The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-08-14
CHAUTAUQUA.
'Look up and Lift up
1--WE study the Word and the Works of God"
LET us keep our Heavenly Father in the midst
''Never be discouraged"

The scattered Roses.
Gather them quickly ere they stray
Too far apart;
And hide them a sweet bouquet
Within thy heart
How beautiful the theme of the poet who
penned those lines of affectionate request and
what field of thought do they not open up to all
those whose hearts tend toward moral and in
tellectual improvement The pathway of life
wherever it leads, or whatever its vicissitudes,
is always strewn with roses from an unseen Hand,
and it's the pilgrims own fault If from time to time
he gathers them not and finds himself when the
tempest's blast lays him worn and weary by the
wayside. without friend guide to help him.
How strange the vcissitudes of life are! In the
grand army of so.called successful men that the
world has enrolled to-day, how many are there
whose life is a contention with God and a contra
vention to His divine commands Yet take one
OF these men to-day in his everyday life and
prosperity seems to shine round his every foot
fall. He lives in a spacious mansion, and sports
a liveried retinue; at churches and fairs he occu.
pies the most prominent places, and lavishes
pharisaically that wealth which was gotten-by
what7 Perhaps some legalized robbery, or the
blood and sweat of his less fortunate fellowmen or
by deprving the poor struggling of toll (under
the protection and guidance of a robber law of
that little home which to keep and maintain he
has spent the best years of his lfe and then fore
ing him from early dawn to far beyond shutdown to
delve and dig in sunshine or shower for misera-
BILE pittance to keep the wolf from the door of his
Maud despatched cabin in the valley whose totter-
ing chimney top without, bespeaks the poverty and
privation within. Go into the library of this man
of the world to-day and you will find that those
volumes which treat on trusts and combinations.
and how best to scheme possession of this or the
other PERSONS property are for the most part il
legble from the finger marks of long continued
use, while the Bible-if such a volume there be-
is as fresh and its leaves as untouched as when
1t was placed in position some twenty years ago
or more His wife is the competitor with all others
in her efforts to lead in society, while his fair
mademoiselles as they fan themselves to slum Der
where the wild waves play, dream of naught but
some titled hireling or sinful prince from the
British Isles or the Boulevards of Paris. He is
fawned upon and honored wherever he goes and
he descends to his grave with record that has
apparently been enveloped in one continued
shower of roses. On the other hand we behold
young man at the beginning of life entering upon
career that promises success. The struggle is
hard one. and adversely is his only companion at
while telling him in angelic whispers to fight on,
that the struggle would be but brief and heaven
the prize. His trials and tribulations are but so
many roses from Gods own hand, but if he knows
it he heeds it not. At length the thunder's clap
and the lightning's flash come and he awakes
from his unconsciousness to find himself clothed
In convict's garb and upon him heaped all the
degradation and infamy Of the life of one of wick
0dnoaa Of limo
what is this that has befallen me?" and his
angel spirit answers him: "'Tis but another rose:
and the sweetest of them ALL to lead you to glory
and to God.''
Atthe end Of my soliloquy. turn to the latter
class Of whom there are so many beneath the very
roof under which 1t is my own misfortune to
write to say that though the world has got the
best of the fight up to the present. there is plenty
OF time lett yet if we but avail ourselves of it and
use it to honorable and honest purposes to turn
the tide of battle in our favor and win both
temporal and eternal crown. The man is mouse,
whatever his age. who because he has got few
knockdowns. says to himself-"My life has been
failure" The goal Of success was never yet
reached or its sacred precincts polluted by the
faltering foot steps Of a coward. Men have some
times to hammer out their fortunes on the black
anvil of trials and tribulatons. Let us not bother
ourselves about what the world outside may think
or say OF us: those who to-day despise and malign
US will tomorrow be hidden away in some lonely
graveyard with naught to their benefit but their
good works. Our duty is. to accept our present
position-low and degraded as it is-in that spirit
which our conscience and manhood dictate to US.
What II for little while we are hidden by cloud,
the brightness of the sun will be the more brilliant
w hon In ho @rk,,r Z sl,o
our pathway Let Chautauqua's mottoes-"Look