.j.iijflHEcninciiiiiiii^iirT'j'.'w
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 HEART MELODIES
 
 HEART MELODIES 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 MARY ALLETTE AYER 
 
 EDITOR OF " DAILY CHEER YEAR BOOK " AND 
 " THE JOYS OF FRIENDSHIP " 
 
 Courage, Heart, as the shadows creep, 
 Shift your burden, and heed it not — 
 
 After the night is noon ; 
 After thejo7irney, rest ; 
 
 For the ivind will wake and the stars be bright, 
 And the heart that sings is blest ! 
 
 — Grace Duffield Goodwin. 
 
 BOSTON 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
 
 Published April, 1907. 
 
 Copyright, 1907, 
 By LOTHROP, lee & SHEPARD CO. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 Heart Melodies. 
 
 NotSaaotJ ^reaa 
 
 J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
 
 6331 
 
 . . . Go, trembling song. 
 And stay not long ; oh, stay not long ; 
 Thou'rt only a gray and sober dove. 
 But thine eye is faith, and thy wing is love. 
 
 — Sidney Lanier. 
 
 62GM9
 
 Acknowledgments 
 
 The editor wishes to thank most cordially the 
 authors who have so kindly permitted the use 
 of their poems, and the publishers for permission 
 to use copyrighted material; to Houghton, Mifflin 
 & Co. for " The Hymn of Trust " and " The 
 Sun-Day Hymn," by Oliver Wendell Holmes ; 
 to Stephen J. Herben, Charles W. Parkhurst, John 
 T. McFarland, for selections from the Epworth 
 Herald^ Zions Herald^ and the Classmate ; to Luella 
 Clark for poems, " In the Rain," " A Little 
 While," and " Foreshadowings " ; to H. M. Bar- 
 bour for "To-day," "The Price," and other 
 poems by Mary Frances Butts ; to Jennie Eliza- 
 beth Gates for " A Song of Life," and to all 
 others who have so kindly aided in any way in 
 the compilation of this little volume. 
 
 M. A. A. 
 
 3 Tenth Avenue, Haverhill, Mass. 
 
 Vll
 
 Our life is a keyboard. The Master's 
 fingers will sweep over it, and a weary world 
 will catch notes of melody as we pass along. 
 The life that is in tune with God is keyed to 
 the note of love. 
 
 — J. R. Miller.
 
 HEART MELODIES 
 
 LIFE'S MELODY 
 
 /^UR lives are songs ; 
 God writes the words, 
 
 And we set them to music at leisure ; 
 And the song is sad, or the song is glad, 
 
 As we choose to fashion the measure. 
 
 We must write the song. 
 Whatever the words. 
 
 Whatever the rhyme or meter. 
 And if it is sad we must make it glad. 
 
 And if sweet we must make it sweeter. 
 
 — Gibbon. 
 
 ' I ^HE inner side of every cloud 
 
 Is bright and shining, 
 I therefore turn my clouds about, 
 And always wear them inside out 
 To show the lining. 
 
 — Ella Fowler Felkin.
 
 "Thou shall compass me about with songs of deliverance." — 
 Psalm 32 : 7. 
 
 Al^HY ^^ songs of deliverance"? "Why not 
 "deliverance" itself? Because the best 
 way to deliver a man from calamity is to put a 
 song in his heart. There are some vi^ho sink 
 under their calamity, and there are some vi^ho 
 swim through it. I think you will find that the 
 difference between these lies in the comparative 
 amount of their previous cheer. The balance 
 generally turns on the hearing or not hearing of 
 yesterday's song. They who have the song al- 
 ready in their heart pass over the Red Sea ; they 
 who have heard no previous music are submerged 
 in the wave. — George Matheson. 
 
 COMETIMES the storm is dark above. 
 
 Sometimes the rain is chilling ; 
 And not a bird in all the tree 
 His merry note is trilling ; 
 Yet in spite of dreary weather, 
 Sing my heart and I together : 
 " Clouds may hide the radiant skies, 
 Yet the sunshine never dies ! " 
 
 — Emily Huntington Miller. 
 
 4
 
 TF your religion does not make you cheerful, you 
 have not the right sort. — Epworth Herald. 
 
 'T~'HERE is ever a song somewhere, my dear, 
 There is ever a something sings alway — 
 There's the song of the lark when the skies are 
 clear. 
 
 And a song of the thrush when the skies are gray. 
 The sunshine showers across the grain. 
 
 And the bluebird trills in the orchard tree ; 
 And in and out when the eaves drip rain, 
 
 The swallows are twittering ceaselessly. 
 There is ever a song somewhere, my dear, 
 
 Be the skies above or dark or fair, 
 There is ever a song that our hearts may hear — 
 There is ever a song somewhere, my dear — 
 
 There is ever a song somewhere ! 
 
 — James IVhitcomb Riley. 
 
 OING on, O redbreast, thy brave strain ; 
 
 Sing on till sunshine conquer rain. 
 Till gladness conquer all thy pain. 
 
 — Grace L. Robinson. 
 
 T WILL be free as the rushing air, 
 And sing of sunshine everywhere ! 
 
 — L. Maria Child. 
 
 5
 
 OING me a song to-day, 
 
 For my heart beats high ; 
 There is never a film of cloud 
 
 In my arching sky ; 
 Sing me a song that shall voice my gladness, 
 A song that has never a note of sadness. 
 
 Sing me a song to-day. 
 
 For my heart beats low ; 
 And shadovi^s are over the way 
 
 That I must go ; 
 Sing me a song to bring back gladness, 
 And give me courage and cure my sadness. 
 
 Sing me a song to-day. 
 
 Always a song of cheer, 
 Fitting if I am glad, 
 
 Or, faint with fear, 
 The world has many a dirge of sadness. 
 But all too few are its songs of gladness. 
 
 — E. A. Lente. 
 
 "\1 7E would never know the gladness 
 Of the joytime but the sadness. 
 Though the winter blasts the roses. 
 Summer comes and them discloses. 
 Cheer up ! 
 — Henry Waldorf Francis. 
 6
 
 A FTER all, it is not what is around us, but 
 what is in us; not what we have, but what we 
 are, that makes us really happy. — Geikie. 
 
 IV AY soul, thou art receiving a music lesson from 
 ^ thy Father. Thou art being educated for 
 the choir invisible. There are parts of the sym- 
 phony that none can take but thee. There are 
 chords too minor for the angels. There may be 
 heights in the symphony which are beyond thy 
 scale — heights which the angels alone can reach. 
 But there are depths which belong to thee^ and can 
 only be touched by thee. Thy Father is training 
 thee for the part the angels cannot sing ; and the 
 school is sorrow. I have heard men say that He 
 sends thy sorrow to prove thee ; nay, He sends thy 
 sorrow to educate thee, to train thee for the choir 
 invisible. In the night He is preparing thy song. 
 In the valley He is tuning thy voice. In the cloud 
 He is deepening thy chords. In the storm He is 
 enriching thy pathos. In the rain He is sweeten- 
 ing thy melody. In the cold He is moulding thine 
 expression. In the transition from hope to fear 
 He is perfecting thy lights and shades. Despise 
 
 7
 
 not thy school of sorrow, O my soul ! It will 
 give thee a unique part in the universal song. 
 — Rev. George Matheson in " Zion's Herald" 
 
 \^ EEP a smile on your lips ; it is better 
 
 To hopefully, joyfully try 
 For the end you would gain than to fetter 
 
 Your life with a moan and a sigh. 
 There are clouds in the firmament ever 
 
 The beauty of heaven to mar, 
 Yet night so profound there is never, 
 But somewhere is shining a star. 
 
 — Nixon Waterman. 
 
 A SONG is such a little thing ; 
 
 And yet what joy it is to sing ! 
 In hours of toil it gives me zest, 
 And when at eve I long for rest ; 
 When I come home along the bars. 
 
 And in the fold I hear the bell. 
 As Night, the shepherd, herds his stars, 
 I sing my song and all is well. 
 
 — Paul Lawrence Dunbar. 
 8
 
 t'^ OD sent his Singers upon earth 
 ^■'^ With songs of sadness and of mirth, 
 That they might touch the hearts of men, 
 And bring them back to heaven again. 
 
 — Henry TV. Longfellow. 
 
 IV A Y Father, compass me with Thy songs ! It 
 is not the song after the battle that I ask ; 
 my own heart will give me these. What I need 
 is a song before the battle. I can easily get the 
 song of Moses ; what I require is the song of 
 the Lamb. The song of Moses came after the 
 triumph ; it was the pasan of victory. But the 
 song of the Lamb is previous to the conflict. 
 It was sung ere Gethsemane was entered. It pre- 
 ceded the hour of sacrifice. Before the sweat- 
 drops fell, before the struggle woke, before the 
 perils of the night arose. Thou didst send to Jesus 
 Thy voice from heaven — Thy promise of glory. 
 Thou didst compass Him before the battle with 
 songs of deliverance. He took a light with Him 
 into the valley. Not joyless did He meet the foe. 
 He stood by the warm fire ere He went out into 
 the cold. He felt the pressure of a hand ere He 
 faced the silence. Thy song was with Him in 
 the night ; it waited not for morning. The flower 
 
 9
 
 got into the heart earlier than the thorn, and it 
 deadened the thorn. Be mine this song of the 
 Lamb — this song before deliverance ! The song 
 of Moses can be delayed till the conflict is over ! 
 but I cannot dispense with that other music — the 
 song before the sacrifice — the song of the Lamb. 
 — George Math e son in " Zions Her aid J'' 
 
 T EARN to keep the song going in your life, no 
 matter what has happened. Sometimes, per- 
 haps, it may have a more exultant ring to it because 
 of the personal pain you are forgetting — because 
 the "chord of self" has " passed in music out of 
 sight." Yet it is only another illustration of the 
 promise that he that loseth, findeth. 
 
 — Anna Burnham Bryant. 
 
 TF we could push ajar the gates of life. 
 
 And stand within, and all God's workings see, 
 We could interpret all the doubt and strife. 
 And for each mystery could find a key ! 
 
 But not to-day. Then be content, poor heart ! 
 
 God's plans like lilies pure and white unfold ; 
 We must not tear the close-shut leaves apart ; 
 
 Time will reveal the calyxes of gold. 
 
 10
 
 And if, through patient toil, we reach the land 
 Where tired feet, with sandals loosed, may rest. 
 
 When we shall clearly see and understand, 
 
 I think that we will say, " God knew thee best." 
 
 — May Riley Smith. 
 
 KEEP SINGING 
 
 r^ON'T let the song go out of your life ; 
 
 Though it chance sometimes to flow 
 In a minor strain — it will blend again 
 With the major tone, you know. 
 
 Don't let the song go out of your life; 
 
 Though your voice may have lost its trill, 
 Though the tremulous note should die in the throat, 
 
 Let it sing in your spirit still. 
 
 There is never a pain that hides not some gain. 
 
 And never a cup of rue 
 So bitter the sup, but what in the cup 
 
 Lurks a measure of sweetness too. 
 
 Then do not despond, and say that the fond. 
 
 Sweet songs of your life have flown. 
 
 For if ever you knew a song that was true, 
 
 Its music is still your own. 
 
 — Kate R. Stiles. 
 
 II
 
 COME day we shall know that every sorrow in 
 our lives held a secret of joy for us. Only 
 in entire surrender and devotion to Christ can we 
 learn the new song. — J- ^- Miller. 
 
 THE TWO SINGERS 
 
 A SINGER sang a song of tears, 
 
 And the great world heard and wept, 
 For he sang of the sorrows of fleeting years, 
 And the hopes which the dead past kept ; 
 And souls in anguish their burdens bore, 
 And the world was sadder than ever before. 
 
 A singer sang a song of cheer. 
 
 And the great world listened and smiled, 
 For he sang of the love of a Father dear, 
 
 And the trust of a Httle child ; 
 And souls that before had forgotten to pray, 
 Looked up and went singing along their way. 
 
 — Jnon. 
 
 TF your cup is small, fill it to the brim. Make 
 the most of your opportunities, of honest 
 work, and pure pleasure. 
 
 — Henry van Dyke. 
 12
 
 A SONG welled up in the singer's heart 
 Like a song in the throat of a bird, 
 And loud he sang, and far it rang. 
 
 For his heart was strangely stirred ; 
 And he sang for the very joy of song. 
 With no thought of one who heard. 
 
 Within the listener's wayward soul 
 
 A heavenly patience grew ; 
 He fared on the way a benison 
 
 On the singer, who never knew 
 How a careless song of an idle hour 
 
 Has shaped a life anew. 
 
 — Jlice TV. Brotherton. 
 
 'X'HE day may be long, but the morning 
 
 Will rise on the darkest night ; 
 The pilgrimage painful, but Beulah 
 Waits with its fields of light. 
 
 And he who sits in the shadow 
 
 Shall surely the sunshine see ; 
 And to all who in patience suffer. 
 
 Sweet, sweet will the recompense be. 
 
 — Luella Clark. 
 
 13
 
 A SONG of faith and hope and cheer; 
 
 A song of labor, peace, and love ; 
 A song of every grace that makes 
 Our earth below like heaven above. 
 
 Who maketh life a song, doth that 
 
 God loveth best. _ j^^„ ^^ -^^ Chadwick. 
 
 W 
 
 ""ILL winter never be over ? 
 Will the dark days never go ? 
 Must the buttercup and the clover 
 Be always hid under the snow ? 
 
 Ah, lend me your little ear, love, 
 
 Hark, 'tis a beautiful thing : 
 The weariest month of the year, love, 
 
 Is shortest and nearest the spring. 
 
 — Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 
 
 " nPHERE is no music in a rest, but there is 
 
 the making of music in it." In our' 
 whole life-melody the music is broken off here 
 and there by " rests," and we foolishly think we 
 have come to the end of the time. God sends a 
 time of forced leisure, sickness, disappointed plans, 
 frustrated efforts, and makes a sudden pause in the 
 
 14
 
 choral hymn of our lives, and we lament that our 
 voices must be silent and our part missing in the 
 music which ever goes up to the ear of the Creator. 
 
 How does the musician read the rest ? See him 
 beat the time with unvarying count and catch up 
 the next note true and steady, as if no breaking 
 place had come in between. 
 
 Not without design does God write the music 
 of our lives. Be it ours to learn the time, and 
 not be dismayed at the " rests." They are not to 
 be slurred over, not to be omitted, not to destroy 
 the melody, not to change the key-note. If we 
 look up, God Himself will beat the time for us. 
 With the eye on Him, we shall strike the next 
 note full and clear. If we say sadly to ourselves, 
 " There is no music in a rest," let us not forget 
 " there is the making of music in it." The mak- 
 ing of music is often a slow and painful process in 
 this life. How patiently God works to teach us ! 
 How long He waits for us to learn the lesson ! 
 
 — yohn Ruskin. 
 
 r\ GIFT of God ! O perfect day. 
 
 Wherein shall no man work, but play. 
 Wherein it is enough for me 
 Not to be doing, but to be. 
 
 ^5
 
 Through every fibre of my brain, 
 Through every nerve, through every vein 
 I feel the electric thrill, the touch 
 Of life, that seems almost too much. 
 I hear the wind among the trees 
 Playing celestial symphonies ; 
 I see the branches downward bent. 
 Like keys of some great instrument. 
 
 — Henry W. Longfellow. 
 
 T HEAR a little twitter and a song — 
 
 (Sharp's the wind ; the ground's all white with 
 snow), — 
 There comes this cheery little thought along : 
 "Soon shall we see spring's leaves and flow'rs 
 grow." 
 I hear a little word of faith and love. 
 
 (Alone, at night, — stumbling on my way) — 
 Then comes a holy message from above, 
 
 " Walk on ! God's with thee night and day." 
 
 — Gertrude Plass. 
 
 HTHEN falter not, but bear, beloved, nor pray 
 the Father that He send you the angel of 
 ease, but the angel of strength. 
 
 — Rose Pendleton Chiles. 
 i6
 
 OEEK to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of 
 the crowded kindnesses of God in your daily 
 life. — Alexander Maclaran. 
 
 T IKE the song of the lark in the first days of 
 spring 
 
 Is the word from your heart, with love in its ring. 
 
 Like the scent of a rose in the sweet month of 
 June 
 
 Is your cheer-giving thought put in words oppor- 
 tune. 
 
 Like a cup of cold water, clear, sparkling, and 
 fresh, 
 
 Are your words of good cheer or of comfort and 
 rest. 
 The world is aweary. 
 Be loving and cheery. 
 
 Send forth the good words that will strengthen 
 and bless. — Helen Van- Anderson. 
 
 TESUS was a rejoicing man. Although a " man 
 ^ of sorrows," the deep undertone of His life, 
 never once failing, was gladness. Joy is set down 
 as one of the fruits of the Spirit, a fruit which 
 should be found on every branch of the great vine. 
 
 17
 
 St. Paul exhorted his friends to rejoice in the Lord. 
 There are almost countless incitements to glad- 
 ness. We are to live a songful life. 
 
 — Rev. J. R. Miller. 
 
 nPHERE is a story of an old-time king who com- 
 manded that a palace be built for him to the 
 sound of music ; and richly was his wisdom re- 
 warded, for when the palace was done it was found 
 to be the most perfectly constructed and beautiful 
 in the world. The builders had unconsciously 
 wrought the music into their work, and made it 
 a finer kind of work than had been known before. 
 So it is with human lives. They are infinitely 
 better built when the builders have something to 
 inspire and uplift them, something to kindle mind 
 and soul, and lift them above petty and common- 
 place thoughts and feelings. It is just this refining 
 and exalting influence that religion brings to the 
 average man and woman. Religion is the music 
 of the common life, and there is nothing to com- 
 pare with it in the way of a refining and spiritu- 
 alizing influence. The millions upon millions 
 of life-builders who are building characters to the 
 music of religion, would deteriorate into coarse- 
 ness, indifference, incapacity, without the constant 
 
 i8
 
 uplift and joy and moral betterment that come to 
 them out of their beliefs. Wise was the king of 
 old who built his palace to music, and wise are 
 they who refine and strengthen and beautify the 
 structure of life by building the music of religion 
 into it ! — Tjion s Herald. 
 
 " 'yHERE'S a little bit of view from the west 
 window upstairs that I've looked at often, 
 when the things, real hard to bear, came thicker 
 than usual, and I begun to get a trifle down- 
 hearted. It isn't much — just a corner of the 
 lake, with pines thick along the shore, and a big, 
 blue mountain closing in behind — but it's pretty, 
 summer or winter; and I've thought that if God 
 wanted to be as severe with me as I've been 
 tempted sometimes to think he did, how easy it 
 would have been to leave the beauty out of that 
 spot, or to put it in front of somebody else's win- 
 dow instead of mine. That's one of my way- 
 side blessings. This little sitting room's another, 
 though you wouldn't think it. Brother John calls 
 it ' tucked-up ' when he comes down from his big 
 house in the city to spend a day or two, but it's 
 large enough for me, and if it was larger, there's 
 
 19
 
 often I'd sit cold for lack of wood to warm it. As 
 it is, I've always managed to keep comfortable, and 
 that's a good deal to be thankful for." 
 
 Suppose, that as a means of keeping our faces 
 bright and our hearts cheerful, we begin looking 
 up our wayside blessings. There are "common 
 ones " — sunshine, home, friends, health — the 
 things we should most miss if we were deprived 
 of them. There are others which are peculiarly 
 your own. What are they? 
 
 — Charles T. White. 
 
 OING you a song in the garden of life, 
 If only you gather a thistle ; 
 Sing you a song 
 As you travel along, 
 An' if you carCt sing — why, just whistle! 
 
 — Frank Stanton. 
 
 JUST whistle a bit, if your heart be sore j 
 ^ 'Tis a wonderful balm for pain. 
 Just pipe some old melody o'er and o'er. 
 Till it soothes like summer rain. 
 
 — Paul Lawrence Dunbar. 
 20
 
 r 
 
 'F one looks upon the bright side 
 It is sure to be the right side; 
 At least that's how I've found it as I've journeyed 
 through each day : 
 And it's queer how shadows vanish, 
 And how easy 'tis to banish 
 From a bright-side sort of nature every doleful 
 thing away. — Mary D. Brine. 
 
 /^NE secret of the world through which thou goest 
 To work with morning song, to rest with 
 
 evening bells ; 
 Life is in tune with harmony so deep 
 That when the notes are lowest 
 Thou still canst lay thee down in peace and sleep, 
 For God will not forget. 
 
 — Henry van Dyke. 
 
 TN human life, at one time the wind blows, the 
 rain falls, the frosts are cruel ; at another the 
 sun shines, the birds sing, and all is May ; but 
 through shadow or through sunlight, we are travel- 
 ling onward. Forget not that the joy of our In- 
 carnation is the joy of the Resurrection also, and 
 there is not one single innocent joy on earth that 
 
 21
 
 is not the shadow of a promise of the eternal joy 
 of heaven. — Canon Farrar, 
 
 TVrOT first the bright, and after that the dark — 
 But first the dark, and after that the bright; 
 First the thick cloud, and then the rainbow's arc. 
 First the dark grave, then resurrection-light. 
 
 — Hor alius Bonar. 
 
 T IGHT may disclose a jewel, but it takes dark- 
 ness to disclose a star. 
 
 "X ^ /"AS music ever born of torture, of misery ? 
 It is only when the cloud of sorrow is sink- 
 ing in the sun-rays that song-larks awake and 
 ascend. A glory of some sort must fringe the 
 skirts of any sadness, the light of the sorrowful 
 soul itself must be shed upon it, and the cloud 
 must be far enough removed to show reflected 
 light, before it will yield any of the stuff of which 
 songs are made. And this light that gathers in 
 song, what is it but hope behind the sorrow — 
 hope so little recognized as such that it is often 
 called despair ? It is reviving and not decay that 
 sings even the saddest of songs. 
 
 — George Macdonald. 
 22
 
 TN every pain there is folded the seed of a bless- 
 ■■- ing — we should make sure that the seed shall 
 have opportunity to grow, and that we may gather 
 its fruit. In every tear a rainbow hides, but only 
 when the sunshine falls upon the crystal drop is 
 the splendor revealed. — J- ^- Miller. 
 
 (~\ ROBIN, singing through the rain, 
 ^"^ How welcome is thy clear refrain, 
 The tempest trying all in vain 
 
 To cheat thee of thy song ! 
 What cheerfulness, by pain unspent. 
 What gladness born of calm content. 
 
 Unto thy strain belong. 
 
