ence of the spiritual. Mystery, but glorious reality, only known and appreciated by the initiated, but offered to all. Not only skill or genius, but supremest character is his. A centre of light even more radiant than the sun in the sky of the natural world.

I bow before the world's greatest and best, and acknowledge in the deepest gratitude my great debt for their influence on me, but I fall prostrate before the Christ and weep the praise too deep for words. I know his secret and his charm. Luther was once found, at a moment of peril and fear, when he had need to grasp unseen strength, sitting in an abstracted mood, tracing on the table with his finger "Vivit," "Vivit,"-" He lives," "He lives."

That is the great discovery and great comfort of life. Soul of man seeking for the best, accept this introduction to the Son of God, and be ushered into the circle of His Divine influence.

142

It is only when they spring to heaven that angels
Reveal themselves to you; they sit all day
Beside you, and lie down at night by you,
Who care not for their presence, muse, or sleep;
And all at once they leave you and you know them.
-BROWNING.

The keenest pangs the wretched find

Are rapture to the dreary void,

The leafless desert of the mind,

The waste of feelings unemployed.-BYRON.

Think naught a trifle, though it small appear; Small sands the mountain, moments make the year And trifles life.

Your care to trifles give,

Else you may die ere you have learned to live.

-YOUNG.

VI

LIFE'S WASTE

WHEN the few barley loaves lay in the basket at the feet of Christ and waited to grow, under His divine touch, into an abundance for five thousand hungry people, the great Teacher and Miracleworker did not lose the opportunity to impress one of the deepest lessons of life upon the minds of men. He permitted them to behold with astonishment that marvellous and momentary increase of the barley cakes into thousands of their kind. There was no limit. It was like the transformation of the barren field instantly into the harvest of golden corn. The beholder declared that such power was only from God, and this man must be made king. It was in this moment of excitement and temporary glory that Christ revealed the greatness in humility and the preeminence of truth. He refused the crown, but failed not in impressing a valuable lesson. He declared that God's abundance

would not permit of waste. Anything which comes from His hand is precious. He could keep on breaking it forever, but every piece was sacred. The relation of abundance to waste involves some of the deepest philosophy of life. Every fragment of the world's riches should be most carefully guarded and garnered. One of the most prolific sources of wealth in these recent years has been the utilization of waste products; inventive genius has discovered mines of wealth in the refuse and slag at the back door. The keen eye of man saw the mass of waste at the side of the silk factory, and all the plush of the world has been taken from that offensive, unattractive, useless material. It is supreme wisdom to know how to transform the waste of the world into the riches of the world. It is the noblest character which gathers the fragments up into the bundle of life. When that youth sat upon the slagheap of a mine in California, he studied each clod with righteous purpose and determination, and then fashioned a machine that extracted more wealth from that refuse than other men had ever secured from the mine itself. Peter Cooper declared that he built Cooper Institute by picking up the waste from the butchers' shops. The Persians have a

strange story concerning the discovery of the Golconda diamond mines. Ali Hafed owned a farm through which ran a beautiful river. He sat upon its bank one morning, when the children brought a stranger to his side. This traveller showed him a diamond and told him that a handful of these stones would make him fabulously rich and he would become a prince among men. He also informed him that there were mines of diamonds in the world for the man who would discover them. Ali Hafed dreamed in his discontent that night, and in the early hours of the morning determined to sell his farm at any price and search for diamonds, and riches, and royalty. After years of fruitless endeavor he came to be an old man, in the extremity of poverty and want. Rags were his garments and despair his companion. Inquiry revealed the sad fact that his loved ones had all died, and some of them without the necessities of life. The peasant who bought his farm was a prince, because in the sand on the bank of the stream he had found a sparkling gem of rare beauty and highest value. He then found that the sand and the farm were sown with these jewels. That very farm was and is the place of the famous Golconda diamond mines.