27344	----	THE FAITHFUL PROMISER. By the Author of "THE WORDS OF JESUS," "THE MORNING AND NIGHT WATCHES," ETC. "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises."--2 Pet. i. 4. NEW YORK: STANFORD & DELISSER, No. 508, BROADWAY. 1858. The Faithful Promiser. It has often been felt a delightful exercise by the child of God, to take, night by night, an individual promise and plead it at the mercy-seat. Often are our prayers _pointless_, from not following, in this respect, the example of the sweet Psalmist of Israel, the Royal Promise pleader, who delighted to direct his finger to some particular "word" of the Faithful Promiser, saying, "Remember Thy word unto Thy servant, on which thou hast caused me to hope!" The following are a few gleanings from the Promise Treasury,--a few crumbs from "the Master's Table," which may serve to help the thoughts in the hour of closet meditation, or the season of sorrow. ST. M----, _December_, 1849. 1ST DAY OF MONTH. "He is Faithful that Promised." "Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."--ISAIAH i. 18. Pardoning Grace. My soul! thy God summons thee to His audience chamber! Infinite purity seeks to reason with infinite vileness! Deity stoops to speak to dust! Dread not the meeting. It is the most gracious, as well as wondrous of all conferences. Jehovah himself breaks silence! He utters the best tidings a lost soul or a lost world can hear: "God is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses." What! _Scarlet_ sins, and _crimson_ sins! and these all to be forgiven and forgotten! The just God "justifying" the unjust!--the mightiest of all beings, the kindest of all! Oh! what is there in thee to merit such love as this? Thou mightest have known thy God only as the "consuming fire," and had nothing before thee save "a fearful looking for of vengeance!" This gracious conference bids thee dispel thy fears! It tells thee it is no longer a "fearful," but a _blessed_ thing to fall into His hands? Hast thou closed with these His overtures? Until thou art at peace with Him, happiness must be a stranger to thy bosom. Though thou hast all else beside, bereft of God thou must be "bereft indeed." Lord! I come! As thy pardoning grace is freely tendered, so shall I freely accept it. May it be mine, even now, to listen to the gladdening accents, "Son! Daughter! be of good cheer! thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee." "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 2D DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."--DEUT. xxxiii. 25. Needful Grace. God does not give grace till the hour of trial comes. But when it _does_ come, the amount of grace, and the nature of the special grace required is vouchsafed. My soul, do not dwell with painful apprehension on the future. Do not anticipate coming sorrows; perplexing thyself with the grace needed for future emergencies; to-morrow will bring its promised grace along with to-morrow's trials. God, wishing to keep His people humble, and dependent on himself, gives not a stock of grace; He metes it out for every day's exigencies, that they may be constantly "travelling between their own emptiness and Christ's fulness"--their own weakness and Christ's strength. But _when_ the exigency comes, thou mayest safely trust an Almighty arm to bear thee through! Is there now some "thorn in the flesh" sent to lacerate thee? Thou mayest have been entreating the Lord for its removal. Thy prayer has, doubtless, been heard and answered; but not in the way, perhaps, expected or desired by thee. The "thorn" may still be left to goad, the trial may still be left to buffet; but "more grace" has been given to endure them. Oh! how often have His people thus been led to glory in their infirmities and triumph in their afflictions, seeing the power of Christ rests more abundantly upon them! The strength which the hour of trial brings, often makes the Christian a wonder to himself! "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 3D DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."--2 COR. ix. 8. All-Sufficient Grace. "All-sufficiency in all things!" Believer! surely thou art "thoroughly furnished!" Grace is no scanty thing, doled out in pittances. It is a glorious treasury, which the key of prayer can always unlock, but never empty. A fountain, "full, flowing, _ever_ flowing, _over_flowing." Mark these three ALL's in this precious promise. It is a three-fold link in a golden chain, let down from a throne of grace by a God of grace. "_All-grace!_"--"_all-sufficiency!_" in "_all things!_" and these to "abound." Oh! precious thought! My want cannot impoverish that inexhaustible treasury of grace! Myriads are hourly hanging on it, and drawing from it, and yet there is no diminution: "Out of that fulness all we too may receive, and grace for grace!" My soul, dost not thou love to dwell on that all-abounding grace? Thine own insufficiency in every thing, met with an "all-sufficiency in all things!" Grace in all circumstances and situations, in all vicissitudes and changes, in all the varied phases of the Christian's being. Grace in sunshine and storm--in health and in sickness--in life and in death. Grace for the old believer and the young believer, the tried believer, and the weak believer, and the tempted believer. Grace _for_ duty, and grace _in_ duty,--grace to carry the joyous cup with a steady hand,--grace to drink the bitter cup with an unmurmuring spirit,--grace to have prosperity sanctified,--grace to say, through tears, "Thy will be done!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 4TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you."--JOHN xiv. 18. Comforting Grace. Blessed Jesus! How thy presence sanctifies trial, takes loneliness from the chamber of sickness, and the sting from the chamber of death! Bright and Morning Star! precious at all times, thou art never _so_ precious as in "the dark and cloudy day!" The bitterness of sorrow is well worth enduring to have thy promised consolations. How well qualified, thou Man of Sorrows, to be my Comforter! How well fitted to dry my tears, Thou who didst shed so many thyself! What are _my_ tears--my sorrows--my crosses--my losses, compared with Thine, who didst shed first Thy tears, and then Thy blood for _me_! Mine are all deserved, and infinitely more than deserved. How different, O Spotless Lamb of God, those pangs which rent Thy guiltless bosom! How sweet those comforts Thou hast promised to the comfortless, when I think of them as flowing from an Almighty _Fellow-Sufferer_,--"A brother born for adversity,"--the "Friend that sticketh closer than any brother!"--one who can say, with all the refined sympathies of a holy exalted human nature, "I know your sorrows!" My soul! calm thy griefs! There is not a sorrow thou canst experience, but Jesus, in the treasury of grace, has an exact corresponding solace: "In the multitude of the _sorrows_ I have in my heart, Thy _comforts_ delight my soul!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 5TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not."--LUKE xxii. 31, 32. Restraining Grace. What a scene does this unfold! Satan tempting--Jesus praying! Satan sifting--Jesus pleading! "The strong man assailing"--"the stronger than the strong" beating him back! Believer? here is the past history and present secret of thy safety in the midst of temptation. An interceding Saviour was at thy side, saying to every threatening wave, "Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther?" God often permits His people to be on the very verge of the precipice, to remind them of their own weakness; _but never farther than the verge!_ The restraining hand and grace of Omnipotence is ready to rescue them. "Although he fall, yet shall he not be cast down utterly; and why? for the Lord upholdeth him with His right hand!" The wolf may be prowling for his prey; but what can he do when the Shepherd is always there, tending with the watchful eye that "neither slumbers nor sleeps?" Who cannot subscribe to the testimony, "When my foot slipped, Thy mercy, O Lord! held me up?" Who can look back on his past pilgrimage, and fail to see it crowded with Ebenezers, with this inscription: "Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling?" My soul, where wouldst thou have been this day, hadst thou not been "_kept_" by the power of God? "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 6TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "I will heal their backsliding."--HOSEA xiv. 4. Restoring Grace. Wandering again! And has He not left me to perish? Stumbling and straying on the dark mountains, away from the Shepherd's eye and the Shepherd's fold, shall He not leave the erring wanderer to the fruit of his own ways, and his truant heart to go hopelessly onward in its career of guilty estrangement? "My thoughts," says God, "are not as your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." Man would say, "Go, perish! ungrateful apostate!" God says, "Return, ye backsliding children!" The Shepherd _will_ not, _cannot_ suffer the sheep to perish He has purchased with His own blood. How wondrous His forbearance towards it!--tracking its guilty steps, and ceasing not the pursuit till He lays the wanderer on His shoulders, and returns with it to His fold rejoicing! My soul! why increase by farther departures thine own distance from the fold?--why lengthen the dreary road thy gracious Shepherd has to traverse in bringing thee back? Delay not thy return! Provoke no longer His patience; venture no farther on forbidden ground. He waits with outstretched arms to welcome thee once more to His bosom. Be humble for the past, trust Him for the future. Think of thy former backslidings, and tremble; think of His forbearance, and be filled with holy gratitude; think of His promised grace, "and take courage." "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 7TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."--PHIL. i. 6. Sanctifying Grace. Reader! is the good work begun in thee? Art thou holy? Is sin crucifying? Are thy heart's idols, one by one abolished? Is the world less to thee, and eternity more to thee? Is more of thy Saviour's image impressed on thy character, and thy Saviour's love more enthroned in thy heart? Is "Salvation" to thee more "the one thing needful?" Oh! take heed! there can be no middle ground, no standing still; or if it be so, thy position must be a false one. The Saviour's blood is not more necessary to give thee a title to Heaven, than His Spirit to give thee a meetness for it. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is _none of His_!" "Onwards!" should be thy motto. There is no standing still in the life of faith. "The man," says Augustine, "who says '_Enough_,' that man's soul is lost?" Let this be the superscription in all thy ways and doings, "Holiness to the Lord." Let the monitory word exercise over thee its habitual power, "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." Moreover, remember, that to be holy, is to be happy. The two are convertible terms. Holiness! It is the secret and spring of the joy of angels; and the more of holiness attained on earth--the nearer and closer my walk is with God--the more of a sweet earnest shall I have of the bliss that awaits me in a holy Heaven. Oh! my soul, let it be thy sacred ambition to "Be holy!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 8TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint."--ISAIAH xl. 31. Reviving Grace. "Wilt thou not revive us, O Lord?" My soul! art thou conscious of thy declining state? Is thy walk less with God, thy frame less heavenly? Hast thou less conscious nearness to the mercy-seat,--diminished communion with thy Saviour? Is prayer less a privilege than it has been?--the pulsations of spiritual life more languid, and fitful, and spasmodic?--the bread of life less relished?--the seen, and the temporal, and the tangible, displacing the unseen and eternal? Art thou sinking down into this state of drowsy self-contentment, this conformity-life with the world, forfeiting all the happiness of true religion, and risking and endangering the better life to come? Arise! call upon thy God! "Wilt thou not revive us, O Lord?" He might have returned nothing but the withering repulse, "How often would I have gathered thee; but thou wouldst not!" "Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone!" But "in wrath He remembers mercy." "They _shall_ revive as the corn." "The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." How and where is reviving grace to be found? He gives thee, in this precious promise, the key. It is on thy bended _knees_--by a return to thy deserted and unfrequented chamber! "_They that wait upon the Lord!_" "Wait on the Lord; be of good cheer, and He shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 9TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "The righteous shall hold on his way."--JOB xvii. 9. Persevering Grace. Reader! how comforting to thee amid the ebbings and flowings of thy changing history, to know that the change is all with thee, and not with thy God! Thy spiritual bark may be tossed on waves of temptation, in many a dark midnight. Thou mayest think thy pilot hath left thee, and be ready continually to say, "Where is my God?" But fear not! The bark which bears thy spiritual destinies is in better hands than thine; a golden chain of covenant love links it to the eternal throne! That chain can never snap asunder. He who holds it in His hand gives thee _this_ as the pledge of thy safety,--"Because I live, ye shall live also." "Why art thou then cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? _hope thou in God!_" Thou wilt assuredly ride out these stormy surges, and reach the desired haven. But be faithful with thyself: see that there be nothing to hinder or impede thy growth in grace. Think how little may retard thy progress. One sin indulged--one temptation tampered with--one bosom traitor, may cost thee many a bitter hour and bitter tear, by separating between thee and thy God. Make it thy daily prayer, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 10TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "I have the keys of hell and of death."--REV. i. 18. Dying Grace. And from whom could dying grace come so welcome, as from Thee, O blessed Jesus? Not only is Thy name, "The Abolisher of Death;" but Thou didst thyself _die_! Thou hast sanctified the grave by Thine own presence, and divested it of all its terrors. My soul! art thou at times afraid of this, thy last enemy? If the rest of thy pilgrimage-way be peaceful and unclouded, rests there a dark and portentous shadow over the terminating portals? Fear not! When that dismal entrance is reached, He who has "the keys of the grave and of death" suspended at His golden girdle, will impart grace to bear thee through. It is the messenger of peace. Thy Saviour calls thee! The promptings of nature, when, at first, thou seest the darkening waves, may be that of the affrighted disciples, when they said, "It is a spirit, and cried out for fear!" But a gentle voice will be heard high above the storm, "It is I! Be not afraid!" Death, indeed, as the wages of sin, must, even by the believer, be regarded as an enemy. But, oh! blessed thought, it is thy _last_ enemy--the cause of thy last tear. In a few brief moments after that tear is shed, thy God will be wiping every vestige of it away? "O Death! where is thy sting? O Grave! where is thy victory? Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" Welcome, vanquished foe!--Birthday of heaven!--"to die is gain!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 11TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "The Lord will give grace and glory."--PSALM lxxxiv. 11. After Grace, Glory. Oh! happy day, when this toilsome warfare will all be ended, Jordan crossed, Canaan entered, the legion-enemies of the wilderness no longer dreaded; sorrow, sighing, death, and, worst of all, _sin_, no more either to be felt or feared! Here is the terminating link in the golden chain of the everlasting covenant. It began with _predestination_; it ends with _glorification_. It began with sovereign grace in a by-past eternity, and no link will be awanting till the ransomed spirit be presented faultless before the throne! Grace and glory! If the earnest be sweet, what must be the reality? If the wilderness table contain such rich provision, what must be the glories of the eternal banqueting house? Oh! my soul, make sure of thine interest in the one, as the blessed prelude to the other. "Having access by faith into this _grace_, thou canst rejoice in hope of the _glory_ of God;" for "whom He _justifies_, them He also _glorifies_!" Has grace begun in thee? Canst thou mark--though it should be but the drops of the incipient rill which is to terminate in such an ocean--the tiny grains which are to accumulate and issue in such "an exceeding weight of glory!" Delay not the momentous question! The day of offered grace is on the wing; its hours are fast numbering; and, "No grace, no glory!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 12TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever."--JOHN xiv. 16. Another Comforter. Blessed Spirit of all grace! how oft have I grieved Thee! resisted Thy dealings, quenched Thy strivings; and yet art thou still pleading with me! Oh! let me realize more than I do the need of Thy gracious influences. Ordinances, sermons, communions, providential dispensations, are nothing without Thy life-giving power. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth." "No man can call Jesus, Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." Church of the living God! is not this one cause of thy deadness? My soul! is not this the secret of thy languishing frames, repeated declensions, uneven walk, and sudden falls, that the influences of the Holy Ghost are undervalued and unsought? Pray for the outpouring of this blessed Agent for the world's renovation, and thine own. "I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh," is the precursor of millennial bliss. Jesus! draw near, in thy mercy, to this torpid heart, as thou didst of old to thy mourning disciples, and breathe upon it, and say, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." It is the mightiest of all boons; but, like the sun in the heavens, it is the freest of all: "For if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask Him!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 13TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."--ROM. viii. 28. Providential Overruling. My soul! be still! thou art in the hands of thy Covenant God. Were these strange vicissitudes in thy history the result of accident, or chance, thou mightest well be overwhelmed; but "_all things_," and _this_ thing (be what it may) which may be now disquieting thee, is _one_ of these "_all things_" that are _so_ working mysteriously for thy good. Trust thy God! He will not deceive thee,--thy interests are with Him in safe custody. When sight says, "All these things are against me," let faith rebuke the hasty conclusion, and say, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" How often does God hedge up our way with thorns, to elicit simple trust! How seldom can we _see_ all things so working for our good! But it is better discipline to _believe_ it. Oh! for faith amid frowning providences, to say, "I _know_ that thy judgments are good;" and, relying in the dark, to exclaim, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him!" Blessed Jesus! to thee are committed the reins of this universal empire. The same hand that was once nailed to the cross, is now wielding the sceptre on the throne,--"all power given unto thee in heaven and in earth." How can I doubt the wisdom, and faithfulness, and love, of the most mysterious earthly dealing, when I know that the Roll of Providence is thus in the hands of Him who has given the mightiest pledge Omnipotence _could_ give of His tender interest in my soul's well-being, by giving _Himself_ for me? "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 14TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "All the Paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies."--PSALM xxv. 10. Safe Walking. The paths of the Lord? My soul! never follow thine own paths. If thou dost so, thou wilt be in danger often of following sight rather than faith,--choosing the evil, and refusing the good. But "commit thy way unto the Lord, and He shall bring it to pass." Let this be thy prayer, "Show me _Thy_ ways, O Lord; teach me _Thy_ paths." Oh! for Caleb's spirit, "_wholly_ to follow the Lord my God,"--to follow Him when self must be sacrificed, and hardship must be borne, and trials await me. To "walk with God,"--to ask in simple faith, "What wouldst thou have me to do?"--to have no will of my own, save this, that God's will is to be _my_ will. Here is safety,--here is happiness. Fearlessly follow the Guiding Pillar. He will lead you by a _right_ way, though it may be by a way of hardship, and crosses, and losses, and privations, to the city of habitation. Oh! the blessedness of thus lying passive in the hands of God; saying, "Undertake thou for me!"--dwelling with holy gratitude on past mercies and interpositions--taking these as pledges of future faithfulness and love--hearing His voice behind us, amid life's manifold perplexities, exclaiming, "This is the way, walk ye in it!" "Happy," surely, "are every people who are in such a case!" Happy, Reader! will it be for thee, if thou canst form the resolve in a strength greater than thine own: "This God shall be _my_ God for ever and ever; He shall be my _Guide_ even unto death!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 15TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten."--REV. iii. 19. Love in Chastisement. Sorrowing Believer! what couldst thou wish more than this? Thy furnace is severe; but look at this assurance of Him who lighted it. Love is the fuel that feeds its flames! Its every spark is love! Kindled by a Father's hand, and designed as a special pledge of a Father's love. How many of his dear children has He so rebuked and chastened; and all, _all_ for one reason, "_I love them!_" The myriads in glory have passed through these furnace-fires,--_there_ they were chosen,--_there_ they were purified, sanctified, and made "vessels meet for the Master's use;" the dross and the alloy purged, that the pure metal might remain. And art thou to claim exemption from the same discipline? Art thou to think it strange concerning these same fiery trials that may be trying thee? Rather exult in them as thine adoption-privilege. Envy not those who are strangers to the refining flames,--who are "_without chastisement_;" rather, surely, the severest discipline _with_ a _Father's love_, than the fullest earthly cup without that Father's smile. Oh! for grace to say, when the furnace is hottest, and the rod sorest, "Even so, _Father_!" And what, after all, is the severest of thy chastisements in comparison with what thy sins have deserved? Dost thou murmur under a Father's correcting love? What would it have been to have stood the wrath of an unpropitiated Judge, and that, too, _for ever_? Surely, in the light of eternity, the heaviest pang of earth is indeed "a light affliction!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 16TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "If need be."--1 PETER i. 6. A Condition in Chastisement. Three gracious words! Not one of all my tears shed for nought! Not one stroke of the rod unheeded, or that might have been spared? Thy heavenly Father loves thee too much, and too tenderly, to bestow harsher correction than thy case requires? Is it loss of health, or loss of wealth, or loss of beloved friends? Be still! there was a _need be_. We are no judges of what that "need be" is; often through aching hearts we are forced to exclaim, "Thy judgments are a great deep!" But God here pledges himself, that there will not be one redundant thorn in the believer's chaplet of suffering. No burden too heavy will be laid on him; and no sacrifice too great exacted _from_ him. He will "temper the wind to the shorn lamb." Whenever the "need be" has accomplished its end, then the rod is removed--the chastisement suspended--the furnace quenched. "If need be!" Oh! what a pillow on which to rest thy aching head,--that there is not a drop in all thy bitter cup but what a God of love saw to be _absolutely_ necessary! Wilt thou not trust Him, even though thou canst not trace the mystery of His dealings? Not too curiously prying into the "_Why_ it is?" or "_How_ it is?" but satisfied that "So it is," and, therefore that all _must_ be well! "Although thou sayest, thou canst not see Him, yet judgment is before Him, _therefore_ trust thou in Him!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 17TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench."--MATT. xii. 20. Strength in the Weak. Will Jesus accept such a heart as mine?--this erring, treacherous, traitor heart? The past! how many forgotten vows--broken covenants--prayerless days! How often have I made new resolutions, and as often has the reed succumbed to the first blast of temptation, and the burning flax been well-nigh quenched by guilty omissions and guiltier commissions! Oh! my soul! thou art low indeed,--the things that remain seem "ready to die." But thy Saviour-God will not give thee "over unto death." The reed is bruised; but He will not pluck it up by the roots. The flax is reduced to a smoking ember; but He will fan the decaying flame. Why wound thy loving Saviour's heart by these repeated declensions? He will not--_cannot_ give thee up. Go, mourn thy weakness and unbelief. Cry unto the Strong for strength. Weary and faint one! thou hast an Omnipotent arm to lean on. "_He_ fainteth not, neither is weary!" Listen to His own gracious assurance: "Fear not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will _strengthen_ thee; yea, I will help thee with the right hand of my righteousness!" Leaving all thy false props and refuges, be this thy resolve: "In the Lord put I my trust: why say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 18TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out."--JOHN vi. 37. Encouragement to the Desponding. "Cast out!" My soul! how oft might this have been thy history! Thou hast cast off thy God,--might He not oft have "cast out" thee? Yes! cast thee out as fuel for the fire of His wrath,--a sapless, fruitless cumberer. And yet, notwithstanding all thine ungrateful requital for His unmerited forbearance, He is still declaring, "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth." Thy sins may be legion-like,--the sand of the sea may be their befitting type,--the thought of their turpitude and aggravation may be ready to overwhelm thee; but be still! thy patient God waits to be gracious! Oh! be deeply humbled and softened because of thy guilt, resolve to dedicate thyself anew to His service, and so coming, "He will _by no means_ cast thee out!" Despond not by reason of former shortcomings,--thy sins are great, but thy Saviour's merits are greater. He is willing to forget all the past, and sink it in oblivion, if there be present love, and the promise of future obedience. "Simon, son of Jonas, _lovest thou me_?" Ah! how different is God's verdict from man's! After such sins as thine, man's sentence would have been, "_I_ will in nowise receive!" But "it is better to fall into the hands of God, than into the hands of man;" for He says, "I will in _nowise_ cast out!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 19TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth."--JOHN xiv. 27. Peace in Believing. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee." "Perfect peace!"--what a blessed attainment! My soul! is it thine? Sure I am it is _not_, if thou art seeking it in a perishable world, or in the perishable creature, or in thy perishable self. Although thou hast all that the world would call enviable and happy, unless thou hast peace _in_ God, and _with_ God, all else is unworthy of the name;--a spurious thing, which the first breath of adversity will shatter, and the hour of death utterly annihilate! Perfect peace! What is it? It is the peace of forgiveness. It is the peace arising out of a sense of God reconciled through the blood of the everlasting covenant,--resting sweetly on the bosom, and the work of Jesus,--to Him committing thine eternal all. My soul! stay thyself on God, that so this blessed peace may be thine. Thou hast tried the world. It has deceived thee. Prop after prop of earthly scaffolding has yielded, and tottered, and fallen. Has thy God ever done so? Ah! this false and counterfeit world-peace may do well for the world's work, and the world's day of prosperity. But test it in the hour of sorrow; and what can it do for thee when most it is needed? On the other hand, what though thou hast no other blessing on earth to call thine own? Thou art rich indeed, if thou canst look upwards to Heaven, and say with "unpresumptuous smile," "I am at peace with God." "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 20TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord."--REV. xiv. 13. Bliss in Dying. My Soul! is this blessedness thine in prospect? Art thou ready, if called this night to lie down on thy death-pillow, sweetly to fall asleep in Jesus? What is the sting of death? It is sin. Is death, then, to thee, robbed of its sting, by having listened to the gracious accents of pardoning love, "Be of good cheer, thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee?" If thou hast made up thy peace with God, resting on the work and atoning blood of His dear Son, then is the Last Enemy divested of all his terror, and thou canst say, in sweet composure, of thy dying couch and dying hour,--"I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, because Thou, Lord, makest me to dwell in safety!" Reader! ponder that solemn question, "Am I ready to die? Am I living as I should wish I had done when that last hour arrives?" And when shall it arrive? To-morrow is not thine. "Verily, there may be but a step between thee and death." Oh! solve the question speedily,--risk no doubts and no peradventure. Every day is proclaiming anew the lesson, "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong." Seek to live, so that that hour cannot come upon thee too soon, or too unexpectedly. Live a dying life! How blessed to live,--how blessed to die, with the consciousness, that there may be but a step between thee and glory! "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 21ST DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "In due season we shall reap, if we faint not."--GAL. vi. 9. A Due Reaping. Believer! all the glory of thy salvation belongs to Jesus,--none to thyself; every jewel in thine eternal crown is His,--purchased by His blood, and polished by His Spirit. The confession of time will be the ascription of all eternity: "By the grace of God I am what I am!" But though "all be of grace," thy God calls thee to personal strenuousness in the work of thy high calling;--to "labour," to "fight," to "wrestle," to "_agonize_;" and the heavenly reaping will be in proportion to the earthly sowing: "He that soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly; and he that soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully!" What an incentive to holy living, and increased spiritual attainments! My soul! wouldst thou be a star shining high and bright in the firmament of glory?--wouldst thou receive the ten-talent recompense? Then be not weary. Gird on thine armour for fresh conquests. Be gaining daily some new victory over sin. Deny thyself. Be a willing cross-bearer for thy Lord's sake. Do good to all men as thou hast opportunity; be patient under provocation, "slow to wrath," resigned in trial. Let the world take knowledge of thee that thou art wearing Christ's livery, and bearing Christ's spirit, and sharing Christ's cross. And when the reaping time comes, He who has promised that the cup of cold water cannot go unrecompensed, will not suffer thee to lose thy reward! "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 22D DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "The days of thy mourning shall be ended."--ISAIAH lx. 20. An End of Weeping. Christ's people are a weeping band, though there be much in this lovely world to make them joyous and happy. Yet when they think of sin--their own sin, and the unblushing sins of a world in which their God is dishonoured--need we wonder at their tears?--that they should be called "Mourners," and their pilgrimage-home a "Valley of Tears?" Bereavement, and sickness, and poverty, and death, following the track of sin, add to their mourning experience; and with many of God's best beloved, one tear is scarce dried when another is ready to flow! Mourners! rejoice! When the reaping time comes, the weeping time ends! When the white robe and the golden harp are bestowed, every remnant of the sackcloth attire is removed. The moment the pilgrim, whose forehead is here furrowed with woe, bathes it in the crystal river of life,--that moment the pangs of a lifetime of sorrow are eternally forgotten! Reader! if thou art one of these careworn ones, the days of thy mourning are numbered! A few more throbbings of this aching heart, and then the angel who proclaims "time," shall proclaim also, sorrow, and sighing, and mourning, to "be no longer!" Seek now to mourn thy sins more than thy sorrows; reserve thy bitterest tears for forgetfulness of thy dear Lord. The saddest and sorest of all bereavements, is when the sins which have separated thee from Him, evoke the anguish-cry, "Where is my God?" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 23D DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "Behold, I come quickly."--REV. iii. 11. A Speedy Coming. "Even so! come, Lord Jesus!" "Why tarry the wheels of Thy chariot?" Six thousand years this world has rolled on, getting hoary with age, and wrinkled with sins and sorrows. A waiting Church sees the long-drawn shadows of twilight announcing, "The Lord is at hand." Prepare, my soul, to meet Him. Oh! happy days, when thine adorable Redeemer, so long dishonoured and despised, shall be publicly enthroned, in presence of an assembled universe, crowned Lord of All, glorified in His saints, satisfied in the fruits of His soul's travail, destroying His enemies with the brightness of His coming--the lightning-glance of wrath,--causing the hearts of His exulting people to "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Prepare, my soul, to meet Him! Let it be a joyous thought to thee,--thy "blessed hope,"--the meeting of thine Elder Brother. Stand oftentimes on the watchtower to catch the first streak of that coming brightness, the first murmur of these chariot wheels. The world is now in preparation! It is rocking on its worn-out axle. There are voices on every side proclaiming, "He cometh! He cometh! to judge the earth." Reader! art thou among the number of those who "love His appearing?" Remember the attitude of His expectant saints: "Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, will find WATCHING!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 24TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "At evening-time it shall be light."--ZECH. xiv. 7. Eventide Light. How inspiring the thought of coming glory! How would we rise above our sins, and sorrows, and sufferings, if we could live under the power of "a world to come!" Were faith to take at all times its giant leap beyond a soul-trammelling earth, and remember its brighter destiny. If it could stand on its Pisgah Mount, and look above and beyond the mists and vapours of this land of shadows, and rest on the "better country." But, alas! in spite of ourselves, the wings ofttimes refuse to soar--the spirit droops--guilty fears depress--sin dims and darkens--God's providences seem to frown--God's ways are misinterpreted--the Christian belies his name and his destiny. But, "At eventide it shall be light."--The material sun, which wades through clouds and a troubled sky, sets often in a couch of lustrous gold? So, when the sun of life is setting, many a ray of light will shoot athwart memory's darkened sky, and many mysterious dealings of the wilderness will then elicit an "All is well!" How frequently is the presence and upholding grace of Jesus especially felt and acknowledged at that hour, and griefs and misgivings hushed with His own gentle accents, "Fear not! it is I; be not afraid." A triumphant death-bed! It is no unmeaning word; the eye is lighted with holy lustre, the tongue with holy rapture, as if the harps of heaven were stealing on it. My soul! may such a life's evening-tide be thine! "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 25TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter."--JOHN xiii. 7. Heavenly Illumination. As the natural sun sometimes sinks in clouds, so, occasionally, the Christian who has a bright rising, and a brighter meridian, sets in gloom. It is not _always_ "light" at his evening-time; but this we know, that when the day of immortality breaks, the last vestige of earth's shadows will for ever flee away. To the closing hour of time, Providence may be to him a baffling enigma: but ere the first hour has struck on heaven's chronometer, all will be clear. My soul! "in God's light thou shalt see light;" the Book of His decrees is a sealed book now,--"A great deep" is all the explanation thou canst often give to His judgments; the _why_ and the _wherefore_ He seems to keep from us, to test our faith, to discipline us in trustful submission, and lead us to say, "Thy will be done!" But rejoice in that hereafter-light which awaits thee! Now we see through a glass darkly; but _then_, face to face. In the great mirror of eternity all the events of this chequered scene will be reflected; the darkest of them will be seen to be bright with mercy,--the severest dispensations, "only the severer aspects of His love!" Pry not, then, too curiously; pronounce not too censoriously on God's dealings with thee. Wait with patience till the grand day of disclosures; one confession shall then burst from every tongue, "Righteous art thou, O Lord!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 26TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also."--JOHN xiv. 3. A Glorious Reunion. If the meeting of a long absent friend, or brother, on earth, be a joyous event, what, my soul, must be the joy of thy union with this Brother of brothers, this Friend of friends! "I will come again!" Oh! what an errand of love, what a promised honour and dignity is this!--His saints to share, not His Heaven only, but His immediate presence. "Where _I am, there ye_ shall be also!" "Father, I _will_ (it was His dying wish,--a wondrous codicil in that testamentary prayer) that those whom Thou hast given me be with me where _I am_." Happy reunion! Blessed Saviour, if Thy presence be so sweet on a sin-stricken earth, and when known only by the invisible eye of faith, what must be that presence in a sinless Heaven, unfolded in all its unutterable loveliness and glory! Happy reunion! it will be a meeting of the whole ransomed family--the Head with all its members--the Vine with all its branches--the Shepherd with all His flock--the Elder Brother with all His kinsmen. Oh, the joy, too, of mutual recognition among the death-divided--ties snapt asunder on earth, indissolubly renewed--severed friendships reunited--the triumph of love complete--love binding brother with brother, and friend with friend, and _all_ to the Elder Brother! My soul! what thinkest thou of this Heaven? Remember who it is that Jesus says shall sit with Him upon His throne,--"Him that overcometh." "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 27TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "And I will betroth thee unto Me for ever."--HOSEA ii. 19. Everlasting Espousals. How wondrous and varied are the figures which Jesus employs to express the tenderness of His covenant love! My soul! thy Saviour-God hath "married thee!" Wouldst thou know the hour of thy betrothment? Go back into the depths of a by-past eternity, before the world was; then and there, thine espousals were contracted: "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." Soon shall the bridal-hour arrive, when thine absent Lord shall come to welcome His betrothed bride into His royal palace. "The Bridegroom tarrieth;" but see that thou dost not slumber and sleep! Surely there is much all around demanding the girded loins and the burning lamps. At "midnight!" (the hour when He is least expected) the cry _may_ be--_shall_ be heard,--"Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!" My soul! has this mystic union been formed between thee and thy Lord? Canst thou say, in humble assurance of thine affiance in Him, "My beloved is mine, and I am His!" If so, great, unspeakably great, are the glories which await thee! Thy dowry, as the bride of Christ, is all that Omnipotence can bestow, and all that a feeble creature can receive. In the prospect of those glorious nuptials, thou needest dread no pang of widowhood. What God has joined together, no created power can take asunder; He betroths thee, and it is "for ever!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 28TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "This corruptible must put on incorruption."--1 COR. xv. 53. A Joyful Resurrection. Marvel of marvels? The sleeping ashes of the sepulchre starting at the tones of the archangel's trumpet!--the dishonoured dust, rising a glorified body, like its risen Lord's? At death, the soul's bliss is perfect in kind; but this bliss is not complete in degree, until reunited to the tabernacle it has left behind to mingle with the sods of the valley. But tread lightly on that grave, it contains precious, because ransomed dust! My body, as well as my spirit, was included in the redemption price of Calvary; and "them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." Oh! blessed Jubilee-day of creation, when Christ's "dead men shall arise;"--when, together with His dead body, they shall come; and the summons shall sound forth, "Awake, and sing, ye that dwell in the dust!" All the joys of that resurrection morn we cannot tell; but its chief glory we _do_ know,--"When He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." Like Him!--My soul, art thou waiting this manifestation of the sons of God? Like Him!--Hast thou caught up any faint resemblance to that all-glorious image? Having this hope in thee, art thou purifying thyself, even as He is pure? Be much with Jesus now, that thou mayst exult in meeting Him hereafter. Thus taking Him as thy Guide and Portion in life, thou mayst lay thee down in thy dark and noisome cell, and look forward with triumphant hope to the dawn of a resurrection morn, saying, "What time I awake, I am still with Thee!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 29TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "There shall be no night there."--REV. xxi. 25. A Nightless Heaven. My soul! is it night with thee here? Art thou wearied with these midnight tossings on life's tumultuous sea? Be still! the day is breaking! soon shall thy Lord appear. "His going forth is prepared as the morning." That glorious appearing shall disperse every cloud, and usher in an eternal noontide which knows no twilight. "Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light." Everlasting light! Wondrous secret of a nightless world!--the glories of a present God!--the everlasting light of the Three in One, quenching the radiance of all created orbs--superseding all material luminaries. "My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning!" The haven is nearing--star after star is quenched in more glorious effulgence--every bound over these dark waves is bringing thee nearer the eternal shore. Wilt thou not, then, humbly and patiently endure "weeping for the night," in the prospect of the "joy that cometh in the morning?" Strange realities! a world without night--a firmament without a sun; and, greater wonder still, _thyself_ in this world,--a joyful denizen of this nightless, sinless, sorrowless, tearless Heaven!--basking underneath the Fountain of uncreated light! No exhaustion of glorified body and spirit to require repose; no lassitude or weariness to suspend the ever-deepening song: "They _rest not_!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 30TH DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "When the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."--1 PETER v. 4. A Crown of Life. What! is the beggar to be "raised from the dunghill, set among princes, and made to inherit a throne of glory?" is dust and ashes, a puny rebel, a guilty traitor, to be pitied, pardoned, loved, exalted from the depths of despair, raised to the heights of Heaven--gifted with kingly honour--royally fed--royally clothed--royally attended--and, at last, royally crowned? O my soul, look forward with joyous emotion to that day of wonders, when He whose head shall be crowned with many crowns, shall be the dispenser of royal diadems to His people; and when they shall begin the joyful ascription of all eternity, "Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us KINGS----; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." Wilt thou not be among the number? Shall the princes and monarchs of the earth wade through seas of blood for a corruptible crown; and wilt thou permit thyself to lose the incorruptible, or barter it for some perishable nothings of earth? Oh! that thou wouldst awake to thy high destiny, and live up to thy transcendant privileges as the citizen of a Kingly Commonwealth, a member of the blood-royal of Heaven. What wouldst thou not sacrifice,--what effort wouldst thou grudge, if thou wert included at last in the gracious benediction, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world?" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" 31ST DAY. "He is Faithful that Promised." "God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."--REV. xxi. 3, 4. The Vision and Fruition of God. Glorious consummation! All the other glories of Heaven are but emanations from this glory that excelleth. Here is the focus and centre to which every ray of light converges. God is "all in all." Heaven _without God_!--it would send a thrill of dismay through the burning ranks of angels and archangels; it would dim every eye, and hush every harp, and change the whitest robe into sackcloth. And shall I then, indeed, "_see God_?" What! shall I gaze on these inscrutable glories, and live? Yes, God himself shall be with them, and be their God: they shall "_see his face_!" And not only the vision, but the _fruition_. Oh! how does sin in my holiest moments damp the enjoyment of Him! It is the "pure in heart" alone who can "see," far more, who can enjoy "God." Even if he did reveal himself _now_, these eyes could never endure His intolerable brightness. But _then_, with a heart purified from corruption--a world where the taint of sin and the power of temptation never enters--the soul again a bright mirror, reflecting the lost image of the Godhead--all the affections devoted to their original high destiny--the love of God the motive principle, the ruling passion--the glory of God the undivided object and aim--the will no opposing or antagonist bias,--man will, for the first time, know all the blessedness of his chief end,--"to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever!" "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" All The Promises of God In Him Are Yea and in Him Amen. * * * * * TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES Minor punctuation inconsistencies have been silently corrected. 11th Day: For consistency, "bypast" has been changed to "by-past". 16th Day: For consistency, "1 PETER 1." has been changed to "1 PETER i." 30th Day: The spelling of "transcendant" has been retained. 
28547	----	Transcriber's Note Minor punctuation errors and inconsistencies have been silently corrected. The following minor typographic corrections have also been made: p8: "al" changed to "all" p13: "sorrrow" changed to "sorrow" p81: "trom" changed to "from" p112: "Mat." changed to "Matt." for consistency p122: "striken" changed to "stricken" THE WORDS OF JESUS. by the author of "THE MORNING AND NIGHT WATCHES," "THE FAITHFUL PROMISER," ETC. Taken from the last London Edition. New York: STANFORD & DELISSER, No. 508, BROADWAY. 1858. The Words of Jesus. "A word spoken in season," says the wise man, "how good it is!" If this be true regarding the utterances of uninspired lips, with what devout and paramount interest must we invest the sayings of Incarnate Truth--"the WORDS OF JESUS!" We have, in the motto-verses which head the succeeding pages a few comforting responses from the Oracle of heavenly Wisdom--a few grapes plucked from the true Vine--living streams welling fresh from the Living Fountain. Every portion of Scripture is designed for nutriment to the soul--"the bread of life;" but surely we may well regard the recorded "_Words of Jesus_" as "the finest of the wheat." These are the "Honey" out of the true "Rock," with which He will "satisfy" us. "The WORDS that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." The following are selected more especially as "_Words for the Weary_"--healing leaves for the wounded spirit falling from the Tree of Life. Jesus was divinely qualified for this special office of speaking "many and _comfortable_ words." "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I might know how to speak a _Word in Season_ to him that is _weary_." Let us, like the disciple of Patmos, turn to hear the voice that speaks to us, saying, "I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in _His Word_ do I hope." Eighteen hundred years have elapsed since these "words" were uttered. With tones of unaltered and unchanged affection, they are still echoed from the inner sanctuary--they come this day fresh as they were spoken, from the lips of Him whose memorial to all time is this: "_that same Jesus_." Reader, seek to realise, in meditating on them, the simple but solemn truth--"_Christ speaks to me!_" Surely nothing can be more soothing with which to close your eyes on your nightly pillow, or to carry with you in the morning out to the duties (or, it may be, the trials and sorrows) of the day, than--"A WORD OF JESUS." 1ST DAY OF MONTH. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."--Matt. xi. 28. The Gracious Invitation. Gracious "word" of a gracious Saviour, on which the soul may confidingly repose, and be at peace for ever? It is a _present_ rest--the rest of _grace_ as well as the rest of _glory_. Not only are there signals of peace hung out from the walls of heaven--the lights of Home glimmering in the distance to cheer our footsteps; but we have the "shadow" of this "great Rock" in a _present_ "weary land." Before the Throne alone is there "the sea of glass," without one rippling wave; but there is a haven even on earth for the tempest-tossed--"We which have believed DO enter into rest." Reader, hast thou found this blessed repose in the blood and work of Immanuel? Long going about "seeking rest and finding none," does this "word" sound like music in thine ears--"_Come unto Me_?" All other peace is counterfeit, shadowy, unreal. The eagle spurns the gilded cage as a poor equivalent for his free-born soarings. The soul's immortal aspirations can be satisfied with nothing short of the possession of God's favour and love in Jesus. How unqualified is the invitation! If there had been one condition in entering this covenant Ark, we must have been through eternity at the mercy of the storm. But all are alike warranted and welcome, and none _more_ warranted than welcome. For the weak, the weary, the sin-burdened and sorrow-burdened, there is an open door of grace. Return, then unto thy rest, O my soul! Let the sweet cadence of this "word of Jesus" steal on thee amid the disquietudes of earth. Sheltered in Him, thou art safe for time, safe for eternity! There may be, and _will_ be, temporary tossings, fears, and misgivings,--manifestations of inward corruption; but these will only be like the surface-heavings of the ocean, while underneath there is a deep settled calm. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace" (_lit._ peace, peace) "whose mind is stayed on Thee." In the world it is care on care, trouble on trouble, sin on sin; but every wave that breaks on the believer's soul seems sweetly to murmur, "Peace, peace!" And if the foretaste of this rest be precious, what must be the glorious consummation? Awaking in the morning of immortality, with the unquiet dream of earth over--faith lost in sight, and hope in fruition;--no more any bias to sin--no more latent principles of evil--nothing to disturb the spirit's deep, everlasting tranquillity--the trembling magnet of the heart reposing, where alone it can confidingly and permanently rest, in the enjoyment of the Infinite God. "THESE THINGS HAVE I SPOKEN UNTO YOU, THAT IN ME YE MIGHT HAVE PEACE." 2D DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things."--Matt. vi. 22. The Comforting Assurance. Though spoken originally by Jesus regarding temporal things, this may be taken as a motto for the child of God amid all the changing vicissitudes of his changing history. How it should lull all misgivings; silence all murmurings; lead to lowly, unquestioning submissiveness--"My Heavenly Father knoweth that I have need of all these things." Where can a child be safer or better than in a father's hand? Where can the believer be better than in the hands of his God? We are poor judges of what is best. We are under safe guidance with infallible wisdom. If we are tempted in a moment of rash presumption to say, "All these things are against me," let this "word" rebuke the hasty and unworthy surmise. Unerring wisdom and Fatherly love have pronounced _all_ to be "needful." My soul, is there aught that is disturbing thy peace? Are providences dark, or crosses heavy? Are spiritual props removed, creature comforts curtailed, gourds smitten and withered like grass?--write on each, "_Your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things._" It was He who increased thy burden. Why? "_It was needed._" It was He who smote down thy clay idol. Why? "_It was needed._" It was supplanting Himself: He had to remove it! It was He who crossed thy worldly schemes, marred thy cherished hopes. Why? "_It was needed._" There was a lurking thorn in the coveted path. There was some higher spiritual blessing in reversion. "He '_prevented_' thee with the blessings of His goodness." Seek to cherish a spirit of more childlike confidence in thy Heavenly Father's will. Thou art not left unbefriended and alone to buffet the storms of the wilderness. Thy Marahs as well as thy Elims are appointed by Him. A gracious pillar-cloud is before thee. Follow it through sunshine and storm. He may "lead thee about," but He will not lead thee wrong. Unutterable tenderness is the characteristic of all His dealings. "Blessed be His name," says a tried believer, "He maketh my feet like hinds' feet" (_literally_, "equaleth" them), "he _equaleth_ them for every precipice, every ascent, every leap." And who is it that speaks this quieting word? It is He who Himself felt the preciousness of the assurance during His own awful sufferings, that all were _needed_, and all _appointed_; that from Bethlehem's cradle to Calvary's Cross there was not the redundant thorn in the chaplet of sorrow which He, the Man of Sorrows, bore. Every drop in His bitter cup was mingled by His Father: "This cup which _Thou_ givest me to drink, shall I not drink it!" Oh, if He could extract comfort in this hour of inconceivable agony, in the thought that a Father's hand lighted the fearful furnace-fires, what strong consolation is there in the same truth to all His suffering people! What! one superfluous drop! one redundant pang! one unneeded cross! Hush the secret atheism! He gave His Son for thee! He calls Himself "thy Father!" Whatever be the trial under which thou art now smarting, let the word of a gracious Saviour be "like oil thrown on the fretful sea;" let it dry every rebellious tear-drop. "He, thine unerring Parent, knoweth that thou hast need of _this_ as well as _all_ these things." "THY WORD IS VERY SURE, THEREFORE THY SERVANT LOVETH IT." 3D DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."--John xiv. 13. The Power of Prayer. Blessed Jesus! it is Thou who hast unlocked to Thy people the gates of prayer. Without Thee they must have been shut forever. It was Thy atoning merit on earth that first opened them; it is Thy intercessory work in heaven that keeps them open still. How unlimited the promise--"_Whatsoever ye shall ask!_" It is the pledge of all that the needy sinner requires--all that an Omnipotent Saviour can bestow! As the great Steward of the mysteries of grace, He seems to say to His faithful servants, "Take thy bill, and under this, my superscription, write what you please." And then, when the blank is filled up, he further endorses each petition with the words, "_I WILL do it!_" He farther encourages us to ask "_in His name_." In the case of an earthly petitioner there are some pleas more influential in obtaining a boon than others. Jesus speaks of _this_ as forming the key to the heart of God. As David loved the helpless cripple of Saul's house "_for Jonathan's sake_," so will the Father, by virtue of our covenant relationship to the true JONATHAN (_lit._, "the gift of God"), delight in giving us even "exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think." Reader, do you know the blessedness of confiding your every want and every care--your every sorrow and every cross--into the ear of the Saviour? He is the "Wonderful Counsellor." With an exquisitely tender sympathy He can enter into the innermost depths of your need. That need may be great, but the everlasting arms are underneath it all. Think of Him now, at this moment--the great Angel of the Covenant, with the censer full of much incense, in which are placed your feeblest aspirations, your most burdened sighs--the odour-breathing cloud ascending with acceptance before the Father's throne. The answer may tarry;--these your supplications may seem to be kept long on the wing, hovering around the mercy-seat. A gracious God sometimes sees it meet thus to test the faith and patience of His people. He delights to hear the music of their importunate pleadings--to see them undeterred by difficulties--unrepelled by apparent forgetfulness and neglect. But He _will_ come at last; the pent-up fountain of love and mercy will at length burst out;--the soothing accents will in His own good time be heard, "Be it unto thee according to thy word!" Soldier of Christ! with all thine other panoply, forget not the "_All-prayer_." It is that which keeps bright and shining "the whole armour of God." While yet out in the night of a dark world--whilst still bivouacking in an enemy's country--kindle thy watch-fires at the altar of incense. Thou must be Moses, pleading on the Mount, if thou wouldst be Joshua, victorious in the world's daily battle. Confide thy cause to this waiting Redeemer. Thou canst not weary Him with thine importunity. He delights in hearing. His Father is glorified in giving. The memorable Bethany-utterance remains unaltered and unrepealed--"I knew that Thou hearest me always." He is still the "Prince that has power with God and prevails"--still He promises and pleads--still He lives and loves! "I WAIT FOR THE LORD, MY SOUL DOTH WAIT; AND IN HIS WORD DO I HOPE." 4TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter."--John xiii. 7. The Unveiled Dealings. O blessed day, when the long sealed book of mystery shall be unfolded, when the "fountains of the great deep shall be broken up," "the channels of the waters seen," and _all_ discovered to be one vast revelation of unerring wisdom and ineffable love! Here we are often baffled at the Lord's dispensations; we cannot fathom His ways:--like the well of Sychar, they are deep, and we have nothing to draw with. But soon the "mystery of God will be finished;" the enigmatical "seals," with all their inner meanings, opened. When that "morning without clouds" shall break, each soul will be like the angel standing in the sun--there will be no shadow; all will be perfect day! Believer, be still! The dealings of thy Heavenly Father may seem dark to thee; there may seem now to be no golden fringe, no "bright light in the clouds;" but a day of disclosures is at hand. "Take it on trust a little while." An earthly child takes _on trust_ what his father tells him: when he reaches maturity, much that was baffling to his infant comprehension is explained. Thou art in this world in the nonage of thy being--Eternity is the soul's immortal manhood. _There_, every dealing will be vindicated. It will lose all its "darkness" when bathed in the floods "of the excellent glory!" Ah! instead of thus being as weaned children, how apt are we to exercise ourselves in matters too high for us? not content with knowing that our Father _wills_ it, but presumptuously seeking to know _how_ it is, and _why_ it is. If it be unfair to pronounce on the unfinished and incompleted works of man; if the painter, or sculptor, or artificer, would shrink from having his labours judged of when in a rough, unpolished, immatured state; how much more so with the works of God? How we should honour Him by a simple, confiding, unreserved submission to His will,--contented patiently to wait the fulfilment of this "_hereafter_" promise, when all the lights and shadows in the now half-finished picture will be blended and melted into one harmonious whole,--when all the now disjointed stones in the temple will be seen to fit into their appointed place, giving unity, and compactness, and symmetry, to all the building. And who is it that speaks these living "words," "What _I_ do?" It is He who died for us? who now lives for us! Blessed Jesus! Thou mayest _do_ much that our blind hearts would like _un_done,--"terrible things in righteousness which we looked not for." The heaviest (what we may be tempted to call the severest) cross Thou canst lay upon us we shall regard as only the _apparent_ severity of unutterable and unalterable love. Eternity will unfold how _all_, _all_ was needed; that nothing else, nothing less, could have done! If not now, at least then, the deliberate verdict on a calm retrospect of life will be this,-- "_THE WORD_ OF THE LORD IS RIGHT, AND ALL HIS WORKS ARE DONE IN TRUTH." 5TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "Herein is my Father glorified, that _ye bear much fruit_."--John xv. 8. The Father Glorified. When surveying the boundless ocean of covenant mercy--every wave chiming, "God is Love!"--does the thought ever present itself, "What can I do for this great Being who hath done so much for me?" Recompence I cannot! No more can my purest services add one iota to His underived glory, than the tiny taper can add to the blaze of the sun at noonday, or a drop of water to the boundless ocean. Yet, wondrous thought! from this worthless soul of mine there may roll in a revenue of glory which He who loves the broken and contrite spirit will "not despise." "_Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit._" Reader! are you a fruit-bearer in your Lord's vineyard? Are you seeking to make life one grand act of consecration to His glory--one thank-offering for His unmerited love. You may be unable to exhibit much fruit in the eye of the world. Your circumstances and position in life may forbid you to point to any splendid services, or laborious and imposing efforts in the cause of God. It matters not. It is often those fruits that are unseen and unknown to man, ripening in seclusion, that He values most;--the quiet, lowly walk--patience and submission--gentleness and humility--putting yourself unreservedly in His hands--willing to be led by Him even in darkness--saying, Not _my_ will, but _Thy_ will:--the unselfish spirit, the meek bearing of an injury, the unostentatious kindness,--these are some of the "fruits" which your Heavenly Father loves, and by which He is glorified. Perchance it may be with you the season of trial, the chamber of protracted sickness, the time of desolating bereavement, some furnace seven times heated. Herein, too, you may sweetly glorify your God. Never is your Heavenly Father _more_ glorified by His children on earth, than when, in the midst of these furnace-fires, He listens to nothing but the gentle breathings of confiding faith and love,--"Let Him do what seemeth good unto Him." Yes, you can there glorify Him in a way which angels cannot do in a world where no trial is. They can glorify God only with the _crown_; you can glorify Him with the _cross_ and the prospect of the _crown_ together! Ah, if He be dealing severely with you--if He, as the great Husbandman, be pruning His vines, lopping their boughs, stripping off their luxuriant branches and "beautiful rods!" remember the end!