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THE MAROON TIGER
TO THE SENIORS
If but one message I may leave behind
One single word of courage to my kind,
It would be this—spoken truly to a friend
Whatever life may bring—what God may send,
No matter whether clouds lift soon or late,
Take opportunity when it comes, don’t wait,
Because despair may tangle darkly at your feet,
Your faith be dimmed, and hope once cool and sweet,
Be lost—hut suddenly above a hill
A heavenly lamp set on a heavenly sill
Will shine for you and point the way to do.
How well I know!
For I have waited through the dark, and 1
Have seen a star rise in the blackest sky
Repeatedly; it has not failed me yet
And I have learned that God never will forget
To light His lamp. If you hut wait for it,
It will be lit.
-—Samuel T. McKibben.
LIVING SERMON
I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day;
I'd rather one would walk with me than merely show
the way.
The eye’s a better pupil and more willing than the ear;
Fine counsel is confusing, but examples always clear;
And the best of all the preachers are the men who live
their creeds,
For to see the good in action is what everybody needs.
I can quickly learn to do it if you let me see it done;
And the lectures you deliver may be very wise and true,
But I’d rather get my lesson by observing what you do;
For I may misunderstand you and the high advice yon
give,
But there’s no misunderstanding how you act and how
you live.
When 1 see an act of kindness I am eager to be kind;
When a weaker brother stumbles and a stronger stays
behind
Just to see if he can help him, then the wish grows strong
with me
To become as big and thoughtful as I know that friend
to be.
All travelers will tell you that the best of guides today
Are not the ones that tell him hut the ones that show the
way.
One good man teaches many men to believe what they
behold;
But one deed of kindness acted is worth forty that are
told;
Who stands with men of honor learns to hold his honor
dear;
For right living speaks a language that to everyone is
clear;
Though an able speaker charms me with his eloquence,
I say:
I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day.
—A. Christopher.
TO A LEAVING ONE
Since parting be decreed us two,
Pause a little let me look into your eyes.
In time to come, remember the day of your longing
As I remember the nights of delights.
Visions of you will haunt my dreams.
Let me pass, I entreat you, into yours.
Between you and me roar the waves oj a sea of tears.
And I cannot pass over to you.
Between the bitter and the sweet stands my heart.
I can not hear yonr voice, but I hear
Upon the secret places of my heart,
The dying sound of your feet taking
You into the silence of the yesterdays.
DISCOVERY
I think that all that beauty is
Is caught and held in woman’s tears;
Is woven round the joy and pain,
Concealed where it has always lain,
Eating its way into her secret heart.
I think that all that beauty holds
Is crushed within the winding folds
Of thoughts and painful memories.
V here hangs the ring of shining keys
That fit the locks of beauty’s secret ways.
—Claire Helen Haywood.
THE AESTHETE
He has a heart which bleeds at sight
Of little birds lost in their flight.
And if a dog has lost its way
He frets about it through the day.
He cannot sleep if it is known
A rose has withered by a stone.
But if his sweet wife, meaning well.
Burns steak or roast he gives her hell.
SMALL THINGS
By Lizette Woodworth Reese
Life, being careful, such a husbandry shows,
As fits into its grasp, no more, no less,
Than it can keep of ancient loveliness;
A province it discards, retains a rose.
V hat out of times and weathers will it save?
Some small importance of a hedge, a town,
Not worth a corner’s gossip, a renown,
But exquisite with the touch of the grave.
What would we do with aught of high or vast.
With havocs, wars, or towers, or a sphere
Splashing the west with silver as with foam?
For some old littleness would we clutch fast,
A shred of some lost crop, and clutching, hear
The sound of footsteps running back to home.
-—The Virginia Quarterly Review.