The Cyber Hymnal ‎#8739

8739. What Will It Matter?

1 What will it matter, by and by,
Whether my path below was bright,
Whether it wound thro’ dark or light
Under a gray or golden sky,
When I look back on it by and by?

2 What will it matter, by and by,
Whether, unhelped, I toiled alone,
Dashing my foot against a stone,
Missing, perhaps, the angel nigh,
Bidding me think of the by and by?

3 What will it matter? Naught, if I
Only am sure the way I’ve trod,
Gloomy or gladdened, leads to God;
Questioning not of how, or why,
If I but gaze on Him by and by.

4 What will it matter? What the sigh,
If, in my fear of slip or fall,
Closely I’ve clung to Christ thro’ all,
Mindless how rough the path might lie,
Since He will comfort me by and by?

Text Information

• First Line: What will it matter, by and by
• Title: What Will It Matter?
• Author: Margaret Junkin Preston
• Language: English
• Source: Cartoons (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1875); For Love's Sake: Poems of Faith and Comfort (New York: Anson D. F. Randolph, 1886)
• Copyright: Public Domain

Tune Information

• Name: [What will it matter, by and by]
• Composer: Daniel G. Norris (1877)
• Key: E♭ Major
• Source: Welcome Tidings by Robert Lowry, W. Hoard Doane, and Ira D. Sankey (New York: John Church, 1877)
• Copyright: Public Domain