I LIVE for those who love me,
Whose hearts are kind and true ;
For the Heaven that smiles above me,
And awaits my spirit too ;
For human ties that bind me,
For the task by God assigned me,
For the bright hopes left behind me,
And the good that I can do.
I live to learn their story
Who suffered for my sake ;
To emulate their glory,
And to follow in their wake ;
Bards, patriots, martyrs, sages,
The noble of all ages,
Whose deeds crowd History's pages,
And Time's great volume make.
I live to hold communion
With all that is divine ;
To feel there is a union
'Twixt Nature's heart and mine ;
To profit by affliction,
Eeap truths from fields of fiction,
Grow wiser from conviction,
And fulfil each grand design.
I live to hail that season,
By gifted minds foretold,
"When men shall rule by reason,
And not alone by gold ;
When man to man united,
And every wrong thing righted,
The whole world shall be lighted
As Eden was of old.
I live for those who love me ;
For those who know me true ;
For the heaven that smiles above me,
And awaits my spirit too :
For the cause that lacks assistance ;
For the wrong that needs resistance ;
For the future in the distance,
And the good that I can do.
