February 25

, ‘THERE are some that are like what is fabled of the swan. The ancients said that the swan never sang in his lifetime, but always sang just when he died. Now, there are many of God’s desponding children, who seem to go all their life I under a cloud; but they get a swan’s song before they die. The river of their life comes running down, perhaps black and miry with troubles, and when it begins to touch the white foam of the sea there comes a little glistening in its waters. So, beloved, though we may have been very much dispirited by reason of the burden of the way, when we get to the end we shall have sweet songs.