--"He purgeth it, that it may bring forth _more_ fruit," and "_Herein_ is my Father glorified!" Be it yours to lie passive in His hands, saying in unmurmuring resignation, Father, glorify Thy name! Glorify Thyself, whether by giving or taking, filling my cup or "emptying me from vessel to vessel!" Let me know no will but Thine. Angels possess no higher honour and privilege than glorifying the God before whom they cast their crowns. How blessed to be able thus to claim brotherhood with the spirits in the upper sanctuary! nay, more, to be associated with the Saviour Himself in the theme of His own exalted joy, when he said, "_I_ have _glorified_ Thee on earth!" "THESE THINGS HAVE I SPOKEN UNTO YOU, THAT MY JOY MIGHT REMAIN IN YOU, AND THAT YOUR JOY MIGHT BE FULL." 6TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "The very hairs of your head are all numbered."--Matt. x. 30. The Tender Solicitude. What a "word" is this! All that befals you, to the very numbering of your hairs, is known to God! Nothing can happen by accident or chance. Nothing can elude His inspection. The fall of the forest leaf--the fluttering of the insect--the waving of the angel's wing--the annihilation of a world,--all are equally noted by Him. Man speaks of great things and small things--God knows no such distinction. How especially comforting to think of this tender solicitude with reference to his own covenant people--that He metes out their joys and their sorrows! Every sweet, every bitter is ordained by Him. Even "_wearisome_ nights" are "_appointed_." Not a pang I feel, not a tear I shed but is known to Him. What are called "dark dealings" are the ordinations of undeviating faithfulness. Man _may_ err--his ways are often crooked; "but as for God, _His_ way is perfect!" He puts my tears into His bottle. Every moment the everlasting arms are underneath and around me. He keeps me "as the apple of His eye." He "bears" me "as a man beareth his own son!" Do I look to the future? Is there much of uncertainty and mystery hanging over it? It may be, much premonitory of evil. Trust Him. All is marked out for me. Dangers will be averted; bewildering mazes will show themselves to be interlaced and interweaved with mercy. "He keepeth the feet of His saints." A hair of their head will not be touched. He leads sometimes darkly, sometimes sorrowfully; most frequently by cross and circuitous ways we ourselves would not have chosen; but _always_ wisely, _always_ tenderly. With all its mazy windings and turnings, its roughness and ruggedness, the believer's is not only _a_ right way, but THE right way--the best which covenant love and wisdom could select. "Nothing," says Jeremy Taylor, "does so establish the mind amidst the rollings and turbulence of present things, as both a look above them and a look beyond them; above them, to the steady and good hand by which they are ruled; and beyond them, to the sweet and beautiful end to which, by that hand, they will be brought." "The Great Counsellor," says Thomas Brooks, "puts clouds and darkness round about Him, bidding us follow at His beck through the cloud, promising an eternal and uninterrupted sunshine on the other side." On that "other side" we shall see how every apparent rough blast has been hastening our barks nearer the desired haven. Well may I commit the keeping of my soul to Jesus in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator. He gave _Himself_ for me. This transcendent pledge of love is the guarantee for the bestowment of every other needed blessing. Oh, blessed thought! my sorrows numbered by the Man of Sorrows; my tears counted by Him who shed first His tears and then His blood for _me_. He will impose no needless burden, and exact no unnecessary sacrifice. There was no redundant drop in the cup of His own sufferings; neither will there be in that of His people. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." "WHEREFORE COMFORT ONE ANOTHER WITH _THESE WORDS_." 7TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine."--John x. 14. The Good Shepherd. "The Good Shepherd"--well can the sheep who know His voice attest the truthfulness and faithfulness of this endearing name and word. Where would they have been through eternity, had He not left His throne of light and glory, travelling down to this dark valley of the curse, and giving His life a ransom for many? Think of His love to each separate member of the flock--wandering over pathless wilds with unwearied patience and unquenchable ardour, ceasing not the pursuit _until_ He finds it. Think of His love _now_--"I AM the Good Shepherd." Still that tender eye of watchfulness following the guilty wanderers--the glories of heaven and the songs of angels unable to dim or alter His affection;--the music of the words, at this moment coming as sweetly from His lips as when first He uttered them--"I know my sheep." Every individual believer--the weakest, the weariest, the faintest--claims His attention. His loving eye follows me day by day out to the wilderness--marks out my pasture, studies my wants, and trials, and sorrows, and perplexities--every steep ascent, every brook, every winding path, every thorny thicket. "He goeth before them." It is not rough driving, but gentle guiding. He does not take them over an unknown road; He himself has trodden it before. He hath drunk of every "brook by the way;" He himself hath "suffered being tempted;" He is "able to succour them that are tempted." He seems to say, "Fear not; I cannot lead you wrong; follow me in the bleak waste, the blackened wilderness, as well as by the green pastures and the still waters. Do you ask why I have left the sunny side of the valley--carpeted with flowers, and bathed in sunshine--leading you to some high mountain apart, some cheerless spot of sorrow? Trust me, I will lead you by paths you have not known, but they are all known _to_ me, and selected _by_ me--'Follow thou me.'" "And am known of mine!" Reader! canst thou subscribe to these closing words of this gracious utterance? Dost thou "know" _Him_ in all the glories of His person, in all the completeness of His finished work, in all the tenderness and unutterable love of His every dealing towards thee? It has been remarked by Palestine travellers, that not only do the sheep there follow the guiding shepherd, but even while cropping the herbage as they go along, they look wistfully up to see that they are near him. Is this thine attitude--"_looking unto Jesus_?" "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and he will direct thy paths." Leave the future to His providing. "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want." _I shall not want!_--it has been beautifully called "the bleating of Messiah's sheep." Take it as thy watchword during thy wilderness wanderings, till grace be perfected in glory. Let this be the record of thy simple faith and unwavering trust, "These are they who _follow_, whithersoever He sees meet to guide them." "THE SHEEP FOLLOW HIM, FOR THEY KNOW HIS VOICE." 8TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever."--John xiv. 16. The Abiding Comforter. When one beloved earthly friend is taken away, how the heart is drawn out towards those that remain! Jesus was now about to leave His sorrowing disciples. He directs them to one whose presence would fill up the vast blank His own absence was to make. His name was, _The Comforter_; His mission was, "to abide with them for ever." Accordingly, no sooner had the gates of heaven closed on their ascended Lord, than, in fulfilment of His own gracious promise, the bereaved and orphaned Church was baptized with Pentecostal fire. "When I depart, I will send Him unto you." Reader, do you realize your privilege--living under the dispensation of the Spirit? Is it your daily prayer that He may come down in all the plenitude of His heavenly graces on your soul, even "as rain upon the mown grass, and showers that water the earth?" You cannot live without Him; there can be not one heavenly aspiration, not one breathing of love, not one upward glance of faith, without His gracious influences. Apart from him, there is no preciousness in the word, no blessing in ordinances, no permanent sanctifying results in affliction. As the angel directed Hagar to the hidden spring, this blessed agent, true to His name and office, directs His people to the waters of comfort, giving new glory to the promises, investing the Saviour's character and work with new loveliness and beauty. How precious is the title which this "Word of Jesus" gives Him--THE COMFORTER! What a word for a sorrowing world! The Church militant has its tent pitched in a "valley of _tears_." The name of the divine visitant who comes to her and ministers to her wants, is _Comforter_. Wide is the family of the afflicted, but He has a healing balm for all--the weak, the tempted, the sick, the sorrowing, the bereaved, the dying! How different from other "sons of consolation?" _Human friends_--a look may alienate; adversity may estrange; death must separate! The "Word of Jesus" speaks of One whose attribute and prerogative is to "abide with us for ever;" superior to all vicissitudes--surviving death itself! And surely if anything else can endear His mission of love to His Church, it is that He comes direct from God, as the fruit and gift of _Jesus' intercession_--"_I_ will pray the Father." This holy dove of peace and comfort is let out by the hand of Jesus from the ark of covenant mercy within the veil! Nor is the gift more glorious than it is free. Does the word, the look, of a suffering child get the eye and the heart of an _earthly_ father? "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask Him?" It is He who makes these "words of Jesus" "winged words." "HE SHALL BRING ALL THINGS TO YOUR REMEMBRANCE, WHATSOEVER I HAVE SAID UNTO YOU." 9TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more."--John viii. 11. The Gracious Verdict. How much more tender is Jesus than the tenderest of earthly friends? The Apostles, in a moment of irritation would have called down fire from heaven on obstinate sinners. Their Master rebuked the unkind suggestion. Peter, the trusted but treacherous disciple, expected nothing but harsh and merited reproof for faithlessness. He who knew well how that heart would be bowed with penitential sorrow, sends first the kindest of messages, and then the gentlest of rebukes, "Lovest thou me?" The watchmen in the Canticles smote the bride, tore off her veil, and loaded her with reproaches. When she found her lost Lord, there was not one word of upbraiding! "So slow is He to anger," says an illustrious believer, "so ready to forgive, that when His prophets lost all patience with the people so as to make intercession _against_ them, yet even then could He not be got to cast off this people whom He foreknew, for his great name's sake." The guilty sinner to whom He speaks this comforting "word," was frowned upon by her accusers. But, if others spurned her from their presence, "_Neither do I condemn thee._" Well it is to fall into the hands of this blessed Saviour-God, for great are His mercies. Are we to infer from this, that He winks at sin? Far from it. His blood, His work--Bethlehem, and Calvary, refute the thought! Ere the guilt even of one solitary soul could be washed out, He had to descend from His everlasting throne to agonise on the accursed tree. But this "word of Jesus" is a word of tender encouragement to every sincere, broken-hearted penitent, that crimson sins, and scarlet sins, are no barriers to a free, full, everlasting forgiveness. The Israelite of old, gasping in his agony in the sands of the wilderness, had but to "_look_ and _live_;" and still does He say, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." Up-reared by the side of his own cross there was a monumental column for all Time, only second to itself in wonder. Over the head of the dying felon is the superscription written for despairing guilt and trembling penitence, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." "He never yet," says Charnock, "put out a dim candle that was lighted at the Sun of Righteousness." "Whatever our guiltiness be," says Rutherford, "yet when it falleth into the sea of God's mercy, it is but like a drop of blood fallen into the great ocean." Reader, you may be the chief of sinners, or it may be the chief of backsliders; your soul may have started aside like a broken bow. As the bankrupt is afraid to look into his books, you may be afraid to look into your own heart. You are hovering on the verge of despair. Conscience, and the memory of unnumbered sins, is uttering the desponding verdict, "I condemn thee." Jesus has a kinder word--a more cheering declaration--"_I_ condemn thee _not_: go, and sin no more!" "AND ALL WONDERED AT THE GRACIOUS _WORDS_ THAT PROCEEDED OUT OF HIS MOUTH." 10TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother."--Matt. xii. 50. The Wondrous Relationship. As if no solitary earthly type were enough to image forth the love of Jesus, He assembles into one verse a group of the tenderest earthly relationships. Human affection has to focus its loveliest hues, but all is too little to afford an exponent of the depth and intensity of _His_. "As one whom his _mother_ comforteth;" "my _sister_, my _spouse_." He is "_Son_," "_Brother_" "_Friend_"--all in one; "cleaving closer than any brother." And can we wonder at such language? Is it merely figurative, expressive of more than the reality?--He gave _Himself_ for us; after that pledge of His affection we must cease to marvel at any expression of the interest He feels in us. Anything He can _say_ or _do_ is infinitely less than what He _has done_. Believer! art thou solitary and desolate? Has bereavement severed earthly ties? Has the grave made forced estrangements,--sundered the closest links of earthly affection? In Jesus thou hast filial and fraternal love combined; He is the Friend of friends, whose presence and fellowship compensates for all losses, and supplies all blanks; "He setteth the solitary in families." If thou art orphaned, friendless, comfortless here, remember there is in the Elder Brother on the Throne a love deep as the unfathomed ocean, boundless as Eternity? And who are those who can claim the blessedness spoken of under this wondrous imagery? On whom does He lavish this unutterable affection? No outward profession will purchase it. No church, no priest, no ordinances, no denominational distinctions. It is on those who are possessed of _holy characters_. "He that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven!" He who reflects the mind of Jesus; imbibes His Spirit; takes His Word as the regulator of his daily walk, and makes His glory the great end of his being; he who lives _to_ God and _with_ God, and _for_ God; the humble, lowly, Christ-like, Heaven-seeking Christian;--he it is who can claim as his own this wondrous heritage of love! If it be a worthy object of ambition to be loved by the good and the great on earth, what must it be to have an eye of love ever beaming upon us from the Throne, in comparison of which the attachment here of brother, sister, kinsman, friend--all combined--pales like the stars before the rising sun! Though we are often ashamed to call Him "Brother," "He is not ashamed to call us _brethren_." He looks down on poor worms, and says, "_The same_ is my mother, and sister, and brother!" "I will write upon them," He says in another place, "my new name." Just as we write our name on a book to tell that it belongs to us; so Jesus would write His own name on _us_, the wondrous volumes of His grace, that they may be read and pondered by principalities and powers. Have we "known and believed this love of God?" Ah, how poor has been the requital! Who cannot subscribe to the words of one, whose name was in all the churches,--"Thy love has been as a shower; the return but a dew-drop, and that dew-drop stained with sin." "IF A MAN LOVE ME, HE WILL KEEP _MY WORDS_; AND MY FATHER WILL LOVE HIM, AND WE WILL COME UNTO HIM, AND MAKE OUR ABODE WITH HIM." 11TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."--John xiv. 18. The Befriended Orphans. Does the Christian's path lie all the way through Beulah? Nay, he is forewarned it is to be one of "much tribulation." He has his Marahs as well as his Elims--his valleys of Baca as well as his grapes of Eschol. Often is he left unbefriended to bear the brunt of the storm--his gourds fading when most needed--his sun going down while it is yet day--his happy home and happy heart darkened in a moment with sorrows with which a stranger (with which often a _brother_) cannot intermeddle. There is _One_ Brother "born for adversity," who _can_. How often has that voice broken with its silvery accents the muffled stillness of the sick-chamber or death-chamber! "'_I_ will not leave you comfortless:' the world _may_, friends _may_, the desolations of bereavement and death _may_; but _I will not_; you will be alone, yet _not_ alone, for I your Saviour and your God will be with you!" Jesus seems to have an especial love and affection for His orphaned and comfortless people. A father loves his sick and sorrowing child most; of all his household, he occupies most of his thoughts. Christ seems to delight to lavish His deepest sympathy on "him that hath no helper." It is in the hour of sorrow His people have found Him most precious; it is in "the wilderness" He speaks most "comfortably unto them;" He gives them "their vineyards from thence:" in the places they least expected, wells of heavenly consolation break forth at their feet. As Jonathan of old, when faint and weary, had his strength revived by the honey he found dropping in the tangled thicket: so the faint and woe-worn children of God find "honey in the wood"--everlasting consolation dropping from the tree of life, in the midst of the thorniest thickets of affliction. Comfortless ones, be comforted! Jesus often makes you _portionless_ here, to drive you to Himself, the _everlasting portion_. He often dries every rill and fountain of earthly bliss, that He may lead you to say, "All my springs are in Thee." "He seems intent," says one who could speak from experience, "to fill up every gap love has been forced to make; one of his errands from heaven was to bind up the broken-hearted." How beautifully in one amazing verse does he conjoin the depth and tenderness of his comfort with the certainty of it--"As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, and ye SHALL be comforted!" Ah, how many would not have their wilderness-state altered, with all its trials, and gloom, and sorrow, just that they might enjoy the unutterable sympathy and love of this Comforter of the comfortless, one ray of whose approving smile can dispel the deepest earthly gloom? As the clustering constellations shine with intensest lustre in the midnight sky, so these "words of Jesus" come out like ministering angels in the deep dark night of earthly sorrow. We may see no beauty in them when the world is sunny and bright; but He has laid them up in store for us for the dark and cloudy day. "THESE THINGS HAVE I TOLD YOU, THAT WHEN THE TIME COMETH, YE MAY REMEMBER THAT I TOLD YOU OF THEM." 12TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."--John xvi. 33. The World Conquered. And shall I be afraid of a world already conquered? The Almighty Victor, within view of His Crown, turns round to His faint and weary soldiers, and bids them take courage. They are not fighting their way through untried enemies. The God-Man Mediator "_knows_ their sorrows." "He was in _all points_ tempted." "Both He (_i. e._, Christ) who sanctifieth, and they (His people) who are sanctified, are all of one (nature)." As the great Precursor, he heads the pilgrim band, saying "I will show you the path of life." The way to heaven is consecrated by His footprints. Every thorn that wounds _them_, has wounded _Him_ before. Every cross they can bear, he has borne before. Every tear they shed, He has shed before. There is one respect, indeed, in which the identity fails,--He was "yet without sin;" but this recoil of His Holy nature from moral evil gives Him a deeper and intenser sensibility towards those who have still corruption within responding to temptation without. Reader! are you ready to faint under your tribulations? Is it a seducing world--a wandering, wayward heart? "Consider _Him_ that endured!" Listen to your adorable Redeemer, stooping from His Throne, and saying, "_I_ have overcome the world." He came forth unscathed from its snares. With the same heavenly weapon He bids you wield, three times did he repel the Tempter, saying, "It is written."--Is it some crushing trial, or overwhelming grief? He is "_acquainted_ with _grief_." He, the mighty Vine, knows the minutest fibres of sorrow in the branches; when the pruning knife touches _them_, it touches _Him_. "He has gone," says a tried sufferer, "through every class in our wilderness school." He loves to bring His people into untried and perplexing places, that they may seek out the guiding pillar, and prize its radiance. He puts them on the darkening waves, that they may follow the guiding light hung out astern from the only Bark of pure and unsullied Humanity that was ever proof against the storm. Be assured there is disguised love in all He does. He who knows us infinitely better than we know ourselves, often puts a thorn in our nest to drive us to the wing, that we may not be grovellers forever. "It is," says Evans, "upon the smooth ice we slip, the rough path is safest for the feet." The tearless and undimmed eye is not to be coveted _here_; _that_ is reserved for heaven! Who can tell what muffled and disguised "needs be" there may lurk under these world-tribulations? His true spiritual seed are often planted deep in the soil; they have to make their way through a load of sorrow before they reach the surface; but their roots are thereby the firmer and deeper struck. Had it not been for these lowly and needed "depths," they might have rushed up as feeble saplings, and succumbed to the first blast. He often leads His people still, as he led them of old, to "a high mountain apart;" but it is to a _high_ mountain--_above the world_; and, better still, He who Himself hath overcome the world, leadeth them there, and speaketh comfortably unto them. "I HOPE IN THY _WORD_." 13TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "Fear not, little flock; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."--Luke xii. 32. The Little Flock. The music of the Shepherd's voice again! Another comforting "word," and how tender! _his_ flock a _little_ flock, a _feeble_ flock, a _fearful_ flock, but a _beloved_ flock, loved of the Father, enjoying His "good pleasure," and soon to be a _glorified_ flock, safe in the fold, secure within the kingdom! How does He quiet their fears and misgivings? As they stand panting on the bleak mountain side, He points His crook upwards to the bright and shining gates of glory, and says, "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you these!" What gentle words! What a blessed consummation! Gracious Saviour, Thy _gentleness_ hath made me _great_! That kingdom is the believer's by irreversible and inalienable charter-right--"I appoint unto you" (by covenant), says Jesus in another place, "a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me." It is as sure as everlasting love and almighty power can make it. Satan, the great foe of the kingdom, may be injecting foul misgivings, and doubts, and fears as to your security; but he cannot denude you of your purchased immunities. He must first pluck the crown from the Brow upon the Throne, before he can weaken or impair this sure word of promise. If "it pleased the Lord" to _bruise_ the Shepherd, it will surely please Him to make happy the purchased flock. If He "smote" His "Fellow" when the sheep were scattered, surely it will rejoice Him, for the Shepherd's sake, "to turn His hand upon the little ones." Believers, think of this! "It is your Father's good pleasure." The Good Shepherd, in leading you across the intervening mountains, shows you signals and memorials of paternal grace studding all the way. He may "lead you about" in your way thither. He led the children of Israel of old out of Egypt to their promised kingdom,--how? By forty years' wilderness-discipline and privations. But trust Him; dishonour Him not with guilty doubts and fears. Look not back on your dark, stumbling paths, nor within on your fitful and vacillating heart; but forwards to the land that is far off. How earnestly God desires your salvation! What a heaping together of similar tender "words" with that which is here addressed to us? The Gospel seems like a palace full of opened windows, from each of which He issues an invitation, declaring that He has no pleasure in our death--but rather that we would turn and live! Let the melody of the Shepherd's reed fall gently on your ear,--"It is your Father's good pleasure." I have given you, He seems to say, the best proof that it is _mine_. In order to purchase that kingdom, I died for you! But it is also _His_: "As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered, so," says God, "will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day." Fear not, then, little flock! though yours for a while should be the bleak mountain and sterile waste, seeking your way Zionward, it may be "with torn fleeces and bleeding feet;" for, "IT IS NOT THE WILL OF YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN, THAT ONE OF THESE LITTLE ONES SHOULD PERISH." 14TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink."--John vii. 37. The Unlimited Offer. One of the most gracious "words" that ever "proceeded out of the mouth of God!" The time it was uttered was an impressive one; it was on "the last, the great day" of the Feast of Tabernacles, when a denser multitude than on any of the seven preceding ones were assembled together. The golden bowl, according to custom, had probably just been filled with the waters of Siloam, and was being carried up to the Temple amid the acclamations of the crowd, when the Saviour of the world seized the opportunity of speaking to them some truths of momentous import. Many, doubtless, were the "words of Jesus" uttered on the previous days, but the most important is reserved for the last. What, then, is the great closing theme on which He rivets the attention of this vast auditory, and which He would have them carry away to their distant homes? It is, _The freeness of His own great salvation_--"If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." Reader, do you discredit the reality of this gracious offer? Are your legion sins standing as a barrier between you and a Saviour's proffered mercy? Do you feel as if you cannot come "just as you are;" that some partial cleansing, some preparatory reformation must take place before you can venture to the living fountain? Nay, "_if any man_." What is freer than water?--The poorest beggar may drink "without money" the wayside pool. _That_ is your Lord's own picture of His own glorious salvation; you are invited to come, "without one plea," in all your poverty and want, your weakness and unworthiness. Remember the Redeemer's saying to the woman of Samaria. She was the chief of sinners--profligate--hardened--degraded; but He made no condition, no qualification; _simple believing_ was all that was required,--"If thou knewest the gift of God," thou wouldst have asked, and He would have given thee "living water." But is there not, after all, _one_ condition mentioned in this "word of Jesus?"--"_If_ any man _thirst_." You may have the depressing consciousness that you experience no such ardent longings after holiness,--no feeling of your affecting need of the Saviour. But is not this very conviction of your want an indication of a feeble longing after Christ? If you are saying, "I have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep," He who makes offer of the salvation-stream will Himself fill your empty vessel,--"He satisfieth the _longing_ soul with goodness." "Jesus _stood_ and _cried_." It is the solitary instance recorded of Him of whom it is said, "He shall _not_ strive nor cry," lifting up "His voice in the streets." But it was truth of surpassing interest and magnitude He had to proclaim. It was a declaration, moreover, specially dear to him. As it formed the theme of this ever-memorable _sermon_ during His public ministry, so when He was sealing up the inspired record--the last utterances of His voice on earth, till that voice shall be heard again on the throne, contained the same life-giving invitation,--"Let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." Oh! as the echoes of that gracious saying--this blast of the silver trumpet--are still sounding to the ends of the world, may this be the recorded result, "AS HE SPAKE _THESE WORDS_, MANY BELIEVED ON HIM." 15TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."--Matt. xi. 30. The Joyful Servitude. Can the same be said of Satan, or sin? With regard to _them_, how faithfully true rather is the converse--"my yoke is _heavy_, and my burden is _grievous_!" Christ's service is a happy service, the _only_ happy one; and even when there is a cross to carry, or a yoke to bear, it is His own appointment. "_My_ yoke." It is sent by no untried friend. Nay, He who puts it on His people, bore this very yoke Himself. "He _carried_ our sorrows." How blessed this feeling of holy servitude to so kind a Master! not like "dumb, driven cattle," goaded on, but _led_, and led often most tenderly when the yoke and the burden are upon us. The great apostle rarely speaks of himself under any other title but _one_. That _one_ he seems to make his boast. He had much whereof he might glory;--he had been the instrument in saving thousands--he had spoken before kings--he had been in Cæsar's palace and Cæsar's presence--he had been caught up into the third heaven,--but in all his letters this is his joyful prefix and superscription, "The _Servant_ (literally, _the slave_) of Jesus Christ!" Reader! dost thou know this blessed servitude? Canst thou say with a joyful heart, "O Lord, truly I am Thy servant?" He is no hard taskmaster. Would Satan try to teach thee so? Let this be the refutation, "He loved me, and gave _Himself_ for _me_." True, the yoke is the appointed discipline he employs in training his children for immortality. But be comforted! "It is His tender hand that _puts_ it on, and _keeps_ it on." He will suit the yoke to the neck, and the neck to the yoke. He will suit His grace to your trials. Nay, He will bring you even to be in love with these, when they bring along with them such gracious unfoldings of His own faithfulness and mercy. How His people need thus to be in heaviness through manifold temptations, to keep them meek and submissive! "Jeshurun (like a bullock unaccustomed to the harness, fed and pampered in the stall) waxed fat, and kicked." Never is there more gracious love than when God takes His own means to curb and subjugate, to humble us, and to prove us--bringing us out from ourselves, our likings, our confidences, our prosperity, and putting us under the needed YOKE. And who has ever repented of that joyful servitude? Among all the ten thousand regrets that mingle with a dying hour, and oft bedew with bitter tears a dying pillow, who ever told of regrets and repentance here? Tried believer, has He ever failed thee? Has His yoke been too grievous? Have thy tears been unalleviated--thy sorrows unsolaced--thy temptations above that thou wert able to bear? Ah! rather canst thou not testify, "The word of the Lord is tried;" I cast my burden upon Him, and He "sustained me?" How have seeming difficulties melted away! How has the yoke lost its heaviness, and the cross its bitterness, in the thought of whom thou wert bearing it for! There is a promised rest in the very carrying of the yoke; and a better rest remains for the weary and toil-worn when the appointed work is finished; for thus saith "that same Jesus," "TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU, AND LEARN OF ME, ... AND YE SHALL FIND _REST_ UNTO YOUR SOULS." 16TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you."--John xv. 9. The Measure of Love. This is the most wondrous verse in the Bible. Who can sound the unimagined depths of that love which dwelt in the bosom of the Father from all eternity towards His Son?--and yet here is the Saviour's own exponent of His love towards His people! There is no subject more profoundly mysterious than those mystic intercommunings between the first and second persons in the adorable Trinity before the world was. Scripture gives us only some dim and shadowy revelations regarding them--distant gleams of light, and no more. Let one suffice. "_Then_ I was by Him, as one brought up with Him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him." We know that earthly affection is deepened and intensified by increased familiarity with its object. The friendship of yesterday is not the sacred, hallowed thing, which years of growing intercourse have matured. If we may with reverence apply this test to the highest type of holy affection, what must have been that interchange of love which the measureless lapse of Eternity had fostered--a love, moreover, not fitful, transient, vacillating, subject to altered tones and estranged looks--but pure, constant, untainted, without one shadow of turning! And yet, listen to the "words of Jesus," As the Father hath loved _me_, _so_ have I loved _you_! It would have been infinitely more than we had reason to expect, if He had said, "As my Father hath loved ANGELS, so have I loved you." But the love borne to no finite beings is an appropriate symbol. Long before the birth of time or of worlds, that love existed. It was coeval with Eternity itself. Hear how the two themes of the Saviour's eternal rejoicing--the _love of His Father_, and His _love for sinners_--are grouped together;--"Rejoicing always before HIM, _and_ in the habitable part of His _earth_!" To complete the picture, we must take in a counterpart description of the _Father's_ love to us;--"_Therefore_ doth my Father love me," says Jesus in another place, "_because_ I lay down my life!" God had an all-sufficiency in His love--He needed not the taper-love of creatures to add to His glory or happiness; but He seems to say, that so intense is His love for us, that He loves even His beloved Son _more_ (if infinite love be capable of increase), because He laid down His life for the guilty! It is regarding the Redeemed it is said, "He shall _rest_ in His love--He shall rejoice over _them_ with singing." In the assertion, "God is love," we are left truly with no mere unproved averment regarding the existence of some abstract quality in the divine nature. "Herein," says an apostle, "perceive we THE LOVE,"--(it is added in our authorised version, "of God," but, as it has been remarked, "Our translators need not have added _whose_ love, for there is but one such specimen")--"_because_ He laid down His life for us." No expression of love can be wondered at after _this_. Ah, how miserable are our best affections compared with His! "_Our_ love is but the reflection--cold as the moon; _His_ is as the Sun." Shall we refuse to love Him more in return, who hath _first_ loved, and so _loved us_? "NEVER MAN SPAKE LIKE THIS MAN." 17TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "Only believe."--Mark v. 36. The Brief Gospel. The briefest of the "words of Jesus," but one of the most comforting. They contain the essence and epitome of all saving truth. Reader, is _Satan_ assailing thee with tormenting fears? Is the thought of thy sins--the guilty past--coming up in terrible memorial before thee, almost tempting thee to give way to hopeless despondency? Fear not! A gentle voice whispers in thine ear,--"_Only believe._" "Thy sins are great, but my grace and merits are greater. 'Only believe' that I died for thee--that I am living for thee and pleading for thee, and that 'the faithful saying' is as 'faithful' as ever, and as 'worthy of all acceptation' as ever."--Art thou a _backslider_? Didst thou once run well? Has thine own guilty apostacy alienated and estranged thee from that face which was once all love, and that service which was once all delight? Art thou breathing in broken-hearted sorrow over the holy memories of a close walk with God--"Oh that it were with me as in months past, when the candle of the Lord did shine?" "_Only believe._" Take this thy mournful soliloquy, and convert it into a prayer. "Only believe" the word of Him whose ways are not as man's ways--"Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding."--Art thou beaten down with some heavy _trial_? have thy fondest schemes been blown upon--thy fairest blossoms been withered in the bud? has wave after wave been rolling in upon thee? hath the Lord forgotten to be gracious? Hear the "word of Jesus" resounding amid the thickest midnight of gloom--penetrating even through the vaults of the dead--"Believe, _only believe_." There is an infinite _reason_ for the trial--a lurking thorn that required removal, a gracious lesson that required teaching. The dreadful severing blow was dealt in love. God will be glorified in it, and your own soul made the better for it. Patiently wait till the light of immortality be reflected on a receding world. Here you must take His dealings on trust. The word of Jesus to you now is, "_Only believe._" The word of Jesus in eternity (every inner meaning and undeveloped purpose being unfolded), "Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest _but_ BELIEVE, thou shouldst SEE the glory of God?"--Are you fearful and agitated in _the prospect of death_? Through fear of the last enemy, have you been all your lifetime subject to bondage?--"_Only believe._" "As thy day is, so shall thy strength be." Dying grace will be given when a dying hour comes. In the dark river a sustaining arm will be underneath you, deeper than the deepest and darkest wave. Ere you know it, the darkness will be past, the true Light shining,--the whisper of faith in the nether valley, "Believe! believe!" exchanged for angel-voices exclaiming, as you enter the portals of glory, "No longer through a glass darkly, but now face to face!" Yes! "Jesus Himself had no higher remedy for sin, for sorrow, and for suffering, than those two words convey. At the utmost extremity of His own distress, and of His disciples' wretchedness, He could only say, 'Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.' 'Believe, only believe.'" "LORD, I BELIEVE, HELP THOU MINE UNBELIEF." 18TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "Be of good cheer: It is I; be not afraid."--Mark vi. 50. The Great Calm. "It is I," (or as our old version has it, more in accordance with the original), "I AM! be not afraid!" Jesus lives! His people may dispel their misgivings--Omnipotence treads the waves! To sense it may seem at times to be otherwise; wayward accident and chance may appear to regulate human allotments; but not so: "The Lord's voice is upon the waters,"--He sits at the helm guiding the tempest-tossed bark, and guiding it well. How often does He come to us as He did to the disciples in that midnight hour when all seems lost--"in the fourth watch of the night,"--when we least looked for Him; or when, like the shipwrecked apostle, "for days together neither sun nor stars appeared, and no small tempest lay on us; when all hope that we should be saved seemed to be taken away,"--how often _just at that moment_, is the "word of Jesus" heard floating over the billows! Believer, art thou in trouble? listen to the voice in the storm, "Fear not, _I_ AM." That voice, like Joseph's of old to his brethren, may _seem_ rough, but there are gracious undertones of love. "It is I," he seems to say; It _was_ I, that roused the storm; It is I, who when it has done its work, will calm it, and say, "Peace, be still." Every wave rolls at My bidding--every trial is My appointment--all have some gracious end; they are not sent to dash you against the sunken rocks, but to waft you nearer heaven. Is it _sickness_? I am He who bare your sickness; the weary wasted frame, and the nights of languishing, were sent by Me. Is it _bereavement_? I am "the Brother" born for adversity--the loved and lost were plucked away by Me. Is it _death_? I AM the "Abolisher of death," seated by your side to calm the waves of ebbing life; it is _I_, about to fetch My pilgrims _home_--It is My voice that speaks, "The Master is come, and calleth for thee." Reader, thou wilt have reason yet to praise thy God for every one such storm! This is the history of every heavenly voyager: "_So_ He bringeth them to their desired haven." "_So!_" That word, in all its unknown and diversified meaning, is in _His_ hand. He suits His dealings to every case. "_So!_" With some it is through quiet seas unfretted by one buffeting wave. "_So!_" With others it is "mounting up to heaven, and going down again to the deep." But whatever be the leading and the discipline, here is the grand consummation, "_So_ He bringeth them unto their desired haven." It might have been with thee the moanings of an eternal night-blast--no lull or pause in the storm; but soon the darkness will be past, and the hues of morn tipping the shores of glory! And what, then, should your attitude be? "Looking unto Jesus" (literally, looking _from unto_); looking away from self, and sin, and human props and refuges and confidences, and fixing the eye of unwavering and unflinching faith on a reigning Saviour. Ah, how a real quickening sight of Christ dispels all guilty fears! The Roman keepers of old were affrighted, and became as dead men. The lowly Jewish women feared not; why? "_I know that ye seek Jesus!_" Reader, let thy weary spirit fold itself to rest under the composing "word" of a gracious Saviour, saying---- "I WAIT FOR THE LORD, MY SOUL DOTH WAIT, AND IN _HIS WORD_ DO I HOPE." 19TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you."--John xiv. 27. The Dying Legacy. How we treasure the last sayings of a dying parent! How specially cherished and memorable are his last looks and last words! Here are the last words--the parting legacy--of a dying Saviour. It is a legacy of _peace_. What peace is this? It is His own purchase--a peace arising out of free forgiveness through His precious blood. It is sung in concert with "Glory to God in the highest"--a peace made as sure to us as eternal power and infinite love _can make it_! It is _peace_ the soul wants. Existence is one long-drawn sigh after repose. _That_ is nowhere else to be found, but through the blood of His cross! "Being justified by faith, we _have_ peace with God." "HE giveth his beloved _rest_!" How different from the false and counterfeit peace in which so many are content to live, and content to die! The world's peace is all well, so long as prosperity lasts--so long as the stream runs smooth, and the sky is clear; but when the cataract is at hand, or the storm is gathering, where is it? It is _gone_! There is no calculating on its permanency. Often when the cup is fullest, there is the trembling apprehension that in one brief moment it may be dashed to the ground. The soul may be saying to itself, "Peace, peace;" but, like the writing on the sand, it may be obliterated by the first wave of adversity. BUT, "Not as the world giveth!" The peace of the believer is deep--calm--lasting--_ever_lasting. The world, with all its blandishments, cannot give it. The world, with all its vicissitudes and fluctuations, cannot take it away! It is brightest in the hour of trial; it lights up the final valley-gloom. "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace." Yes! how often is the believer's deathbed like the deep calm repose of a summer-evening's sky, when all nature is hushed to rest; the departing soul, like the vanishing sun, peacefully disappearing only to shine in another and brighter hemisphere! "I seem," said Simeon on his deathbed, "to have nothing to do but to wait: there is now nothing but _peace_, the _sweetest peace_." Believer! do you know this peace which passeth understanding? Is it "keeping (literally, '_garrisoning_ as in a citadel') your heart?" Have you learnt the blessedness of waking up, morning after morning, and feeling, "I am at peace with my God;" of beholding by faith the true Aaron--the great High Priest--coming forth from "the holiest of all" to "bless His people with peace?" Waves of trouble may be murmuring around you, but they cannot touch you; you are in the rock-crevice athwart which the fiercest tornado sweeps by. Oh! leave not the making up of your peace with God to a dying hour! It will be a hard thing to smooth the death-pillow, if peace be left unsought till then. Make sure of it _now_. He, the true Melchisedec, is willing _now_ to come forth to meet you with bread and wine--emblems of peaceful gospel blessings. All the "words of Jesus" are so many rills contributing to make your peace flow as a river;--"These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace." "I WILL HEAR WHAT GOD THE LORD WILL SPEAK, FOR HE WILL SPEAK PEACE UNTO HIS PEOPLE AND TO HIS SAINTS." 20TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth."--Matt. xxviii. 18. The Supreme Investiture. What an empire is this! Heaven and earth--the Church militant--the Church triumphant--angels and archangels--saints and seraphs. At His mandate the billows were hushed--demons crouched in terror--the grave yielded its prey! "Upon his head are many crowns." He is made "head over _all things_ to His Church." Yes! over _all things_, from the minutest to the mightiest. He holds the stars in His right hand--He walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, feeding every candlestick with the oil of His grace, and preserving every star in its spiritual orbit. The prince of Darkness has "a power," but, God be praised, it is not an "all power;" _potent_, but not _omnipotent_. Christ holds him in a chain. He hath set bounds that he may not pass over. "Satan," we read in the book of Job, "went out (_Chaldee paraphrase_, 'with a licence') from the presence of the Lord." He was not allowed even to enter the herd of swine till Christ permitted him. He only "_desired_" to have Peter that he might "sift him;" there was a mightier countervailing agency at hand: "_I_ have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." Believer, how often is there nothing but this grace of Jesus between thee and everlasting destruction! Satan's key fitting the lock in thy wayward heart; but a stronger than the strong man barring him out;--the power of the adversary fanning the flame; the Omnipotence of Jesus quenching it. Art thou even now feeling the strength of thy corruptions, the weakness of thy graces, the presence of some outward or inward temptation? Look up to Him who has promised to make His grace sufficient for thee; "all power" is His prerogative; "all-sufficiency in all things" is His promise. It is power, too, in conjunction with tenderness. He who sways the sceptre of universal empire "gently leads" His weak, and weary, and burdened ones:--He who counts the number of the stars, loves to count the number of their sorrows; nothing too great, nothing too insignificant for _Him_. He puts every tear into his bottle. He paves His people's pathway with love! Blessed Jesus! my everlasting interests cannot be in better or in safer keeping than in Thine. I can exultingly rely on the "_all-power_" of Thy Godhead. I can sweetly rejoice in the _all-sympathy_ of Thy Manhood. I can confidently repose in the sure wisdom of Thy dealings. "Sometimes," says one, "we expect the blessing in _our_ way; He chooses to bestow it in _His_." But His way and His will must be the best. Infinite love, infinite power, infinite wisdom, are surely infallible guarantees. His purposes nothing can alter. His promises never fail. His word never falls to the ground. "HEAVEN AND EARTH SHALL PASS AWAY, BUT _MY WORDS_ SHALL NOT PASS AWAY." 21ST DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."--John xvi. 14. The Divine Glorifier. The Holy Spirit glorifying Jesus in the unfoldings of His person, and character, and work, to His people! The great ministering agent between the Church on earth and its glorified Head in Heaven,--carrying up to the Intercessor on the throne, the ever-recurring wants and trials, the perplexities and sins, of believers; and receiving out of His inexhaustible treasury of love,--comfort for their sorrows--strength for their weakness--sympathy for their tears--fulness for their emptiness,--and _this_ the one sublime end and object of His gracious agency,--"_He shall glorify Me._" "He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak." My words of sympathy--My omnipotent pleadings--the tender messages sent from an unchanged Human Heart,--all these shall He speak. "He shall tell you," says an old divine, commenting on this passage, "He shall tell you nothing but stories of My love" (_Goodwin_). He will have an ineffable delight in magnifying Me in the affections of My Church and people, and endearing Me to their hearts; and He is all worthy of credence, for He is "the Spirit of truth." How faithful has He been in every age to this His great office as "the glorifier of Jesus!" See the first manifestation of His power in the Christian Church at the day of Pentecost. What was the grand truth which forms the focus-point of interest in that unparalleled scene, and which brings three thousand stricken penitents to their knees? _It is the Spirit's unfolding of Jesus_--glorifying _Him_ in eyes that before saw in Him no beauty? Hear the key-note of that wondrous sermon, preached "in demonstration of the Spirit, and with power,"--"HIM hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to His people, and forgiveness of sins." Ah? it is still the same peerless truth which the Spirit delights to unfold to the stricken sinner, and, in unfolding it, to make it mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. All these glorious inner beauties of Christ's work and character are undiscerned and undiscernible by the natural eye. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth." "No man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." He is the great Forerunner--a mightier than the Baptist--proclaiming, "Behold the Lamb of God!" Reader! any bright and realising view you have had of the Saviour's glory and excellency, is of the Spirit's imparting. When in some hour of sorrow you have been led to cleave with pre-eminent consolation to the thought of the Redeemer's exalted sympathy--His dying, ever-living love; or in the hour of death, when you feel the sustaining power of His exceeding great and precious promises;--what is this, but the Holy Spirit, in fulfilment of His all-gracious office, taking of all things of Christ, and showing them unto you; thus enabling you to magnify Him in your body, whether it be by life or death? As your motto should ever be, "_None BUT Christ_," and your ever-increasing aspiration, "_More OF Christ_," seek to bear in mind who it is that is alone qualified to impart the "excellency of this knowledge." "THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH WHICH PROCEEDETH FROM THE FATHER, _HE_ SHALL TESTIFY OF ME." 22D DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "Your sorrow shall be turned into joy."--John xvi. 20. The Joyful Transformation. Christ's people are a sorrowing people! Chastisement is their badge--"great tribulation" is their appointed discipline. When they enter the gates of glory, He is represented as wiping away tears from their eyes. But, weeping ones, be comforted! Your Lord's special mission to earth--the great errand He came from heaven to fulfil, was "to bind up the broken-hearted." Your trials are meted out by a tender hand. He _knows_ you too well--He _loves_ you too well--to make this world tearless and sorrowless! "There must be rain, and hail, and storm," says Rutherford, "in the saint's cloud." Were your earthy course strewed with flowers, and nothing but sunbeams played around your dwelling, it would lead you to forget your _nomadic_ life,--that you are but a sojourner here. The tent must at times be struck, pin by pin of the moveable tabernacle taken down, to enable you to say and to feel in the spirit of a pilgrim, "I desire a better country." Meantime, while sorrow is your portion, think of Him who says, "I know your sorrows." Angels cannot say so--they cannot sympathise with you, for trial is a strange word to them. But there is a mightier than they who _can_. All He sends you and appoints you is in love. There is a provision and condition wrapt up in the bosom of every affliction, "_if need be_;" coming from His hand, sorrows and riches are to His people convertible terms. If tempted to murmur at their trials, they are often murmuring at disguised mercies. "Why do you ask me," said Simeon, on his deathbed, "what I _like_? I am the Lord's patient--I cannot but like _everything_." And _then_--"your sorrow shall be turned into joy." "The morning cometh"--that bright morning when the dew-drops collected during earth's night of weeping shall sparkle in its beams; when in one blessed _moment_ a life-long experience of trial will be effaced and forgotten, or remembered only by contrast, to enhance the fulness of the joys of immortality. What a revelation of gladness! The map of time disclosed, and every little rill of sorrow, every river will be seen to have been flowing heavenwards,--every rough blast to have been sending the bark nearer the haven! In that joy, God Himself will participate. In the last "words of Jesus" to His people when they are standing by the triumphal archway of Glory, ready to enter on their thrones and crowns, He speaks of their joy as if it were all _His own_. "Enter ye into the joy _of your Lord_." Reader, may this joy be yours! Sit loose to the world's joys. Have a feeling of chastened gratitude and thankfulness when you have them; but beware of resting in them, or investing them with a permanency they cannot have. Jesus had his eye on _heaven_ when he added-- "YOUR JOY NO MAN TAKETH FROM YOU." 23D DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory."--John xvii. 24. The Omnipotent Prayer. This is not the petition of a suppliant, but the claim of a conqueror. There was only _one_ request He ever made, or ever _can_ make, that was refused; it was the prayer wrung forth by the presence and power of superhuman anguish: "Father, _if it be possible_, let this cup pass from me!" Had that prayer been answered, never could one consolatory "word of Jesus" have been ours. "_If it be possible_;"--_but_ for that gracious parenthesis, we must have been lost for ever! In unmurmuring submission, the bitter cup _was_ drained; all the dread penalties of the law were borne, the atonement completed, an all-perfect righteousness wrought out; and now, as the stipulated reward of His obedience and sufferings, the Victor claims His trophies. What are they? Those that were given Him of the Father--the countless multitudes redeemed by His blood. These He "_wills_" to be with Him "where He is"--the spectators of His glory, and partakers of His crown. Wondrous word and will of a dying testator! His last prayer on earth is an importunate pleading for their glorification; His parting wish is to meet them in heaven: as if these earthly jewels were needed to make His crown complete,--their happiness and joy the needful complement of His own! Reader! learn from this, the grand element in the bliss of your future condition--it is _the presence of Christ_; "_with Me_ where I am." It matters comparatively little as to the locality of heaven. "We shall see _Him_ as He is," is "the blessed hope" of the Christian. Heaven would be _no_ heaven without Jesus; the withdrawal of His presence would be like the blotting out of the sun from the firmament; it would uncrown every seraph, and unstring every harp. But, blessed thought! it is His own stipulation in His testamentary prayer, that Eternity is to be spent in union and communion with _Himself_, gazing on the unfathomed mysteries of His love, becoming more assimilated to His glorious image, and drinking deeper from the ocean of His own joy. If anything can enhance the magnitude of this promised bliss, it is the concluding words of the verse, in which He grounds His plea for its bestowment: "_I will_--that they behold my glory;"--why? "For Thou lovedst (not _them_, but) ME before the foundation of the world!" It is equivalent to saying, "If Thou wouldst give _Me_ a continued proof of Thine everlasting love and favour to Myself, it is by loving and exalting My redeemed people. In loving _them_ and glorifying them, Thou art loving and glorifying Me: so endearingly are their interests and My own bound up together!" Believer, think of that all-prevailing voice, at this moment pleading for thee within the veil!--that omnipotent "_Father, I will_," securing every needed boon! There is given, so to speak, a blank _cheque_ by which He and His people may draw indefinite supplies out of the exhaustless treasury of the Father's grace and love. God Himself endorses it with the words, "Son, Thou art ever with me, and all that I have is Thine." How it would reconcile us to Earth's bitterest sorrows, and hallow Earth's holiest joys, if we saw them thus hanging on the "_will_" of an all-wise Intercessor, who ever pleads in love, and never pleads in vain! "BE IT UNTO ME ACCORDING TO _THY WORD_." 24TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "Because I live, ye shall live also."--John xiv. 19. The Immutable Pledge. God sometimes selects the most stable and enduring objects in the material world to illustrate His unchanging faithfulness and love to His Church. "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so doth the Lord compass his people." But here, the Redeemer fetches an argument from _His own everlasting nature_. He stakes, so to speak, His own existence on that of His saints. "_Because I live_, ye shall live also." Believer! read in this "word of Jesus" thy glorious title-deed. _Thy Saviour lives_--and His life is the guarantee of thine own. Our true Joseph is alive. "He is our Brother. He talks kindly to us!" That life of His, is all that is between us and everlasting ruin. But with Christ for our life, how inviolable our security! The great Fountain of being must first be dried up, before the streamlet can. The great Sun must first be quenched, ere one glimmering satellite which He lights up with His splendour can. Satan must first pluck the crown from that glorified Head, before he can touch one jewel in the crown of His people. They cannot shake one pillar without shaking first the throne. "If we perish," says Luther, "Christ perisheth with us." Reader! is thy life now "hid with Christ in God?" Dost thou know the blessedness of a vital and living union with a living, life-giving Saviour? Canst thou say with humble and joyous confidence, amid the fitfulness of thine own ever-changing frames and feelings, "Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me?" "_Jesus liveth!_"--They are the happiest words a lost soul and a lost world can hear! Job, four thousand years ago, rejoiced in them. "I know," says he, "that I have _a living Kinsman_." John, in his Patmos exile, rejoiced in them. "I am He that liveth" (or _the Living One_), was the simple but sublime utterance with which he was addressed by that same "Kinsman," when He appeared arrayed in the lustres of His glorified humanity. "This is _the_ record" (as if there was a whole gospel comprised in the statement), "that God hath given to us eternal life, and this _life_ is in His Son." St. Paul, in the 8th chapter to the Romans--that finest portraiture of Christian character and privilege ever drawn, begins with "no condemnation," and ends with "no separation." Why "no separation?" Because the life of the believer is incorporated with that of his adorable Head and Surety. The colossal Heart of redeemed humanity beats upon the throne, sending its mighty pulsations through every member of His body; so that, before the believer's spiritual life can be destroyed, Omnipotence must become feebleness, and Immutability become mutable! But, blessed Jesus, "Thy word is very sure, therefore Thy servant loveth it." "I GIVE UNTO THEM ETERNAL LIFE, AND THEY SHALL NEVER PERISH, NEITHER SHALL ANY MAN PLUCK THEM OUT OF MY HAND." 25TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."--Matt. xxviii. 20. The Abiding Presence. Such were "the words of Jesus" when He was just about to ascend to Heaven. The mediatorial throne was in view--the harps of glory were sounding in His ears; but all His thoughts are on the pilgrim Church He is to leave behind. His last words and benedictions are for _them_. "I go," He seems to say, "to Heaven, to my purchased crown--to the fellowship of angels--to the presence of my Father; _but_, nevertheless, 'Lo! I am with _you_ alway, even unto the end of the world.'" How faithfully did the Apostles, to whom this promise was first addressed, experience its reality! Hear the testimony of the beloved disciple who had once leant on his Divine Master's bosom--who "had heard, and seen, and looked upon Him." That glorified bosom was now hid from his sight; but does he speak of an absent Lord, and of His fellowship only as among the holy memories of the past? No! with rejoicing emphasis he can exclaim--"Truly our fellowship IS with ... _Jesus Christ_." Amid so much that is fugitive here, how the heart clings to this assurance of the abiding presence of the Saviour! Our best earthly friends--a few weeks may estrange them;--centuries have rolled on--Christ is still the same. How blessed to think, that if I am indeed a child of God, there is not the lonely instant I am without His guardianship! When the beams of the morning visit my chamber, the brighter beams of a brighter Sun are shining upon me. When the shadows of evening are gathering around, "it is not night, if He, the unsetting 'Sun of my soul,' is near." His is no fitful companionship--present in prosperity, gone in adversity. He never changes. He is always the same,--in sickness and solitude, in joy and in sorrow, in life and in death. Not more faithfully did the pillar-cloud and column of fire of old precede Israel, till the last murmuring ripple of Jordan fell on their ears on the shores of Canaan, than does the presence and love of Jesus abide with His people. Has His word of promise ever proved false? Let the great cloud of witnesses now in glory testify. "Not one thing hath failed of all that the Lord our God hath spoken." _This_ "word of the Lord is tried"--"having loved His own, which were in the world, He loved them _unto the end_." Believer! art thou troubled and tempted? Do dark providences and severe afflictions seem to belie the truth and reality of this gracious assurance? Art thou ready, with Gideon, to say, "If the Lord be indeed with us, why has all this befallen us?" Be assured He has some faithful end in view. By the removal of prized and cherished earthly props and refuges, He would unfold more of his own tenderness. Amid the wreck and ruin of earthly joys, which, it may be, the grave has hidden from your sight, One nearer, dearer, tenderer still, would have you say of Himself, "_The Lord liveth_; and blessed be my Rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted." "Thanks be to God, who _always_ maketh us to triumph in Christ." Yes! and never more so than when, stripped of all competing objects of creature affection, we are left, like the disciples on the mount, with "_Jesus only_!" "THESE THINGS HAVE I SPOKEN UNTO YOU, THAT IN ME YE MIGHT HAVE PEACE." 26TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet he shall live."--John. xi. 25. The Resurrection and Life. What a voice is this breaking over a world which for six thousand years has been a dormitory of sin and death! For four thousand of these years, heathendom could descry no light through the bars of the grave; her oracles were dumb on the great doctrine of a future state, and more especially regarding the body's resurrection. Even the Jewish Church, under the Old Testament dispensation, seemed to enjoy little more than fitful and uncertain glimmerings, like men groping in the dark. It required death's great Abolisher to show, to a benighted world, the luminous "path of life." With Him rested the "bringing in of a better hope"--the unfolding of "the mystery which had been hid from ages and generations." Marvellous disclosure! that this mortal frame, decomposed and resolved into its original dust, shall yet start from its ashes, remodelled and reconstructed--"a glorified body!" Not like "the earthly tabernacle" (a mere shifting and moveable _tent_, as the word denotes), but incorruptible--immortal! The beauteous transformation of the insect from its chrysalis state--the buried seed springing up from its tiny grave to the full-eared corn or gorgeous flower--these are nature's mute utterances as to the possibility of this great truth, which required the unfoldings of "a more sure word of prophecy." But the Gospel has fully revealed what Reason, in her loftiest imaginings, could not have dreamt of. Jesus "hath brought life and immortality to light." He, the Bright and Morning Star, hath "turned the shadow of death into the morning." He gives, in His own resurrection, the earnest of that of His people;--He is the first-fruits of the immortal harvest yet to be gathered into the garner of Heaven. Precious truth! This "word of Jesus" spans like a celestial rainbow the entrance to the dark valley. Death is robbed of its sting. In the case of every child of God, the grave holds in custody precious, because redeemed, dust. Talk of it not, as being committed to a dishonoured tomb!--it is locked up, rather, in the casket, of God until the day "when He maketh up His jewels," when it will be fashioned in deathless beauty like unto the glorified body of the Redeemer. Angels, meanwhile, are commissioned to keep watch over it, till the trump of the archangel shall proclaim the great "Easter of creation." They are the "reapers," waiting for the world's great "Harvest Home," when Jesus Himself shall come again--not as He once did, humiliated and in sorrow, but rejoicing in the thought of bringing back all His sheaves with him. Afflicted and bereaved Christian!--thou who mayest be mourning in bitterness those who are not--rejoice through thy tears in these hopes "full of immortality." The silver cord is only "loosed," not broken. Perchance, as thou standest in the chamber of death, or by the brink of the grave,--in the depths of that awful solitude and silence which reigns around, this may be thy plaintive and mournful soliloquy--"Shall the dust praise Thee?" Yes, it _shall_! This very dust that hears now unheeded thy footsteps, and unmoved thy tears, shall through eternity praise its redeeming God--it shall proclaim His truth! "LORD, TO WHOM SHALL WE GO BUT UNTO THEE, THOU HAST THE _WORDS_ OF _ETERNAL LIFE_." 27TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father."--John xvi. 16. The Little While. Long seem the moments when we are separated from the friend we love. An absent brother--how his return is looked and longed for! The "Elder Brother"--the "Living Kinsman"--sends a message to His waiting Church and people--a word of solace, telling that _soon_ ("a little while,") and He will be back again, never again to leave them. There are indeed blessed moments of communion which the believer enjoys with His beloved Lord _now_; but how fitful and transient! To-day, life is a brief Emmaus journey--the soul happy in the presence and love of an unseen Saviour. To-morrow, He is _gone_; and the bereft spirit is led to interrogate itself in plaintive sorrow,--"Where is now thy God?" Even when there is no such experience of darkness and depression, how much there is in the world around to fill the believer with sadness! His Lord rejected and disowned--His love set at nought--His providences slighted--His name blasphemed--His creation groaning and travailing in pain--disunion, too, among His people--His loving heart wounded in the house of His friends! But "yet a little while," and all this mystery of iniquity will be finished. The absent Brother's footfall will soon be heard,--no longer "as a wayfaring man who turneth aside to tarry for a night," but to receive His people into the permanent "mansions" His love has been preparing, and from which they shall go no more out. Oh, blessed day! when creation will put on her Easter robes--when her Lord, so long dishonoured, will be enthroned amid the hosannahs of a rejoicing universe--angels lauding Him--saints crowning Him--sin, the dark plague-spot on His universe, extinguished for ever--death swallowed up in eternal victory! And it is but "a little while!" "Yet a little while," we elsewhere read, "and He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry" (literally, "a little while as may be.") "He will stay not a moment longer," says Goodwin, "than He hath despatched all our business in Heaven for us." With what joy will He send His mission-Angel with the announcement, "the little while is at an end;" and to issue the invitation to the great festival of glory, "Come! for all things are ready!" Child of sorrow! think often of this "_little while_." "The days of thy mourning will soon be ended." There is a limit set to thy suffering time,--"After that ye have suffered a WHILE." Every wave is numbered between you and the haven; and then when that haven is reached, oh, what an apocalypse of glory!--the "little while" of time merged into the great and unending "while of eternity!"--to be _for ever with the Lord_--the same unchanged and unchanging Saviour! "A little while, and ye _shall_ see me!" Would that the eye of faith might be kept more intently fixed on "that glorious appearing!" How the world, with its guilty fascinations, tries to dim and obscure this blessed hope! How the heart is prone to throw out its fibres here, and get them rooted in some perishable object! Reader! seek to dwell more habitually on this the grand consummation of all thy dearest wishes. "Stand on the edge of your nest, pluming your wings for flight." Like the mother of Sisera, be looking for the expected chariot. "HE IS FAITHFUL THAT PROMISED." 28TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."--Matt. v. 8. The Beatific Vision. Here Is Heaven! This "word of Jesus" represents the future state of the glorified to consist not in locality, but in character; the essence of its bliss is the full vision and fruition of God. Our attention is called from all vague and indefinite theories about the _circumstantials_ of future happiness. The one grand object of contemplation--the "glory which excelleth," is _the sight of God Himself_! The one grand practical lesson enforced on His people, is the cultivation of that purity of heart without which none could _see_, or (even could we suppose it possible to be admitted to _see_ Him) none could _enjoy_ God! "The kingdom of Heaven cometh not with observation ... the kingdom of God is _within_ you." Reader, hast thou attained any of this heart-purity and heart-preparation? It has been beautifully said that "the openings of the streets of heaven are on earth." Even here we may enjoy, in the possession of holiness, some foretaste of coming bliss. Who has not felt that the happiest moments of their lives were those of close walking with God--nearness to the mercy-seat--when self was surrendered, and the eye was directed to the glory of Jesus, with most single, unwavering, undivided aim? What will Heaven be, but the entire surrender of the soul to Him, without any bias to evil, without the fear of corruption within echoing to temptation without; every thought brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ; no contrariety to His mind; all in blessed unison with His will; the whole _being_ impregnated with holiness--the intellect purified and ennobled, consecrating all its powers to His service--memory, a holy repository of pure and hallowed recollections--the affections, without one competing rival, purged from all the dross of earthliness--the love of God, the one supreme animating passion--the glory of God, the motive principle interfused through every thought, and feeling, and action of the life immortal; in one word, the heart a pellucid fountain; no sediment to dim its purity, "no angel of sorrow" to come and trouble the pool! The long night of life over, and _this_ the glory of the eternal morrow which succeeds it! "I shall be satisfied when I awake, with _Thy_ likeness." Yes, this is Heaven, subjectively and objectively--_purity of heart_ and "_God all in all_!" Much, doubtless, there may and will be of a subordinate kind, to intensify the bliss of the redeemed; communion with saints and angels; re-admission into the society of death-divided friends: but all these will fade before the great central glory, "God Himself shall be with them, and be their God; they shall _see his face_!" Believers have been aptly called _heliotropes_--turning their faces as the sunflower towards the Sun of Righteousness, and hanging their leaves in sadness and sorrow, when that Sun is away. It will be in heaven the emblem is complete. _There_, every flower in the heavenly garden will be turned Godwards, bathing its tints of loveliness in the glory that excelleth! Reader, may it be yours, when o'er-canopied by that cloudless sky, to know all the marvels contained in these few glowing words, "We shall be like Him, for we shall see him as He is." "AND EVERY MAN THAT HATH THIS HOPE IN HIM PURIFIETH HIMSELF EVEN AS HE IS PURE." 29TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "In my Father's house are many mansions."--John xiv. 2. The Many Mansions. What a home aspect there is in this "word of Jesus!" He comforts His Church by telling them that soon their wilderness-wanderings will be finished,--the tented tabernacle suited to their present probation-state exchanged for the enduring "mansion!" Nor will it be any strange dwelling: a _Father's_ home--a _Father's_ welcome awaits them. There will be accommodation for all. Thousands have already entered its shining gates,--patriarchs, prophets, saints, martyrs, young and old, and still there is room! The pilgrim's motto on earth is, "Here we have no continuing city." Even "Sabbath tents" must be struck. Holy seasons of communion must terminate. "Arise, let us go hence!" is a summons which disturbs the sweetest moments of tranquillity in the Church below; but _in Heaven_, every believer becomes a pillar in the temple of God, and "he shall _go no more out_." Here it is but the lodging of a wayfarer turning aside to tarry for the brief night of earth. Here we are but "tenants at will;" our possessions are but moveables--ours to-day, gone to-morrow. But these many "mansions" are an inheritance incorruptible and unfading. Nothing can touch the heavenly patrimony. Once within the Father's house, and we are in the house for ever! Think, too, of Jesus, gone to _prepare_ these mansions,--"I go to prepare a place for you." What a wondrous thought--Jesus now busied in Heaven in His Church's behalf! He can find no abode in all His wide dominions, befitting as a permanent dwelling for His ransomed ones. He says, "I will make new heavens and a new earth. I will found a special kingdom--I will rear eternal mansions expressly for those I have redeemed with my blood!" Reader, let the prospect of a dwelling in this "house of the Lord for ever," reconcile thee to any of the roughnesses or difficulties in thy present path--to thy pilgrim provision and pilgrim fare. Let the distant beacon-light, that so cheeringly speaks of a _Home_ brighter and better far than the happiest of earthly ones, lead thee to forget the intervening billows, or to think of them only as wafting thee nearer and nearer to thy desired haven! "Would," says a saint, who has now entered on his rest, "that one could read, and write, and pray, and eat and drink, and compose one's self to sleep, as with the thought,--soon to be in heaven, and that for ever and ever!" "My Father's house!" How many a departing spirit has been cheered and consoled by the sight of these glorious Mansions looming through the mists of the dark valley,--the tears of weeping friends rebuked by the gentle chiding--"If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto _my Father_!" Death truly is but the entrance to this our Father's house. We speak of the "_shadow of death_"--it is only the shadow which falls on the portico as we stand for a moment knocking at the longed-for gate--the next! a Father's voice of welcome is heard-- "SON! THOU ART EVER WITH ME, AND ALL THAT I HAVE IS THINE." 30TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."--John xiv. 3. The Promised Return. Another "word of promise" concerning the Church's "blessed hope." Orphaned pilgrims, dry your tears! Soon the Morning Hour will strike, and the sighs of a groaning and burdened creation be heard no more. Earth's six thousand years of toil and sorrow are waning; the Millennial Sabbath is at hand. Jesus will soon be heard to repeat concerning all his sleeping saints, what He said of old regarding one of them: "I go to awake them out of sleep!" Your beloved Lord's first coming was in humiliation and woe; His name was--the "Man of Sorrows;" He had to travel on, amid darkness and desertion, His blood-stained path; a chaplet of thorns was the only crown He bore. But soon He will come "the second time without a sin-offering unto salvation," never again to leave His Church, but to receive those who followed Him in His cross, to be everlasting partakers with Him in His crown. He may seem to tarry. External nature, in her unvarying and undeviating sequences, gives no indication of His approach. Centuries have elapsed since He uttered the promise, and still He lingers; the everlasting hills wear no streak of approaching dawn; we seem to listen in vain for the noise of His chariot wheels. "But the Lord is not slack concerning His promise;" He gives you "this word" in addition to many others as a _keepsake_--a pledge and guarantee for the certainty of His return,--"_I will come again._" Who can conceive all the surpassing blessedness connected with that advent? The Elder Brother arrived to fetch the younger brethren home!--the true Joseph revealing Himself in unutterable tenderness to the brethren who were once estranged from Him--"receiving them unto himself"--not satisfied with apportioning a kingdom for them, but, as if all His own joy and bliss were intermingled with theirs, "Where _I am_," says He, "there _you_ must be also." "Him that overcometh," says He again, "will I grant to sit with Me on My Throne." Believer, can you _now_ say with some of the holy transport of the apostle, "Whom having not seen, we love?" What must it be when you come to see Him "face to face," and that for ever and ever! If you can tell of precious hours of communion in a sin-stricken, woe-worn world, with a treacherous heart, and an imperfect or divided love, what must it be when you come, in a sinless, sorrowless state, with purified and renewed affections, to see the King in His beauty! The letter of an absent brother, cheering and consolatory as it is, is a poor compensation for the joys of personal and visible communion. The absent Elder Brother on the Throne speaks to you _now_ only by His Word and Spirit,--soon you shall be admitted to His immediate fellowship, seeing him "as He is"--He Himself unfolding the wondrous chart of His providence and grace--leading you about from fountain to fountain among the living waters, and with his own gentle hand wiping the last lingering tear-drop from your eye. _Heaven an everlasting home with Jesus!_ "Where I am, there ye may be also."--He has appended a cheering postscript to this word, on which He has "caused us to hope:"-- "HE WHICH TESTIFIETH THESE THINGS SAITH, SURELY I COME QUICKLY." 31ST DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching."--Luke xii. 37. The Closing Benediction. Child of God! is this thine attitude, as the expectant of thy Lord's appearing? Are thy loins girded, and thy lights burning? If the cry were to break upon thine ears this day, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh," couldst thou joyfully respond--"Lo, this is my God, I have waited for him?" WHEN He may come, we cannot tell;--ages may elapse before _then_. It may be centuries before our graves are gilded with the beams of a Millennial sun; but while He _may_ or may _not_ come _soon_, He _must_ come at some time--ay, and the day of our death is virtually to all of us the day of His coming. Reader! put not off the solemn preparation. Be not deceived or deluded with the mocker's presumptuous challenge, "Where is the promise of His coming?" See to it that the calls of an engrossing world without, do not foster this procrastinating spirit within. It may be now or never with thee. Put not off thy sowing time till harvest time. Leave nothing for a dying hour, _but to die_, and calmly to resign thy spirit into the hands of Jesus. Of all times, _that_ is the least suitable to have the vessel plenished--to attend to the great business of life when life is ebbing--to trim the lamp when the oil is done and it is flickering in its socket--to begin to watch, when the summons is heard to leave the watch-tower to meet our God! Were you never struck how often, amid the many _gentle_ words of Jesus, the summons "to watch," is over and over repeated, like a succession of alarum-bells breaking ever and anon, amid chimes of heavenly music, to rouse a sleeping Church and a slumbering world? Let this last "word" of thy Lord's send thee to thy knees with the question,--"Am I indeed a servant of Christ?" Have I fled to Him, and am I reposing in Him, as my only Saviour?--or am I still lingering, like Lot, when I should be escaping--sleeping, when I should be waking--neglecting and trifling, when "a long eternity is lying at my door?" He is my last and only refuge; neglect Him--_all is lost_! Believer! thou who art standing on thy watch-tower, be more faithful than ever at thy post. Remember what is implied in watching. It is no dreamy state of inactive torpor: it is a holy jealousy over the heart--wakeful vigilance regarding sin--every avenue and loophole of the soul carefully guarded. _Holy living_ is the best, the _only_, preparative for _holy dying_. "Persuade yourself," says Rutherford, "the King is coming. Read His letter sent before Him, 'Behold I come quickly;' wait with the wearied night-watch for the breaking of the Eastern sky." Let these "_Words of Jesus_" we have now been meditating upon in this little volume, be as the Golden Bells of old, hung on the vestments of the officiating High Priest, emitting sweet sounds to His spiritual Israel--telling that the _true High Priest_ is still living and pleading in "the Holiest of all;" and that soon He will come forth to pour His blessing on His waiting Church. We have been pleasingly employed in gathering up a few "crumbs" falling from "the Master's table." Soon we shall have, not the "_Words_" but the _presence_ of Jesus--not the crumbs falling from His table, but everlasting fellowship with the Master Himself. "AMEN, EVEN SO, COME LORD JESUS." "Wherefore Comfort One Another with THESE WORDS." 1 THESS. iv. 18. 
27852	----	[Illustration] *GOLD DUST* A Collection of Golden Counsels for the Sanctification of Daily Life TRANSLATED AND ABRIDGED FROM THE FRENCH BY E. L. E. B. EDITED BY CHARLOTTE M. YONGE GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS NEW YORK _Printed in the United States of America_ _To_ _E. B. H._ _This little book is most lovingly dedicated_ PREFACE This little book is a translation from a collection of devotional thoughts published in France under the title of "Paillettes d'Or." It is necessarily a selection, since the gold dust which suits French readers requires a fresh sifting for the English; but the value of most of the thoughts seems to me well to deserve the term of gold. There are many who will much enjoy having this little collection on their table, so as to be able to take it up and dwell upon some one of its grains at leisure times throughout the day's business. C. M. YONGE. Feb. 12, 1880. INTRODUCTION In the south of France, during the summer, little children and old and infirm poor who are incapable of hard work, in order to earn a livelihood, employ themselves in searching the beds of dried up rivers for "Paillettes d'Or," or golden dust, which sparkles in the sun, and which the water carries away as it flows. What is done by these poor people and little children for the gold dust GOD has sown in those obscure rivers, we would do with those counsels and teachings which GOD has sown almost everywhere, which sparkle, enlighten, and inspire for a moment, then disappear, leaving but regret that the thought did not occur to collect and treasure them. Who is there that has not experienced at some time in his life those teachings so soft and gentle, yet so forcible, which make the heart thrill, and reveal to it suddenly a world of peace, joy, and devotion? It may have been but a word read in a book, or a sentence overheard in conversation, which may have had for us a two-fold meaning, and, in passing, left us touched with an unknown power. It was the smile on the lips of a beloved one whom we knew to be sorrowful, that spoke to us of the sweet joy of resignation. It was the open look of an innocent child that revealed to us all the beauty of frankness and simplicity. Oh! if we had but treasured all the rays of light that cross our path and sparkle but for a moment; oh! if we had but engraved them on our hearts! what a guide and comfort they would have been to us in the days of discouragement and sorrow; what counsels to guide our actions, what consolations to soothe the broken heart! How many new means of doing good! It is this simple work of gathering a little from every source--from nature, from books, above all, from mankind itself--that is the intention of one of your fellow-creatures, dear souls, you who long so to make your lives more holy and devout! And in the same way as the gold dust, gathered and accumulated from the river's bed, was the means of bringing a little profit to the hearth, so would we endeavor to carry a little joy to your hearts, and peace to your souls. Gather, then, these little counsels; gather them with watchfulness; let them for a moment penetrate deep into your heart; then scatter them abroad again, that they may go with their good words to the help of others. They will not be importunate, will not even ask to be preserved; they do not desire fame; all that they seek is to convey a transient blessing. GOLD DUST I. "My LORD!" exclaimed once a devout soul, "give me every day a little work to occupy my mind; a little suffering to sanctify my spirit; a little good to do to comfort my heart." II. If by our deeds we become saints, true it is, that by our deeds also we shall be condemned. Yes, it is little by little that we press onward, either towards salvation or eternal ruin; and when at last we reach the gate of glory, or that of perdition, the cry escapes our lips, "Already!" The first backward step is almost imperceptible; it was those tiny flakes of snow, seeming to melt as they touch the earth, but falling one upon another, that have formed that immense mass which seems ready to fall and crush us. Ah! if I tried to trace back to what first led to that act of sin, the thought that produced the desire, the circumstance that gave rise to the thought, I should find something almost imperceptible; perhaps a word with a _double entendre_ I had heard, and at which I had smiled; a useless explanation, sought out of mere curiosity; a hasty look, cast I knew not wherefore, and which conscience prompted me to check; a prayer neglected, because it wearied me; work left undone, while I indulged in some day-dream that flitted before my fancy.... A week later the same things occur, but this time more prolonged; the stifled voice of conscience is hushed. Yet another week.... Alas! let us stop there; each can complete the sad story for himself, and it is easy to draw the practical conclusion. III. A young girl, in one of those moments when the heart seems to overflow with devotion, wrote thus in her journal: "If I dared, I would ask GOD why I am placed in the world; what have I to do? I know not; my days are idly spent, and I do not even regret them.... If I might but do some good to myself or another, if only for the short space of a minute in each day!" A few days later, when in a calmer mood she re-read these lines, she added, "Why, nothing is easier! I have but to give a cup of cold water to one of CHRIST'S little ones." Even _less_ than that: a word of advice; something lent to another; a little vexation patiently borne; a prayer for a friend offered to GOD; the fault or thoughtlessness of another repaired without his knowledge--GOD will recompense it all a thousand-fold! IV. Alms given in secret; that is the charity which brings a blessing. What sweet enjoyment to be able to shed a little happiness around us! What an easy and agreeable task is that of trying to render others happy. FATHER! if I try to please and imitate Thee thus, wilt Thou indeed bless me? Thanks! thanks! be unto Thee. V. Is it fair always to forget all the good or kindness shown to us by those with whom we live, for the sake of _one_ little pain they may have caused us, and which, most likely, was quite unintentional on their part? VI. When you sometimes find in books advice or example that you think may be of service, you take care to copy and consult it as an oracle. Do as much for the good of your soul. Engrave in your memory, and even write down, the counsels and precepts that you hear or read; ... then, from time to time, study this little collection, which you will not prize the less that you have made it all yourself. Books written by others in time become wearisome to us, but of those we write ourselves we never tire. And it _will_ be yours, this collection of thoughts chosen because you liked them; counsels you have given yourself; moral receipts you have discovered, and of which, perhaps, you have proved the efficacy. Happy soul! that each day reaps its harvest. VII. Do you wish to live at peace with all the world? Then practise the maxims of an influential man, who, when asked, after the Revolution, how he managed to escape the executioner's axe, replied, "I made myself of no reputation and kept silence." Would you live peaceably with the members of your family, above all with those who exercise a certain control of you? Use the means employed by a pious woman, who had to live with one of a trying temper, and which she summed up in the following words:-- "I do everything to please her. "I fulfil all my duties with a smiling face, never revealing the trouble it causes me. "I bear patiently everything that displeases me. "I consult her on many subjects of which, perhaps, I may be the better judge." Would you be at peace with your conscience? Let your Guardian Angel find you at each moment of the day doing one of these four things which once formed the rule of a saintly life: (1.) praying; (2.) laboring; (3.) striving after holiness; (4.) practising patience. Would you become holy? Try to add to the above actions the following virtues: method, faith, spiritual combat, perseverance. Finally, if you would live in an atmosphere of benevolence, make it your study to be always rendering others service, and never hesitate to ask the same of them. In offering help, you make a step towards gaining a friend; in asking it, you please by this mark of your confidence. The result of this will be a constant habit of mutual forbearance, and a fear to be disobliging in matters of greater importance. VIII. When teaching or working with others, never laugh or make fun of their awkwardness. If it is caused by stupidity, your laughter is uncharitable; if from ignorance, your mockery is, to say the least, unjust. Teach the unskilful with gentleness; show him the right way to work; and God, Who sees all your efforts, will smile on your patience, and send you help in all your difficulties. IX. When the heart is heavy, and we suffer from depression or disappointment, how thankful we should be that we still have work and prayer left to comfort us. Occupation forcibly diverts the mind; prayer sweetly soothes the soul. "Then," writes one who had been sorely tried, "I tell my griefs to God, as a child tells its troubles to its mother; and when I have told all I am comforted, and repeat with a lightened heart the prayer of S. Françoise de Chantal (who certainly suffered more than I), 'Thy will be done for ever and ever, O LORD, without _if_ or _but_;' ... and then, for fear a murmur may arise in my heart, I return immediately to my work, and become absorbed in occupation." X. He who is never satisfied with anything, satisfies no one. XI. Are there many who try to be of some little help or comfort to the souls with whom they are brought in contact through life? Poor souls, that, perhaps, have no longer strength or will to manifest the longing they experience, and who languish for want of help, without being aware that they are perishing. Oh, mingle sometimes with your earthly help the blessed Name of GOD; and if there remain one little spark of life in the soul, that Name will rekindle it, and carry comfort and resignation; even as air breathed into the mouth of any one apparently dead, rushes into the lungs, and revives the sufferer, if but one breath of life remains. _Souls! Souls! I yearn for Souls!_--This is the cry of the SAVIOUR; and for their sakes He died upon the Cross, and remains until eternity their Intercessor. _Souls! Souls! I must win Souls!_--It is the cry of Satan; and to obtain them he scatters gold to tempt them, multiplies their pleasures and vanities, and gives the praise that only infatuates. _Souls! Souls! we long for Souls!_--Let this be our aim, readers and writers of these our "Paillettes;" and for the sake of even _one_ soul, let not fatigue, expense, or the criticism of the world, deter us.... XII. How few there are who would thus dare to address GOD each night: "LORD, deal with me to-morrow as I have this day dealt with others; ... those to whom I was harsh, and from malice, or to show my own superiority, exposed their failings; others, to whom, from pride or dislike, I refused to speak,--one I have avoided, another I cannot like because she displeases me; I will not forgive,--to whom I will not show any kindness."... And yet let us never forget that, sooner or later, God will do unto us even as we have done unto them. XIII. "Grant me, O LORD," said a humble soul, "that I may pass unnoticed through the world." This should be the wish, or rather the aim, of all true devotion. Small virtues require the praise of man to sustain them, just as little children require encouragement to walk or stand alone. But true virtue goes quietly through the world, scattering good around, and performing noble deeds, without even the knowledge that what it does is heroic. XIV. S. Chantal one day was excusing herself to S. François de Sales for having spoken hastily to some one, on the plea that it was in the cause of justice. The Saint replied, "You have been more just than righteous; but we should be more righteous than just." XV. A devout woman once wrote thus: "In my own family I try to be as little in the way as possible, satisfied with everything, and never to believe for a moment that any one means unkindly towards me. "If people are friendly and kind to me, I enjoy it; if they neglect me, or leave me, I am always happy alone. It all tends to my one aim, forgetfulness of self in order to please GOD." XVI. Learning is not without its effect upon the soul; it either lends it wings to bear it up to GOD, or leaves behind it tiny sparks, which little by little consume the whole being. If you would ascertain all the good or ill you have derived from all those hours devoted to historians, poets, novelists, or philosophers, put to yourself these questions: Since acquiring this knowledge, am I wiser? am I better? am I happier? Wiser?--That is to say, more self-controlled, less the slave of my passions, less irritated by small vexations, braver in bearing misfortunes, more careful to live for eternity? Better?--More forbearing towards others, more forgiving, less uncharitable, more reticent in opposing the faults of others, more solicitous for the happiness of those around me? Happier?--That would mean more contented with my station in life, striving to derive all possible benefits from it, to beautify rather than to alter it? Have I more faith in GOD, and more calmness and resignation in all the events of life? If you cannot reply in the affirmative, then examine your heart thoroughly, and you will find there, stifling the good that GOD has implanted, these three tyrants that have obtained dominion over, you: (1.) Pride; (2.) Ambition; (3.) Self-conceit. From them have sprung: dissatisfaction and contempt of your life and its surroundings, restlessness, a longing for power and dominion over others, malice, habitual discontent, and incessant murmurings. Have you any further doubts? Then inquire of those with whom you live. Ah! if this be indeed the sad result, then, whatever may be your age, close, oh! close those books, and seek once more those two elements of happiness you ought never to have forsaken, and which, had you made them the companions of your study, would have kept you pure and good. I refer to prayer and manual labor. XVII. Listen to the story of a simple shepherd, given in his own words: "I forget now who it was that once said to me, 'Jean Baptiste, you are very poor?'--True.--'If you fell ill, your wife and children would be destitute?'--True. And then I felt anxious and uneasy for the rest of the day." "At Evensong wiser thoughts came to me, and I said to myself: Jean Baptiste, for more than thirty years you have lived in the world, you have never possessed anything, yet still you live on, and have been provided each day with nourishment, each night with repose. Of trouble GOD has never sent you more than your share. Of help the means have never failed you. To whom do you owe all this? To GOD. Jean Baptiste, be no longer ungrateful, and banish those anxious thoughts; for what could ever induce you to think that the Hand from which you have already received so much, would close against you when you grow old, and have greater need of help? I finished my prayer, and felt at peace." XVIII. The work of the Sower is given to each of us in this world, and we fall short of our duty when we let those with whom we are brought in contact leave us without having given them a kind thought or pious impression. Nothing is so sad as the cry, "I am useless!" Happily none need ever _be_ so. A kind word, a gentle act, a modest demeanor, a loving smile, are as so many seeds that we can scatter every moment of our lives, and which will always spring up and bear fruit. Happy are those who have many around them ... they are rich in opportunities, and may sow plenteously. XIX. Few positions in life are so full of importunities as that of the mother of a family, or mistress of a house. She may have a dozen interruptions while writing _one_ letter, or settling an account. What holiness, what self-control, is needed to be always calm and unruffled amid these little vexations, and never to manifest the slightest impatience! Leaving the work without apparent annoyance, replying with a smile upon the lips, awaiting patiently the end of a long conversation, and finally returning calmly to the yet unfinished work--all this is the sign of a recollected soul, and one that waits upon GOD. Oh! what blessings are shed around them by such patient souls ... but, alas! how rarely they are to be met with! XX. There are times in one's life when all the world seems to turn against us. Our motives are misunderstood, our words misconstrued, a malicious smile or an unkind word reveals to us the unfriendly feelings of others. Our advances are repulsed, or met with icy coldness; a dry refusal arrests on our lips the offer of help.... Oh, how hard it all seems, and the more so that we cannot divine the cause! Courage, patience, poor disconsolate one! GOD is making a furrow in your heart, where He will surely sow His grace. It is rare when injustice, or slights patiently borne, do not leave the heart at the close of the day filled with marvellous joy and peace. It is the seed GOD has sown, springing up and bearing fruit. XXI. That which costs little is of little worth. This thought should make us tremble. In our self-examination we may experience at times a certain satisfaction in noticing the little virtues we may possess, above all, those that render us pleasing in the eyes of others. For instance, we may like to pray at a certain place, with certain sentiments, and we think ourselves devout; we are gentle, polite, and smiling towards one person in particular; patient with those we fear, or in whose good opinion we would stand; we are devoted, charitable, generous, because the heart experiences an unspeakable pleasure in spending and being spent for others; we suffer willingly at the hands of some one we love, and then say we are patient; we are silent, because we have no inclination to speak; shunning society because we fail to shine there, and then fancy that we love retirement. Take these virtues that give you such self-satisfaction, one by one, and ask yourself at what sacrifice, labor, or cost, above all, with what care you have managed to acquire them.... Alas! you will find that all that patience, affability, generosity, and piety are but as naught, springing from a heart puffed up with pride. It costs nothing, and it is worthless. As self-sacrifice, says De Maistre, is the basis and essence of virtue, so those virtues are the most meritorious that have cost the greatest effort to attain. Do not look with so much pride on this collection of virtues, but rather bring yourself to account for your faults. Take just one, the first that comes, impatience, sloth, gossip, uncharitableness, sulkiness, whatever it may be, and attack it bravely. It will take at least a month, calculating upon three victories every day, not indeed to eradicate it,--a fault is not so short-lived,--but to prevent its attaining dominion over you. That one subdued, then take another. It is the work of a lifetime; and truly to our faults may we apply the saying, "_Quand il n'y en a plus, il y en a encore._" "Happy should I think myself," said S. Francis de Sales, "if I could rid myself of my imperfections but _one_-quarter of an hour previous to my death." XXII. BEFORE HOLY COMMUNION JESUS My child, it is not wisdom _I_ require of thee, it sufficeth if thou lovest Me well. Speak to Me as thou wouldst talk to thy mother if she were here, pressing thee to her heart. * * * * * _Hast thou none for whom thou wouldst intercede?_ Tell Me the names of thy kindred and thy friends; and at the mention of each name add what thou wouldst have Me do for them. Ask much fervently; the generous hearts that forget themselves for others are very dear unto Me. Tell Me of the poor thou wouldst succor, the sick thou hast seen suffering, the sinful thou wouldst reclaim, the estranged thou wouldst receive to thy heart again. Pray fervently for all mankind. Remind Me of My promise to hear all prayers that proceed from the heart; and the prayer offered for one who loves us, and is dear to us, is sure to be heartfelt and fervent. * * * * * _Hast thou no favors to ask of Me?_ Give Me, if thou wilt, a list of all thy desires, all the wants of thy soul. Tell Me, simply, of all thy pride, sensuality, self-love, sloth; and ask for My help in thy struggles to overcome them. Poor child! be not abashed; many that had the same faults to contend against are now saints in heaven. They cried to Me for help, and by degrees they conquered. Do not hesitate to ask for temporal blessings,--health, intellect, success. I can bestow them, and never fail to do so, where they tend to make the soul more holy. What wouldst thou this day, My child?... If thou didst but know how I long to bless thee!... * * * * * _Hast thou no interests which occupy thy mind?_ Tell Me of them all.... Of thy vocation. What dost thou think? What dost thou desire? Wouldst thou give pleasure to thy mother, thy family, those in authority over thee? what wouldst thou do for them? And for Me hast thou no ardor? Dost thou not desire to do some good to the souls of those thou lovest, but who are forgetful of Me? Tell Me of one in whom thou hast interest; the motive that actuates; the means thou wouldst employ. Lay before Me thy failures, and _I_ will teach thee the cause. Whom wouldst thou have to help thee? The hearts of all are in My keeping, and _I_ lead them gently wheresoever _I_ will. Rest assured, all who are needful to thee, _I_ will place around thee. _Oh! My child, tell Me of all thy weariness_: who has grieved thee? treated thee with contempt? wounded thy self-love? Tell Me all, and thou wilt end by saying, all is forgiven, all forgotten ... and _I_, surely _I_ will bless thee!... _Art thou fearful of the future?_ Is there in thy heart that vague dread that thou canst not define, but which nevertheless torments thee? Trust in My Providence.... _I_ am present with thee, _I_ know all, and _I_ will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Are there around thee those seemingly less devout than formerly, whose coldness or indifference have estranged thee from them without real cause?... Pray for them. _I_ can draw them back to thee if they are necessary to the sanctification of thy soul. _What are the joys of which thou hast to tell Me?_ Let Me share thy pleasures; tell Me of all that has occurred since yesterday to comfort thee, please thee, to give thee joy! That fear suddenly dispelled, that unexpected success, that token of affection, the trial that proved thee stronger than thou thoughtest.... My child, _I_ sent it all; why not show some gratitude, and simply thank thy LORD? Gratitude draws down a blessing, and the Great Benefactor likes His children to remind Him of His Goodness. _Hast thou no promises to make to Me?_ I can read thy heart; thou knowest it; thou mayst deceive man, but thou canst never deceive God. Be sincere. _Art thou resolved to avoid all occasions of sin?_ To renounce that which tempts thee; never again to open the book that excites thine imagination? Not to bestow thine affection on one who is not devout, and whose presence steals the peace from thy soul? Wilt thou go now and be loving and forbearing towards one who has vexed thee?... Good, My child!... Go, then, return to thy daily toil; be silent, humble, resigned, charitable; then return to Me with a heart yet more loving and devoted, and _I_ shall have for thee fresh blessings. XXIII. "There will soon be none left," said S. Francis de Sales, "who will love poor sinners but GOD and myself." Oh! why do we fail in love towards those poor sinful ones! Are they not very much to be pitied? When they are prosperous, pray for them; but when misfortune comes (and trouble weighs heavily upon the wicked), death depriving them of the only beings they did not hate, afflicting them with a loathsome disease, delivering them up to scorn and misery--oh! then, when all this comes upon them, love them freely. It is by affection alone that we can reach the worst characters, and the souls that are steeped in sin. How many have died impenitent, who, if only some one had cared for them and shown them love, might have become at last saints in heaven! Oh! the sins that are committed, oh! the souls we suffer to wander from GOD, and all because we are so wanting in love towards them. XXIV. Let us always be on our guard against _Prejudice_. Some women have a way (of which they themselves are unconscious) of turning the cold shoulder to some one member of their family. For what reason? They cannot say, simply because the cause is never very clearly defined and in this lies all the mischief. Perhaps an air of indifference they may have fancied, and which arose merely from fatigue, or trouble that could not be confided to them. A word misinterpreted, because heard at a time when they felt discontented, and their morbid imagination made everything appear in a false light. Some scandal to which they ought never to have listened, or, at least, should have endeavored to fathom, going direct to the person concerned and seeking an explanation. And behold the result: they in their turn become cold, reserved, and suspicious, misinterpreting the slightest gesture ... in a few days arises a coldness, from the feeling they are no longer beloved; then follow contempt and mistrust, finally, a hatred that gnaws and rends the very heart. It all springs up imperceptibly, till at last the family life is one of bitterness and misery. They console, or better still, excuse themselves, with the thought of their suffering, never considering how much pain they give to others, nor where the fault lies. XXV. Let it rest! Ah! how many hearts on the brink of anxiety and disquietude by this simple sentence have been made calm and happy! Some proceeding has wounded us by its want of tact; _let it rest_; no one will think of it again. A harsh or unjust sentence irritates us; _let it rest_; whoever may have given vent to it will be pleased to see it is forgotten. A painful scandal is about to estrange us from an old friend; _let it rest_, and thus preserve our charity and peace of mind. A suspicious look is on the point of cooling our affection; _let it rest_, and our look of trust will restore confidence.... Fancy! we who are so careful to remove the briers from our pathway for fear they should wound, yet take pleasure in collecting and piercing our hearts with the thorns that meet us in our daily intercourse with one another. How childish and unreasonable we are! XXVI. Of all the means placed by Providence within our reach, whereby we may lead souls to Him, there is one more blessed than all others,--intercessory prayer. * * * * * How often, in the presence of one deeply loved, but, alas! estranged from GOD, the heart of mother or wife has felt a sudden impulse to say an earnest word, propose an act of devotion, to paint in glowing colors the blessings of faith and the happiness of virtue ... and she has stopped, deterred by an irresistible fear of how the words may be received; and she says to herself, poor woman, "To-morrow I shall be braver." * * * * * Poor mother! poor wife! go and tell to your Heavenly FATHER all you would, but _dare_ not, say to the loved one who gives you so much pain. Lay that sin-sick soul before the LORD, as long ago they laid the paralytic man who could not, or perhaps _would_ not, be led to Him. Plead for him with the long-suffering SAVIOUR, as you would plead with an earthly master, upon whom depended all his future welfare, and say to Him simply, "LORD, have patience with him yet a little longer." Tell GOD of all your anxiety, your discouragements, the means employed for success. Ask Him to teach you what to say and how to act. One sentence learned of GOD in prayer will do more for the conversion of a soul than all our poor human endeavors. _That_ sentence will escape our lips involuntarily. We may not remember that we have said it, but it will sink deep into the heart, making a lasting impression, and silently fulfilling its mission. * * * * * You are, perhaps, surprised, after many years, to see such poor results. Ah! how little can you judge!... Do you know what you have gained? In the first place, time--often a physical impossibility to sin, which you may attribute to chance, but which was, in reality, the work of Providence; and is it nothing, one sin the less, in the life of an immortal soul?... Then a vague uneasiness which will soon allow of no rest, a confidence which may enable you to sympathize, more liberty left you for the exercise of religious acts; you no longer see the contemptuous smile at your acts of devotion. Is all this _nothing_? Ah! if, while on your knees praying for the one you would have reconciled to GOD, you could but see what is passing in his soul,--the wrestlings, the remorse he strives vainly to stifle; if you could see the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart, gently but firmly triumphing over the will, how earnestly, how incessantly, would you continue to pray! Only have patience to wait--perseverance not to grow weary. It is the want of patience that often makes us exacting towards those we desire to help. More haste, less speed, is an old saying; the more we are exacting, the less likely are we to succeed. Men like to act freely, and to have the credit of their actions. It is because we have not learned to persevere that the work seems never to progress. Courage, then! the ground may seem too dry for cultivation, but each prayer will be as a drop of water; the marble may be very hard, but each prayer is like the hammer's stroke that wears away its roughness. XXVII. The sweet peace of GOD bears the outward token of resignation. When the Holy Spirit dwells within us everything seems bright. Everything may not be exactly as we would wish it, but we accept all with a good grace.... For instance, some change in our household or mode of living upsets us. If GOD is with us, He will whisper, "Yield cheerfully thy will; in a little while all will be forgotten." Some command or employment wounds our pride; if GOD is with us, He will say to us, "Be submissive, and _I_ will come to thine aid." We may dislike a certain neighborhood; the society there may be repulsive to us, and we are about to become morbid: GOD will tell us to continue gracious and smiling, for He will recompense the little annoyances we may experience. If you would discern in whom GOD'S Spirit dwells, watch that person, and notice whether you ever hear him murmur. XXVIII. I WANT TO BE HOLY Heavenly Father, aid Thy child, who longs to become holy! But then, I must be patient under humiliation, let myself be forgotten, and be even pleased at feeling myself set aside. _Never mind! I am resolved; I wish to be holy!_ But I must never excuse myself, never be impatient, never out of temper. _Never mind! I am resolved; I wish to be holy!_ Then I must continually be doing violence to my feelings,--submitting my will always to that of my superiors, never contentious, never sulky, finishing every work begun, in spite of dislike or ennui. _Never mind! I am resolved; I wish to be holy!_ But then, I must be always charitable towards all around me; loving them, helping them to the utmost of my power, although it may cause me trouble. _Never mind! I am resolved; I wish to be holy!_ But I must constantly strive against the cowardice, sloth, and pride of my nature, renouncing the world, the vanity that pleases, the sensuality that rejoices me, the antipathy that makes me avoid those I do not like. _Never mind! I am resolved; I still wish to be holy!_ Then, I shall have to experience long hours of weariness, sadness, and discontent. I shall often feel lonely and discouraged. _Never mind! I am resolved; I wish to be holy!_ for then I shall have Thee always with me, ever near me. LORD, help me, for I want to be holy! * * * * * HOW TO BECOME HOLY Oh! it is quite easy, if I fulfil every duty to the best of my ability; and many who had no more to do than I have become saints. One day is the same as another. Prayer, worldly business, calls to be devout, charitable, and faithful,--these are the duties that each hour brings in its turn; and if I am faithful in their fulfilment, GOD will be always ready to help me, and then what signifies a little ennui, pain, or misfortune? * * * * * THE SANCTIFICATION OF DAILY DUTIES I will perform them as in GOD'S sight, conscious that He is present, and smiling on my efforts. I will perform each as if I had but one to accomplish, striving to render it as perfect as possible. I will fulfil each duty as if upon that one alone depended my salvation. * * * * * MOTIVES FOR SANCTIFYING MY ACTIONS GOD expects me to honor Him by that action. GOD has attached a special blessing to that action, and awaits its fulfilment to bestow it. GOD notes each action; and of them all hereafter I must give an account. GOD will see that I love Him, if I strive to fulfil every duty, in spite of weariness and trouble. I honor GOD by this action; and I, poor, weak, sinful child, am allowed to glorify Him, in place of those who blaspheme and rebel against the Divine will. XXIX. They say there is nothing which communicates itself so quickly amongst the members of a family as an expression of coldness or discontent on the face of one of its members. It is like the frost that chills us. This is not altogether true; there is something which is communicated with equal rapidity and greater force--I mean the smiling face, the beaming countenance, the happy heart. XXX. LITTLE WORRIES There is not a day in our lives that we are not distressed by some one of those numberless little worries that meet us at every step, and which are inevitable. The wound made may not be deep; but the constant pricks, each day renewed, imbitter the character, destroy peace, create anxiety, and make the family life, that otherwise would be so sweet and peaceful, almost unendurable. Life is full of these little miseries. Each hour brings with it its own trouble. Here are some of the little worries: An impatient word escapes our lips in the presence of some one in whose estimation we would stand well. A servant does his work badly, fidgets us by his slowness, irritates us by his thoughtlessness, and his awkward blunders make us blush. A giddy child in its clumsiness breaks something of value, or that we treasure on account of its associations; we are charged with a message of importance, and our forgetfulness makes us appear uncourteous, perhaps ungrateful; some one we live with is constantly finding fault, nothing pleases them. If, when night comes, we find we have not experienced these little worries, then we ought to be grateful to GOD. Each of these, and many more, are liable to befall us every day of our life. * * * * * HOW TO BEAR LITTLE WORRIES In the first place, expect them. Make them the subject of our morning prayers, and say to ourselves, Here is my daily cross, do I accept willingly? Surely! for it is GOD Who sends it. After all ... these little troubles, looked at calmly, what are they? Ah, if there were never any worse! Secondly, we must be prepared for them. You know, if you wish to break the force of a blow falling on you, you naturally bend the body; so let us act with regard to our souls. Accustom yourself, wrote a pious author, to stoop with sweet condescension, not only to exigencies (that is your duty), but to the simple wishes of those who surround you--the accidents which may intervene; you will find yourself seldom, if ever, crushed. To _bend_ is better than to _bear_; to bear is often a little hard; to bend implies a certain external sweetness that yields all constraint, sacrificing the wishes, even in holy things, when they tend to cause disagreements in the family circle. Submission often implies an entire resignation to all that GOD permits. The soul that endures feels the weight of its trouble. The soul that yields scarcely perceives it. Blessed are those docile ones; they are those whom GOD selects to work for Him. XXXI. TO OBTAIN PEACE Approach the Blessed Sacrament, O restless soul, in search of peace, and, humbly kneeling there, pour forth bravely, slowly, and with earnest desire, the following prayer:-- O JESUS, gentle and humble of heart, hear me! From the desire of being esteemed, From the desire of being loved, From the desire to be sought, Deliver me, JESUS. From the desire to be mourned, From the desire of praise, From the desire of preference, From the desire of influence, From the desire of approval, From the desire of authority, From the fear of humiliation, From the fear of being despised, From the fear of repulse, From the fear of calumny, From the fear of oblivion, From the fear of ridicule, From the fear of injury, From the fear of suspicion, Deliver me, JESUS. That others may be loved more than myself. JESUS grant this desire. That others may be more highly esteemed. That others may grow and increase in honor, and I decrease. JESUS, grant me to desire it. That others may be employed, and I set aside. JESUS, grant me to desire this. That others may attract the praise, and myself be forgotten. That others may be preferred in all. Grant me the utmost holiness of which I am capable, then let others be holier than myself. JESUS, grant me to desire it! Oh, if GOD hearkens,--and hearken He surely will, if your prayer has been sincere,--what joy in your heart, what peace on your countenance, what sweetness will pervade your whole life! More than half one's troubles arise from an exaggerated idea of one's own importance, and the efforts we make to increase our position in the world. Lacordaire says, that the sweetest thing on earth is to be forgotten by all, with the exception of those who love us. All else brings more trouble than joy; and as soon as we have completed our task here, and fulfilled our mission, the best thing for us to do is to disappear altogether. * * * * * Let us each cultivate carefully and joyously the portion of soil Providence has committed to our care. Let us never be hindered or distracted by ambitious thoughts, that we could do better, or a false zeal tempting us to forsake our daily task with the vain desire to surpass our neighbors.... Let this one thought occupy our minds. To do _well_ what is given us to do, for this is all that GOD requires at our hands. It may be summed up in four words,--simply, zealously, cheerfully, completely. * * * * * Then if we _are_ slighted, misunderstood, maligned, or persecuted, what does it matter? These injuries will pass away; but the peace and love of GOD will remain with us forever, the reward of our faith and patience. The love of GOD! Who can describe all the joy, strength, and consolation it reveals? Never has human love, in its brightest dreams, been able to form any idea of all the sweetness the love of GOD imparts to the soul, and which is brought still nearer to us in the Blessed Sacrament. I can well understand the words of a loving soul: "With heaven so near, and daily communion with our GOD, how can we ever repine!" XXXII. AFTER HOLY COMMUNION OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN O JESUS! it is Thou Who biddest me say, FATHER! _My Father!_ Oh how that Name rejoices my heart! _My Father!_ I can no longer feel alone; and whatever may happen to me this day, I feel I am protected, comforted, beloved. JESUS! let me dwell on the sweetness of those words: _My Father!_ I need not lift my eyes to heaven, Thou art within me, and where Thou dwellest heaven must be. Yes! heaven is within me! heaven with all its peace and love; and if I keep free from guile this day, my day will be one of heavenly joy, and in addition, the privilege of suffering for Thee. HALLOWED BE THY NAME To hallow Thy Name, O LORD, is to pronounce it with reverence and awe. To-day I will pray more fervently, try to realize Thy Presence, Thy Goodness, Thy Love; and my heart shall be a sanctuary into which nothing shall penetrate that could be displeasing unto Thee. To _hallow Thy Name_ is to call upon it fervently, to have it constantly upon my lips; above all, before taking an important step, when there are difficulties to be overcome, I will softly whisper the Invocation, which is the secret of all holy living! "JESUS, meek and humble of heart, have pity upon me." THY KINGDOM COME O JESUS, Thy kingdom is within my heart, reign there in all Thy sovereignty and power, reign there absolutely! My King! what dost Thou require of me to-day? Thy commandments, my rule of life, my daily duties,--these are Thy commands that I will promise to obey; more than that, I will regard all in authority over me as Thine Ambassadors, speaking to me in Thy Name. What matters the tone or the harshness of the order? What does it signify if some unexpected command upsets all my previous plans? It is Thy Voice I hear, Thou LORD, Whom I will obey always, and in all things. Thy kingdom is also in the hearts of others; and there would I see Thee reigning. Then to whom can I speak of Thee this day? What counsels can I give? What moments may I seize, in which, without wounding the feelings, or parading my zeal, I may be allowed to speak a few words of piety? LORD, let me have the opportunity to help another to love Thee! THY WILL BE DONE IN EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN Yes, yes! Thy Will be done! Thy sweet all-perfect Will! What wilt Thou send me to-day? Humiliation? Provocation? Sufferings? A fresh rending of the heart? A disappointment? Shall I see myself misjudged, falsely suspected, despised? I accept beforehand all that Thou sendest me; and if through weakness I weep, suffer it to be so; if I murmur, check me; if I am vexed, correct me; if hopeless, encourage me. Yes, yes! Let Thy sweet and holy Will be done! Even, O LORD, if to glorify Thee, I must be humiliated, suffering, useless, and forsaken, still, LORD, stay not Thine Hand, I am wholly Thine. