The Donaldsonville chief., 1905-01-14

pulpoS anu VIII Oil SIOd edch moment
may become studded with priceless
gems of enduring briIliancy and beau
ty. Using the time as God would
have US is building for eternity.
M 3 ARE all familiar with the story
w of the lady, who, floating over
the sea in a boat. was suddenly walk
ened to discover that her magnificent
necklace of pearls had become unfas-
tened by some accident and the loose
end hanging down in the water was
cropping the precious pearls one by
Gne into the unreeoverable depths. So
with US. We let the pearly moments
Slip into the unredeemabfe past. Nav
We awaken TO a sense Of our loss. The
lines of Susan Coolidge's THE Lost
Days" come to me:
AS. each il turn. tie Old Years rise ana
grid them Up TO so.
The days which were their serYitors. nress
round them sad and slow.
The happy days. the hard days, tie bitter
and the Gear;
And they front us with reproachfui eyes
as they Hend forth with the year.
@The lost days which except fer us SO
blessed might have been,
Biighted by our perversfty, or sf1adowed
by our sin.
The veNing days, the moody days, the DAYS.
Of stress and pain,
The shrill, perxerse, unhappy days, we face
them all again.
$ Come back. dear days, We cry I'VE will
atone fer all the wrong:
Your emptiness shall be made full, your
discords turned to song
Only the echo answers; aliSEain the grew
ing sore.
The past is past, the dead is dead. the
chance returns no more.
But. as: tie sweetest hopes are born OF
sharpest suffering,
And midnight is the womb of*day, and win
ter Of the spring.
So, winning blessing from despair, lost op-
portEnity
Mag serve y make the fruitful soil Of har-
vests yet to be.
For each day heavy made by Us. some
day may gather wings.
Be every failure that we mourn the germ
Of happier things.
And all the sadness of the past the seed of
hope newborn,
Til cut of the defeated night bursts the tri-
umphant morn
..Thez Old Years. stern, inexorab.e, nay &C
their WAYS IN vain;
IEie Gays VIC marred and mourn 8snaii slnise
Il from their perished pain
Distli's d perfume, shines a CLEAN to make
the future way
The brighter ana the easier because ct
yesterday
"A MOTHER thought which we. would
\ emphasize in connection with this
Latter OF the use of time is the inn
portance OF gathering the odd mo-
nents as they pass In large endeaY-
ors and purposes we may be splendid
~ working out the will and purpose
Of God. We may be using the time III
the Wises5 and best way possible, and
yet, while our eyes are on the larger
interests, We may be letting the frag-
mentary moments slip unused away,
He Who told His disciples to gather
up the fragments after the 5000 had
been fed. SO values the precious mo-
nents taat He would have us gath
er Hp the fragments that lie about un-
used, In the palace Of Industry of
one Of the worlds great expositions
Y ere. several curious specimens OF
art, wrought by humble individuals
out of such fragments of time as they
could secure from their regular occu-
patfons BOYLE remarks that sand
grains are easily scattered about: but
skillful artideers gather. melt and
t.ansmute them to glass, of which
they make mirrors, lenses and tel
escopes. Even 50, yigilant Christians
improve parenthetie fragments OF time,
employing them in self-examiDation,
acts of faith, and researches of holy
truth; by which they become looking
glasses for their sotils, and telescopes
revealing their promised Heaven.
Jewelers. save the very sHeepings of
-neir shops. because they contain par
sicles OF precious metal. Should
Christians, whose every moment was
purchased for them BY the blood OF
Christ, be less careful of.tirne9 Surely
ts very minntiae,' exclaims CoIey,
should be more treasured than grainG
7I gold or dust of diamaada.