In one of the old churchyards in England there is a gravestone with this inscription:

Who, who, who lies here?
I, Robert of Doncaster.
That I spent, I had;
That I lent, I lost,
That I gave, I have.

And this giving is the main thing after all. Sir Walter Raleigh, who set sail in quest of treasure, returned from his voyage a broken and disappointed man. But he brought back with him, from beyond the Western seas, a strange tuber called "potato," which has proved to succeeding generations a greater blessing than all the fabulous gold of which he dreamed. We are immortalized not by the rich banquets on our tables, but by the bread we distribute to those waiting at our doors. It is what a man gives out that is forever his. It is what we do for God and our fellow men that survives "the tooth of time and rasure of oblivion.

The clinching of our argument is in the words of Jesus, "For where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also." "Tis home where'er the heart is. If you make your home on earth you will have to quit it. If you make your home in heaven, you will find your treasure there before you, an eternal possession in a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

OPPORTUNITY

To each man's life there comes a time supreme:
One day, one night, one morning, or one noon,
One freighted hour, one moment opportune,
One right, through which sublime fulfilments gleam,

One space, when fate goes tiding with the stream,
One once, in balance 'twixt too late, too soon,
And ready for the passing instant's boon
To tip in favor the uncertain beam.

Ah, happy he who, knowing how to wait,

Knows also how to watch, and work and stand
On life's broad deck alert, and on the prow
To seize the passing moment, big with fate,
From opportunity's extended hand,

When the great clock of destiny strikes now!

TOWNSEND.

L

Chapter XXII

OPPORTUNITY

In which there is a Picture

of Ships off the Bay

IFE is a succession of opportunities, lost or improved. The word opportune is derived from the Latin ob-portus, meaning, "Just off the bay." Our failure or success in life depends on whether we are swept past or sail in.

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

The importance of the right use of opportunity in common affairs is recognized on all hands. One of the wise sayings of Napoleon was that "every battle turns on the spur of the moment. At a critical juncture in the Peninsular war, a detachment of the English army was shut up in a Spanish town, around which the enemy had closely drawn his lines. The only hope of the besieged was in the coming of the Duke of Wellington with reenforcements. Time passed, and the hour was set for the assault. All preparations had been fully made. Marshal Soult had taken his place on a commanding hilltop, with his body-guard,