p. 382 | The Home Circle

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 23, 1883

The Home Circle.

I F.

If our path were strewn with roses That concealed no stinging thorn, If the hour when one joy closes Saw another newly born, If our dreams were full of beauty, And our waking hours of peace, Would we feel for those whose duty Never gives their hearts release?

If our dwelling were a palace Where we knew no pang or pain, Where the red wine in life's chalice Bore no bitterness, no bane, Would our sympathies awaken, Would our generous hands be spread For the outcast, the forsaken, Who have neither home nor bread?

If we knew no lack, no losses, Disappointment, toil, or care, Would we succor him whose crosses Are too wearisome to bear? If we slept on silken couches Pranked with costly gems and gold, Would we pity him who crouches By the wayside in the cold?

If the world were juster, truer, In its censure and its praise; If our doubts and cares were fewer— Fewer weary nights and days— If there were no graves behind us, Where the loved and lost ones sleep, No sweet memories to bind us, Would we weep with those who weep?

If our hopes were never blasted, If our love grew never cold, If our strength and beauty lasted Till a hundred years were told, Would our hearts be humbly given To the Giver of such bliss? Would we ever think of Heaven As a better place than this?

—The New Age.