Give thou thy youth to God,
With all its bud­ding love;
Send up thy op­en­ing heart to Him,
Fix it on One above.

He seeks thy heart, my child,
He wants to make thee blest;
Thy soul with His own joy to fill,
To give thee peace and rest.

Be ear­ly wise for Hea­ven,
Choose thou the nar­row way;
The gate is strait, the road is rough,
But it will end in day.

Shun the vain, gid­dy crowd!
Its shows, and snares, and lies;
Above its beau­ty and its love,
Lift thou thy wan­der­ing eyes.

Set thou thy heart on truth!
The way of truth is one.
Shun er­ror, sweet though it may be;
Look up­ward to the sun.

One Sun there is above,
One sun of light be­low;
Take the one light from the one Sun,
So shall thy light o’er­flow.

Love thou the book of God,
Prize ev­ery ho­ly line;
Steep in its truth thy thirs­ty soul,
And claim each hope as thine.

Know thou the God of love;
Seek thou thy joy in Him,
A joy that shall en­dure and bless,
When oth­er joys grow dim.

Take thou the side of God,
In things or great or small;
So shall He ev­er take thy side,
And bear thee safe through all.

Aim high! thou wert not made
To gro­vel in the ground:
Aim high! this life is not the last;
The high­er lies be­yond.

Quail not be­fore the bad,
Be brave for truth and right;
Fear God alone, and ev­er walk
As in His ho­ly sight.

Each stroke the mar­ble molds,
And ev­ery touch the clay;
Each sun­beam ris­ing from the deep
Unfolds the gor­geous day.

So does each lit­tle word,
Or wish, or deed, or plan,
Each hour’s im­pres­sion, help to give
Form to the fu­ture man.

Shun what is low or mean,
Be ge­ne­rous and true;
The no­ble mo­dels of the past—
Keep them be­fore thy view.

Stoop not to brood on self,
Check the self-pi­ty­ing tone;
Rise above self and self­ish thoughts,
And learn to stand alone.

Alone, with on­ly God
For guid­ance and for light,
For wis­dom and for sym­pa­thy,
For coun­sel and for might.

Love the broad fields of earth,
Its ev­er mirth­ful flow­ers;
The frag­rance of its wav­ing boughs,
Alike in sun and show­ers.

Love all that God hath made,
Each bud, each leaf, and gem;
They shine all fair in Him, and He
Shines beau­te­ous­ly in them.

Read thou the real and true,
Lest thou be­come a lie,
Thy life a fic­tion, and thy words
Mere words of mock­ery.

Dread un­re­al­ity,
And be what thou dost seem:
The true is fair­er than the false,
Whatever men may dream.

Be real to thy­self,
Be real to thy God,
Be real to thy fel­low men;
Keep thou the one true road.

Bend the ex­pect­ant knee,
Love the still hour of pray­er;
Go to the seat of God, and pour
Thy heart’s deep full­ness there.

Seest thou yon cross afar?
There died the Son of God:
That cross, it leads and beck­ons thee
Along the hea­ven­ly road.