[Editor: This poem by William Blocksidge (also known as William Baylebridge) was published in Songs o’ the South (1908).]
God’s Greatest Gift
If wit were all, what wealth would fill
The coffers of a few!
But O, what teeming multitudes
Would then be paupers, too!
If health were all, then more, perchance,
Would lose than e’er would gain;
And thus of men the larger part
The poorer would remain!
If gold were all, how good to be
Of mercenary mould!
And poets e’er would paupers be
If wealth were only gold!
But these good gifts, though great each one,
Appear exceeding small
When God’s law-hidden love we learn —
The greatest gift of all!
Source:
William Blocksidge, Songs o’ the South, London: Watts, 1908, pp. 20-21
Editor’s notes:
e’er = (vernacular) an archaic contraction of “ever”
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