GRAINS OF GOLD.

New Zealand Tablet, 27 December 1906, Page 3

GRAINS OF GOLD.

A- LECJEND OF THE NATIVITY. The chilly, wind-swept stable-home A holy Temple hath become, And Mary worships- at the shrine Of Emmamul Divine. Prostrate, adoring - kisses meet She presseth to His "Sacred . feet Who lieth where the beasts have t-rod, While in great awe she dot-h repeat — ' My God ! my God !' The cattle's straw-strewn stable-home A Royal Palace hath "become ; Before Him, throned upon the mow, Agaiir our Lady sweet) dolh bow, In homage kissing His dear hand Who earth and Heaven- doth command, While in great rapture « do Lh she sing With all the choiring angel band — 'My King! my^lLingJ' But now the stable hath become The Holy Infant's earthly home, A ud Mary stoops to lift and hold, - And fondly to her bosom fold, This Qhild of glory and of grace And showejr soft kisses, on His face,: 'My Love ! My own most precious One Come to Thy Mother's 1 ' dear embrace— 1 My Son ! "my Son ! '

' Boston- Pilot.'

Every moment of time may be .made to. bear the burden of something which -is "eternal. '•' . ' The good God has~ measured out our' years ; -and of these years that He has" resolved to leave us' on this earth, He has marked out one which shall be our last. What distance is there between that" moment and this ? The space 'of an instant ! "

% If you cannot.be happy in one way, be in another, and this facility of disposition wants but -little aid from philosophy, for. health and good humor are „ almost the whole~ affair. Many run about after felicity, like an absent-minded man hunting__for his hat while it is in his hand pt on his head." ~ ' "

There are few souls so - base but some fond heart is ready to trust them. .* God sometimes sends the clinging.-yine up the dead- trunk ,of the tree to', teach us .that even in death .His grace clings green and vigorous,- and to remind us that the wretched life though deformed and unsightly, can be made beautiful by ever-clinging love. ' *~--