Poem September 18, 1902 Issue

If we all Did our Best

SAMUEL GREENWOOD

If we all did our best, my struggling brother,
To be what God made us, for self and each other,
What kindlier hearts and happier faces
Would brighten the gloom of earth's desolate places!
What healing of heartaches, of sorrow and sadness,
What tides of good-will, what flowing of gladness,
Would flood this old earth with the glory of heaven,
If we all were but true to our nature God-given!

If we all did our best to be loving and kindly
Instead of thus crowding each other so blindly,
If brothers helped each to be truer and stronger
Gaunt phantoms of hatred would haunt us no longer!
The terrors of life would pass out as a vision,
And the shadows of sin with its pangs of remission
Be lost, in the sunshine of being primeval,
If we all lived for Good, and no one for evil!

If we all did our best where life's duties find us,
To work out our freedom from errors that bind us;
If our thoughts were all honest and pure and forgiving,
How much more sweetly would life be worth living!
What loads would be lifted, what gains gleaned from losses,
What love-jewelled crowns would follow the crosses,
What a heavenly place would this earth be, my brother,
If we all did our best for God and each other!