AN OPEN SECRET | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 30, 1900

AN OPEN SECRET.

WHAT is it that gives to the plainest face The charm of sweetest beauty? Not the thought of the duty of happiness, But the happiness of duty.

This is life’s lesson, children dear: They are blest who learn it early; For it brightens the darkest day with cheer, Though fortune’s face be surly.

There’s a certain narrow, quiet path Of daily thinking and living, Of little deeds of sacrifice, Of loving and forgiving—

Of patience and obedience, Of gentle speech and action, Of choosing the right and leaving the wrong, With a sunny satisfaction;

And if we never leave this path For the thing the world calls pleasure, There will come to meet us a heavenly joy Beyond all power to measure.

For on this narrow, quiet way God’s angels move forever, Waiting to crown, with peace divine, Our every high endeavor.

Yes, this is what sheds on the lowliest life The glow of the sweetest beauty; Not the thought of the duty of happiness, But the happiness of duty.

— Selected.