What I Live For | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Apr 20, 1876

What I Live For.

I live for those who love me, Whose hearts are kind and true; For the heaven that smiles above me, And awaits my coming too; For human ties that bind me, For the task my God assigned me, For the bright hopes left behind me, And the good that I can do.

I live to learn their story Who've suffered for my sake; To emulate their glory, And to follow in their wake; Bards, patriots, martyrs, sages, The noble of all ages, Whose deeds crowd History's pages, And Time's great volume make.

I live to hold communion With all that is divine; To feel there is a union 'Twixt Nature's heart and mine; To profit by affliction, Reap truths from fields of fiction, Grow wiser from conviction, And fulfill each grand design.

I live to hail that season, By gifted minds foretold, When men shall rule by reason, And not alone by gold; When man to man united, And every wrong thing righted, The whole world shall be lighted As Eden was of old.

I live for those who love me; For those who know me true; For the heaven that smiles above me, And awaits my coming too; For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that I can do.