NOT TO MYSELF ALONE

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 24, 1874

NOT TO MYSELF ALONE.

“Not to myself alone.” The little opening flower, transported, cries, “Not to myself alone I bud and bloom: With fragrant breath the breezes I perfume, And gladden all things with my rainbow dyes; The bee comes sipping, every eventide, His dainty fill; The butterfly within my cup doth hide From threatening ill.”

“Not to myself alone.” The circling star with honest pride doth boast, “Not to myself alone I rise and set: I write upon life's coronal of jet His power and skill who formed our myriad host; A friendly beacon at Heaven’s open gate, I gem the sky, That man might ne’er forget, in every fate, His home on high.”

“Not to myself alone,” O man! forget not thou, earth’s honored priest— Its tongue, its soul, its life, its pulse, its heart— In earth’s great chorus to sustain thy part: Chiefest of guests at love’s ungrudging feast, Play not the niggard—spurn thy native clod, And self disown; Live to thy neighbor, live unto thy God, Not to thyself alone.