The Bridge Builder

It continues to be quoted frequently, usually in a religious context or in writings stressing a moral lesson.

In said book, the poem is titled Building the Bridge, and is composed and sung by a girl living near Elk River in Eastern Tennessee.

[1] An old man, going a lone highway, Came, at the evening, cold and gray, To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide, Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim; The sullen stream had no fears for him; But he turned, when safe on the other side, And built a bridge to span the tide.

The builder lifted his old gray head: "Good friend, in the path I have come", he said, "There followeth after me to-day A youth, whose feet must pass this way.