When trouble comes your soul to try, You love the friend who just "stands by." Perhaps there's nothing he can do-- The thing is strictly up to you; For there are troubles all your own, And paths the soul must tread along; Times when love cannot smooth the road Nor friendship lift the heavy load, But just to know you have a friend Who will "stand by" until the end, Whose sympathy through all endures, Whose warm handclasp is always yours-- It helps, someway, to pull you through, Although there's nothing he can do. And so with fervent heart you cry, "God bless the friend who just "stands by"!"