May 25

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.—Psalms 90:12.

DO I constantly keep in view the uncertainty of life, and how short a time at longest I have to live in the world? And do I endeavor so to number my days, as wisely to compare with them the work God has given me to do, that I may be stimulated to diligence, as one that has not long to live? Do I pray for divine aid in this numbering, that it may be blessed to my own highest wisdom and good, and so to the good of others?

Lost wealth may be replaced by industry; lost health, regained by temperance; lost knowledge, restored by study; and even lost reputation won back by penitence and virtue. But who ever looked on his departed hours, or recalled his slighted years, and stamped them with wisdom, or effaced from heaven's record the fearful blot of wasted time?—L. H. SIGOURNEY.

Why do we heap huge mounds of years before us and behind,

And scorn the little days that pass, like angels on the wind?

Each turning round a small, sweet face, as beautiful as near,

Because it is so small a face we will not see it clear; And so it turns from us and goes away in sad disdain;

Though we could give our lives for it, it never comes again —CRAIK.