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To Give Is to Live

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Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 24, 1878

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 4, No. 4.

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"To Give Is to Live."

[There is a whole sermon on right living in this fine poem, which, estray in the newspaper world, has lost all signs of paternity.]
FOREVER the sun is pouring his gold On a hundred worlds that beg and borrow; His warmth he squanders on summits cold, His wealth 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 sweetly loses. No choice for the rose but glory or doom— To exhale or smother, to wither or bloom. To deny Is to die.
The seas lend silvery rain to the land, The land its sapphire streams to the ocean; The heart sends blood to the brain of command, The brain to the heart its lightning motion; And ever and ever we yield our breath, Till the mirror is dry, and images death. To live Is to give.
He is dead, whose hand is not open 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.
Throw gold to the far-dispersing wave, And your ships sail home with tons of treasure Care not for comfort, all hardships brave, And evening and age shall sup with pleasure; Fling health to the sunshine, wind, and rain, And roses shall come to the cheek again. To give Is to live.
What is our life? Is it wealth and strength? If we, for the Master's sake, will lose it, We shall find it a hundred-fold, at length, While they shall forever lose, who refuse it; And nations that save their union and peace At the cost of right, their woes shall increase. They save A grave.