If We Only Understood

Could we draw aside the curtains
That surround each other's lives,
See the naked heart and spirit,
Know what spur the action gives…
Often we would find it better
Purer that we judge we would;
We would love each other better
If we only understood.

Could we judge all deeds by motives,
See the good and bad within,
Often we would love the sinner
All the while we loathe the sin.
Could we know the powers working
To overthrow integrity,
We would judge each other's errors
With more patient charity.

If we knew the cares and trials,
Knew the efforts all in vain,
And the bitter disappointments
Understood the loss and gain
Would the grim external roughness
Seem, I wonder just the same?
Would we help where we now hinder?
Would we pity where we blame?

Ah, we judge each other harshly,
Knowing not life's hidden force;
Knowing not the fount of action
Is less turbid at it's source.
Seeing not amid the evil
All the golden grains of good,
Oh, we'd love each other better
If we only understood.

- "Poems of Dawn" compiled by C. T. Russell (1912)