p. 11 | THE WORTH OF HOURS by John Bowring

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 4, 1903

THE WORTH OF HOURS.

By John Bowring

Believe not that your inner eye Can ever in just measure try The worth of hours as they go by, For every man's weak self, alas! Makes him to see them while they pass As through a dim and tinted glass;

But if in earnest care you would Mete out to each its part of good, Trust rather to your after mood.

Upon your heart this truth may rise,— Nothing which altogether dies Suffices man's just destinies;

So should we live that every hour May die as dies the natural flower,— A self-reviving thing of power;

That every thought and every deed May hold within itself the seed Of future good and future meed;

Esteeming sorrow, whose employ Is to develop, not destroy, Far better than a barren joy.

—John Bowring.