. Get on the brightest shining surface possible now. For this is your
shining time. This is the sky-time for that sort of thing. It won't last
long, I must tell you frankly. And at the end a bitter biting at your
heart.

I am fond of watching a display of fireworks on a Fourth of July night.
Perhaps the night is clear, the sky full of stars, bright and sparkling. A
sky rocket is sent off. It goes up with a rush and a noise. There is a
dash of many colored beautiful fire-stars. And a murmur of admiration from
the crowd. For a few moments you can see nothing as you look up but this
handful of fire-stars. The clear quiet stars beyond are eclipsed for a
narrow circle of space, and for a few moments of time.

It doesn't last long. A small fraction of a minute at the most. Then it's
all over. And all that is left is a charred stick that sticks in the mud,
nobody knows where, nor cares. But look up yonder, the stars you could not
see a moment ago for these momentary ones are shining more brightly than
ever by contrast,

"... And singing as they shine.
The hand that made us is divine."

You shine in the lower skies if you will. And of course you will if you
will. You will do as you will to do. But, at the end--a charred stick, a
bad taste in your mouth, a sharp tugging at your heart. And the story's
told. The last chapter's ended. The book is shut. But they whose one
absorbing ambition it is to turn others to righteousness may not shine
much here in earth's skies. And they may a bit, and it recks precious
little either way. But they _shall_ shine as the stars, as bright and as
long.

It does not mean Atlantic coast stars. It means desert stars, Babylonian
stars, where one can see so many more than here. They shake their wondrous
fire-light down into your face, and fairly dazzle your eyes. You "shall
shine as the stars," as bright and as long.

The Finest Wisdom.

James, the head of the Jerusalem Church, closes up his letter to the
dispersed Jews with this same word as Daniel uses. He would have all to
whom he is writing understand that he that _turns_ another from the wrong
way will save a soul from death and hide away out of sight and reach a
mass of sin.[11] The old world needs more saving societies and saving
individuals of this sort.

We have gotten great skill in saving dollars. Men give their whole
strength and time to that. There is something much higher, infinitely
higher, saving souls, rescuing