GRAINS OF GOLD THE PROMISE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 18, 7 May 1908, Page 3

GRAINS OF GOLD

THE PROMISE.

Every day hath its burden, By tjils and griefs oppressed ; But every day hath its promise, For night brings peace and rest. Every night hath its darkness, Sad thoughts crowd thickly then ; But every night hath its promise, For the day will dawn again.

—' Aye Maria.'

Moods and whims are the ugly weeds you must guard against if you want to keep the garden of your heart fair and lovely. If earth rewards duty with such munificence as it often does, how richly, think you, will God £ecom|pense those who keep His precepts. No doubt age has many privileges and consolations that are denied to youth ; but the difference between" the two is that youth is blissfully unconscious of what are its limitations, while age is haunted by the importunate memories of all that it has been compelled to surrender. Culture means mastery over self, politeness, charity, fairoess, good temper, gocd conduct. Culture is not a thing to make a display of ; it is something to use so modestly that people do not discover all at once that you have it. We were made to radiate the perfume of go*d cheer and happiness as much as a rose was mode to radiate its sweetness to every passer-by. He who seeks strength will seek the strong. The soul finds jjself in the atmosphere of greater souls, in toucn with the things and thoughts that are infinite. -For spiritual strength there must be touch constantly with spiritual being, the constant nearness 'in thought and desire to those unseen forces and that life which even the most unthinking must realise at tines. As you slide along past youth into middle age get a good grip on your enthusiasms. Life looks black after they are gone. It is a good thing, too, to renew yooir own life in an intimate interest in the life of some young friend. Few things are more helpful or more beautiful than friendship -between the yosung • and the old.' They ha.ye everything to give to each other. What is most pitiful in both—youth's uncertainty - antd need of encouraging sympathy, age's unif.ulfilments and need of softening, tenderness—is soothed and neutralised by a sharing of interests and affections.