 Let sinking hearts, taught by thy strain, 
 Learn, too, to triumph over pain. 
 And, like thee, singing in the rain 
 A song of hope and cheer. 
 
 — Luella Clark, 
 
 \\0 we not know that more than half our trouble 
 is borrowed ? Just suppose that we could get 
 rid of all unnecessary and previous terror ; just 
 suppose that we could be sure of final victory in 
 every conflict, and final emergence out of every 
 
 23
 
 shadow into brighter day ; how our hearts would 
 be lighted, how much more bravely we should work 
 and fight and march forward ! This is the courage 
 to which we are entitled, and which we may find 
 in the thought that God is with us everywhere. 
 He will not let any one destroy us. We may be 
 hurt, but we can never be harmed. The course 
 of our journey has been appointed by Him, He 
 knows the way even through the darkness, and its 
 goal is in His bosom. Be of good cheer, your 
 Shepherd has overcome the world. 
 
 — Henry van Dyke. 
 
 24
 
 II 
 
 25
 
 Live to some purpose, make thy life 
 A gift of use to thee, 
 A joy, a good and golden hope, 
 A heavenly argosy. 
 
 — Bryan Waller Procter. 
 
 26
 
 THE SONG OF LIFE 
 
 A/TORNING, noon, and night; 
 Morning, noon, and night. 
 And is this all of life ? 
 Yea, this repeated song is all ; 
 Yet from this routine so monotonous 
 'Tis in the power of each to wake 
 Sublimest harmonies. 
 And make each morn of life a diapason 
 Full of praise ; each mid-day hour 
 A celebration of the soul's high noon ; 
 Each night a soothing vesper song. 
 Sweeter by far than music from the harp 
 i^olian when 'tis fanned by summer breeze. 
 Thus shall we wear the royal victor's crown. 
 And taste e'en here eternal joys. 
 
 — 'Jennie El'i'z.abeth Gates. 
 
 T IVING and loving and dying, 
 "^ Life is complete in the three ; 
 Smiling or sobbing or sighing ; 
 Which is for you or for me ? 
 27
 
 Hoping and struggling and striving, 
 Dreaming success by and by ; 
 
 But whether we're driven or driving, 
 We live, and we love, and we die. 
 
 — 'James TV. Foley. 
 
 T IFE and religion are one, or neither is nothing. 
 
 — George Macdonald. 
 
 TT is not religion, but the lack of it, that makes 
 people unhappy. Yet how strangely and how 
 widely the opposite view prevails ! There are 
 many who think of religion not only as a galling 
 drudgery, but as the surest source of moroseness, 
 melancholy, and unhappiness of life. Their idea 
 is that religion is a system of suffering to which 
 many people are willing to submit here in order 
 that they may not suffer hereafter — that religion's 
 only happiness is in the future, its rewards after 
 death. Instead, the real fact is that religion is a 
 thing of present joy and ever continuing blessed- 
 ness. It is the gladdest, happiest thing in all this 
 world. " Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and 
 all her paths are peace." It is religion that gives 
 us the bright things in life and sin the dark things, 
 
 28
 
 and not vice versa. Religion goes down to the 
 deepest springs of our mental and spiritual well- 
 being. It brings untold measures of peace and joy. 
 It takes the sting out of the past. It takes the 
 worry out of the present. It takes the fear out 
 of the future. — G. B, F. Hallock. 
 
 ■\170ULD you learn the secret of royal, because 
 useful, living ? Then lay to your heart 
 these words from the pen of one who counts 
 among his greatest joys the rich harvest of his 
 patient toilings : " To work hard ; to take coun- 
 sel of my hopes and not my fears ; to deal justly 
 with myself and generously with others ; to com- 
 mune with God in my heart and be still ; to ever 
 and again to work — the closer my devotion to 
 these, the more light and happiness come in my 
 windows." — Epworth Herald. 
 
 OEEK your joy in what you give, and not in 
 what you get. — Evan Roberts. 
 
 
 'X'HE life worth living is the life of the man 
 who works, of the man who strives, of the 
 man who does, of the man who, at the end, can 
 look back and say, I know I have faltered ; I 
 know I have stumbled ; but, as the strength was 
 
 29
 
 given me I strove to use it, I strove to leave the 
 world better and not worse because I had lived 
 111 It. — Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 CERVE the Lord with gladness ; 
 
 Come before His presence with singing. 
 
 — Psalm 100 : 2. 
 
 T IFE'S more than breadth and the quick round 
 
 of blood, it is a great spirit and a busy heart. 
 The coward and the small in soul scarcely do live. 
 
 "DE good . . . and let who will be clever; 
 
 Do noble things, nor dream them all day 
 long. 
 And so make life, death, and that vast forever 
 One grand, sweet song. 
 
 — Charles Kingsley. 
 
 TT is enough just to be good, 
 
 To lift our hearts where they are understood. 
 To let the thought of worldly power and place go 
 
 unappeased. 
 To smile back in God's face, 
 With the glad lips our mother used to kiss. 
 Ah, though we miss all else but this, — 
 To be good is enough. 
 
 — James Whitcomb Riley. 
 
 30
 
 "\ ^ 7"E know 
 
 That we have power over ourselves to do 
 And suffer — what, we know not till we try ; 
 But something nobler than to live and die. 
 
 — Shelley. 
 
 TT was Goethe who said, " Life is a quarry." 
 He does not mean the life outside of yourself. 
 He means your own life, that separate part of 
 God's universe over which he has set you as 
 supreme master, king to rule the dominion. 
 Goethe says that this life, your own life, his life, 
 everybody's life, is a quarry. A quarry is a place 
 where stone is gotten. The value of a quarry is 
 always in the quality of its stone. The Rutland 
 marble quarries are famed all over our own coun- 
 try. Now, life, if it be a quarry, is simply a place 
 containing a something that is valued, unformed, 
 but with skill may be wrought into what is valu- 
 able. The stone from a quarry is chiselled into 
 form. A greater value comes from the chiselling 
 of this stone. Michael Angelo's " Moses " is 
 witness of what a great artist may do with a chisel 
 upon a block of marble. Really, then, if your 
 own life is a quarry, you yourself must be the 
 artist, and out of the material of that quarry you 
 
 31
 
 are going to make what is beautiful and worthful 
 to the world. Let me complete the entire quota- 
 tion, " Life is a quarry out of which we are to 
 mould and chisel and complete a character." 
 
 — John T. McFarland. 
 
 /^^OD keeps his holy mysteries 
 
 Just on the outside of man's dream ! 
 In diapason slow, we think 
 To hear their pinions rise and sink, 
 While they float pure beneath His eye, 
 Like swans adown a stream. 
 Abstractions, are they, from the forms 
 Of His great beauty ? exaltations 
 From His great glory ? strong previsions 
 Of what we shall be ? intuitions 
 Of what we are — in calms and storms, 
 Beyond our peace and passions ? 
 
 — Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 
 "VT'OU remember the famous line of Robert 
 Browning, " God's in his heaven, all's right 
 with the world " ? That was the one source of 
 the optimism of Browning ; but the optimism of 
 Jesus went a great deal deeper. It was the fact 
 that God was in his earth, so that the ravens were 
 
 32
 
 fed and the lilies were adorned, and so that the 
 very hairs of a man's head are numbered — it was 
 that which gave a radiant quietude to Christ. 
 
 — G. H. Morrison. 
 
 T TOW many people miss the real meaning and 
 purpose of life ! Overwhelmed by its mys- 
 tery, perplexed by its motive, depressed by its 
 miseries, they do not feel the spell of its majesty, 
 nor succumb to the charm of its sweet melodies, 
 nor enter into the joys of its noble ministries. 
 
 The words of Jesus Christ, " The life is more 
 than meat," come as a message of warning and of 
 inspiration to those who are bound to the earth by 
 their evil propensities ; whose eyes do not behold 
 the glories of the hills and skies ; who are content 
 to work in the sordid soil of selfishness, and who 
 are steeped in covetousness and defiled by the stain 
 of sin. 
 
 Life is infinitely more than meat, raiment, 
 money, pleasure, social position, or intellectual 
 distinction. It has its root in the venerable past 
 and reaches out into the mysterious but certain 
 future. It is a gift from Him who inhabiteth eter- 
 nity, and is the recognition by God of the eternal 
 
 33
 
 element in man, and of the human affinity for the 
 divine. 
 
 Life is a serious thing, and a precious heritage. 
 It cannot be treated carelessly with impunity ; vio- 
 lation of its great, divine laws is meted with swift 
 and unerring punishment. He who would get the 
 most out of it must put the most into it; and there 
 is no better way to get the utmost benefit out of it 
 than by making every day of it count in the largest 
 measure for the glory of God and the blessing of 
 
 "^^"- — Epworth Herald. 
 
 /^UR life is but the childhood of our eternity, 
 the school days preparatory for the immortal 
 years beyond. _ Canon Farrar. 
 
 OHALL we not see life's mystery made plain. 
 
 As some fair pictured tapestry that seems 
 Upon its nether side, beneath the hand 
 Of him who wears, naught but disordered threads; 
 And colors in a wild confusion mixed; 
 While on the upper surface shine the forms 
 Of beauty, and the colors rich and rare 
 That had their birth deep in the master's mind. 
 There glowing ere they saw the light of day ? . . . 
 
 34
 
 Shall we not be like some o'erweary child 
 From whose limp fingers slips the tedious task, 
 And, while it slumbers, mother's gentle hands 
 Undo the stitches ; all the tangled threads 
 In order lay, and when the child awakes. 
 Its tears have changed to smiles, its troubles fled ? 
 
 — Henry Nehemiah Dodge. 
 
 "D EFLECT that life, like every other blessing, 
 
 Derives its value from its use alone ; 
 Not for itself, but for a nobler end, 
 Th' Eternal gave it, and that end is virtue. 
 
 — Dr. 'Johnson. 
 
 OO, at the loom of life, we weave 
 
 Our separate threads, that varying fall, 
 Some stained, some fair, and, passing, leave 
 To God the gathering up of all. . . , 
 
 In His vast work, for good or ill. 
 
 The undone and the done He blends. 
 With whatsoever woof we fill. 
 
 To our weak hands His might He lends, 
 And gives the threads beneath His eye, 
 The texture of eternity. 
 
 — Lucy Larcom. 
 
 35
 
 A LL things work together for good to them 
 that love God. — Romans 8 : 28. 
 
 A LL things "work together," many different 
 colors, in themselves raw and unsightly, are 
 required to weave the harmonious pattern . . . 
 take a thread separately, and there may be neither 
 use nor beauty discernible. But complete the 
 web, and you see how perfect and symmetrical the 
 
 ^^^s^^'- — J. R. Macduff. 
 
 THE LOOMS OF GOD 
 
 ' I ''HE years of man are the looms of God, let 
 
 down from the place of the sun. 
 Wherein we are weaving ever, till the mystic web 
 
 is done. 
 
 Weaving blindly, but weaving surely, each for him- 
 self his fate — 
 
 We may not see how the right side looks, we can 
 only weave and wait. 
 
 But, looking above for the pattern, no weaver hath 
 
 need to fear. 
 Only let him look clear into heaven, the Perfect 
 
 Pattern is there. 
 
 36
 
 If he keeps the face of the Saviour forever and 
 
 alway in sight, 
 His toil shall be sweeter than honey, his weaving is 
 
 sure to be right. 
 
 And when the work is ended, and the web is turned 
 
 and shown, 
 He shall hear the voice of the Master, it shall say 
 
 unto Him, "Well done!" 
 
 And the white-winged angels of Heaven, to bear 
 
 him thence shall come down ; 
 And God shall give him gold for his hire — not 
 
 coin, but a glowing crown. 
 
 — Anson G. Chester. 
 
 A PETITION TO TIME 
 
 nrOUCH us gently. Time! 
 
 Let us glide adown thy stream 
 Gently, — as we sometimes glide 
 Through a quiet dream ! 
 Humble voyagers are we. 
 Husband, wife, and children three — 
 One is lost, — an angel, fled 
 To the azure overhead ! 
 
 37
 
 Touch us gently, Time ! 
 
 We've not proud nor soaring wings : 
 
 Our ambition, our content, 
 
 Lies in simple things. 
 
 Humble voyagers are we. 
 
 O'er Life's dim unsounded sea. 
 
 Seeking only some small clim'e ; — 
 
 Touch us gently^ gentle Time ! 
 
 — Bryan Waller Procter. 
 
 T SOMETIMES feel the thread of life is slender 
 And soon with me the labor will be wrought ; 
 
 Then grows my heart to other hearts more tender — 
 The time, the time is short. 
 
 — Hezekiah Butterworth. 
 
 'VXJWAY a vast portion of our lives is spent in 
 anxious and useless forebodings concerning 
 the future, either our own or that of our dear ones ! 
 Present joys, present blessings, slip by and we miss 
 half their sweet flavor, and all for want of faith in 
 Him who provides for the tiniest insect in the sun- 
 beam. O, when shall we learn the sweet trust in 
 God our little children teach us every day by their 
 confiding faith in us ? We who are so mutable, so 
 
 38
 
 faulty, so irritable, so unjust; and He, who is so 
 watchful, so pitiful, so loving, so forgiving ! Why 
 cannot we, slipping our hand into His each day, 
 walk trustingly over that day's appointed path, 
 thorny or flowery, crooked or straight, knowing 
 that evening will bring us sleep, peace, and home ? 
 
 — Phillips Brooks. 
 
 /^UR biggest, blackest troubles are often only 
 the locomotive drawing our richest treasure 
 train. 
 
 TT ain't no use to grumble and complain, 
 
 It's jest as cheap and easy to rejoice ; 
 When God sorts out the weather and sends rain, 
 Why, rain's my choice. Jnon. 
 
 A LIVING torch and a dead ember were 
 sent forth into the world to find out what 
 the world was like. The torch returned and 
 reported that there was light everywhere. The 
 ember reported that it was dark everywhere, with 
 not a ray of light shining. So do men find in the 
 world just what is in themselves. One man says 
 it is a world of sadness. There is nothing in it 
 
 39
 
 but sorrow. All its songs are songs of tears. He 
 has not found a bit of blue nor heard a note of 
 gladness in all his rounds. Poor man ! it is only 
 the gloom of his own heart that he is reporting. 
 He has in him no capacity for seeing beauty or for 
 hearing joy notes. Another man goes out over 
 precisely the same course, hearing the same sounds, 
 and seeing the same sights, and he reports that he 
 found only music and loveliness everywhere. The 
 world was full of sweet songs. On every spot 
 flowers bloomed ; everywhere light was shining. 
 
 — J.R. Miller, 
 
 LIFT thyself up, look around, and see some- 
 thing higher and brighter than earth, earth- 
 worms, and earthly darkness. — Richter. 
 
 B 
 
 E assured that endurance is nobler than 
 strength, and patience than beauty. 
 
 — 'John Rusktn. 
 
 I OFTEN think I cannot spell 
 The lesson I must learn. 
 And then in weariness and doubt 
 
 I pray the page may turn. 
 But time goes on, and soon I find 
 40
 
 I was learning all the while ; 
 And words which seemed most dimly traced 
 Shine out with rainbow smile. 
 
 We do not see our Teacher's face, 
 
 We do not hear his voice, 
 And yet we know that He is near. 
 
 We feel it and rejoice. 
 There is a music round our hearts 
 
 Set in no mortal key ; 
 There is a presence with our souls, 
 
 We know that it is He. 
 
 His loving teaching cannot fail 
 
 And we shall know at last 
 Each task that seemed so hard and strange 
 
 When learning time is past. 
 And then to know as we are known 
 
 Shall be our glorious prize. 
 To see the Teacher who hath been 
 
 So patient and so wise. 
 
 O joy untold ! yet not alone 
 
 Shall ours the gladness be ; 
 The travel of His soul in us 
 
 Our Saviour God shall see. 
 
 — Frances R. Havergal. 
 
 41
 
 I THINK we are too ready with complaint 
 In this fair world of God's. 
 Be comforted ! 
 
 And like a cheerful traveller take the road, 
 Singing beside the hedge ! What if the bread 
 Be bitter in thine inn, and thou unshod 
 To meet the flints ? At least it may be said, 
 " Because the way is short, I thank Thee, God." 
 — Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 
 TV /TY life may lead through shadowed night, 
 
 Like some deserted byway. 
 But though life's dearest joy I miss 
 There lies a nameless strength in this — 
 I will be worthy of it. 
 
 — Ella Wheeler TVilcox. 
 
 "PORENOON, afternoon, and night ! — 
 Forenoon, and afternoon, and night — 
 Forenoon, and — what ! 
 The empty song repeats itself. No more ? 
 Yea, this is life ; make this forenoon sublime, 
 This afternoon a psalm, this night a prayer, 
 And Time is conquered, and thy crown is won. 
 
 — Edward Rowland Sill. 
 42
 
 TF we would bring a holy life to Christ, we must 
 mind our fireside duties as well as the duties of 
 the sanctuary. — Charles Spurgeon. 
 
 nrO be patient under a heavy cross is no small 
 
 praise ; to be contented is more ; but to be 
 
 cheerful is the highest pitch of Christian fortitude. 
 
 — Bishop Hall. 
 
 T^HERE is no journey of life but has its clouded 
 days ; and there are some days in which our 
 eyes are so blinded with tears that we find it hard 
 to see our way or even read God's promises. 
 Those days that have a bright sunrise followed by 
 sudden thunderclaps and bursts of unlooked-for 
 sorrows, are the ones that test certain of our graces 
 the most severely. Yet the law of spiritual eye- 
 sight very closely resembles the law of physical 
 optics. When we come suddenly out of the day- 
 light into a room even moderately darkened, we 
 can discern nothing, but the pupil of our eye 
 gradually enlarges until unseen objects become vis- 
 ible. Even so the pupil of the eye of faith has the 
 blessed faculty of enlarging in dark hours of be- 
 reavement, so that we discover that our loving 
 
 43
 
 Father's hand is holding the cup of trial, and by 
 and by the gloom becomes luminous with glory. 
 
 — Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 T^rOULD we be strong ? We must often be 
 put to the trial of our strength. Covet we 
 the best gifts ? They are not granted to the un- 
 disciplined. 
 
 We " rise on stepping-stones of our dead selves 
 to higher things." No one soul is so obscure that 
 God does not take thought for its schooling. The 
 sun is the central light of the universe, but it has 
 a mission to the ripening corn and the purpling 
 clusters of the vine. The sunshine that comes 
 filtering through the morning mists, with healing 
 in its wings, and charms all the birds to singing, 
 should have, also, a message from God to sad 
 hearts. No soul is so grief-laden that it may not 
 be lifted to sources of heavenly comfort by recog- 
 nizing the divine love in the perpetual recurrence 
 of earthly blessings : — 
 
 '* The night is mother of the day, 
 The winter of the spring ; 
 And even upon old decay 
 The greenest mosses cling. 
 
 44
 
 Behind the cloud the starlight lurks ; 
 
 Through showers the sunbeams fall ; 
 For God, who loveth all His works. 
 
 Hath left His hope with all." 
 
 — Mary H. Houghton. 
 
 TJ*VERY life that seeks in love and loyalty to do 
 the will of God is a complete and perfect life, 
 no matter how or where it ends ; that to be faith- 
 less is to fail, whatever the apparent success of 
 earth ; that to be faithful is to succeed, whatever 
 the apparent failure on earth. 
 
 " For thence a paradox 
 Which comforts while it mocks ; 
 Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail ? " 
 
 Failure, then, is never an obsolete word — always 
 relative ; and the only real failure is inside, not 
 outside. It is not being true to the best we know. 
 Inside failure is the only calamity. Outside fail- 
 ure may be the greatest blessing. 
 
 — Maltbie D. Bahcock. 
 
 TT is better to prefer honorable defeat to a mean 
 victory, to lowering the level of our aim that 
 we may more certainly enjoy the complacency of 
 success. _ j^/,„ Rmkin. 
 
 45
 
 TV/TY business is not to remake myself, 
 But make the absolute best of what 
 
 God made. — Robert Browning. 
 
 /'"^HEER and good nature radiate from a coun- 
 tenance that reflects always the light of good- 
 ness. 
 
 TN all things of the world, the men who look for 
 the crooked will see the crooked, and the men 
 who look for the straight will see the straight. 
 
 — John Ruskin. 
 
 T Tt rE are not through with our life as we live it. 
 Every act, every word, every thought, every 
 choice, is a seed which we drop. We go on care- 
 lessly, never dreaming that we shall ever again see 
 our deeds. Then some day we come upon an 
 ugly plant growing somewhere, and we ask, " What 
 is this ? " Comes the answer : " I am one of your 
 plants. You dropped the seed which grew into 
 me." Our lives are the little garden plats in 
 which it is our privilege to drop seeds. We shall 
 have to eat the fruits of the seeds which we are 
 planting these days. _ j^ j^ j^///^^, 
 
 46
 
 LIFE'S ANSWER 
 
 T KNOW not if the dark or bright 
 
 Shall be my lot ; 
 If that wherein my hopes delight 
 
 Be best or not. 
 Dear faces may surround my hearth 
 
 With smiles and glee ; 
 Or I may dwell alone, and mirth 
 
 Be strange to me. 
 
 My bark is wafted to the strand 
 
 By breath divine ; 
 And on the helm there rests a hand 
 
 Other than mine. 
 One who has known in storms to sail 
 
 I have on board ; 
 Above the raving of the gale 
 
 I hear my Lord. 
 
 He holds me when the billows smite, — 
 
 I shall not fall. 
 If sharp, 'tis short; if long, 'tis light,— 
 
 He tempers all. 
 Safe to the land, safe to the land, — 
 
 The end is this ; 
 
 47
 
 And then with Him go hand in hand 
 Far into bliss. 
 
 — Henry Alford. 
 
 "X "\ /"HO is the angel that cometh ? 
 ^^ Life! 
 
 Let us not question what he brings, 
 
 Peace or strife, 
 Under the shade of his mighty wings. 
 We will arise and go forth to greet him. 
 Singing gladly, with one accord, 
 " Blessed is he that cometh 
 In the name of the Lord." 
 
 — Adelaide A. Procter. 
 
 r^OY) asks no man if he will accept life. That 
 
 is not the ch 
 only choice is, how. 
 
 is not the choice. You must take it. The 
 
 CCULPTORS of life are we, as we stand 
 
 With our souls uncarved before us. 
 Waiting the hour when at God's command 
 
 Our life dream passes o'er us. 
 If we carve it yet on the yielding stone. 
 With many a sharp incision, 
 
 48
 
 Its heavenly vision shall be our own, 
 Our lives — that angel vision. 
 
