201 A SHORT SERMON Children who read my lay, Right things in great and small, This further I would say: True things in great and small, Sun, moon, and stars, and all, Life's journey, through and through, Do what is right to do, Unto one and all; When you work and when you play, Each day, and every day, Then peace shall gild your way, Though the sky should fall. ALICE CARY 202 KINDNESS TO ANIMALS Turn, turn the hasty foot aside, The common Lord of all that move, The sun, the moon, the stars, He made And spread o'er earth the grassy blade Let them enjoy their little day, The life thou canst not give. THOMAS GISBORNE 203 LOVELINESS Once I knew a little girl, Very plain; You might try her hair to curl On her cheek no tint of rose Paled and blushed, or sought repose; But the thoughts that through her brain As a recompense for pain, So full many a beauteous thing, Every thought was full of grace, And in time the homely face With a heavenly radiance bright, So I tell you, little child, Plain or poor, If your thoughts are undefiled, Of the loveliness of worth; And this beauty, not of earth, Will endure. MARIA LACEY 204 THE CALL OF THE FLOWERS AND BIRDS Lo! the lilies of the field, How their leaves instruction yield! Hark to Nature's lesson given Every bush and tufted tree "Children, fly from doubt and sorrow; Say, with richer crimson glows Barns nor hoarded grain have we, 66 Children, fly from doubt and sorrow; God provideth for the morrow!" One there lives whose guardian eye One there lives who, Lord of all, Free from doubt and faithless sorrow; REGINALD HEBER 205 DON'T FRET Has a neighbor injured you? You will yet come off the best; Never mind it, let it rest; Has a wicked lie been told? It will run itself to death If you let it quite alone; It will die for want of breath; Are your enemies at work? They can't injure you a whit. Is adversity your lot? Don't fret; Fortune's wheel keeps turning round; Every spoke will reach the top, Which, like you, is going down. Don't fret. ANONYMOUS |