Brighten the Corner Where You Are

Ira D. Ogden

Ira D. Ogdon (1872-1964) was a public school teacher who had plans for an evangelistic career. She abandoned that dream to care for her ailing father. In 1913, Ogdon wrote Brighten the Corner Where You Are to remind Christians that the pulpit and the mission field were not the only places one might make a difference for the Kingdom of God. Other of her hymns, such as Carry your Cross With a Smile and What Would Jesus Do?, follow the same theme.

The music for Brighten the Corner Where You Are was composed by well-known musician Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (1856-1932). Gabriel wrote lyrics to more than 20 hymns, including I Stand Amazed In the Presence, and he composed the music for close to 100 songs, including the famous Will the Circle be Unbroken.

Brighten the Corner Where You Are has been sung in Sunday Schools and churches of many denominations, and has been recorded by several artists, including the great American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald.


Do not wait until some deed of greatness you may do,
Do not wait to shed your light afar,
To the many duties ever near you now be true,
Brighten the corner where you are.

Refrain:
Brighten the corner where you are!
Brighten the corner where you are!
Someone far from harbor you may guide across the bar;
Brighten the corner where you are!

Just above are clouded skies that you may help to clear,
Let not narrow self your way debar;
Though into one heart alone may fall your song of cheer,
Brighten the corner where you are.

Refrain

Here for all your talent you may surely find a need,
Here reflect the bright and Morning Star;
Even from your humble hand the Bread of Life may feed,
Brighten the corner where you are.

Refrain