future, except to anticipate the continuance of the novelty and
joyousness of the spring-time of life. The poet utters a most
salutary admonition in his beautiful lines:

"The beam of the morning, the bud of the Spring,
The promise of beauty and brightness may bring;
But clouds gather darkness, and touched by the frost,
The pride of the plant, and the morning are lost.
Thus the bright and the beautiful ever decay--
Life's morn and life's flowers, oh, they quick pass away!"

I would not cast one unnecessary shadow on the pathway of the young;
but they should be often reminded, that the season of youth, with
its romance and light-heartedness, soon, too soon, departs! Spring,
with its budding beauties, and fragrant blossoms, does not continue
all the year. It is speedily followed by the fervid summer, the
mature and sober autumn, and the dreary snows of winter. In order to
have thriving and promising fields in summer, rich and abundant
harvests in autumn, and bountiful supplies for comfort and repose in
winter, "good seed" must be sowed in the spring. So, also, if you
would have the summer of life fruitful of prosperity--its autumn
yield a rich and bountiful harvest, and the winter of old age made
comfortable and peaceful--the good seed of pure habits, and sound
moral and religious principles, must be carefully sowed in the rich
soil of the heart, in the budding spring-time of youth.

Due observation and reflection will enable the young to sow the
right kind of seed at the right time. There is much in this. Those
who sow late will be likely to have their harvest blighted by
chilling rains and nipping frosts. The earlier the seed is cast into