Enriched by Giving

What blessedness it is to know, 
We cannot feel for others' woe, 
Without the added gift to heal
The griefs, which in ourselves we feel. 

We cannot do the smallest thing, 
With pureness in the offering, 
Without repayment in the heart, 
Far more than we ourselves impart. 

Make of thy soul a ceaseless flood
Of pure, benevolential good, 
A fountain, flowing out to men, 
And heaven shall fill it up again. 

Such is the heavenly way to live; 
Whate'er thou hast, to others give. 
GIVE LIFE TO OTHERS. Such alone 
Know how to heal and save their own.

— Christ in the Soul (1872) LXXXVIII.

Long Did the Clouds and Darkness Roll

Long  did the clouds and darkness roll
Around my troubled breast;
No starlight shone upon my soul,
My footsteps found no rest.
To human help I looked around,
But vainly sought relief;
No balm of Gilead I found,
No healing for my grief.

Then to the Savior's help I cried;
He listening heard my prayer;
I saw his wounded hands and side,
And felt that hope was there.
He guides me in the better way;
He makes my footsteps strong;
The gloomy night is changed to day,
And sadness changed to song.

— Religious Maxims (1846).

The Physician of the Mind

"And Jesus answering, said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician;  but  they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."  Luke v. 31.

He makes the deaf to hear, the blind to see,
Restores the faint, and doth the bleeding bind,
But shows himself more strong in charity,
In healing the diseases of the mind.
Thou sick and bowed of soul, to Jesus go!
Tell him how weak and how diseased the heart,
And learn how he compassionates your woe,
And plucks the spirit's, as the body's smart.
He  quells the fears that throng thee and annoy,
With brighter views the intellect doth fill,
Gives strength to hope, and permanence to joy,
And aids with power divine the doubting will.
Others may heal the body; Christ makes whole,
(And only He hath power,) the crushed and fallen soul.

— American Cottage Life (1850) XXIII.