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 I do not see Why God should e'en permit some things to be, When He is love. But I can see Tho often dimly through the mystery, His hand above!

I do not know Where falls the seed that I have tried to sow With greatest care, But I shall know The meaning of each waiting hour below, Sometime, somewhere!

I do not look Upon the present, nor in nature's book, To read my fate; But I do look For promised blessings in God's holy Book, And I can wait. (Text.)

(2716)

Paul Laurence Dunbar, the negro poet, occupied a unique position in the literary world. W. D. Howells called him the only man of pure African blood and of American civilization to feel the negro life esthetically and express it lyrically. While he was dying of consumption, he contributed to Lippincott's this verse-sermon of resignation: Because I had loved so deeply,   Because I had loved so long, God in his great compassion   Gave me the gift of song. Because I had loved so vainly  And sung with such faltering breath, The Master in infinite mercy   Offers the boon of death. (Text.) (2717)   RESISTANCE   Sit upon the shore close to the water's edge, and let the sand teach you how to resist. It runs out underneath the water, and just lies there; and when the wave hurls its tons upon it, the sand gives way, but makes the water move it. When the water rushes furiously landward, the sand goes with it, but not quite so fast; and when the wave retreats, the sand runs back, but not quite so far. It always stands close to its enemy, and a little in front of him, never lets him strike from a distance, and never allows him to make any permanent mark. It never runs away, and never melts, and it always separates itself from its antagonist and lies ready for another attack. Always prepared for a blow, it never gives one.—, "The Fighting Saint." (2718) The modern treatment of moral germs should be similar to that used in modern surgery:   The new era, which is to succeed the present or "pathologic" era in surgery, is the "physiologic," and in it we are to take less care about the entrance of possible germs into our surgical wounds and more about keeping the patient in such condition that he can resist them if they do get in.—Literary Digest.

(2719)

It is said that Napoleon once ordered a coat of mail. When the artizan completed and delivered it, the emperor ordered him to put it on himself. Then Napoleon, taking a pistol, fired shot after shot at the man in armor. It stood this severe test, and was accepted.

(2720)

RESISTANCE AS A LEVERAGE

I know not how the stork, "leaning upon the sirocco," makes a leverage of the opposing element for her swift flight. I leave the naturalist to explain that. But I do know that the sirocco is a challenge to her unerring instinct and strength of wing. God manipulates the wind. The stork manipulates her wings. And the working of the combination results advantageously to the stork. She does not lean upon the sirocco wind as you would lean upon a couch. That would result in a fall and the bird would be dashed in pieces. The leaning is accompanied by action. While the buoyancy of the air bears her up, the balancing of the wings bears her on. That air-cushion is no "downy bed of ease." It is a thing to be encountered and overcome. She makes the adversary contribute to her progress. The thing from which men shrink is the thing the bird dares.—

(2721)

Resistance by Softness—See.

RESOLUTENESS

The famous antarctic explorer, Sir Ernest Shackelton, has astonished his friends by his persistency of purpose. He was long ill