I read upon its open page,
      “There is a time and purpose given,
    It has been so from age to age,
      For everything that’s under Heaven.”

    ’Tis vain and wrong to wish, I thought,
      That life with me be always sunny,
    My cup with bitter never fraught,
      But always overflown with honey

    When fortune frowns I’ll not despair,
      I’ll only weep away my sorrow,
    ’Twill ease my heart and brow of care,
      I’ll laugh when joy returns to-morrow.

DRIFTING.

BY ELLENOR J. JONES.

    We are drifting on the sea of life,
      Like ships we’re tempest-tossed,
    And ’mid this world of care and strife
      How many are wrecked and lost!

    Our vessels are sometimes set afloat,
      ’Neath a bright and cloudless sky,
    But far in the distance hid from view,
      The breakers are sure to lie.

    Others are launched on an angry sea,
      When the waves are dashing high,
    And the wild winds give a ghostly tone,
      To the curlew’s troubled cry.

    But the good ship Faith is gaily launched,
      For the pilot, Hope, is there,
    And Love, with his flaming lamp of light,
      Maketh all things wondrous fair.

    Soon Faith is wrecked by a careless word,
      And beautiful Hope is dead,
    And Love, with the holy light of life,
      In an angry moment fled.

    And thus on the wide wild sea of life,
      We are drifting day by day,
    Without one thought of the solemn truth,
      That we all shall pass away.