Susan Coolidge puts into verse some suggestive questions upon
opportunities to be helpful:
If you were toiling up a weary hill,
Bearing a load beyond your strength to bear,
Straining each nerve untiringly and still
Stumbling and losing foothold here and there,
And each one passing by would do so much
As give one upward lift and go his way,
Would not the slight reiterated touch
Of help and kindness lighten all the day?
If you were breasting a keen wind which tost
And buffeted and chilled you as you strove,
Till baffled and bewildered quite, you lost
The power to see the way, and aim and move,
And one, if only for a moment’s space,
Gave you a shelter from the bitter blast,
Would you not find it easier to face
The storm again when the brief rest was past?
(1390)
* * * * *
If I can live
To make some pale face brighter, and to give
A second luster to some tear-dimmed eye,
Or e’en impart
One throb of comfort to an aching heart,
Or cheer some wayworn soul in passing by;
If I can lend
A strong hand to the fallen, or defend
The right against a single envious strain,
My life, tho bare
Perhaps of much that seemeth dear and fair
To us of earth, will not have been in vain.
The purest joy,
Most near to heaven, far from earth’s alloy,
Is bidding cloud give way to sun and shine;
And ’twill be well
If on that day of days the angels tell
Of me, “She did her best for one of Thine.” (Text.)
(1391)
* * * * *
The Koran tells of an angel who was sent from heaven to earth
to do two things. One was to save King Solomon from doing some
wrong thing to which he was inclined; and the other was to help
a tiny yellow ant carry its load. (Text.)
(1392)
See INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE; LABOR, OPPORTUNITY FOR.