 — Bishop Doane. 
 
 " 'T'AKE your needle, my child, and work at 
 your pattern ; it will come out a rose by 
 and by." Life is like that — one stitch at a time 
 taken patiently, and the pattern will come out all 
 right like the embroidery. 
 
 — Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
 ' I 'OO great Thy heart is to despise ; 
 
 Thy day girds centuries about ; 
 From things we " little" call. Thine eyes 
 See great things looking out. 
 
 — George Macdonald. 
 
 TN our Father's school are many benches. This 
 life is school-time. Whatever the word God 
 writes on the top of your page — patience, courage, 
 forgiveness, resignation — copy it over and over 
 until he gives you another word. Never murmur. 
 Do your best to solve your problems. If they 
 are hard, try hard. If you are in the dark, say, 
 " Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." When 
 
 49
 
 you feel like complaining, listen. Be still before 
 God. David said, " I was dumb, I opened not 
 my mouth, because thou didst it." That is better 
 than moaning and lamenting ; but let us leap from 
 David to Jesus, and say, " The cup which my 
 Father hath given me, shall I not drink it ? " 
 " Father, glorify Thy name." So shall we be 
 made perfect through suffering." 
 
 — Maltbie D. Bahcock^ D.D. 
 
 CONTENTMENT 
 
 T AM content. In trumpet tones, 
 
 My song let people know ; 
 And many a mighty man with thrones 
 
 And sceptre is not so. 
 And if he is, I joyful cry. 
 Why, then, he's just the same as I. 
 
 My motto is, — Content with this. 
 
 Gold — place — I prize not such. 
 That which I have, my measure is ; 
 
 Wise men desire not much. 
 Men wish and wish, and have their will, 
 And wish again as hungry still. 
 50
 
 Be noble — that is more than wealth ; 
 
 Do right — that's more than place ; 
 Then in the spirit there is health, 
 
 And gladness in the face ; 
 Then thou art with thyself as one 
 And, no man hating, fearest none. 
 
 — George Macdonald. 
 
 THE WEB OF LIFE 
 
 A /TY life, which was so straight and plain. 
 Has now become a tangled skein, 
 
 Yet God still holds the thread ; 
 Weave as I may. His hand doth guide 
 The shuttle's course, however wide 
 
 The chain in woof be wed. 
 
 One weary night, when months went by, 
 I plied my loom with tear and sigh. 
 
 In grief unnamed, untold ; 
 But when at last the morning's light 
 Broke on my vision, fair and bright. 
 
 There gleamed a cloth of gold. 
 
 And now I never lose my trust. 
 Weave as I may — and weave I must — 
 
 51
 
 That God doth hold the thread ; 
 He guides my shuttle on its way, 
 He makes complete my task each day ; 
 
 What more, then, can be said ? 
 
 — Clara F. Moore. 
 
 52
 
 Ill 
 
 53
 
 What though shadows rise to obscure life's 
 skies, 
 And hide for the time the sun ; 
 They sooner will lift, and reveal the rift. 
 If you let the melody run. 
 
 — Kate R. Stiles. 
 
 54
 
 LIFE'S SILVER LINING 
 
 TS the road very dreary ? 
 
 Patience yet ! 
 Rest will be sweeter if thou art aweary ; 
 And after the night cometh the morning cheery, 
 Then bide a wee and dinna fret. 
 
 The clouds have a silver lining, 
 
 Don't forget ; 
 And though he's hidden, still the sun is shining : 
 Courage ! Instead of tears and sad repining. 
 Just bide a wee, and dinna fret. 
 
 Grief, sharper sting doth borrow 
 
 From regret ; 
 But yesterday is gone, and shall its sorrow 
 Unfit us for the present and the morrow ? 
 Nay; bide a wee, and dinna fret. 
 
 — Jnna Shipton. 
 
 55
 
 FORESHADOWINGS 
 
 O 
 
 SUMMER sunshine soft and still, 
 That will not stay; 
 O tender green on vale and hill 
 
 That soon will fade away; 
 O glad, brown thrush, that in green nook 
 Sings for a day ; 
 
 drooping elm, whose roots it took 
 A hundred years to lay. 
 
 1 look and listen — while I think, 
 
 The years go on ; 
 More elms will shade the river's brink 
 
 When these are gone; 
 And other thrushes here will sing. 
 
 Their little lay; 
 And fresher, tenderer green may spring 
 
 When this shall fade away. 
 
 — Luella Clark. 
 
 TT is faith 
 
 The feeling that there's God, He reigns 
 and rules 
 Out of this low world. 
 
 — Robert Browning. 
 56
 
 T SCOFFED at the « silver lining " ; 
 
 I sneered at Hope. The care 
 That fell about my every hour 
 
 Cast shadow everyu'here. 
 My little daughter listened 
 
 And, smiling, made reply, 
 " I thought that shadows never fell 
 Unless the sun were nigh ! " 
 
 — F.A. Whiting. 
 
 T ONCE saw a dark shadow resting on the 
 bare side of a hill. Seeking its cause, I saw a 
 little cloud bright as the light floating in the clear 
 blue above. Thus it is with our sorrow. It may 
 be dark and cheerless here on earth ; yet look 
 above and you shall see it to be but a shadow of 
 His brightness whose name is Love. 
 
 — Anon. 
 
 /^H, small shall seem all sacrifice 
 
 And pain and loss 
 When God shall wipe the weeping eyes, 
 For suffering give the victor's prize. 
 The crown for cross ! 
 
 — John G. Whittier. 
 
 57
 
 ^~\ God of the hills and valleys, 
 We bless thee on our way ! 
 Thou art near in the morning splendor, 
 
 And burden and heat of the day. 
 Near when the night mists gather, 
 Near when the morn shall rise, 
 And we pass from the valley's shadow 
 To the hills of paradise. 
 
 — Lillian Ellis Charlton. 
 
 T THANK Thee, O my Father, 
 For the sunshine and the rain. 
 For the beauty and the pleasure. 
 For the weariness and pain. 
 
 For the hours of sorrow brought me 
 
 Knowledge of a joy divine. 
 And I learned, through pain and weakness, 
 
 That the strength of God is mine. 
 
 — Ida L. Lewis. 
 
 "PROVIDENCE has a thousand keys to open 
 a thousand doors for the' deliverance of His 
 
 — Samuel Rutherford. 
 
 58
 
 T^ARK clouds in the air hid the blue sky so fair 
 
 We watched through the moistening pane, 
 And hoped it might bring, as a token of spring, 
 A sweet little shower of rain. 
 
 Soon the rain coming down on the cottage roof 
 brown. 
 
 We heard with a thrill of delight. 
 It pattered and tinkled, and spattered and sprinkled 
 
 The new grass and leaves tender and bright. 
 
 Garden beds we had made it carefully sprayed, 
 Made greener the green fields of wheat. 
 
 Then hung out a bow with glory aglow. 
 
 How we breathed in the air fresh and sweet ! 
 
 The bright little rills rippled down from the hills. 
 The clouds were all washed from the skies. 
 
 The song of a bird from a tree top was heard, 
 And the violets waked in surprise. 
 
 — Delia Hart Stone. 
 
 A LITTLE sun, a little rain, 
 
 A soft wind blowing from the west, 
 And woods and fields are sweet again. 
 
 And warmth within the mountain's breast. 
 
 59
 
 OO, when spring comes 
 
 With sunshine back again like an old smile, 
 And the fresh waters and awakened birds 
 And budding woods await us, I shall be 
 Prepared, and we will question life once more. 
 Till its old sense shall come renewed by change. 
 Like some clear thought which harsh words veiled 
 
 before ; 
 Feeling, God loves us, and that all which errs 
 Is but a dream which death will dissipate. 
 
 — Robert Browning. 
 
 /^H, trust God and take courage ! If He has 
 seemed to set bounds to your path, and hedged 
 you in, be assured that there is for you a broader, 
 higher, and grander mission than any you have yet 
 conceived of for yourself. Strive to be a bit of 
 blue sky in the lives of those around you. Then 
 your life cannot be a failure any more than those 
 blue rays are a failure. _ j^ m. Gordon. 
 
 HTHROUGHOUT the living summer day 
 The leaf and twin-born shadow play 
 Till leaf to shadow fade ; 
 60
 
 Then, hidden for a season brief, 
 They dream, till shadow turn to leaf, . 
 As leaf was turned to shade. 
 
 — "John B. Tabb. 
 
 O AID the little brown leaf as it hung in the air, 
 To the little brown leaf below, 
 " What a summer we've had 
 To rejoice and be glad. 
 But to-day there's a feeling of snow." 
 
 — Margaret E. Sangster. 
 
 "\TOW is winter and now is sorrow ; 
 No roses, but only thorns to-day ; 
 Thorns will put on roses to-morrow. 
 
 Winter and sorrow scudding away, — 
 No more winter and no more sorrow 
 To-morrow. 
 
 — Christina G. Rossetti. 
 
 /~\ HEART of mine, we shouldn't 
 
 Worry so ! 
 What we've missed of calm, 
 We couldn't have you know ! 
 What we've met of stormy pain, 
 6i
 
 T 
 
 And of sorrow's driving rain, 
 We can better meet again, 
 If it blow ! 
 
 — "James Whitcomh Riley. 
 
 HERE'S always lots of other folks you kin be 
 sorry for 'stid of yourself. 
 
 — Mrs. IFiggs. 
 
 nPHEN take the sunshine God has sent. 
 And share that light and life with all ; 
 Just let the burden fall ; consent 
 
 To live content. _ p^i^^ ^i^j^^^ 
 
 (~\^t yes, we love ; albeit winter snows 
 
 Cover the flowers, the flowers are there, 
 God knows. _H. C. Beeching. 
 
 IVTEVER was there a cloud which has not passed, 
 A storm, however long, which did not cease j 
 And though our way be darkly overcast 
 
 By sorrow's shade, beyond is sure release ; 
 As sure as that God lives for aye and aye. 
 If only we keep on our steady way. 
 
 — Antoinette van Hoe sen. 
 62
 
 "PAITH shares the future promise ; love's 
 
 Self-ofFering is a triumph won ; 
 And each good thought or action moves 
 The dark vi'orld nearer the sun. 
 
 — J. G. Whittier. 
 
 'X'HE strange way, my dearie — 
 
 The bright world and cold ; 
 For God gives one the violets, 
 
 And God gives one the gold. . . . 
 
 The strange way, my dearie — 
 
 Its blue skies and gray ; 
 But God shall read the riddle 
 
 There — at His judgment day. 
 
 — Frank L. Stanton. 
 
 /^^OD hath not promised sun without rain, 
 
 Joy without sorrow, peace without pain ; 
 But God hath promised strength from above. 
 Unfailing sympathy, undying love. ^ 
 
 TTAD we only sunshine all the year around, 
 Without the blessing of refreshing rain, 
 Would we scatter seed upon the fallow ground. 
 And hope to gather flowers, fruit, and grain ? 
 
 63
 
 Had we not a sorrow or a cross to bear, 
 For Him who bears the burden of our sin, 
 
 Would we know the sweetness of His love and 
 care, 
 Or even strive eternal life to win ? 
 
 Can we prize the sunshine and deplore the rain. 
 Repining when the days are dark and drear ? 
 
 Can we hope for pleasure, yet deny the pain. 
 Or share the joys of life without the tear ? 
 
 — Charles H. Gabriel. 
 
 TT ain't never no use puttin' up yer umbrell' till 
 it rains. —Mrs. Wiggs. 
 
 I 
 
 T is best to let old troubles sleep ; 
 Why need to rouse them ? you are happy, sure ! 
 But if one asks, " Art happy ? " why, it sets 
 The thoughts a-working. No, say I ; let love. 
 Let peace and happy folk alone. 
 
 — ^ean Ingelow. 
 
 VT'OU needn't pick up any worries. You can 
 get them anywhere as you go along. 
 
 — Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 
 
 64
 
 OOME people are always finding fault with 
 Nature for putting thorns on roses ; I always 
 thank her for putting roses on thorns. 
 
 — Alphonse Karr. 
 
 T IFE'S attar of roses is as rare as it is precious, 
 and it takes sunshine of many summers and 
 the bearing of many thorns to produce a single 
 drop, but the perfume of it will last forever. 
 
 — Ellen T. Fowler, 
 
 '"PHE summer comes and the summer goes ; 
 
 Wild flowers are fringing the dusty lanes. 
 The swallows go darting through fragrant rains. 
 Then, all of a sudden, it snows. 
 
 — T. B. Aldrich. 
 
 nPHE skies are never so bright as when they 
 have been washed by a shower. 
 
 T^HERE'S a little splash of sunshine and a little 
 spot of shade 
 Always somewhere near; 
 
 65
 
 The wise bask in the sunshine, but the foolish 
 choose the shade — 
 
 The wise are gay and happy, on the foolish sor- 
 row's laid, 
 And the fault's their own, I fear. 
 
 For the little splash of sunshine and the little spot 
 of shade 
 
 Are here for joint consumption, for comparison are 
 made. 
 
 We're all meant to be happy — not too foolish or 
 too staid ; 
 
 And the right dose to be taken is some sunshine 
 mixed with shade ! _ Stanley Dark. 
 
 r\ RAINY days ! O days of sun ! 
 
 What are ye all when the day is done ? 
 Who shall remember sun or rain ? 
 
 O years of loss ! O joyful years ! 
 What are ye all when heaven appears ? 
 Who shall look back for joy or pain ? 
 
 — William Prescott Foster. 
 
 66
 
 "DECALMED along the azure sky, 
 
 The argosies of cloudland lie, 
 Whose shores, with many a shining rift, 
 Far off their pearl-white peaks uplift. 
 
 — 'John T. Trowbridge. 
 
 T TPON the grass the mist-wreaths lie ; 
 
 Above the mist, spread thick and far. 
 The hurrying rain-cloud, gray and swift ; 
 But a star shines through a wind-rent rift. 
 
 The blue sky just beyond the star, 
 And God's above the sky. 
 
 — C. D. Robinson. 
 
 TT is a well-known fact that there is a perfect 
 calm at the centre of every cyclone, and above 
 it there is a patch of blue sky, which is called by 
 sailors "the eye of the storm." So there is a 
 heavenly calm at the centre of all the storms of 
 life, and a serene, bright sky above it, which is 
 the eye of the divine Father; He is the calm 
 centre and the eye of the storm, and those who 
 trust in Him will never be moved. 
 
 — Z. Mather. 
 67
 
 « COiMEWHERE the sun is shining always," 
 and there is never a trouble so dark but the 
 great Father sends a ray of light that we may fix 
 our eyes upon it if we will but look up high 
 enough. 
 
 Here is a good little bright side story, and it is 
 perfectly true, too : A washerwoman in a miserable 
 tenement-house was asked how she managed to 
 always keep singing amid her discouraging sur- 
 roundings. " Oh," answered she, " because there 
 is always a good, refreshing breeze in the alley." 
 She looked bravely for the bright side, then — 
 
 " Forgot that she bore the burden 
 And carried away the song." 
 
 To every such brave soul God giveth songs in 
 the night. Let us assiduously cultivate the profit- 
 able habit of looking on the bright side, for " Be- 
 hind every storm of trial and every cloud of sorrow 
 is the heavenly blue of Christ's unchangeable love." 
 — D. V. F. in Epworth Herald. 
 
 CUNRISE is on the hills, and now 
 
 The world is full of golden light. 
 
 The flowers in field and wood are bright, 
 
 And birds sing on the apple bough. 
 
 ******* 
 
 68
 
 But, toiling one, the radiant day 
 
 May darken ere the noon be nigh ; 
 
 Clouds may across the blue deeps fly. 
 Wild storm-winds sweep the blooms away, 
 And drive the song-birds from the spray ; 
 
 Or rainy eve may give the lie 
 To the sweet promises that lay 
 
 At morn upon the earth and sky. 
 
 O soul, record not now the hour; 
 
 Wait thou, — the sun shall shine again ; 
 
 Life shall not always walk with pain, 
 Nor poverty be all thy dower. 
 Toil on for truth and right, nor cower 
 
 To evil and the mighty train ; 
 Thy work shall win the victor's power, 
 
 And thou shalt reap the golden grain. 
 
 — Sarah E. Graves. 
 
 WJ^O shall despair while the fields of earth are 
 sown with flowers and the fields of heaven 
 blossom with stars ? — Hamilton Wright Alabie. 
 
 OAW the rainbow in the heaven, 
 
 In the eastern sky, the rainbow. 
 Whispered, " What is that, Nokomis .•' " 
 
 69
 
 And the good Nokomis answered : 
 
 *' 'Tis the heaven of flowers you see there; 
 
 All the wild-flowers of the forest, 
 
 All the lilies of the prairie, 
 
 When on earth they fade and perish, 
 
 Blossom in that heaven above us." 
 
 — Henry W. Longfellow, 
 
 r'\ BEAUTIFUL rainbow — all woven of light ! 
 There's not in thy tissue one shadow of night : 
 Heaven surely is open when thou dost appear ; 
 And, bending above thee, the angels draw near 
 And sing, — The rainbow ! the rainbow ! 
 The smile of God is here. 
 
 — Sarah 'J. Hale. 
 
 IVrOT a thought of blue on the sky, sweetheart j 
 
 Not a thought of blue on the sky ; 
 The gray white clouds are cold and drear 
 That the north winds hustle by. 
 
 *Stf 'J' *^ ■I' *1* *1* 
 
 *r» rJ-» ^^ ^ g^ g^ 
 
 But under the clouds is the sun, sweetheart: 
 
 And under the ice is the sod; 
 Under the brown of the stems are buds ; 
 
 Over all is the heart of God. 
 
 — George Klingle. 
 
 JO
 
 CTEADILY the rain is falling, 
 
 In the sky no blue appears ; 
 But the sun is just behind the 
 Prism of those crystal tears. 
 
 — Margaret Sangster. 
 
 T^HE dawn is not distant, 
 
 Nor is the night starless ; 
 Love is eternal ! 
 God is still God, and 
 His faith shall not fail us. 
 
 — Henry W. Longfellow. 
 
 COMETH sunshine after rain. 
 After mourning joy agam. 
 After heavy, bitter grief 
 Cometh surely sw^eet relief; 
 And my soul, who from her height 
 Sank to realms of woe and night, 
 Wingeth now to heaven her flight. 
 ******* 
 Though to-day may not fulfil 
 All thy hopes, have patience still. 
 For perchance to-morrow's sun 
 Sees thy happier days begun. 
 71
 
 As God willeth march the hours, 
 Bringing joy at last in showers, 
 When whate'er we ask is ours ! 
 
 — Paul Gerhardt. 
 
 A HEALTH unto the happy, 
 A fig for him who frets. 
 It isn't raining rain to me. 
 It's raining violets. 
 
 — Sidney Lanier. 
 
 X/ET listen, sad heart, to the glad refrain 
 
 Of the brown-winged birds in the brown- 
 hedged lane ; 
 Summer has gone, but she comes again. 
 
 Sweet summer never can die ! 
 And youth, sweet youth, is immortal too. 
 /\nd will bloom again as the roses do ; 
 And love is eternal, and lights life through. 
 Though youth and the rose go by ! 
 
 — E. Nesbit. 
 
 72
 
 T^HE tiny ray of sunshine which stole in through 
 the crack of the shutter yesterday wrote with 
 its golden pen these words upon the darkness 
 within: "There is a great big world of sunshine 
 just like me outside." Don't keep sunshine barred 
 out from your soul. Open wide the shutterSo Do 
 not interpret the meaning of life from the dark- 
 ness, but from the sunshine which falls upon it. 
 The joy of yesterday which crept into your clouded 
 life points you to a world that abounds with it. 
 The satisfaction you felt to-day upon doing that 
 good turn for another was as a drop to the ocean of 
 satisfaction you will find if you make every other 
 day just like this. — Ram's Horn. 
 
 T^OES it rain to-day? Is it dark and gloomy.? 
 That is all right ; there must be some stormy 
 days. To-morrow the clouds will have a silvery 
 lining or disappear entirely. Does the sun shine.? 
 Enjoy the sunshine. To-morrow may be bright 
 also. Are you well ? Enjoy your health and use 
 it to the best advantage. Are you ill ? Then it 
 is a day in which to be patient and endure cheer- 
 fully. Are you free from trouble ? Then it is a 
 thanksgiving day. Are you carrying heavy bur- 
 
 73
 
 dens for yourself or others ? Then it Is a day for 
 the rolling ofF your burdens at the foot of the cross. 
 
 — Louise Heywood. 
 
 "\^7"ITH the sun o'erhead, your song of praise 
 
 Like the lark to heaven mounts, 
 But how will you sing in the rainy days ? 
 For that is what really counts. 
 
 — Langdon Ballinger. 
 
 TF your spirits are low, do something; if you 
 have been doing something, do something dif- 
 ferent. — Edward Everett Hale. 
 
 nPHERE is no sign of dark or rain 
 
 On the fair face of fruit and flower ; 
 Yea, and no memory of pain 
 
 To hearts in one glad triumph hour; 
 But God, who saw the way they made, 
 Knows where the sunshine met the shade. 
 
 Sunshine and shower for the world — 
 Quiet and tempest, light and shade — 
 
 Before one tiny leaf is curled, 
 Before one dainty bud is made; 
 
 74
 
 Some days the storms, and some the sun, 
 Till all the heavenward growth be done. 
 
 — Nancy B. Turner. 
 
 D 
 
 ID ever a shadow sit on one side of the hearth 
 without an angel on the other ? 
 
 — "James Buckham. 
 
 "IVTEVER forget that when God takes away the 
 sunlight, He always puts stars in the sky. 
 
 — Rose Porter. 
 
 'V\JV{0 believes that God forgets? 
 Hath He not scattered violets 
 With their punctual white and blue ? 
 His the slender meadow rue, 
 His the evening primrose clocks. 
 And, all the spongy meadow through. 
 Gay marsh-marigolds in flocks. 
 
 Who believes that God forgets ? 
 What remembrance, strong and clear. 
 In the cycles of the year : 
 Where the fragrant May-time snows, 
 Apple blossoms tinged with rose, 
 
 75
 
 Perish, 'mid our vain regrets, 
 Ripening apples, red and green, 
 On denuded boughs are seen. 
 
 Thou hast often God forgot, 
 But He in mercy changes not. 
 All the changing stars above, 
 All unchanging human love. 
 Each new heart-beat, every breath, 
 Cherished life, and hateful death. 
 Tell that God remembereth. 
 
