Poetry Archives

’Tis not by selfish miser’s greed
  The great rewards of love are given;
’Tis not the cynic’s haughty creed
  Which gladly makes this world a heaven;
But tender word and loving deed
  Increase the angel joys of living,
And mortals gain life’s grandest meed
  By acts of giving and forgiving.

Let warriors bold with armies fight
  Their awful battles brave and gory,
To reap the harvest of their might
  And fill a gaping world with glory!
The humble heroes, out of sight,
  Where hidden tears and woes are striving,
Win victories for truth and right
  By deeds of giving and forgiving.

Let mighty kings of loyal lands
  Despise the faithful sons of duty,
And with the swords of vandal hands
  Destroy the homes of joy and beauty;
The honest lords of low commands
  Will find a nobler way of thriving,
In lonely vales where sorrow stands,
  By sweets of giving and forgiving.

Let rich men with their heaps of gold
  Be servants of the shining splendor,
And crush the bosom, poor and old,
  That lives by mercies pure and tender;
But still the soul with saints enrolled
  Will keep its charity surviving,
And have its humble glory told
  In tales of giving and forgiving.

O, helping hands and Christian hearts,
  Twin parents of the race’s gladness,
God speed the time when your sweet arts
  Shall banish every sign of sadness!
When mournful cries, when pain’s wild darts,
  Shall cease to curse the days of living,
And Heaven’s love to man imparts
  The joys of giving and forgiving.