WITH THE ROSES

I have read a lyric of the Persian poet, Sadi, in which the poet asks a clod of clay how it has come to smell sweet. The clay replies, "The sweetness is not in myself, but I have been lying in contact with the rose." Whether, then, the marked features of our character be sweetness and light, or ruggedness and ill-odor, depends upon the minds with which our own is constantly associating. Hold it as a maxim, however to use the words of Lord Collingwood-that "Better to be alone than in mean company."-W. H. Davenport Adams.

IF WE HAD BUT A DAY

We should fill the hours with the sweetest things

If we had but a day;

We should drink alone at the purest springs

We should rest, not for dreams, but for fresh power

In our upward way;

We should love with a lifetime's love in an hour

If the hours were few;

To be and to do.

We should guide our wayward or wearied wills.
By the clearest light;

We should keep our eyes on the heavenly hills
If they lay in sight;

We should trample the pride and the discontent
Beneath our feet;

We should take whatever a good God sent
With a trust complete.

We should waste no moments in weak regret
If the day were but one,

If what we remember and what we forget

Went out with the sun;

We should be from our clamorous selves set free

To work or to pray,

And to be what the Father would have us be,

If we had but a day.

-Mary Lowe Dickinson.

The days are ever divine. They come and go like muffled and veiled figures sent from a distant friendly party; but they say nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them as silently away.-Ralph Waldo Emerson.

TAKE JOY HOME

Take joy home,

And make a place in thy great heart for her;
And give her time to grow, and cherish her;
Then she will come, and oft will sing to thee
When thou art working in the furrows; ay,
Or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn.
It is a comely fashion to be glad;

Joy is the grace we say to God.

THANKSGIVING

I remember, many years ago, reading in reference to the Pilgrim Fathers that they used to have days of humiliation, prayer, and fasting, when storms came and floods came, and seasons were unfavorable-times of humiliation, of fasting, and of short rations. They went on with it for a considerable time. By and by something crossed their pathway that was not pleasing, and they made up their minds to have another day of humiliation. But one of the old colonists said he begged to move an amendment. They had been long enough dull and downhearted, and occasionally disappointed, and it was telling upon them. It was having an effect on the young people, and almost tempting them to return to the Old Country. "I move that instead of having a day of fasting, and humiliation, and crying, we have a day of rejoicing." He said: "Our colony is getting stronger, our corn-fields are enlarging very much in their dimensions, our wives are very obedient, our children are very dutiful, the air is very salubrious, the woods are full of game, and the rivers are full of fish; we have what we came here for-liberty of conscience. I move that we have a day's thanksgiving." And the amendment was carried unanimously. There has been a Thanksgiving Day ever since.--Anonymous.

THE GIVER AND THE GIFTS

I know I might have seen in every star

That sheds its light on me,

A lamp of Thine set out to guide from far,

My steps from home and Thee;

Have heard in streams with bending grasses clad,

Which sparkled through the sod,

The music of the river that makes glad

The city of our God.

Gladness of heart is the life of a man, and the joyfulness of a man prolongeth his days.-Eccles., xXx: 22.

THE BOOK OF HAPPINESS

Oh! if books had but tongues to speak their wrongs, then might the Bible well exclaim: "Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth, I came from the love and embrace of God; and mute nature, to whom I brought no boon, did me

rightful homage. To man

I came, and my words were to the children of men. I disclosed to you the mvsteries of hereafter, and the secrets of the throne of God. I set open to you the gates of salvation, and the way of eternal life, heretofore unknown. Nothing in heaven did I withhold from your hope and ambition; and upon your earthly lot I poured the full horn of divine providence and consolation. But ye requited me with no welcome, ye held no festivity on my arrival; ye sequester me from happiness and heroism, closeting me with sickness and infirmity; ye make not of me, nor use me for, your guide to wisdom and pru

dence, but press me into your list of duties, and withdraw me to a mere corner of your time; and most of ye set me at nought, and utterly disregard me. I came, the fulness of the knowledge of God; angels delighted in my company, and desired to dive into my secrets. But ye, mortals, place masters over me, subjecting me to the discipline and dogmatism of men, and tutoring me in your schools of learning. I came not to be silent in your dwellings, but to speak welfare to you and to your children. I came to rule, and my throne to set up in the hearts of men. Mine ancient residence was the bosom of God, no residence will I have but the soul of an immortal. -Edward Irving.

All rests with those who read. A work or thought
Is what each makes it to himself, and may
Be full of great deep meanings, like the sea
With shoals of life onrushing.-Bailey.