The Home Circle by Carlotta Perry

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 1, 1881

The Home Circle.

By Carlotta Perry

RECOMPENSE.

The earth gives us treasure four-fold for all that we give to its bosom; The care we bestow on the plant comes back in the bud and the blossom. The sun draws the sea to the sky, O, stillest and strangest of powers, And returns to the hills and the meadows the gladness of bountiful showers. The mother regains her lost youth in the beauty and youth of her daughters, We are fed after many long days by the bread that we cast on the waters. Never a joy do we cause but we for that joy are the gladder, Never a heart do we grieve but we for the grieving are sadder. Never a slander so vile as the lips of the willing rehearser, And curses, though long, loud and deep, come home to abide with the curser. He who doth give of his best, of that best is the certainest user, And he who withholds finds himself of his gaining the pitiful loser. The flowers that are strewn for the dead bloom first in the heart of the living, And this is the truest of truths, that the best of a gift is the giving. —Carlotta Perry.