LOVE’S MESSAGE.
I sent thee a message my darling,
Across the great highway of thought.
Transmitting my love to thy keeping;
Thy soul must the message have caught.
Receiving it into thy being,
Absorbing my love into thine.
When hearts are once truly united,
The love of their souls is divine.
And life is a heaven created
By love, the great Ruler of all,
And love is the message He sendeth;
It lightens life’s heaviest pall.
Send love to thy friend and thy neighbor.
Send love to thy bitterest foe.
It costs thee not even one farthing.
Love’s coin we can always bestow.
A FABLE.
A mother mouse with mien most humble
Called to her children—one and all—
Revealed to them her sins so many,
That o’er her heart hung like a pall.
“I must my sins be expiating
Before my life draws to an end.
To convent holy, I will enter,
And my past sins will there amend.”
“O do not seek me! Do not follow!
Where I am, seek not to know.
Take heed my children to my warning,
For it will save you pain and woe.”
“Farewell! Farewell! I now must leave you,
Of my advice O pray take heed;
And do not follow my example,
To grief it surely will you lead.”
When left alone the little mouselets
Were very happy for a while;
For mice, like children, are forgetful,
They soon forgot their mother’s guile.
They hopped around, all rules forgetting,
Until their hunger made them think
Of their dear mother, their provider,
Their eyes with tears then ’gan to blink.
“O let us search for our dear mother;
She may be hungry, cold, or dead.
O we will never give up hunting,
Though we may die with her instead.”
They searched for her in every corner,
In every crevice, every nook.
But searched in vain, they could not find her:
So thought no further they would look.
But they a big round cheese discovered;
It long upon a shelf had lain.
“Forsooth we’ll take a little breakfast,
Our search has not been all in vain.”
All their past searching they found needless;
For snugly housed within the cheese
They found their poor repentant mother,
With conscience very much at ease.
Forgotten was their mother’s teaching,
And all that she for them had borne,
They only thought of her example,
And for her sins they could but mourn.
If you have sins my friends to mourn for,
Seek not a cheese to hide within.
For surely someone will be seeking,
And finding cheese, will look therein.
DEPLORE NOT THE SHADOWS OF LIFE.
Our lives are rounded out by pain,
And though it oft doth seem
That we have more than we can bear,
Through it we catch a gleam
Of light celestial from on high;
The angels speak sweet words
Of hope, and peace, encouragement,
Their loving care engirds
Our weary, worn, and saddened hearts,
And though not understood
While here on earth, we know full well
Our lives, by God are viewed.
E’en though in life are many clouds;
There is some sunshine too;
Then store the sunshine you may have
And shadows not pursue.
LOVE’S GARLAND.
We will weave Love’s sweetest garland,
Fit to deck a monarch’s brow,
We will hide the thorns with roses,
And before Love’s throne will bow.
We will strive to make all happy,
And will never duty shirk.
Never loiter by life’s wayside,
Ne’er in heart shall malice lurk.
We are sowing, ever sowing—
Soon the harvest we shall reap;
We are planting for the morrow.
Deeds will ripen while we sleep.
We may harvest richest blessings,
Or may gather thorns instead.
We may place Love’s choicest garland
On some tired and drooping head.
If an unkind word we utter,
We shall make some poor heart sad.
If we give a cup of water,
It will make some faint heart glad.
We may often light life’s pathway
With the candle of our love,
And its beams will shine forever
In the heaven we make above.
We may bring a ray of sunshine
Where before was darkest cloud.
And with flowers hide a coffin,
And may cover up the shroud.
We can give a smiling welcome,
We can send out loving words;
E’en our tears may comfort some one
Showing that our love engirds,
And surrounds him as a garland
Woven by Love’s tireless hands;
Woven from Love’s sweetest blossoms,
Love translated in all lands.
We are gathering joy or sorrow
In our every walk of life.
We are sowing, we are reaping,
Sowing peace, we reap not strife.
We may garner, we may scatter
Many blessings on life’s road.
We may help to carry burdens,
We may help to lift the load
From our weaker brother’s shoulders
From our weary sister’s way,
We may cast a ray of sunshine
O’er some dark and stormy day.