 — Isaac Ogden Rankin. 
 
 nPHERE is no day so dark. 
 
 But through the murk some ray of hope may 
 steal. 
 Some blessed touch from heaven, that we may feel 
 If we but choose to mark. 
 
 We shut the portals fast 
 And turn the key, and let no sunshine in ; 
 Yet the worst despair that comes through sin 
 God's light shall reach at last. 
 
 — Cel'ia Thaxter. 
 
 T^HERE is always the sunshine, only we must 
 do our part, we must move into it. 
 
 — Clara Louise Burnham. 
 76
 
 " W^^'^^^'-^^ *^^ weather may be," says he, 
 
 " Whatever the weather may be. 
 It's the songs ye sing, and the smiles ye wear, 
 That's makin' the sun shine everywhere." 
 
 — yames JVhitcomb Riley. 
 
 T TPON the sadness of the sea 
 
 The sunset broods regretfully; 
 From the far lonely spaces slow 
 Withdraws the wistful afterglow. ■ 
 
 So out of life the splendor dies ; 
 So darken all the happy skies ; 
 So gathers twilight, cold and stern ; 
 But overhead the planets burn. 
 
 And up the east another day 
 Shall chase the bitter dark away ; 
 What though our eyes with tears are wet ? 
 The sunrise never failed us yet. 
 
 The blush of dawn may yet restore 
 Our light, and hope, and joy once more ; 
 Sad soul, take comfort, nor forget 
 That sunrise never failed us yet. 
 
 — Celia Thaxter. 
 
 11
 
 IV 
 
 79
 
 Own, if you can, one of those welcome 
 faces that bring the sunshine to Hfe's shad- 
 owed places. 
 
 — Nixon Waterman, 
 
 Blest power of sunshine ! genial day. 
 What balm, what life are in thy ray. 
 
 — John Milton. 
 
 80
 
 SUNSHINE 
 
 Al/HY not cast a gleam of sunshine over Life's 
 rough road to-day ? 
 
 Why not brighten up the shady spots we find along 
 the way ? 
 
 Just a little smile will do it ; or a kindly word to 
 show 
 
 We appreciate the efforts of our fellow-beings so 
 
 That we wish to let them know it by a friendly 
 glance or nod 
 
 Which shall surely help them upward on their pil- 
 grimage to God. 
 
 Just a willing hand to strengthen and a pleasant 
 
 smile to cheer, 
 Just a loving word of comfort to the heart o'er- 
 
 come with fear. 
 Just a little thoughtful kindness shown to each one 
 
 we may meet, 
 Sends the sunshine o'er life's rugged road and rests 
 
 the weary feet, 
 
 8i
 
 And they're each so easily given that it seems a 
 
 shame to miss 
 Such a splendid opportunity to " help along " as 
 
 '^'^' — M. Gertrude Robinson. 
 
 "D ESOLVE to keep happy, and your joy and 
 you shall form an invincible host against 
 difficulties. • _ Helen Keller. 
 
 TOY in the heart makes cheer in the face. 
 
 " T JIST likes to let her in at the door," said 
 Mary, the housemaid, of a woman who always 
 looked bright and cheery ; " the face of her does 
 one good, shure ! " People like sunny-faced 
 women, who look habitually on the positive, opti- 
 mistic side of life, and who are, as Ralph Waldo 
 Trine happily puts it, " in tune with the Infinite." 
 They unconsciously radiate a helpful influence. 
 As they are full of the magnetism and vitality born 
 of hope, and an unshaken belief in the highest and 
 best things in human life, it could not be otherwise 
 with them. As they are related to all that is 
 strong and uplifting on both spiritual and physical 
 
 82
 
 planes, it would be strange if they did not create 
 an atmosphere helpful to all who enter it. 
 
 — Orison Swett Mar den. 
 
 CO others shall 
 
 Take patience, labor, to their heart and hand. 
 From thy hand and thy heart and thy brave cheer, 
 And God's grace fructify through thee to all. 
 The least flower, with a brimming cup, may stand 
 And share its dewdrops with another near. 
 
 — Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 
 r^HEER, what is it ? 
 
 The blossom of a loving heart. 
 The perfume of a happy word. 
 
 I 
 
 HAVE told you of the man who always put on 
 his spectacles when about to eat cherries, in 
 order that the fruit might look larger and more 
 tempting. 
 
 In like manner I always make the most of my 
 enjoyments, and, though I do not cast my eye 
 away from troubles, I pack them up into as small 
 a compass as I can for myself, and never let 
 them annoy others. — Robert Southey. 
 
 83
 
 TS not the man or woman who puts on magnifying 
 glasses to make the pleasures that come look as 
 great as possible, much wiser than he or she who 
 puts on smoked glasses and at once declares that 
 even the sunshine is dark, and there is nothing but 
 dense gloom everywhere ? 
 
 To be sure, troubles come to all of us ; but we 
 know that if God sends us on stony paths, he will 
 provide us with strong shoes. What a happy, 
 blessed thing it would be for all of us if we would 
 implicitly trust God's promises ! Our lives would 
 then be as bright and cheery as a sunshiny winter 
 day. And why is it that we do not trust Him im- 
 plicitly ? He has told us that all things work 
 together for our good if we but love Him ; and if 
 we would but take Him at His word, even the 
 shadowy parts of life would become radiant with 
 the reflection of His tender love and care. 
 
 It is a blessed privilege to talk over our troubles 
 to our Heavenly Father, but it is not at all 
 necessary for us to be forever harping upon them 
 to our friends. We should, like Robert Southey, 
 " pack them into as small a compass as possible 
 for ourselves, and never allow them to annoy 
 others." 
 
 — D. V. F. in Epworth Herald. 
 84
 
 A MERRY heart doeth good like a medicine. 
 
 — Proverbs. 
 
 "TJTOW grateful we ought to be," exclaims 
 Henry Ward Beecher, " when God sends 
 us a natural heart-singer who calms, cheers, and 
 helps his fellows ! " There are natural heart- 
 singers to whom songs and smiles come as spon- 
 taneously as sighs and tears to others. The latter 
 have been unfortunate in their heredity, or early 
 environment, or training, for a normal man or 
 woman is cheerful, healthy, and optimistic, while 
 an abnormal one is gloomy, unhealthy, and pessi- 
 mistic. Clouds and sunshine alternate in every 
 life. Those who prefer to sulk in the shadow, 
 when the sun is shining, have none but themselves 
 to blame if all the world seems dark and miserable. 
 
 — Orison Swett Mar den. 
 
 "VX/'HOEVER would be fairer, illumination must 
 begin in the soul. The face catches the 
 glow only from that side. 
 
 — Rev. W. C. Gannett. 
 
 «5
 
 TJTAPPINESS comes from the concords of one's 
 own nature and not from outward circum- 
 stances. — Henry Ward Beecher, 
 
 A /TUSIC must be In the heart, or it will come 
 out of the fingers, notes, not music. 
 
 — Charles Reade. 
 
 \70U may bear the sunshine wherever you go. 
 For a smiling face is the face to show, 
 
 And the world hath need of your cheer. 
 Why add to its burden of groans and sighs ? 
 'Twere better, my friends, to call to its eyes 
 
 A smile instead of a tear. 
 
 Be brave and be glad, and your joy will rest, 
 Like a nested bird, in some troubled breast ; 
 
 Some heart v/ith its sore repining 
 Will find the star in the midnight sky 
 And catch the gleam as the clouds drift by 
 
 Of the radiant silver lining. — Anon. 
 
 TTEARTS, like plants, must live in the sun- 
 shine to thrive. 
 
 86
 
 TT'HE only way to keep happiness is to give it. 
 We save it when we scatter ,it everywhere. 
 
 T LIVE on the sunny side of the street ; shady 
 folks live on the other. I have always pre- 
 ferred the sunshine, and have tried to put other 
 people there, if only for an hour or two at a time. 
 
 — M. P. Wilder. 
 
 'X'HE world delights in sunny people. The old 
 are hungering for love more than for bread. 
 The air of joy is very cheap ; and, if you can help 
 the poor on with a garment of praise, it will be 
 better for them than blankets. 
 
 — Henry Drummond. 
 
 T^HIS world is only a place of pilgrimage, but 
 after all there is a good deal of cheer on the 
 journey, if it is made with a contented heart. 
 
 — Henry Van Dyke. 
 
 nPHE Lord said two things to Abraham : " I will 
 bless thee," and " Be thou a blessing." When 
 God makes us glad the gladness is not to end with 
 ourselves — we are to pass it on. 
 
 — J. R. Miller. 
 
 87
 
 /'~^OURAGE and cheerfulness will not only take 
 you over hard places of life, but will enable 
 you to bring comfort and help to the weak-hearted, 
 and will console you in the sad hours when, like 
 Uncle Toby, you have " to whistle that you may 
 not weep." — Dr. Osier. 
 
 'T'HERE are only two kinds of people in the 
 world — the people who live in the shadow 
 and gloom and those who live on the sunny side of 
 the street. These shadowed ones are sometimes 
 called pessimists ; sometimes, people of melancholy 
 temperament ; sometimes they are called disagreea- 
 ble people ; but, wherever they go, their character- 
 istic is this : their shadow always travels on before 
 them. . . . These people never bear their own 
 burdens, but expose all their wounds to others. 
 They are all so busy looking down for pitfalls and 
 sharp stones and thorns on which to step that they 
 do not even know that there are any stars in the 
 sky. These folks live on the wrong side of the 
 street. And yet it is only twenty feet across to 
 the other sidewalk, where sunshine always lies. 
 
 — Newell Dwight Hillis. 
 88
 
 B 
 
 EAR in mind that your happiness or your mis- 
 ery is very much of your own making. You 
 cannot create spiritual sunlight any more than you 
 can create the morning star ; but you can put your 
 soul where Christ is shining. Keep a clean con- 
 science. Keep a good stock of God's promises 
 within reach. Keep a nightingale of hope in your 
 soul that can sing away the dark hours when they 
 do come. _x, L. Cuyler. 
 
 T TOW fond we are of thinking about what we 
 have not, instead of about what we have ! 
 It has been well said that " some people's cast-off 
 happiness, like their cast-off clothes, would make 
 some other people very happy." The cheeriest 
 lives are not those that have the most, but those that 
 appreciate the most. Every one of us has a gold- 
 mine of unworked joy close at hand. But gold 
 needs searching for — are you finding yours ? 
 
 — Western Christian Advocate. 
 
 ]^EEP yourself sunny and the Lord will take 
 
 Woman^s Magazine. 
 
 care of your saintliness 
 
 89
 
 "SERVE GOD AND BE CHEERFUL" 
 
 The motto of an English bishop in the seventeenth century. 
 
 " CERVE God and be cheerful." The motto 
 
 Shall be mine, as the bishop's of old ; 
 On my soul's coat-of-arms I will write it 
 In letters of azure and gold. 
 
 ******* 
 " Serve God and be cheerful." Religion 
 Looks all the more lovely in white ; 
 And God is best served by His servant 
 When, smiling, he serves in the light, 
 
 And lives out the glad tidings of Jesus 
 In the sunshine He came to impart. 
 For the fruit of His word and His spirit 
 " Is love, joy, and peace " in the heart. 
 
 " Serve God and be cheerful." Live nobly. 
 Do right and do good. Make the best 
 Of the gifts and the work put before you, 
 And to God without fear leave the rest. 
 
 — William Newell. 
 
 H 
 
 E who cheers others need not fear for himself. 
 
 90
 
 T "^7"HY do we not always smile when we meet a 
 fellow-being ? That is the true recognition 
 which ought to pass from soul to soul. Little 
 children do this involuntarily. The honest-hearted 
 German peasant does it. It is the magical sun- 
 light all through that simple land, the perpetual 
 greeting on the right hand or the left between 
 strangers as they pass each other, never without a 
 smile. This then is the " fine art of smiling," 
 like all fine art, true art, perfection of art, the 
 simplest following of nature. 
 
 — Helen Hunt Jackson. 
 
 " TT'S not so much what you have as what you 
 are that makes your heaven." The bright 
 cheery soul who lives the life of trust only sees the 
 sunny side of everything ; she has learned to en- 
 dure cheerfully and wear a bright face when every- 
 thing: looks dark. — Jnon. 
 
 nPHERE is no greater perversion of Christian 
 truth than to maintain that the Saviour taught 
 that to make one's self miserable is the means of 
 attaining future blessedness. 
 
 — y. L. Spaulding. 
 
 91
 
 "X^rHATEVER adds in even the smallest way to 
 the world's brightness and cheer is worth 
 while. One who plants a flower in a bare place 
 where only bleakness was before is a benefactor. 
 One who says an encouraging word to a disheart- 
 ened neighbor, gives a look of love to a lonely one, 
 or speaks a sentence which may become strength, 
 guidance, or comfort to another, does something 
 worth while. We never know how small a thing 
 may become a benediction to a human life. 
 
 Only a thought, but the work it wrought 
 Could never by pen or tongue be taught ; 
 For it ran through a life like a thread of gold, 
 And the life bore fruit a hundredfold. 
 
 It was worth while for David to write the 
 Twenty-third Psalm to go singing everywhere to 
 the end of time. It was worth while for Mary to 
 break the alabaster vase, pouring the nard on the head 
 and feet of the Master ; all the world is sweeter ever 
 since from the perfume of her ointment. Every 
 singer who has sung a pure, joyous song has given 
 something to earth to make it better. Every artist 
 who has painted a worthy and noble picture, or 
 made the smallest thing of beauty which will stay 
 in the world, has added something to the enriching 
 
 92
 
 of our human life. Every lowly Christian who 
 has lived a true, courageous life amid temptation 
 and trial has made it a little easier for others to 
 live right. Every one who has let fall into the 
 stream of this world's life wholesome words, good 
 words, divine lessons, has put into the current of 
 humanity a handful of spices to sweeten a little the 
 bitter waters. It is always worth while to live 
 nobly, victoriously, struggling to do right, showing 
 the world even the smallest fragments of divine 
 beauty. — J. R. Mi Her. 
 
 OHE was a gracious old lady, whose calm, kindly 
 face, even at threescore, was rarely, or never 
 darkened by a frown. 
 
 " There's sure to be a good many cloudy days 
 mixed up with the sunshiny ones in this world," 
 she said once to a visitor. " I've known what it 
 was to be under the clouds myself, now and 
 again" — the serene old face grew thoughtful, but 
 not sad — " but I've always tried to remember that 
 the sun was shining somewhere behind the clouds, 
 though I couldn't see it. And then there are the 
 blessings by the way." 
 
 The visitor looked into the faded blue eyes, a 
 
 93
 
 bit dimmed with age, but untroubled. So that 
 was the secret, was it ? Just living in the sun- 
 shine, even when the sun was not shining, by keep- 
 ing up a firm faith that the sun was there all the 
 while. And this — " blessings by the way." The 
 visitor repeated the words with the slightest ques- 
 tioning inflection. " I think I understand what 
 you mean — indeed, I'm sure I do, but — " 
 
 " It is a help sometimes to have another body 
 just say over what's plain as daylight to you," as- 
 sented Mrs.Lindley, smiling. "It seems plainer 
 after that, or, may be, plain in another way. I've 
 fallen into the habit of calling the little things that 
 bring us comfort or pleasure, and that we often 
 don't think much about, wayside blessings. They're 
 like the pretty, sweet-smelling flowers that help us 
 forget the rough road ; or shade trees and a cool, 
 bubbling spring, when we're hot and thirsty. It's 
 wonderful how many of them there are when one 
 gets into the way of looking for them." 
 
 — Charles T. White. 
 
 T~^0 not keep the alabaster boxes of your love 
 
 and tenderness sealed up until your friends 
 
 are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness. Speak 
 
 94
 
 approving, cheering words while their ears can 
 hear them, and while their hearts can be thrilled 
 and made happier by them ; the kind things you 
 mean to say when they are gone, say before they 
 go. The flowers you mean to send for their 
 coffins, send to brighten and sweeten their homes 
 before they leave them. If my friends have ala- 
 baster boxes laid away, full of fragrant perfumes of 
 sympathy and affection, which they intend to 
 break over my dead body, I would rather they 
 would bring them out in my weary and troubled 
 hours, and open them, that I may be refreshed and 
 cheered bv them while I need them. I would 
 rather have a plain coffin without a flower, a 
 funeral without an eulogy, than a life without the 
 sweetness of love and sympathy. Let us learn to 
 anoint our friends beforehand for their burial. 
 Post mortem kindness does not cheer the troubled 
 spirit. Flowers on the coffin cast no fragrance 
 backward over life's weary way. Anon. 
 
 T OVING words will cost but little. 
 
 Journeying up the hill of life ; 
 But they make the weak and weary 
 Stronger, braver, for the strife. 
 
 95
 
 Do you count them only trifles ? 
 What to earth are sun and rain ? 
 Never was a kind word wasted j 
 Never was one said in vain. — Jnon. 
 
 OMILES are contagious, so are tears. 
 
 — Horace. 
 
 npO the sunny soul that is full of hope, 
 
 And whose beautiful trust ne'er faileth, 
 The grass is green, and the flowers are bright. 
 Though the wintry storm prevaileth. 
 
 — M. A. Kidder. 
 
 "VJAY, lift up thankful eyes, my sweet ! 
 
 Count equal, loss and gain. 
 Because as long as this world lasts 
 Green leaves will come again. 
 
 For sure as earth lies under snows. 
 And love lies under pain, 
 'Tis good to sing with everything. 
 When green leaves come again. 
 
 — D. M. Mulock. 
 96
 
 'T^HE earth is rolling sunward, 
 And light shall come at last. 
 
 — F. Campana. 
 
 HTHE power to scatter sunshine, and to radiate 
 gladness and good cheer, every one should 
 cultivate. Force yourself, if necessary, to form a 
 habit of seeing the best in people, of finding out 
 their good qualities, and of dwelling upon them 
 and enlarging them. Do not see the distorted, 
 crooked, cramped, burlesque man, but the man 
 that God made. Ruskin says, " Do not think of 
 your faults ; still less of others' faults." In every 
 person who comes near you, look for what is good 
 and strong. Honor that ; rejoice in it ; and as 
 you can, try to imitate it, and your faults will drop 
 off like dead leaves when the time comes. 
 
 — Success. 
 
 p) UILD a little fence of trust 
 
 Around to-day ; 
 Fill the space with loving work. 
 
 And therein stay. 
 Look not through the sheltering bars 
 
 Upon to-morrow ; 
 
 97
 
 God will help thee bear what comes 
 Of joy or sorrow. 
 
 — Mary Frances Butts. 
 
 " \70U can find your niche in the world when 
 your heart is warm, and your face light 
 
 with good cheer." 
 
 \\0 any hearts beat faster, 
 Do any faces brighten 
 To hear your footstep on the stair ? 
 
 — Wellspring. 
 
 " T ITTLE by little the time goes by — 
 
 Short if you sing it ; long if you sigh." 
 
 /^H, the rain and the sun, and the sun and the 
 
 rain ! 
 When the tempest is done, then the sunshine 
 
 again ; 
 And in rapture we'll ride through the stormiest 
 
 gales. 
 For God's hand's on the helm, and his breath in 
 
 the sails. 
 
 98
 
 Then murmur no more, 
 In lull or in roar, 
 But smile and be brave till the voyage is o'er. 
 
 — "James Whitcomh Riley. 
 
 T^OR what are men better than sheep or goats 
 That nourish a blind life within the brain, 
 If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer. 
 Both for themselves and those who call them 
 
 friends ? 
 For so the whole round world is every way 
 Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. 
 
 — Alfred Tennyson. 
 
 /'^ONSIDER this, your goodness is of no use if 
 you are not good to others. The good of 
 goodness is that you can wrap others inside it. It 
 ought to be like a big cloak that you have on a 
 cold night, while the shivering person next to you 
 has none. If you don't make use of your good- 
 ness, what is the good of it ? — Mrs. Clifford. 
 
 nPHE test of your Christian character should be 
 that you are a joy-bearing agent to the world. 
 — Henry Ward Beecher. 
 
 99
 
 ' I "HE man who cannot be strong, cheerful, 
 creative, in his own age, would find all other 
 ages inhospitable and barren. 
 
 — Hamilton W. Mabie. 
 
 '\"\7"HAT is property after all? The law says 
 there are two kinds, real and personal. 
 But it seems to me that the only real property is 
 that which is truly personal, that which we take 
 into our inner life and make our own forever, by 
 understanding and admiration, and sympathy and 
 love. This is the only kind of possession that is 
 worth anything. — Henry van Dyke. 
 
 "XTO one can give what is not possessed in one's 
 self, and these greater gifts of courage, hope, 
 love, and goodness cost the giver more than money, 
 for it is infinitely harder to be than to do. 
 
 — Jnon. 
 
 "V'X yOULD you make some saddened heart 
 
 Just a little lighter ? 
 Would you make some burdened life 
 
 Just a little brighter ? 
 
 100
 
 Drop a word of hope and cheer, 
 
 Set the echoes ringing 
 With your notes of love and joy, 
 
 As you go a-singing, 
 
 — E. A. Brininstool. 
 
 " T JES' do the best I ken where the good Lord 
 put me at, an' it looks like I got a happy 
 feelin' in me 'most all the time." 
 
 — Mrs. Wiggs in Lovey Mary. 
 
 T 
 
 HE effort to be always cheerful, kind, con- 
 siderate, and gentle, no matter what wars 
 may be rankling in the heart, has a great influence 
 in transforming the life. 
 
 I know a lady who has made it a habit of her 
 life to radiate sunshine everywhere she goes. She 
 says that a smile costs nothing. The result is 
 that everybody who waits upon her or does any- 
 thing for her feels it a real favor to serve her, 
 because he is always sure of getting this inde- 
 scribably sweet smile and expression in return. 
 
 What a satisfaction it is to go through life radi- 
 ating sunshine and hope instead of despair, en- 
 couragement instead of discouragement, and to 
 
 lOI
 
 feel conscious that even the newsboy or the boot- 
 black, the car conductor, the office boy, the ele- 
 vator boy, or anybody else vi'ith whom one comes 
 in contact, gets a little dash of sunshine. It costs 
 nothing when you buy a paper of a boy, or get 
 your shoes shined, or pass into an elevator, or give 
 your fare to a conductor, to give a smile with it, 
 to make these people feel that you have a warm 
 heart and good-will. Such salutations will mean 
 more to us than many of the so-called great things. 
 It is the small change of life. Give it out freely. 
 The more you give, the richer you will grow. 
 
