Who Is My Neighbor?
Thy neighbor? It is he whom thou
Hast power to aid and bless;
Whose aching heart or burning brow
Thy soothing hand may press.
Thy neighbor? ‘Tis the fainting poor,
Whose eye with want is dim,
Whom hunger sends from door to door;
Go thou and succor him.
Thy neighbor? ‘Tis that weary man,
Whose years are at the brim,
Bent low with sickness, care and pain;
Go thou and comfort him.
Thy neighbor? ‘Tis the heart bereft
Of every earthly gem,
Widow and orphan helpless left;
Go thou and shelter them.
Where’er thou meet’st a human life
Less favored than thine own,
He is thy neighbor in the strife,
Thy brother, or thy son.
Oh, pass not, pass not heedless by;
Perhaps thou canst redeem
The breaking heart from misery—
Go share thy lot with him.
—Anon.
A Day Gained Or A Day Lost
If you sit down at set of sun
And count the acts that you have done,
And, counting, find
One self-denying deed, one word
That eased the heart of him who heard—
One glance most kind,
That fell like sunshine where it went—
Then you may count that day well spent.
—George Eliot.
Alternate Reading: John 10: 1-21.