GRAINS OF GOLD

New Zealand Tablet, 13 August 1908, Page 3

GRAINS OF GOLD

CONTEMPLATION. Happy who stands from all the rush aside, Who quits this eager life of deep unrest, Where men seek things which never are possessed, But like fast-flowing waters from them glide, To all devouring seas that open wide ; Happy who turns away, and on the breast Of the slow Nile moves on cahn_and at rest To regions where repose, and peace abide; Where earth and.-sky- through ages are -.the -same ; -• And man, knowing the little he can do, The emptiness of pleasure, power and fame,

Like the calm earth and sky grows tranquil too, And makes sweet contemplation his sole aim, Gazing from palm-tree's .shade on heaven's. blue. — Bishop J. L. Spaloino.

The thing to be is yourself. That is the. only sort of consistency which is a jewel, and that isn't the sort commonly meant when the word is used. - "' Yes, it is true that there are moments when the flesh is"' nothing to me, when I fee« 'and know the flesh to be the vision ; God and the spiritual, the. only re.al "and true. Depend^ upo.\ it, the spiritual -is- the real.— Tennyion. 'We must.regard the community as superTorVt^the'indiN'Jdual""' in many an instance. Life is' at best a climb, and celeVity'-in " the performance of duty, charm in speech and action ; and" fer- r cumspectfon- in all things will make the uphill journey/^pYhc" / easier,*. . , <= . , __ \ C;-fK' '''£:"- The world is. not at loose ends. It does not driftY • - The*-'* circumstances of life are not a 'jumble— except we make -them sofor our own lives. Things work together. They ~ are "shaped ," by an unseen Hand to an end— if a man will let the end be at- v" complished in and for him, God will accomplish it- * ' ' - -' ; Life is the pitch of -the orchestra and we are the instruments. The discord and the broken string of the individual - instrument do tiot affect the whole, except -as false- notes ; but I think that God, knowing all thingS, must -discern the 'symphony, glorious with meaning, through the discordant fragments that' we play.