The Church

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Feb 2, 1911

Instruction Pertaining to the Duties and Responsibilities of Officers and Members

Not Understood

Not understood! We move along asunder; Our path grows wider as the seasons creep Along the years; we marvel and we wonder Why life is life; and thus we fall asleep, Not understood.

Not understood! We gather false impressions, And hug them closer as the years go by, Till virtues seem to us to be transgressions, And men arise and fall, and live and die, Not understood.

Not understood! Poor souls with stinted vision Ofttimes do measure giants by their narrow gage; The poisoned shafts of falsehood and derision Are oft impelled ’gainst those who mold the age, Not understood.

Not understood! The secret springs of action, Which lie beneath the surface and the show, Are disregarded; with self-satisfaction We judge our neighbors, and they often go Not understood.

Not understood! How trifles often change us! The thoughtless sentence and the fancied slight Destroy long years of friendship and estrange us, And on our souls there falls a freezing blight, Not understood.

Not understood! How many hearts are aching For lack of sympathy! Ah, day by day How many cheerless, lonely hearts are breaking, How many noble spirits pass away, Not understood!

O God! that men would see a little clearer, Or judge less harshly where they can not see. O God! that men would draw a little nearer To one another; they’d be nearer thee. And understood.

— Selected.