 — Orison Swett Marden. 
 
 SCATTER SUNSHINE 
 
 "pUT a bit of sunshine in the day; 
 
 Others need its cheer and so do you — 
 Need it most when outer sky's dull gray 
 Leaves the sunshine-making yours to do. 
 
 Give the day a streak of rosy dawn ; 
 
 Give it, too, a touch of highest noon ; 
 Make the ones about you wonder why 
 
 Sunset crimson should appear "so soon." 
 
 102
 
 Sunshine-making is a blessed task ; 
 
 Cheery hearts, like lovely, wide blue sky, 
 Banish weary gloom and give fresh hope. 
 
 Check the rising tear or thoughtless sigh. 
 
 Put the golden sunshine in each day ; 
 
 Others need the cheer that comes through you ■ 
 Need it most when outer sky's dull gray 
 
 Leaves the sunshine-making yours to do. 
 
 — 'Juniata Stafford. 
 
 /^ATCH the sunshine ! Don't be grieving 
 
 O'er that darksome billow there ! 
 Life's a sea of stormy billows, 
 
 We must meet them everywhere. 
 Pass right through them ! Do not tarry. 
 
 Overcome the heaving tide. 
 There's a sparkling gleam of sunshine 
 
 Waiting on the other side. — Anon. 
 
 nPHE laughter of life is its sunshine, and this 
 would be a dull old world without some 
 happy natures to lighten the pathway of those that 
 plod away in sorrow. 
 
 103
 
 "LTAVE you any cheery greeting? 
 
 Tell it out to-day ; 
 While you wait, the friend and message 
 May have gone away. 
 
 — E. H. Shannon. 
 
 T IFE, believe, is not a dream 
 
 So dark as sages say ; 
 Oft a little morning rain 
 
 Foretells a pleasant day. 
 Sometimes there are clouds of gloom, 
 
 But these are transient all ; 
 If the shower will make the roses bloom, 
 Oh ! why lament its fall ? 
 
 — Charlotte Bronte. 
 
 T FIND earth not gray but rosy. 
 
 Heaven not grim but fair of hue. 
 Do I stoop ? I pluck a posy. 
 
 Do I stand and stare ? All's blue. 
 
 — Browning. 
 
 104
 
 /^LADNESS be with thee, Helper of our world ! 
 
 I think this is the authentic sign and seal 
 Of Godship, that it ever waxes glad, 
 And more glad, until gladness blossoms, bursts 
 Into a rage to suffer for mankind. 
 And recommence at sorrow : drops like seed 
 After the blossom, ultimate of all. 
 Say, does the seed scorn earth and seek the sun ? 
 Surely it has no other end and aim 
 Than to drop, once more die into the ground. 
 Taste cold and darkness and oblivion there ; 
 And thence rise, tree-like grow through pain to joy, 
 More joy and most joy — do man good again. 
 
 — Robert Browning. 
 
 TI^VERY hardship, every joy, every temptation, 
 is a challenge of the spirit, that the human 
 soul may prove itself. The great chain of neces- 
 sity wherewith we are bound has divine significance, 
 and nothing happens which has not some service 
 to perform in working out the sublime destiny of 
 the human soul. — Ellis A. Ford. 
 
 105
 
 V 
 
 107
 
 Would you have"^your songs endure ? 
 Build on the human heart ! 
 
 — Robert Browning. 
 
 Singing our songs as we go our way, 
 Do we know who may be leaning to hear ? 
 
 — Anna C. Brackett. 
 
 io8
 
 THE IMMORTAL NOTE 
 
 T KNOW that love is never w^asted, 
 
 Nor truth, nor the breath of a prayer ; 
 And the thought that goes forth as a blessing 
 Must live, as a joy in the air. 
 
 — Lucy Larcom. 
 
 ly'INDNESS is the music of good-will to men, 
 and on this harp, the smallest fingers may 
 play Heaven's sweetest tunes on earth. 
 
 — Elihu Burrett. 
 
 TN the still air the music lies unheard ; 
 
 In the rough marble beauty lies unseen ; 
 To make the music and the beauty needs 
 
 The master's touch, the sculptor's chisel keen. 
 
 Great Master, touch us with Thy skilful hand ; 
 
 Let not the music that is in us die ! 
 Great sculptor, hew and polish us ; nor let. 
 Hidden and lost. Thy form within us lie ! 
 
 — Horatius Bonar. 
 109
 
 TN sweet sympathy the heart sings its loving 
 ministries to many a wounded spirit. 
 
 /^H, to scatter blessings broadcast, to give with- 
 out wish for return, to do good for the joy of 
 it, to toss your good-will and heartiness right and 
 left among men ; to bring a smile to wan faces, 
 hope into dull eyes, sunshine into dark corners, and 
 so touch men's lives that they shall feel the pass- 
 ing of some benign influence, the presence of 
 something divine — here are aims ! 
 
 — Stanton K. Davis. 
 
 /^H, help us that these faces of our own be 
 peace and joy and strength and sunny sum- 
 mer days to our friends. 
 
 npHE widow's cruse of oil and barrel of meal in- 
 creased as she distributed them; and a Chris- 
 tian's sunshine and happiness, faith and hope, will 
 be invigorated and multiplied in proportion as he 
 tries to make others hopeful, trustful, and happy. 
 
 — yohn Cumming. 
 no
 
 »'X'IS a little thing 
 
 To give a cup of water j yet its draught 
 Of cool refreshment, drained by fevered lips, 
 May give a shock of pleasure to the frame 
 More exquisite than when nectarian juice 
 Renews the life of joy in happiest hours. 
 
 It is a little thing to speak a phrase 
 
 Of common comfort, which by daily use 
 
 Has almost lost its sense ; yet on the ear 
 
 Of him who thought to die unrenowned, 'twill fall 
 
 Like choicest music ; fill the glazing eye 
 
 With gentle tears ; relax the knotted hand 
 
 To know the bonds of fellowship again; 
 
 And shed on the departing soul a sense, 
 
 (More precious than the benison of friends 
 
 About the honored deathbed of the rich) 
 
 To him who else were lonely, and another 
 
 Of the great family is near and feels. 
 
 — Talfourd. 
 
 T^HERE is comfort in the strength of love; 
 'Twill make a thing endurable, which else 
 Would overset the brain or break the heart. 
 
 — IVilliam Wordsworth. 
 Ill
 
 \/OU must love in order to understand love. 
 One act of charity w^ill teach us more of the 
 love of God than a thousand sermons. One act 
 of unselfishness, of real self-denial, w^ill tell us 
 more of the meaning of the Epiphany than whole 
 volumes on theology. — F. W. Robertson. 
 
 T^O the giver shall be given ; 
 
 If thou wouldst w^alk in light 
 Make other spirits bright ; 
 Who, seeking for himself alone, ever entered 
 
 heaven ? 
 In blessing we are blest. 
 In labor find out rest ; 
 If we bend not to the world's work, heart and 
 
 hand and brain. 
 We have lived our life in vain. — C. Seymour. 
 
 TNASMUCH as ye have done it unto one of the 
 least of these my brethren, ye have done it 
 unto me. — Matthew 25 : /{.o. 
 
 112
 
 'X'HE only love worthy of the name ever and 
 alw^ays uplifts. — George Macdonald. 
 
 ' I "HE sweetest lives are those to duty wed, 
 
 Whose deeds, both great and small. 
 Are close-knit strands of an unbroken thread, 
 
 Where love ennobles all. 
 The world may sound no trumpets, ring no bells; 
 The Book of Life the shining record tells. 
 
 — Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 
 TLJAPPINESS, like mercy, is twice blessed ; it 
 blesses those who are most intimately asso- 
 ciated in it, and it blesses all those who see it, hear 
 it, feel it, touch it, or breathe the same atmosphere 
 
 — Kate Douglas Wiggin. 
 
 'T^HEN hide it not, the music of the soul. 
 
 Dear sympathy, expressed with kindly voice. 
 But let it like a shining river, roll 
 To deserts dry — to hearts that would rejoice 
 Oh ! let the symphony of kindly words 
 Sound for the poor, the friendless, and the weak; 
 
 ^^3
 
 And He will bless you — He who struck those 
 
 chords 
 Will strike another when in turn you seek. 
 
 — John Boyle O'Reilly. 
 
 •y HERE'S a world of capability 
 
 For joy spread round about us, meant for us, 
 Inviting us. — Robert Browning. 
 
 T IFE is a schoolhouse. Its rooms may be bare, 
 but they are littered with opportunities of 
 becoming fit for our great inheritance. 
 
 — F. B. Meyer. 
 
 T ET Joy come into your heart ; 
 
 She is waiting just outside 
 With the tenderest hands and sweetest smile 
 That would push the portals wide. 
 
 She is longing to enter in 
 
 And be of your life a part ; 
 Not a transient guest in your troubled breast, 
 
 But a dweller in your heart. 
 114
 
 So she waits at the closed door, 
 
 And beside her sweet Peace stands ; 
 
 While radiant Hope from a sunny slope 
 Is reaching beckoning hands. 
 
 As they sing like the birds at dawn, 
 Each striving to drown Care's din. 
 
 Oh, listen, and hear their glad songs near 
 And hasten to let them in. 
 
 — Sllva Nichols. 
 
 "DEJOICE, dear heart! Take in the larger 
 
 view, 
 And know the larger life. . . . 
 If thou but hold the Light, thy heart remaineth 
 Glad. And patience, like an angel, lifts 
 Thee on her wings, and carries thee above 
 All clouds of anguished grieving. 
 
 — Helen Van Anderson. 
 
 TpHERE is never a day so dreary 
 
 But God can make it bright. 
 And unto the soul that trusts Him 
 
 He giveth songs in the night ; 
 There is never a path so hidden 
 115
 
 But God will show the way, 
 If we seek the Spirit's guidance 
 And patiently watch and pray. 
 
 — Lilla M. Alexander. 
 
 A TRUSTFUL, happy heart makes a radiant 
 face, and such a face carries a blessing wher- 
 ever it goes. _ j^^ q-^i^. Companion. 
 
 T LOOKED beyond the world for truth and 
 
 beauty. 
 Sought, found, and did my duty. 
 
 — Robert Browning. 
 
 OOW love, and taste its fruitage pure ; 
 
 Sow peace, and reap its harvest bright ; 
 Sow sunbeams on the rock and moor. 
 And reap a harvest-home of light. 
 
 — Horatius Bonar. 
 
 'T^HE secret of life — it is giving ; 
 
 To minister and to serve ; 
 Love's law binds the man to the angel, 
 And ruin befalls if we swerve. 
 ii6
 
 There are breadths of celestial horizon 
 Overhanging the commonest way ; 
 The clod and the star share the glory, 
 And to breathe is an ecstasy. 
 
 — Lucy Larcom. 
 
 T IFE is the mirror of king and slave; 
 
 'Tis just what we are and do ; 
 Then give to the world the best you have, 
 And the best will come back to you. 
 
 — Madeline S. Bridges. 
 
 "X /TAY every life that touches mine, 
 
 Be it the slightest contact, get therefrom some 
 good, 
 
 Some little grace, one kindly thought. 
 
 One aspiration yet unfelt, one bit of courage for 
 the darkening sky. 
 
 One gleam of faith to brave the thickening ills of 
 life, 
 
 One glimpse of brighter skies beyond the gather- 
 ing mists « 
 
 To make this life worth living, and heaven a surer 
 heritage. — Jnon. 
 
 117
 
 TT is said that if a piano is struck in the same 
 room where another piano stands unopened 
 and untouched, if one will place his ear quite near 
 to the case of the closed piano, he will hear a 
 string within sound the same note as the one given 
 forth by the first one. You may call it sympa- 
 thetic, or a shadowy hand operating within — it 
 matters little. You may expatiate upon the law 
 of vibrations, and yet you cannot quite understand 
 the beautiful mystery. Even so inexplicable is the 
 sympathy of human souls. We see it, we feel it, 
 we love, and there we must leave it, leave it as an 
 inspiration that makes the whole world kin — leave 
 it as humanity's thank-offering to God. 
 
 — Matthias S. Kaufman. 
 
 1V[0 sunrise, mountain-top, or June of blossom 
 is so beautiful and so inspiring by its beauty 
 as human faces at their best. A smile is the 
 subtlest form of beauty in all the visible creation, 
 and heaven breaks on the earth in the smiles of 
 friendly faces. — tVm. C. Gannett. 
 
 ii8
 
 Al /"EAR a face in harmony with the springtime. 
 Match the sunshine with your smiles. Help 
 the birds in filling the earth with music. Feel your- 
 self a part of this busy, happy, awakening world, 
 and show it by your looks and acts. 
 
 — Anon. 
 
 'T'HE unselfish are always young. The body 
 may fade, but " the heart never grows old." 
 Nothing brings age like the fear of growing old, 
 of being no longer recognized as of use in the 
 world. Human lives yield their increase in the 
 autumn time. Then are the sheaves garnered. 
 If the springtime and summer have been well 
 spent, the fruitage will be welcome and beautiful, 
 and time will have touched with greater loveliness 
 than that of youth the man or woman who has 
 kept a young heart through all the vicissitudes and 
 sorrows of years. — Mary y. Keyes. 
 
 T^VERY right action and true thought sets the 
 seal of its beauty on the person and the face. 
 
 — John Rusk'tn. 
 119
 
 T KNOW not what the future holds 
 Of pain, and care, and grief, and strife ; 
 
 I know not when white peace unfolds 
 Her guarded tents unto our life. 
 
 I know that if we tread the way 
 
 Truth leads, 'twill hold more gold than gray. 
 
 I know full oft we strive to cross 
 
 The heights, whose glints o'ertop the sun. 
 And if we fail, we moan of loss, 
 
 And miss the things we might have won, 
 When they did hold a better way, 
 A purer gold, for all their gray. 
 
 Ah, yes ! I know, howe'er 'tis wrought. 
 That life will be a sweeter song 
 
 For every gift of loving thought. 
 
 And though the way be short, or long, 
 
 That one true love will come to stay. 
 
 And prove that life's more gold than gray. 
 
 — Amy Nicker son. 
 
 /^H, what is there to frown or smile at ? 
 
 What is left for us, save, in growth 
 Of soul, to rise up, far past both. 
 From the gift looking to the giver, 
 120
 
 And from the cistern to the river, 
 
 And from the finite to infinity, 
 
 And from man's dust to God's divinity ? 
 
 — Robert Browning. 
 
 "X /TAKE all good men your well-wishers, and 
 then, in the years' steady sifting, 
 
 Some of them turn into friends. Friends are the 
 sunshine of life. — J°k^ Hay. 
 
 A RIFT in the lute sometimes ! 
 A discord in the song ! 
 Yet our faith in the friends that are true 
 In the heart may linger long. 
 
 As from the dark shadows of evening 
 Creeps the dawn of a day that is new, 
 
 As the dews which refresh and restore us, 
 Is the faith of the friend that is true. 
 
 — Theresa IVood. 
 
 121
 
 ' I "HE rose is fairest when 'tis budding new, 
 
 And hope is brightest when it dawns from 
 fears. 
 The rose is sweetest washed with morning dew, 
 And love is loveliest when embalmed with tears. 
 
 — Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 'T'HE soul is an instrument of a thousand strings; 
 the players who touch the strings are many ; 
 there is but one listener, the soul itself. 
 
 — Anon. 
 
 "W'OU spoke one day a cheering word, 
 
 And passed to other duties ; 
 It warmed a heart, new promise stirred. 
 
 And painted a life with beauties. 
 And so for the word and its silent prayer 
 You'll reap a palm sometime — somewhere. 
 
 You gave on the way a pleasant smile 
 
 And thought no more about it ; 
 It cheered a life that was sad the while, 
 
 That might have been wrecked without it ; 
 And so for the smile and its fruitage fair 
 You'll reap a crown sometime — somewhere. 
 
 — The Classmate. 
 122
 
 TTEART-CHEER — 
 
 Like the roses sweet, it will grow and grow 
 As fast as you give it away. 
 
 — Antoinette Smith. 
 
 /'~*REAT gift of heaven, too little understood. 
 The happiness that comes from doing good. 
 
 JUST to be good, to keep life pure from degrad- 
 ing elements, to make it constantly helpful in 
 little ways to those who are touched by it, to keep 
 one's spirit always sweet and avoid all manner of 
 petty anger and irritability, — that is an ideal as 
 noble as it is difficult. 
 
 — Edward Howard Griggs. 
 
 "PPIGRAMS are worth little for guidance to 
 the perplexed, and less for comfort to the 
 wounded. But the plain, homely sayings which 
 come from a soul that has learned the lesson of 
 patient courage in the school of real experience, 
 falls upon the wound like drops of balsam, and 
 like a soothing lotion upon the eyes smarting and 
 blinded with passion. — Henry van Dyke. 
 
 123
 
 C YMPATHY is the golden key that unlocks the 
 
 
 heart of others. — Samuel Smiles. 
 
 OELFISHNESS cannot forgive. Love cannot 
 help forgiving. Love defines our neighbor as 
 the man whom we can help, and measures our duty 
 to him by what we would wish for ourselves. 
 
 — William DeWitt Hyde. 
 
 \17E can only have the highest happiness by 
 having wide thoughts and much feeling for 
 the rest of the world as well as ourselves. 
 
 — George Eliot. 
 
 "OUT who shall estimate the value of the tender 
 pity, the loving interest, the kindly deed, the 
 helpful encouragement, and cheering word ? Is not 
 each of us daily uplifted and inspired by just such 
 blessed trifles ? — L. L. T. 
 
 "DE kind ! be kind ! each soul some burden hath, 
 
 Some shadows lie on every human path ; 
 Make blest to age its precious aftermath. 
 
 124
 
 Be kind ! be kind ! who knows another's need ? 
 The lips may smile when oft the heart doth bleed. 
 The sad thoughts smiles may hide, thou canst not 
 read. 
 
 Be kind ! be kind ! the days are speeding fast : 
 The time for kindly deeds will soon be past. 
 Speak only words thou wilt should be thy last. 
 
 — Luella Clark. 
 
 A^rHEN darkness gathers round my path, 
 And all the song-birds cease to sing, 
 I know it is not sent in wrath, — 
 
 'Tis but the shadow of Thy wing. 
 When dancing sunbeams round me shine, 
 
 And joy and peacefulness embrace, 
 I know the radiance is not mine, — 
 
 'Tis but the brightness of Thy face. 
 
 T^AKE courage to entrust your love 
 
 To Him so named, who guards above 
 Its ends and shall fulfil ! 
 Breaking the narrow prayers that may 
 Befit your narrow hearts, away 
 In His broad loving will. 
 
 — Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 125
 
 T^HE year's at the spring, 
 The day's at the morn, 
 The morning's at seven. 
 The hillside's dew-pearled ; 
 The lark's on the wing, 
 The snail's on the thorn, 
 God's in his heaven — 
 All's right with the world ! 
 
 — Robert Browning. 
 
 '^X 7"E are not happy enough Christians. There 
 is in us too much discontent, too much 
 complaining, too much fretting and anxiety. We 
 become discouraged too easily. We are overcome 
 too readily and do not live victoriously. The 
 great truth which the Incarnation teaches us is 
 that God is with us, living with us, dwelling in us. 
 If this be true, whatever the experiences of our 
 lives may be, we should meet them with joy. A 
 song in the heart makes all hard things easier, all 
 heavy burdens lighter, all bitter sorrows less bitter. 
 If we would but sing at our work, we should not 
 grow weary. 
 
 " For the heart that sings. 
 Hours fly on swift wings 
 126
 
 Of mystical rune and rhythm. 
 
 And carry the tunes 
 
 Of a year of Junes, 
 And the heart of the toiler with them." 
 
 — y. R. Miller. 
 
 (~\P the future borrow, 
 
 ^-^^ Clothe the waste with dreams of grain, 
 
 And on the midnight sky of rain 
 
 Paint the Golden Morrow. — Jnon. 
 
 T^HE woman singing at her spinning wheel 
 
 A pleasant chant, ballad, or barcarolle ; 
 She thinking of her song, upon the whole. 
 Far more than of the flax ; and yet the reel 
 Is full, and artfully her fingers feel 
 With quick adjustment, provident control, 
 The lines, too subtly twisted to unroll, 
 Out to a perfect thread. I hence appeal 
 To the dear Christian church — that we may do 
 Our Father's business in these temples mirk. 
 Thus swift and steadfast ; thus intent and strong 
 While, thus, apart from toil, our souls pursue 
 Some high, calm, spheric tune, and prove our work 
 The better for the sweetness of our song. 
 
 — Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 127
 
 /CHEERFULNESS will lighten sickness, pov- 
 erty, and affliction ; convert ignorance into 
 an amiable simplicity, and render even deformity 
 itself agreeable. —Addison. 
 
 OHE was black and she was poor. She had to 
 work every day for a living, but as she worked 
 she sang, and this was the refrain of her song : 
 " Thanksgiving an' the voice of melody." 
 
 " What makes you so happy ? " people asked 
 her, as they heard her sing. 
 
 " 'Pears like the Lord is so good to me I can't 
 thank him enough," she would say, and then she 
 would go on singing, " Thanksgiving an' the 
 voice of melody," till everybody at last called 
 her " Thanksgiving Ann." 
 
 It seems sometimes as if we had lost the art of 
 being happy, as children in crowded city streets are 
 said to forget how to play. 
 
 Every day is Thanksgiving Day to the birds 
 and animals, and why should it not be to us ? 
 One thing will help us to be happy, and that is the 
 same thing that mad& the old colored woman sing 
 at her work — it is to remember God's goodness. 
 
 If we feel poor, we have only to remember that 
 
 128
 
 our Father is rich ; if we feel lonely, we have only 
 to remember that Jesus has promised to be with us 
 to the end of the world ; if we feel afraid, we 
 know that our Father says, " Fear not, for I am 
 with thee." _ jj^^ Classmate. 
 
 T IVE in the sunshine ; God meant it for you ! 
 Live as the robins, and sing the day through. 
 — Margaret E. Sangster. 
 
 OUNSHINE'S everywhere, and summer too. 
 
 — Robert Browning. 
 
 TF you'll sing a song as you plod along, 
 
 You'll find that the busy rushing throng 
 Will catch the strain of the glad refrain ; 
 That the sun will follow the blinding rain ; 
 That the clouds will fly from the blackened sky ; 
 That the stars wiH come out by and by ; 
 And you'll make new friends, till hope descends 
 From where the placid rainbow bends ; 
 And all because of a little song — 
 If you'll sing the song as you plod along ! 
 
