THE WORK THAT LIES NEAREST.
By MINNIE EMBREE
I PLANNED how my life might be useful
In working abroad for the Lord:
I would first go away to some college
And learn a great deal of His Word;
Or go to some good sanitarium,
And learn how diseases to treat,
Then out in the world I might lecture
On how we should dress, and should eat. I would love to go far to the southward,
Where we learn of there being such need
Of people, with love for the Master,
To teach the poor negroes to read. Yet just where I am I am needed;
At home there are duties to do;
And I haven't the money sufficient
To take me to college, and through. But I find there is work right around me;
For just a few blocks from my door
Lives an old, almost blind, colored woman,
I ought to have read to before. Shall I wait for the way to be opened
For me to the helpless to go,
When here they are brought to my doorway
For help in my power to bestow? And, near me, at least one poor woman
Has fallen to sickness a prey;
Some aid I may possibly give her;
Why wait to go farther away? And yet my fond hopes are not blasted;
Of going abroad I still think;
Hoping sometime on health I may lecture,
I'll cleanse out my own kitchen sink.