The Home Circle by Margaret F. Sangster

International Tract and Missionary Society · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Feb 4, 1886

The Home Circle.

By Margaret F. Sangster

PATIENT WITH THE LIVING.

SWEET friend, when thou and I are gone Beyond earth's weary labor, When small shall be our need of grace From comrade or from neighbor, Passed all the strife, the toil, the care, And done with all the sighing, What tender ruth shall we have gained, Alas, by simply dying!

Then lips too chary of their praise Will tell our merits over, And eyes too swift our faults to see Shall no defect discover; Then hands that would not lift a stone, Where stones were thick to cumber Our steep hill-path, will scatter flowers Above our pillowed slumber.

Sweet friend, perchance both thou and I, Ere love is past forgiving, Should take the earnest lesson home— Be patient with the living. To-day's repressed rebuke may save Our blinding tears to-morrow; Then patience—e'en when keenest edge May whet a nameless sorrow.

'Tis easy to be gentle when Death's silence shames our clamor, And easy to discern the best Through memory's mystic glamour; But wise it were for thee and me, Ere love is past forgiving, To take the tender lesson home— Be patient with the living. —Margaret F. Sangster.