 — Exchange. 
 129
 
 /'"^HEER up ! There are sunny days in store 
 for you, even if you are in the midst of 
 clouds now. The sun is always in its place, but 
 the clouds appear and disappear. Let the sun of 
 faith shine on your troubles, and see how quickly 
 they will melt away. — Anon. 
 
 'IPO be joyous in my work, moderate in my 
 pleasures, chary in my confidences, faithful 
 in my friendships; to be energetic but not excit- 
 able, enthusiastic but not fanatical ; loyal to the 
 truth as I see it, but ever open-minded to the 
 newer light ; to discourage shams, and rejoice in 
 all that is beautiful and true; to do my work and 
 live my life so that neither shall require defence 
 or apology, to honor no one simply because rich 
 or famous, and despise no one because humble or 
 poor ; to be gentle and considerate toward the 
 weak, respectful yet self-respecting toward the 
 great, courteous to all, obsequious to none ; to 
 seek wisdom from great books and inspiration 
 from good men ; to invigorate my mind with 
 noble thoughts as I do my body with sunshine 
 and fresh air; to prize all sweet human friend- 
 ships and seek to make at least one home happy ; 
 
 130
 
 to have charity for the erring, sympathy for the 
 sorrowing, cheer for the despondent ; to be indif- 
 ferent to none, helpful to some, friendly with all ; 
 to leave the world a little better off because of me ; 
 and to leave it, when I must, bravely and cheer- 
 fully, with faith in God and good-will to all my 
 fellow-men ; this shall be my endeavor during the 
 coming year. __ j, h. Tewksbury. 
 
 131
 
 VI 
 
 133
 
 The key was Love; pure gold; acrust 
 With glittering gems of faith and trust. 
 It fits all doors, it turns all locks, 
 It leads the way thro' walls and rocks, 
 It lifts the bolt, unbars the gate. 
 And shows us where life's treasures wait. 
 
 — Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 
 
 134
 
 THE KEYNOTE 
 
 A^rHOEVER sings his song aright, 
 
 Must catch the keynote first, 
 Then will the perfect strain ascend. 
 And into rapture burst. 
 
 And in the scale of every life 
 
 This note runs through and through — 
 No tones can make a perfect chord 
 
 Unless the key be true. 
 
 Each soul must set its song of life, 
 
 In octave low or high. 
 And he whose strain is truly keyed 
 
 Shall hear it in the sky. 
 
 — M. C. Oliver. 
 
 nPHAT song is sweetest, bravest, best, 
 
 Which plucks the thistle-barb of care 
 From a despondent brother's breast. 
 
 And plants a sprig of heart's ease there. 
 
 — Andrexv Downing.
 
 'T'HERE is no anodyne for heart sorrow like 
 
 ministry to others. „ „ ,^ 
 
 ^ —F.B. Meyer. 
 
 TT OW can I make life yield its fullest and best ? 
 
 In a single word, it is service^ — not self but 
 
 the other self. „ , , ^ . , , , ^ . 
 
 — Ralph Waldo Trine. 
 
 TF thou art blest, 
 
 Then let the sunshine of thy gladness rest 
 On the dark edges of each cloud that lies 
 Back in thy brother's skies. 
 If thou art sad, 
 Still be thou in thy brother's gladness glad. 
 
 — Anna E. Hamilton. 
 
 OCARS on the face become marks of beauty 
 when the heart is kind. 
 
 — Creswell Maclaughlin. 
 
 lUTEART beauty writes itself at length on the 
 external life in deed, disposition, and charac- 
 ter. 
 
 136
 
 It is the inner life that makes our world. If 
 our hearts are sweet, patient, gentle, loving, we 
 find sweetness, patience, gentleness, and lovingness 
 wherever we go. But if our hearts are bitter, 
 jealous, suspicious, we find bitterness, jealousy, 
 and suspicion on every path. If we go out among 
 people in a combative spirit, we find combativeness 
 in those we meet. But if we go forth in a chari- 
 table frame of mind, with good-will in our hearts 
 toward all, we find brotherliness and cordiality in 
 every man we come up to in our walks and associ- 
 ations. 
 
 ** In ourselves the sunshine dwells ; 
 In ourselves the music swells ; 
 Everywhere the heart awake 
 Finds what pleasure it can make ; 
 Everywhere the light and shade 
 By the Gazer's eye is made." 
 
 This is the secret of that fine art which some 
 
 people possess of always finding good and beauty 
 
 in others. They have goodness and beauty in 
 
 themselves. There are such people, and there is 
 
 no reason why we all should not set this ideal for 
 
 our lives. ^ r> T,^-,t 
 
 — J.R. Miller. 
 
 137
 
 A^^HEN we climb to heaven, 'tis on the rounds 
 Of love to men. 
 
 — Alice Gary, 
 
 JOIN the great company of those who make 
 '^ the barren places of life fruitful with kindness. 
 Carry a vision of heaven in your souls, and you 
 shall make your home, your college, the world, cor- 
 respond to that vision. Your success and happi- 
 ness lie in you. External conditions are the 
 accidents of life, its outer trappings. The great, 
 enduring realities are love of service. Joy is the 
 holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our in- 
 telligence aglow. Resolve to keep happy, and your 
 joy and you shall form an invincible host against 
 
 ^'^'"^'>'- -Helen Keller. 
 
 T TNSELFISH is the best fashion there ever 
 can be; it's the fashion of the kingdom of 
 
 — R.uth Cady. 
 
 /^~*REAT hearts are those whose presence is 
 sunshine. 7'heir coming changes our cli- 
 mate. They oil the bearings of life. They make 
 
 138
 
 right living easy. Blessed are the happiness- 
 makers ! They represent the best forces of 
 
 civilization. x?- 7; n. • ; tth- 
 
 — Newell Dwight Hillis. 
 
 T^ACE your deficiencies and acknowledge them, 
 but do not let them master you. Let them 
 teach you patience, sweetness, insight. When we 
 do the best we can, we never know what miracle 
 is wrought in our own life, or in the life of 
 
 — Helen Keller. 
 
 Q STRONGHEART! not in vain you bore 
 
 the strife ! 
 We who have known all, are braver for your life. 
 
 — James H. IFest. 
 
 T EAD life of love : that others who 
 
 Behold your life may kindle too 
 With love, and cast their lot with you. 
 
 — Christina G. Rossetti, 
 
 139
 
 OHE is constantly giving up her life for Christ's 
 
 sake, and as often finds it coming back to her 
 
 in some richer, sweeter form. /? n n 
 
 — h. r. Koe. 
 
 "V^OUNG men and women, the sermon of the 
 hour for you is in the words, " She hath 
 done what she could." Let it preach to you of 
 the work you have to do in these high and rare 
 years of youth that are so rapidly gliding by. Do 
 what you can toward bringing out the noblest 
 possibilities of your nature. Do what you can to 
 think high thoughts, to love true things, and to do 
 noble deeds. Temptations beset you like those 
 that have filled hearts as light as yours with inex- 
 pressible sorrow. Are you doing what you can to 
 make yourself strong to resist them ? Before you 
 hang the gilded trinkets of fashion, the embroidered 
 banners of selfish lives. Do what you can to live 
 for higher aims than these. Your lives are grow- 
 ing riper, your heads are growing wiser. Are you 
 doing what you can to balance this with growth of 
 heart, making the aff^ections as much richer and 
 warmer; the conscience, God's best gift to man, 
 brighter and more commanding ? Are you doing 
 what you can to follow your truest and do your 
 
 best ? 
 
 — Rev. y. LI. "Jones. 
 
 140
 
 ^HRIST'S time was largely taken up in making 
 other people happy. 
 
 — Henry Drummond. 
 
 PASS IT ON 
 
 "LJAVE you had a kindness shown, 
 
 Pass it on, 
 'Twas not given for thee alone, 
 
 Pass it on. 
 Let it travel down the years. 
 Let it wipe another's tears, 
 Till in heaven the deed appears, 
 Pass it on. 
 
 Hast thou found some precious treasure, 
 
 Pass it on. 
 Hast thou some peculiar pleasure, 
 
 Pass it on. 
 For the heart grows rich in giving, 
 Loving is the truest living, 
 Letting go is twice possessing, 
 Would'st thou double every blessing, 
 
 Pass it on. 
 
 141
 
 Have you found the heavenly light ? 
 
 Pass it on. 
 Souls are groping in the night, 
 
 Daylight gone. 
 
 Hold thy lighted lamp on high, 
 
 Be a star in some one's sky, 
 
 He may live who else would die, 
 
 Pass it on. tt t> . 
 
 — Henry Burton, 
 
 A LOVABLE Christian is one who hits the 
 golden mean between easy, good-natured lax- 
 ity on the one hand, and stern or uncharitable 
 moroseness on the other. He is sound and yet 
 sweet ! He is all the sweeter for living much in 
 the sunshine of Christ's countenance. He never 
 incurs suspicion or contempt by compromising 
 with sinful prejudices, nor does he repel people by 
 doing a righteous act in a churlish or bigoted fash- 
 ion. The blessed Jesus is our model here as in 
 everything else. _ ^^^ y^^j^ Observer. 
 
 TTAVE a heart that never hardens, and a temper 
 that never tires, and a touch that never hurts. 
 
 — Dickens. 
 142
 
 A^ 7"E view the world with our own eyes, each of 
 us, and we make from within us the world 
 which we see. _ fhackeray. 
 
 * I "HE very essence of truth is plainness and 
 brightness, the darkness and crookedness are 
 
 ^"'■o^^"- -Milton. 
 
 T'LL drop my burden at His feet, 
 And bear a song away. 
 
 T WOULD recommend weary folks to take sing- 
 ing-lessons. Learn to sing ! 
 
 God has promised daily strength for daily need, 
 but never that the strength furnished for any given 
 moment should suffice for troubles carried over 
 from the past or borrowed from the future. The 
 divine Teacher said truly : " The morrow shall 
 take thought for the things of itself; sufficient 
 unto the day is the evil thereof." 
 
 And, after all, the troubles you anticipate may 
 never really befall. 'Tis a long lane without a 
 turning. The dreariest day has some glints of 
 light. How do you know that some spell of good 
 fortune may not be about to befall you ? In any 
 
 143
 
 case, worrying will not mend the matter. It can 
 alter neither the future nor the past, though it will 
 materially affect your power for bearing it. It 
 will not rob to-morrow of its difficulties, but it 
 will rob your brain of its clear-sightedness and your 
 heart of its courage. 
 
 Turn from it to God with faith and prayer ; 
 and look out for the one or two patches of blue 
 which are in every sky. And if you cannot dis- 
 cover any where you are, dare to anticipate the 
 time when God will wipe away all tears, and give 
 you a kiss like that which a mother gives to a tired, 
 sobbing child, who is too weary to get off to sleep. 
 
 — F. B. Meyer. 
 
 TOY lies in mere constant living in Christ's pres- 
 •^ ence, with all that this implies of peace, of 
 shelter, and of love. _ j^^^^y Drummond. 
 
 /'^OD gives each man one life, like a lamp, then 
 
 gives 
 That lamp due measure of oil ; lamp lighted, hold 
 
 high, wave wide 
 Its comfort for others to share. 
 
 — Robert Browning. 
 144
 
 nPHE golden rule of Christ will bring the golden 
 
 age to man. 
 
 — Frances Willard. 
 
 IV /TINE be the lot to comfort and delight, 
 
 And if some awful chasms I needs must leap, 
 Let me not murmur at my lot, but sweep 
 On bravely to the end without one fear, 
 Knowing that He who planned my ways stands 
 near. —Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 
 
 IVrOT even Hope can always soar and sing ; 
 
 Sometimes she needs must rest a willing wing. 
 And wait in midst of her glad carolling. 
 
 Faint not, dear heart, though she rest over night — 
 Her wings are swifter than the wings of light ; 
 They're gaining strength for more enduring flight. 
 
 Fret not because her voice is sometimes still ; 
 It may be catching some new lilt or thrill ; 
 She'll sing again, all of her own sweet will. 
 
 Perhaps when worn with pain, in darkened room. 
 Denied the light, the beauty, and the bloom, 
 You'll see a little rift within the gloom; 
 
 145
 
 Then hear a stir, as of unfolding wings ; 
 
 And low, sweet notes, as one who tries the strings 
 
 In tender prelude just before he sings. 
 
 And wakened Hope, grown vigorous and strong. 
 Will then surprise the silence with a song — 
 Keep a brave heart, Hope never slumbers long. 
 
 — Anna J. Granniss. 
 
 T~^HE good we hoped to gain has failed us — well. 
 
 We do not see the ending — and the boon 
 May wait us down the ages — who can tell ? 
 And bless us amply soon. 
 
 In God's eternal plan, a month, a year, 
 Is but an hour of some slow April day, 
 
 Holding the germs of what we hope or fear, 
 To blossom far away. 
 
 And rayless days must come, and nights of mist, 
 And, after brooding sunshine, dreary showers j 
 
 Chill dews delay the buds the south wind kissed. 
 And, late, bloom fairer flowers. 
 
 146
 
 We pray for growth and strength ; griefs dreaded 
 showers 
 
 May be in God's wise purpose ripening rain ; 
 He only knows how all our highest powers 
 
 Are perfected in pain. 
 
 To trusting souls must truest good increase ; 
 
 Loss here shall be uncounted treasures there; 
 
 So we attain to perfectness of peace, 
 
 What matter how or where ? 
 
 — Luella Clark. 
 
 T^HE sunny side of the hill is the time to lift a 
 bit at the wheel of some traveller who has 
 missed it on the way up, and has stopped in the 
 middle of a sharp pitch, tired out and sorrowing at 
 his lot. You can help him a little and still reach 
 the summit ere the sun begins to slant toward the 
 west. When the gray hairs come, it will be pleas- 
 ant to think back to the kindly deeds you have 
 done for — whom ? For the friend in need ? Yes, 
 and for the Master too. 
 
 Again, the sunny side of life is the time to learn 
 the secret of the shining key to the place of the 
 shut door. Do not let it ever get rusty. Be the 
 only locksmith that knows the combination to 
 
 147
 
 the prayer closet of your heart, A shining key 
 to the place of prayer is the surest badge of the 
 true Christian. 
 
 Once more, you will be happy by and by if you 
 will take the time to learn to know a privilege 
 when you see it. Far too often when we meet 
 privilege on the way of life, we do not recognize 
 it. We say : " Excuse me. I believe you are a 
 duty — a hard, irksome duty. Stand out of the 
 way. I am looking for privilege, not duty." And 
 all the time we are face to face with privilege and 
 did not know it. Surely, the morning of life is 
 the very best time to journey the way of the cross. 
 Then all the rest of the way will be made brighter 
 by the light that streams from it. 
 
 — Kind Words. 
 
 nPHERE are nettles everywhere, 
 
 But the smooth green grasses are more com- 
 mon still; 
 The blue in heaven is larger than the cloud. 
 
 — Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 
 TF we cannot strew life's path with flowers, we 
 can, at least, strew it with smiles. 
 
 — Charles Dickens. 
 148
 
 A FRIEND of mine told me of a visit he had 
 paid to a poor woman, overwhelmed with 
 trouble in her httle room ; but she always seemed 
 cheerful. She knew the Rock. " Why," said 
 he, " Mary, you must have very dark days ; they 
 must overcome you with clouds sometimes." 
 " Yes," she said, " but then I often find there's 
 comfort in a cloud." " Comfort in a cloud, 
 Mary ? " " Yes," she said ; " when I am very 
 low and dark, I go to the window, and if I see a 
 heavy cloud, I think of those precious words, ' a 
 cloud received Him out of their sight ' ; and I look 
 up and see the cloud, sure enough, and then I 
 think — well, that may be the cloud that hides 
 Him, and .so you see there is comfort in a cloud." 
 — -- Treasury of Religious Thought. 
 
 /^UT of the shadows of night 
 The world rolls into light ; 
 It is daybreak everywhere ! 
 
 — Henry W. Longfellow. 
 
 "CLEAREST sometimes that thy Father 
 
 Hath forgot ? 
 Tho' the clouds around thee gather 
 
 Doubt Him not ! 
 149
 
 Always hath the daylight broken, 
 
 Always hath He comfort spoken ; 
 
 Better hath He been for years 
 
 Than thy fears. 
 
 — K. R. Kavenbach. 
 
 /^ FAIR To-morrow, what our souls have missed 
 Art thou not keeping for us, somewhere still ? 
 The buds of promise that have never blown — 
 The tender lips that we have never kissed — 
 The song whose high, sweet strain eludes our skill. 
 The one pearl that life hath never known. 
 
 — yulia C. R. Dorr. 
 
 JUST SMILE AND THEN FORGET 
 
 /^H, do not be discouraged, little heart. 
 
 This world is not a wilderness of woe ; 
 And if sometimes its brambles catch and tear. 
 Don't let the little scratches vex you so. 
 
 For all the little worries that befall. 
 The small vexations that so grieve and fret. 
 To-morrow they will vanish into air; 
 Then smile, dear heart, just smile, and then forget. 
 
 150
 
 And if to-day the skies are overcast, 
 Somewhere, we know, the sun is shining still ; 
 Its silver radiance brims the lowering clouds, 
 And we may catch its glory if we will. 
 
 And when our feet are weary, and the road 
 More toilsome seems with every passing day, 
 To share our every burden, little heart. 
 The Helper walks beside us all the way. 
 
 — Elizabeth Clarke Hardy. 
 
 TO TRUST 
 
 TT'S easy to trust when the skies are blue. 
 
 When everything goes as you wish it to ; 
 It's easy to trust when no hope's denied. 
 When every desire is as quick supplied ; 
 When your joy each day grows more and more, 
 Till the heart somehow is a-spilling o'er ! 
 You just can't help it ; it seems you must. 
 Wherever you are, in the Father trust ! 
 
 But it's hard to trust when the skies are gray. 
 When nothing seemingly goes your way ; 
 It's hard to feel that it's " for the best," 
 When suffering comes to the dear home nest ; 
 
 151
 
 When one by one your joys depart, 
 Leaving a desolate, widowed heart. 
 But you just can't help it; it's now you must 
 In the Father's love believe and trust ! 
 
 — Adelhert F. Caldwell. 
 
 C\^ the bare side of yonder hill 
 
 See the dark shadow resting still ; 
 Its cause, the small cloud bright as light. 
 In the clear blue above the height. 
 
 'Tis thus with sorrow, cheerless here, 
 
 A shadow on some spot most dear; 
 
 Yet thrown from His brightness high above. 
 
 Reflected from God's smile of love ! 
 
 — George Bancroft Griffith. 
 
 TT is a comely fashion to be glad — 
 Joy is the grace we say to God. 
 
 — 'Jean Inge low. 
 
 ■\ ^ fHAT matters it though life uncertain be 
 
 To all ? What though its goal 
 Be never reached ? What though it fall and flee. 
 Have we not each a soul ? 
 
 152
 
 Be like the bird that on a bough too frail 
 
 To bear him gayly swings ; 
 He carols though the slender branches fail — 
 
 He knows that he has wings. 
 
 — Victor Hugo. 
 
 " T^HY will be done " is the sum of all true 
 worship and right prayer. The rest is aside 
 from the divine purpose, and could it be realized 
 would make the world a chaos or a desert. We 
 would not love the flowers if it were always spring, 
 and our pleasures would pall, did not pain and loss 
 come to teach us their worth. 
 
 — y. S. Spaulding. 
 
 153
 
 VII 
 
 155
 
 The dear Lord comfort you. 
 
 — Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 
 If I could speak as heart to heart in sorrow, 
 The sympathy and love I cannot pen, 
 
 If I should wish God's comfort on the morrow 
 
 'Twould not relieve your heart, but then 
 
 I'm sure you'd know. 
 
 — W. K. G. 
 
 156
 
 LOOK UP 
 
 A LTHOUGHthelightisout,darknessaroundus; 
 The sun gone down, the night succeeding day ; 
 Although the summer fades and sombre sadness 
 Fills us with sorrow and dismay, 
 We know God lives. 
 And when He comes to us and, gently bending, 
 
 Kisses to sleep, as father would his son. 
 The lad we love beyond our own life's ending. 
 How can our aching hearts be won 
 To think it well ? 
 
 'Tis hard to know, and seems beyond the mending; 
 
 But then the comfort of the hope beyond 
 Can make the pathway worthy the ascending. 
 
 Till we can listen and respond, 
 And reach his hand. 
 Dear heart, look up, the evening stars are shining, 
 
 God is the same at night as in the day ; 
 And by and by we'll know the silver lining. 
 
 And walk in His eternal way. 
 
 We know God lives. _ J^.^^ j^ ^^^^ 
 
 157
 
 A RT sad, My child ? Was it thy fond belief 
 The sun of joy for thee would never set ? 
 Remember, I have trod the way of grief 
 
 And consecrated sorrow. Patience yet ; 
 Patience, if need be, through heart-breaking years 
 
 The burden of thine anguish to sustain, 
 And thou shalt win the blessing of thy tears. 
 
 And the high gladness born of vanquished pain ; 
 It is thy comfort that thy woe shall be 
 Some kin to that I bore on Calvary. 
 
 — L. M. Montgomery. 
 
 A H, how His patience shames our discontent ! 
 
 How foolish all our fretfulness appears ! 
 
 Did He not love us all these many years, 
 
 And yet His days in quiet toil were spent. 
 
 He knew the cause whereunto He was sent ; 
 
 His world stood waiting, there were anguished tears 
 
 For Him to wipe ; the dead upon their biers 
 
 To be awakened, and men called to repent. 
 
 And little children to be blessed, the hill 
 
 Of Calvary to climb ; yet, day by day 
 
 Unrecognized, He calmly worked until 
 
 The time was come. O blessed Lord ! we pray 
 
 That by Thy life we may take patience still. 
 
 And in Thy path may follow patiently. 
 
 — Anon. 
 158
 
 T^HE gates of life swing either way 
 
 On noiseless hinges night and day. 
 One enters through the open door, 
 One leaves us to return no more. 
 And which is happier, which more blest, — 
 God knoweth best. 
 
 We greet with smiles the one who comes 
 Like sunshine to our hearts and homes. 
 And reach out longing hands with tears 
 To him who in his ripened years 
 Goes gladly to his heavenly rest ; 
 God knoweth best. 
 
