Scatter Seeds of Kindness

Let us ga­ther up the sun­beams

Lying all around our path;

Let us keep the wheat and ros­es

Casting out the thorns and chaff;

Let us find our sweet­est com­fort

In the bless­ings of today

With a pa­tient hand re­mov­ing

All the bri­ers from the way.

Then scat­ter seeds of kind­ness

Then scat­ter seeds of kind­ness

Then scat­ter seeds of kind­ness

For our reap­ing by and by.

Strange we nev­er prize the mu­sic

Till the sweet-voiced bird is flown!

Strange that we should slight the vio­lets

Till the love­ly flow­ers are gone!

Strange that sum­mer skies and sun­shine

Never seem one half so fair

As when win­ter’s snowy pin­ions

Shake the white down in the air.

If we knew the ba­by fin­gers

Pressed against the win­dow pane

Would be cold and stiff to­mor­row—

Never trou­ble us again—

Would the bright eyes of our dar­ling

Catch the frown up­on our brow?

Would the prints of ro­sy fin­gers

Vex us then as they do now?

Ah! those lit­tle ice-cold fin­gers

How they point our me­mo­ries back

To the has­ty words and act­ions

Strewn along our back­ward track!

How those lit­tle hands re­mind us

As in snowy grace they lie

Not to scat­ter thorns—but roses—

For our reap­ing by and by.