WITHIN the Porch of Life we sit,

The access to the heavenly door,

The shadowy porch where cold rains pour,

And every bleak wind blows on it.

And those who crowd to stand thereon

Smiling with youth grow grave anon.

We sit among our fellows so,

Shivering a little in the wind,

And still our eyes reach out to find

The faint beam of an inward glow—

A home-like ray, which through the door

Steals, softly beckoning, evermore.

There in sure comfort, safe and warm;

They sit who have an entrance won,

Smiling and glad; each dearest one

Who once endured the bitter storm,

And shared our patience and our pain,

But come not forth to share again.

Dear door, which never is shut tight,

And knows no bolt and needs no bar,

But through all ages stands ajar

To bless the eyes which yearn for sight,

And keep the souls that wait without

From the slow desolate death of doubt!

The Porch of Life is hard and bare,

And long the waiting sometimes seems.

But while we catch the out-reaching beams,

Making the darkness subtly fair,

And know the door is open still,

We can endure it with goodwill.