278 THE GOLD MINE 



Then look out on the vastness, on the boundless 

 abysses of glory, where the stars are the bouquets of 

 God, where the infinite fields are gardens of flowers 

 sprinkled] with stars of various hues, and is there nothing 

 to be learned here of the beauty of our Lord ? 



So fill the closing days with cheer. Let beauty leap 

 from your brain and fall from your hands. Use your 

 creative powers. Show your birthright by making the 

 earth smile with gladness. Be yourself a creator of 

 the beautiful. Call forms of loveliness from the sun- 

 beam, from the rainbow, which is ready to melt and 

 dissolve in beautiful bloom for your enjoyment. It is 

 wrong to let God's great unseen processions of beauty 

 pass by without a recognition. 



It is Avrong to take a piece of God's fair earth and 

 let it go to weeds or simply raise from it something 

 to feed the stomach, and raise nothing for the soul. 



There is that patient wife, mother of your children. 

 What a woman she has been ; how heroic she was when 

 you were starting in life; how meager the fare; how 

 she suffered with the cold. More than once tears came 

 to your eyes as von thought of her privations. 'Now 

 the battle is won, and to her soul has come a great long- 

 ing for the beautiful. E'o queen more worthy than she. 

 You can plant trees which will nod her welcome, you 

 can have a soft carpet of green for her weary feet, you 

 can plant flowers which will rise up and call her bless- 

 ed, which all summer will put themselves on dress pa- 

 rade for her and worship her with their incense. Why 

 not have a little pleasure in your old age ? 



