p. 12 | LIFE'S MISSION by R. H. Stoddard

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 10, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 57.

LIFE'S MISSION.

By R. H. Stoddard

Though thou shouldst live a thousand years, Whatever fate gives, Or what refuses, Let this support thee in thy fears, Let this console thee in thy tears, Man loses but the life he lives, And only lives the life he loses. Longest and shortest are but one; The present is the same to all; The past is done with and forgot; The future is not yet begun; Nothing from either can befall, For none can lose what he has not. All things from all eternity Come round and round the whirling spheres; It makes no difference if we see The same things for a hundred years Or for a million. They are here. Who longest lives, who shortest dies, Loses the same sweet earth and skies, For they remain—we disappear. —R. H. Stoddard.