The Pain we have to Suffer seems so Broad

The pain we have to suffer seems so broad,

set side by side with this life’s narrow span.

We need no greater evidence that God

hath some Devine destiny for man.

A God would not allow this life to send

such crushing sorrows as pursue us here,

unless beyond this fleeting journey’s end

our chastened spirits found another sphere.

So small this world, so vast its agonies,

a fuller life is needed to adjust

these ill-proportioned, wide discrepancies

between the spirit and its frame of dust.

So when my soul writhes in some aching brief

and all my heart strings tremble at the strain,

my reason lends new courage to belief

and hidden purposes at last seem plain.

Belief by Ella Wheeler Wilcox