GIVING IS LIVING | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 31, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 31.

GIVING IS LIVING.

FOREVER the sun is pouring its gold On a hundred worlds that beg and borrow; His warmth he squanders on summits old, His health on the homes of want and sorrow; To withhold his largess of precious light Is to bury himself in eternal night— To give is to live.

The flower shines not for itself at all, Its joy is the joy it freely diffuses; Of beauty and balm it is prodigal, And it lives in the life it freely loses; No choice for the rose but glory or doom, To exhale or smother, to wither or bloom, To deny is to die.

He is dead whose hand is not opened wide To help the need of a human brother; He doubles the length of his life-long ride, Who gives his fortunate place to another; And a thousand million lives are his Who carries the world in his sympathies— To deny is to die.

—Anon.