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Catch the sunshine, catch it gladly,

Messenger in Hope's employ;

Sent through clouds, through storms and billows,

Bringing you a ray of joy.
Don't be sighing, don't be weeping;

Life, you know, is but a span:
There's no time to sigh or sorrow;
Catch the sunshine when you can.

A. J. Davis's Manual.

XXXI.

THE FOUNTAIN.

NTO the sunshine;
Full of the light;
Leaping and flashing
From morn till night;

Into the moonlight,
Whiter than snow;
Waving so flower-like
When the winds blow;

Into the starlight

Rushing in spray;
Happy at midnight,
Happy by day;

Ever in motion,

Blithesome and cheery;
Still climbing heavenward,
Never aweary ;

Glad of all weathers,

Still seeming best; Upward or downward, Motion thy rest ;

Full of a nature

Nothing can tame; Changed every moment,

Ever the same ;

Ceaseless aspiring,

Ceaseless content; Darkness or sunshine,

Thy element,

Glorious fountain!

Let my heart be
Fresh, changeful, constant,
Upward, like thee!

IF

XXXII.

YOUR MISSION.

J. R. Lowell.

F you cannot on the ocean
Sail among the swiftest fleet,
Rocking on the mighty billows,
Laughing at the storms you meet,
You can stand among the sailors
Anchored yet within the bay;
You can lend a hand to help them
As they launch their boats away.

If you are too weak to journey
Up the mountain steep and high,
You can stand within the valley
As the multitudes go by;
You can chant in happy measure
As they slowly pass along:
Though they may forget the singer,
They will not forget the song.

If you cannot in the conflict

Prove yourself a warrior true; If, where fire and smoke are thickest, There's no work for you to do, Where the battle-field is silent, You can go with gentle tread; You can bear away the wounded; You can cover up the dead.

If you cannot in the harvest

Garner up the richest sheaves, Many a grain both ripe and golden, Which the careless reaper leaves, You can glean among the briers Growing rank against the wall; And it may be that the shadows Hide the heaviest wheat of all.

If you have not gold and silver
Ever ready at command;
If you cannot toward the needy
Reach an ever-open hand, -

You can visit the afflicted;
O'er the erring you can weep;
You can be a true disciple
Sitting at the Saviour's feet.

Do not, then, stand idly waiting
For some nobler work to do
For your heavenly Father's glory,
Ever earnest, ever true.
Go and toil in any vineyard;
Work in patience and in prayer :
If you want a field of labor,
You can find it anywhere.

XXXIII.

CHARITY.

WHEN you meet with

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Of some secret deed of shame,

And for this by all rejected
As a thing of evil fame,
Guard thine every look and action;
Speak no word of heartless blame;
For the slander's vile detraction
Yet may soil thy goodly name.

When you meet with one pursuing
Ways the lost have wandered in,

Working out his own undoing
With his recklessness and sin;
Think, if placed in his condition,
Would a kind word be in vain?
Or a look of cold suspicion
Win thee back to truth again?

There are spots that bear no flowers, -
Not because the soil is bad;
But the summer's genial showers
Never make their bosoms glad.
Better have an act that's kindly
Treated sometimes with disdain,
Than, by judging others blindly,
Doom the innocent to pain.

A

XXXIV.

LIFE'S WORK.

LL around us, fair with flowers,
Fields of beauty sleeping lie;

All around us clarion-voices
Call to duty stern and high.
Thankfully we will rejoice in
All the beauty God has given;
But beware it does not win us
From the work ordained of Heaven.

Following every voice of mercy,
With a trusting, loving heart,
Let us, in Life's earnest labor,
Still be sure to do our part.

Now, to-day, and not to-morrow,
Let us work with all our might,
Lest the wretched faint and perish
In the coming stormy night.

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