23d ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Oft. DoC. 



no time for reading or study, but so systematize your work that 

 you can have at least half an hour a day; or if your days are all 

 filled up, keep some of your evenings for reading and writing. This 

 is more especially intended for the ladies. The men usually have 

 their evenings for reading. If we once realize that it is just as 

 necessary to keep our minds bright as to keep our houses in order, 

 we will manage to find the time. It is surprising how many frag- 

 ments we can find to use in this way, and just a little at a time 

 means much in the end. Books are the best friends of our lonely 

 hours. No power on earth has a greater influence in the formation 

 of character than the right kind of books. 



Our first duty is to take time to keep our minds bright and active, 

 and to enjoy our pleasures with our families, for there will be laid 

 the foundations of future happy homes. We have, first of all, to 

 make our own home a home in the true sense of the word. We 

 should remember that money, or its equivalent, is not the main 

 thing in life; that true honor lies in living life with a useful purpose. 

 We want bright, happy, intelligent homes, filled with love and 

 truth, where the husband comes in with a smile, and the wife and 

 mother greets all with gentle words and a kindly manner. Such 

 a house is a home — not merely a habitation. Such a home is one 

 of God's evangels in a dark world, and its influence extends out 

 over other lives. We want to remember that 



"We live in thoughts, not years; 



In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 



We should count time by heart-throbs; he most lives, 



Who feels the deepest, thinks the noblest, acts the best." 



Some people have more heart-throbs than others. We will always 

 have our Martha's and Mary's, but let us live up to the best in us. 

 and strive to uplift and help others, and our influence will go out 

 in ever-widening circles. Let us write our names in living charac- 

 ters on the hearts of those with whom we come in contact. Have 

 you ever stopped to think how many lives touch yours in a month, 

 in a year or in a lifetime, and in how many ways? And yet, on each 

 one we leave some influence at work. How necessary, then, a 

 great and constantly growing sympathy to enable us to be ready 

 with a word of cheer and encouragement whenever opportunity 

 offers! Don't wait until you have the time; seize every opportunity, 

 because while we are waiting, time flies, and the word remains 

 unspoken, without the word that would have meant so much to 

 the discouraged soul. 



And while we are ever ready with the word of cheer and encour- 

 agement, let us withhold the word of censure we are so often 

 tempted to speak. We do not know what has been the influence 

 which has led them to put to a wrong use the talent that God 

 has given them; let us remember that "with what measure we 

 mete, it shall be measured out to you again," and feel with Steven- 

 son that 



"Tliere's so much bad in the best of us, 

 And so much good in the worst of us. 

 That it hardly behooves any one of us 

 To speak about the rest of us." 



If we were one-half as anxious -to discuss our friends' and neigh- 

 bors' good qualities as we are to talk about their bad ones, the 

 world would be a better place for us all. 



