What will it matter in a little while That for a day We met and gave a word, a touch, a smile, Upon the way? These trifles! Can they make or mar Human life? Are souls as lightly swayed as rushes are By love or strife? Yea, yea, a look the fainting heart may break, Or make it whole, And just one word, if said for love's sweet sake, May save a soul. Get leave to work In this world--'tis the best you get at all; For God in cursing gives us better gifts Than men in benediction. God says, "Sweat For foreheads;" men say "crowns;" and so we are crowned-- Ay, gashed by some tormenting circle of steel Which snaps with a secret spring. Get work; get work; Be sure 'tis better than what you work to get. --Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Be useful where thou livest, that they may Both want and wish thy pleasing presence still; Kindness, good parts, great places, are the way To compass this. Find out men's wants and will, And meet them there. All worldly joys go less To the one joy of doing kindnesses. --George Herbert. When He who, sad and weary, longing sore For love's sweet service sought the sisters' door, One saw the heavenly, one the human guest; But who shall say which loved the Master best? --John Greenleaf Whittier. Oft, when the Word is on me to deliver, Opens the heaven, and the Lord is there. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Then with a rush the intolerable craving Shivers throughout me like a trumpet call-- Oh to save these! to perish for their saving, Die for their life, be offered for them all! No man is born into the world whose work Is not born with him; there is always work, And tools to work withal, for those who will; And blessed are the horny hands of toil! --James Russell Lowell. The Holy Supper is kept, indeed, In whatso we share with another's need; Not what we give, but what we share, For the gift without the giver is bare; Who gives himself with his alms feeds three: Himself, his hungering neighbor, and Me. --James Russell Lowell. Look not beyond the stars for heaven, Nor 'neath the sea for hell; Know thou, who leads a useful life In Paradise doth dwell. --Hafiz, tr. by Frederic Rowland Marvin. Small service is true service while it lasts: Of humblest friends, bright creature, scorn not one; The daisy, by the shadow that it casts, Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun. --William Wordsworth. Mechanic soul, thou must not only do With Martha, but with Mary ponder too; Happy's the home where these fair sisters vary; But most, when Martha's reconciled to Mary. --Francis Quarles.