Year: 1861

/
not give all the joy Of my youth, and all thi
| strength of my manhood, to getting rich
cateh-mel I'd have good out Of my life ant
do some, too, instead Of toiling early and late
and taxing brain, and wearing my nerves ovei
! railroad dividends, and bank stock, over m
Festments IN lead and coal mines, over rea
estate that is to cone down here and go W
there. No it isn't the three score years that
are on my head that have bleached my hRil
and wrinkled my forehead so it's the veal
and tear of watching the market, and fore
stalling the changes, and looking out for the
right time TO come down with bargain.
| overheard one man say TO another, as l got
into the omnibus last night-"There goes old
Grainger-good for a million and a half
lucky dog r. and said to myself, Are you a
lucky dog, Tom Graingerf Z MOI OF all
men You are the most unlucky one. You've
paid down your youth, your manhood, your
health, your peace of mind, every faculty God
gave you to live, and to enjoy-you've paid
it all down for this million and half of dol
lars, and it's poor bargain after all r.


alt don't do any good to ftme and fret nowi
but if could live my life over again, I'd
never stand where 1 do this day I'd lay up
some better treasurers for my old age than a
million and half Of money. I'd lay up treas
urers Of blessed memeries-of some good done
to others-of human hearts made happier-of
human souls comforted, and rejoiced because
Of me If could only live my life over
again J" and the old man settled further back
over the years of his past--barren, and cold,
and unclOthed, as they rose up before him.


And yet he clutched his million and half,
and carried it with him TO the last hour of his
life. he didn't rise up that day and go out,
and find the widow and the satherless, and
gladden. their hearts with part of the wealth
which he did not need. 1t was not too late
then to set about doing good. In the ten
years more of life which God had appointed
him, be might have scattered blessings, many
and bountiful as summer showers and the
cold and barren day might have been crowned
with sunset so radient and glorious that it
would have redeemed the faded morning-the
wasted noon.


But the old fashion and the old habits
held him in iron bondage still, and the rich
old man went down to his grave with his aim
less, unfruitful, querulous "if."


"If I'd never begun this sort Of life, I'd new
er live it for day." murnurs the fashionable
wife and mother, as she walks up aud down
her elegant parlOrs, swinging the tassels Of her
morning robe betwixt her jeweled fingers
and tho weary, dissatisfied expression of her
face tells its own story of the tired, restless
heart beneath it. Il know well enough it's
miserable, wasted life we'cr all leading this
dressing and going 10 parties, and giving them
that this constant striving TO be stylish,
aud keep ones position, is q foolish and sinful
thing. I'm sick and ashamed oft. Its ruin
ing our children. 1t will make spendthrifts Of
our boys, aud silly, fashionable dolls of our
girls. If we had never begun this foolish plan
of keeping up with Our neighbOrs, or il l could
only 90 back ten years in my life But
there's no way of getting out Of it now. All
our acquaintance would stare at US, and
laugh at US, and the children would be misefa-
be and the only way to effect any change is
to go off and bury ourselves in the country,
away from all influence and stimulants Of our
pr, s mt life; and that can't be thought Of
wish l knew what to do oFwhcre TO turn. II
| had only commenced diferentlyP y


And the wife and mother rung her hands,
and the charges, aud the children committed
to her, for good or for evil, went ON the Tays
of folly and vanity, for good impulses never
bring forth good fruits, unless they harden in-
TO fixed principles of action and what rudder
TO human soul adrift on the wild and stormy
waters of life is an aimless and Purposeless Jf7


I'll" says the young man, full of dreams
and ardor, Il could only have some grand he
roic career If l could only do something to
benefit my race, and send my name shining
down the future ages, great and honorable,
benelactor to humanity-a blessing to my age!
If could only see a glorious future before
me"


And alas the youth does not look upon
that sweet and tender Face, which shines
down to Us across the slumbering centuries,
that Face, though it came on earth to be the
one Hope and Healer of our humanity, songht
no high honorable station amongst men, but
won its crown of thorns, and was lifted up on
Iy upon Calvary.


"If only had something to do" says the
young girl in the first blooming years Of her
womanhood. 81 should love to crown myself
with all which poets and good men say is
sweet and noble, and tender in woman but
dear me-there is nothing can find here, and
now in my quiet home, and in everyday life,
to do good or for blessings to others !"


And in the shelter Of thar young girls
"quiet home" we're farther and mother, brother
and sister, upon whose hearts their loving
deeds would fall, as the sunshine falls upon the
earth, welcoming the birds, calling to the
flowers.


All around her were souls that needed hour
" her counsels and ministrations of tenderness,
and yet she turned away from the sublime
through lowly duties of the present and whis-
pered to the future her plaintive, dissatisfied
"if"


All, reader, "ifs" never accomplish anything!
Weak mourning over the past, plaintive re-
grets over its lost opportunities and wasted
hours, never make one better.


And remember, the only way in which you
can prove to God the sincerity of regrets for
the past, is to improve the past, is to improve
the present.


No mater how late it is, nor what you
have lost. So long as an hour of life remains:
to you, so long as you have something to do
Turn steadfast to the work that lies at home,
10 matter how small it may be If You do it
in the right spirit, it is grand noble, glorious,
and shall be the loom weaving its wedding
garment for your soul, in the day when it shall
go to the marriage supper of the Lord.-Au-
thurs Home Magazine.





Coon FOE PARsoN BRowNLow-Parson
Brownlow, of the Knoxville, (Tenn.) Wing,
still holds out nobly. In recent number he
says:


"That all may understand US, we take oc-
casion to say, free from all excitement. that to
destroy our office, or stop our windpipe, is the