The Bridge Builder

Will Allen Dromgoole (1860-1934)

Will Allen Dromgoole was born in Murfreesboro, the last child of John Easter and Rebecca Blanche Dromgoole. When she was six, Dromgoole changed her middle name to Allen, and throughout her life was known as Will Allen or "Miss Will."

In 1876 Dromgoole graduated from the Clarksville Female Academy and studied at the New England School of Expression in Boston. After her mother's death in 1884 and confronted with the responsibility of caring for her aging father, Dromgoole began her writing career.

"Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come." Psalm 71:18

The Bridge Builder by Will Allen Dromgoole (1860-1934)

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-
That sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned when he reached the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim near,
"You are wasting strength in building here.
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way.
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide,
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?"

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

This chasm that has been naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."

As Christian Women, may our desire be to continue and complete our own testimony. There is a vast importance in training those around us in the fear of God, and making them acquainted with the power of God.

Are those women around us led to walk by faith? Do they see us leaning on the Almighty Arm, to speak experimentally of its all sufficiency?

May we long to be so gloriously transparent as our lives edge on. And may we build a bridge in the lives of other women and our youth? There is someone who will follow in our footsteps!

I Love You,
Deborah