What Can I Do?

Top Media Text Author Text Info Tune Timeline Page Scans Instances

If you cannot cross the ocean, And the heathen lands explore

Author: Daniel March
Published in 10 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, Noteworthy Composer
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 If you cannot cross the ocean,
And the heathen lands explore,
You may find the heathen nearer,
You may help them at your door;
If you cannot give your thousands,
You can give the widow’s mite;
And the least you do for Jesus
Will be precious in his sight.

2 If you cannot sing like angels,
If you cannot preach like Paul,
You can tell the love of Jesus,
You can say "He died for all,"
If you cannot rouse the wicked
With the judgment’s dread alarms,
You can lead the little children,
To the Savior’s waiting arms.

3 Let none hear you idly saying,
"There is nothing I can do."
While the souls of men are dying,
And the Master calls for you:
Take the task he gives you gladly,
Let his work your pleasure be;
Answer quickly when he calleth,
"Here I am, send me, send me."

Source: Minnetonka Songs: for Sabbath Schools, compiled especially for the Minnetonka Sabbath-School Assembly #54

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

Author: Daniel March

March, Daniel, D.D., an American Congregational minister, b. July 21, 1816, has published Night Scenes in the Bible, and other works. His hymn "Hark, the voice of Jesus crying [calling]. Who will go," &c. (Missions), is given in the American Methodist Episcopal Hymnal, 1878, in 2 stanzas; in Sankey's Sacred Songs & Solos, 1878, in 6 stanzas; and in the Scottish Hymnal 1884, in 5 stanzas; in each case of 8 lines. It was written in 1863. (See Nutter's Hymn Studies, 1884, p. 236.) --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)… Go to person page >

^ top

Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	If you cannot cross the ocean, And the heathen lands explore
Title:	What Can I Do?
Author:	Daniel March
Meter:	8.7.8.7 D
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain