Your ShelfYour Projects

TWO WAYS TO LIVE

9%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 21, 1882

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 59, No. 12.

Read the full edition

TWO WAYS TO LIVE.

There are two ways to live on earth— Two ways to judge, to act, to view; For all things here have double birth— A right and wrong, a false and true!
Give me the home where kindness seeks To make that sweet which seemeth small! Where every lip in fondness speaks, And every mind has care for all;
Whose inmates live in glad exchange Of pleasures free from vain expense; Whose thoughts beyond their means ne’er range, Nor wise denials give offense;
Who in a neighbor’s fortune find No wish, no impulse, to complain; Who feels not—never felt—the mind To envy yet another’s gain;
Who dreams not of the mocking tide Ambition’s foiled endeavor meets— The bitter pangs of wounded pride, Nor fallen power that shuns the streets.
Though fate deny its glittering store, Love’s wealth is still the wealth to choose; For all that man can purchase more Are sands it is no loss to lose!
Some beings, whereso’er they go, Find naught to please or to exalt— Their constant study but to show Perpetual modes of finding fault.
While others in the ceaseless round Of daily wants and daily care Can yet cull flowers from common ground, And twice enjoy the joy they share!
Oh! happy they who happy make— Who blessing, still themselves are blest! Who sometimes spare for others’ sake, And strive in all things for the best!
— Selected.