The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-05-22

happiness of life out of doors, where
God seems nearer and more beautiful
tnan anywhere else.
Dear Lord. since thou didst make the
earth
Thou mad'st it not for grief, but
mirth,
| Therefore will be glad
| And let. who will be sad
| What profit me the buxom air,
| And what the sweet birds choir
Or heavens azure fire?
Lord. as it's thine eternal state
With joy undimmed to contemplate
| The world that thou hast wrought
AS mirror for thy thought,
So every morning I would rise,
And offer thee for sacrifice
A spirit bright and clear
AS the wide atmosphere
For, Lord. since all is well with thee,
1t cannot well be i'll with me.
Consider the lilies exhorted
Christ. Emphasize the first word. Do
not merely view with a passing
glance, but consider carefully the
deeper meanings of natures mani
festations. Jesus tried diligently to
OPCll Tie eyes OI Ills 1IlSu0S " Inc
significance of what they saw. There
is no training for helpfulness. and
no pleasure greater than the power
of observation. To the person with
seeing eyes all the passing show of
life, and all the theater OF natures
operations, becomes an exhaustless
source of entertainment.
To dig in the dirt-preferably dirt
to which one holds title-with ones
own hands, to plant ones own gar
den, is a pleasure such as the be-
goggled and madly-speeding automo-
bilist cannot understand or equal.
Flower in the crannied wall
I pluck you out of the crannies;
I hold you here, root and all, in my
Little flower-but If 1 could under
stand,
What you are, root and all in all.
I should know what God and man is.
-Tennyson.
Natures lessons are all simple but
profound. The greatest truths are
the clearest. If we dwell more upon
the essential principles of life. ap-
acter and conduct we should have
less need for speculation concerning
truths minor ramifications.
Silently, one Dy one, IN the infinite
meadows of heaven,
Blossomed the lovely stars, the for
get-me-nots of the angels
-Longfellow.
Thou who hast set thy dwelling fair
With flowers beneath, above with
starry lights,
And set thy affairs everywhere
On mountain heights
In woodland valleys dim with many
a dream,
In valleys bright with springs.
And in the curving capes of every
stream,
Thou who hast taken to Thyself
the wings
OF morning, to abide
Upon the secret places of the sea,
And on far islands, where the tide
Visits the beauty of untrodden
shores,
Waiting for worshippers to come to
Thee
In Thy great out-of-doors!
prayer,
God of the Open Air!
Henry Van Dyke.
Every carolling bird sings. God
cares" Every flower that trusts itself
to soil and sun and rain repeats, God
cares" The forest oak and the hid
den violet, the circling eagle or the
wren, all unite in at
testing the sufficient providence of
nature, whose other name is God.
It isn't raining rain to me,
It's raining daffodils;
In every dimpled drop I see
Wild flowers on the hills.
The clouds of gray engulf the day, |
And overwhelm the town;
1t isn't raining rain to me
It's raining roses down.
1t isn't raining rain to me,
But fields of clover bloom,
Where every buccaneering bee
May find bed and room.
A health unto the happy! |
A fig for him who frets.
It isn't raining to me
It's raining violets.