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DUTY
Do thy duty; that is best;
Leave unto the Lord the rest.
James Russell Lowell
~~~~~~~~~
Not once or twice in our fair island-story
The path of duty was the way to glory.
He, that every following her commands,
On with toil of heart and knees and hands,
Thro' the long gorge to the far light has won
His path upward, and prevailed,
Shall find the topping crags of Duty scaled
Are close upon the shining table-lands
To which our God himself is moon and sun
Alfred Tennyson
~~~~~~~~~
Just where you stand in the conflict,
There is your place!
Just where you think you are useless
Hide not your face!
God placed you there for a purpose,
Whate'er it be:
Think He has chosen you for it -
Work loyally.
Gird on your armor! Be faithful
At toil or rest,
Whiche'er it be, never doubting
God's way is best.
Out in the fight, or on picket,
Stand firm and true;
This is the work which your Master
Gives you to do.
Anonymous
~~~~~~~~~
Art thou little? Do thy little well;
And for thy comfort know
Great men can do their greatest work
No better than just so.
Johann W. von Goethe
~~~~~~~~~
Unwasted Days
The longer on this earth we live
And weigh the various qualities of men,
Seeing how most are fugitive
Or fitful gifts at best, of now and then -
Wind-favored corpse-lights, daughters of the fen -
The more we feel the high, stern-featured beauty
Of plain devotedness to duty,
Steadfast and still, nor paid with mortal praise,
But finding amplest recompense
For life's ungarlanded expense
In work done squarely and unwasted days.
James Russell Lowell
~~~~~~~~~
So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man,
When duty whispers low, "Thou must,"
The youth replies, "I can."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
~~~~~~~~~
I reach a duty, yet I do it not,
And therefore see no higher; but, if done,
My view is brightened and another spot
Seen on my moral sun.
For, be the duty high as angels' flight,
Fulfill it, and a higher will arise
E'en from its ashes. Duty is infinite -
Receding as the skies.
And thus it is the purest most deplore
Their want of purity. As fold by fold,
In duties done, falls from their eyes, the more
Of duty they behold.
Were it not wisdom, then, to close our
eyes
On duties crowding only to appall?
No; duty is our ladder to the skies,
And climbing not, we fall.
Robert Leighton (1611-1684)
Vintage
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