Life's Key

The hand that fashioned me, tuned my ear          To chord with the major key,     In the darkest moments of life I hear     Strains of courage, and hope, and cheer          From choirs that I cannot see.     And the music of life seems so inspired     That it will not let me grow sad or tired.     Yet through and under the major strain,          I hear with the passing of years,     The mournful minor measure of pain,     Of souls that struggle and toil in vain          For a goal that never nears.     And the sorrowful cadence of good gone wrong,     Breaks more and more into earth's glad song.     And oft in the dark of the night I wake          And think of sorrowing lives,     And I long to comfort the hearts that ache,     To sweeten the cup that is bitter to take,          And to strengthen each soul that strives.     I long to cry to them 'Do not fear,     Help is coming and aid is near.'     However desolate, weird, or strange          Life's melody sounds to you,     Before to-morrow the air may change,     And the Great Director of music arrange          A programme perfectly new.     And the dirge in minor may suddenly be     Turned into a jubilant song of glee.