When the trees their summer splendor
Change to raiment red and gold,
When the summer moon turns mellow,
And the nights are getting cold;
When the squirrels hide their acorns,
And the woodchucks disappear;
Then we know that it is autumn.
-- by Charlotte L. Riser

Sent by Paulette Walters - Laurel, Mississippi

So long as there are homes to which men turn
At close of day,
So long as there are homes where children are--
Where women stay,
If love and loyalty and faith be found
Across those sills,
A stricken nation can recover from
Its gravest ills.

So long as there are homes where fires burn
And there is bread,
So long as there are homes where lamps are lit
And prayers are said;
Although a people falter through the dark
And nations grope,
With God himself back of these little homes
We still can hope.
-- by Grace Noll Crowell

Forgive, O Lord, our severing ways,
The rival alters that we raise,
The wrangling tongues that mar thy praise!

Thy grace impart! In time to be
Shall one great temple rise to Thee--
The Church our broad humanity.

White flowers of love its wall shall climb,
Soft bells of peace shall ring its chime,
Its days shall all be holy time.

A sweeter song shall then be heard,
Confessing, in a world's accord,
The inward Christ, the living Word.

That song shall swell from shore to shore,
One hope, one faith, one love restore
The seamless robe that Jesus wore.
-- John Greenleaf Whittier

Long I sought for the earth's hidden meaning;
Long as a youth was my search in vain.
Now as I approach my last years waning,
My search I must begin again.
-- by John Piper
four lines from his poem written many years ago
which was published in a literary magazine
at Wade Hampton High School .
from his book - "don't waste your life".