Though you’ve been both crossed and harried, you’ve not struggled
on alone;
Through the discords of endeavor comes to you an answering tone. 
Life has done you many favors.  Will you give it tit for tat? 
Since you’ve looked so much at this side, won’t you have a look
at that?

Don’t help only those who’ve helped you, count the rest as strangers,
foes;
How long now would you have lasted had all done as you propose? 
Many and many a benefactor you did not nor can repay—­
There’s your mother.  Pass the kindness on to others—­that’s the way.

  Life it is that’s given freely.  Unto life make due return. 

Whether folks are undeserving, neither seek nor wish to learn. 
Hit your dernedest for your teammates every time you come to bat,
And the world will be more happy that you give it tit for tat.

St. Clair Adams.

THE KINGDOM OF MAN

The wisest men know that the greatest world is not outside them.  They could, in Shakespeare’s phrase, be bounded by a nut-shell and count themselves kings of infinite space.

  What of the outer drear,
    As long as there’s inner light;
  As long as the sun of cheer
    Shines ardently bright?

  As long as the soul’s a-wing,
    As long as the heart is true,
  What power hath trouble to bring
    A sorrow to you?

  No bar can encage the soul,
    Nor capture the spirit free,
  As long as old earth shall roll,
    Or hours shall be.

  Our world is the world within,
    Our life is the thought we take,
  And never an outer sin
    Can mar it or break.

  Brood not on the rich man’s land,
    Sigh not for miser’s gold,
  Holding in reach of your hand
    The treasure untold

  That lies in the Mines of Heart,
    That rests in the soul alone—­
  Bid worry and care depart,
    Come into your own!

John Kendrick

From “Songs of Cheer.”

ABOU BEN ADHEM

“Forgive my enemies?” said the dying man to the priest.  “I have none.  I’ve killed them all.”  This old ideal of exterminating our enemies has by no means disappeared from the earth.  But it is waning.  “Live and let live” is a more modern slogan, which mounts in turn from mere toleration of other people to a spirit of service and universal brotherhood.  Love of our fellow men—­has humanity reached any height superior to this?