 He guards the gates ; we need not dread 
 The path these little feet must tread. 
 Nor fear for him who from our sight. 
 Passed through them to the realms of light. 
 Both in His loving care we rest : 
 God knoweth best. 
 
 — Mary Wheaton Lyon. 
 
 TDEYOND life's toils and cares. 
 
 Its hopes and joys, its weariness and sorrow. 
 Its sleepless nights, its days of smiles and tears. 
 Will be a long, sweet life, unmarked by years — 
 One bright, unending morrow. 
 
 159
 
 /~\NE of these days they will all be over 
 
 Sorrow and laughter, loss and gain, 
 Meetings and partings of friend and lover, 
 Joy that was often tinged with pain. 
 
 * >t« k^ «i« *i« %1a (i* 
 
 ^» »r« ^* ^j» ^^ *j* 
 
 One of these days shall the heartache leave us, 
 One of these days will the burden drop ; 
 
 Never again shall a hope deceive us, 
 Never again shall our progress stop. 
 
 * ^|# *t* t^ vj> kl* «1« 
 
 *J» ^^ ^^ ^^ #J% ^K 
 
 One of these days we shall know the reason. 
 Haply, of much that perplexes now ; 
 
 One of these days in the Lord's good season, 
 Light of His peace shall adorn the brow. 
 
 Evermore blest out of tribulation. 
 
 Lifted to dwell in His sun-bright smile, 
 
 Happy to share in the great salvation. 
 Can we not patiently tarry awhile ? 
 
 — Margaret Sangster. 
 
 GOD KNOWS BEST 
 
 /^NE sad day, when the sun's gold crown. 
 
 Jewelled the desolate, dreamy west, 
 I came with a burden and laid it down 
 Under the lilies and leaves to rest ; 
 i6o
 
 And, weeping, I left it and went my way, 
 
 With the twilight whispering : " God knows 
 best ! " 
 
 One sweet day — it was long ago, 
 
 And thorny the paths my feet have pressed 
 Since, with tears and kisses, I laid it low — 
 
 Soul of my soul and life of my breast ! 
 But kneeling now in the dark to pray. 
 
 There comes with a song from the sunless west 
 The same sweet voice that I heard that day — 
 
 The twilight whispering : " God knows best ! " 
 
 — Frank L. Stanton. 
 
 /^AN we not clasp the Father's hand and be at 
 
 rest 
 Because He knoweth best ? 
 
 Can we not trust, until He opens wide the gate, 
 His love is great ? 
 For He who holds the key 
 To life's dark mystery 
 Some day will lift from eyes the seal, 
 And to the trusting soul reveal 
 The way o'er which He led His child 
 To pastures green, through deserts wild. 
 
 — May Louise Tibbets. 
 i6i
 
 n^HERE are compensations: and no outward 
 changes of condition in life can keep the 
 nightingale of its eternal meaning from singing in 
 all sorts of different men's hearts. 
 
 — William "James. 
 
 T EARN to wait Hope's slow fruition, 
 
 Faint not, though the way seem long ; 
 There is joy in each condition — 
 
 Hearts, through suffering, may grow strong. 
 
 Constant sunshine, howe'er welcome, 
 Ne'er would ripen fruit or flower ; 
 
 Giant oaks owe half their greatness 
 To the scathing tempest's power. 
 
 — Anon. 
 
 A DVERSITY is like the period of the former 
 and of the latter rain, — cold, comfortless, 
 unfriendly to man and to animal ; yet from that 
 season have their birth the flower and the fruit. 
 
 — Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 A ND not by eastern windows only, 
 
 When daylight comes, comes in the light. 
 In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly. 
 But westward, look, the land is bright. 
 
 — Arthur Hugh Clough. 
 162
 
 T^HROUGH light and dark, through rain and 
 shine, the carrier-pigeon holds its course 
 straight homeward. So life's true aim may be won 
 whatever of failure checks our business, or what- 
 ever of sorrow mars our happiness. Even the last 
 enemy, death, may not stay our course. 
 
 — R. F. "Johonnot. 
 
 T^'ELL me what is sorrow ? It is a gloomy cage. 
 
 And what is joy ? It is a little bird, 
 Whose song therein is heard. Stoddard, 
 
 TS it rainy, little flower ? 
 
 Be glad of rain. 
 Too much sun would wither thee ; 
 
 'Twill shine again. 
 The clouds are very black, 'tis true, 
 But just behind it shines the blue. 
 
 — Mary Frances Butts. 
 
 T DO not see 
 
 Why God should e'en permit some things to be. 
 When He is love ; 
 But I can see, 
 Though often dimly through the mystery, 
 His hand above. 
 
 — F. G. Browning. 
 163
 
 T THINK if thou couldst see, 
 With thy dim mortal sight, 
 How meanings dark to thee 
 Are shadows hiding light, 
 Truth's efforts crossed and vexed, 
 Life's purpose all perplexed, — 
 If thou couldst see them right, 
 I think that they would seem all clear, and wise, 
 and bright. 
 
 And yet thou canst not know. 
 
 And yet thou canst not see ; 
 Wisdom and sight are slow 
 
 In poor humanity. 
 If thou couldst trusty poor soul, 
 Thou wouldst find peace and rest. 
 Wisdom and sight are well, but trust is best. 
 
 — Adelaide A. Procter. 
 
 HTHE heart that suffers, most may sing; 
 
 All beauty seems of sorrow born : 
 The gems of thought most highly prized 
 Are tears of sorrow crystallized. 
 
 164
 
 nPHE gloom of night is dense and deep; 
 Rough is the path as we grope along ; 
 Courage, Heart, as the shadows creep — 
 
 This is the matin-song : 
 After the night is noon ; 
 
 After the journey, rest ; 
 The world will waken in gladness soon, 
 
 And the heart that sings is blest ! 
 
 The glare of the sun is hard and hot; 
 
 The road is dusty, the way is long ; 
 Shift your burden, and heed it not, — 
 
 This is the even song : 
 After the noon is night; 
 
 After the journey, rest ; 
 For the wind will wake and the stars be bright. 
 
 And the heart that sings is blest ! 
 
 — Grace Duffield Goodwin. 
 
 TN God shall be my hope, my stay, my guide, 
 
 and lantern to my feet. c; ; ^ 
 
 ■' — bbakespeare. 
 
 A FTER the fever of life; after weariness, comes 
 rest, peace, joy ; our eternal portion, if we be 
 worthy. — Cardinal Newman. 
 
 165
 
 ... T7^ES that have wept 
 
 Must look a little way, — not far. 
 God broke the years to hours and days, 
 That hour by hour 
 And day by day 
 Just going on a little way, 
 We might be able all along 
 To keep quite strong. 
 Should all the weight of life 
 Be laid across our shoulders, and the future rife 
 With woe and struggle, meet us face to face 
 At just one place. 
 We could not go : 
 God lays a little on us every day. 
 And never, I believe on all the way 
 Will burdens bear so deep. 
 Or pathways lie so steep. 
 But we can go, if by God's power 
 We only bear the burdens of the hour. 
 
 — George Klingle. 
 
 "DEYOND the smiling and the weeping 
 
 I shall be soon ! 
 Beyond the waking and the sleeping. 
 Beyond the sowing and the reaping, 
 
 I shall be soon. 
 i66
 
 Love, rest, and home ! 
 Sweet hope ! 
 Lord, tarry not, but come. 
 
 Beyond the blooming and the fading 
 
 I shall be soon ; 
 Beyond the shining and the shading, 
 Beyond the hoping and the dreading, 
 
 I shall be soon. 
 
 Beyond the rising and the setting, 
 
 I shall be soon ! 
 Beyond the calming and the fretting, 
 Beyond remembering and forgetting, 
 
 I shall be soon ! 
 
 Beyond the parting and the meeting 
 
 I shall be soon ! 
 Beyond the farewell and the greeting. 
 Beyond this pulse's fever beating 
 I shall be soon. 
 Love, rest, and home ! 
 
 — Horatius Bonar, 
 
 TVTEVER a cloud o'erhung the day 
 
 And flung its shadows down. 
 But on its heaven-side gleamed some ray. 
 Forming a sunshine crown. 
 167
 
 It is dark only on the downward side : 
 Though rage the tempest loud, 
 
 And scatter its tenons far and wide 
 There's light upon the cloud. 
 
 — M. y. Savage. 
 
 COME day, He will tell you why He has tried 
 you, and let you look back upon your life 
 story and see the golden thread of His fatherly love 
 and care shining over and around it all, not as it 
 is now, winding in and out, and only seen by 
 glimpses. — Frances Ridley HavergaL 
 
 "^'X rHAT I do thou knowest not now ; but thou 
 shalt know hereafter. — ^John ij : 7. 
 
 T^VERY day is a fresh beginning : 
 
 Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain, 
 
 And, spite of old sorrow and older sinning. 
 And puzzles forecasted and possible pain. 
 Take heart with the day, and begin again. 
 
 Yesterday now is a part of forever. 
 
 Bound up in a sheaf, which God holds tight, 
 
 168
 
 With glad days, and sad days, and bad days which 
 never 
 Shall visit us more Vi^ith their bloom and their 
 blight. — Susan Coolidge. 
 
 "DE still, sad heart ! and cease repining; 
 
 Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; 
 Thy fate is the common fate of all, 
 Into each life some rain must fall, 
 Some days must be dark and dreary. 
 
 — Henry W. Longfellow. 
 
 f^OME out of the shadovi^ of regret, 
 Live in the sunshine of content. 
 
 "\TOT half the storms that threatened me, 
 
 E'er broke upon my head ; 
 Not half the pains I've waited for, 
 
 E'er racked me on my bed ; 
 Not half the clouds that drifted by. 
 
 Have overshadowed me ; 
 Not half the dangers ever came 
 I fancied I could see. 
 169
 
 Somehow thro' every leaden sky 
 
 Some rift hath shown the light ; 
 Somehow each valley with its gloom 
 
 Hath borne some flower bright ; 
 And thus thro' life some loving hand — 
 
 Some Friend I could not see — 
 Hath sent amidst the darkest hour 
 
 Some blessing unto me. 
 
 — B. W. Burleigh. 
 
 "X^ /"E pray for growth and strength ; griefs 
 
 dreaded showers 
 May be in God's wide purpose ripening rain j 
 He only knows how all our highest powers 
 Are perfected in pain. Anon. 
 
 'T'HE year is not all composed of summer days ; 
 it has its long expanses of winter cold and 
 gloom. — George Macdonald, 
 
 /^OUNT not loss the hopes that fall 
 
 Like leaves in autumn, one by one, 
 Nor dream the light is vanished all 
 As the dark, dreary night wears on. 
 170
 
 You shall know at last that loss was gain, 
 That through your weary, toilsome way, 
 
 As you saw the stars in your life-star wave, 
 The night was leading to heavenly day. 
 
 — Anon. 
 
 OOONER than we sometimes think, the morn- 
 ing comes ; 
 
 Though far the stars and long the weary night, 
 
 Yet at the entrance of the east the darkness paler 
 grows — 
 
 A waiting hush is over all, the heart of Heaven 
 knows 
 
 The chariot of the Conqueror, his triumph train 
 of light, 
 
 A soft wind stirs, a bird awakes. 
 
 Over the sea the first light breaks — 
 
 The morning comes \ — Anon. 
 
 T^OES the mist bewilder thee ? 
 Climbing make thee weary ? 
 Yet go forward braced by hope, 
 Confident and cheery. 
 To thy many guides is given 
 Power to lead thee up to heaven. 
 
 — Marianne Farningham. 
 171
 
 "Xl fHAT thankful hearts have gleaned where 
 
 now I glean, 
 What patient feet have passed this way before. 
 
 — Edward C. Lefroy. 
 
 "pvEAR restless heart, be still; don't fret and 
 
 worry so ; 
 God hath a thousand ways His love and help to 
 
 show. 
 Just trust, and trust, and trust, until His will you 
 
 know. 
 
 Dear restless heart, be still ; for peace is God's 
 
 own smile ; 
 His love can every wrong and sorrow reconcile ; 
 Just love, and love, and love, and calmly wait a 
 
 while. 
 
 Dear restless heart, be brave ; don't moan and 
 
 sorrow so ; 
 He hath a meaning kind in chilly winds that blow ; 
 Just hope, and hope, and hope, until you braver 
 
 grow. 
 
 Dear restless heart, be still ; don't struggle to be 
 
 free; 
 God's life is in your life, to Him you may not flee ; 
 
 172
 
 Just pray, and pray, and pray, till you have faith 
 to see. — Edith IVillis Linn. 
 
 "ly'EEP faith in the love that blesses men 
 
 As the sunshine does the sod. 
 Let us do our best and trust the rest 
 To the father heart of God. 
 
 — Eben E. Rexford. 
 
 " A LL the days ! " Who does not know how 
 day differs from day, even in a life of fairly 
 even tenor ? Who does not feel the differences 
 of the day's surfaces, and see the varieties of these 
 colors ? From the golden sunlight of a day of 
 joy to the blackness of a day of woe, through 
 all gradations the scale runs as we journey on. 
 From the grass of the meadow to the miry clay 
 of the marsh, to the hot dust of the level road, to 
 the flints of the steep ascent, to the waters of the 
 cold river, varies the surface. And the great 
 Companion knows it all. And He breaks up the 
 great promise of the Presence to adjust it to every 
 detail of our need. " I with you am, all the days, 
 and all day long, even unto the end." 
 
 — H. a G. Moule.
 
 /^~^OD smiles as He has always smiled; 
 
 Ere suns and moon could wax and wane, 
 
 Ere stars were thundergirt, or piled 
 
 The heavens, God thought on me His child ; 
 
 Ordained a life for me, arrayed 
 
 Its circumstances, every one 
 
 To the minutest. n 7 . n 
 
 — Robert Browning. 
 
 /^UR resting and our waiting, and our plodding 
 
 on the way. 
 With the sunshine of the past casting darkness on 
 
 to-day. 
 With no caring for the future, while the heartache 
 
 holds us fast. 
 With no thought for any pleasure — ah ! 'tis well 
 
 these cannot last. 
 
 For the shadow always lifts, and the sunlight 
 
 glows again ; 
 There are sudden gleams of brightness, sweet, clear 
 
 shining after rain ; 
 
 *ki« ^^ *t* *1* »t* »|> 
 
 ^^ ^^ *y* 'j^ *j* *^ 
 
 Life must have its sometime sorrow, but the years 
 
 that drift along 
 Touch the minor chords but seldom ; there are 
 
 spaces blithe with song. 
 
 174
 
 Sometimes we must face the shadows where the 
 
 wind blows keen and cold, 
 But the shadow fades the dawning, and the east is 
 
 flecked with gold. 
 
 — Margaret Sangster. 
 
 COMETIMES I think that sorrows past 
 
 A brighter message leave behind 
 Than joys, which often shadows cast, 
 Though seeming fair and only kind. 
 
 For clearer after griefs sad rain 
 
 The sunset ray, and rainbow gleam. 
 
 And hope which bringeth cease of pain. 
 Than passing glint of joy's fleet beam. 
 
 The darkness bringeth quiet rest, 
 A sense of God's omnipotence. 
 
 As richest verdure groweth best 
 
 When dripping clouds obscure the sun. 
 
 Sometime, I think, we'll understand 
 
 That Love's own hand doth lead alway, 
 
 And though denying. His command 
 
 Brings strength and cheer for every day. 
 
 — Irma T. "Jones.
 
 T^HE Master Hand hath felt the tender need 
 
 Of waking all the silent chords to life. 
 O'er every quivering nerve sweet music steals 
 
 With all the harmonies of Heaven rife ; 
 And sweeter grows the melody each year, 
 
 Untouched by joyless notes from out the past, 
 Pure happiness hath crowned the soul with love, 
 God's wondrous peace hath won the heart at 
 last. — Gertrude Wheelock. 
 
 T ET us lay hold of Sorrow. Let us not be afraid 
 of it, for when grasped firmly, like the nettle, 
 it never stings. The life that has not known and 
 accepted sorrow is strangely crude and untaught. 
 It can neither help nor teach, for it has never 
 learned. The life that has spurned the lesson of 
 sorrow, or failed to read it aright, is cold and hard ; 
 but the life that has been disciplined by sorrow is 
 courageous, and full of holy and gentle love. With- 
 out sorrow life glares. It has no half-tones nor 
 merciful shadows. Disappointment, in life, is in- 
 evitable. Pain is the common lot of humanity. 
 Sharp sorrow, at one time or another, will come to 
 each of us, if indeed it has not already come. But 
 this same Sorrow is a gentle teacher and reveals 
 
 176
 
 many things that would otherwise be hard to 
 understand. — Anna Robertson Brown. 
 
 "DEYOND time's troubled stream, 
 
 Beyond the chilling waves of death's dark 
 
 Beyond life's lowering clouds and fitful gleams, 
 Its dark realities and fleeting dreams — 
 A beautiful forever. 
 
 TT is true 
 
 That we have wept. But O this thread of 
 gold. 
 We would not have it tarnish ; let us turn 
 Oft and look back upon this wondrous web, 
 And when it shineth sometimes we shall know 
 That memory is possession. — y*?^" Ingelow. 
 
 COiMETHING beyond ! Though now with joy 
 
 unfound. 
 The life-task falleth from the weary hand. 
 Be brave, be patient ! in the fair Beyond 
 Thou'lt understand. 
 
 177
 
 Something beyond ! Ah, if it were not so, 
 Darker would be thy face, O brief to-day ! 
 Earthward we'd bow beneath life's smiting woe. 
 Powerless to pray. 
 
 Something beyond ! The immortal morning stands 
 
 Above the night clear shines her prescient brow ; 
 
 The pendulous star in her transfigured hands 
 
 Lights up the Now. 
 
 — Mary Clemner, 
 
 T'VE nearly passed the shadows and the sorrows 
 
 here below ; 
 A little while — a little while, and He will come, 
 
 I know. 
 And take me to the glory that I think is very near. 
 When I shall see Him face to face and His kind 
 
 welcome hear. 
 
 — Frances R. Havergal. 
 
 A T the best, we, like our fathers, are only 
 dwellers in tents. Here and there — by 
 some sweet well, under some spreading tree, on 
 some green spot — we linger for a time ; but the 
 evening comes at last, the stars come out, the en- 
 campment is broken up, and we must move away. 
 
 178
 
 And very soon we shall have made our last stay of 
 all ; the sky will flush with the crimson of its last 
 sunset ; the last long shadows of the twilight will 
 lengthen round us ; the last farewell will be sighed 
 forth from weary lips. After that our tent will be 
 moved no longer ; for then we hope that it will be 
 pitched, for the last time, under the walls of the 
 heavenly city, and the sun shall go down on us 
 no more. — Canon Farrar. 
 
 A LITTLE WHILE 
 
 A LITTLE while more of the sunshine, 
 A few dashes more of the rain, 
 A few draughts more of sweet pleasure, 
 A little communing with pain. 
 
 A springtime, perhaps, and a summer, 
 
 A harvest to sow and to reap, 
 A few more rainbows of promise, 
 
 A few more tears to weep. 
 
 A Bethel of rapturous vision, 
 
 A desert of pain to cross j 
 A little more bliss to beguile us, 
 
 A little more sorrow and loss. 
 179
 
 A little more toilsome climbing, 
 
 A little of restful delight, 
 And we all shall be walking together 
 
 In the country beyond our sight. 
 
 And brother shall meet again brother, 
 On those far, undiscovered plains ; 
 
 Shall we hate, then, or love each other, 
 The little while that remains ? 
 
 — Luella Clark. 
 
 A SONG OF VICTORY 
 
 J THANK Thee, O my Father, 
 
 For the sunshine and the rain, 
 For the beauty and the pleasure. 
 
 For the weariness and pain. 
 
 For the hours of sorrow brought me 
 
 Knowledge of a joy divine ; 
 And I learned, through pain and weakness. 
 
 That the strength of God is mine. 
 
 And the burning, sun-scorched pathway, 
 That compelled me to the shade. 
 
 Led me to the crystal fountain 
 
 That amid the shadows played. 
 
 ******* 
 i8o
 
 And I learned amid the darkness 
 
 By the spirit's sight to see, 
 Learned that angel hosts were ready 
 
 In my need to come to me. 
 
 Learned to welcome pain and trials, 
 Wings to bear my soul above. 
 
 Learned to know that round about me 
 Are the arms of Changeless Love. 
 
 — Ida L. Lewh. 
 
 i8i
 
 VIII 
 
 i83
 
 We go, 
 Led by His shielding hand, and know 
 He will not make, 
 Except for Love's sweet sake, 
 
 A single day 
 Shadowed along life's bitter way. 
 When it is night 
 We rest in this — He leadeth toward the light. 
 
 — George Klingle. 
 
 184
 
 HYMN OF TRUST 
 
 /^ LOVE Divine, that stooped to share 
 
 Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear. 
 On thee we cast each earth-born care. 
 We smile at pain while Thou art near ! 
 
 Though long the weary way we tread. 
 And sorrow crown each lingering year. 
 
 No path we shun, no darkness dread, 
 
 Our hearts still whispering. Thou art near. 
 
 When drooping pleasure turns to grief, 
 And trembling faith is changed to fear. 
 
 The murmuring wind, the quivering leaf, 
 Shall softly tell us, Thou art near ! 
 
 On Thee we fling our burdening woe, 
 
 O Love Divine, forever dear, 
 Content to suffer while we know. 
 
 Living and dying, Thou art near ! 
 
 — Oliver Wendell Holmes.
 
 T JNTRODDEN lies the pathway 
 
 Of the days that are to be, 
 And I glance, half-questioning, onward, 
 
 For this way is new to me. 
 Perchance I note some waymarks 
 
 Which the former journey bore. 
 But, after all, it's a strange, new place, 
 
 Where I have not walked before. 
 
 For a dim and veiled future 
 
 Stretches out beyond my sight. 
 And only one day's march at a time 
 
 Can show the dark or bright. 
 There may be thorns by the wayside 
 
 To pierce my pilgrim feet. 
 Or my eager hands shall gather 
 
 Some flowers rarely sweet. 
 
 There may be toils and shadows 
 
 I have not thought to see. 
 Or a sunnier path than e'er I trod 
 
 May be awaiting me. 
 But I'll press calmly forward. 
 
 For this one thing I know. 
 The Guide who led in former days 
 
 Still at my side will go. — Anon. 
 
 1 86
 
 T SEE not a step before me 
 
 As I tread the days of the year, 
 
 But the past is still in God's keeping, 
 The future His mercy shall clear; 
 
 And what looks dark in the distance 
 May brighten as I draw near. 
 
