Scatter Seeds of Kindness

Words by Mrs. Albert Smith Music by S. J. Vail

"Let us gather up the sunbeams.
Lying all around our path.”

For many years this was the favorite hymn of Francis Murphy, the great temperance lecturer, and was the keynote of all his meetings. I had the pleasure of attending many of his services in Chicago, and have seen him move an audience to tears by his pathetic rendering of this hymn. It is believed that thousands of drinking men have been saved through its instrumentality.

I had the pleasure of meeting the author of this hymn in Illinois in 1878, and was surprised to learn that she herself was childless,—although very fond of children, as shown in the tender expressions in the latter portion of the hymn:

“How those little hands remind us,
As in snowy grace they lie,
Not to scatter thorns—but roses—
For our reaping by and by.”