A PARABLE

A writer says: A cold firebrand and a burning lamp started out one day to see what they could find.

The cold firebrand came back and wrote in its journal that the whole world was very dark. It did not find a place wherever it went in which there was light. Everywhere was darkness.

The burning lamp , when it came back, wrote in its journal: "Wherever I went it was light. I did not find any darkness in all my journey." The whole world was light. The lamp carried light with it, and when it went abroad it illuminated everything.

The dead firebrand carried no light, and it found none where it went.

Just so, living men and women go through the world, and, returning, write records of observation just as diverse as these.

Some find only gloom in the fairest paths, and amid the loveliest scenes, they see nothing beautiful.

Others find nothing but beauty and brightness even in the deepest valleys of earth.

Each one finds just what he takes out in himself.

The colors he sees, are the tints of his own inner life.

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