Birds employ their notes of gladness As they flutter to and fro, Flow’rs display their wealth of beauty, As they used to long ago; But the birds may sing forever, And the flow’rs forever bloom; They can ne’er bring back the faces That are hidden in the tomb! Silently death steals upon us, Silently time speedeth on-- Soon we, too, shall all be numbered, With the faces that are gone; Each and all must shortly follow Thro’ the shadows and the gloom, To the loved ones who are waiting In the light beyond the tomb. _THE TRUE WAY._ We know that we’re stubborn and willful, And tho’ we have kindly been shown The true way, which God has appointed, We often go on in our own. And thus we go on in the darkness, Groping our way thro’ the night; Unmindful ofttimes of His goodness, And missing His glorious light. But still He looks down with compassion, And e’en thro’ life’s greatest alarms We’re sheltered and safely protected, As weak little lambs in His arms. Could we but have more of His goodness Implanted each day in our heart, Perhaps there are others about us Who’d feel the rich joy we’d impart. Could our love, every day, be to others As the love from our Maker above, O what a grand army of brothers Would be banded together in love! _PITCHER OR JUG._ Which brings poverty and woe, Which makes useless tears to flow, Which brings scorn where’er we go, Pitcher or jug? Which fades beauty, health and bloom, Which turns happiness to gloom, Which leads to the drunkard’s tomb, Pitcher or jug? _TWO LIVES._ They started out together Amid the worldly din; One yielded to temptation, And lived a life of sin: They found his lifeless body One pleasant summer dawn, All mangled in the gutter-- A wretched life was gone. The other trod the pathway Of righteousness and truth, And kept his soul as spotless As in his early youth; And when his voyage was ended, On Heaven’s blissful shore He joined the great reunion, Where parting is no more. _MEDITATION._