IF I CAN LIVE by Helen Hunt Jackson

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 6, 1900

“IF I CAN LIVE.”

By Helen Hunt Jackson

If I can live To make some pale face brighter, and to give A second luster to some tear-dimmed eye, Or e’en impart One throb of comfort to an aching heart, Or cheer some way-worn soul in passing by;

If I can lend A strong hand to the fallen, or defend The right against a single envious strain, My life, though bare, Perhaps, of much that seemeth dear and fair To us of earth, will not have been in vain.

The purest joy, Most near to heaven, far from earth’s alloy, Is bidding cloud give way to sun and shine; And ’t will be well If on that day of days the angels tell Of me, She did her best for one of Thine. —Helen Hunt Jackson.