The Effect of Example

Five loving souls, each one as mine,
And each for evermore to be!
Each deed of each to thrill
For good or ill
Along thine awful line,
Eternity!

Who for such burthen may suffice?
Who bear to think, how scornful tone,
Or word or glance too bold,
Or ill dream told,
May bar from Paradise
Our Master's own?

We scatter seeds with careless hand,
And dream we ne'er shall see them more:
But for a thousand years
Their fruit appears,
In weeds that mar the land,
Or healthful store.

The deeds we do, the words we say,
Into still air they seem to fleet,
We count them ever past;
But they shall last,
In the dread judgement they
And we shall meet!

I charge thee by the years gone by,
For the love's sake of brethren dear
Keep thou the one true way
In work and play,
Lest in that world their cry
Of woe thou hear!