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD How blessed, O LORD, to depend only upon Thee ... behold me, Thy child, waiting with outstretched hand to receive Thy benefits. Grant me my temporal blessings,--clothing, nourishment, shelter ... but not too much of anything; and let me have the happiness of sharing my blessings with those poorer than myself to-day. Grant me the blessing of intelligence, that I may read, or hear one of those golden counsels that elevate the soul, and lend wings to the thoughts. Grant me the loving heart, O my FATHER! that I may feel for a moment how I love Thee, and Thy love towards me; let me sacrifice myself for the welfare of another. Give me the Bread of Life, the Holy Eucharist! I have just received it, LORD! Grant me again ere long that great blessing. And then, give all these blessings to those I love, and who love me! FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES, AS WE FORGIVE THEM THAT TRESPASS AGAINST US When I pronounce the word of pardon, what a weight seems lifted from my heart. I will not only banish every feeling of hatred, I will efface every painful remembrance. O GOD, if Thou forgivest me, as I forgive others, what mercy for me! Thou seest I bear no malice, that I forget all injuries.... I have been offended by _words_; I forget them; by actions, I forget them; by omissions, thoughts, desires; they are all forgotten. Ah! in all these ways I have offended Thee, and Thou wilt forget, even as I have forgotten. I will be very merciful, so that Thou mayst have mercy upon me. LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL Now, as I leave Thine altar, I go to encounter temptation. O SAVIOUR! help me, keep me, and warn me of my danger! Let me shun all occasions of evil, and if by weakness or allurements I am led into paths of sin, if I fall, oh! rescue me speedily, that I may fall upon my knees, confessing my sin, and imploring pardon. Sin! this is the evil from which I beseech Thee to deliver me; other troubles that may happen, I accept; they are sent to try me and to purify, and come from Thee; but sin, I have no pleasure in it! Oh! when in the hour of temptation I fall away, LORD, hearken to the cry that I now raise to Thee in all sincerity; I _will_ it not! it is not wilful! I go from Thy Presence, but, JESUS, Thou art with me! In work, in prayer, in suffering, let all be done in Thee! XXXIII. "Mother," asked a child, "since nothing is ever lost, where do all our thoughts go?" "To GOD," answered the mother gravely, "who remembers them forever." "Forever!" said the child. He bent his head, and, drawing closer to his mother, murmured, "I am frightened!" Which of us have not felt the same? XXXIV. One more solemn thought: How old are you? Nineteen. Have you reckoned the number of minutes that have elapsed since your birth? The number is startling: nine millions, three hundred and thirty-three thousand, two hundred.... Each of those minutes has flown to GOD; GOD has examined them and weighed them, and for them you must give account. Each minute bears its own impress (as a coin bears the impress of the Sovereign), and only those marked with the image of GOD will avail you for eternity. Is not this thought one to make you tremble? "I never could understand," writes Guérin, "the feeling of security some have that their works must find favor with GOD--as if our duties were confined to the narrow limits of this little world. To be a good son, statesman, or brother, is not all that is required of us; GOD demands far more than this from those for whom He has destined a crown of glory hereafter." XXXV. One great characteristic of holiness is never to be exacting, never to complain. Each complaint drags us down a degree in our upward course. By complaining, I do not mean the simple imparting of our troubles to others. Complaint savors always of a little bad temper, and a slightly vindictive spirit. * * * * * The saints were never exacting. Contented with their lot, they never desired anything that was withheld from them. "I have asked," said a holy soul, "for something I thought needful; they have forgotten to answer me, or perhaps would not bestow it. Why need I be disquieted? If it were really necessary, GOD would quickly provide means to obtain it." How few could enter into this feeling; and yet it is but the echo of CHRIST'S own words, "Your FATHER in Heaven knoweth that ye have need of all these things." XXXVI. Joy in life is like oil in a lamp. When the oil gets low the wick is consumed, emitting a black vapor, and sending forth only a lurid glow, which does not give light. A life without joy passes away unprofitably, shedding around it only gloom and sorrow. If every morning in a simple prayer,--in those fifteen minutes' meditation (which only seem hard when we do not practise it),--we opened our hearts to GOD, as we open our windows to the sun and air, GOD would fill it with that calm, sweet joy which elevates the soul, prevents it feeling the weight of troubles, and makes it overflow with benevolence. But joy does not mean levity, witty sayings, or repartee ... it is habitual serenity. Through a clear atmosphere we can always see the sky; it seems so light and full of elasticity. A serene sky is always pure ... clouds may pass across it, but they do not stain it. So it is with the heart that early in the morning opens to receive GOD'S Peace. XXXVII. "You are never out of temper," was once said to a woman well known to be much tried at home; "is it that you do not feel the injustice, the annoyances?"--"I feel them as much as you do," she replied; "but they do not hurt me."--"You have, then, some special balm?"--"Yes; for the vexations caused by people, I have _affection_; for those of circumstances, I have prayer; and over every wound that bleeds, I murmur the words, 'Thy Will be done.'" XXXVIII. MY DAILY CROSS If I have no cross to bear to-day, I shall not advance heavenwards. A cross (that is, anything that disturbs our peace) is the spur which stimulates, and without which we should most likely remain stationary, blinded with empty vanities, and sinking deeper into sin. A cross helps us onwards, in spite of our apathy and resistance. To lie quietly on a bed of down may seem a very sweet existence, but pleasant ease and rest are not the lot of a Christian; if he would mount higher and higher, it must be by a rough road. Alas, for those who have no daily cross! Alas, for those who repine and fret against it! * * * * * WHAT WILL BE MY CROSS TO-DAY? Perhaps that person, with whom Providence has placed me, and whom I dislike, whose look of disdain humiliates me, whose slowness worries me, who makes me jealous by being more beloved, more successful, than myself, whose chatter and lightheartedness, even her very attentions to myself, annoy me. Or it may be that person that I think has quarrelled with me, and my imagination makes me fancy myself watched, criticised, turned into ridicule. She is always with me; all my efforts to separate are frustrated; by some mysterious power she is always present, always near. * * * * * This is my heaviest cross; the rest are light in comparison. Circumstances change, temptations diminish, troubles lessen; but those people who trouble or offend us are an ever-present source of irritation. HOW TO BEAR THIS DAILY CROSS Never manifest, in any way, the ennui, the dislike, the involuntary shudder, that her presence produces; force myself to render her some little service--never mind if she never knows it; it is between GOD and myself. Try to say a little good of her every day, of her talents, her character, her tact, for there is all that to be found in her. Pray earnestly for her, even asking GOD to help me to love her, and to spare her to me. Dear companion! blessed messenger of GOD'S mercy! you are, without knowing it, the means for my sanctification, and I will not be ungrateful. Yes! though the exterior be rude and repellent, yet to you I owe it that I am kept from greater sin; you, against whom my whole nature rebels ... how I ought to love you! XXXIX. Who is anxious for a beloved one's eternal welfare? We interest ourselves for their success, their prosperity; we ask GOD to keep them from harm and misfortune; we try to start them well in the world, to make them of reputation, to procure them pleasure. To spare them trouble, we sacrifice our own ease and enjoyment.... Oh, that is all very beautiful, very right; but what should we do for the soul? Do we pray to GOD that this soul may become humble, pure, devoted? Do we take as much pains to procure him the little devotional book that will really help him, as we should to obtain a transient pleasure? Do we help him, unseen, towards that act of charity, humiliation, or self-renunciation? Have we courage not to spare the soul the trial that we know will purify? Does it seem too hard for you? Ah! then you do not know what real love is. Does not GOD love us? Yet GOD lets us suffer; even sends the suffering. Love is given us to help us onwards, nearer to GOD. The most blessed is that which draws us nearest to Him; and in proportion as it leads to GOD we realize its blessedness. The essence of true love is not its _tenderness_, but its strength, power of endurance, its purity, its self-renunciation. The mistake we make is when we seek to be beloved, instead of loving. What makes us cowardly is the fear of losing that love. Never forget this: A selfish heart desires love for itself; a Christian heart delights to love--without return. XL. To learn never to waste our time is perhaps one of the most difficult virtues to acquire. A well-spent day is a source of pleasure. To be constantly employed, and never asking, "What shall I do?" is the secret of much goodness and happiness. Begin, then, with promptitude, act decisively, persevere; if interrupted, be amiable, and return to the work unruffled, finish it carefully--these will be the signs of a virtuous soul. XLI. Are you full of peace? _Pray!_ Prayer will preserve it to you. Are you tempted? _Pray!_ Prayer will sustain you. Have you fallen? _Pray!_ Prayer will raise you. Are you discouraged? _Pray!_ Prayer will reassure and comfort you. XLII. The young are seldom forbearing, because they so little understand the frailties of poor human nature. Oh! if you could only witness the terrible struggles passing in the heart of that friend whose vivacity annoys you, whose fickleness provokes you, whose faults sometimes even make you blush.... Oh! if you saw the tears that are shed in secret, the vexation felt against self (perhaps on your account), you would indeed pity them. Love them! make allowances for them! never let them feel that you know their failings. To make any one believe himself good, is to help him almost in spite of self to become so. * * * * * Forbearance is even _more_ than forgiveness; it is excusing, putting always the best construction upon everything; above all, never showing that some proceeding has wounded us; speaking of any one who has vexed us thus: "She did not think, else she would have acted differently; she never meant to pain me, she loves me too much; she was perhaps unable to do otherwise, and yet suffers at the thought of having displeased me." For a wounded heart no balm is so efficacious as forbearance. _To forbear_ is to forget every night the little vexations of the past day; to say every morning: "To-day I shall be braver and calmer than yesterday." Forbearance even sometimes leads us to detect in ourselves a little want of good nature, condescension, and charity. _To forbear_ is not only freely to forgive, but to meet half-way, with extended hand, those who timidly ask for pardon. XLIII. My friend, do you know why the work you accomplish fails either to give pleasure to yourself or others? It is because it is not cheerfully done, and therefore appears discolored. A joyous heart amid our work imparts to duty a brilliancy that charms the eyes of others, while it prevents those feeling wounded who cannot perform it equally well. Joy, with us, is like a lever, by which we lift the weights that without its help would crush us. A workman once said: "If I were to leave off singing, I should be quite unequal to my business." Then sing always; let your heart sing as in its earliest years. The refrain of the heart, which perhaps never passes the lips, but which echoes in heaven, is this sentence:-- "I love and I am beloved!" XLIV. What regret we sometimes feel, after the death or departure of friends, at never having shown them the respect, the gratitude, we felt towards them, and how from the depths of our heart we are filled with tenderness and affection for them! It may have been that at times we could not speak, because we thought too much of _how_ to say it. Another time we lost the opportunity, because we were always shirking it. Deep devotion is sometimes a little erratic; always afraid of doing too little, doing it badly or inopportunely. Oftener still the tokens of affection are checked, because we think we could show it in some better way; we put off till brighter days the dreams we cherished, the sweet yearning to open the heart to the loved ones, and let them see for once what a large place they fill there. Alas! the days fly past, suddenly comes death, or, sadder still, separation without hope of return, leaving the bitter thought: "Others will show them better than I have done, how dear, how valued, they are." Ah! when we can be loving _to-day_, never let us say, "I will love to-morrow;" when we have the opportunity of being grateful, never put off, for _one_ hour, the proof of our gratitude! * * * * * CONCLUSION Lacordaire, in preparing for a retreat in the country, said he only required for his realization of a dream of happiness and solitude, three things,--(1) GOD; (2) a friend; (3) books. _God!_--We never fail to find Him when we are pure, holy, and fulfilling hourly our duty. _A Friend!_--Responds always to the heart's call, if only that heart be loving and devoted. _Books!_--Oh! if only this little book of _Gold Dust_ might be allowed to form one of the numbers of those that are carried away, far from the world's turmoil, and read in order to gain a little help and peace! It will take up _so_ little room! GOLD DUST _SECOND PART_ I. THE FRIENDLY WHISPER Under this title we commence a series of short counsels for each day of the week, which will be as a friendly whisper, the voice of a Guardian Angel, inspiring, as occasion presents itself, some good action, some self-denial, some little sacrifice. We recommend that it should be placed on the writing-table, in the book we most frequently turn to, or wherever it is most likely to meet the eye. What is so often the one thing wanting to some devout person devoted to doing good? Simply to be _reminded_. MONDAY CHARITY Be good-natured, benevolent, keep up a cheerful expression of countenance, even when alone. That clumsiness, those brusque, rude manners, let them pass without notice. When wishes contrary to your own prevail, yield without ill-humor, or even showing your effort; you will give pleasure, and thus be pleased yourself. Try to please, to console, to amuse, to bestow, to thank, to help. That is all in itself so good! Try to do some good to the souls of others! An earnest word, some encouragement, a prayer softly breathed. Overcome your dislike and aversion to certain persons; do not shun them, on the contrary go and meet them. GOD goes before you. Be courteous even to the troublesome individual who is always in your way. GOD sends him to you. Forgive at once. Do you believe harm was intended? If so, is it not the greater merit? Do not refuse your alms, only let your motives be pure; and in giving, give as to GOD. Do not judge the guilty harshly; pity, and pray for them. Why imagine evil intentions against yourself? cannot you see how the thought troubles and disquiets you? Check the ironical smile hovering about your lips; you will grieve the object of it. Why cause any one pain? Lend yourself to all. GOD will not suffer you to be taken advantage of if you are prompted by the spirit of Charity. TUESDAY THE DIVINE PRESENCE Never separate yourself from GOD. How sweet it is to live always near those who love us! You cannot see GOD, but He is there; just as if some friend were separated from you by a curtain, which does not prevent his seeing you, and which at any moment may unfold and disclose him to your view. When the soul is unstained by sin, and if we remain still and recollected, we can perceive GOD'S presence in the heart, just as we see daylight penetrating a room. We may not be always conscious of this Presence, but imperceptibly it influences all our actions. Oh! however heavy may be the burden you have to bear, does it not at once become light beneath the gaze of that FATHER'S eye? The thought of GOD is never wearisome; why not always cherish it? Go on, without trembling, beneath the Eye of GOD; never fear to smile, love, hope, and enjoy all that makes life sweet. GOD rejoices in our pleasures as a mother in the joys of her child. What is contrary to GOD'S Will, grieves Him, and does you harm, that alone you need fear,--the thought that will stain your soul; the wish that troubles your heart; that unwholesome action, that will weaken your intellect, and destroy your peace. Never long for what GOD sees fit to deny. GOD, beside you, will repair your blunders, provide means whereby you may atone for that sinful action by one more virtuous, wipe away the tears caused by some unmerited reproof or unkind word. You have only to close your eyes for a moment, examine yourself, and softly murmur, "LORD, help me!" Can you not hear GOD'S Voice speaking to you? What! when He says: _Bear this, I am here to aid thee_; you will refuse? He says: _Continue another half-hour the work that wearies thee_; and you would stop? He says: _Do not that_; and you do it? He says: _Let us tread together the path of obedience_; and you answer: No? WEDNESDAY SELF-RENUNCIATION Do not be afraid of that word _Renunciation_. To you, perhaps, it only means, weariness, restraint, ennui. But it means also, love, perfection, sanctification. * * * * * Who cannot renounce, cannot love. Who cannot renounce, cannot become perfect. Who cannot renounce, cannot be made holy. * * * * * _Self-renunciation_ means devotion to our duty, going on with it in spite of difficulties, disgust, ennui, want of success. _Self-renunciation_ is self-sacrifice, under whatever form it presents itself,--_prayer_, _labor_, _love_ ... all that would be an obstacle, not merely to its accomplishment, but its perfection. _Self-renunciation_ is to root out all that encumbers the heart, all that impedes the free action of the Holy Spirit within--longings after an imaginary perfection or well-being, unreal sentiments that trouble us in prayer, in work, in slumber, that fascinate us, but the result of which is to destroy all real application. _Self-renunciation_ is to resist all the allurements of the senses, that would only give pleasure to self, and satisfy the conscience, by whispering, "_It is no sin._" _Self-renunciation_, in short, is destroying, even at the risk of much heart-rending, all in our heart, mind, imagination, that could be displeasing to GOD. Renunciation is not one single action, that when once accomplished we experience relief; it means a constant _sacrifice_, _restraint_, _resisting_, _rending_, each hour, each moment, during our whole life. But is not this a worry, a continual torment? No; not if the moving spring be love or godly fear.... Do you consider it a trouble when you make yourself less comfortable to make room for a friend who visits you? Well! there are times when GOD would make you sensible of His Presence. He is with you, and to retain Him close, Who is all Purity, will you not be more modest in your behavior? If you would receive Him into your heart at Holy Communion, will you not make room for Him, by rooting out that affection He has pointed out to you as dangerous, that interest, that desire, that worldly, sensual attachment? Oh! if you only _really_ loved. Would you call it _torture_ or _constraint_, the energy with which you shatter some poisoned cup you were almost enticed to drink? Well! when encountering the attractive enjoyment, the material delight, which might lead you astray, or the siren voice which would allure you from your duty for a moment--then when conscience whispers, "_Beware_," ... would you be cowardly? Alas, it is slowly and surely that the stream carries on to destruction the blossom that has fallen into its current. It is little by little that pleasure leads on to sin the heart that lets itself be lulled by its charms. THURSDAY SUBMISSION As soon as you awake in the morning, try to realize GOD stretching forth His Hand towards you, and saying, _Dost thou really desire that I should watch over thee this day?_ and you lift up your hands towards this kind FATHER, and say to Him, "Yes, yes, lead me, guide me, love me; I will be very submissive!" Beneath GOD'S protecting Hand, is it possible that you can be sorrowful, fearful, unhappy? No; GOD will allow no suffering, no trial, above what you are able to bear. Then pass through the day, quietly and calmly, even as when a little child you had your mother always beside you. You need only be careful about _one_ thing, _never to displease God_, and you will see how lovingly GOD will direct all that concerns you--material interests, sympathies, worldly cares; you will be astonished at the sudden enlightenment that will come to you, and the wondrous peace that will result from your labor and your toil. Then, welcome trial, sickness, ennui, privations, injustice ... all of it can only come directed by GOD'S Hand, and will wound the soul only in order to cleanse some spot within. Would your mother have given you a bitter dose merely for the sake of causing you suffering? If your duty is hard, owing either to its difficulty or the distaste you feel towards it, lift your heart to GOD and say, "_Lord, help me_," ... then go on with it, even though you seem to do it imperfectly. Should one of those moments of vague misgivings, that leave the soul as it were in utter darkness, come to overwhelm you, call upon GOD, as a child in terror cries out to its mother. If you have sinned, oh! even then be not afraid of the merciful GOD, but with eyes full of tears, say to Him, "Pardon me" ... and add softly, "chastise me soon, O LORD!" Yes, yes, dear one, be always at peace, going on quietly with your daily duties ... more than that, be always joyous. And why not? You who have no longer a mother to love you, and yet crave for love, GOD will be as a mother. You who have no brother to help you, and have so much need of support, GOD will be your brother. You who have no friends to comfort you, and stand so much in need of consolation, GOD will be your friend. Preserve always the _childlike simplicity_ which goes direct to GOD, and speak to Him as you would speak to your mother. Keep that open _confidence_ that tells Him your projects, troubles, joys, as you tell them to a brother. Cherish those _loving words_ that speak of all the happiness you feel, living in dependence upon Him, and trusting in His Love, just as you would tell it to the friend of your childhood. Keep the _generous heart of childhood_ which gives all you have to GOD. Let Him freely take whatever He pleases, all within and around you. Will only what He wills, desiring only what is in accordance with His Will, and finding nothing impossible that He commands. Do you not feel something soothing and consoling in these thoughts? The longer you live, the better you will understand that true happiness is only to be found in a life devoted to GOD, and given up entirely to His Guidance. No! no! none can harm you, unless it be GOD'S Will, and if He allows it; be patient and humble, weep if your heart is sore, but love always, and wait ... the trial will pass away, but GOD will remain yours forever. FRIDAY PRAYER Oh, if you only knew what it is to pray! oh, if GOD would only give you the grace to love prayer! What peace to your soul, what love in your heart! What joy would shine in your countenance, even though the tears streamed from your eyes! _Prayer_, as the first cry escapes the lips, indicates to GOD that some one would speak to Him, and GOD, so good and gracious, is ever ready to listen (with all reverence we say it), with the prompt attention of a faithful servant, He manifests Himself to the soul with ineffable love, and says to it, "Behold Me, thou hast called Me, what dost thou desire of Me?" _To pray_ is to remain, so long as our prayer lasts, in the Presence of GOD, with the certainty that we can never weary Him, no matter what may be the subject of our prayer, or at those times when we are speechless, and as in the case of the good peasant quoted by the Curé d'Ars, we are content to place ourselves before GOD, with only the recollection of His Presence. _To pray_ is to act towards GOD as the child does to its mother, the poor man towards the rich, eager to do him good, the friend towards his friend, who longs to show him affection. _Prayer_ is the key to all celestial treasures; by it we penetrate into the midst of all the joy, strength, mercy, and goodness Divine, ... we receive our well-being from all around us, as the sponge plunged into the ocean imbibes without an effort the water that surrounds it ... this joy, strength, mercy, and goodness become our own. Oh, yes! if you knew how to pray, and loved prayer, how good, useful, fruitful, and meritorious would be your life! Nothing so elevates the soul as prayer. GOD, so condescending to the soul, raises it with Him to the regions of light and love, and then, the prayer finished, the soul returns to its daily duties with a more enlightened mind, a more earnest will. It is filled with radiance divine, and sheds of its abundance upon all who approach. If you would succeed in your study, with the success that sanctifies, _pray_ before commencing. If you would succeed in your intercourse with others, pray before becoming intimate. Nothing so smooths and sweetens life as _Prayer_. There is the _solitary_ prayer, when the soul isolated from all creatures is alone with GOD and feels thus towards Him: "GOD and I;" _God_ to love; _I_ to adore, praise, glorify, thank. _God_ to bestow, _I_ humbly to receive, to renounce, ask, hope, submit!... Ah! who can tell all that passes between the soul and its GOD? There is the _united_ prayer of two friends, bound together by a holy friendship, their desires and thoughts are one, and as one they present themselves before GOD, crying, "Have mercy upon me!" There is the prayer of two hearts separated by distance, made at the same hour in the same words. Soothing prayer, that each day reunites those two sad hearts torn by the agony of parting, and who in GOD'S Presence, strengthened with the same HOLY SPIRIT, recover courage to tread the road to heaven, each in its appointed sphere. Then there is Public Prayer, that which has the special promise of GOD'S Presence; prayer so comforting to the feeble, guilty soul, who can cry in very truth, "My prayer ascends to GOD, supported by the prayers of others." Oh! if you knew how to pray, and loved prayer, how happy and faithful would be your life! SATURDAY EARNESTNESS You love GOD, do you not, dear one, whom GOD surrounds with so much affection? Yes, yes! I love Him! And how do you prove to Him your love? I keep myself pure and innocent, so that His Eye falling upon me may never see anything that displeases Him. I keep myself calm and quiet, and force myself to smile that He may see I am contented. _That is right, but that is not enough._ I think often of how much I owe Him, and apply myself diligently to the work He has given me to do; I bear patiently with those I dislike, with troubles that irritate me; when I am weak I call upon Him, when timid I draw near to Him, when sinful I implore pardon, and strive to do my duty more faithfully. _That is right, but that is not enough._ I lend myself to the importunities of others. I am as a slave to those who need me, and take care never to judge any one harshly. _That is right, but still it is not enough._ Ah! then what more can I do, good angel, thus addressing me, what can I do to show my love to GOD? Devote thyself to doing good to the souls of others. Oh, if you knew how it pleases GOD to see you laboring for them! It is like the joy of a mother, every time she sees some one benefiting her child. How thankful she is to those who nursed it in sickness, spared it pain, showed it some token of affection, a counsel, a warning, that gave it pleasure, by a kind word, a plaything, a smile! All this you may do in that circle, more or less extended, in which you live. Leave to GOD'S minister, if you will, the work of converting souls, and limit your efforts to doing good by bringing yourself into communion with them. To do so, means sweetly, unconsciously, softly, speak to them of GOD, carry them to GOD, lead them to GOD. This may be done by gently, tenderly--by inference as it were--speaking to them of GOD, thus leading them towards Him, bringing them into contact with Him. Hearts are drawn together by talking of their kindred pursuits, souls by speaking of heavenly things. It is not necessary for this purpose to pronounce the name of GOD; it will suffice that the words shall lift the soul beyond this material world and its sensual enjoyments, and raise them upwards to that supernatural atmosphere necessary to the real life. Speak of the happiness of devotion, the charm of purity, the blessing of the few minutes' meditation at the feet of JESUS, the peace procured by entire resignation to Providence, and the sweetness of a life spent beneath GOD'S Fatherly Eye, the comfort the thought of heaven brings in the midst of trouble, the hope of the meeting again above, the certainty of eternal happiness. This is doing good to others, drawing them nearer to GOD, and teaching them more and more of holiness. Limit your efforts to this; later on I will tell you what more you may do. SUNDAY SYMPATHY Welcome with joy each week the day that GOD has called His day. To each day of the week GOD has given its special mission, its share of pleasure and of pain, necessary to purify and fortify and prepare us for eternity. But _Sunday_ is a day of _Love_. On Saturday we lay aside our garments faded and stained by toil, and on Sunday we array ourselves in garments, not only fresher, but more choice and graceful. Why not prepare the heart, even as we do the body? During the week has not the heart been wearied with petty strife and discontent, interests marred, bitter words? Then, why not shake off all this, that only chills affection? On the Saturday let us forgive freely, press the hand warmly, embrace each other; and then peace being restored within, we await the morrow's awakening. Sunday is GOD'S day of truce for all. That day, laying aside all revenge and ill-feeling, we must be filled with forbearance, indulgence, and amiability. Oh! how good for us to feel _obliged_ to be reconciled, and each Sunday renews the obligation. Let us leave no time for coldness and indifference to grow upon us ... it only engenders hatred, and that once established in the heart, oh! how hard is it to cast out again! It is like a hideous cancer whose ravages no remedies can stay. It is as the venomous plant that the gardener can never entirely eradicate. Only by a miracle can hatred be destroyed. At once then let us place a barrier in our hearts against the approach of coolness or indifference, and each Saturday night the head of the family shall thus address us: "Children, to-night we forgive, to-night we forget, and to-morrow begin life afresh in love, one towards another." II. When I have sinned, wrote a pious soul, I feel chastisement will fall upon me, and as if I could hide myself from GOD'S Eye. I _shrink_ into myself, and then I pray, I pray, and the chastisement not being sent, I again expand. _Chastisement_ is like a stone threatening to crush me; _Prayer_ is the hand that withholds it while I make atonement. Oh! how can those live peacefully who never pray? III. OUR DEAD They are not all there--our dead--buried in the churchyard, beneath the grave, o'ershadowed by a cross, and round which the roses bloom. There are others which nothing can recall; they are things which belong to the _heart_ alone, and there alas! have found a tomb. Peace surrounds me to-day; and here in my lone chamber I will invoke them, my much-loved dead. Come! * * * * * The first that present themselves are _the sweet years of childhood_, so fresh, so guileless, so happy. They were made up of loving caresses, bountiful rewards, and fearless confidence: the words, _pain_, _danger_, _care_, were unknown; they brought me simple pleasures, happy days without a thought for the morrow, and only required from me a little obedience. Alas! they are dead ... and what numberless things have they carried with them! What a void they have left! Candor, lightheartedness, simplicity, no longer find a place within! Family ties, so true, so wide, so light, have all vanished! The homely hearth, the simple reward earned by the day's industry, maternal chidings, forgiveness so ingenuously sought, so freely given, promises of amendment, so sincere, so joyously received.... Is this all gone forever? can I never recall them? The vision that follows is that of my _early piety_, simple and full of faith, which was as some good angel o'ershadowing me with its snowy wings, and showing me GOD everywhere, in all, and with all. The good GOD, Who each day provides my daily bread! The GOD, Who spared my mother in sickness, and relieved her when she suffered--GOD, Who shielded me from harm when I did right! The GOD, Who sees all, knows all, and is Omnipotent, Whom I loved with all my heart. Alas! faithful, simple piety, thou art dead; in innocence alone couldst thou live! Next comes _the love of my earliest years_. Love in childhood, love in youth, so full of true, simple joy, that initiated me in the sweet pleasure of devotion, that taught me self-denial in order to give pleasure, that destroyed all egotism, by showing me the happiness of living for others. Love of my childhood, love of my youth, so pure, so holy, on which I always reckoned when they spoke to me of trouble, loneliness, depression ... thou also art dead. An involuntary coolness, an unfounded suspicion never cleared, an ill-natured story ... all these have destroyed that child of Heaven. I knew it was tender, and I cherished it, but I could not believe it to be so frail. I could make a long list of all the dead enshrined in my heart! Oh, you who are still young, upon whom GOD has lavished all the gifts that are lost to me,--candor, simplicity, innocence, love, devotion ... guard, oh, guard these treasures, and that they may never die, place them beneath the shelter of _Prayer_. IV. THE SPIRITUAL LIFE What a sweet life is that! The maintaining, strengthening it, has a softening influence; and it is a labor that never wearies, never deceives, but gives each day fresh cause for joy. In the language of devotion, it is called the _interior life_; and it is our purpose to point out minutely its nature, excellence, means, and hindrances. Let no one think the interior life is incompatible with the life domestic and social, which is often so engrossing; just as the action of the heart maintained by the constant flow of blood in no way affects the outward movements, so is it with the life of the soul, which consists chiefly in the action of GOD'S HOLY SPIRIT within, that never hinders our social duties, but on the contrary is a help towards fulfilling them more calmly, more perfectly. * * * * * NATURE OF THE INTERIOR LIFE The interior life is an abiding sense of GOD'S Presence, a constant union with Him. We learn to look upon the heart as the temple where GOD dwells, sometimes glorious as above, sometimes hidden as in the Holy Eucharist; and we act, think, speak, and fulfil all our duties, as in His Presence. Its aim is to shun sin, and cultivate a detachment from all earthly things by a spirit of poverty; sensual pleasures by purity and mortification; pride by humility; dissipation by recollection. As a rule, people are prejudiced against an interior life. Some are afraid of it, and look upon it as a life of bondage, sacrifice, and restraint: others despise it, as nothing but a multiplicity of trifling rules, tending only to narrow-mindedness and uselessness, and fit only for weak minds. In consequence they are on their guard against it, and avoid the books that treat of it. They would serve GOD no doubt, but they will not subject themselves to the entire guidance of His Spirit; in short, it is far easier to bring a soul from a state of sin to that of grace, than it is to lead a busy, active, zealous person to the hidden, contemplative life of the soul. * * * * * EXCELLENCE OF THE INTERIOR LIFE GOD dwelling within us, the life of CHRIST Himself, when on earth, living always in His FATHER'S Presence. It is the life of which S. Paul speaks when he says, "nevertheless I live; yet not I, but CHRIST liveth in me." All saints must lead this life, and their degree of holiness is in proportion to the perfection of their union with GOD. CHRIST animates their souls, even as the soul animates the body. They own CHRIST as Master, Counsellor, and Guide; and nothing is done without submitting it to Him, and imploring His aid and approval. CHRIST is their strength, their refuge, their defender. They live in constant dependence upon Him, as their Father, Protector, and all-powerful King. They are drawn to Him, as the child is drawn by love, the poor by need. They let themselves be guided by Him, as the blind let themselves be led by the child in whom they confide; they bear all suffering that comes from Him, as the sick, in order to be healed, bear suffering at the hands of a physician; and they lean on Him, as the child leans on its mother's breast. It lifts them above the troubles and miseries of life; the whole world may seem a prey to calamities; themselves, deprived of their goods through injustice or accident; they lose their relations through death, their friends through treachery or forgetfulness, their reputation and honor from slander, a serious illness deprives them of health, their happiness is destroyed by hardness and temptations.... Ah! no doubt, they will have these trials, no doubt they must shed bitter tears, but still GOD'S peace will remain to them, the peace that passeth all understanding; they will realize GOD has ordered it, guided it with His Hand Divine, and they will be able to exclaim with joy, "Thou art left to us, and Thou art all-sufficient!" * * * * * ACTS OF THE INTERIOR LIFE 1. _See God_, that is to say, be always realizing His Presence, feeling Him near, as the friend from Whom we would never be separated, in work, in prayer, in recreation, in repose. GOD is not importunate, He never wearies, He is so gracious and merciful, His Hand directs everything, and He will not "suffer us to be tempted above that we are able." 2. _Listen to God_: be attentive to His counsels, His warnings; we hear His Voice in those Gospel words that recur to our minds, in the good thoughts that suddenly dawn on us, the devout words that meet us in some book, on a sheet of paper, or falling from the lips of a preacher, a friend, or even a stranger. 3. _Speak to God_: hold converse with Him, more with the heart than the lips, in the early morning's meditation, ejaculatory prayer, vocal prayer, and above all in Holy Communion. 4. _Love God_: be devoted to Him, and Him alone; have no affection apart from Him; restrain the love that would estrange us from Him; _lend_ ourselves to all, out of love to Him, but _give_ ourselves to Him alone. 5. _Think of God_: reject whatever excludes the thought of Him. Of course, we must fulfil our daily duties, accomplishing them with all the perfection of which we are capable; but they must be done as beneath the Eye of GOD, with the thought that GOD has commanded them, and that to do them carefully is pleasing in His sight. * * * * * MEANS BY WHICH TO ATTAIN THE INTERIOR LIFE 1. _Great tenderness of Conscience_, secured by constant, regular, and earnest confession to GOD, a hatred of all sin, imperfection, infidelity, by calmly but resolutely fleeing every occasion of it. 2. _Great purity of heart_, by detachment from all earthly things,--wealth, luxuries, fame, kindred, friends, tastes, even life itself ... not that we need fail in love to our kindred and friends, but we must only let the thought of them abide in the heart as united to the love and thought of GOD. 3. _Great purity of mind_, carefully excluding from it all useless, distracting thoughts as to past, present, or future; all preoccupation over some pet employment; all desire to be known, and thought well of. 4. _Great purity of action_, only undertaking what lies in the path of duty; controlling natural eagerness and activity; acting soberly, with the help of the HOLY SPIRIT, the thought that by our deeds we glorify GOD: pausing for a moment, when passing from one occupation to another, in order to direct aright the intention; and taking care to be always occupied in what is useful and beneficial. 5. _Great recollectedness and self-mortification_; avoiding, as much as we can in keeping with our social position, all dissipation, bustle, disturbance; never allowing voluntarily, useless desires, looks, words, or pleasures, but placing them under the rule of reason, decorum, edification, and love; taking care that our prayers be said slowly and carefully, articulating each word, and trying to _feel_ the truth of what we are saying. 6. _Great care and exactitude_ in all the ordinary actions of life, above all in the exercises of religion; leaving nothing to chance or hazard; beholding in everything GOD'S overruling Will, and saying to one's self sometimes, as the hour for such and such duty arrives, "I must hasten, GOD is calling me." 7. _Much intercourse with God_; speaking to Him with simplicity, loving Him dearly, always consulting Him, rendering to Him an account of every action, thanking Him constantly, and above all, drawing near to Him with joy in the Holy Eucharist. One great help towards such sweet communion with GOD, will be found in a steady perseverance in the early morning's meditation. 8. _Much love for our neighbor_, because he is the much-loved child of GOD, praying for him, comforting, teaching, strengthening, and helping him in all difficulties. * * * * * HINDRANCES TO THE INTERIOR LIFE 1. _Natural activity_, always urging us on, and making us too precipitate in all our actions. It shows itself:-- _In our projects_, which it multiplies, heaps up, reforms, and upsets. It allows of no rest, until what it has undertaken is accomplished. _In our actions._ Activity is absolutely necessary to us. We load ourselves with a thousand things beyond our duty, sometimes even contrary to it. Everything is done with impetuosity and haste, anxiety and impatience to see the end. _In our conversation._ Activity makes us speak without thinking, interrupting rudely, reproving hastily, judging without appreciation. We speak loudly, disputing, murmuring, and losing our temper. _In prayer._ We burden ourselves with numberless prayers, repeated carelessly, without attention, and with impatience to get to the end of them; it interferes with our meditations, wearies, torments, fatigues the brain, drying up the soul, and hindering the work of the HOLY SPIRIT. 2. _Curiosity_ lays the soul open to all external things, fills it with a thousand fancies and questionings, pleasing or vexatious, absorbing the mind, and making it quite impossible to retire within one's self and be recollected. Then follow distaste, sloth, and ennui for all that savors of silence, retirement, and meditation. Curiosity shows itself, when _studies_ are undertaken from vanity, a desire to know all things, and to pass as clever, rather than the real wish to learn in order to be useful--in _reading_, when the spare time is given up to history, papers, and novels--in _walking_, when our steps would lead us where the crowd go to see, to know, only in order to have something to retail; in fact, it manifests itself in a thousand little actions; for instance, pressing forward with feverish haste to open a letter addressed to us, longing eagerly to see anything that presents itself, always being the first to tell any piece of news.... When we forget GOD, He is driven from the heart, leaving it void, and then ensues that wild craving to fill up the void with anything with which we may come into contact. 3. _Cowardice._ GOD does not forbid patient, submissive pleading, but murmuring fears are displeasing to Him, and He withdraws from the soul that will not lean on Him. Cowardice manifests itself when in the _trials of life_ we rebel against the Divine will that sends us illness, calumny, privation, desertion; when in _dryness of soul_ we leave off our prayers and communions because we feel no sensible sweetness in them; when we feel a sickness of the soul that makes us uneasy, and fearful that GOD has forsaken us. The soul estranged from GOD seeks diversion in the world; but in the midst of the world, GOD is not to be found; when temptations come, wearied, frightened, and tormented, we wander farther and farther away from Him, crying, "I am forsaken," when the trial has really been sent in order to keep us on our guard, prevent our becoming proud, and offering us an opportunity for showing our love. V. THE LESSON OF A DAISY I saw her from afar, poor child; she looked dreamy as she leaned against the window, and held in her hand a daisy, which she was questioning by gradually pulling it to pieces. What she wanted to ascertain I cannot tell; I only heard in a low murmur, falling from her pale lips, these words: "_a little, a great deal, passionately, not __ at all_," as each petal her fingers pulled away fell fluttering at her feet. I could see her from a distance, and I felt touched. Poor child, why do you tell a flower the thought that troubles you? have you no mother? Why be anxious about the future? have you not GOD to prepare it for you, as tenderly as eighteen years ago your mother prepared your cradle? Finally, when the daisy was all but gone, when her fingers stopped at the last petal, and her lips murmured the word _little_, she dropped her head upon her arms, discouraged, and, poor child, she wept! * * * * * Why weep, my child? is it because this word does not please you? Let me, let me, in the name of the simple daisy you have just destroyed, give you the experience of my old age. Oh! if you only knew what it costs to have _much_ of anything! _A great deal of wit_ often results in spitefulness which makes us cruel and unjust, in jealousy that torments, in deception that sullies all our triumphs, and pride which is never satisfied. _A great deal of heart_ causes uneasiness which vexes, pain that rends asunder, grief that nearly kills ... sometimes even the judgment is deceived. _A great deal of attractiveness_ means often a consuming vanity, overwhelming deception, an insatiable desire to please, a fear of being unappreciated, a loss of peace, domestic life much neglected. _A great deal of wealth and success_ is the cause of luxury that enfeebles, loss of calm, quiet happiness, loss of love, leaving only the flattery that captivates. No, no, my child, never long for _a great deal_ in this life, unless it be for much forbearance, much goodness. And if it should be GOD'S Will to give you _much_ of anything, then, oh, pray it may never be to your condemnation! * * * * * Is _Passionately_ the word you long for? Passionately! oh, the harm that is done by that word! there is something in the thought of it that makes me shudder. Passionately means transport, frenzy, excess in everything. The life that the word _passionately_ describes must be a life full of risks and dangers; and if, by little short of a miracle, nothing outwardly wrong appears, the inner life must resemble a palace ravaged by fire, where the stranger sees nothing but cracked walls, blackened furniture, and drapery hanging in shreds. * * * * * My child, I would prefer for you the words _not at all_, as applied to fortune, external charms, and all that goes by the name of glory, success, and fascination in the world. I know it may seem a hard sentence, involving a continual self-denial, and exacting incessant hard labor to obtain the bare necessities of life for those we love. But do not be afraid of it. GOD never leaves His creatures in absolute need. GOD may deprive a face of beauty, a character of amiability, a mind of brilliancy, but He will never take away a heart of love; with the faculty of loving, He adds the power of prayer, and the promise always to listen to and answer it. As long as we can love and pray, life has charms for us. Love produces devotion, and devotion brings happiness, even though we may not understand it. In prayer we feel we are beloved; and the love of GOD, oh, if only you knew how it compensates for the indifference of our fellow-creatures! * * * * * There now only remains to us the last words of the daisy, _a little_! the loving fatherly answer GOD has given to your childish curiosity. Accept it, and make it the motto of your life! _A little_; moderation in wealth and fortune, a condition that promises the most peaceful life, free from anxiety for the future--doubtless requiring daily duties, but permitting many innocent enjoyments. _A little_; moderation in our desires, contentment with what we possess, making the most of it, and repressing all vain dreams of a more brilliant position, a more extended reputation, a more famous name. _A little_; the affection of a heart devoted to duty, and kindling joy in the family circle, composed of kindred to love, friends to cheer, poor to succor, hearts to strengthen, sufferings to alleviate. _A little_; a taste for all that is beautiful,--books, works of art, music, not making us idly dream of fame, but simply providing enjoyment for the mind, all the more keen, as the daily toil renders the occasions rare. Do you see, my child, how much may lie beneath those simple words, _a little_, that the daisy gave you, and that you seem so much to despise! Never scorn anything that seems wanting in brilliancy, and remember to be really happy we must have-- More _virtue_ than knowledge, More _love_ than tenderness, More _guidance_ than cleverness, More _health_ than riches, More _repose_ than profit. VI. Each day is like a furrow lying before us; our thoughts, desires, and actions are the seed that each minute we drop into it, without seeming to perceive it. The furrow finished, we commence upon another, then another, and again another; each day presents a fresh one, and so on to the end of life ... sowing, ever sowing. And all we have sown springs up, grows and bears fruit, almost unknown to us; even if by chance we cast a backward glance we fail to recognize our work. Behind us angels and demons, like gleaners, gather together in sheaves all that belongs to them. Every night their store is increased. They preserve it, and at the last day will present it to their Master. Is there not a thought in this that should make us reflect? VII. "LEARN OF ME, FOR I AM MEEK AND LOWLY OF HEART" This is a simple rule of life for me, requiring no more than I am able; but I feel it unites me to GOD, makes me more devout, more faithful to duty, more ready for death. Since I have made it my rule, it has been to me a source of consolation, enlightenment, and strength; and yet GOD alone knows how full of pain my life has been! Dear friends, who, like myself, long to become holy, I commend this sentence to you in all its simplicity; listen, for it comes from the loving Heart of JESUS, it fell from His gentle Lips:-- "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart." I. BE MEEK 1. MEEK TOWARDS GOD Living from day to day beneath His Eye, and where all things are ordered by a Divine Providence. As carefully as a mother arranges the room where her child will pass the day, does GOD prepare each hour that opens before me. Whatever has to be done, it is His Will that I should do it; and in order that it should be done well, He provides the necessary time, intelligence, aptitude, and knowledge. Whatever of suffering presents itself, He expects me to bear it, even though I may not see any reason for it; and if the pain be so sharp as to call forth a cry, He gently whispers, "Courage, My child, for it is My will!" If anything occurs to hinder my work, anything goes contrary to my plans and projects, He has ordained it so on purpose, because He knows that too much success would make me proud, too much ease would make me sensual; and He would teach me that the road to heaven is not _success_, but _labor and devotion_. With such thoughts as these all rebellion is hushed! With what peace, what joy, our work may be begun, continued, interrupted, and resumed! With what energy we reject those enemies that assail us at every hour,--idleness, haste, preoccupation, success, want of perseverance under difficulties! Does the past sometimes rise up to trouble me with the thought of the many years spent without GOD? Ah! no doubt the shame and grief are sharp and keen, but why need they disturb my peace of mind? Has not GOD promised His pardon for His blessed SON'S sake, to all who truly repent and unfeignedly believe His Holy Gospel? Have I made a full avowal and entire submission? and am I not willing to fulfil whatever I am advised in GOD'S Name to do for the future? Does the future in its turn seem to frighten me? I smile at the foolish fancies of my imagination; is not my future in GOD'S Hands? What, when all that will befall me to-morrow, next year, ten years, twenty years hence, is ordained by Him, shall I distress myself with the thought that it may not be good for me! LORD! be Thou my Guide, and choose my lot as may seem best to Thee! 2. MEEK UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES Events are messengers of either Divine goodness or justice. Each has a mission to fulfil; and as it comes from GOD, why not let it be accomplished in peace? Painful, heart-rending, though they may be, they are still the Will of GOD. Watch them as they come, with a little trembling, perhaps even terror, but never let them destroy in the least degree my faith and resignation. To be meek under these circumstances, does not mean awaiting them with a stoic firmness which proceeds from pride, or hardening one's self against them to the point of repressing all trembling. No! GOD allows us sometimes to anticipate, postpone, or even when possible flee them; at any rate, we may try to soothe and soften them a little. The GOOD FATHER, when He sends them, sends at the same time the means by which they may be endured, and perhaps averted. _Remedies_, in sickness. _Love_, in trouble. _Devotion_, in privations. _Comfort_, in weakness. _Tears_, in sorrow. GOD has created all these; and knowing perhaps that I may fail to find them, He has given commandment to some privileged servants to love, console, soothe, and help me, saying to them,-- "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it as unto Me." Oh! welcome then the friendly voice that in the midst of trouble speaks to me of hope; I will receive with gratitude the care that affection presses upon me. With thankfulness I accept the _time_ devoted to me, _privation_ borne for my sake; and I will pray GOD to bless these kind friends, and ask Him to say to them words such as these: "All that thou hast done for Mine, I will repay thee a hundred-fold." 3. MEEK TOWARDS OTHERS This may seem even more difficult, for it so often appears to us as if others were actuated by malice. But how often it is only the result of temperament, pride, thoughtlessness; seeking their own pleasure without a thought of the harm they are doing me; then why be unhappy about it? I need only to be on my guard. Never stand in the way of others (when it is not the case of a duty to be fulfilled), and if they sometimes are an obstacle in yours, remove them gently, but do not harm them. Yielding, submitting, retiring, giving up, this should be our conduct towards the members of our family, and those we call our friends. The more facility you give them for doing what they think right, the more you enter into the feelings they have of their own importance, leaving them a free course of action, so much the more will you be likely to be useful to them, and retain your own peace of mind. It is astonishing how those we never press open their hearts to us! Do not try to examine too minutely the actions of others, or the motives that actuate them; if they are wanting in tact, appear not to notice it, or, better still, try to think they have made a mistake. The best remedy for the dislike we feel towards any one is to endeavor to try to do them a little good every day; the best cure for their dislike to us is to try to speak kindly of them. Are those around you wicked? be cautious, but do not lose heart; GOD will not let them harm you. How easy for GOD to stay the consequences of slander and calumny! GOD is the shield, interposing between others, circumstances, and myself. 4. MEEK TOWARDS SELF This does not imply self-complacency, self-indulgence, self-justification, but simply encouragement, strength, and fortitude. _Encouragement_ in some wearisome, monotonous, unrecognized work, with a thought like this: "GOD is watching me, and wishes me to do this." This labor occupies my mind, perfects my soul, and shields me from mischief. Encouragement such as this, in the midst of sadness and isolation, when no one thinks of us, or gives us the smallest token of sympathy, "Is not my duty sufficient for me? God requires it of me, and it will lead me to heaven." _Strength_ to rise again after some failure, some humiliating fault, some depressing weakness; rise again lovingly, confidingly, and with the thought, "Never mind, it is a good FATHER, a kind Master, with Whom I have to deal." Confess your sin, humble yourself, and while awaiting the assurance of pardon go on with your daily work with the same zeal as before. _Fortitude_ against the desertion and forgetfulness of others. We have two things to fortify us,--_Prayer and Labor_. One to cheer us,--_Devotion_. These remedies are always at hand. II. BE HUMBLE I. HUMBLE WITH GOD Resting always in His presence, like a little child, or even a beggar, who knowing nothing is due to him, still asks, loves, and awaits, feeling sure that hour by hour, in proportion to our need, GOD will provide all that is needful, and even over and above what is absolutely necessary. Live peacefully under the protection of Divine Providence; the more you feel your insignificance, weakness, sickness, misery, the more right you have to the pity and love of GOD. Only _pray_ fervently; let your prayer be thoughtful and reverent, sweet and full of hope. The poor have nothing left to them but _prayer_; but that prayer, so humble, so pleading, ascends to GOD, and is listened to with Fatherly love! Do not have a number of varied prayers, but let the "Our FATHER" be ever on your lips and in your heart. Love to repeat to GOD the prayer that CHRIST Himself has taught, and for His sake is always accepted. Look upon yourself as a hired servant of GOD, to whom He has promised a rich reward at the end of the day He calls _life_; each morning hold yourself in readiness to obey all His commands, in the way He wills, and with the means He appoints. The command may not always come _direct_ from the Master; it would be too sweet to hear only GOD'S Voice: but He sends it by means of His ambassadors; these go by the names of _superiors_, _equals_, _inferiors_, sometimes _enemies_. Each has received the mission (without knowing it) to make you holy; one by subduing your independence, another by crushing your pride, a third by spurring your slothfulness. They will, though fulfilling GOD'S command, do it each in his own way, sometimes roughly, sometimes maliciously, sometimes in a way hard to bear ... what does it matter, so long as you feel that all you do, all you suffer, is the will of GOD? Do your duty as well as you can, as you understand it, as it is given to you; say sometimes to GOD, "My Master, art Thou satisfied with me?" and then, in spite of ennui, fatigue, repugnance, go on with it faithfully to the end. Then, whether praise or blame be yours, you will, good faithful servant, at least have peace. 2. HUMBLE TOWARDS OTHERS Look upon yourself as the servant of all, but without ostentation, or their having any knowledge of it. Repeat to yourself sometimes the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary: "Behold the handmaid of the LORD," and those of our LORD, "I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister;" and then act towards others as if you were their slave, warning, aiding, listening; abashed at what they do for you, and always seeming pleased at anything they may require you to do for them. Oh! if you knew the full meaning of these words, all they signify of reward in heaven, of joy and peace on earth, how you would love them! Oh! if you would only make them the rule of your life and conduct, how happy you would be yourself, and how happy you would make others! Happy in the approval of conscience, that whispers, "You have done as CHRIST would have done." Happy in the thought of the reward promised to those who give even a cup of cold water in the name of JESUS CHRIST; happy in the assurance that GOD will do for you what you have done for others. Oh! what matters then ingratitude, forgetfulness, contempt, and scorn? They will pain, no doubt, but will have no power to sadden or discourage. Precious counsel, inspired by CHRIST Himself, I bless you for all the good you have done me! When first those words found entrance to my heart, they brought with them _peace_ and _strength_ to stand against _deception_, _desertion_, _discouragement_ and the _resolute will_ to live a life more devoted to GOD, more united to Him, more contented, and ever pressing onward towards heaven. Once more, I bless you! Precious counsels, enlighten, guide, and lead me. VIII. A SIMPLE PRAYER O JESU! in the midst of glory forget not the sadness upon earth! Have mercy upon those to whom GOD has sent the bitter trial of separation from those they love! Have mercy on that loneliness of heart, so full of sadness, so crushing, sometimes full of terror! Have mercy upon those struggling against the difficulties of life, and faint with discouragement! Have mercy on those whom fortune favors, whom the world fascinates, and who are free from care! Have mercy on those to whom Thou hast given great tenderness of heart, great sensitiveness! Have mercy on those who cease to love us, and never may they know the pain they cause! Have mercy on those who have gradually withdrawn from Holy Communion and Prayer, and losing peace within, weep, yet dare not return to Thee! Have mercy on all we love; make them holy even through suffering! if ever they estrange themselves from Thee, take, oh, take all my joys, and decoy them with the pleasures back again to Thee! Have mercy on those who weep, those who pray, those who know not _how_ to pray! To all, O JESUS, grant Hope and Peace! IX. SIMPLE COUNSELS FOR A YOUNG GIRL Yes, very simple. Listen my child, and may they sink deep into your heart, as the dew sinks in the calyx of the flower. These are my counsels:-- _Distrust the love_ that comes too suddenly. _Distrust the pleasure_ that fascinates so keenly. _Distrust the words_ that trouble or charm. _Distrust the book_ that makes you dream. _Distrust the thought_ you cannot confide to your mother. Treasure these counsels, and sometimes as you read them, ask yourself, "_Why?_" Guardian Angel of the child we are addressing, teach her the reason of these sentences that seem to her so exaggerated! X. A RECIPE FOR NEVER ANNOYING OUR FRIENDS This was made by one who had suffered much for many years from numberless little worries, occasioned by a relative, whose affection no doubt was sincere and devoted, but also too ardent, and wanting in discretion. There must be moderation in all things, even in the love we manifest, the care we take to shield them from trouble. This recipe consists of but four simple rules, very clear, very precise. Behold them:-- 1. _Always leave my friend something more to desire of me._ If he asks me to go and see him three times, I go but twice. He will look forward to my coming a third time, and when I go, receive me the more cordially. It is so sweet to feel we are needed, and so hard to be thought importunate. 2. _Be useful to my friend as far as he permits, and no farther._ An over-anxious affection becomes tiresome, and a multiplicity of beautiful sentiments makes them almost insupportable. Devotion to a friend does not consist in doing _everything_ for him, but simply that which is agreeable and of service to him, and let it only be revealed to him by accident. We all love freedom, and cling tenaciously to our little fancies; we do not like others to arrange what we have purposely left in disorder; we even resent their over-anxiety and care for us. 3. _Be much occupied with my own affairs, and little, very little, with those of my friend._ This infallibly leads to a favorable result. To begin with, in occupying myself with my own affairs, I shall the more speedily accomplish them, while my friend is doing the same. If he appeals to me for help, I will go through fire and water to serve him, but if _not_, then I do both myself and him the greater service by abstaining. If, however, I can serve him without his knowledge of it, and I can see his need, then I must be always ready to do it. 4. _Leave my friend always at liberty to think and act for himself in matters of little importance._ Why compel him to think and act with me? Am _I_ the type of all that is beautiful and right? Is it not absurd to think that because another acts and thinks differently to myself, he must needs be wrong? No doubt I may not always say, "_You are right_," but I can at any rate let him _think_ it. Try this recipe of mine, and I can answer for it your friendship will be lasting. XI. BENEATH THE EYE OF GOD, GOD ONLY As you read these words, are you not conscious of an inward feeling of peace and quietness? _Beneath God's Eye!