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XXI.
MAY. HOW beautiful it is to be alive! | |
| To wake each morn as if the Maker’s grace | |
| Did us afresh from nothingness derive | |
| That we might sing “How happy is our case! | |
| How beautiful it is to be alive!” | 5 |
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| To read in God’s great Book, until we feel | |
| Love for the love that gave it; then to kneel | |
| Close unto Him Whose truth our souls will shrive, | |
| While every moment’s joy doth more reveal | |
| How beautiful it is to be alive. | 10 |
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| Rather to go without what might increase | |
| Our worldly standing, than our souls deprive | |
| Of frequent speech with God, or than to cease | |
| To feel, through having wasted health or peace, | |
| How beautiful it is to be alive. | 15 |
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| Not to forget, when pain and grief draw nigh, | |
| Into the ocean of time past to dive | |
| For memories of God’s mercies, or to try | |
| To bear all sweetly, hoping still to cry | |
| “How beautiful it is to be alive!” | 20 |
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| Thus ever towards man’s height of nobleness | |
| Strive still some new progression to contrive; | |
| Till, just as any other friend’s, we press | |
| Death’s hand; and, having died, feel none the less | |
| How beautiful it is to be alive. | 25 |
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