Poems: With a Sketch of the Life and Experience of Annie R. Smith

by Rebekah Smith

For I’m coming into harbor—

I’m coming home again.

Charity.

There is a way more excellent, so traced the sacred pen,

Than e’en to share the precious gifts which God vouchsafes to men;

It is to draw for every act our motive from above,

And make our whole of mortal life a holocaust of love.

For though the mind with all the wealth of human lore expand,

Though e’en an angel’s glowing words we hold at our command,

If in each thought and word expressed, no charity abound,