THE PRODIGAL SON

A certain man had two sons:

And the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me."

them his living.

And he divided unto

And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

And when he came to himself, he said, "How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

"I will rise and go to my father, and say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,

"And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants."

And he arose, and came unto his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

And the son said unto him. "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son."

But the father said to his servants, “Bring forth the best robe,

and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:

"And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat,

and be merry:

"For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." And they began to be merry.

Now his eldest son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing.

And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things

meant.

And he said unto him, "Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound."

And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and entreated him.

And he answering said to his father, "Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment; and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:

"But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf." And he said unto him, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.

"It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found."

No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself.

-LOWELL,

The happiest heart that ever beat

Was in some quiet breast

That found the common daylight sweet,

And left to Heaven the rest.

THE PINE TREE

-J. V. CHENEY.

The tremendous unity of the pine absorbs and molds the life of a race. The pine shadows rest upon a nation. The northern peoples, century after century, lived under one or other of the two great powers of the pine and the sea, both infinite. They dwelt amidst the forests as they wandered on the waves, and saw no end nor any other horizon. Still the dark, green trees, or the dark, green waters, jagged the dawn with their fringe or their foam. And whatever elements of imagination, or of warrior strength, or of domestic justice, were brought down by the Norwegian or the God against the dissoluteness or degradation of the south of Europe, were taught them under the green roofs and wild penetralia of the pine. -RUSKIN.

That from heaven, or near it,

Pourest thy full heart

In profuse strains of unpremeditated art!

Higher still, and higher,

From the earth thou springest,

Like a cloud of fire:

The blue deep thou wingest,

And, singing still, dost soar, and soaring, ever singest.

In the golden lightning

Of the sunken sun,

O'er which clouds are brightening,

Thou dost float and run,

Like an embodied joy whose race is just begun.

The pale purple even

Melts around thy flight;

Like a star of heaven

In the broad daylight,

Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight.

All the earth and air

With thy voice is loud,

As when night is bare,

From one lonely cloud

And moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflowed.