Scripture Verse

Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Matthew 22:37–39

Introduction

portrait
Ella W. Wilcox (1858–1921)

Words: El­la W. Wil­cox, Cus­ter and Oth­er Po­ems (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: W. B. Con­key, 1896).

Music: Lan­herne Hen­ry Hay­man (1820–1894) (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Hay­man (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

Love thy­self last.
Look near, be­hold thy du­ty
To those who walk be­side thee down life’s road;
Make glad their days by lit­tle acts of beau­ty,
And help them bear the bur­den of earth’s load.

Love thy­self last.
Look far, and find the stran­ger
Who stag­gers ’neath his sin and his des­pair;
Go lend a hand and help him out of dan­ger,
To heights where he may see the world is fair.

Love thy­self last.
The vast­ness­es above thee
Are filled with spir­it forc­es, strong and pure;
And fer­vent­ly these faith­ful friends shall love thee,
Keep thy watch ov­er oth­ers, and en­dure.

Love thy­self last; and oh, such joy shall thrill thee,
As ne­ver yet to self­ish souls was giv­en.
Whate’er thy lot, a per­fect peace will fill thee,
And earth shall seem the an­te-room of Hea­ven.

Love thy­self last;
And thou shalt grow in spir­it
To see, to hear, to know and un­der­stand.
The mes­sage of the stars, lo, thou shalt hear it,
And all God’s joys shall be at Thy com­mand.