_ there is something in the thought like a sheltering rock, a refreshing dew, a gleam of light. Ah! why always such seeking for some one to _see_ me, to _understand_, _appreciate_, _praise_ me? The human eye I seek is like the scorching ray that destroys all the delicate colors in the most costly material. Every action that is done, only to be seen of others, loses its freshness in the sight of GOD, like the flower that passing through many hands is at last hardly presentable. Oh, my soul! be as the desert flower that grows, blooms, and flourishes unseen, in obedience to GOD'S Will, and cares not whether the passing bird perceives it, or the wind scatters the petals, scarcely formed. * * * * * On no account neglect the duty you owe to friendship, relatives, society, but remember each day to reserve some portion of it for yourself and GOD only. Remember always to do some actions that can be known to none but GOD. Ah! how sweet to have GOD as our only Witness. It is the high degree of holiness. The most exquisite happiness. The assurance of an entry into heaven hereafter. The mother that reserves all that is most costly for her child, the child that prepares in secret some surprise for its mother, do not experience a joy more pure, more elevating, than the servant of GOD, who lives always in GOD'S Presence, Whom alone they would please, or the loving heart that enclosing alms to some destitute family writes upon the cover these words only, "In the name of the Good and Gracious GOD." * * * * * The following lines were found on some scraps of paper belonging to some stranger: ... They have just told me of a poor destitute woman; I gave them ten pence for her; it was my duty to set an example. And now, my GOD, for Thee, for Thy sake only, I mean to send her five shillings, which I shall deduct from my personal expenses. ... To-morrow Henry is coming to see me, that poor Henry I loved so dearly, but who has grown cold towards his old friend. He wished to grieve me, and little knows that I found it out. Help me, LORD, to remember I have forgiven him, and help me to receive him cordially. Thou alone knowest all I have suffered. ... What a happy day was yesterday! happy with regard to heavenly things, for alas! my poor heart suffered. Yesterday was a festival. The snow outside kept every one at home by their own firesides, and I was left lonely.... Ah, yes, my heart felt sad, but my spirit was peaceful; I tried to talk to GOD, just as if I could really see Him at my side, and gradually I felt comforted, and spent my evening with a sweet sense of GOD'S Presence.... What I said, what I wrote, I know not; but the remembrance of yesterday remains to me as some sweet, refreshing perfume. * * * * * Perhaps at the Last Day all that will remain worth recording of a life full of activity and zeal will be those little deeds that were done solely beneath the Eye of GOD.... My GOD, teach me to live with an abiding sense of Thy Presence, laboring for Thee, suffering for Thee, guided by Thee, ... and Thee alone! XII. MY DUTY TOWARDS GOD PRAYERS. Slow, recollected, persevering. Peaceful, calm, resigned. Simple, humble, trusting. Always reverent, as loving as possible. Charitable. Have I not always opportunity to give? to thank? SUBMISSION. To my lot and to my duty: they come from GOD, are ordained by GOD, lead me to GOD, to neglect them is to estrange myself from Him. To the Guide of my soul: He has received the Holy Spirit in order to show me the way; he has GOD'S Spirit to guide him. To my Parents: they have GOD'S authority. To circumstances: they are arranged and sent by GOD. LABOR. Begun cheerfully. Continued perseveringly. Interrupted and resumed patiently. Finished perfectly and devoutly. Repose and care for the body, as in GOD'S Sight, under GOD'S protection. DUTY TOWARDS MY NEIGHBOR GOOD EXAMPLE. By modest demeanor and simple dress. By a smiling face and pleasing manner. Always striving to give pleasure. Faithfully fulfilling every duty. GOOD WORDS. Zealous without affectation, encouraging, consoling, peaceful, joyful, loving. These are possible every day. GOOD DEEDS. Service rendered by alms, by industry, by influence. Ills remedied, by excusing, justifying, protecting, defending, concealing faults and mistakes; if possible, by repairing them. Joys provided, for the _mind_, by a joyous manner; for the _heart_, by loving thanks; for the soul, by a word of Heaven. MY DUTY TOWARDS MYSELF COURAGE. In trials and adversity, disturbance, sickness, failure, humiliations. Worries that trouble without reason. Ill temper controlled, in order not to pain others. After failures, to begin again. In temptations, to withstand them. ORDER AND METHOD. In my occupation, each at its appointed hour. In my recreation. In all material things, for my benefit. Shunning scruples and constraint as much as caprice and folly. NOURISHMENT. Pious thoughts, read, meditated upon, and sometimes written. Books that elevate and excite love for all that is good and lovely. Conversations that refresh, rejoice, and cheer; walks that expand the mind, as well as strengthen the body. XIII. THE POWER OF AN ACT OF LOVE TOWARDS GOD Have you ever reflected upon this? Let us consider the exact words that describe it. "_I love Thee with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength, because Thou art so good, so infinitely good!_" Try and repeat these words slowly, so that each may penetrate deep into your heart. Do you not feel moved, as if your whole being in these words went forth to GOD, offering to Him life itself? Do you not feel, in making this Act of Love, you give far more than if you gave your wealth, influence, or time; nay, rather does not this very act seem to bring you riches, strength, opportunities, all that you possess? Picture to yourself, standing before you, a child--a child perhaps who may have injured you deeply, and yet whose sincerity at this moment you cannot doubt, who is actuated neither by fear nor self-seeking, but simply by a penitent heart, and who comes to say to you words of love, such as those above, do you feel no emotion, no feeling of pity? I defy you to be without some emotion, not to feel your arms extending, perhaps in spite of you, to embrace this poor child, and not to answer, "_I also love thee_." I have yet another test to put to you, poor, desolate, guilty, hopeless as you are, seeing only within and around you, _fears_, _terror_, and--ay, let me say it--_damnation_. I defy you to kneel and say these words (laying a greater stress on them because of the repugnance you feel): "_My God! I love Thee with all my heart, with all my strength, with all my soul, above everything, because Thou art so good, so infinitely good!_" and then not to feel that JESUS is moved with compassion, and not to hear His Voice, saying to you, "My child, I love thee also!" O JESUS, how can we find words in which to express the tenderness awakened in Thine Heart, by a word of love from one of Thy little ones! That Heart, so tender, gentle, sensitive, and loving! A sentence of Faber's may sound unnatural to us, so little spiritually minded: he says, "GOD sometimes draws us to Him, and fills us with love for Him, not that He may love us, _that_ He always does, but in order to make us _feel_ how He loves us!" An Act of Love demands but a few moments. The whole of the day, even in the midst of labor, we can multiply it infinitely, and what wonders are wrought by each Act! JESUS Himself is glorified, and He sheds abundant grace upon the earth. Our Guardian Angel, beholding us, listens, draws nearer, and makes us feel we have done right. The Angels above experience a sudden joy, and look upon us tenderly. Evil spirits feel their power diminished, and there is a moment of rest from the temptation that surrounds us. The choir of saints above renew their songs of praise. Each soul on earth feels the peace Divine. Ah! which of us each day would not renew these Acts of Love to GOD! Ah! all who read these lines, pause for one moment, and from the bottom of your heart exclaim, "My GOD, I love Thee! My GOD, I love Thee!" XIV. BE SERIOUS A statesman retiring from public life occupied himself in his latter days with serious thoughts. The friends who came to visit him, reproached him with being melancholy. "No," he replied; "I am only _serious_. All around me is serious, and I feel the need that heart and mind should be in unison with my surroundings." "For," he added, with such solemnity as to impress all present, "GOD is _serious_ as He watches us. JESUS is _serious_ when He intercedes for us. The HOLY SPIRIT is _serious_ when He guides us. Satan is _serious_ when he tempts us. The wicked in hell are _serious_ now, because they neglected to be so when on earth; all is _serious_ in that world whither we are wending." Oh, my friends! believe me, it is all true; let us at least at times be _serious_ in our thoughts and in our actions. XV. CONSOLATION You distress yourself sometimes, poor thing! because amongst those who surround you, there are one or two who worry and annoy you. They do not like you, find fault with everything you do, they meet you with a severe countenance and austere manner, you think they do you harm, you look upon them as obstacles to your doing good. Your life passes away saddened and faded, and gradually you become disheartened. Courage! instead of vexing yourself, thank GOD; these very persons are the means of preserving you from humiliating faults, perhaps even greater sins. It is like the blister the doctor applies, to draw out the inflammation that would kill. GOD sees that too much joy, too much happiness, procured by those little attentions for which you are so eager, would make you careless and slothful in prayer; too much affection would only enervate, and you would cling too much to earthly things; so in order to preserve your heart in all its tenderness and simplicity, He plants there a few thorns, and cuts you off from all the pleasures you fancy yours by right. GOD knows that too much praise would cause pride, and make you less forbearing to others, and so He sends instead humiliations. Let them be, then, these persons who unconsciously are doing GOD'S work within you. If you cannot love them from sympathy, love with an effort of the will, and say to GOD, "My GOD, grant that without offending Thee, they may work my sanctification. I have need of them." XVI. HOLY COMMUNION The result of a good Communion is, _within_, a fear of a sin, _without_, a love for others. Holy Communion is a great aid to sanctification. JESUS visits the soul, working in it, and filling it with His Grace, which is shed on all around, as the sun sheds forth its light, the fire gives out its heat. It is impossible but that CHRIST, thus visiting the soul, should not leave something CHRIST-like within, if only the soul be disposed to receive it. Fire, whose property is to give warmth, cannot produce that effect unless the body be placed near enough to be penetrated with the heat. Does not this simple thought explain the reason that there is often so little result from our frequent Communions? Do you long at each Communion to receive the grace bestowed by CHRIST that shall little by little fit you for heaven hereafter? Will you, receiving thus the GOD of _Peace_ within, have for those around you kind words that shall fill them with calmness, resignation, and peace? Will you, receiving thus the GOD of _Love_, gradually increase in tenderness and love that will urge you to sacrifice yourself for others, loving them as CHRIST would have loved them? Will you, receiving Him you rightly name the _Gracious_ GOD, become yourself gracious, gracious to sympathize, gracious to forbear, gracious to pardon, and thus in a small way resemble the GOD Who gave Himself for thee? This should be your resolve when about to communicate. _Resolved_: to obey GOD'S Commandments in all their extensiveness, never hesitating in a question of duty, no matter how hard it may be; the duty of forgiving and forgetting some injustice or undeserved rebuke; accepting cheerfully a position contrary to your wishes and inclinations; application to some labor, distasteful, and seemingly beyond your strength.... If your duty seems almost _impossible_ to fulfil, ask yourself, "Is this GOD'S Will for me?" and if conscience answers _yes_, then reply also, _I will do it_. All difficulties vanish after Holy Communion. _Generous_: depriving yourself those days of Communion of some pleasures which though harmless in themselves, you know, only too well, enfeeble your devotion, excite your feelings, and leave you weaker than before. _Generous_ means doing over and above what duty requires of us. _Conscientious and upright_: not seeking to find out if some forbidden thing is really a _sin_ or not, and whether it may not in some way be reconciled to conscience. Oh! how hurtful are these waverings between GOD and the world, duty and pleasure, obedience and allurements. Did JESUS CHRIST hesitate to die for you? and yet _you_ hesitate! Coward! _Humble and meek_: treading peacefully the road marked out for you by Providence, sometimes weeping, often suffering, but free from anxiety, awaiting the loving support that never fails those who trust and renew their strength day by day. Living quietly, loving neither the world nor its praise, working contentedly in that state of life to which you are called, doing good, regardless of man's knowledge and approval, content that others should be more honored, more esteemed, having only one ambition,--_to love God, and be loved by Him_. * * * * * If this be the disposition of your soul, then be sure each Communion will be blessed to you, make you more holy, more like CHRIST, with more taste and love for the things of GOD, more sure of glory hereafter. XVII. AFTER HOLY COMMUNION SELF-SACRIFICE LORD! take me and lead me whithersoever Thou willest! Is it Thy Will that my life be spent in the midst of such incessant toil and tumult that no time is left for those brief moments of leisure of which I sometimes dream? Yes! yes! I wish it also! Is it Thy Will that lonely and sorrowful I am left on earth, while those I loved have gone to dwell near Thee above? Yes! yes! I wish it also! Is it Thy Will that unknown by all, misunderstood even by those whose affection I prize, I am looked upon as useless, on account of my stupidity, want of manner, or bad health? Yes! yes! I wish it also! Thou art Ruler. O my GOD! only be Thyself the Guide, and abide with me forever! MY MEMORY My Memory! the mysterious book--reflection of that of eternity, in which at each moment are inscribed my thoughts, affections, and desires. Into Thy Hands I commend it, LORD, that Thou alone mayst write there, Thou alone efface! Leave there, LORD, the remembrance of my sins, but efface forever the pleasures that led to them--were I to catch but a glimpse of their enticing sweetness, I might again desire them. Leave there the sweet memories of childhood, when I loved Thee with such simplicity, and my father, my mother, my family, were my sole affections. Those days, when the slightest untruthfulness, or even the fear of having sinned, left me no peace till I had confessed it to my mother. Those days, when I always felt my Guardian Angel near me, helping me in my work, and soothing my little troubles! Leave me the remembrance of my first sense of the Divine absolution, when my heart overflowing with secret joy, I cried, _I am forgiven, I am forgiven_! And then the recollection of my first Communion! oh, recall it to me, LORD, with its preparation so fearful, yet so loving; its joy so calm, so holy, yet so sweet, that even now the thought of it fills mine eyes with tears! Leave me the remembrance of Thy Benefits! each year of my life is crowned with blessings ... at _ten_ ... _fifteen_ ... _eighteen_ ... _twenty_ years ... oh! I can well recall all Thy goodness to me, my GOD! Yes, receive my memory, blot out all that can estrange me from Thee, and grant that nothing apart from Thee may again find a place there! MY MIND Oh! by what false lights have I been dazzled! They showed me prayer as wearisome; religious duties too absorbing; frequent Communion as useless; social duties as a heavy bondage; devotion the lot of weak minds and those without affection.... Oh, I knew well how false it was, and yet I let myself be half-convinced! When have I ever been more _zealous in labor_ than those days when I had fulfilled all my religious duties? When more _loving and devoted_ than on the days of my Communions? When have I felt _more free, more happy_, than when having fulfilled all the duties of my social position? LORD, receive my mind, and nourish it with Thy Truth! Show me that apart from Thee, _pleasures of the senses_ leave behind only remorse, disgust, weariness, and satiety. _Pleasures of the heart_ cause anxiety, bitterness, rendings, and fears. _Pleasures of the mind_ produce a void, vanity, jealousy, coldness, and humiliations! Teach me that all must pass away ... that nothing is true, nothing is good, nothing is eternal, but Thou, Thou only, O my GOD! MY WILL My deeds are the result of my will, and it is the will only that makes them of any value. Oh, then to begin with, I will learn submission! What I _wish_, may not always be good for me; what I am _bidden_ must be right. O JESUS! grant me the grace of _obedience_, and then let me be bidden many things: works of piety, works of charity, self-renunciation, brilliant deeds, deeds that are ignored in my family life, or wherever I may be, there are numberless calls for all of these; LORD, behold Thy servant! may I be always ready when Thou hast need of me! ALL THAT I HAVE My GOD, how richly hast Thou blessed me! Treasures of love, I offer them to Thee! _I have relations_, dear ones, Thou knowest how I love them.... Ah, if it be Thy Will to take them from this world, before me, though I say it weeping, still I say it, Thy Will be done! _I have friends._... If it be Thy Will they should forget me, think ill of me, leave me alone, with that loneliness of heart so bitter and so keen ... I yield them to Thee! _I have worldly goods_ that give me a certain degree of comfort, by affording me the means of helping others poorer than myself.... Should it be Thy Will to deprive me of them, little by little, till at last I have only the bare necessaries of life left ... I yield them to Thee! _I have limbs_ that Thou hast given me. If it be Thy Will that paralysis should fetter my arms, my eyes no longer see the light, my tongue be unable to articulate, my GOD, I yield them to Thee! In exchange, grant me Thy Love, Thy Grace, and then ... nothing more, only Heaven! * * * * * O JESUS, abandoned by all in the garden of Gethsemane, in need then of comfort and strength: JESUS, Thou Who knowest that at this moment there are some on earth who have no strength, no comfort, no support, oh! send to them some angel who will give them a little joy, a little peace! Oh, if only _I_ might be that messenger! What must I suffer, LORD? If an outward trouble or inward pain be needful to make of me but for one moment a consoling angel to some poor lonely heart, oh! however keen the pain, or bitter the trouble, I pray Thee, grant it to me, JESUS! O JESUS, in search of _lips_ to tell the love Thou bearest for Thy children; _lips_ to tell the poor and lonely they are not despised, the sinful they are not cast away, the timid they are not unprotected. O JESUS! grant that my lips may speak words of strength, love, comfort, and pardon. Let each day seem to me wasted that passes without my having spoken of help and sympathy, without having made some one bless Thy Name, be it but a little child. O JESUS! so _patient_ towards those who wearied Thee with their importunity and ignorance! JESUS, so long-suffering in teaching, and awaiting the hour of grace! JESUS, grant that I may be patient to listen, to teach, though over and over again I may have to instruct the same thing. Grant me help, that I may always show a smiling face, even though the importunity of some be keenly felt! and if through physical weakness I manifest ennui or weariness, grant, O JESUS, that I may speedily make amends, with loving words, for the pain I have caused. O JESUS! Who with infinite tact didst await, seated at the roadside, the opportunity for doing good, simply asking a small service of the poor Samaritan woman Thou wouldst save, and draw to Thee. O JESUS! grant that I may feel and understand all the pain that timidity, shyness, or reserve keep buried within the recesses of the soul. Grant me the tact and discretion that draws near without paining, that asks without repulsing, without humiliating, and thus enable me to bring peace and comfort to the wounded heart. O JESUS! seeking some one as faithful dispenser of Thy blessings, grant _much_ to me, that I may have much to bestow on others. Grant that my hands may dispense Thine alms, that they may be as Thine, when Thou didst wash the feet of Thine Apostles, working for all, helping all; let me never forget that, like Thee, I am placed on this earth to minister, not to be ministered unto. Grant that my lips may speak comforting words and give forth cheering smiles, that I may be as the well by the roadside, where the weary traveller stoops to drink, as the shade of the tree whose branches laden with fruit are extended over all that pass beneath. O JESUS! to Whom all Thy children are so dear, and whatever they may be Thou carest for them, and rememberest they are the much-loved children of GOD! Oh! grant that in all my intercourse with others, I may only see, love, and care for their _souls_, that soul for whom, O GOD, Thou hast died, who like myself can call Thee FATHER, and with whom, near Thee, I hope to dwell, throughout the ages of Eternity. Transcriber's Note Removed an extraneous comma from this line: _Self-renunciation_*,* means devotion to our duty, going on with it in spite of difficulties, disgust, ennui, want of success. Standardized spelling in this line by removing hyphen from light-heartedness, to match usage elsewhere in the book: whose chatter and lightheartedness, even her very attentions to myself, 
20711	----	Transcribed from the 1885 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org DAILY THOUGHTS Selected from the Writings OF CHARLES KINGSLEY BY HIS WIFE SECOND EDITION London MACMILLAN AND CO. 1885 _Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_. _This little Volume_, _selected from the MS. Note-books_, _Sermons and Private Letters_, _as well as from the published Works of my Husband_, _is dedicated to our children_, _and to all who feel the blessing of his influence on their daily life and thought_. _F. E. K._ _July_ 10, 1884. January. Welcome, wild North-easter! Shame it is to see Odes to every zephyr: Ne'er a verse to thee. . . . . . Tired we are of summer, Tired of gaudy glare, Showers soft and steaming, Hot and breathless air. Tired of listless dreaming Through the lazy day: Jovial wind of winter Turn us out to play! Sweep the golden reed-beds; Crisp the lazy dyke; Hunger into madness Every plunging pike. Fill the lake with wild-fowl; Fill the marsh with snipe; While on dreary moorlands Lonely curlew pipe. Through the black fir forest Thunder harsh and dry, Shattering down the snow-flakes Off the curdled sky. . . . . . Come; and strong within us Stir the Viking's blood; Bracing brain and sinew: Blow, thou wind of God! _Ode to North-east Wind_. New Year's Day. January 1. {3} Gather you, gather you, angels of God-- Freedom and Mercy and Truth; Come! for the earth is grown coward and old; Come down and renew us her youth. Wisdom, Self-sacrifice, Daring, and Love, Haste to the battlefield, stoop from above, To the day of the Lord at hand! _The Day of the Lord_. 1847. The Nineteenth Century. January 2. Now, and at no other time: in this same nineteenth century lies our work. Let us thank God that we are here now, and joyfully try to understand _where_ we are, and what our work is _here_. As for all superstitions about "the good old times," and fancies that _they_ belonged to God, while this age belongs only to man, blind chance, and the evil one, let us cast them from us as the suggestions of an evil lying spirit, as the natural parents of laziness, pedantry, fanaticism, and unbelief. And therefore let us not fear to ask the meaning of this present day, and of all its different voices--the pressing, noisy, complex present, where our workfield lies, the most intricate of all states of society, and of all schools of literature yet known. _Introductory Lecture_, _Queen's College_. 1848. Forward. January 3. Let us forward. God leads us. Though blind, shall we be afraid to follow? I do not see my way: I do not care to: but I know that He sees His way, and that I see Him. _Letters and Memories_. 1848. The Noble Life. January 4. Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do noble things, not dream them all day long; And so make life, and death, and that For Ever One grand sweet song. _A Farewell_. 1856. Live in the present that you may be ready for the future. _MS._ Duty and Sentiment. January 5. God demands not _sentiment_ but _justice_. The Bible knows nothing of "the religious sentiments and emotions" whereof we hear so much talk nowadays. It speaks of _Duty_. "Beloved, if God so loved us, we _ought_ to love one another." _National Sermons_. 1851. The Everlasting Harmony. January 6. If thou art living a righteous and useful life, doing thy duty orderly and cheerfully where God has put thee, then thou in thy humble place art humbly copying the everlasting harmony and melody which is in heaven; the everlasting harmony and melody by which God made the world and all that therein is--and behold it was very good--in the day when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy over the new- created earth, which God had made to be a pattern of His own perfection. _Good News of God Sermons_. 1859. The Keys of Death and Hell. January 7. Fear not. Christ has the keys of death and hell. He has been through them and is alive for evermore. Christ is the _first_, and was loving and just and glorious and almighty before there was any death or hell. And Christ is the _last_, and will be loving and just and glorious and almighty as ever, in that great day when all enemies shall be under His feet, and death shall be destroyed, and death and hell shall be cast into the lake of fire. _MS. Sermon_. 1857. A Living God. January 8. Here and there, among rich and poor, there are those whose heart and flesh, whose conscience and whose intellect, cry out for the _Living_ God, and will know no peace till they have found Him. For till then they can find no explanation of the three great human questions--Where am I? Whither am I going? What must I do? _Sermons on the Pentateuch_. 1862. The Fairy Gardens. January 9. Of all the blessings which the study of Nature brings to the patient observer, let none, perhaps, be classed higher than this, that the farther he enters into those fairy gardens of life and birth, which Spenser saw and described in his great poem, the more he learns the awful and yet comfortable truth, that they do not belong to him, but to One greater, wiser, lovelier than he; and as he stands, silent with awe, amid the pomp of Nature's ever-busy rest, hears as of old, The Word of the "Lord God walking among the trees of the garden in the cool of the day." _Glaucus_. 1855. Love. January 10. Oh! Love! Love! Love! the same in peasant and in peer! The more honour to you, then, old Love, to _be_ the same thing in this world which _is_ common to peasant and to peer. They say that you are blind, a dreamer, an exaggerator--a liar, in short! They just know nothing about you, then. You will not see people as they seem--as they have become, no doubt; but why? Because you see them as they ought to be, and are in some deep way eternally, in the sight of Him who conceived and created them! _Two Years Ago_, chap. xiv. 1856. Life--Love. January 11. We must live nobly to love nobly. _MS._ The Seed of Good. January 12. Never was the young Abbot heard to speak harshly of any human being. "When thou hast tried in vain for seven years," he used to say, "to convert a sinner, then only wilt thou have a right to suspect him of being a worse man than thyself." That there is a seed of good in all men, a divine word and spirit striving with all men, a gospel and good news which would turn the hearts of all men, if abbots and priests could but preach it aright, was his favourite doctrine, and one which he used to defend, when at rare intervals he allowed himself to discuss any subject, from the writings of his favourite theologian, Clement of Alexandria. Above all, Abbot Philamon stopped by stern rebuke any attempt to revile either heretics or heathens. "On the Catholic Church alone," he used to say, "lies the blame of all heresy and unbelief; for if she were but for one day that which she ought to be, the world would be converted before nightfall." _Hypatia_, chap. xxx. 1852. Danger of Thinking vaguely. January 13. Watch against any fallacies in your ideas which may arise, not from disingenuousness, but from allowing yourself in moments of feeling to think vaguely, and not to attach precise meaning to your words. Without any cold caution of expression, it is a duty we owe to God's truth, and to our own happiness and the happiness of those around us, to think and speak as correctly as we can. Almost all heresy, schism, and misunderstandings, between either churches or individuals who ought to be one, have arisen from this fault of an involved and vague style of thought. _MS._ 1842. The Possession of Faith. January 14. I don't want to possess a faith, I want a faith which will possess me. _Hypatia_, chap. xvii. 1852. The Eternal Life. January 15. Eternally, and for ever, in heaven, says St. John, Christ says and is and does what prophets prophesied of Him that He would say and be and do. "I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star. And let him that is athirst, come: and whosoever will, let him take of the Water of Life freely." For ever Christ calls to every anxious soul, every afflicted soul, to every man who is ashamed of himself, and angry with himself, and longs to live a gentler, nobler, purer, truer, and more useful life, "Come, and live for ever the eternal life of righteousness, holiness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, which is the one true and only salvation bought for us by the precious blood of Christ our Lord." Amen. _Water of Life Sermons_. 1865 The Golden Cup of Youth. January 16. Ah, glorious twenty-one, with your inexhaustible powers of doing and enjoying, eating and hungering, sleeping and sitting up, reading and playing! Happy are those who still possess you, and can take their fill of your golden cup, steadied, but not saddened, by the remembrance that for all things a good and loving God will bring them to judgment! Happier still those who (like a few) retain in body and soul the health and buoyancy of twenty-one on to the very verge of forty, and, seeming to grow younger-hearted as they grow older-headed, can cast off care and work at a moment's warning, laugh and frolic now as they did twenty years ago, and say with Wordsworth-- "So was it when I was a boy, So let it be when I am old, Or let me die." _Two Years Ago_, chap. xix. 1856. Work and Duty. January 17. If a man is busy, and busy about his duty, what more does he require for time or for eternity? _Chalk Stream Studies_. 1856. Members of Christ. January 18. . . . Would you be humble, daughter? You must look up, not down, and see yourself A paltry atom, sap-transmitting vein Of Christ's vast vine; the pettiest joint and member Of His great body. . . . . . . Let thyself die-- And dying, rise again to fuller life. To be a whole is to be small and weak-- To be a part is to be great and mighty In the one spirit of the mighty whole-- The spirit of the martyrs and the saints. _Saint's Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene vi. 1847. Beauty a Sacrament. January 19. Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful. Beauty is God's handwriting--a way-side sacrament; welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower, and thank Him for it, who is the Fountain of all loveliness, and drink it in simply and earnestly with all your eyes; it is a charmed draught, a cup of blessing. _True Words to Brave Men_. 1844. The Ideal of Rank. January 20. With Christianity came in the thought that domination meant responsibility, that responsibility demanded virtue. The words which denoted Rank came to denote, likewise, high moral excellencies. The _nobilis_, or man who was known, and therefore subject to public opinion, was bound to behave nobly. The gentle-man--gentile-man--who respected his own gens, or family, or pedigree, was bound to be gentle. The courtier who had picked up at court some touch of Roman civilisation from Roman ecclesiastics was bound to be courteous. He who held an "honour," or "edel" of land, was bound to be honourable; and he who held a "weorthig," or "worthy," thereof, was bound himself to be worthy. _Lectures on Ancien Regime_. 1866. An Indulgent God. January 21. A merely indulgent God would be an unjust God, and a cruel God likewise. If God be just, as He is, then He has boundless pity for those who are weak, but boundless wrath for the strong who misuse the weak. Boundless pity for those who are ignorant, misled, and out of the right way; but boundless wrath for those who mislead them and put them out of the right way. _Discipline Sermons_. 1867. The Fifty-First Psalm. January 22. It is such utterances as these which have given for now many hundred years their priceless value to the little Book of Psalms ascribed to the shepherd outlaw of the Judean hills, which have sent the sound of his name into all lands throughout all the world. Every form of human sorrow, doubt, struggle, error, sin--the nun agonising in the cloister; the settler struggling for his life in Transatlantic forests; the pauper shivering over the embers in his hovel and waiting for kind death; the man of business striving to keep his honour pure amid the temptations of commerce; the prodigal son starving in the far country and recollecting the words which he learnt long ago at his mother's knee; the peasant boy trudging afield in the chill dawn and remembering that the Lord is his Shepherd, therefore he will not want--all shapes of humanity have found, and will find to the end of time, a word said here to their inmost hearts. . . . _Sermons on David_. 1866. Waiting for Death. January 23. Death, beautiful, wise, kind Death, when will you come and tell me what I want to know? I courted you once and many a time, brave old Death, only to give rest to the weary. That was a coward's wish--and so you would not come. . . . I was not worthy of you. And now I will not hunt you any more, old Death. Do you bide your time, and I mine. . . . Only when you come, give me not rest but work. Give work to the idle, freedom to the chained, sight to the blind! _Two Years Ago_, chap. xv. 1856. The One Refuge. January 24. Safe! There is no safety but from God, and that comes by prayer and faith. _Hypatia_. 1852. Future Identity. January 25. I believe that the union of those who have loved here will in the next world amount to perfect identity, that they will look back on the expressions of affection here as mere meagre strugglings after and approximation to the union which then will be perfect. Perfect! _Letters and Memories_. 1842. Friendship. January 26. A friend once won need never be lost, if we will be only trusty and true ourselves. Friends may part, not merely in body, but in spirit, for a while. In the bustle of business and the accidents of life, they may lose sight of each other for years; and more, they may begin to differ in their success in life, in their opinions, in their habits, and there may be, for a time, coldness and estrangement between them, but not for ever if each will be trusty and true. For then they will be like two ships who set sail at morning from the same port, and ere night-fall lose sight of each other, and go each on its own course and at its own pace for many days, through many storms and seas, and yet meet again, and find themselves lying side by side in the same haven when their long voyage is past. _Water of Life Sermons_. Night and Morning. January 27. It is morning somewhere or other now, and it will be morning here again to-morrow. "Good times and bad times and all times pass over." I learnt that lesson out of old Bewick's Vignettes, and it has stood me in good stead this many a year. _Two Years Ago_, chap. i. 1856. Communion with the Blessed Dead. January 28. Shall we not recollect the blessed dead above all in Holy Communion, and give thanks for them there--at that holy table at which the Church triumphant and the Church militant meet in the communion of saints? Where Christ is they are; and, therefore, if Christ be there, may not they be there likewise? May not they be near us though unseen? like us claiming their share in the eternal sacrifice, like us partaking of that spiritual body and blood which is as much the life of saints in heaven as it is of penitent sinners on earth? May it not be so? It is a mystery into which we will not look too far. But this at least is true, that they are with Him where He is. _MS. Sermon_. The Great Law. January 29. True rest can only be attained as Christ attained it, through labour. True glory can only be attained in earth or heaven through self-sacrifice. Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; whosoever will lose his life shall save it. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1870. The Coming Kingdom. January 30. There is a God-appointed theocracy promised to us, and which we must wait for, when all the diseased and false systems of this world shall be swept away, and Christ's feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, and the twelve apostles shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel! All this shall come, and blessed is that servant whom his Lord when He cometh shall find ready! All this we shall not see before we die, but we shall see it when we rise in the perfect material and spiritual ideal, in the kingdom of God! _Letters and Memories_. Christ's Coming. January 31. Christ may come to us when our thoughts are cleaving to the ground, and ready to grow earthy of the earth--through noble poetry, noble music, noble art--through aught which awakens once more in us the instinct of the true, the beautiful, and the good. He may come to us when our souls are restless and weary, through the repose of Nature--the repose of the lonely snow-peak and of the sleeping forest, of the clouds of sunset and of the summer sea, and whisper Peace. Or He may come, as He comes on winter nights to many a gallant soul--not in the repose of Nature, but in her rage--in howling storm and blinding foam and ruthless rocks and whelming surge--and whisper to them even so--as the sea swallows all of them which _it_ can take--of calm beyond, which this world cannot give and cannot take away. And therefore let us say in utter faith, Come as Thou seest best--but in whatsoever way Thou comest, Even so come, Lord Jesus. Amen. _Last Sermon_. _MS._ 1874. SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. Since we gave up at the Reformation the superstitious practice of praying to the saints, Saints' Days have sunk--and, indeed, sunk too much--into neglect. We forget too often still, that though praying to any saint or angel, or other created being, is contrary both to reason and Scripture, yet it is according to reason and to Scripture to commemorate them. That is, to remember them, to study their characters, and to thank God for them,--both for the virtues He bestowed on them, and the example which He has given us in them. _MS. Sermon_. JANUARY 6. The Epiphany, Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. On this day the Lord Jesus was first shown to the Gentiles. The word Epiphany means "showing." The Wise Men were worshippers of the true God, though in a dim confused way; and they had learnt enough of what true faith, true greatness was, not to be staggered and fall into unbelief when they saw the King of the Jews laid, not in a palace, but in a manger, tended by a poor village maiden. And therefore God bestowed on them the great honour that they first of all--Gentiles--should see the glory and the love of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God grant that they may not rise up against us in the Day of Judgment and condemn us! They had but a small spark, a dim ray, of the Light which lighteth every man who cometh into the world; but they were more faithful to that little than many of us, who live in the full sunshine of the Gospel, with Christ's Spirit, Christ's Sacraments, Christ's Churches,--means of grace and hopes of glory of which they never dreamed. _Town and Country Sermons_. JANUARY 25. Conversion of St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr. How did St. Paul look on his past life? There is no sentimental melancholy in him. He is saved, and he knows it. He is an Apostle, and he stands boldly on his dignity. He is cheerful, hopeful, joyful. And yet, when he speaks of the past, it is with noble shame and sorrow that he calls himself the chief of sinners, not worthy to be called an Apostle, because he persecuted the Church of Christ. What he is, he will not deny; what he was, he will not forget; lest he should forget that in him, that is, in his flesh--his natural character--dwelleth no good thing; lest he should forget that the good which he does, _he_ does not, but Christ which dwelleth in him; lest he should grow careless, puffed up, self-indulgent; lest he should neglect to subdue his evil passions; and so, after preaching to others, himself become a castaway. _Town and Country Sermons_. February. . . . Every winter, When the great sun has turned his face away, The earth goes down into the vale of grief, And fasts, and weeps, and shrouds herself in sables, Leaving her wedding garments to decay; Then leaps in spring to his returning kisses. _Saint's Tragedy_, Act iii. Scene i. Out of the morning land, Over the snow-drifts, Beautiful Freya came, Tripping to Scoring. White were the moorlands, And frozen before her; Green were the moorlands, And blooming behind her. Out of her gold locks Shaking the spring flowers, Out of her garments Shaking the south wind, Around in the birches Awaking the throstles, Love and love-giving, Came she to Scoring. . . . . . _The Longbeard's Saga_. 1852. Virtue. February 1. The first and last business of every human being, whatever his station, party, creed, capacities, tastes, duties, is morality; virtue, virtue, always virtue. Nothing that man will ever invent will absolve him from the universal necessity of being good as God is good, righteous as God is righteous, holy as God is holy. _Sermons on David_. 1866. Happiness. February 2. God has not only made things beautiful; He has made things happy; whatever misery there is in the world there is no denying that. Misery is the exception; happiness is the rule. No rational man ever heard a bird sing without feeling that the bird was happy, and that if God made that bird He made it to be happy, and He takes pleasure in its happiness, though no human ear should ever hear its song, no human heart should ever share in its joy. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871. A Dream of the Future. February 3. God grant that the day may come when in front of the dwellings of the poor we may see real fountains--not like the drinking-fountains, useful as they are, which you see here and there about the streets, with a tiny dribble of water to a great deal of expensive stone, but real fountains, which shall leap, and sparkle, and plash, and gurgle, and fill the place with life and light and coolness; and sing in the people's ears the sweetest of all earthly songs--save the song of a mother over her child--the song of "The Laughing Water." _The Air Mothers_. 1872. Bondage of Custom. February 4. Strive all your life to free men from the bondage of _custom_ and _self_, the two great elements of the world that lieth in wickedness. _MS. Letter_. l842. Henceforth let no man peering down Through the dim glittering mine of future years Say to himself, "Too much! this cannot be!" To-day and custom wall up our horizon: Before the hourly miracle of life Blindfold we stand, and sigh, as though God were not. _Saint's Tragedy_, Act i. Scene ii. 1847. The Childlike Mind. February 5. There comes a time when we must _narrow_ our sphere of thought much, that we may _truly enlarge_ it! we must, _artificialised_ as we _have_ been, return to the rudiments of life, to children's pleasures, that we may find easily, through their transparent simplicity, spiritual laws which we may apply to the more intricate spheres of art and science. _MS. Letter_. 1842. Unselfish Prayer. February 6. The Lord's Prayer teaches that we are members of a family, when He tells us to pray not "_My_ Father" but "Our Father;" not "_my_ soul be saved," but "Thy kingdom come;" not "give _me_" but "give _us_ our daily bread;" not "forgive me," but "forgive _us_ our trespasses," and that only as we forgive others; not "lead _me_ not," but "lead _us_ not into temptation;" not "deliver _me_," but "deliver _us_ from evil." After _that_ manner our Lord tells us to pray, and in proportion as we pray in that manner, just so far, and no farther, will God hear our prayers. _National Sermons_. 1850. God is Light. February 7. All the deep things of God are bright, for God is Light. God's arbitrary will and almighty power may seem dark by themselves though deep, but that is because they do not involve His moral character. Join them with the fact that He is a God of mercy as well as justice; remember that His essence is love, and the thunder-cloud will blaze with dewy gold, full of soft rain and pure light. _MS. Letter_. 1844. The Veil Lifted. February 8. Science is, I verily believe, like virtue, its own exceeding great reward. I can conceive few human states more enviable than that of the man to whom--panting in the foul laboratory, or watching for his life in the tropic forest--Isis shall for a moment lift her sacred veil and show him, once and for ever, the thing he dreamed not of, some law, or even mere hint of a law, explaining one fact: but explaining with it a thousand more, connecting them all with each other and with the mighty whole, till order and meaning shoots through some old chaos of scattered observations. Is not that a joy, a prize, which wealth cannot give nor poverty take away? What it may lead to he knows not. Of what use it may be he knows not. But this he knows, that somewhere it must lead, of some use it will be. For it is a truth. _Lectures on Science and Superstition_. 1866. All Science One. February 9. Physical and spiritual science seem to the world to be distinct. One sight of God as we shall some day see Him will show us that they are indissolubly and eternally the same. _MS._ Passion and Reason. February 10. Passion and reason in a healthy mind ought to be inseparable. We need not be passionless because we reason correctly. Strange to say, one's feelings will often sharpen one's knowledge of the truth, as they do one's powers of action. _MS._ 1843. Enthusiasm and Tact. February 11. . . . People smile at the "enthusiasm of youth"--that enthusiasm which they themselves secretly look back at with a sigh, perhaps unconscious that it is partly their own fault that they ever lost it. . . . Do not fear being considered an enthusiast. What matter? But pray for _tact_, the true tact which love alone can give, to prevent scandalising a weak brother. _Letters and Memories_. 1842. Be earnest, earnest, earnest; mad, if thou wilt: Do what thou dost as if the stake were heaven, And that thy last deed ere the judgment-day. When all's done, nothing's done. There's rest above-- Below let work be death, if work be love! _Saint's Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene viii. 1847. The Eternal Good. February 12. "God hath showed thee what is good," . . . what is good in itself, and of itself--the one very eternal and absolute good, which was with God and in God and from God, before all worlds, and will be for ever, without changing, or growing less or greater, eternally the same good--the good which would be just as good and just and right and lovely and glorious if there were no world, no men, no angels, no heaven, no hell, and God were alone in His own abyss. _Sermons for the Times_. 1855. Awfulness of Words. February 13. A difference in words is a very awful and important difference; a difference in words is a difference in things. Words are very awful and wonderful things, for they come from the most awful and wonderful of all beings, Jesus Christ, THE WORD. He puts words into men's minds. He made all things, and He made words to express those things. And woe to those who use the wrong words about anything. _Village Sermons_. 1848. A Wise Woman. February 14. What wisdom she had she did not pick off the hedge, like blackberries. God is too kind to give away wisdom after that useless fashion. So she had to earn her wisdom, and to work hard, and suffer much ere she attained it. And in attaining she endured strange adventures and great sorrows; and yet they would not have given her the wisdom had she not had something in herself which gave her wit to understand her lessons, and skill and courage to do what they taught her. There had been many names for that something before she was born, there have been many names for it since, but her father and mother called it the Grace of God. _Unfinished Novel_. 1869. Charity the one Influence. February 15. The older we grow, the more we understand our own lives and histories, the more we shall see that the spirit of wisdom is the spirit of love; that the true way to gain influence over our fellow-men is to have charity towards them. That is a hard lesson to learn; and all those who learn it generally learn it late; almost--God forgive us--too late. _Westminster Sermons_. The Ascetic Painters. February 16. We owe much (notwithstanding their partial and Manichean idea of beauty) to the early ascetic painters. Their works are a possession for ever. No future school of religious art will be able to rise to eminence without learning from them their secret. They taught artists, and priests, and laymen, too, that beauty is only worthy of admiration when it is the outward sacrament of the beauty of the soul within; they helped to deliver men from that idolatry to merely animal strength and loveliness into which they were in danger of falling in ferocious ages, and among the relics of Roman luxury. _Miscellanies_. 1849. Reveries. February 17. Beware of giving way to reveries. Have always some employment in your hands. Look forward to the future with hope. Build castles if you will, but only bright ones, and _not too many_. _Letters and Memories_. 1842. Woman's Mission. February 18. It is the glory of woman that she was sent into the world to live for others rather than for herself; and therefore, I should say, let her smallest rights be respected, her smallest wrongs redressed; but let her never be persuaded to forget that she is sent into the world to teach man--what I believe she has been teaching him all along, even in the savage state, namely, that there is something more necessary than the claiming of rights, and that is, the performing of duties; to teach him specially, in these so-called intellectual days, that there is something more than intellect, and that is--purity and virtue. _Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. The Heroic Life. February 19. Provided we attain at last to the truly heroic and divine life, which is the life of virtue, it will matter little to us by what wild and weary ways, or through what painful and humiliating processes, we have arrived thither. If God has loved us, if God will receive us, then let us submit loyally and humbly to His law--"whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." _All Saints' Day Sermons_. The Wages of Sin. February 20. It is sometimes said, "The greater the sinner the greater the saint." I do not believe it. I do not see it. It stands to reason--if a man loses his way and finds it again, he is so much the less forward on his way, surely, by all the time he has spent in getting back into the way. And if any of you fancy you can sin without being punished, remember that the prodigal son is punished most severely. He does not get off freely the moment he chooses to repent, as false preachers will tell you. Even after he does repent and resolves to go back to his father's house he has a long journey home in poverty and misery, footsore, hungry, and all but despairing. But when he does get home; when he shows he has learnt the bitter lesson; when all he dares to ask is, "Make me as one of thy hired servants,"--he is received as freely as the rest. _Water of Life Sermons_. 1864. Silent Depths. February 21. Our mightiest feelings are always those which remain most unspoken. The most intense lovers and the greatest poets have generally, I think, written very little personal love-poetry, while they have shown in fictitious characters a knowledge of the passion too painfully intimate to be spoken of in the first person. _MS._ 1843. True Justification. February 22. God grant us to be among those who wish to be really justified by faith, by being made just persons by faith,--who cannot satisfy either their conscience or their reason by fancying that God looks on them as right when they know themselves to be wrong; and who cannot help trusting that union with Christ must be something real and substantial, and not merely a metaphor and a flower of rhetoric. _MS._ 1854. A Present Hell. February 23. "Ay," he muttered, "sing awa', . . . wi' pretty fancies and gran' words, and gang to hell for it." "To hell, Mr. Mackaye?" "Ay, to a verra real hell, Alton Locke, laddie--a warse ane than any fiend's kitchen or subterranean Smithfield that ye'll hear o' in the pulpits--the hell on earth o' being a flunkey, and a humbug, and a useless peacock, wasting God's gifts on your ain lusts and pleasures--and kenning it--and not being able to get oot o' it for the chains of vanity and self-indulgence." _Alton Locke_, chap. viii. 1849. Time and Eternity. February 24. Eternity does not mean merely some future endless duration, but that ever- present _moral_ world, governed by ever-living and absolutely necessary laws, in which we and all spirits are now; and in which we should be equally, whether time and space, extension and duration, and the whole material universe to which they belong, became nothing this moment, or lasted endlessly. _Theologica Germanica_. 1854. Christ's Life. February 25. What was Christ's life? Not one of deep speculations, quiet thoughts, and bright visions, but a life of fighting against evil; earnest, awful prayers and struggles within, continued labour of body and mind without; insult, and danger, and confusion, and violent exertion, and bitter sorrow. This was Christ's life. This was St. Peter's, and St. James's, and St. John's life afterwards. _Village Sermons_. 1849. The Higher Education. February 26. In teaching women we must try to make our deepest lessons bear on the great purpose of unfolding Woman's own calling in all ages--her especial calling in this one. We must incite them to realise the chivalrous belief of our old forefathers among their Saxon forests, that something Divine dwelt in the counsels of woman: but, on the other hand, we must continually remind them that they will attain that divine instinct, not by renouncing their sex, but by fulfilling it; by becoming true women, and not bad imitations of men; by educating their heads for the sake of their hearts, not their hearts for the sake of their heads; by claiming woman's divine vocation as the priestess of purity, of beauty, and of love. _Introductory Lecture_, _Queen's College_. 1848. God's Kingdom. February 27. Philamon had gone forth to see the world, and he had seen it; and he had learnt that God's kingdom was not a kingdom of fanatics yelling for a doctrine, but of willing, loving, obedient hearts. _Hypatia_, chap. xxiii. 1852. Sowing and Reaping. February 28. So it is, that by every crime, folly, even neglect of theirs, men drive a thorn into their own flesh, which will trouble them for years to come, it may be to their dying day-- Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all-- as those who neglect their fellow-creatures will discover, by the most patent, undeniable proofs, in that last great day, when the rich and poor shall meet together, and then, at last, discover too that the Lord is the Maker of them all. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871. The Church Catechism. February 29. Did it ever strike you that the simple, noble, old Church Catechism, without one word about rewards and punishments, heaven or hell, begins to talk to the child, like a true English Catechism as it is, about that glorious old English key-word Duty? It calls on the child to confess its own duty, and teaches it that its duty is something most human, simple, everyday--commonplace, if you will call it so. And I rejoice in the thought that the Church Catechism teaches that the child's duty is commonplace. I rejoice that in what it says about our duty to God and our neighbour, it says not one word about counsels of perfection, or those frames and feelings which depend, believe me, principally on the state of people's bodily health, on the constitution of their nerves, and the temper of their brain; but that it requires nothing except what a little child can do as well as a grown person, a labouring man as well as a divine, a plain farmer as well as the most refined, devout, imaginative lady. _Sermons for the Times_. 1855. SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. FEBRUARY 2. The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, COMMONLY CALLED The Purification of the Virgin Mary. Little children may think of Christ as a child now and always. For to them He is always the Babe of Bethlehem. Let them not say to themselves, "Christ is grown up long ago." He is, and yet He is not. His life is eternal in the heavens, above all change of time and space. . . . Such is the sacred heart of Jesus--all things to all. To the strong He can be strongest, to the weak weakest of all. With the aged and dying He goes down for ever to the grave; and yet with you children Christ lies for ever on His mother's bosom, and looks up for ever into His mother's face, full of young life and happiness and innocence, the Everlasting Christ- child, in whom you must believe, whom you must love, to whom you must offer up your childish prayers. _The Christ-child_, _Sermons_, (_Good News of God_). FEBRUARY 24. St. Matthias, Apostle and Martyr. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. They rest from their labours--all their struggles, failures, past and over for ever. But their works follow them. The good which they did on earth--_that_ is not past and over. It cannot die. It lives and grows for ever, following on in their path long after they are dead, and bearing fruit unto everlasting life, not only in them, but in men whom they never saw, and in generations yet unborn. _Sermons_ (_Good News of God_). Ash Wednesday. There is a repentance too deep for words--too deep for all confessionals, penances, and emotions or acts of contrition; the repentance, not of the excitable, theatric Southern, unstable as water even in his most violent remorse, but of the still, deep-hearted Northern, whose pride breaks slowly and silently, but breaks once for all; who tells to God what he will never tell to man, and having told it, is a new creature from that day forth for ever. _Two Years Ago_, chap. xviii. The True Fast. The _rationale_ of Fasting is to give up habitual indulgences for a time, lest they become our masters--artificial _necessities_. _MS._ March. Early in the Springtime, on raw and windy mornings, Beneath the freezing house-eaves, I heard the starlings sing-- Ah! dreary March month, is this then a time for building wearily? Sad, sad, to think that the year is but begun! Late in the Autumn, on still and cloudless evenings, Among the golden reed-beds I heard the starlings sing-- Ah! that sweet March month, when we and our mates were courting merrily; Sad, sad, to think that the year is all but done. _The Starlings_. Knowledge and Love. March 1. Knowledge and Love are reciprocal. He who loves knows. He who knows loves. Saint John is the example of the first; Saint Paul of the second. _Letters and Memories_. 1842. A Charm of Birds. March 2. Little do most people know how much there is to learn--what variety of character, as well as variety of motion, may be distinguished by the practised ear in a "charm of birds"--from the wild cry of the missel-thrush, ringing from afar in the first bright days of March a passage of one or two bars repeated three or four times, and then another and another, clear and sweet and yet defiant--for the great "storm-cock" loves to sing when rain and wind is coming on, and faces the elements as boldly as he faces hawk and crow--down to the delicate warble of the wren, who slips out of his hole in the brown bank where he has huddled through the frost with wife and children, all folded in each other's arms like human beings. Yet even he, sitting at his house-door in the low sunlight, says grace for all mercies in a song so rapid, so shrill, so loud, and yet so delicately modulated, that you wonder at the amount of soul within that tiny body; and then stops suddenly, like a child that has said its lesson or got to the end of a sermon, gives a self-satisfied flirt of his tail, and goes in again to sleep. _Prose Idylls_. 1866. Tact of the Heart. March 3. Random shots are dangerous and cruel, likely to hit the wrong person and hurt his feelings unnecessarily. It is very easy to say a hard thing, but not so easy to say it to the right person at the right time. _MS._ Special Providences. March 4. I believe not only in "special providences," but in the whole universe as one infinite complexity of special providences. _Letters and Memories_. The grain of dust is a thought of God; God's power made it; God's wisdom gave it whatsoever properties or qualities it may possess. God's providence has put it in the place where it is now, and has ordained that it should be in that place at that moment, by a train of causes and effects which reaches back to the very creation of the universe. The grain of dust can no more go from God's presence or flee from God's Spirit than you or I can. _Town Geology_. 1871. Be Calm. March 5. Strive daily and hourly to be calm; to stop yourself forcibly and recall your mind to a sense of what you are, where you are going, and whither you ought to be tending. This is most painful discipline, but most wholesome. _MS. Letter_. 1842. Self-sacrifice and Personality. March 6. What a strange mystery is that of mutual self-sacrifice! to exist for one moment for another! the perfection of human bliss! And does not love teach us two things? First, that self-sacrifice, the living for others, is the law of our perfect being, and next, that by and in self-sacrifice alone can we attain to the perfect apprehension of ourselves, our own personality, our own duty, our own bliss. So that the mystics are utterly wrong when they fancy that self-sacrifice can be attained by self- annihilation. Self-sacrifice, instead of destroying the sense of personality, perfects it. _MS. Letter_. 