The Joy of Service by L. D. Santee

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 29, 1908

The Joy of Service

By L. D. Santee

L. D. SANTEE

There are hearts in their hunger pathetic, That moan in their hunger and pain; There are souls in their sadness ascetic, O’erburdened in heart and in brain; From lands where the tropic heat rages, To mountains of ice with their glare, ’Mong the high and the low of all ages, There are lives that go out in despair.

What joy if some heart that is bleeding Is tenderly bound by your hand! What joy of all joys to be leading Some soul to the beautiful land! To comfort the lives that are grieving, To pray for the tempted that fall, To teach them the joy in believing In Jesus, the Saviour of all!

My heart with its pity is swelling For those who “pass under the rod;” I grow tenderly sober in telling Of the love and the pity of God: To the lives that are loveless and dreary, That lonely and desolate stand, He offers them, wayworn and weary, A home in the beautiful land.

The burdens of sorrow are lightened As we tell of the mansions above; And faces all tear-washed are brightened As they hear the sweet story of love; In darkness they blindly were groping, But tears from their eyes cease to fall; They look to the skies and are hoping In Jesus, the Saviour of all.

My experience an angel might covet, Such joy does His service afford; No sadness, for joy is above it,— ’Tis the wonderful “joy of my Lord.” I look with a faith sweet and tender Across the broad reach of the years, I shall see the blest city of splendor When Jesus the Saviour appears.

Chicago, Ill.