Solace in Christ

748 C. M.
The only solace in sorrow.

O THOU who driest the mourner’s tear,
   How dark this world would be,
   If, when deceived and wounded here,
   We could not fly to thee.

2 The friends who in our sunshine live,
   When winter comes, are flown;
   And he who has but tears to give,
   Must weep those tears alone.

3 But Christ can heal that broken heart,
   Which, like the plants that throw
   Their fragrance from the wounded part,
   Breathes sweetness out of wo.

4 O who could bear life’s stormy doom,
   Did not His wing of love
   Come brightly wafting through the gloom,
   Our peace-branch from above.

5 Then sorrow, touch’d by Him, grows bright,
   With more than rapture’s ray;
   As darkness shows us worlds of light,
   We never saw by day.
                        Thomas Moore
                         Methodist Episcopal hymnal (1870 edition)

<idle musing>
Sometimes it's best not to know too much about the author and let the hymn stand on its own merits. This is one of those times.
</idle musing>