1843. Follow your Star. March 7. I believe with Dante, "_se tu segui la tua Stella_," that He who ordained my star will not lead me _into_ temptation but _through_ it. Without Him all places and methods of life are equally dangerous, with Him all equally safe. _Letters and Memories_. 1848. Reverence for Books. March 8. This is the age of _books_. And we should reverence books. Consider! except a living man there is nothing more wonderful than a book--a message to us from the dead, from human souls whom we never saw, who lived perhaps thousands of miles away, and yet in those little sheets of paper speak to us, amuse us, terrify us, teach us, comfort us, open their hearts to us as brothers! We ought to reverence books, to look at them as awful and mighty things. If they are good and true, whether they are about religion or politics, trade or medicine, they are the message of Christ, the Maker of all things, the Teacher of all truth, which He has put into the heart of some men to speak. And at the last day, be sure of it, we shall have to render an account--a strict account--of the books which we have read, and of the way in which we have obeyed what we read, just as if we had had so many prophets or angels sent to us. _Village Sermons_. 1849. The Unknown Future. March 9. As for the things which God has prepared for those who love Him, the Bible tells me that no man can conceive them, and therefore I believe that I cannot conceive them. God has conceived them; God has prepared them; God is our Father. That is enough. _Sermons for the Times_. 1855. Secular and Sacred. March 10. I grudge the epithet of "_secular_" to any matter whatsoever. But more; I deny it to anything which God has made, even to the tiniest of insects, the most insignificant grain of dust. To those who believe in God, and try to see all things in God, the most minute natural phenomenon cannot be secular. It must be divine, I say deliberately, divine, and I can use no less lofty word. _Town Geology_. 1871. Content or Happy? March 11. My friends, whether you will be the happier for any knowledge of physical science, or for any other knowledge whatsoever, I cannot tell. That lies in the decision of a higher Power than I; and, indeed, to speak honestly, I do not think that any branch of physical science is likely, at first at least, to make you happy. Neither is the study of your fellow-men. Neither is religion itself. We were not sent into the world to be happy, but to be right--at least, poor creatures that we are--as right as we can be, and we must be content with being right, and not happy. . . . And we shall be made truly wise if we be made content; content, too, not only with what we can understand, but content with what we do not understand--the habit of mind which theologians call (and rightly) faith in God, true and solid faith, which comes often out of sadness and out of doubt. _Lecture on Bio-geology_. 1869. Duty of Man to Man. March 12. Each man can learn something from his neighbour; at least he can learn this--to have patience with his neighbour, to live and let live. Peace! peace! Anything which is not _wrong_ for the sake of heaven-born Peace! _Town and Country Sermons_. 1861. Blessing of a True Friend. March 13. A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults; who will speak the honest truth to us, while the world flatters us to our face, and laughs at us behind our back; who will give us counsel and reproof in the days of prosperity and self-conceit; but who, again, will comfort and encourage us in the day of difficulty and sorrow, when the world leaves us alone to fight our battle as we can. It is only the great-hearted who can be true friends: the mean and cowardly can never know what true friendship means. _Sermons on David_. 1866. True Heroines. March 14. What is the commonest, and yet the least remembered form of heroism? The heroism of an average mother. Ah! when I think of that broad fact I gather hope again for poor humanity, and this dark world looks bright, this diseased world looks wholesome to me once more, because, whatever else it is or is not full of, it is at least full of mothers. _Lecture on Heroism_. 1873. Secret Atheism. March 15. There is little hope that we shall learn the lessons God is for ever teaching us in the events of life till we get rid of our secret Atheism, till we give up the notion that God only visits now and then to disorder and destroy His own handiwork, and take back the old scriptural notion that God is visiting all day long for ever, to give order and life to His own work, to set it right where it goes wrong, and re-create it whenever it decays. _Water of Life Sermons_. 1866. Tolerance. March 16. If we really love God and long to do good and work for God, if we really love our neighbours and wish to help them, we shall have no heart to quarrel about _how_ the good is to be done, provided _it is_ done. "Master," said St. John, "we saw one casting out devils in Thy name, and he followeth not us; wilt Thou that we forbid him? And Jesus said, Forbid him not." _Sermons_. The Hopes of Old Age. March 17. Christianity alone deprives old age of its bitterness, making it the gate of heaven. Our bodies will fade and grow weak and shapeless, just when we shall not want them, being ready and in close expectation of that resurrection of the flesh which is the great promise of Christianity (no miserable fancies about "pure souls" escaped from matter, but)--of bodies, _our_ bodies, beloved, beautiful, ministers to us in all our joys, sufferers with us in all our sorrows--yea, our very own selves raised up again to live and love in a manner inconceivable from its perfection. _MS._ 1842. . . . No! I can wait: Another body!--Ah, new limbs are ready, Free, pure, instinct with soul through every nerve, Kept for us in the treasuries of God! _Santa Maura_. 1852. The Highest Study for Man, March 18. Man is _not_, as the poet said, "the noblest study of mankind." God is the noblest study of man, and Him we can study in three ways. 1st. From His image as developed in Christ the Ideal, and in all good men--great good men. 2dly. From His works. 3dly. From His dealings in history; this is the real philosophy of history. _Letters and Memories_. 1842. Eclecticism. March 19. An eclectic, if it mean anything, means this--one who in any branch of art or science refuses to acknowledge Bacon's great law, that "Nature is only conquered by obeying her;" who will not take a full and reverent view of the whole mass of facts with which he has to deal, and from them deducing the fundamental laws of his subject, obey them whithersoever they may lead; but who picks and chooses out of them just so many as may be pleasant to his private taste, and then constructs a partial system which differs from the essential ideas of Nature in proportion to the number of facts which he has determined to discard. _Miscellanies_. 1849. Duty. March 20. Duty, be it in a small matter or a great, is duty still; the command of Heaven; the eldest voice of God. And it is only they who are faithful in a few things who will be faithful over many things; only they who do their duty in everyday and trivial matters who will fulfil them on great occasions. _Sermons for the Times_. 1855. The Great Unknown. March 21. "Brother," said the abbot, "make ready for me the divine elements, that I may consecrate them." And he asking the reason therefor, the saint replied, "That I may partake thereof with all my brethren before I depart hence. For know assuredly that within the seventh day I shall migrate to the celestial mansions. For this night stood by me in a dream those two women whom I love, and for whom I pray, the one clothed in a white, the other in a ruby-coloured garment, and holding each other by the hand, who said to me, '_That life after death is not such a one as you fancy_: come, therefore, and behold what it is like.'" _Hypatia_, chap. xxx. 1852. Loss nor Gain, March 22. Nothing is more expensive than penuriousness; nothing more anxious than carelessness; and every duty which is bidden to wait returns with seven fresh duties at its back. _Sermons for the Times_. 1855. Ancient Greek Education, March 23. We talk of education now. Are we more educated than were the ancient Greeks? Do we know anything about education, physical, intellectual, aesthetic (religious education in our sense of the word of course they had none), of which they have not taught us at least the rudiments? Are there not some branches of education which they perfected once and for ever, leaving us northern barbarians to follow or not to follow their example? To produce health, that is, harmony and sympathy, proportion and grace, in every faculty of mind and body--that was their notion of education. Ah! the waste of health and strength in the young! The waste, too, of anxiety and misery in those who love and tend them! How much of it might be saved by a little rational education in those laws of nature which are the will of God about the welfare of our bodies, and which, therefore, we are as much bound to know and to obey as we are bound to know and to obey the spiritual laws whereon depend the welfare of our souls. _Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. Body and Soul. March 24. Exalt me with Thee, O Lord, to know the mystery of life, that I may use the earthly as the appointed expression and type of the heavenly, and, by using to Thy glory the natural body, may be fit to be exalted to the use of the spiritual body. Amen. _MS._ 1842. Moderation. March 25. Let us pray for that great--I had almost said that crowning grace and virtue of Moderation, what St. Paul calls sobriety and a sound mind. Let us pray for moderate appetites, moderate passions, moderate honours, moderate gains, moderate joys; and if sorrows be needed to chasten us, moderate sorrows. Let us not long violently after, or wish too eagerly to rise in life. _Water of Life Sermons_. 1869. Poetry in the Slums. March 26. "True poetry, like true charity, my laddie, begins at home. . . . Hech! is there no the heaven above them there, and the hell beneath them? and God frowning, and the devil grinning? No poetry there! Is no the verra idea of the classic tragedy defined to be man conquered by circumstance? canna ye see it there? And the verra idea of the modern tragedy, man conquering circumstance? and I'll show ye that too--in many a garret where no eye but the good God's enters to see the patience, and the fortitude, and the self-sacrifice, and the love stronger than death, that's shining in those dark places of the earth." "Ah, poetry's grand--but fact is grander; God and Satan are grander. All around ye, in every gin-shop and costermonger's cellar, are God and Satan at death-grips; every garret is a haill Paradise Lost or Paradise Regained." _Alton Locke_, chap. viii. 1849. Time and Eternity. March 27. . . . Our life's floor Is laid upon Eternity; no crack in it But shows the underlying heaven. _Saint's Tragedy_, Act iii. Scene ii. Work. March 28. Yes. Life is meant for work, and not for ease; to labour in danger and in dread, to do a little good ere the night comes when no man can work, instead of trying to realise for oneself a paradise; not even Bunyan's shepherd-paradise, much less Fourier's casino-paradise, and perhaps, least of all, because most selfish and isolated of all, our own art-paradise, the apotheosis of loafing, as Claude calls it. _Prose Idylls_. 1849. Teaching of Pictures. March 29. Pictures raise blessed thoughts in me. Why not in you, my toiling brother? Those landscapes painted by loving, wise, old Claude two hundred years ago, are still as fresh as ever. How still the meadows are! How pure and free that vault of deep blue sky! No wonder that thy worn heart, as thou lookest, sighs aloud, "Oh, that I had wings as a dove, then would I flee away and be at rest." Ah! but gayer meadows and bluer skies await thee _in the world to come_--that fairyland made real--"the new heavens and the new earth" which God hath prepared for the pure and the loving, the just, and the brave, who have conquered in this sore fight of life. _True Words for Brave Men_. 1849. Voluntary Heroism. March 30. Any man or woman, in any age and under any circumstances, who _will_, _can_ live the heroic life and exercise heroic influences. It is of the essence of self-sacrifice, and therefore of heroism, that it should be voluntary; a work of supererogation, at least, towards society and man; an act to which the hero or heroine is not bound by duty, but which is above though not against duty. _Lecture on Heroism_. 1872. The Ideal Holy One. March 31. Have you never cried in your hearts with longing, almost with impatience, "Surely, surely, there is an ideal Holy One somewhere--or else, how could have arisen in my mind the conception, however faint, of an ideal holiness? But where? oh, where? Not in the world around strewn with unholiness. Not in myself, unholy too, without and within. Is there a Holy One, whom I may contemplate with utter delight? and if so, where is He? Oh, that I might behold, if but for a moment, His perfect beauty, even though, as in the fable of Semele of old, 'the lightning of His glance were death.'" . . . And then, oh, then--has there not come that for which our spirit was athirst--the very breath of pure air, the very gleam of pure light, the very strain of pure music--for it is the very music of the spheres--in those words, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come"? Yes, whatever else is unholy, there is a Holy One--spotless and undefiled, serene and self-contained. Whatever else I cannot trust, there is One whom I can trust utterly. Whatever else I am dissatisfied with, there is One whom I can contemplate with utter satisfaction, and bathe my stained soul in that eternal fount of purity. And who is He? Who, save the Cause and Maker and Ruler of all things past, present, and to come? _Sermon on All Saints' Day_. 1874. Charles Kingsley's Dying Words, "HOW BEAUTIFUL GOD IS." SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. MARCH 25. The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, COMMONLY CALLED Lady Day. It is one of the glories of our holy religion, and one of the ways by which the Gospel takes such hold on our hearts, that, mixed up with the grandest and most mysterious and most divine matters, are the simplest, the most tender, the most human. What more grand, or deep, or divine words can we say than, "I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,"--and yet what more simple, human, and tender words can we say than, "Who was born of the Virgin Mary"? For what more beautiful sight on earth than a young mother with her babe upon her knee? Beautiful in itself; but doubly beautiful to those who can say, "I believe in Him who was born of the Virgin Mary." For since He was born of woman, and thereby took the manhood into God, birth is holy, and childhood holy, and all a mother's joys and a mother's cares are holy to the Lord; and every Christian mother with her babe in her arms is a token and a sign from God, a pledge of His good-will towards men, a type and pattern of her who was highly-favoured and blessed above all women. Everything has its time, and Lady-Day is the time for our remembering the Blessed Virgin. For our hearts and reasons tell us (and have told all Christians in all ages), that she must have been holier, nobler, fairer in body and soul, than all women upon earth. _MS. Sermon_. April. Wild, wild wind, wilt thou never cease thy sighing? Dark, dark night, wilt thou never wear away? Cold, cold Church, in thy death sleep lying, Thy Lent is past, thy Passion here, but not thine Easter Day. Peace, faint heart, though the night be dark and sighing, Rest fair corpse, where thy Lord Himself hath lain. Weep, dear Lord, above Thy bride low lying, Thy tears shall wake her frozen limbs to life and health again. _The Dead Church_. The Song of Birds. April 1. St. Francis called the birds his brothers. Perfectly sure that he himself was a spiritual being, he thought it at least possible that the birds might be spiritual beings likewise, incarnate like himself in mortal flesh, and saw no degradation to the dignity of human nature in claiming kindred lovingly with creatures so beautiful, so wonderful, who (as he fancied in his old-fashioned way) praised God in the forest even as angels did in heaven. _Prose Idylls_. 1867. True Reformers. April 2. It is not the many who reform the world; but the few who rise superior to that Public Opinion which crucified our Lord many years ago. _MS. Lecture at Cambridge_. 1866. High Ideals. April 3. What if a man's idea of "The Church" be somewhat too narrow for the year of grace 18--, is it no honour to him that he has such an idea at all? that there has risen up before him the vision of a perfect polity, a "divine and wonderful order," linking earth to heaven, and to the very throne of Him who died for men; witnessing to each of its citizens what the world tries to make him forget, namely, that he is the child of God Himself; and guiding and strengthening him from the cradle to the grave to do his Father's work? Is it no honour to him that he has seen that such a polity must exist, that he believes that it does exist, or that he thinks he finds it in its highest, if not in its most perfect form, in the most ancient and august traditions of his native land? True, he may have much still to learn. . . . _Two Years Ago_, chap. iv. 1856. Divine Knowledge. April 4. That glorious word _know_--it is God's attribute, and includes in itself all others. Love, truth--all are parts of that awful power of _knowing_ at a single glance, from and to all eternity, what a thing is in its essence, its properties, and its relations to the whole universe through all Time. I feel awestruck whenever I see that word used rightly, and I never, if I can remember, use it myself of myself. _Letters and Memories_. 1842. Woman's Love. April 5. The story of Ruth is the consecration of woman's love. I do not mean of the love of wife to husband, divine and blessed as that is. I mean that depth and strength of devotion, tenderness, and self-sacrifice, which God has put into the heart of all true women; and which they spend so strangely, and so nobly often, on persons who have no claim on them, and from whom they can receive no earthly reward--the affection which made women minister of their substance to our Lord Jesus Christ, which brought Mary Magdalene to the foot of the cross and to the door of the tomb--the affection which made a wise man say that as long as women and sorrow are left in the world, so long will the gospel of our Lord Jesus live and conquer therein. _Water of Life Sermons_. Feeling and Emotion. April 6. Live a life of _feeling_, not of _excitement_. Let your religion, your duties, every thought and word, be ruled by the _affections_, not by the _emotions_, which are the expressions of them. Do not consider whether you are glad, sorry, dull, or spiritual at any moment, but be yourself--what God makes you. _MS. Letter_. 1842. The Beasts that perish. April 7. St. Paul says that he himself saw through a glass darkly. But this he seems to have seen, that the Lord, when He rose from the dead, brought a blessing even for the dumb beasts and the earth on which we live. He says the whole creation is now groaning in the pangs of labour, about to bring forth something, and that the whole creation will rise again--how and when and into what new state we cannot tell; but that when the Lord shall destroy death the whole creation shall be renewed. _National Sermons_. 1851. Reverence for Age. April 8. Reverence for age is a fair test of the vigour of youth; and, conversely, insolence towards the old and the past, whether in individuals or in nations, is a sign rather of weakness than of strength. _Lecture on Westminster Abbey_. 1874. Prayers for the Dead. April 9. We do not in the Church of England now pray for the dead. We are not absolutely forbidden by Scripture to do so. But we believe they are where they ought to be--that they are gone to a perfectly just world, in which is none of the confusion, mistakes, wrong, and oppression of this world; in which they will therefore receive the due reward of their deeds done in the body; and that they are in the hands of a perfectly just God, who rewardeth every man according to his work. It seems therefore unnecessary, and, so to speak, an impertinence towards God, to pray for them who are in the unseen world of spirits exactly in the state which they have deserved. _MS. Sermon_. Diversities of Gifts. April 10. Why expect Wisdom with love in all? Each has his gift-- Our souls are organ pipes of diverse stop And various pitch: each with its proper notes Thrilling beneath the self-same breath of God. Though poor alone, yet joined, they're harmony. _Saints' Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene v. 1847. The Atonement. April 11. _How_ Christ's death takes away thy sins thou wilt never know on earth--perhaps not in heaven. It is a mystery which thou must believe and adore. But _why_ He died thou canst see at the first glance, if thou hast a human heart and will look at what God means thee to look at--Christ upon His Cross. He died because He was _Love_--love itself, love boundless, unconquerable, unchangeable--love which inhabits eternity, and therefore could not be hardened or foiled by any sin or rebellion of man, but must love men still--must go out to seek and save them, must dare, suffer any misery, shame, death itself, for their sake--just because it is absolute and perfect Love which inhabits eternity. _Good News of God Sermons_. A Day's Work. April 12. Make a rule, and pray to God to help you to keep it, never, if possible, to lie down at night without being able to say, I have made one human being at least a little wiser, a little happier, or a little better this day. You will find it easier than you think, and pleasanter. _Sermons for the Times_. 1855. Self-control. April 13. A well-educated moral sense, a well-educated character, saves from idleness and ennui, alternating with sentimentality and excitement, those tenderer emotions, those deeper passions, those nobler aspirations of humanity, which are the heritage of the woman far more than of the man, and which are potent in her, for evil or for good, in proportion as they are left to run wild and undisciplined, or are trained and developed into graceful, harmonious, self-restraining strength, beautiful in themselves, and a blessing to all who come under their influence. _Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. Women and Novels. April 14. Novels will be read; but that is all the more reason why women should be trained, by the perusal of a higher, broader, deeper literature, to distinguish the good novel from the bad, the moral from the immoral, the noble from the base, the true work of art from the sham which hides its shallowness and vulgarity under a tangled plot and a melodramatic situation. They should learn--and that they can only learn by cultivation--to discern with joy and drink in with reverence, the good, the beautiful, and the true, and to turn with the fine scorn of a pure and strong womanhood from the bad, the ugly, and the false. _Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. Expect Much. April 15. Expect great things from God, and also expect the least things, for the great test of faith is shown about the least matters. People will believe their soul is sure to be saved who have not the heart to expect that God will take away some small burden. _MS. Letter_. 1842. What is Theology? April 16. Theology signifies the knowledge of God as He is. And it is dying out among us in these days. Much of what is called theology now is nothing but experimental religion, which is most important and useful when it is founded on the right knowledge of God, but which is not itself theology. For theology begins with God, but experimental religion, right or wrong, begins with a man's own soul. _Discipline and other Sermons_. Sweetness and Light. April 17. Ah, that we could believe that God is love, and that he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him! Then we should have no need to be told to cultivate sweetness and light, for they would seem to us the only temper which could make life tolerable in any corner of the universe. _Essay on the Critical Spirit_. 1871. The Contemplative Life. April 18. "Woman is no more capable than man of living on mere contemplation. We must have an object to whom we may devote the fruits of thought, and unless we have a real one in active life we shall be sure to coin one for ourselves, and spend our spirits on a dream." "True, true," chimed in the counsellor, "spirit is little use without body, and a body it will find; and therefore, unless you let people's brains grow healthy plants, they will grow mushrooms." _MS. unfinished Story_. 1843. Sudden Death. April 19. "What better can the Lord do for a man, than take him home when he has done his work?" "But, Master Yeo, a sudden death?" "And why not a sudden death, Sir John? Even fools long for a short life and a merry one, and shall not the Lord's people pray for a short death and a merry one? Let it come as it will to old Yeo!" _Westward Ho_! chap. xxxii. 1855. Prayer and Praise. April 20. Pray night and day, very quietly, like a little weary child, to the good and loving God, for everything you want, in body as well as soul--the least thing as well as the greatest. Nothing is too much to ask God for--nothing too great for Him to grant: glory be to Thee, O Lord! And try to thank Him for everything . . . I sometimes feel that eternity will be too short to praise God in, if it was only for making us live at all! And then not making us idiots or cripples, or even only ugly and stupid! What blessings we have! Let us work in return for them--not under the enslaving sense of paying off an infinite debt, but with the delight of gratitude, glorying that we are God's debtors. _Letters_. 1843. The Divine Spark. April 21. Man? I am a man, thou art a woman--not by reason of bones and muscles, nerves and brain, which I have in common with apes, and dogs, and horses--I am a man, thou art a man or woman, not because we have a flesh, God forbid! but because there is a spirit in us, a divine spark and ray which nature did not give, and which nature cannot take away. And therefore, while I live on earth, I will live to the spirit, not to the flesh, that I may be indeed a man. _Lecture on Ancient Civilisation_. 1873. The Worst Calamity. April 22. The very worst calamity, I should say, which could befall any human being would be this--to have his own way from his cradle to his grave; to have everything he liked for the asking, or even for the buying; never to be forced to say, "I should like that, but I cannot afford it. I should like this, but I must not do it." Never to deny himself, never to exert himself, never to work, and never to want--that man's soul would be in as great danger as if he were committing great crimes. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. Men and Women. April 23. "The Lord be with you, dearest lady," said Adrian Gilbert. "Strange how you women sit at home to love and suffer, while we men rush forth to break our hearts and yours against rocks of our own seeking! Ah! hech! were it not for Scripture I should have thought that Adam, rather than Eve, had been the one who plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree." _Westward Ho_! chap. xiii. 1855. Faith in the Unseen. April 24. He was not one of those "ungodly" men of whom David speaks in his Psalms, who rob the widow and the fatherless. His morality was as high as that of the average, his honour higher. But of "godliness" in its true sense--of belief that any Being above cared for him, and was helping him in the daily business of life: that it was worth while asking that Being's advice, or that any advice would be given if asked for--of any practical notion of a heavenly Father or a Divine educator--he was as ignorant as thousands of persons who go to church every Sunday, and read good books, and believe firmly that the Pope is Antichrist. _Two Years Ago_, chap. i. 1856. Death--Resurrection. April 25. As we rose to go, my eye caught a highly-finished drawing of the Resurrection painted above the place where the desk and faldstool and lectern, holding an open missal book, stood. I should have rather expected, I thought to myself, a picture of the Crucifixion. She seemed to guess my thought, and said, "There is enough in an abode of heavy hearts, and in daily labours among poverty and suffering, to keep in our minds the Prince of Sufferers. We need rather to be reminded that pain is not the law but the disease of our existence, and that it has been conquered for us in body and soul by Him in whose eternity of bliss a few years of sadness were but as a mote within the sunbeam's blaze." _MS. unfinished Story_. l843. Woman's Work. April 26. Woman is the teacher, the natural and therefore divine guide, purifier, inspirer of man. _MS._ Passion--Easter--Ascension. April 27. Good Friday, Easter Day, and Ascension, are set as great lights in the firmament of the spiritual year;--to remind us that we are not animals born to do what we like, and fulfil the simple lusts of the flesh--but that we are rational moral beings, members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven, and that, therefore, like Christ, we must die in order to live, stoop in order to conquer. They remind us that honour must grow out of humility; that freedom must grow out of discipline; that sure conquest must be born of heavy struggles; righteous joy out of righteous sorrow; pure laughter out of pure tears; true strength out of the true knowledge of our own weakness; sound peace of mind out of sound contrition. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871. How to keep Passion-Week. April 28. Can we go wrong if we keep our Passion-week as Christ kept His? And how did He keep it? Not by shutting Himself up apart, not by the mere thinking over the glory of self-sacrifice. He taught daily in the temple; instead of giving up His work, He worked more earnestly than ever as the terrible end drew near. Why should not we keep Passion-week, not by merely hiding in our closets to meditate even about Him, but by going about our work each in his place, dutifully, bravely, as Christ went? _Town and Country Sermons_. 1859. Self-Sacrifice. April 29. Without self-sacrifice there can be no blessedness either in earth or in heaven. He that loveth his life will lose it. He that hateth his life in this paltry, selfish, luxurious world shall keep it to life eternal. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1870. Help from our Blessed Dead. April 30. And so with those who are Christ's whom we love. Partakers of His death, they are partakers of His resurrection. Let us believe the blessed news in all its fulness, and be at peace. A little while and we see them, and again a little while and we do not see them. But why? Because they are gone to the Father, to the Source and Fount of all life and power, all light and love, that they may gain life from His life, power from His power, light from His light, love from His love; and surely not for nought. Surely not for nought. For if they were like Christ on earth, and did not use their powers for themselves alone; if they are to be like Christ when they see Him as He is, then, more surely, will they not use their powers for themselves, but as Christ uses His, for those they love. _MS. Sermon_. 1866. SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. Passion-tide. From the earliest times the Cross has been the special sign of Christians. St. Paul tells us his great hope, his great business, what God had sent him into the world to do, was this--to make people know the love of Christ; to look at Christ's Cross, and take in its breadth and length and depth and height. And what is the _breadth_ of Christ's Cross? My friends, it is as broad as the whole world, for He died for the whole world; as it is written, "He is a propitiation not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world." And that is the _breadth_ of Christ's Cross. And what is the _length_ of Christ's Cross? Long enough to last through all time. As long as there is a sinner to be saved; as long as there is ignorance, sorrow, pain, death, or anything else which is contrary to God and hurtful to man in the universe of God, so long will Christ's Cross last. And that is the _length_ of the Cross of Christ. And how _high_ is Christ's Cross? As high as the highest heaven, and the throne of God and the bosom of the Father--that bosom out of which for ever proceed all created things. Ay, as high as the highest heaven; for, if you will receive it, when Christ hung upon the Cross heaven came down on earth, and earth ascended into heaven. And that is the _height_ of the Cross of Christ. And how _deep_ is the Cross of Christ? This is a great mystery which people are afraid to look into, and darken it of their own will. But if the Cross of Christ be as high as heaven, then it must be as deep as hell, deep enough to reach the deepest sinner in the deepest pit to which he may fall, for Christ descended into hell, and preached to the spirits in prison. Let us hope, then, that is the _depth_ of the Cross of Christ. "_The Measure of the Cross_," _Sermons_ (_Good News of God_). Good Friday. Listen! and our God shall whisper, as we hang upon the cross, {97} "Children! love! and loving, faint not! great your glory, light your loss! _Ye_ are bound--ye may be loosed--_I_ was nailed upon the tree, Of the pangs I suffered for you--bear awhile a few for me! Fear not, though the waters whelm you; fear not, though ye see no land! Know ye not your God is with you, guiding with a Father's hand? Cords may wring, and winds may freeze you, shivering on the sullen sea, Yet the life that burns within you liveth ever hid with Me!" _MS._ 1842. Christ must suffer before He entered into His glory. He must die before He could rise. He must descend into hell before He could ascend into heaven. For this is the law of God's kingdom. Without a Good Friday there can be no Easter Day. Without self-sacrifice there can be no blessedness. My Saviour! My King! Infinite, Eternal Love--alone of all beings devoid of self-love! Glory be to Thee for Thy humiliation, for Thy Cross and Passion! _MS._ Easter Even. Christ went down into hell and preached to the spirits in prison. It is written that "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive;" and again, "When the wicked man turns from his wickedness he shall save his soul alive." And we know that in the same chapter God tells us that His ways are not unequal. It is possible, therefore, that He has not one law for this life and another for the life to come. Let us hope, then, that David's words may be true after all, when, speaking by the Spirit of God, he says not only "if I ascend up to heaven, thou art there," but "if I go down to hell, thou art there also." _MS. Sermon_. Easter Day. The Creed says, "I believe in the Resurrection of the flesh." I believe that we, each of us, as human beings, men and women, shall have a share in that glorious day; not merely as ghosts and disembodied spirits, but as real live human beings, with new bodies of our own, on a new earth, under a new heaven. "Therefore," David says, "my flesh shall rest in hope;" not merely my soul, my ghost, but my flesh. For the Lord, who not only died but rose again with His body, shall raise our bodies according to His mighty working, and then the whole manhood of us--body, soul, and spirit--shall have our perfect consummation and bliss in His eternal and everlasting glory. _National Sermons_. APRIL 25. St. Mark, Evangelist and Martyr. God's apostles, saints, and martyrs are our spiritual ancestors. They spread the Gospel into all lands, and they spread it, remember always, not only by preaching what they knew, but by being what they were. Their characters, their personal histories, are as important to us as their writings. _Sermons_. May. Is it merely a fancy that we are losing that love for Spring which among our old forefathers rose almost to worship? That the perpetual miracle of the budding leaves and the returning song-birds awakes no longer in us the astonishment which it awoke yearly among the dwellers in the old world, when the sun was a god who was sick to death each winter, and returned in spring to life, and health, and glory; when Freya, the goddess of youth and love, went forth over the earth while the flowers broke forth under her tread over the brown moors, and the birds welcomed her with song? To those simpler children of a simpler age winter and spring were the two great facts of existence; the symbols, the one of death, the other of life; and the battle between the two--the battle of the sun with darkness, of winter with spring, of death with life, of bereavement with love--lay at the root of all their myths and all their creeds. Surely a change has come over our fancies! The seasons are little to us now! _Prose Idylls_. Past and Present. May 1. Now see the young spring leaves burst out a-maying, Fill with their ripening hues orchard and glen; So though old forms pass by, ne'er shall their spirit die, Look! England's bare boughs show green leaf again. _Poems_. 1849. The Earth is the Lord's. May 2. The earth is holy! Can there be a more glorious truth to carry out--one which will lead us more into all love and beauty and purity in heaven and earth? One which must have God's light of love shining on it at every step. God gives us souls and bodies exquisitely attuned for this very purpose--the aesthetic faculty, our sensibilities to the beautiful. All events of life, all the workings of our hearts, should point to this one idea. As I walk the fields, the trees and flowers and birds, and the motes of rack floating in the sky, seem to cry to me: "Thou knowest us! Thou knowest we have a meaning, and sing a heaven's harmony by night and day! Do us justice! Spell our enigma, and go forth and tell thy fellows that we are their brethren, that their spirit is our spirit, their Saviour our Saviour, their God our God!" _Letters and Memories_. 1842. The Great Question. May 3. Is there a living God in the universe, or is there not? That is the greatest of all questions. Has our Lord Jesus Christ answered it, or has He not? _Water of Life Sermons_. 1866. Our Father. May 4. Look at those thousand birds, and without our Father not one of them shall fall to the ground; and art thou not of more value than many sparrows--thou for whom God sent His Son to die? . . . Ah! my friend, we must look out and around to see what God is like. It is when we persist in turning our eyes inward, and prying curiously over our own imperfections, that we learn to make a god after our own image, and fancy that our own hardness and darkness are the patterns of His light and love. _Hypatia_, chap. xi. Want of Sympathy. May 5. If we do not understand our fellow-creatures we shall never love them. And it is equally true, that if we do not love them we shall never understand them. Want of charity, want of sympathy, want of good feeling and fellow-feeling--what does it, what can it breed but endless mistakes and ignorances, both of men's characters and men's circumstances? _Westminster Sermons_. 1873. A Religion. May 6. If all that a man wants is "a _religion_," he ought to be able to make a very pretty one for himself, and a fresh one as often as he is tired of the old. But the heart and soul of man wants more than that; as it is written, "My soul is athirst for GOD, even for the living God." I want a living God, who cares for men, forgives men, saves men from their sins: and Him I have found in the Bible, and nowhere else, save in the facts of life which the Bible alone interprets. _Sermons on the Pentateuch_. 1863. True Civilisation. May 7. Do the duty which lies nearest to you; your duty to the man who lives next door, and to the man who lives in the next street. Do your duty to your parish, that you may do your duty by your country and to all mankind, and prove yourselves thereby civilised men. _Water of Life Sermons_. 1866. Nature and Grace. May 8. Why speak of the God of Nature and the God of grace as two antithetical terms? The Bible never in a single instance makes the distinction, and surely if God be the eternal and unchangeable One, and if all the universe bears the impress of His signet, we have no right, in the present infantile state of science, to put arbitrary limits of our own to the revelation which He may have thought good to make of Himself in Nature. Nay, rather, let us believe that if our eyes were opened we should fulfil the requirement of genius and see the universal in the particular by seeing God's whole likeness, His whole glory, reflected as in a mirror in the meanest flower, and that nothing but the dulness of our simple souls prevents them from seeing day and night in all things the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilling His own saying, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." _Glaucus_. 1855. Wisdom the Child of Goodness. May 9. Goodness rather than talent had given her a wisdom, and goodness rather than courage a power of using that wisdom, which to those simple folk seemed almost an inspiration. _Two Years Ago_, chap. ii. 1857. Rule of Life. May 10. Two great rules for the attainment of heavenly wisdom are simple enough--"Never forget what and where you are," and "Grieve not the Holy Spirit." _MS. Letter_. 1841. Music the Speech of God. May 11. Music--there is something very wonderful in music. Words are wonderful enough, but music is more wonderful. It speaks not to our thoughts as words do, it speaks straight to our hearts and spirits, to the very core and root of our souls. Music soothes us, stirs us up; it puts noble feelings into us; it melts us to tears, we know not how; it is a language by itself, just as perfect, in its way, as speech, as words; just as divine, just as blessed. Music has been called the speech of angels; I will go farther, and call it the speech of God Himself. The old Greeks, the wisest of all the heathen, made a point of teaching their children music, because, they said, it taught them not to be self- willed and fanciful, but to see the beauty of order, the usefulness of rule, the divineness of law. _Good News of God Sermons_. 1859. Facing Realities. May 12. The only comfort I can see in the tragedies of war is that they bring us all face to face with the realities of human life, as it has been in all ages, giving us sterner and yet more loving, more human, and more divine thoughts about ourselves, and our business here, and the fate of those who are gone, and awakening us out of the luxurious, frivolous, and unreal dream (full nevertheless of hard judgments) in which we have been living so long, to trust in a living Father who is really and practically governing this world and all worlds, and who willeth that none should perish. _Letters and Memories_. 1855. Street Arabs. May 13. One has only to go into the streets of any great city in England to see how we, with all our boast of civilisation, are yet but one step removed from barbarism. Is that a hard word? Only there _are_ the barbarians round us at every street corner--grown barbarians, it may be, now all but past saving, but bringing into the world young barbarians whom we may yet save, for God wishes us to save them. . . . Do not deceive yourselves about the little dirty, offensive children in the street. If they be offensive to you, they are not to Him who made them. "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, their angels do always behold the face of your Father which is in heaven." _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871. Fellowship of Sorrow. May 14. How was He, The blessed One, made perfect? Why, by grief-- The fellowship of voluntary grief-- He read the tear-stained book of poor men's souls, As we must learn to read it. Lady! lady! Wear but one robe the less--forego one meal-- And thou shalt taste the core of many tales, Which now flit past thee, like a minstrel's songs, The sweeter for their sadness. _Saint's Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene v. 1847. Heaven and Hell. May 15. Heaven and hell--the spiritual world--are they merely invisible places in space which may become visible hereafter? or are they not rather the moral world of right and wrong? Love and righteousness--is not that the heaven itself wherein God dwells? Hatred and sin--is not that hell itself, wherein dwells all that is opposed to God? _Water of Life Sermons_. The Awfulness of Life. May 16. Our hearts are dull, and hard, and light, God forgive us! and we forget continually what an earnest, awful world we live in--a whole eternity waiting for us to be born, and a whole eternity waiting to see what we shall do now we are born. Yes, our hearts are dull, and hard, and light. And therefore Christ sends suffering on us, to teach us what we always gladly forget in comfort and prosperity--what an awful capacity of suffering we have; and more, what an awful capacity of suffering our fellow-creatures have likewise. . . . We sit at ease too often in a fool's paradise, till God awakens us and tortures us into pity for the torture of others. And so, if we will not acknowledge our brotherhood by any other teaching, He knits us together by the brotherhood of suffering. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871. Hope and Fear. May 17. Every gift of God is good, and given for our happiness, and we sin if we abuse it. To use your fancy to your own misery is to abuse it and to sin. The realm of the possible was given to man to _hope_ and not to _fear_ in. _Letters and Memories_. 1842. Cry of the Heart and Reason. May 18. A living God, a true God, a real God, a God worthy of the name, a God who is working for ever, everywhere, and in all; who hates nothing that He has made, forgets nothing, neglects nothing; a God who satisfies not only the head but the heart, not only the logical intellect but the highest reason--that pure reason which is one with the conscience and moral sense! For Him we cry out, Him we seek, and if we cannot find Him we know no rest. _Water of Life Sermons_. 1867. Speaking the Truth in Love. May 19. Whenever we are tempted to say more than is needful, let us remember St. John's words (in the only sermon we have on record of his), "Little children, love one another," and ask God for His Holy Spirit, the spirit of love, which, instead of weakening a man's words, makes them all the stronger in the cause of truth, because they are spoken in love. How difficult it is to distinguish between the loving _tact_, which avoids giving offence to a weaker brother, and the fear of man, which bringeth a snare! _MS. Letter_. 1842. Peasant Souls. May 20. . . . Dull boors See deeper than we think, and hide within Those leathern hulls unfathomable truths, Which we amid thought's glittering mazes lose. They grind among the iron facts of life, And have no time for self-deception. _Saint's Tragedy_, Act iii. Scene ii. 1847. Death and Everlasting Life. May 21. Do not rashly count on some sudden radical change happening to you as soon as you die to make you fit for heaven. There is not one word in the Bible which gives us reason to suppose that we shall not be in the next world the same persons that we have made ourselves in this world. . . . What we sow here we shall reap there. And it is good for us to know and face this. Anything is good for us, however unpleasant it may be, which drives us from the only real misery, which is sin and selfishness, to the only true happiness, which is the everlasting life of Christ, a pure, loving, just, generous, useful life of goodness. _Good News of God Sermons_. Science and Virtue. May 22. Science is great; but she is not the greatest. She is an instrument and not a power--beneficent or deadly, according as she is wielded by the hand of virtue or vice. But her lawful mistress, the only one which can use her aright, the only one under whom she can truly grow and prosper and prove her divine descent, is Virtue, the likeness of Almighty God. _Roman and Teuton_. 1860. A Child's Heart. May 23. "I saw at last! I found out that I had been trying for years which was stronger, God or I; I found out I had been trying whether I could not do well enough without Him; and there I found that I could not--could not! I felt like a child who had marched off from home, fancying it can find its way, and is lost at once. I did not know that I had a Father in heaven who had been looking after me, when I fancied I was looking after myself. I don't half believe it now." . . . And so the old heart passed away from Thomas Thurnall, and instead of it grew up the heart of a little child. _Two Years Ago_, chap. xxviii. 1857. Self-Security. May 24. Strange it is how mortal man, "who cometh up and is cut down like the flower," can harden himself into a stoical security, and count on the morrow which may never come. Yet so it is, and perhaps if it were not so no work would get done on earth--at least by the many who know not that God is guiding them, while they fancy they are guiding themselves. _Two Years Ago_, chap. i. There is a Providence which rules this earth, whose name is neither Political Economy nor Expediency, but the Living God, who makes every right action reward, and every wrong action punish, _itself_. _History Lecture_, _Cambridge_. 1866. Loss and Gain. May 25. "He has yet to learn what losing his life to save it means, Amyas. Bad men have taught him (and I fear these Anabaptists and Puritans at home teach little else) that it is the one great business of every man to save his own soul after he dies; every one for himself; and that that, and not divine self-sacrifice, is the one thing needful, and the better part which Mary chose." "I think," said Amyas, "men are enough inclined to be selfish without being taught that." _Westward Ho_! chap. vii. 1854. The Law of Righteousness. May 26. What if I had discovered that one law of the spiritual world, in which all others were contained, was Righteousness? and that disharmony with that law, which we call unspirituality, was not being vulgar, or clumsy, or ill-taught, or unimaginative, or dull; but simply being unrighteous? that righteousness, and it alone, was the beautiful, righteousness the sublime, the heavenly, the God-like--ay, God Himself? _Hypatia_, chap. xxvii. 1852. Human and Divine Love. May 27. Believe me that he who has been led by love to a human being to understand the mystery of that divine love which fills all heaven and earth, and concentrates itself into an articulate manifestation in the person of Christ, will soon begin to find that he cannot enter into the perfect bliss of that truth without going further, and seeing that the human heart requires some standing-ground for its affection, even for the love of wife and child, deeper and surer than that love, namely, in utter loyalty, resignation, adoring affection to Him in whom all loveliness is concentrated. It is a great mystery. It is a hard lesson. _Letters and Memories_. 1847. A High Finish. May 28. A high artistic finish is important for more reasons than for the mere pleasure it gives. There is something sacramental in perfect metre and rhythm. They are outward and visible signs (most seriously we speak as we say it) of an inward and spiritual grace, namely, of the self-possessed and victorious temper of one who has so far subdued nature as to be able to hear that universal sphere-music of hers, speaking of which Mr. Carlyle says, that "all deepest thoughts instinctively vent themselves in song." _Miscellanies_. 1849. Our Prayers. May 29. There can be no objection to praying for certain special things. God forbid! I cannot help doing it, any more than a child in the dark can help calling for its mother. Only it seems to me that when we pray, "Grant this day that we run into no kind of danger," we ought to lay our stress on the "run" rather than on the "danger," to ask God not to take away the danger by altering the course of nature, but to give us light and guidance whereby to avoid it. _Letters and Memories_. 1860. Clearing Showers. May 30. When a stream is swelled by a flood, a shower of rain _clears_ it. So in trouble, when the heart is turbid from the world's admixtures, and the stirring up of the foul particles which will lie at the bottom, nothing but the pure dew of heaven can restore its purity, when God's spirit comes down upon it like a gentle rain! _MS._ 1843. Vineyards in Spring. May 31. Look at the rows of vines, or what will be vines when the summer comes, but are now black, knotted and gnarled clubs, without a sign of life in the seemingly dead stick. One who sees that sight may find a new beauty and meaning in the mystic words, "I am the Vine, ye are the branches." It is not merely the connection between branch and stem common to all trees; not merely the exhilarating and seemingly inspiring properties of the grape, which made the very heathen look upon it as the sacred and miraculous fruit, the special gift of God; not merely the pruning out of the unfruitful branches, to be burned as firewood--not merely these, but the seeming death of the Vine, shorn of all its beauty, its fruitfulness, of every branch and twig which it had borne the year before, and left unsightly and seemingly ruined, to its winter sleep; and then bursting forth again by an irresistible inward life into fresh branches, spreading and trailing far and wide, and tossing their golden tendrils to the sky. This thought surely--the emblem of the living Church, springing from the corpse of the dead Christ, who yet should rise to be alive for evermore--enters into, it may be forms an integral part of, the meaning of that prophecy of all prophecies. _Prose Idylls_. 1864. SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. MAY 1. St. Philip and St. James, Apostles and Martyrs. Christ's cross says still, and will say to all Eternity, "Wouldst thou be good? Wouldst thou be like God? Then work and dare, and if need be, suffer for thy fellow-men." On the Cross Christ consecrated, and as it were offered to the Father in His own body, all loving actions, unselfish actions, merciful actions, heroic actions, which man has done or ever will do. From Him, from His spirit, their strength came; and therefore He is not ashamed to call them brethren. He is the King of the noble army of martyrs; of all who suffer for love and truth and justice' sake; and to all such He says, thou hast put on My likeness; thou hast suffered for My sake, and I too have suffered for thy sake, and enabled thee to suffer likewise, and in Me thou too art a Son of God, in whom the Father is well pleased. _Sermons_. Feast of the Ascension. "Lo, I am with you always," said the Blessed One before He ascended to the Father. And this is the Lord who we fancy is gone away far above the stars till the end of time! Oh, my friends, rather bow your heads before Him at this moment! For here He is among us now, listening to every thought of our poor simple hearts. He is where God is, in whom we live, and move, and have our being, and that is everywhere. Do you wish Him to be any nearer? _National Sermons_. . . . Oh, my Saviour! My God! where art Thou? That's but a tale about Thee, That crucifix above--it does but show Thee As Thou wast once, but not as Thou art now. . . . _Saint's Tragedy_, Act iv. Scene i. June. Three o'clock, upon a still, pure, Midsummer morning. . . . The white glare of dawn, which last night hung high in the north-west, has travelled now to the north-east, and above the wooded wall of the hills the sky is flushing with rose and amber. A long line of gulls goes wailing inland; the rooks come cawing and sporting round the corner at Landcross, while high above them four or five herons flap solemnly along to find their breakfast on the shallows. The pheasants and partridges are clucking merrily in the long wet grass; every copse and hedgerow rings with the voice of birds; but the lark, who has been singing since midnight in the "blank height of the dark," suddenly hushes his carol and drops headlong among the corn, as a broad-winged buzzard swings from some wooded peak into the abyss of the valley, and hangs high-poised above the heavenward songster. The air is full of perfume; sweet clover, new-mown hay, the fragrant breath of kine, the dainty scent of sea-weed, and fresh wet sand. Glorious day, glorious place, "bridal of earth and sky," decked well with bridal garments, bridal perfumes, bridal songs. _Westward Ho_! chap. xii. Open Thou mine Eyes. June 1. I have wandered in the mountains mist-bewildered, And now a breeze comes, and the veil is lifted; And priceless flowers, o'er which I trod unheeding, Gleam ready for my grasp. _Saint's Tragedy_, Act i. Scene ii. 1847. The Spirit of Romance. June 2. Some say that the spirit of romance is dead. The spirit of romance will never die as long as there is a man left to see that the world might and can be better, happier, wiser, fairer in all things than it is now. The spirit of romance will never die as long as a man has faith in God to believe that the world will actually be better and fairer than it is now, as long as men have faith, however weak, to believe in the romance of all romances, in the wonder of all wonders, in that of which all poets' dreams have been but childish hints and dim forefeelings--even "That one divine far-off event Towards which the whole creation moves, that wonder which our Lord Himself has bade us pray for as for our daily bread, and say, "Father, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven." _Water of Life Sermons_. 1865. The Everlasting Music. June 3. All melody and all harmony upon earth, whether in the song of birds, the whisper of the wind, the concourse of voices, or the sounds of those cunning instruments which man has learnt to create, because he is made in the image of Christ, the Word of God, who creates all things; all music upon earth, I say, is beautiful in as far as it is a pattern and type of the everlasting music which is in heaven, which was before all worlds and shall be after them. _Good News of God Sermons_. 1859. Gifts are Duties. June 4. Exceeding gifts from God are not blessings, they are duties, and very solemn and heavy duties. They do not always increase a man's happiness; they always increase his responsibility, the awful account which he must render at last of the talents committed to his charge. They increase, too, his danger. _Water of Life Sermons_. Summer Days. June 5. Now let the young be glad, Fair girl and gallant lad, And sun themselves to-day By lawn and garden gay; 'Tis play befits the noon Of rosy-girdled June; . . . . . The world before them, and above The light of Universal Love. _Installation Ode_, _Cambridge_. 1862. "Sufficient for the Day." June 6. Let us not meddle with the future, and matters which are too high for us, but refrain our souls, and keep them low like little children, content with the day's food, and the day's schooling, and the day's play-hours, sure that the Divine Master knows that all is right, and how to train us, and whither to lead us; though we know not and need not know, save this, that the path by which He is leading each of us, if we will but obey and follow step by step, leads up to everlasting life. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871. Secret of Thrift. June 7. The secret of thrift is knowledge. The more you know the more you can save yourself and that which belongs to you, and can do more work with less effort. Knowledge of domestic economy saves income; knowledge of sanitary laws saves health and life: knowledge of the laws of the intellect saves wear and tear of brain, and knowledge of the laws of the spirit--what does it not save? _Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. Out-door Worship. June 8. In the forest, every branch and leaf, with the thousand living things which cluster on them, all worship, worship, worship with us! Let us go up in the evenings and pray there, with nothing but God's cloud temple between us and His heaven! And His choir of small birds and night crickets and booming beetles, and all happy things who praise Him all night long! And in the still summer noon, too, with the lazy-paced clouds above, and the distant sheep-bell, and the bee humming in the beds of thyme, and one bird making the hollies ring a moment, and then all still--hushed--awe-bound, as the great thunder-clouds slide up from the far south! Then, then, to praise God! Ay, even when the heaven is black with wind, the thunder crackling over our heads, then to join in the paean of the storm-spirits to Him whose pageant of power passes over the earth and harms us not in its mercy! _Letters and Memories_. 1844. God's Countenance. June 9. Study nature as the countenance of God! Try to extract every line of beauty, every association, every moral reflection, every inexpressible feeling from it. _Letters and Memories_. 1842. Certain and Uncertain. June 10. "Life is uncertain," folks say. Life is certain, say I, because God is educating us thereby. But this process of education is so far above our sight that it looks often uncertain and utterly lawless; wherefore fools conceive (as does M. Comte) that there is no Living God, because they cannot condense His formulas into their small smelling-bottles. O glorious thought! that we are under a Father's education, and that _He_ has promised to develop us, and to make us go on from strength to strength. _Letters and Memories_. 1868. Sensuality. June 11. What is sensuality? Not the enjoyment of holy glorious matter, but blindness to its meaning. _MS._ 1842. The Journey's End. June 12. Let us live hard, work hard, go a good pace, get to our journey's end as soon as possible--then let the post-horse get his shoulder out of the collar. . . . I have lived long enough to feel, like the old post-horse, very thankful as the end draws near. . . . Long life is the last thing that I desire. It may be that, as one grows older, one acquires more and more the painful consciousness of the difference between what _ought_ to be done and what _can_ be done, and sits down more quietly when one gets the wrong side of fifty, to let others start up to do for us things we cannot do for ourselves. But it is the highest pleasure that a man can have who has (to his own exceeding comfort) turned down the hill at last, to believe that younger spirits will rise up after him, and catch the lamp of Truth, as in the old lamp-bearing race of Greece, out of his hand before it expires, and carry it on to the goal with swifter and more even feet. _Speech at Lotus Club_, _New York_. 1874. Punishment Inevitable. June 13. It is a fact that God does punish here, in this life. He does not, as false preachers say, give over this life to impunity and this world to the devil, and only resume the reigns of moral government and the right of retribution when men die and go into the next world. Here in this life He punishes sin. Slowly but surely God punishes. If any of you doubt my words you have only to commit sin and then see whether your sin will find you out. _Sermons on David_. 1866. The Problem Solved. June l4. After all, the problem of life is not a difficult one, for it solves itself so very soon at best--by death. Do what is right the best way you can, and wait to the end to _know_. _MS. Letter_. But remember that though death may alter our place, it cannot alter our character--though it may alter our circumstances, it cannot alter ourselves. _Discipline and other Sermons_. The Father's Education. June 15. Sin, [Greek text], is the missing of a mark, the falling short of an ideal; . . . and that each miss brings a penalty, or rather is itself the penalty, is to me the best of news and gives me hope for myself and every human being past, present, and future, for it makes me look on them all as children under a paternal education, who are being taught to become aware of, and use their own powers in God's house, the universe, and for God's work in it; and, in proportion as they do that, they attain salvation, _Letters and Memories_. 