Just This Minute

If we’re thoughtful, just this minute,

In whate’er we say and do,

If we put a purpose in it

That is honest thro’ and thro’

We shall gladden life and give it

Grace to make it all sublime;

For though life is long, we live it

Just a minute at a time.

Just this minute we are going

Toward the right or toward the wrong;

Just this minute we are sowing

Seeds of sorrow or of song.

Just this minute we are thinking

On the ways that lead to God,

Or in idle dreams are sinking

To the level of the clod.

Yesterday is gone; to-morrow

Never comes within our grasp;

Just this minute’s joy or sorrow,

That is all our hands may clasp.

Just this minute!  Let us take it

As a pearl of precious price,

And with high endeavor make it

Fit to shine in paradise.

-       Christian Advocate,[1] Nashville

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[1] Begun in 1826 as an official newspaper of the Methodist Episcopal Church, it was originally called the South Western Christian Advocate. It became the most widely-read periodical in the United States. With the restructuring of the church in 1848 to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South the paper was re-named the Nashville Christian Advocate. In 1858 Nashville was dropped from the name, though the paper continued to be published there. The newspaper had a wide variety of religious, secular and literary coverage, everything from church district reports to comments on politics, general literary selections and one of the most popular features was the obituary segment, those and notices of deaths of almost anyone and everyone. As the denomination grew, Christian Advocates began to be published in many locations and are active today; they all trace their heritage back to this newspaper.