The Ideal Life by Mary Lowe Dickinson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 5, 1907

The Ideal Life

By Mary Lowe Dickinson

We should fill the hours with the sweetest things If we had but a day; We should drink alone at the purest springs In our upward way; We should love with a lifetime’s love in an hour, If our hours were few; We should rest, not for dreams, but for fresher power To be and to do.

We should bind our weary and wanton wills To the clearest light; We should keep our eyes on the heavenly hills (And they lie in sight); We should trample the pride and the discontent Beneath our feet; We should take whatever our Master sent With a trust complete.

We should waste no moments in weak regret If the day were but one; If what we remember and what we forget Went out with the sun, We should be from our clamorous selves set free To work or to pray, And to be what our Father would have us be, If we had but a day.

—Mary Lowe Dickinson.