1852. Parent and Child. June 16. Superstition is the child of fear, and fear is the child of ignorance. _Lectures on Science and Superstition_. 1866. A Charm of Birds. June 17. Listen to the charm of birds in any sequestered woodland on a bright forenoon in early summer. As you try to disentangle the medley of sounds, the first, perhaps, which will strike your ear will be the loud, harsh, monotonous, flippant song of the chaffinch, and the metallic clinking of two or three sorts of titmice. But above the tree-tops, rising, hovering, sinking, the woodlark is fluting tender and low. Above the pastures outside the skylark sings--as he alone can sing; and close by from the hollies rings out the blackbird's tenor--rollicking, audacious, humorous, all but articulate. From the tree above him rises the treble of the thrush, pure as the song of angels; more pure, perhaps, in tone, though neither so varied nor so rich as the song of the nightingale. And there, in the next holly, is the nightingale himself; now croaking like a frog, now talking aside to his wife, and now bursting out into that song, or cycle of songs, in which if any man find sorrow, he himself surely finds none. . . . In Nature there is nothing melancholy. _Prose Idylls_. 1866. Notes of Character. June 18. Without softness, without repose, and therefore without dignity. _MS._ Our Blessed Dead. June 19. Why should not those who are gone be actually nearer us, not farther from us, in the heavenly world, praying for us, and it may be influencing and guiding us in a hundred ways of which we, in our prison-house of mortality, cannot dream? Yes! Do not be afraid to believe that he whom you have lost is near you, and you near him, and both of you near God, who died on the cross for you. _Letters and Memories_. 1871. Silent Influence. June 20. Violence is not strength, noisiness is not earnestness. Noise is a sign of want of faith, and violence is a sign of weakness. By quiet, modest, silent, private influence we shall win. "Neither strive nor cry nor let your voice be heard in the streets," was good advice of old, and is still. I have seen many a movement succeed by it. I have seen many a movement tried by the other method of striving and crying and making a noise in the streets, but I have never seen one succeed thereby, and never shall. _Letters and Memories_. 1870. Chivalry. June 21. Some say that the age of chivalry is past. The age of chivalry is never past as long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth, and a man or woman left to say, "I will redress that wrong, or spend my life in the attempt." The age of chivalry is never past as long as men have faith enough in God to say, "God will help me to redress that wrong; or if not me, surely He will help those that come after me. For His eternal will is to overcome evil with good." _Water of Life Sermons_. 1865. Nature and Art. June 22. When once you have learnt the beauty of little mossy banks, and tiny leaves, and flecks of cloud, with what a fulness the glories of Claude, or Ruysdael, or Berghem, will unfold themselves to you! You must know Nature or you cannot know Art. And when you do know Nature you will only prize Art for being like Nature. _MS. Letter_. 1842. Simple and Sincere. June 23. There are those, and, thanks to Almighty God, they are to be numbered by tens of thousands, who will not perplex themselves with questionings; simple, genial hearts, who try to do what good they can in the world, and meddle not with matters too high for them; people whose religion is not abstruse but deep, not noisy but intense, not aggressive but laboriously useful; people who have the same habit of mind as the early Christians seem to have worn, ere yet Catholic truth had been defined in formulae, when the Apostles' Creed was symbol enough for the Church, and men were orthodox in heart rather than exact in head. For such it is enough if a fellow-creature loves Him whom they love, and serves Him whom they serve. Personal affection and loyalty to the same unseen Being is to them a communion of saints both real and actual, in the genial warmth of which all minor differences of opinion vanish. . . . _Preface to Tauler's Sermons_. 1854. God's Words. June 24. Do I mean, then, that this or any text has nothing to do with us? God forbid! I believe that every word of our Lord's has to do with us, and with every human being, for their meaning is infinite, eternal, and inexhaustible. _MS. Letter_. Taught by Failure. June 25. So I am content to have failed. I have learned in the experiment priceless truths concerning myself, my fellow-men, and the city of God, which is eternal in the heavens, for ever coming down among men, and actualising itself more and more in every succeeding age. I only know that I know nothing, but with a hope that Christ, who is the Son of Man, will tell me piecemeal, if I be patient and watchful, what I am and what man is. _Letters and Memories_. 1857. Presentiments. June 26. "I cannot deny," said Claude, "that such things as presentiments may be possible. However miraculous they may seem, are they so very much more so than the daily fact of memory? I can as little guess why we remember the past, as why we may not at times be able to foresee the future." . . . _Two Years Ago_, chap. xxviii. A thing need not be unreasonable--that is, contrary to reason--because it is above and beyond reason, or, at least, our human reason, which at best (as St. Paul says) sees as in a glass darkly. _MS. Letter_. 1856. Common Duties. June 27. But after all, what is speculation to practice? What does God require of us, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Him? The longer I live this seems to me more important, and all other questions less so--if we can but live the simple right life-- Do the work that's nearest, Though it's dull at whiles; Helping, when we meet them, Lame dogs over stiles. _Letters and Memories_. 1857. Lost and Found. June 28. "My welfare? It is gone!" "So much the better. I never found mine till I lost it." _Hypatia_, chap. xxvii. 1852. How to bear Sorrow. June 29. I believe that the wisest plan is sometimes not to try to bear sorrow--as long as one is not crippled for one's everyday duties--but to give way to it utterly and freely. Perhaps sorrow is sent that we _may_ give way to it, and in drinking the cup to the dregs, find some medicine in it itself, which we should not find if we began doctoring ourselves, or letting others doctor us. If we say simply, "I am wretched--I ought to be wretched;" then we shall perhaps hear a voice, "Who made thee wretched but God? Then what can He mean but thy good?" And if the heart answers impatiently, "My good? I don't want it, I want my love;" perhaps the voice may answer, "Then thou shalt have both in time." _Letters and Memories_. 1871. A certain Hope. June 30. Let us look forward with quiet certainty of hope, day and night; believing, though we can see but little day, that all this tangled web will resolve itself into golden threads of twined, harmonious life, guiding both us, and those we love, together, through this life to that resurrection of the flesh, when we shall at last know the reality and the fulness of life and love. Even so come, Lord Jesus! _Letters and Memories_. 1844. SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. Whit Sunday. Think of the Holy Spirit as a Person having a will of His own, who breatheth whither He listeth, and cannot be confined to any feelings or rules of yours or of any man's, but may meet you in the Sacraments or out of the Sacraments, even as He will, and has methods of comforting and educating you of which you will never dream; One whose will is the same as the will of the Father and of the Son, even a good will. _Discipline Sermons_. Trinity Sunday. Some things I see clearly and hold with desperate clutch. A Father in heaven for all, a Son of God incarnate for all, and a Spirit of the Father _and_ the Son--who works to will and to do of His own good pleasure in every human being in whom there is one spark of active good, the least desire to do right or to be of use--the Fountain of all good on earth. _Letters and Memories_. JUNE 11. St. Barnabas, Apostle and Martyr. . . . Which is Love? To do God's will, or merely suffer it? . . . . . No! I must headlong into seas of toil, Leap far from self, and spend my soul on others. For contemplation falls upon the spirit, Like the chill silence of an autumn sun: While action, like the roaring south-west wind, Sweeps laden with elixirs, with rich draughts Quickening the wombed earth. _Saint's Tragedy_. JUNE 21. St. John the Baptist. How shall we picture John the Baptist to ourselves? Great painters have exercised their fancy upon his face, his figure, his actions. The best which I can recollect is Guido's--of the magnificent lad sitting on the rock, half clad in his camel's-hair robe, his stalwart hand lifted up to denounce he hardly knows what, save that things are going all wrong, utterly wrong to him--his beautiful mouth open to preach he hardly knows what, save that he has a message from God, of which he is half conscious as yet--that he is a forerunner, a prophet, a foreteller of something and some one who is to come, and which is very near at hand. The wild rocks are round him, the clear sky over him, and nothing more, . . . and he, the noble and the priest, has thrown off--not in discontent and desperation (for he was neither democrat nor vulgar demagogue), but in hope and awe--all his family privileges, all that seems to make life worth having; and there aloft and in the mountains, alone with God and Nature, feeding on locusts and wild honey and clothed in skins, he, like Elijah of old, preaches to a generation sunk in covetousness, party spirit, and superstition--preaches what?--The most common--Morality. Ah, wise politician! ah, clear and rational spirit, who knows and tells others to do the duty which lies nearest to them! . . . who in the hour of his country's deepest degradation had divine courage to say, our deliverance lies, not in rebellion but in _doing right_. _St. John the Baptist_, _All Saints' Day Sermons_. JUNE 29. St. Peter, Apostle and Martyr. God is revealed in the Crucified; The Crucified must be revealed in me:-- I must put on His righteousness; show forth His sorrow's glory; hunger, weep with Him; Taste His keen stripes, and let this aching flesh Sink through His fiery baptism into death. _Saint's Tragedy_. St. Peter, as he is drawn in the Gospels and the Acts, is a grand and colossal human figure, every line and feature of which is full of meaning and full of beauty to us. _Sermons_, _Discipline_. July. It was a day of God. The earth lay like one great emerald, ringed and roofed with sapphire: blue sea, blue mountain, blue sky overhead. There she lay, not sleeping, but basking in her quiet Sabbath joy, as though her two great sisters of the sea and air had washed her weary limbs with holy tears, and purged away the stains of last week's sin and toil, and cooled her hot worn forehead with their pure incense-breath, and folded her within their azure robes, and brooded over her with smiles of pitying love, till she smiled back in answer, and took heart and hope for next week's weary work. Heart and hope for next week's work.--That was the sermon which it preached to Tom Thurnall, as he stood there alone, a stranger and a wanderer like Ulysses of old: but, like him, self-helpful, cheerful, fate defiant. He was more of a heathen than Ulysses--for he knew not what Ulysses knew, that a heavenly guide was with him in his wanderings; still less that what he called the malicious sport of fortune was, in truth, the earnest education of a Father. . . . "Brave old world she is after all," he said; "and right well made; and looks right well to-day in her go-to-meeting clothes, and plenty of room and chance for a brave man to earn his bread, if he will but go right on about his business, as the birds and the flowers do, instead of peaking and pining over what people think of him." _Two Years Ago_, chap. xiv. Nature and Grace. July 1. God is the God of Nature as well as the God of Grace. For ever He looks down on all things which He has made; and behold they are very good. And therefore we dare to offer to Him in our churches the most perfect works of naturalistic art, and shape them into copies of whatever beauty He has shown us in man or woman, in cave or mountain-peak, in tree or flower, even in bird or butterfly. But Himself? Who can see Him except the humble and the contrite heart, to whom He reveals Himself as a Spirit to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, and not in bread nor wood, nor stone nor gold, nor quintessential diamond? _Lecture on Grots and Groves_. 1871. Love and Book-Learning. July 2. I see more and more that the knowledge of one human being, such as love alone can give, and the apprehension of our own private duties and relations, is worth more than all the book-learning in the world. _MS._ The Ancient Creeds. July 3. Blessed and delightful it is when we find that even in these new ages the Creeds, which so many fancy to be at their last gasp, are still the finest and highest succour, not merely of the peasant and the outcast, but of the subtle artist and the daring speculator. Blessed it is to find the most cunning poet of our day able to combine the rhythm and melody of modern times with the old truths which gave heart to the martyrs at the stake, to see in the science and the history of the nineteenth century new and living fulfilments of the words which we learnt at our mother's knee! _Miscellanies_. 1850. A Master-Truth. July 4. Every creature of God is good, if it be sanctified with prayer and thanksgiving! This to me is the master-truth of Christianity, the forgetfulness of which is at the root of almost all error. It seems to me that it was to redeem man and the earth that Christ was made man and used the earth!--that Christianity has never yet been pure, because it never yet, since St. Paul's time, has stood on _this_ as the fundamental truth, and that it has been pure or impure, just in proportion as it has _practically_ and _really_ acknowledged this truth. _Letters and Memories_. 1842. English Women. July 5. Let those who will sneer at the women of England. We who have to do the work and fight the battle of life know the inspiration which we derive from their virtue, their counsel, their tenderness--and, but too often, from their compassion and their forgiveness. There is, I doubt not, still left in England many a man with chivalry and patriotism enough to challenge the world to show so perfect a specimen of humanity as a cultivated British woman. _Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. Life retouched again. July 6. Even in the saddest woman's soul there linger snatches of old music, odours of flowers long dead and turned to dust,--pleasant ghosts, which still keep her mind attuned to that which may be in others, though in her never more; till she can hear her own wedding-hymn re-echoed in the tones of every girl who loves, and see her own wedding-torch re-lighted in the eyes of every bride. _Westward Ho_! chap. xxix. Mystery of Life. July 7. "All things begin in some wonder, and in some wonder end," said St. Augustine, wisest in his day of mortal men. It is a strange thing, and a mystery, how we ever got into this world; a stranger thing still to me how we shall ever get out of this world again. Yet they are common things enough--birth and death. _Good News of God Sermons_. Beauty of Life. July 8. The Greeks were, as far as we know, the most beautiful race which the world ever saw. Every educated man knows that they were the cleverest of all nations, and, next to his Bible, thanks God for Greek literature. Now the Greeks had made physical, as well as intellectual education a science as well as a study. Their women practised graceful, and in some cases even athletic exercises. They developed, by a free and healthy life, those figures which remain everlasting and unapproachable models of human beauty. _Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. Study the human figure, both as intrinsically beautiful and as expressing mind. It only expresses the broad natural childish emotions, which are just what we want to return to from our over subtlety. Study "natural language"--I mean the language of attitude. It is an inexhaustible source of knowledge and delight, and enables one human being to understand another so perfectly. Therefore learn to draw and paint figures. _Letters and Memories_. 1842. True Civilisation. July 9. Civilisation with me shall mean--not more wealth, more finery, more self- indulgence, even more aesthetic and artistic luxury--but more virtue, more knowledge, more self-control, even though I earn scanty bread by heavy toil. _Lecture on Ancient Civilisation_. 1874. The Church. July 10. "The Church is a very good thing, and I keep to mine," said Captain Willis, "having served under her Majesty and her Majesty's forefathers, and learned to obey orders, I hope; but don't you think, sir, you're taking it as the Pharisees took the Sabbath Day?" "How then?" "Why, as if man was made for the Church, and not the Church for man." _Two Years Ago_, chap. ii. 1856. What does God ask? July 11. What is this strange thing, without which even the true knowledge of doctrine is of no use? without which either a man or a nation is poor, and blind, and wretched, and naked in soul, notwithstanding all his religion? Isaiah will tell, "Wash you, make you clean, saith the Lord. Do justice to the fatherless, relieve the widow." Church-building and church-going are well, but they are not repentance. Churches are not souls. I ask for your hearts, and you give me fine stones and fine words. I want souls, I want _your_ souls. _National Sermons_. 1851. Work or Want. July 12. Remember that we are in a world where it is not safe to sit under the tree and let the ripe fruit drop into your mouth; where the "competition of species" works with ruthless energy among all ranks of being, from kings upon their thrones to the weed upon the waste; where "he that is not hammer is sure to be anvil;" and "he who will not work neither shall he eat." _Ancien Regime_. 1867. True Insight. July 13. It is easy to see the spiritual beauty of Raffaelle's Madonnas, but it requires a deeper and more practised, all-embracing, loving, simple spirituality, to see the same beauty in the face of a worn-out, painful, peasant woman haggling about the price of cottons. Form and colour are but the vehicle for the spirit-meaning. In the "spiritual body" I fancy they will both be united _with_ the meaning--all and every part and property of man and woman instinct with spirit! _MS._ 1843. Retribution inevitable. July 14. Know this--that as surely as God sometimes punishes wholesale, so surely is He always punishing in detail. By that infinite concatenation of moral causes and effects, which makes the whole world one mass of special Providences, every sin of ours will punish itself, and probably punish itself in kind. Are we selfish? We shall call out selfishness in others. Do we neglect our duty? Then others will neglect their duty to us. Do we indulge our passions? Then others who depend on us will indulge theirs, to our detriment and misery. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. Antinomies. July 15. Spiritual truths present themselves to us in "antinomies," apparently contradictory pairs, pairs of poles, which, however, do not really contradict, or even limit, each other, but are only correlatives, the existence of the one making the existence of the other necessary, explaining each other, and giving each other a real standing ground and equilibrium. Such an antinomic pair are, "He that loveth not knoweth not God," and "If a man hateth not his father and mother he cannot be My disciple." _Letters and Memories_. 1848. False Refinement. July 16. God's Word, while it _alone_ sanctifies rank and birth, says to all _equally_, "Ye are brethren, _work_ for each other." Let us then be above rank, and look at men as men, and women as women, and all as God's children. There is a "refinement" which is the invention of that sensual mind, which looks only at the outward and visible sign. _MS. Letter_. 1843. Music's Meaning. July 17. Some quick music is inexpressibly mournful. It seems just like one's own feelings--exultation and action, with the remembrance of past sorrow wailing up, yet without bitterness, tender in its shrillness, through the mingled tide of present joy; and the notes seem thoughts--thoughts pure of words; and a spirit seems to call to me in them and cry, "Hast thou not felt all this?" And I start when I find myself answering unconsciously, "Yes, yes, I know it all! Surely we are a part of all we see and hear!" And then, the harmony thickens, and all distinct sound is pressed together and absorbed in a confused paroxysm of delight, where still the female treble and the male bass are distinct for a moment, and then one again--absorbed into each other's being--sweetened and strengthened by each other's melody. . . . _Letters and Memories_. 1842. Vagueness of Mind. July 18. By allowing vague inconsistent habits of mind, almost persuaded by every one you love, when you are capable by one decided act of _leading_ them, you may be treading blindfold a terrible path to your own misery. _MS. Letter_. 1842. A Faith for Daily Life. July 19. That is not faith, to see God only in what is strange and rare; but this is faith, to see God in what is most common and simple, to know God's greatness not so much from disorder as from order, not so much from those strange sights in which God seems (but only seems) to break His laws, as from those common ones in which He fulfils His laws. _Town and Country Sermons_. Charms of Monotony. July 20. I delight in that same monotony. It saves curiosity, anxiety, excitement, disappointment, and a host of bad passions. It gives a man the blessed, invigorating feeling that he is at home; that he has roots deep and wide struck down into all he sees, and that only the Being who can do nothing cruel or useless can tear them up. It is pleasant to look down on the same parish day after day, and say I know all that is beneath, and all beneath know me. It is pleasant to see the same trees year after year, the same birds coming back in spring to the same shrubs, the same banks covered by the same flowers. _Prose Idylls_. 1857. How to attain. July 21. If our plans are not for time but for eternity, our knowledge, and therefore our love to God, to each other, to everything, will progress for ever. And the attainment of this heavenly wisdom requires neither ecstacy nor revelation, but prayer and watchfulness, and observation, and deep and solemn thought. Two great rules for its attainment are simple enough--Never forget what and where you are, and grieve not the Holy Spirit, for "If a man will do God's will he shall know of the doctrine." _Letters and Memories_. 1842. The Divine Discontent. July 22. I should like to make every one I meet discontented with themselves; I should like to awaken in them, about their physical, their intellectual, their moral condition, that divine discontent which is the parent first of upward aspiration and then of self-control, thought, effort to fulfil that aspiration even in part. For to be discontented with the divine discontent, and to be ashamed with the noble shame, is the very germ and first upgrowth of all virtue. _Lecture on Science of Health_. 1872. Dra et labora. July 23. "Working is praying," said one of the holiest of men. And he spoke truth; if a man will but do his work from a sense of duty, which is for the sake of God. _Sermons_. Distrust and Anarchy. July 24. Over the greater part of the so-called civilised world is spreading a deep distrust, a deep irreverence of every man towards his neighbour, and a practical unbelief in every man whom you do see, atones for itself by a theoretic belief in an ideal human nature which you do not see. Such a temper of mind, unless it be checked by that which alone can check it, namely, the grace of God, must tend towards sheer anarchy. There is a deeper and uglier anarchy than any mere political anarchy,--which the abuse of the critical spirit leads to,--the anarchy of society and of the family, the anarchy of the head and of the heart, which leaves poor human beings as orphans in the wilderness to cry in vain, "What can I know? Whom can I love?" _The Critical Spirit_. 1871. A Future Life of Action. July 25. Why need we suppose that heaven is to be one vast lazy retrospect? Why is not eternity to have action and change, yet both like God, compatible with rest and immutability? This earth is but one minor planet of a minor system. Are there no more worlds? Will there not be incident and action springing from these when the fate of this world is decided? Has the evil one touched this alone? Is it not self-conceit which makes us think the redemption of this earth the one event of eternity? _Letters_. 1842. An Ideal Aristocracy. July 26. We may conceive an Utopia governed by an aristocracy that should be really democratic, which should use, under developed forms, that method which made the mediaeval priesthood the one great democratic institution of old Christendom; bringing to the surface and utilising the talents and virtues of all classes, even the lowest. _Lectures on Ancien Regime_. 1867. Our Weapons. July 27. God, who has been very good to us, will be more good, if _we allow Him_! Worldly-minded people think they can manage so much better than God. We must _trust_. Our weapons must be prayer and faith, and our only standard the Bible. As soon as we leave these weapons and take to "knowledge of the world," and other people's clumsy prejudices as our guides, we must inevitably be beaten by the World, which knows how to use its own arms better than we do. What else is meant by becoming as a little child? _MS. Letter_. 1843. Uneducated Women. July 28. Take warning by what you see abroad. In every country where the women are uneducated, unoccupied; where their only literature is French novels or translations of them--in every one of those countries the women, even to the highest, are the slaves of superstition, and the puppets of priests. In proportion as women are highly educated, family life and family secrets are sacred, and the woman owns allegiance and devotion to no confessor or director, but to her own husband or her own family. _Lecture on Thrift_. 1860. Pardon and Cure. July 29. After the forgiveness of sin must come the cure of sin. And that cure, like most cures, is a long and a painful process. But there is our comfort, there is our hope--Christ the great Healer, the great Physician, can deliver us, and will deliver us, from the remains of our old sins, the consequences of our own follies. Not, indeed, at once, or by miracle, but by slow education in new and nobler motives, in purer and more unselfish habits. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1861. Eternal Law. July 30. The eternal laws of God's providence are still at work, though we may choose to forget them, and the Judge who administers them is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, even Jesus Christ the Lord, the Everlasting Rock, on which all morality and all society is founded. Whosoever shall fall on that Rock, in repentance and humility, shall indeed be broken, but of him it is written, "A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." _Discipline and other Sermons_. 1866. God's Mercy or Man's? July 31. "He fought till he could fight no more, and then died like a hero, with all his wounds in front; and may God have mercy on his soul." "That last was a Popish prayer, Master Frank," said old Mr. Carey. "Most worshipful sir, you surely would not wish God _not_ to have mercy on his soul?" "No--Eh? Of course not, for that's all settled by now, for he is dead, poor fellow!" "And you can't help being a little fond of him still?" "Eh? Why, I should be a brute if I were not. Fond of him? why, I would sooner have given my forefinger than that he should have gone to the dogs." "Then, my dear sir, if _you_ feel for him still, in spite of all his faults, how do you know that God may not feel for him in spite of all his faults? For my part," said Frank, in his fanciful way, "without believing in that Popish purgatory, I cannot help holding with Plato that such heroical souls, who have wanted but little of true greatness here, are hereafter, by strait discipline, brought to a better mind." _Westward Ho_! chap. v. 1854. The Chrysalis State. You ask, "What is the Good?" I suppose God Himself is the Good; and it is this, in addition to a thousand things, which makes me feel the absolute certainty of a resurrection, and a hope that this, our present life, instead of being an ultimate one, which is to decide our fate for ever, is merely some sort of chrysalis state in which man's faculties are so narrow and cramped, his chances (I speak of the millions, not of units) of knowing the Good so few, that he may have chances hereafter, perhaps continually fresh ones, to all eternity. _Letters and Memories_. 1852. SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. JULY 25. St. James, Apostle and Martyr. And they will know his worth Years hence . . . And crown him martyr; and his name will ring Through all the shores of earth, and all the stars Whose eyes are sparkling through their tears to see His triumph, Preacher and Martyr. . . . . . . . . . . It is over; and the woe that's dead, Rises next hour a glorious angel. _Santa Maura_. August. "I cannot tell what you say, green leaves, I cannot tell what you say; But I know that there is a spirit in you, And a word in you this day. "I cannot tell what ye say, rosy rocks, I cannot tell what ye say; But I know that there is a spirit in you, And a word in you this day. "I cannot tell what ye say, brown streams, I cannot tell what ye say; But I know, in you too, a spirit doth live, And a word in you this day." "Oh! rose is the colour of love and youth, And green is the colour of faith and truth, And brown of the fruitful clay. The earth is fruitful and faithful and young, And her bridal morn shall rise erelong, And you shall know what the rocks and streams And the laughing green woods say." _Dartside_, _August_ 1849. Sight and Insight. August 1. Do the work that's nearest, Though it's dull at whiles, Helping, when you meet them, Lame dogs over stiles; See in every hedgerow Marks of angels' feet, Epics in each pebble Underneath our feet. _The Invitation_. 1857. Genius and Character. August 2. I have no respect for genius (I do not even acknowledge its existence) where there is no strength and steadiness of character. If any one pretends to be more than a man he must begin by proving himself a man at all. _Two Years Ago_, chap. xv. Nature's Student. August 3. The perfect naturalist must be of a reverent turn of mind--giving Nature credit for an inexhaustible fertility and variety, which will keep him his life long, always reverent, yet never superstitious; wondering at the commonest, but not surprised by the most strange; free from the idols of sense and sensuous loveliness; able to see grandeur in the minutest objects, beauty in the most ungainly: estimating each thing not carnally, as the vulgar do, by its size, . . . but spiritually, by the amount of Divine thought revealed to him therein. . . . _Glaucus_. 1855. The Masses. August 4. Though permitted evils should not avenge themselves by any political retribution, yet avenge themselves, if unredressed, they surely will. They affect masses too large, interests too serious, not to make themselves bitterly felt some day. . . . We may choose to look on the masses in the gross as objects for statistics--and of course, where possible, for profits. There is One above who knows every thirst, and ache, and sorrow, and temptation of each slattern, and gin-drinker, and street-boy. The day will come when He will require an account of these neglects of ours--not in the gross. _Miscellanies_. 1851. We sit in a cloud, and sing like pictured angels, And say the world runs smooth--while right below Welters the black, fermenting heap of life On which our State is built. _Saint's Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene v. Love and Knowledge. August 5. He who has never loved, what does he know? _MS._ Siccum Lumen. August 6. How shall I get true knowledge? Knowledge which will be really useful, really worth knowing. Knowledge which I shall know accurately and practically too, so that I can use it in daily life, for myself and others? Knowledge too, which shall be clear knowledge, not warped or coloured by my own fancies, passions, prejudices, but pure and calm and sound; Siccum Lumen, "Dry Light," as the greatest of philosophers called it of old. To all such who long for light, that by the light they may live, God answers through His only begotten Son: "Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find." _Westminster Sermons_. 1873. This World. August 7. What should the external world be to those who truly love, but the garden in which they are placed, not so much for sustenance or enjoyment of themselves and each other, as to dress it and to keep it--_it_ to be their subject-matter, not they its tools! In this spirit let us pray "Thy kingdom come." _MS._ 1842. The Life of the Spirit. August 8. The old fairy superstition, the old legends and ballads, the old chronicles of feudal war and chivalry, the earlier moralities and mysteries--these fed Shakespeare's youth. Why should they not feed our children's? That inborn delight of the young in all that is marvellous and fantastic--has that a merely evil root? No, surely! it is a most pure part of their spiritual nature; a part of "the heaven which lies about us in our infancy;" angel-wings with which the free child leaps the prison-walls of sense and custom, and the drudgery of earthly life. It is a God-appointed means for keeping alive what noble Wordsworth calls those ". . . . obstinate questionings, . . . . . . Blank misgivings of a creature Moving about in worlds not realised." _Introductory Lecture_, _Queen's College_. 1848. A Quiet Depth. August 9. The deepest affections are those of which we are least conscious--that is, which produce least _startling_ emotion, and most easy and involuntary practice. _MS._ 1843. Acceptable Sacrifices. August 10. Every time we perform an act of kindness to any human being, ay, even to a dumb animal; every time we conquer our worldliness, love of pleasure, ease, praise, ambition, money, for the sake of doing what our conscience tells us to be our duty,--we are indeed worshipping God the Father in spirit and in truth, and offering Him a sacrifice which He will surely accept for the sake of His beloved Son, by whose Spirit all good deeds and thoughts are inspired. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871. Chivalry. August 11. Chivalry; an idea which, perfect or imperfect, God forbid that mankind should ever forget till it has become the possession--as it is the God- given right--of the poorest slave that ever trudged on foot; and every collier lad shall have become "A very gentle, perfect knight." _Lectures on Ancien Regime_. 1867. God waits for Man. August 12. Patiently, nobly, magnanimously, God waits; waits for the man who is a fool, to find out his own folly; waits for the heart that has tried to find pleasure in everything else, to find out that everything else disappoints, and to come back to Him, the fountain of all wholesome pleasure, the well-spring of all life, fit for a man to live. God condescends to wait for His creature; because what He wants is not His creature's fear, but His creature's love; not only his obedience, but his heart; because He wants him not to come back as a trembling slave to his master, but as a son who has found out at last what a father he has still left him, when all beside has played him false. Let him come back thus. _Discipline and other Sermons_. Thrift. August 13. The secret of thriving is thrift; saving of force; to get as much work as possible done with the least expenditure of power, the least jar and obstruction, the least wear and tear. And the secret of thrift is knowledge. In proportion as you know the laws and nature of a subject, you will be able to work at it easily, surely, rapidly, successfully, instead of wasting your money or your energies in mistaken schemes, irregular efforts, which end in disappointment and exhaustion. _Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. Revelations. August 14. Only second-rate hearts and minds are melancholy. When we become like little children, our very playfulness tells that we are _seeing deep_, when we see that God is love in His _works_ as well as in Himself, and we look at Nature as a baby does, as a beautiful mystery which we scarcely wish to solve. And therefore deep things, which the intellect in vain struggles after, will reveal themselves to us. _MS._ 1842. Christ comes in many ways. August 15. Often Christ comes to us in ways in which the world would never recognise Him--in which perhaps neither you nor I shall recognise _Him_; but it will be enough, I hope, if we but hear His message, and obey His gracious inspiration, let Him speak through whatever means He will. He may come to us by some crisis in our life, either for sorrow or for bliss. He may come to us by a great failure; by a great disappointment--to teach the wilful and ambitious soul that not in _that_ direction lies the path of peace; or He may come in some unexpected happiness to teach that same soul that He is able and willing to give abundantly beyond all that we can ask or think. _MS. Sermon_. 1874. Lesson of the Cross. August 16. On the Cross God has sanctified suffering, pain, and sorrow, and made them holy; as holy as health and strength and happiness are. _National Sermons_. 1851. The Ideal Unity. August 17. "Oh, make us one." All the world-generations have but one voice! "How can we become One? at harmony with God and God's universe! Tell us this, and the dreary, dark mystery of life, the bright, sparkling mystery of life, the cloud-chequered, sun-and-shower mystery of life, is solved! for we shall have found one home and one brotherhood, and happy faces will greet us wherever we move, and we shall see God! see Him everywhere, and be ready to wait for the Renewal, for the Kingdom of Christ perfected! We came from Eden, all of us: show us how we may return, hand in hand, husband and wife, parent and child, gathered together from the past and the future, from one creed and another, and take our journey into a far country, which is yet this earth--a world-migration to the heavenly Canaan, through the Red Sea of Death, back again to the land which was given to our forefathers, and is ours even now, could we but find it!" _Letters and Memories_. 1843. Body and Soul. August 18. The mystics considered the soul, _i.e._ the intellect, as the "_moi_" and the body as the "_non moi_;" and this idea that the body is not _self_, is the fundamental principle of mysticism and asceticism, and diametrically opposed to the whole doctrines and practice of Scripture. Else why is there a resurrection of the body? and why does the Eucharist "preserve our body and soul to everlasting life?" _MS._ 1843. Childlikeness. August 19. If you wish to be "a little child," study what a little child could understand--Nature; and do what a little child could do--love. Feed on Nature. It will digest itself. It did so when you were a little child the first time. Keep a common-place book, and put into it not only facts and thoughts, but observations on form, and colour, and nature, and little sketches, even to the form of beautiful _leaves_. They will all have their charm . . . all do their work in consolidating your ideas. Put everything into it. . . . _Letters and Memories_. 1842. Inspiration. August 20. Every good deed comes from God. His is the idea, His the inspiration, and His its fulfilment in time; and therefore no good deed but lives and grows with the everlasting life of God Himself. _MS._ Lifting of the Veil. August 21. I seldom pass those hapless loungers who haunt every watering-place without thinking sadly how much more earnest, happier, and better men and women they might be if the veil were but lifted from their eyes, and they could learn to behold that glory of God which is all around them like an atmosphere, while they, unconscious of what and where they are, wrapt up each in his little selfish world of vanity and interest, gaze lazily around them at earth, sea, and sky-- And have no speculation in those eyes Which they do glare withal _Glaucus_. 1855. The Cross--its meaning. August 22. To take up the cross means, in the minds of most persons, to suffer patiently under affliction. It is a true and sound meaning, but it means more. Why did Christ take up the cross? Not for affliction's sake, or for the cross's sake, as if suffering were a good thing in itself. No. But that He might thereby _do good_. That the world through Him might be saved. That He might do good at whatever cost or pain to Himself. _Sermons_. The Crucifix. August 23. If I had an image in my room it should be one of Christ _glorified_, sitting at the right hand of God. The crucifix has been THE image, because the idea of torture and misery has been THE idea in the melancholy and the ferocious (for the two ultimately go together),. . . and thus ascetics became inquisitors. . . . _MS._ 1843. Love to God proved. August 24. Our love to God does not depend upon the emotions of the moment. If you fancy you do not love Him enough, above all when Satan tempts you to look inward, go immediately and minister to others; visit the sick, perform some act of self-sacrifice or thanksgiving. Never mind how _dull_ you may feel while doing it; the fact of your feeling excited proves nothing; the fact of your _doing_ it proves that your will, your spiritual part, is on God's side, however tired or careless the poor flesh may be. The "flesh" must be brought into harmony with the spirit, not only by physical but by intellectual mortification. _MS. Letter_. 1843. Training of Beauty. August 25. There is many a road into our hearts besides our ears and brains; many a sight and sound and scent even, of which we have never _thought_ at all, sinks into our memory and helps to shape our characters; and thus children brought up among beautiful sights and sweet sounds will most likely show the fruits of their nursing by thoughtfulness and affection and nobleness of mind, even by the expression of the countenance. _True Words to Brave Men_. 1848. Ignorance of the Cynic. August 26. Be sure that no one knows so little of his fellow-men as the cynical, misanthropic man, who walks in darkness because he hates his brother. Be sure that the truly wise and understanding man is he who by sympathy puts himself in his neighbours' place; feels with them and for them; sees with their eyes, hears with their ears; and therefore understands them, makes allowances for them, and is merciful to them, even as his Father in heaven is merciful. _Westminster Sermons_. 1872. Penitential Prayer. August 27. Faith in God it is which has made the fifty-first Psalm the model of all true penitence for evermore. Penitential prayers in all ages have too often wanted faith in God, and therefore have been too often prayers to avert punishment. This, this--the model of all true penitent prayers--is that of a man who is to be punished, and is content to take his punishment, knowing that he deserves it, and far more besides. _Sermons on David_. 1866. A Real Presence. August 28. Believe the Holy Communion is the sign of Christ's perpetual presence; that when you kneel to receive the bread and wine, Christ is as near you--spiritually, indeed, and invisibly, but really and truly as near you as those who are kneeling by your side. And if it be so with Christ, then is it so with those who are Christ's, with those whom we love. . . . Surely, like Christ, they may come and go even now, though unseen. Like Christ they may breathe upon our restless hearts and say, "Peace be unto you," and not in vain. For what they did for us when they were on earth they can more fully do now that they are in heaven. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1862. A Living God. August 29. Man would never have even dreamed of a Living God had not that Living God been a reality, who did not leave the creature to find his Creator, but stooped from heaven, at the very beginning of our race, to find His creature. _Sermons on David_. 1866. Thine, not mine. August 30. Whensoever you do a thing which you know to be right and good, instead of priding yourself upon it as if the good in it came from you, offer it up to your Heavenly Father, from whom all good things come, and say, "Oh, Lord! the good in this is Thine and not mine; the bad in it is mine and not Thine. I thank Thee for having made me do right, for without Thy help I should have done nothing but wrong. For mine is the laziness, and the weakness, and the selfishness, and the self-conceit; and Thine is the kingdom, for Thou rulest all things; and the power, for Thou doest all things; and the glory, for Thou doest all things well, for ever and ever. Amen." _Sermons_. The Unquenchable Fire. August 31. A fire which cannot be quenched, a worm which cannot die, I see existing, and consider them among the most blessed revelations of the gospel. I fancy I see them burning and devouring everywhere in the spiritual world, as their analogues do in the physical. I know that they have done so on me, and that their operation, though exquisitely painful, is most healthful. I see the world trying to quench and kill them; I know too well that I often do the same ineffectually. But, in the comfort that the worm cannot die and the fire cannot be quenched, I look calmly forward through endless ages to my own future, and the future of that world whereof it is written, "He shall reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet, and death and hell shall be cast into the lake of fire." * * * * * The Day of the Lord will be revealed in flaming fire, not merely to give new light and a day-spring from on high to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, but to burn up out of sight, and off the universe, the chaff, hay, and stubble which men have built on the One Living Foundation, Christ, in that unquenchable fire, of which it is written that _Death_ and _Hell_ shall one day be cast into it also, to share the fate of all other unnatural and abominable things, and God's universe be--what it must be some day--_very good_. * * * * * Because I believe in a God of absolute and unbounded love, therefore I believe in a loving anger of His, which will and must devour and destroy all which is decayed, monstrous, abortive, in His universe, till all enemies shall be put under His feet, to be pardoned surely, if they confess themselves in the wrong and open their eyes to the truth. And God shall be All in All. Those last are wide words. _Letters and Sermons_. 1856. SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. AUGUST 24. St. Bartholomew, Apostle and Martyr. Blessed are they who once were persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Great indeed is their reward, for it is no less than the very beatific vision to contemplate and adore that supreme moral beauty, of which all earthly beauty, all nature, all art, all poetry, all music, are but phantoms and parables, hints and hopes, dim reflected rays of the clear light of everlasting day. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. September. That poet knew but little of either streams or hearts who wrote-- "Nor ever had the breeze of passion Stirred her heart's clear depths." The lonely fisher, the lover of streams and living fountains, knows that when the stream stops it is turbid. The deep pools and still flats are always brown--always dark--the mud lies in them, the trout _sleep_ in them. When they are clearest they are still tinged brown or gray with some foreign matter held in solution--the brown of selfish sensuality or the gray of morbid melancholy. But when they are free again! when they hurry over rock and weed and sparkling pebble-shallow, then they are clear! Then all the foreign matter, the defilement which earth pours into them, falls to the ground, and into them the trout work up for life and health and food; and through their swift yet yielding eddies--_moulding themselves to every accident_, _yet separate and undefiled_--shine up the delicate beauties of the subaqueous world, the Spirit-glories which we can only see in this life through the medium of another human soul, but which we can never see unless that soul is stirred by circumstance into passion and motion and action strong and swift. Only the streams which have undergone long and _severe struggles_ from their very fountain-head have clear pools. _MS._ 1843. Goodness. September 1. Always say to yourself this one thing, "Good I will become, whatever it cost me; and in God's goodness I trust to make me good, for I am sure He wishes to see me good more than I do myself." And you will find that, because you have confessed in that best and most honest of ways that God is good, and have so given Him real glory, and real honour, and real praise, He will save you from the sins which torment you, and you shall never come, either in this world or the world to come, to that worst misery, the being ashamed of yourself. _Sermons for the Times_. 1855. Be good to do Good. September 2. What we wish to do for our fellow-creatures we must do first for ourselves. We can give them nothing save what God has already given us. We must become good before we can make them good, and wise before we can make them wise. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1867. The Undying I. September 3. The youngest child, by faith in God his Father, may look upon all heaven and earth and say, "Great and wonderful and awful as this earth and those skies may be, I am more precious in the sight of God than sun and moon and stars; for they are things, but I am a person, a spirit, an immortal soul, made in the likeness of God, redeemed into the likeness of God. This great earth was here thousands and thousands of years before I was born, and it will be here perhaps millions of years after I am dead. But it cannot harm _Me_, it cannot kill _Me_. When earth, and sun, and stars have passed away I shall live for ever, for I am the immortal child of an immortal Father, the child of the everlasting God." _Sermons for the Times_. 1855. Love and Time. September 4. Love proves its spiritual origin by rising above time and space and circumstance, wealth and age, and even temporary beauty, at the same time that it alone can perfectly _use_ all those material adjuncts. Being spiritual, it is Lord of matter, and can give and receive from it glory and beauty when it will, and yet live without it. _MS._ 1843. Common Duties. September 5. The only way to regenerate the world is to do the duty which lies nearest us, and not to hunt after grand, far-fetched ones for ourselves. If each drop of rain _chose_ where it should fall, God's showers would not fall as they do now, on the evil and the good alike. I know from the experience of my own heart how galling this doctrine is--how, like Naaman, one goes away in a rage, because the prophet has not bid us do some great thing, but only to go wash in the nearest brook and be clean. _Letters and Memories_. 1854. Despair--Hope. September 6. Does the age seem to you dark? Do you feel, as I do at times, the awful sadness of that text, "The time shall come when you shall desire to see one of the days of the Lord, and shall not see it"? Then remember that The night is never so long But at last it ringeth for matin song. . . . Even now the dawn is gilding the highest souls, and _we_ are in the night only because we crawl below. _Prose Idylls_. 1850. The Critical Spirit. September 7. "Judge nothing before the time." This is a hard saying. Who can hear it? There never was a time in which the critical spirit was more thoroughly in the ascendant. Every man now is an independent critic. To accept fully, or as it is now called, to follow blindly; to admire heartily, or as it is now called, fanatically--these are considered signs of weakness or credulity. To believe intensely; to act unhesitatingly; to admire passionately; all this, as the latest slang phrases it, is "bad form"; a proof that a man is not likely to win in the race of this world the prize whereof is, the greatest possible enjoyment with the least possible work. _The Critical Spirit_. 1871. Toil and Rest. September 8. Remember always, toil is the condition of our being. Our sentence is to labour from the cradle to the grave. But there are Sabbaths allowed for the mind as well as the body, when the intellect is stilled, and the emotions alone perform their gentle and involuntary functions. _Letters and Memories_. 1842. Storm and Calm. September 9. Then Amyas told the last scene; how, when they were off the Azores, the storms came on heavier than ever, with terrible seas breaking short and pyramid-wise, till, on the 9th of September, the tiny _Squirrel_ nearly foundered, and yet recovered, and the General (Sir Humphrey Gilbert), sitting abaft with a book in his hand, cried out to us in the _Hind_, "We are as near heaven by sea as by land," reiterating the same speech well be-seeming a soldier resolute in Jesus Christ, as I can testify he was. _Westward Ho_! chap. xiii. On the Heights. September 10. It is good for a man to have holy and quiet thoughts, and at moments to see into the very deepest meaning of God's word and God's earth, and to have, as it were, heaven opened before his eyes; and it is good for a man sometimes actually to _feel_ his heart overpowered with the glorious majesty of God--to _feel_ it gushing out with love to his blessed Saviour; but it is not good for him to stop there any more than for the Apostles in the Mount of Transfiguration. _Village Sermons_. 1849. In the Valley. September 11. The disciples had to come down from the Mount and do Christ's work, and so have we. Believe me, one word of warning spoken to keep a little child out of sin,--one crust of bread given to a beggar-man because he is your brother, for whom Christ died,--one angry word checked on your lips for the sake of Him who was meek and lowly of heart; any the smallest endeavour to lessen the amount of evil which is in yourselves and those around you,--is worth all the speculations, and raptures, and visions, and frames, and feelings in the world; for these are the good fruits of faith, whereby alone the tree shall be known whether it be good or evil. _Village Sermons_. 1849. Self-Conceit. September 12. Self-conceit is the very daughter of self-will, and of that loud crying out about _I_, and me, and mine, which is the very bird-call for all devils, and the broad road which leads to death. _Westward Ho_! chap. i. Facing Fact. September 13. It is good for a man to be brought once, at least, in his life, face to face with _fact_, ultimate fact, however horrible it may be, and to have to confess to himself shuddering, what things are possible on God's earth, when man has forgotten that his only welfare is in living after the likeness of God. _Miscellanies_. 1858. The Heroical Rest. September 14. Right, lad; the best reward for having wrought well already is to have more to do; and he that has been faithful over a few things must find his account in being made ruler over many things. That is the true and heroical rest which only is worthy of gentlemen and sons of God. As for those who either in this world or in the world to come look for idleness, and hope that God will feed them with pleasant things, as it were with a spoon, Amyas, I count them cowards and base, even though they call themselves saints and elect. _Westward Ho_! chap. vii. 1855. Body and Soul. September 15. Remember that St. Paul always couples with the resurrection and ascension of our bodies in the next life the resurrection and ascension of our souls in this life, for without that, the resurrection of our bodies would be but a resurrection to fresh sin, and therefore to fresh misery and ruin. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1870. Love in Absence. September 16. Absence quickens love into consciousness. _MS._ The baby sings not on its mother's breast; Nor nightingales who nestle side by side; Nor I by thine: but let us only part, Then lips which should but kiss, and so be still, As having uttered all, must speak again. _Sonnet_. 1851. Special Providence. September 17. If I did not believe in a special Providence, in a perpetual education of men by evil as well as good, by small things as well as great, I could believe nothing. _Letters and Memories_. Love of Work. September 18. "Can you tell me, my pastor, what part of God's likeness clings to a man longest and closest and best? No? Then I will tell you. It is the love of employment. God in heaven must create Himself a universe to work on and love. And now we sons of Adam, the sons of God, cannot rest without our _mundus peculiaris_ of some sort--our world subjective, as Doctor Musophilus has it. But we can create too, and make our little sphere look as large as a universe." _MS. Novel_. 1844. Fret not. September 19. Fret not, neither be anxious. What God intends to do He will do. And what we ask believing we shall receive. Never let us get into the common trick of calling unbelief resignation, of asking and then, because we have not faith to believe, putting in a "Thy will be done" at the end. Let us make God's will our will, and _so_ say Thy will be done. _MS._ 1843. Peace! Why these fears? Life is too short for mean anxieties: Soul! thou must work, though blindfold. _Saint's Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene x. Battle before Victory. September 20. Whenever you think of our Lord's resurrection and ascension, remember always that the background of His triumph is a tomb. Remember that it is the triumph over suffering; a triumph of One who still bears the prints of the nails in His sacred hands and feet, and the wound of the spear in His side; like many a poor soul who has followed Him, triumphant at last, and yet scarred, and only not maimed in the hard battle of life. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1870. Night and Growth. September 21. As in the world of Nature, so it is in the world of men. The night is peopled not merely with phantoms and superstitions and spirits of evil, but under its shadow all sciences, methods, social energies, are taking rest, and growing, and feeding, unknown to themselves. _Prose Idylls_. 1850. Passion. September 22. Self-sacrifice! What is love worth that does not show itself in action? and more, which does not show itself in _passion_ in the true sense of that word: namely, in suffering? in daring, in struggling, in grieving, in agonising, and, if need be, in dying for the object of its love? Every mother will give but one answer to that question. _Westminster Sermons_. 1870. Worth of Beauty. September 23. It is a righteous instinct which bids us welcome and honour beauty, whether in man or woman, as something of real worth--divine, heavenly, ay, though we know not how, in a most deep sense Eternal; which makes our reason give the lie to all merely logical and sentimental maunderings of moralists about "the fleeting hues of this our painted clay;" and tell men, as the old Hebrew Scriptures told them, that physical beauty is the deepest of all spiritual symbols; and that though beauty without discretion be the jewel of gold in the swine's snout, yet the jewel of gold it is still, the sacrament of an inward beauty, which ought to be, perhaps hereafter may be, fulfilled in spirit and in truth. _Hypatia_, chap. xxvi. 1852. Empty Profession. September 24. What is the sin which most destroys all men and nations? High religious profession, with an ungodly, selfish life. It is the worst and most dangerous of all sins; for it is like a disease which eats out the heart and life without giving pain, so that the sick man never suspects that anything is the matter with him till he finds himself, to his astonishment, at the point of death. _National Sermons_. 1851. True Poetry. September 25. Let us make life one poem--not of dreams or sentiments--but of actions, not done Byronically as proofs of genius, but for our own self-education, alone, in secret, awaiting the crisis which shall call us forth to the battle to do just what other people do, only, perhaps, by an utterly different self-education. That is the life of great spirits, after, perhaps, many many years of seclusion, of silent training in the lower paths of God's vineyard, till their hearts have settled into a still, deep, yet swift current, and those who have been faithful over a few things are made rulers over many things. _MS. Letter_. 1842. Office of the Clergy. September 26. There is a Christian as well as political liberty quite consistent with High Church principles, which makes the clergy our teachers--not the keepers of our _consciences_ but of our _creeds_. _Letters and Memories_. 1842. Opinions are not Knowledge. September 27. . . . As to self-improvement, the true Catholic mode of learning is to "prove all things," as far as we can, without sin or the danger of it, to "hold fast that which is good." Let us never be afraid of trying anything new, learnt from people of different opinions to our own. And let us never be afraid of changing our opinions. The unwillingness to go back from once declared opinion is a form of pride which haunts some powerful minds: but it is not found in great childlike geniuses. Fools may hold fast to their scanty stock through life, and we must be very cautious in drawing them from it--for where can they supply its place? _Letters and Memories_. 1843. The Worst Punishment. September 28. God reserves many a sinner for that most awful of all punishments (here)--impunity. _Sermons_. The Divine Order. September 29. Ah, that God's will were but done on earth as it is in the material heaven overhead, in perfect order and obedience, as the stars roll in their courses, without rest, yet without haste--as all created things, even the most awful, fire and hail, snow and vapour, wind and storm, fulfil God's word, who hath made them sure for ever and ever, and given them a law which shall not be broken. But above them; above the divine and wonderful order of the material universe, and the winds which are God's angels, and the flames of fire which are His messengers; above all, the prophets and apostles have caught sight of another divine and wonderful order of _rational_ beings, of races loftier and purer than man--angels and archangels, thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, fulfilling God's will in heaven as it is not, alas! fulfilled on earth. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1867. True Resignation. September 30. . . . Christianity heightens as well as deepens the human as well as the divine affections. I am happy, for the less hope, the more faith. . . . God knows what is best for us; we do not. Continual resignation, at last I begin to find, is the secret of continual strength. "Daily _dying_," as Boehmen interprets it, is the path of daily _living_. . . . _Letters and Memories_. 