ONLY ONE MINUTE MINE.
JUST one little minute!
What can I do in it?—
I can speak a sentence so cross and bad
That all who hear, will be angered or sad.
I can step both feet in the devil's snare,
Though angels or men cry out, "Beware!"
In one little minute I choice can make,
Which course of two offered I wish to take.
The way of them both I know full well,
One tendeth to heaven, one endeth in hell.
In one I must bear every day a cross,
And watch unto prayer, lest I suffer loss.
There's a guide, I am told, where the path is obscure,
And in danger or fright his assistance is sure
As the "crown of rejoicing" that ever waits
For all who "through patience" reach the gates.
The other way looks enticingly grand,
From the point of life on which I now stand;
But its end, its end, alas, it is death!
Art thou passing, minute I Wait one breath,
Till I tell what I'll do in thee, fleeting minute!
I'll choose heaven, and try to win it.
For God's word says if I do my best,
Christ my Redeemer will do all the rest.
MRS. M. B. BEERS