::R1837 : page 157::

IF WE HAD BUT A DAY

WE should fill the hours with the sweetest things,
If we had but a day;
We should drink alone at the purest springs
On our upward way;
We should love with a life-time’s love in an hour,
If the hours were few;
We should sleep, not for dreams, but fresher power,
To be and to do.

We should hold our wearied or wayward wills
To the clearest light;
We should keep our eyes on the heavenly hills
If they lay in sight;
We should hush our murmurs of discontent
At a life’s defeat;
We should take whatever a good God sent
With a trust complete.

We should waste no moment in weak regret,
If the days were but one,
If what we remember and what we forget
Went out with the sun;
We should be from our clamorous selves set free
To work and to pray;
To be what the Father would have us be,
If we had but a day. —Selected.

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— July 1, 1895 —