 It may be that there is waiting 
 
 For the coming of my feet 
 Some gift of such rare blessedness, 
 
 Some joy so strangely sweet 
 That my lips can only tremble 
 
 With the thanks I cannot speak. 
 
 Oh, restful, blissful ignorance ! 
 
 'Tis blessed not to know ; 
 It keeps me quiet in those arms 
 
 Which will not let me go. 
 And hushes my soul to rest 
 
 On the bosom which loves me so. 
 
 So I go on, not knowing ; 
 I would not if I might ; 
 I would rather walk in the dark with God 
 
 Than go alone in the light -, 
 I would rather walk with Him by faith. 
 Than walk alone by sight. 
 
 — M. G. Brainard. 
 187
 
 J^ IS fruitless for mankind 
 To fret themselves with what concerns them notj 
 They are no use that way ; they should lie down 
 Content, as God has made them, nor go mad 
 In thriveless cares to better what is ill. 
 
 — Robert Browning. 
 
 npAKE thy self-denials gayly and cheerfully, 
 and let the sunshine of thy gladness fall on 
 dark things and bright alike. 
 
 — 'James Freeman Clarke. 
 
 /CHRISTIANITY wants nothing so much as 
 sunny people. _ ^^^^^ Drummond. 
 
 A TRUE and gentle cheerfulness is love in 
 society, holding sweet intercourse with those 
 around it. It is considerateness; it is tenderness 
 of feeling ; it is promptitude of sympathy. It is 
 love in all its depths and in all its deHcacy. It is 
 everything included in that matchless grace. 
 
 — The Gentleness of Christ. 
 i88
 
 (~^ OD'S love runneth faster than our feet 
 
 ^^ To meet us stealing back to Him and peace, 
 
 And kisses dumb our shame. Edwin Arnold. 
 
 TF I am asked what is the remedy for the deeper 
 sorrows of the human heart — what a man 
 should chiefly look to as the power that is to enable 
 him manfully to confront his afflictions — I must 
 point to something which in a well-known hymn 
 is called " The Old, Old Story," told of in an old, 
 old Book, and taught with an old, old teachings 
 which is the greatest and best gift ever given to 
 mankind. _ Gladstone. 
 
 L 
 
 ET us turn to our Father in all our misfor- 
 tunes ; let us sink into that tender Bosom^ 
 where nothing can fail us ; let us rejoice in hope. 
 
 — Fen e Ion. 
 
 T^HE little, sharp vexations. 
 
 And the briers that catch and fret, 
 Why not take to the Helper 
 
 Who has never failed us yet ? 
 Tell Him about the heartache. 
 And tell Him the longings, too; 
 189
 
 Tell Him the baffled purpose 
 
 When we scarce knew what to do ; 
 
 Then leaving all our weakness 
 With One divinely strong, 
 
 Forget that we bore the burden, 
 And carry away the song. 
 
 — Margaret Sangster. 
 
 T LIFT to Thee this burdened heart of mine, 
 
 Filled with the shadows of the deepening night ; 
 Thou floodest me with rays of love divine, 
 And darkness flees from me, and all is light. 
 
 — Frances Coan Percy. 
 
 TLJOPE and pray — trust always. 
 
 — yohn G. IVhittier. 
 
 /^H, surely who will guide 
 The bird at eventide, 
 Into her nest. 
 Will take me when life's day 
 Shall fade in twilight gray. 
 Back to His breast. 
 
 — yul'ia Anna Wolcott. 
 190
 
 A ND so beside the Silent Sea 
 I wait the muffled oar ; 
 No harm from Him can come to me 
 On ocean or on shore. 
 
 I know not where His islands lift 
 
 Their fronded palms in air; 
 I only know I cannot drift 
 
 Beyond His love and care. 
 
 — John Greenleaf Whitt'ier. 
 
 A 1 rHAT is a rainbow but just clouds and every- 
 day sunshine, far enough away to be mar- 
 vellously beautiful ? Sometime we may see many 
 things that seem prosaically common and near at 
 hand now, even thus glorified. _ ^y^^,^ ^^^^^^_ 
 
 T AM so glad ! It is such rest to know 
 
 That Thou hast ordered and appointed all, 
 And will yet order and appoint my lot. 
 For though so much I cannot understand, 
 And would not choose, has been and yet may be, 
 Thou chooseth. Thou performest, Thou, my Lord. 
 This is enough for me. 
 
 — Frances R. Haver gal. 
 191
 
 T^EAR child, dost feel too sad to pray? 
 
 Then clasp God's hand. 
 You've but to reach a wee, wee way, 
 Since He's been waiting for you aye; 
 He's always known you'd need, this day^ 
 To clasp His hand. 
 
 — Helen Eldridge. 
 
 Down in the shadowed valley 
 
 We sometimes grope in vain ; 
 But to the soul ascending 
 
 God's purposes are plain. 
 And high up on the summits 
 
 The lofty vision scans 
 The mighty view unfolding — 
 
 The network of God's plans. 
 
 — Western Field. 
 
 /^^OD'S promises are all lamps to light up dark 
 places ; and I know of no brighter one than 
 this : " As thy days so shall thy strength be." 
 
 But maybe you are already in the long, dark 
 passageway. Or possibly the valley through which 
 your steps are leading is a very dark and shadowed 
 one. Then gladly I bid you look up and catch 
 
 192
 
 some of the light which God sheds down from this 
 blessed assurance. 
 
 " When the sun withdraws its light, 
 Lo ! the stars of God are there ; 
 Present host, unseen till night — 
 Matchless, countless, silent, fair." 
 
 If we never had nights, we could never see the 
 stars. And so if you and I never had any trouble, 
 we could never enjoy such a promise as this of 
 which we have written. We do not love nights, 
 but we do love the stars. We do not love sorrow 
 and trouble, but we do bless God for sustaining 
 grace. We do not love weakness, but we rejoice 
 in such promises of God as will uphold us when 
 weakness comes. _ q^ b. F. Hallock. 
 
 /^OD can overrule even a great mistake to the 
 chastening and therefore the bettering of 
 character. — Jnon. 
 
 T^HE little cares that fretted me, 
 
 I lost them yesterday 
 Among the fields above the sea, 
 Among the winds at play, 
 193
 
 Among the lowing of the herds, 
 
 The rustling of the trees, 
 Among the singing of the birds, 
 
 The humming of the bees. 
 
 The foolish fears of what might happen, 
 
 I cast them all away, 
 Among the clover-scented grass. 
 
 Among the new-mown hay. 
 Among the hushing of the corn. 
 
 Where drowsy poppies nod. 
 Where ill thoughts die and good are born. 
 
 Out in the fields with God. — Anon. 
 
 C~\ REST so true, so sweet ! 
 
 Would it were shared by all the weary 
 world ! 
 'Neath shadowing banner of the Master's pierced 
 
 feet, 
 Then lean our love upon His boundless breast, 
 And know God's rest ! 
 
 — F. R. Haver gal. 
 194
 
 T DO not ask, O Lord, that life may be 
 
 A pleasant road ; 
 I do not ask that Thou wouldst take from me 
 
 Aught of its load. 
 
 I do not ask that flowers should always spring 
 
 Beneath my feet ; 
 I know too well the poison and the sting* 
 
 Of things too sweet. 
 
 For one thing only. Lord, dear Lord, I plead : 
 
 Lead me aright. 
 Though strength should falter and though heart 
 should bleed. 
 
 Through peace to light. 
 
 I do not ask, O Lord, that Thou shouldst shed 
 
 Full radiance here ; 
 Give but a ray of peace, that I may tread 
 
 Without a fear. 
 
 I do not ask my cross to understand, 
 
 My way to see ; 
 Better in darkness just to feel Thy hand, 
 
 And follow Thee. 
 195
 
 Joy is like restless day ; but peace divine 
 
 Like quiet night ; 
 Lead me, O Lord, till perfect day shall shine, 
 
 Through peace to light ! 
 
 — Adelaide A. Procter. 
 
 OO faith is strong 
 
 Only when we are strong, shrinks when we 
 shrink. 
 It comes when music stirs us, and the chords, 
 Moving on some grand climax, shake our souls 
 With influx new, that makes new energies. 
 It comes in swellings of the heart and tears 
 That rise at noble and at gentle deeds. 
 It comes in moments of heroic love, 
 Unjealous joy in joy not made for us ; 
 In conscious triumph of the good within. 
 Making us worship goodness that rebukes. 
 
 Even our failures are a prophecy. 
 Even our yearnings and our bitter tears 
 After that fair and true we cannot grasp. 
 Presentiment of better things on earth 
 Sweeps in with every force that stirs our souls 
 To admiration, self-renouncing love. 
 
 — George Eliot, 
 196
 
 TTOPE, child, to-morrow and to-morrow still, 
 And every morrow hope — 
 
 Trust while you live. — Victor Hugo. 
 
 TO-DAY 
 
 T WILL not look along the years 
 And try to trace my future way, — 
 
 I only need to see my path 
 For this one day. 
 
 O Thou who art my life, my hope. 
 
 Who art each weak heart's strength and stay. 
 Help me to live within the line 
 
 That bounds to-day. 
 
 Then loving with Thy patient love 
 That waits to lift and heal alway. 
 
 My heart can hold no thought, no wish. 
 Beyond to-day. — Mary Frances Butts. 
 
 •THRUST Him implicitly, submit to Him cheer- 
 
 fully, and you will find that all shall be well ; 
 
 that more grace will be given you ; that the heavier 
 
 the trial the larger will be the blessed measure of 
 
 197
 
 the strength. The Shepherd is leading you in the 
 right way to His own blessed fold. Leave it all 
 to Him. — Alexander McKenzie. 
 
 r^OD\ Thou art Love! I build my faith on 
 that. — Robert Browning. 
 
 JUST FOR TO-DAY 
 
 T ORD, for to-morrow and its needs 
 
 I do not pray ; 
 Keep me, my God, from stain of sin 
 
 Just for to-day. 
 Let me both diligently work 
 
 And duly pray ; 
 Let me be kind in word and deed 
 
 Just for to-day. 
 Let me be slow to do my will, 
 
 Prompt to obey ; 
 Help me to sacrifice myself 
 
 Just for to-day. 
 Let me no wrong or idle word 
 
 Unthinkingly say ; 
 Set Thou a seal upon my lips 
 
 Just for to-day. 
 198
 
 Let me in season, Lord, be grave, 
 
 In season gay ; 
 Let me be faithful to Thy grace 
 
 Just for to-day. 
 Lord, for to-morrow and its needs 
 
 I do not pray ; 
 But keep me, guide me, love me. Lord, 
 
 Just for to-day. 
 
 — Samuel Wilberforce. 
 
 A SUN-DAY HYMN 
 
 T ORD of all being! throned afar, 
 
 Thy glory flames from sun and star ; 
 Centre and soul of every sphere. 
 Yet to each living heart how^ near ! 
 
 Sun of our life, thy quickening ray 
 Sheds on our path the glow of day ; 
 Star of our hope, thy softened light 
 Cheers the long watches of the night. 
 
 Our midnight is thy smile withdrawn ; 
 Our noontide is thy gracious dawn ; 
 Our rainbow arch thy mercy's sign ; 
 All, save the clouds of sin, are thine! 
 199
 
 Lord of all life, below, above. 
 
 Whose light is truth, whose warmth is love, 
 
 Before thy ever blazing throne 
 
 We ask no lustre of our own. 
 
 Grant us thy truth to make us free. 
 And kindling hearts that burn for thee, 
 Till all thy living altars claim 
 One holy light, one heavenly flame. 
 
 — Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
 HTHE summer day is drawing to a close, 
 
 But Thou wast with us as when morning rose ; 
 Be with us still, to pardon and to bless. 
 Thou Son of love, and Lord of righteousness. 
 
 The evening shadows gather round us now. 
 But shine Thou on us as we humbly bow ; 
 Thou art the Light that can no shadow cast. 
 Unchanging in the future as the past. 
 
 And when the stars come forth we'll think of 
 
 Thee, 
 Creator of the starlit canopy ; 
 The stars are Thine and Thou ordainest them 
 As gems in Thy resplendent diadem ! 
 
 200
 
 The summer day must end, the shadows fall. 
 The stars appear, and Thou art over all ; 
 Shine Thou in us, as well as on us, Lord ! 
 Then shall we be with Thee in sweet accord. 
 
 Give us to shine with Thy imparted light, 
 As children of the day, and not of night ; 
 And when all earthly lights shall fade away, 
 We'll find in Thee our never-fading day. 
 
 — Dawson Burns. 
 
 TT is the supreme privilege of life to come into 
 personal relations with Jesus Christ. To have 
 Him as your Friend sanctifies friendship ; to have 
 Him as your Guide gives assurance to the heart ; 
 to have Him as your Example quickens an ambi- 
 tion to reproduce the Pattern Life ; to have Him as 
 your Saviour comforts the soul, and admits you 
 into the enjoyment of the heritage of light, peace, 
 and love that belongs to all who have been re- 
 deemed, not with corruptible things, but with the 
 precious blood of Christ. 
 
 But this privilege is secured through submission 
 to the mastery of Jesus, and obedience to His will. 
 There can be no climbing to the heights without 
 the abandonment of the lowlands. If one would 
 
 201
 
 stand in the presence of the King, he must be 
 worthy, and worthiness comes through loyal alle- 
 giance. 
 
 To enjoy this high privilege in its fulness it is 
 necessary to acknowledge the exaltation of Jesus in 
 all the relations of life. There must be honesty, 
 uprightness, unselfishness in business; kindness, 
 courtesy, considerateness in social life ; thoughtful- 
 ness, forbearance, self-sacrifice in the domestic cir- 
 cle ; honor, integrity, fidelity in politics ; sincerity, 
 tolerance, fairness in the intellectual realm ; chaste- 
 ness, refinement, purity of imagination ; so that the 
 heart being filled with goodness, sympathy, and 
 Christian love, the soul may be at peace, and the 
 whole life be under the gracious supremacy of the 
 spirit of Jesus Christ. _ ^^^^^,^ ^^^^j^^ 
 
 'X'HY will not mine be done. Six little words, — 
 all very brief, but, nevertheless, wondrous 
 words ; for never yet did a soul, out of need, look 
 up and whisper them, but that straightway in re- 
 sponse the angels came to minister. 
 
 — y. L, Spauldlng. 
 
 202
 
 'X'HERE is nothing so clear to me ever, dear 
 
 heart, 
 As that strength will be lent, if we ask it, 
 To bear what the Lord shall have sent. 
 And that every hard duty will find us 
 With strength to attempt, and indeed 
 Overcome it, at length. 
 If we cling to the Giver of strength. 
 Nor let go, when the weakest we feel, 
 For I'm certain, I know, that the weakest 
 May hold to God's hand with a grip. 
 That is ever unyielding if only the lip. 
 Can say, " Help me, O Father ! " 
 So quickly He hears, and so soon is 
 He touched by our need and our tears. 
 
 — A. A. Hopkins. 
 
 'T^HE present is ours, — and the rest — that is 
 
 God's. He will care for His own as is best, 
 
 and our watching is worthless, our dread is in vain. 
 
 — Anon. 
 
 "pvO not look forward to the changes and chances 
 
 of this life in fear; rather look at them with 
 
 full hope that, as they arise, God, whose you arc, 
 
 203
 
 will deliver you out of them. He has kept you 
 hitherto, — do you but hold fast to His dear hand, 
 and He will lead you safely through all things. 
 Do not look forward to what may happen to-mor- 
 row, the same everlasting Father who cares for you 
 to-day will take care of you to-morrow, and every 
 
 ^^' — Francis de Sales. 
 
 A ND let the morrow rest 
 In His beloved hand ; 
 His good is better than our best, 
 
 As we shall understand, — 
 If trusting Him who faileth never, 
 We rest on Him, to-day, forever ! 
 
 — Frances R. Haver gal. 
 
 '\^7'ITHOUT murmur, uncomplaining. 
 
 In His hand. 
 Leave whatever things thou canst not — 
 
 Understand. _ ^^ ^_ Ravenbach. 
 
 ^^NE of the secrets of a happy, beautiful Hfe is, 
 to live one day at a time. ^v n MiHgy 
 
 204
 
 As thy days, so shall thy strength be. 
 — Deut. 33 : 25. 
 
 This daily promise \% your daily blessing. 
 
 CTRENGTH for the day is all that we need, 
 
 As there will never be a to-morrow, 
 For to-morrow will be but another day. 
 With its measure of joy and of sorrow. 
 
 Then why be forecasting the trials of life 
 With so sad and so grievous persistence ? 
 
 Why anxiously wait for the coming of ills 
 That never may have an existence ? 
 
 Far better to trust to the wisdom and love 
 
 Of the Providence ever beside us, 
 With no anxious thought what the future may 
 bring. 
 
 For He guides all events that betide us. 
 
 As in mercy He guides every bird in its flight. 
 
 And gives to each lily its beauty. 
 He will surely provide for our every need. 
 
 If we trust and are faithful in duty. 
 
 — Philip Doddridge. 
 
 205
 
 "MTOW, Father, — now, in thy dear presence 
 kneeling. 
 Our spirits yearn to feel thy kindling love ; 
 Now make us strong, — we need thy deep revealing 
 Of trust, and strength, and calmness from above. 
 
 — Samuel Johnson. 
 
 'X'HY will that works from clod to star, 
 
 That stretches the bright rainbow bar, 
 That rules the land, restrains the sea. 
 That perfect will be done in me. 
 So shall I rest from pain and care, 
 Be safe and peaceful everywhere. 
 
 — Mary Frances Butts. 
 
 TUST to give up, and rest 
 ^ All on a Love secure. 
 Out of a world that's hard at best. 
 Looking to heaven as sure ; 
 Ever to hope, through cloud and fear. 
 In darkest night, that the dawn is near; 
 Just to wait at the Master's feet — 
 Surely, now, the bitter is sweet. 
 
 — Henry van Dyke. 
 206
 
 UNANSWERED YET 
 
 T TNANSWERED yet — the prayers your lips 
 have pleaded 
 
 In agony of heart these many years ? 
 
 Does faith begin to fail ? is hope departing ? 
 
 And think you all in vain those falling tears ? 
 
 Say not the Father hath not heard your prayer ; 
 
 You shall have your desire — sometime, some- 
 where. 
 
 Unanswered yet ? though when you first presented 
 This one petition at the Father's throne, 
 It seemed you could not wait the time of asking. 
 So urgent was your heart to make it known : 
 Though years have passed since then, do not 
 
 despair. 
 The Lord will answer you — sometime, some- 
 where. 
 
 Unanswered yet ? nay, do not say ungranted ; 
 
 Perhaps your part is not yet wholly done ; 
 
 The work began when first your prayer was 
 
 uttered, 
 And God will finish what He has begun : 
 If you will keep the incense burning there. 
 His glory you shall see — sometime, somewhere. 
 
 207
 
 Unanswered yet ? faith cannot be unanswered — 
 Her feet were firmly planted on the Rock ; 
 Amid the wildest storms she stands undaunted, 
 Nor quails before the loudest thunder shock — 
 She knows Omnipotence has heard her prayer, 
 And cries, "It shall be done — sometime, some- 
 where." — Mrs. F. a Browning. 
 
 GOD KNOWS 
 
 'yHROUGH all my little daily cares there is 
 
 One thought that comfort brings whene'er it 
 comes. 
 'Tis this : " God knows." He knows 
 Each struggle that my hard heart makes to bring 
 My will to His. Often when night-time comes, 
 My heart is full of tears, because the good 
 That seemed at morn so easy to be done 
 Has proved so hard ; but then remembering 
 That a kind Father is my judge, I say, 
 " He knows." And so I lay me down, with trust 
 That His good hand will give me needed strength 
 To better do His work in coming days. 
 
 — Jmn. in Epwortk Herald, 
 208
 
 IV /TY position has come to this, am I living near 
 my Saviour then I am as happy as the day 
 is long, and as light-hearted as a child. It may be 
 that I have plenty of annoyances, but they don't 
 trouble me when His presence is with me. Am I 
 downcast and worried, then I am away from God. 
 
 — "John Kenneth Mackenzie. 
 
 OOME murmur when their sky is clear 
 
 And wholly bright to view, 
 If one small speck of dark appear 
 
 In their great heaven of blue. 
 And some with thankful love are fill'd 
 
 If but one streak of light. 
 One ray of God's good mercy gild 
 
 The darkness of their night. 
 
 In palaces are hearts that ask, 
 
 In discontent and pride. 
 Why life is such a dreary task 
 
 And all good things denied. 
 And hearts in poorest huts admire 
 
 How love has in their aid 
 (Love that not ever seems to tire) 
 
 Such rich provision made. 
 
 — R. C. French. 
 209
 
 "tTAPPY and strong and brave shall we be, — 
 able to endure all things, and to do all things, 
 — if we believe that every day, every hour, every 
 moment of our life is in His hands. 
 
 — Henry van Dyke. 
 
 TTHOUGH sad my day that lasts so long, 
 
 At evening I shall have a song ; 
 Though dim my day until the night, 
 At evening-time there shall be light. 
 
 — Christina Rossetti. 
 
 /'^OD never leaves thee in the dark. 
 
 Slowly the dawn on unbelieving eyes 
 Breaketh at last. 
 
 — yu/ia C. R. Dorr. 
 
 "D E the day weary, or be the day long, — at 
 last it ringeth the even-song. 
 
 T TNDER the snows — 
 The rose ! 
 And the vales sing joy to the misty hills. 
 And the winds ripple it down the rills j 
 
 210
 
 And the far stars answer the song that swells 
 With all the music of all the bells ! 
 
 Fronting the night 
 
 The light. — Frank Stanton. 
 
 THE PRICE 
 
 "POR the joy set before thee 
 
 The cross. 
 For the gain that comes after, 
 
 The loss. 
 For the morning that smileth, 
 
 The night. 
 For the peace of the victor, 
 
 The fight. 
 
 For the white rose of goodness, 
 
 The thorn. 
 For the spirit's deep wisdom. 
 
 Men's scorn. 
 For the sunshine of gladness, 
 
 The rain. 
 For the fruit of God's pruning, 
 
 The pain. 
 
 21 I
 
 For the clear bells of triumph, 
 
 A knell. 
 For the sweet kiss of meeting, 
 
 Farewell. 
 For the height of the mountain, 
 
 The steep. 
 For the waking in heaven, 
 
 Death's sleep. 
 
 — Mary Frances Butts. 
 
 212
 
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