

And love in reward of pain.

So after earth comes heaven,

And out of our loss, the gain.