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Two Ways To Live

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Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jun 13, 1878

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 4, No. 23.

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Two Ways To Live.

THERE are two ways to live on earth; Two ways to judge, to act, to view; For all things here have double birth, A right and wrong—a false and true!
Give me the home that kindness seeks To make that sweet which seemed small; Where every lip in fondness speaks, And every mind has care for all;
Whose inmates live in glad exchange Of pleasures, free from vain expense; Whose thoughts beyond their means ne'er range, Nor wise denials give offense;
Who in a neighbor's fortune find, No wish, no impulse, to complain; Who feels not—never felt—the mind To envy another's gain;
Who dreams not of the mocking tide Ambition's foiled endeavor meets The bitter pangs of wounded pride, Nor fallen power that shuns the streets.
Though fate deny its glittering store, Love's wealth is still the wealth to choose; For all that man can purchase more Are sands, it is no loss to lose.
Some beings, whereso'er they go, Find naught to please or to exalt, Their constant study but to show Perpetual modes of finding fault;
While others in their ceaseless round Of daily want and daily care, Can yet cull flowers from common ground, And twice the joy and pleasure share!
Oh! happy they who happy make, Who, blessing, still themselves are blest! Who sometimes spare for others' sake, And strive in all things for the best!