By Matthias Barr.
Come, give me your hand, sir, my friend and my brother.
If honest, why, sure, that's enough!
One hand, if it's true, is as good as another,
No matter how brawny or rough.
Though it toil for a living at hedges or ditches,
Or make for its owner a name,
Or fold in its grasp all the dainties of riches--
If honest, I love it the same.
Not less in the sight of his Heavenly Maker
Is he who must toil for his bread;
Not more in the sight of the mute undertaker
Is majesty shrouded and dead.
Let none of us jeeringly scoff at his neighbor
Or mock at his lowly birth.
We are all of us God's. Let us earnestly labor
To better this suffering earth.