1843. SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. SEPTEMBER 21. St. Matthew, Apostle, Evangelist, and Martyr. There is something higher than happiness. There is blessedness; the blessedness of being good and doing good, of being right and doing right. That blessedness we may have at all times; we may be blest even in anxiety and in sadness; we may be blest, even as the martyrs of old were blest, in agony and death. _Water of Life Sermons_. SEPTEMBER 29. Feast of St. Michael and All Angels. The eternal moral law which held good for the sinless Christ, who, though He were a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which He suffered, must hold good of you and me, and all moral and rational beings--yea, for the very angels in heaven. They have not sinned. That we know; and we do not know that they have ever suffered. But this at least we know, that they have submitted. They have obeyed, and have given up their own wills to be ministers of God's will. In them is neither self-will nor selfishness; and, therefore, by faith, that is, by trust and loyalty, they stand. And so, by consenting to lose their individual life of selfishness, they have saved their eternal life in God, the life of blessedness and holiness, just as all evil spirits have lost their eternal life by trying to save their selfish life and be something in themselves and of themselves without respect to God. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. October. A beautiful October morning it was; one of those in which Dame Nature, healthily tired with the revelry of summer, is composing herself, with a quiet satisfied smile, for her winter's sleep. Sheets of dappled cloud were sliding slowly from the west; long bars of hazy blue hung over the southern chalk downs, which gleamed pearly gray beneath the low south- eastern sun. In the vale below, soft white flakes of mist still hung over the water meadows, and barred the dark trunks of the huge elms and poplars, whose fast-yellowing leaves came showering down at every rustle of the western breeze, spotting the grass below. The river swirled along, glassy no more, but dingy gray with autumn rains and rotting leaves. All beyond the garden told of autumn, bright and peaceful even in decay; but up the sunny slope of the garden itself, and to the very window-sill, summer still lingered. The beds of red verbena and geranium were still brilliant, though choked with fallen leaves of acacia and plane; the canary plant, still untouched by frost, twined its delicate green leaves, and more delicate yellow blossoms, through the crimson lace- work of the Virginia creeper; and the great yellow noisette swung its long canes across the window, filling all the air with fruity fragrance. _Two Years Ago_, chap. i. Blessing of Daily Work. October 1. Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day which must be done whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self- control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know. _Town and Country Sermons_. 1861. The Forming Form. October 2. As the acorn, because God has given it "a forming form," and life after its kind, bears within it not only the builder oak but shade for many a herd, food for countless animals, and at last the gallant ship itself, and the materials of every use to which Nature or Art can put it, and its descendants after it, throughout all time, so does every good deed contain within itself endless and unexpected possibilities of other good, which may and will grow and multiply for ever, in the genial light of Him whose eternal mind conceived it, and whose eternal spirit will for ever quicken it, with that life of which He is the Giver and the Lord. _Preface to Tauler's Sermons_. 1854. Special Providences. October 3. And as for special Providences. I believe that every step I take, every person I meet, every thought which comes into my mind--which is not sinful--comes and happens by the perpetual Providence of God watching for ever with Fatherly care over me, and each separate thing that He has made. _MS. Letter_. Virtue. October 4. Nothing, nothing can be a substitute for purity and virtue. Man will always try to find substitutes for it. He will try to find a substitute in superstition, in forms and ceremonies, in voluntary humility and worship of angels, in using vain repetitions, and fancying he will be heard for his much speaking; he will try to find a substitute in intellect, and the worship of intellect and art and poetry, . . . but let no man lay that flattering unction to his soul. _Sermons on David_. 1866. God-likeness. October 5. "We can become like God--only in proportion as we are of use," said ---. "I did not see this once. I tried to be good, not knowing what good meant. I tried to be good, because I thought it would pay me in the world to come. But at last I saw that all life, all devotion, all piety, were only worth anything, only Divine, and God-like and God-beloved, as they were means to that one end--to be of use." _Two Years Ago_, chap. xix. 1856. The Refiner's Fire. October 6. "Not quite that," said Amyas. "He was a meeker man latterly than he used to be. As he said himself once, a better refiner than any whom he had on board had followed him close all the seas over, and purified him in the fire. And gold seven times tried he was when God, having done His work in him, took him home at last." _Westward Ho_! chap. xiii. The Prayer of Faith. October 7. With the prayer of faith we can do anything. Look at Mark xi. 24--a text that has saved more than one soul from madness in the hour of sorrow; and it is so _simple_ and _wide_--wide as eternity, simple as light, true as God Himself. If we are to do great things it must be in the spirit of that text. Verily, when the Son of God cometh shall He find faith in the earth? _Letters and Memories_. 1843. Mountain-Ranges. October 8. We fancy there are many independent sciences, because we stand half-way up on different mountain-peaks, calling to each other from isolated stations. The mists hide from us the foot of the range beneath us, the depths of primary analysis to which none can reach, or we should see that all the peaks were but offsets of one vast mountain-base, and in their inmost root but One! And the clouds which float between us and the heaven shroud from us the sun-lighted caps themselves--the perfect issues of synthetic science, on which the Sun of Righteousness shines with undimmed lustre--and keep us from perceiving that the complete practical details of our applied knowledge is all holy and radiant with God's smile. And so, half-way up, on the hillside, beneath a cloudy sky, we build up little earthy hill-cairns of our own petty synthesis, and fancy them Babel-towers whose top shall reach to heaven! _MS. Note-book_. 1843. The Temper for Success in Life. October 9. The men whom I have seen succeed best in life have always been cheerful and hopeful men, who went about their business with a smile on their faces, and took the changes and chances of this mortal life like men, facing rough and smooth alike as it came, and so found the truth of the old proverb that "good times and bad times and all times pass over." _MS._ Want of Simplicity. October 10. Faith and prayer are simple things, . . . but when we begin to want faith, and to assist prayer by our own inventions and to explain away God's providence, then faith and prayer become intricate and uncertain. We cannot serve God and mammon. We must either utterly depend on God (and therefore on our own reason enlightened by His spirit after prayer), or we must utterly depend on the empirical maxims of the world. Choose! _MS. Letter_. True Rest. October 11. What is true rest? To rest from sin, from sorrow, from doubt, from care; this is true rest. Above all, to rest from the worst weariness of all--knowing one's duty and not being able to do it. That is true rest; the rest of God who works for ever, and yet is at rest for ever; as the stars over our heads move for ever, thousands of miles a day, and yet are at perfect rest, because they move orderly, harmoniously, fulfilling the law which God has given them. Perfect rest in perfect work; that surely is the rest of blessed spirits till the final consummation of all things. _Water of Life Sermons_. 1867. God's Image. October 12. . . . "Honour all men." Every man should be honoured as God's image, in the sense in which Novalis says--that we touch Heaven when we lay our hand on a human body! . . . The old Homeric Greeks, I think, felt that, and acted up to it, more than any nation. The Patriarchs too seem to have had the same feeling. . . . _Letters and Memories_. 1843. Woman's Work. October 13. Let woman never be persuaded to forget that her calling is not the lower and more earthly one of self-assertion, but the higher and diviner one of self-sacrifice; and let her never desert that higher life which lives in and for others, like her Redeemer and her Lord. _Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. Self-Enjoyment. October 14. "How do ye expect," said Sandy, "ever to be happy, or strong, or a man at a', as long as ye go on only looking to enjoy yersel--_yersel_? Mony was the year I looked for nought but my ain pleasure, and got it too, when it was a' "'Sandy Mackaye, bonny Sandy Mackaye, There he sits singing the lang simmer day; Lassies gae to him, And kiss him, and woo him-- Na bird is so merry as Sandy Mackaye.' An' muckle good cam' o't. Ye may fancy I'm talking like a sour, disappointed auld carle. But I tell ye nay. I've got that's worth living for, though I am downhearted at times, and fancy a's wrong, and there's na hope for us on earth, we be a' sic liars--a' liars, I think--I'm a great liar often mysel, especially when I'm praying." _Alton Locke_, chap. vii. Temptations of Temperament. October 15. A man of intense sensibilities, and therefore capable, as is but too notorious, of great crimes as well as of great virtues. _Sermons on David_. The more delicate and graceful the organisation, the more noble and earnest the nature, the more certain it is, I fear, if neglected, to go astray. _Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. Egotism of Melancholy. October 16. Morbid melancholy results from subjectivity of mind. The self-contemplating mind, if it be a conscientious and feeling one, must be dissatisfied with what it sees within. Then it begins unconsciously to flatter itself with the idea that it is not the "_moi_" but the "_non moi_," the world around, which is evil. Hence comes Manichaeism, Asceticism, and that morbid tone of mind which is so accustomed to look for sorrow that it finds it even in joy--because it will not confess to itself that sorrow belongs to _sin_, and that sin belongs to _self_; and therefore it vents its dissatisfaction on God's earth, and not on itself in repentance and humiliation. The world looks dark. Shall we therefore be dark too? Is it not our business to bring it back to light and joy? _MS. Letter_. 1843. Poetry of Doubt. October 17. The "poetry of doubt" of these days, however pretty, would stand us in little stead if we were threatened by a second Armada. _Miscellanies_. 1859. Work of the Physician. October 18. The question which is forcing itself more and more on the minds of scientific men is not how many diseases _are_, but how few are _not_, the consequences of men's ignorance, barbarism, folly, self-indulgence. The medical man is felt more and more to be necessary in health as he is in sickness, to be the fellow-workman not merely of the clergyman, but of the social reformer, the political economist, and the statesman; and the first object of his science to be prevention, and not cure. _National Sermons_. 1851. Love Many-sided. October 19. There are many sides to love--admiration, reverence, gratitude, pity, affection; they are all different shapes of that one great spirit of love--the only feeling which will bind a man to do good, not once in a way but habitually. _National Sermons_. 1851. The only Path to Light. October 20. The path by which some come to see the Light, to find the Rock of Ages, is the simple path of honest self-knowledge, self-renunciation, self-restraint, in which every upward step towards right exposes some fresh depth of inward sinfulness, till the once proud man, crushed down by the sense of his own infinite meanness, becomes a little child once more, and casts himself simply on the generosity of Him who made him. And then there may come to him the vision, dim, perhaps, and fitting ill into clumsy words, but clearer, surer, nearer to him than the ground on which he treads, or than the foot which treads it--the vision of an Everlasting Spiritual Substance, most Human and yet most Divine, who can endure; and who, standing beneath all things, can make their spiritual substance endure likewise, though all worlds and eons, birth and growth and death, matter and space and time, should melt indeed-- And like the baseless fabric of a vision, Leave not a rack behind. _Preface to Tauler's Sermons_. 1854. Proverbs False and True. October 21. There is no falser proverb than that devil's beatitude, "Blessed is he who expecteth nothing, for he shall never be disappointed." Say rather, "Blessed is he who expecteth everything, for he enjoys everything once at least, and if it falls out true, twice also." _Prose Idylls_. 1857. True Sisters of Mercy. October 22. Ah! true Sisters of Mercy! whom the world sneers at as "old maids," if you pour out on cats and dogs and parrots a little of the love that is yearning to spend itself on children of your own. As long as such as you walk this lower world one needs no Butler's _Analogy_ to prove to us that there is another world, where such as you will have a fuller and a fairer (I dare not say a juster) portion. _Two Years Ago_, chap. xxv. 1856. The Divine Fire. October 23. Well spoke the old monks, peaceful, watching life's turmoil, "Eyes which look heavenward, weeping still we see: God's love with keen flame purges, like the lightning flash, Gold which is purest, purer still must be." _Saint's Tragedy_, Act iii. Scene i. 1847. The Cross a Token. October 24. Have patience, have faith, have hope, as thou standest at the foot of Christ's Cross, and holdest fast to it, the anchor of the _soul_ and _reason_, as well as of the _heart_. For, however ill the world may go, or seem to go, the Cross is the everlasting token that God so loved the world that He spared not His only-begotten Son, but freely gave Him for it. Whatsoever else is doubtful, that at least is sure--that good must conquer, because God is good, that evil must perish, because God hates evil, even to the death. _Westminster Sermons_. 1870. The True Self-Sacrifice. October 25. What can a man do more than _die_ for his countrymen? _Live_ for them. It is a longer work, and therefore a more difficult and a nobler one. _Two Years Ago_, chap. xix. 1856. Now as Then. October 26. Men can be as original now as ever, if they had but the courage, even the insight. Heroic souls in old times had no more opportunities than we have; but they used them. There were daring deeds to be done then--are there none now? Sacrifices to be made--are there none now? Wrongs to be redrest--are there none now? Let any one set his heart in these days to do what is right, and nothing else; and it will not be long ere his brow is stamped with all that goes to make up the heroical expression--with noble indignation, noble self-restraint, great hopes, great sorrows; perhaps even with the print of the martyr's crown of thorns. _Two Years Ago_, chap. vii. 1856. One Anchor. October 27. In such a world as this, with such ugly possibilities hanging over us all, there is but one anchor which will hold, and that is utter trust in God; let us keep that, and we may yet get to our graves without _misery_ though not without _sorrow_. _Letters and Memories_. 1871. Self-Control. October 28. Settle it in your minds, young people, that the first and the last of all virtues and graces which God can give is Self-Control, as necessary for the saint and the sage lest they become fanatics and pedants, as for the young in the hey-day of youth and health. _Sermons on David_. 1866. Nature's Permanence. October 29. We abolish many things, good and evil, wisely and foolishly, in these fast-going times; but, happily for us, we cannot abolish the blue sky, and the green sea, and the white foam, and the everlasting hills, and the rivers which flow out of their bosoms. They will abolish themselves when their work is done, but not before. And we, who, with all our boasted scientific mastery over Nature, are, from a merely mechanical and carnal point of view, no more than a race of minute parasitic animals burrowing in the fair Earth's skin, had better, instead of boasting of our empire over Nature, take care lest we become too troublesome to Nature, by creating, in our haste and greed, too many great black countries, and too many great dirty warrens of houses, miscalled cities, peopled with savages and imps of our own mis-creation; in which case Nature, so far from allowing us to abolish her, will by her inexorable laws abolish us. _MS. Presidential Address_. 1871. The Only Refuge. October 30. Prayer is the only refuge against the Walpurgis-dance of the witches and the fiends, which at hapless moments whirl unbidden through a mortal brain. _Two Years Ago_, chap. xix. 1856. England's Forgotten Worthies. October 31. Among the higher-hearted of the early voyagers, the grandeur and glory around them had attuned their spirits to itself and kept them in a lofty, heroical, reverent frame of mind; while they knew as little about what they saw in an "artistic" or "critical" point of view as in a scientific one. . . . They gave God thanks and were not astonished. God was great: but that they had discovered long before they came into the tropics. Noble old child-hearted heroes, with just romance and superstition enough about them to keep from that prurient hysterical wonder and enthusiasm which is simply, one often fears, a product of our scepticism! We do not trust enough in God, we do not really believe His power enough, to be ready, as they were, as every one ought to be on a God-made earth, for anything and everything being possible; and then when a wonder is discovered we go into ecstasies and shrieks over it, and take to ourselves credit for being susceptible of so lofty a feeling--true index, forsooth, of a refined and cultivated mind!! Smile if you will: but those were days (and there never were less superstitious ones) in which Englishmen believed in the living God, and were not ashamed to acknowledge, as a matter of course, His help, and providence, and calling, in the matters of daily life, which we now, in our covert atheism, term "secular and carnal." _Westward Ho_! chap. xxiii. SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. OCTOBER 18. St. Luke, Physician and Evangelist. It is good to follow Christ in one thing and to follow Him utterly in that. And the physician has set his mind to do one thing--to hate calmly, but with an internecine hatred, disease and death, and to fight against them to the end. In his exclusive care for the body the physician witnesses unconsciously yet mightily for the soul, for God, for the Bible, for immortality. Is he not witnessing for God when he shows by his acts that he believes God to be a God of life, not of death; of health, not of disease; of order, not of disorder; of joy and strength, not of misery and weakness? Is he not witnessing for Christ when, like Christ, he heals all manner of sickness and disease among the people, and attacks physical evil as the natural foe of man and of the Creator of man? "_Water of Life_," _and other Sermons_. OCTOBER 28. St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles and Martyrs. He that loseth his life shall save it. The end and aim of our life is not happiness but goodness. If goodness comes first, then happiness may come after; but if not, something better than happiness may come, even blessedness. Oh! sad hearts and suffering! look to the Cross. There hung your King! The King of sorrowing souls; and more, the King of Sorrows. Ay, pain and grief, tyranny and desertion, death and hell,--He has faced them one and all, and tried their strength and taught them His, and conquered them right royally. And since He hung upon that torturing Cross sorrow is divine,--godlike, as joy itself. All that man's fallen nature dreads and despises God honoured on the Cross, and took unto Himself, and blest and consecrated for ever. . . . And now--Blessed are tears and shame, blessed are agony and pain; blessed is death, and blest the unknown realms where souls await the Resurrection-day. _National Sermons_. November. "The giant trees are black and still, the tearful sky is dreary gray. All Nature is like the grief of manhood in its soft and thoughtful sternness. Shall I lend myself to its influence, and as the heaven settles down into one misty shroud of 'shrill yet silent tears,' as if veiling her shame in a cloudy mantle, shall I, too, lie down and weep? Why not? for am I not 'a part of all I see'? And even now, in fasting and mortification, am I not sorrowing for my sin and for its dreary chastisement? But shall I then despond and die? "No! Mother Earth, for then I were unworthy of thee and thy God! We may weep, Mother Earth, but we have Faith--faith which tells us that above the cloudy sky the bright clear sun is shining, and will shine. And we have Hope, Mother Earth--hope, that as bright days have been, so bright days soon shall be once more! And we have Charity, Mother Earth, and by it we can love all tender things--ay, and all rugged rocks and dreary moors, for the sake of the glow which _has_ gilded them, and the fertility which will spring even from their sorrow. We will smile through our tears, Mother Earth, for we are not forsaken! We have still light and heat, and till we can bear the sunshine we will glory in the shade!" _MS._ 1842. Sympathy of the Dead. November 1. Believe that those who are gone are nearer us than ever; and that if (as I surely believe) they do sorrow over the mishaps and misdeeds of those whom they leave behind, they do not sorrow in vain. Their sympathy is a further education for them, and a pledge, too, of help--I believe of final deliverance--for those on whom they look down in love. _Letters and Memories_. 1852. Nature's Parable. November 2. There is a devil's meaning to everything in nature, and a God's meaning too. As I read nature's parable to-night I find nothing in it but hope. What if there be darkness, the sun will rise to-morrow; what if there seem chaos, the great organic world is still living and growing and feeding, unseen by us all the night through; and every phosphoric atom there below is a sign that in the darkest night there is still the power of light, ready to flash out wherever and however it is stirred. _Prose Idylls_. 1849. Passing Onward. November 3. Liturgies are but temporary expressions of the Church's heart. The Bible is the immutable story of her husband's love. _She_ must go on from grace to grace, and her song must vary from age to age, and her ancient melodies become unfitted to express her feelings; but He is the same for ever. _MS._ 1842. See how the autumn leaves float by decaying, Down the wild swirls of the dark-brimming stream; So fleet the works of men back to their earth again-- Ancient and holy things pass like a dream. _A Parable_. 1848. The Divine Intention. November 4. I am superstitious enough, thank God, to believe that not a stone or a handful of mud gravitates into its place without the will of God; that it was ordained, ages since, into what particular spot each grain of gold should be washed down from an Australian quartz reef, that a certain man might find it at a certain moment and crisis of his life. _Science Lectures_. Christ Weeping over Jerusalem. November 5. That which is true of nations is true of individuals, of each separate human brother of the Son of man. Is there one young life ruined by its own folly--one young heart broken by its own wilfulness--or one older life fast losing the finer instincts, the nobler aims of youth, in the restlessness of covetousness, of fashion, of ambition? Is there one such poor soul over whom Christ does not grieve? One to whom, at some supreme crisis of their lives, He does not whisper--"Ah, beautiful organism--thou too art a thought of God--thou too, if thou wert but in harmony with thyself and God, a microcosmic _City of God_! Ah! that thou hadst known--even thou--at least in this thy day--the things which belong to thy peace"? _MS. Sermon_. 1874. Love Expansive. November 6. The mystics think it wrong to love any created thing, because our whole love should be given to God. But as flame increases by being applied to many objects, so does love. He who loves God most loves God's creatures most, and them for God's sake, and God for their sake. _MS. Note-book_. 1843. Still the same. November 7. Those who die in the fear of God and in the faith of Christ do not really taste death; to them there is no death, but only a change of place, a change of state; they pass at once into some new life, with all their powers, all their feelings, unchanged; still the same living, thinking, active beings which they were here on earth. I say active. Rest they may, rest they will, if they need rest. But what is true rest? Not idleness, but peace of mind. _Water of Life Sermons_. 1862. An absolutely Good God. November 8. Fix in your minds--or rather ask God to fix in your minds--this one idea of an absolutely good God; good with all forms of goodness which you respect and love in man; good, as you, and I, and every honest man, understand the plain word good. Slowly you will acquire that grand and all-illuminating idea; slowly and most imperfectly at best: for who is mortal man that he should conceive and comprehend the goodness of the infinitely good God! But see, then, whether, in the light of that one idea, all the old-fashioned Christian ideas about the relation of God to man--whether Providence, Prayer, Inspiration, Revelation, the Incarnation, the Passion, and the final triumph of the Son of God--do not seem to you, not merely beautiful, not merely probable, but rational, and logical, and necessary, moral consequences from the one idea of an Absolute and Eternal Goodness, the Living Parent of the universe? _Westminster Sermons_. 1873. Nature's Lesson. November 9. Learn what feelings every object in Nature expresses, but do not let them mould the tone of your mind; else, by allowing a melancholy day to make you melancholy, you worship the creature more than the Creator. _MS. Letter_. 1842. Morals and Mind. November 10. Not upon mind, not upon mind, but upon morals, is human welfare founded. The true subjective history of man is not the history of his thought, but of his conscience: the true objective history of man is not that of his inventions, but of his vices and his virtues. So far from morals depending upon thought, thought, I believe, depends on morals. In proportion as a nation is righteous--in proportion as common justice is done between man and man, will thought grow rapidly, securely, triumphantly; will its discoveries be cheerfully accepted and faithfully obeyed, to the welfare of the whole common weal. _Inaugural Lecture_, _Cambridge_. 1860. Fastidiousness. November 11. Do not let us provoke God (though that is _really_ impossible) by complaining of His gifts because they do not come just in the form _we_ should have wished. . . . _MS. Letter_. 1844. Unconscious Faith. November 12. For the rest, Amyas never thought about thinking or felt about feeling; and had no ambition whatsoever beyond pleasing his father and mother, getting by honest means the maximum of "red quarrenders" and mazard cherries, and going to sea when he was big enough. Neither was he what would be nowadays called by many a pious child, for though he said his Creed and Lord's Prayer night and morning, and went to service at the church every forenoon, and read the day's Psalms with his mother every evening, and had learnt from her and his father that it was infinitely noble to do right and infinitely base to do wrong, yet he knew nothing more of theology or of his own soul than is contained in the Church Catechism. _Westward Ho_! chap. i. 1855. Silence. November 13. There are silences more pathetic than all words. _MS._ The Nineteenth Century. November 14. . . . What so maddening as the new motion of our age--the rush of the express train, when the live iron pants and leaps and roars through the long chalk cutting, and white mounds gleam cold a moment against the sky and vanish; and rocks and grass and bushes fleet by in dim blended lines; and the long hedges revolve like the spokes of a gigantic wheel; and far below meadows and streams and homesteads, with all their lazy old-world life, open for an instant, and then flee away; while awestruck, silent, choked with the mingled sense of pride and helplessness, we are swept on by that great pulse of England's life-blood rushing down her iron veins; and dimly out of the future looms the fulfilment of our primeval mission to conquer and subdue the earth, and space too, and time, and all things--even hardest of all tasks, yourselves, my cunning brothers; ever learning some fresh lesson, except the hardest one of all, that it is the Spirit of God which giveth you understanding? Yes, great railroads, and great railroad age, who would exchange you, with all your sins, for any other time? For swiftly as rushes matter, more swiftly rushes mind; more swiftly still rushes the heavenly dawn up the eastern sky. "The night is far spent, the day is at hand." "Blessed is the servant whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching." _Prose Idylls_. Unreality. November 15. Those who have had no real sorrows can afford to play with imaginary ones. _MS._ The indwelling Light. November 16. The doctrine of Christ in every man, as the indwelling Word of God, the Light who lights every one who comes into the world, is no peculiar tenet of the Quakers, but one which runs through the whole of the Old and New Testaments, and without which they would both be unintelligible, just as the same doctrine runs through the whole history of the Early Church for the first two centuries, and is the only explanation of them. _Theologica Germanica_. 1854. Woman's Calling. November 17. What surely is a woman's calling but to teach man? and to teach him what? To temper his fiercer, coarser, more self-assertive nature by the contact of her gentleness, purity, self-sacrifice. To make him see that not by blare of trumpets, not by noise, wrath, greed, ambition, intrigue, puffery, is good and lasting work to be done on earth; but by wise self- distrust, by silent labour, by lofty self-control, by that charity which hopeth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things; by such an example, in short, as women now in tens of thousands set to those around them; such as they will show more and more, the more their whole womanhood is educated to employ its powers without waste and without haste in harmonious unity. _Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. Waste. November 18. Thrift of the heart, thrift of the emotions--how are they wasted in these days in reading sensation novels! while British literature--all that the best hearts and intellects among our forefathers have bequeathed to us--is neglected for light fiction, the reading of which is the worst form of intemperance--dram-drinking and opium-eating, intellectual and moral. _Lecture on Thrift_. True Penance. November 19. "Senor," said Brimblecombe, "the best way to punish oneself for doing ill seems to me to go and do good; and the best way to find out whether God means you well is to find out whether He will help you to do well." _Westward Ho_! chap. xxv. Political Economy of the Future. November 20. I can conceive a time when, by improved chemical science, every foul vapour which now escapes from the chimney of a manufactory, polluting the air, destroying the vegetation, shall be seized, utilised, converted into some profitable substance, till the black country shall be black no longer, the streams once more crystal clear, the trees once more luxuriant, and the desert, which man has created in his haste and greed, shall in literal fact once more blossom as the rose. And just so can I conceive a time when by a higher civilisation, formed on a political economy more truly scientific, because more truly according to the will of God, our human refuse shall be utilised like our material refuse; when man as man, down to the weakest and most ignorant, shall be found (as he really is) so valuable that it will be worth while to preserve his health, to develop his capabilities, to save him alive, body, intellect, and character, at any cost; because men will see that a man is, after all, the most precious and useful thing on the earth, and that no cost spent on the development of human beings can possibly be thrown away. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1870. God's Pleasure. November 21. The world was not made for man: but man, like all the world, was made for God. Not for man's pleasure merely, not for man's use, but for God's pleasure all things are, and for God's pleasure they were, created. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1869. The Hospital Nurse. November 22. Fearless, uncomplaining, she "trusted in God and made no haste." She did her work and read her Bible; and read, too, again and again at stolen moments of rest, a book which was to her as the finding of an unknown sister--Longfellow's "Evangeline." _Two Years Ago_, chap. xxviii. Let us learn to look on hospitals not as acts of charity, supererogatory benevolences of ours towards those to whom we owe nothing, but as confessions of sin, and worthy fruits of penitence; as poor and late and partial compensation for misery which _we_ might have prevented. _National Sermons_. 1851. No Work Lost. November 23. If you lose heart about your work, remember that none of it is _lost_--that the good of every good deed remains and breeds and works on for ever, and that all that fails and is lost is the outside shell of the thing, which, perhaps, might have been better done; but better or worse has nothing to do with the real spiritual good which you have done to men's hearts. _Letters and Memories_. 1862. True Temperance. November 24. What we all want is inward rest; rest of heart and brain; the calm, strong, self-contained, self-denying character, which needs no stimulants, for it has no fits of depression; which needs no narcotics, for it has no fits of excitement; which needs no ascetic restraints, for it is strong enough to use God's gifts without abusing them; the character, in a word, which is truly temperate, not in drink and food merely, but in all desires, thoughts, and actions. _Essays_. 1873. A Present Veil. November 25. What is there in this world worth having without religion? Do you not feel that true religion, even in its most imperfect stage, is not merely an escape from hell after death but the only _real state_ for a man--the only position to live in in this world--the only frame of mind which will give anything like happiness here. I cannot help feeling at moments--if there were _no Christ_, everything, even the very flowers and insects, and every beautiful object, would be hell _now_--dark, blank, hopeless. _MS. Letter_. 1843. Cowardice. November 26. There is but one thing which you have to fear in earth or heaven--being untrue to your better selves, and therefore untrue to God. If you will not do the thing you know to be right, and say the thing you know to be true, then indeed you are weak. You are a coward; you desert God. _True Words for Brave Men_. Blind Faith. November 27. In Him--"The Father"--I can trust, in spite of the horrible things I see happen, in spite of the fact that my own prayers are not answered. I believe that He makes all things work together for the good of the human race, and of me among the rest, as long as I obey His will. I believe He will answer my prayer, not according to the letter, but according to the spirit of it; that if I desire good, I shall find good, though not _the_ good I longed for. _MS. Letter_. 1862. Small and Great. November 28. Begin with small things--you cannot enter into the presence of another human being without finding there more to do than you or I or any soul will ever learn to do perfectly before we die. Let us be content to do little if God sets us little tasks. It is but pride and self-will which says, "Give me something huge to fight and I shall enjoy that--but why make me sweep the dust?" _Letters and Memories_. 1854. True and False. November 29. We must remember that dissatisfaction at existing evil (the feeling of all young and ardent minds), the struggle to escape from the "circumstance" of the evil world, has a carnal counterfeit--the love of novelty, and self-will, and self-conceit, which may thrust us down into the abysses of misrule and uncertainty; as it has done such men as Shelley and Byron; trying vainly every loophole, beating against the prison bars of an imperfect system; neither degraded enough to make themselves a fool's paradise within it, nor wise enough to escape from it through Christ, "the door into the sheepfold," to return when they will, and bring others with them into the serene empyrean of spiritual truth--truth which explains, and arranges, and hallows, and subdues everything. _Letters and Memories_. 1842. The Mind of Christ. November 30. How can we attain to the blessed and noble state of mind--the mind of Christ, who must needs be about His Father's business, which is doing good? Only by prayer and practice. There is no more use in praying without practising than there is in practising without praying. You cannot learn to walk without walking; no more can you learn to do good without trying to do good. _Sermons for the Times_. 1855. SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. NOVEMBER 1. All Saints' Day. Commemoration of the Blessed Dead. "If any man serve Me, him will My Father honour," said the Blessed One. And if God honours His servants, shall not we honour them likewise? We may not, as our forefathers did blindly, though lovingly, worship them as mediators and lesser gods, and pray to them instead of to their Father in heaven to whose throne of grace we may all come boldly through Christ Jesus, or believe that their relics will work miracles in our behalf, thus honouring the creature instead of the Creator. This we may not do, but we may honour the Creator in His creature, and honour God in those who have lived godly and God-like lives; and when they have passed away from among us--souls endued by God with manifold virtues and precious gifts of grace--we may give thanks and say, These, O God, are the fruits of Thy Spirit. Thou honourest them in heaven with Thy approving smile. We will honour them on earth, not merely with our lips, but in our lives. What they were we too might be, if we were as true as they to the inspiration of Thy Spirit. Help us to honour their memories, as Thou and they would have us do, by following their example; by setting them before us, and not only them, but every holy and noble personage of whom we have ever heard, as dim likenesses of Christ--even as Christ is the likeness of Thee. Amen. _MS. Sermon_. NOVEMBER 30. St. Andrew, Apostle and Martyr. Form your own notions about angels and saints in heaven--as you will, . . . but bear this in mind: that if the saints in heaven live the everlasting life, they must be living a life of usefulness, of love, and of good works. The everlasting life cannot be a selfish, idle life, spent only in individual happiness. _Good News of God Sermons_. December. It chanced upon the merry, merry Christmas eve, I went sighing past the Church across the moorland dreary: "Oh! never sin and want and woe this earth will leave, And the bells but mock the wailing sound, they sing so cheery. How long, O Lord! how long before Thou come again? Still in cellar and in garret, and on moorland dreary, The orphans moan, and widows weep, and poor men toil in vain: Till earth is sick of hope deferred, though Christmas bells be cheery." Then arose a joyous clamour from the wild-fowl on the mere, Beneath the stars across the snow, like clear bells ringing, And a voice within cried, "Listen! Christmas carols even here! Though thou be dumb, yet o'er their work the stars and snows are singing. Blind! I live, I love, I reign, and all the nations through With the thunder of my judgments even now are ringing; Do thou fulfil thy work but as yon wild-fowl do, Thou wilt heed no less the wailing, yet hear through it the angels' singing." _A Christmas Carol_. The Final Victory. December 1. I believe that the ancient creed, the eternal gospel, will stand and conquer, and prove its might in this age, as it has in every other for eighteen hundred years, by claiming and subduing and organising those young anarchic forces which now, unconscious of their parentage, rebel against Him to whom they owe their being. _Yeast_, Preface. 1851. Drifting away. December 2. They drift away--Ah, God! they drift for ever. . . . . . . I watch them drift--the old familiar faces, Till ghosts, not men, fill old beloved places. . . . . . . Shores, landmarks, beacons drift alike. Yet overhead the boundless arch of heaven Still fades to night, still blazes into day. Ah, God! My God! _Thou_ wilt not drift away! _A Fragment_. 1867. Our Father. December 3. Take your sorrows not to man, but to your Father in heaven. If that name, Father, mean anything, it must mean that He will not turn away from His wandering child in a way in which you would be ashamed to turn away from yours. If there be pity, lasting affection, patience in _man_, they must have come from Him. They, above all things, must be His likeness. Believe that God possesses them a million times more fully than any human being. _Letters and Memories_. Circumstance. December 4. Our wanton accidents take root, and grow To vaunt themselves God's laws, until our clothes, Our gems, and gaudy books, and cushioned litters Become ourselves, and we would fain forget There live who need them not. _Saint's Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene v. 1847. Duty. December 5. When a man has once said _honestly_ to himself, "It is my duty;" when that glorious heavenly thought has risen upon his soul, like the sun upon the earth, warming his heart and enlightening it, and making it bring forth all good and noble fruits, then that man will feel a strength come to him and a courage come from God which will conquer all his fears, his selfish love of ease and pleasure, and enable him to bear pain and poverty and death itself, provided he can do what is right, and be found by God working His will where He has put him. _Sermons_. Humanity and the Bible. December 6. He who has an intense perception of humanity must know that Christianity is divine, because it is the only religion which has a perfect perception of human relations, wants, and feelings. None but He who made the heart could have written the Bible. _MS. Note-book_. 1843. Music. December 7. There is music in heaven, because in music there is no self-will. Music goes on certain laws and rules. Man did not make those laws of music, he has only found them out, and if he be self-willed and break them, there is an end of his music instantly; all he brings out is discord and ugly sounds. Music is fit for heaven. Music is a pattern and type of heaven, and of the everlasting life of God which perfect spirits live in heaven; a life of melody and order in themselves; a life of harmony with each other and with God. _Good News of God Sermons_. 1859. Waiting. December 8. Ay--stay awhile in peace. The storms are still. Beneath her eider robe the patient earth Watches in silence for the sun: we'll sit And gaze up with her at the changeless heaven, Until this tyranny be overpast. _Saint's Tragedy_, Act iii. Scene iii. 1847. True or False Toleration? December 9. "One thing at least I have learnt," he said, "in all my experiments on poor humanity--never to see a man do a wrong thing without feeling I could do the same in his place. I used to pride myself on that once, fool that I was, and call it comprehensiveness. I used to make it an excuse for sitting by and seeing the devil have it all his own way, and call that toleration. I will see now whether I cannot turn the said knowledge to a better account, as common sense, patience, and charity, and yet do work of which neither I nor my country need be ashamed." _Two Years Ago_, chap. xxiii. 1856. Success and Defeat. December 10. In many things success at first is dangerous, and _defeat_ an excellent medicine for testing people's honesty--for setting them honestly to work to see what they want, and what are the best modes of attaining it. Our sound thrashing, as a nation, in the first French war was the making of our armies; and it is good for an idea, as well as for a man, to bear the yoke in his youth. _Lectures on Ancien Regime_. 1867. Passing Emotions. December 11. Beware of depending on your own _emotions_, which are often but the fallings and risings of the frail flesh, and mistaking them for spiritual feelings and affections! * * * * * Think less of what you _feel_--even of trying _to be_ anything. Look out of yourself at God. Pray and praise, and God will give you His Spirit often when you feel most dull. _MS. Letter_. 1842. Christ's Church. December 12. . . . What a thought it is that there is a God! a Father, a King! a Husband not of individuals, that is a Popish fancy, which the Puritans have adopted--but of the Church--of collective humanity. Let us be content to be members; let us be, if we may, the feet, lowest, hardest worked, trodden on, bleeding, brought into harshest contact with the evil world! Still we are members of Christ's Church! . . . _Letters and Memories_. 1843. Confound me not. December 13. Have charity, have patience, have mercy. Never bring a human being, however silly, ignorant, or weak, above all, any little child, to shame and confusion of face. Never by petulance, by suspicion, by ridicule, even by selfish and silly haste, never, above all, by indulging in the devilish pleasure of a sneer, crush what is finest, and rouse up what is coarsest in the heart of any fellow-creature. _Westminster Sermons_. 1872. The Divine Hunger and Thirst. December 14. God grant us to be among "those who really hunger and thirst after righteousness," and who therefore long to know what righteousness is, that they may copy it--those who long to be freed not merely from the punishment of sin after they die, but from sin itself while they live on earth, and who therefore wish to know what sin is that they may avoid it. _Preface to Tauler's Sermons_. 1854. Religion or Godliness? December 15. This is the especial curse of our day, that religion does not mean, as it used, the service of God--the being like God and showing forth God's glory. No, religion means nowadays the art of getting to heaven when we die, and saving our own miserable souls, and getting God's wages without doing God's work--as if that was godliness, as if that was anything but selfishness, as if selfishness was any the better for being everlasting selfishness! _Village Sermons_. 1849. Christ's Coming. December 16. Christ may come to us when we are fierce and prejudiced, with that still small voice--so sweet and yet so keen, "Understand those who misunderstand thee. Be fair to those who are unfair to thee. Be just and merciful to those whom thou wouldst like to hate. Forgive and thou shalt be forgiven." He comes to us surely, when we are selfish and luxurious, in every sufferer who needs our help, and says, "If you do good to one of these, my brethren, you do it unto Me." _Last Sermon_. _MS._ 1874. God's Nature. December 17. When will men open their eyes to the plain axiom that nothing is impossible with God, save that He should transgress His own nature by being unjust and unloving? _Preface to Tauler_. 1854. Educators of Men. December 18. There are those who consider--and I agree with them--that the education of boys under the age of twelve years ought to be entrusted, as much as possible, to women. Let me ask--of what period of youth and manhood does it not hold true? I pity the ignorance and conceit of the man who fancies that he has nothing left to learn from cultivated women. I should have thought that the very mission of woman was to be, in the highest sense, the educator of man, from infancy to old age; that that was the work towards which all the God-given capacities of women pointed. _Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. The Earthly Body. December 19. Let us remember that if the body does feel a burden now (as it must at moments), what a happiness it is to have a body at all: how lonely, cold, barren, would it be to be a "disembodied spirit." As St. Paul says, "Not that we desire to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon"--to have a spiritual, deathless, griefless life instilled into the body. _MS. Letter_. 1842. Home at Last. December 20. When all the world is old, lad, And all the trees are brown, And all the sport is stale, lad, And all the wheels run down; Creep home and take your place there, The spent and maimed among: God grant you find one face there You loved when all was young. _The Water Babies_. 1862. The Bible. December 21. The hearts and minds of the sick, the poor, the sorrowing, the truly human, all demand a living God who has revealed Himself in living acts; a God who has taught mankind by facts, not left them to discover Him by theories and sentiments; a Judge, a Father, a Saviour, an Inspirer; in a word, their hearts demand the historic truth of the Bible--of the Old Testament no less than the New. _Sermons on Pentateuch_. 1863. Shaking of Heaven and Earth. December 22. "Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but heaven" (Hebrews xii. 26- 29). This is one of the royal texts of Scripture. It declares one of those great laws of the kingdom of God which may fulfil itself once and again at many eras and by many methods; which fulfilled itself most gloriously in the first century after Christ; again in the fifth century; again at the time of the Crusades; and again at the great Reformation in the sixteenth century,--and is fulfilling itself again at this very day. _Westminster Sermons_. 1872. Self-Respect the Voice of God. December 23. Never hurt any one's self-respect. Never trample on any soul, though it may be lying in the veriest mire; for that last spark of self-respect is as its only hope, its only chance; the last seed of a new and better life; the voice of God which still whispers to it, "You are not what you ought to be, and you are not what you can be. You are still God's child, still an immortal soul. You may rise yet, and fight a good fight yet, and conquer yet, and be a man yet, after the likeness of God who made you, and Christ who died for you." Oh! why crush that voice in any heart? If you do the poor creature is lost, and lies where he or she falls, and never tries to rise again. _Good News of God Sermons_. 1859. Christmas Eve. December 24. We will have no sad forebodings on the eve of the blessed Christmas-tide. He lives, He loves, He reigns; and all is well; for we are His and He is ours. _Two Years Ago_, Introduction. 1856. The Miracle of Christmas Night. December 25. After the crowning miracle of this most blessed night all miracles are possible. The miracle of Christmas night was possible because God's love was absolute, infinite, unconquerable, able to condescend to anything that good might be done. . . . This Christmas night is the one of all the year which sets a physicist on facing the fact of miracle, and which delivers him from the bonds of sense and custom by reminding him of God made Man. _Letters and Memories_. 1858. Redemption. December 26. All things are blessed now, but sin; for all things, excepting sin, are redeemed by the life and death of the Son of God. Blessed are wisdom and courage, joy and health and beauty, love and marriage, childhood and manhood, corn and wine, fruit and flowers, for Christ redeemed them by His life. . . . Blessed is death, and blest the unknown realms where souls await the Resurrection Day, for Christ redeemed them by His death. Blessed are all days, dark as well as bright, for all are His, and He is ours; and all are ours, and we are His for ever. _National Sermons_. 1848. Fellow-workers with Christ. December 27. To abolish the superstition, the misrule, the vice, the misery of this world. That is what Christ will do in the day when He has put all enemies under His feet. That is what Christ has been doing, step by step, ever since that day when first He came to do His Father's will on earth in great humility. Therefore, that is what we must do, each in our place and station, if we be indeed His subjects, fellow-workers with Him in the improvement of the human race, fellow-soldiers with Him in the battle against evil. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1867. The bright Pathway. December 28. There is a healthy ferment of mind in which one struggles through chaos and darkness, by means of a few clues and threads of light--and--of one great bright pathway, which I find more and more to be _the_ only escape from infinite confusion and aberration, _the_ only explanation of a thousand human mysteries--I mean the Incarnation of our Lord--the fact that there really is--a God-Man! _MS. Letter_. 1844. New Worship. December 29. Blessed, thrice blessed, is it to find that hero-worship is not yet passed away! that the heart of man still beats young and fresh; that the old tales of David and Jonathan, Damon and Pythias, Socrates and Alcibiades, Shakespeare and his nameless friend, of love "passing the love of woman," ennobled by its own humility, deeper than death and mightier than the grave, can still blossom out, if it be but in one heart here and there, to show man still how, sooner or later, "he that loveth knoweth God, for God is love." _Miscellanies_. 1850. Links in the Chain. December 30. The heart will cry out at times, Oh! blissful future! Oh, dreary present! But let us not repine. What is dreary need not be barren. Nothing need be barren to those who view all things in their real light, as links in the great chain of progression both for themselves and for the Universe. To us all Time should seem so full of life: every moment the grave and the father of unnumbered events and designs in heaven and earth, and the mind of our God Himself--all things moving smoothly and surely in spite of apparent checks and disappointments towards the appointed end. _Letters and Memories_. 1844. Past, Present, Future. December 31. Surely as the years pass on they ought to have made us better, more useful, more worthy. We may have been disappointed in our lofty ideas of what ought to be done, but we may have gained more clear and practical notions of what can be done. We may have lost in enthusiasm, and yet gained in earnestness. We may have lost in sensibility, yet gained in charity, activity, and power. We may be able to do far less, and yet what we do may be far better done. And our very griefs and disappointments--have they been useless to us? Surely not. We shall have gained instead of lost by them if the Spirit of God has been working in us. Our sorrows will have wrought in us patience, our patience experience, and that experience hope--hope that He who has led us thus far will lead us farther still, that He who has taught us in former days precious lessons--not only by sore temptations but most sacred joys--will teach us in the days to come fresh lessons by temptations, which we shall be more able to endure; and by joys which, though unlike those of old times, are no less sacred, but sent as lessons to our souls by Him from whom all good gifts come. _Water of Life Sermons_. Out of God's boundless bosom, the fount of life, we came; through selfish, stormy youth, and contrite tears--just not too late; through manhood, not altogether useless; through slow and chill old age, we return whence we came, to the bosom of God once more--to go forth again, it may be, with fresh knowledge and fresh powers, to nobler work. Amen. _The Air Mothers_. 1869. SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. DECEMBER 21. St. Thomas, Apostle and Martyr. The spirits of just men made perfect, freed from the fetters of the gross animal body, and now somewhere in that boundless universe in which this earth is but a tiny speck, doing God's will as they longed to do it on earth, with clearer light, fuller faith, deeper love, mightier powers of usefulness! Ah, that we were like unto them! _All Saints' Day and other Sermons_. DECEMBER 25. Christmas Day. Thank God, that One was born, at this same time, Who did our work for us: we'll talk of Him: We shall go mad with thinking of ourselves-- We'll talk of Him, and of that new-made star, Which, as He stooped into the Virgin's side, From off His finger, like a signet-gem, He dropped in the empyrean for a sign. But the first tear He shed at this His birth-hour, When He crept weeping forth to see our woe, Fled up to Heaven in mist, and hid for ever Our sins, our works, and that same new-made star. _Saint's Tragedy_, Act iv. Scene iv. DECEMBER 26. St. Stephen, the Martyr. These are the holy ones--the heroes of mankind, the elect, the aristocracy of grace. They are those who carry the palm branch of triumph, who have come out of great tribulation, who have dared and fought and suffered for God and truth and right; who have resisted unto blood, striving against sin. What should easy-going folk like you and me do but place ourselves with all humility, if but for an hour, where we can look afar off upon our betters, and see what they are like and what they do. _All Saints' Day and other Sermons_. DECEMBER 27. St. John, Apostle and Evangelist. And what do they do, these blessed beings? They longed for, toiled for, it may be died for, the true, the beautiful, and the good; they entered while on earth into the mystery and glory of self-sacrifice, and now they find their bliss in gazing on the one perfect and eternal sacrifice, and rejoicing in the thought that it is the cause and ground of the whole universe, even the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. _All Saints' Day and other Sermons_. DECEMBER 28 Holy Innocents' Day. Christ comes to us in many ways. But most surely does Christ come to us, and often most happily, and most clearly does He speak to us--in the face of a little child, fresh out of heaven. Ah, let us take heed that we despise not one of these little ones, lest we despise our Lord Himself. For as often as we enter into communion with little children, so often does Christ come to us. So often, as in Judaea of old, does He take a little child and set him in the midst of us, that from its simplicity, docility, and trust--the restless, the mutinous, and the ambitious may learn the things which belong to their peace--so often does He say to us, "Except ye be changed and become as this little child, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." _MS. Last Sermon_, _Westminster Abbey_, _Nov._ 30, 1874. INDEX. ABSENCE, 209 Acorn, 223 Action, 146, 167 Affections, 79, 179, 217, 279 Age, old, 63, 285 --reverence for, 81 Anarchy, 165 Angels, 175, 217, 218, 219, 269 Anger, God's loving, 195 Animals, dumb, 81, 181 Antinomies, 159 Anxiety, 211 Aristocracy, ideal, 167 Art, 31, 71, 119, 141, 151 Ascension, 93, 123, 211 Asceticism, 185, 189, 233, 263 Ascetic painters, 39 Atonement, the, 83 Attitude, language of, 155 Augustine, St., 155 Autumn, 51, 221 BARBARISM, 109 Beatific Vision, 73, 196, 295 Beauty, 15, 39, 73, 101, 175, 196, 213 --moral, 196, 213 --spiritual, 159 Bible, the, 103, 141, 167, 249, 259, 275, 285 Birds, 53, 77, 99, 101, 103, 125, 127, 137, 271 Blessedness, 218, 245 Body, sacredness of, 63, 67, 185, 229, 244, 285 --the spiritual, 159 Books, 57, 85, 169, 259 Book-learning, 151 Butler's Analogy, 237 CALMNESS, 55, 263 Character, 98, 175, 191 Charity, 37, 281 Cheerfulness, 149, 223, 227 Childhood and wonder, 179 Childlikeness, 31, 183, 187, 235 Children, 48, 109, 295 Chivalry, 139, 153, 179, 181 Christ-child, the, 48 Christ's life, 45, 97, 267 --Church, 121 --compassion, 251 --descent into hell, 98 --resurrection, 95, 98, 211 --the Word, 37, 127 Christianity, Divine, 273 Christmas, 271, 287, 289, 294 Chrysalis state, 171 Church, the, 75, 77, 121, 157 --Catechism, 47, 255 Civilisation, 105, 155, 261 Clergy, the, 215 Coming of Christ, 21, 23, 183, 283, 295 Communion of saints, 141, 193 --Holy, 193 Contemplation, 87, 146 Content, 59 Courage, 275 Cowardice, 207, 265 Creeds, the, 141, 151, 215, 273 Critical spirit, 165, 203 Cross, the, 83, 96, 97, 122, 185, 189, 237, 245 Crucifix, the, 123, 189 Custom, 31 Cynicism, 191 DARK days, 19, 201, 211, 233, 249, 289 Day of the Lord, 3, 195 Dead, the blessed, 21, 49, 95, 139, 193, 249, 253, 289 --prayers for, 24, 81 --work of, 95, 139, 249 Death, 17, 113, 135, 253 --sudden, 89 --and hell, 7, 195 Defeat, 279 Dignity, 137 Discontent, Divine, 165 Disease, 233, 244 Distrust, 165 Doctrines, 157 Doubt, poetry of, 233 Drifting away, 273 Duty, 5, 13, 65, 105, 129, 147, 165, 181, 201, 275 Dying, to live, 13, 55, 93, 97, 117, 217, 295 EARNESTNESS, 35, 139, 293 Earth, God's, 101, 149, 153, 247 Earthly and heavenly, 179 Easter, 93, 98 Eclecticism, 65 Education, 67 --of character, 85 --Divine, 91, 133, 135, 149, 209 --self, 215 --of boys, 283 --after death, 171, 249 Emotions, 5, 49, 79, 85, 179, 189, 203, 259, 279 Enthusiasm, 35 Epiphany, 24 Eternal life, 11, 43 Eternity, 43, 69, 167 Eucharist, the, 21, 65, 185 Excitement, 79, 163 FACTS of life, 103, 113, 207, 285 Failure, 143 Faith, 11, 59, 85, 127, 163, 191, 199, 227, 229 Fasting, 49 Fatherhood of God, 103, 107, 115, 133, 135, 149, 181, 223, 265, 273 Fear, 137, 265, 275 Fellowship of sorrow, 109, 111, 279 Fire of God, 195 --cleansing, 195, 225, 237 Flesh and spirit, 189 Flowers, 15, 99, 101, 105, 127, 151, 221 Fool's paradise, 111, 267 Forgiveness, 169 Forward, 3 Francis, St., 103 Friendship, 19, 61, 291 Future, the, 129, 195 --identity, 19, 253 --life, 57, 65, 71, 81, 113, 171, 237, 253, 293 GENIUS, 105, 175, 215 Gifts, 83, 111, 129 Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 203 God, the Living, 7, 101, 103, 111, 133, 193, 243, 285 --the Ideal, 73 --an indulgent, 15 --of Nature, 103, 131, 151, 183 God's character, 33, 87, 111, 181, 195, 253, 273, 283 --countenance, 131 Godliness, 91, 281 Good, the eternal, 35, 171, 253 Good in all, 9, 287 Good deeds, 187, 263 Good Friday, 93, 97 Goodness, 5, 105, 113, 199, 245 Gratitude, 89 Greeks, the old, 67, 107, 133, 155, 229 HAPPINESS, 29, 59, 245, 265 Harmony, 5, 67, 83, 127, 161, 277 Hearts and streams, 119, 197 Heaven, 109, 167 Hell, 96, 98, 109, 195, 265 --keys of, 7 --a present, 43 Hero worship, 291 Heroism, 41, 61, 71, 207, 239, 294 History, philosophy of, 63 Hope, 39, 111, 145, 149, 237, 247 Hospitals, 263 Humanity, 275 Humility, 13, 41, 169, 193 I AM I, 55, 89, 185, 199 Ideal, the, 63, 73, 117 Ideals, high, 77 Idleness, 91, 157, 207 Impunity, 217 Incarnation, the, 146, 253, 291 Influence, silent, 139, 259 Intermediate state, 98, 245, 289 JOHN the Baptist, 147 John, St., 45, 53, 63, 113 Justification, 43 KINDNESS, 181, 205 Kingdom, coming, 21, 179; of God, 45, 185 Knowledge, 53, 79, 131, 135, 163, 177, 183 LAMP race, 133 Laws of God, 98, 117, 163, 169, 229, 277, 287 Lesson of life, 61, 293 Liberty, 215 Life everlasting, 11, 113, 219, 277 --long, 133 --value of, 61 Light, 33, 177, 249, 291 Liturgies, 249 Love, 9, 37, 41, 53, 55, 79, 117, 201, 209, 235, 251, 289, 219 --Divine, 117 --and beauty, 201 MAN in God's image, 89, 127, 199, 229 March, 51, 53 Martyrs, 17, 98, 172, 218, 294, 295 Masses, the, 177 May, 99 Melancholy, 137, 183, 233, 253 Melody, 5, 127, 277 Men and women, 39, 91, 93, 153, 259, 283 Metre, 119 Midsummer, 125 Miracles, 31, 99, 289 Moderation, 69 Monotony, 163 Morality, 29, 147, 255 Morbid mind, 233 Morning, 19, 125, 201, 249 Mother earth, 247 Mothers, 61, 74, 213 Music, 23, 107, 127, 161, 277 Mystery of life, 117, 155, 185, 291 Mystics, 55, 185, 251 NATURALIST, 175 Nature, 141, 183, 187, 221, 241, 247, 253 --study of, 7, 105, 131, 141, 175, 183, 187 Nature's worship, 131 Night, 201, 211 Nineteenth century, 3, 151, 257 Noble life, 5, 9 Noble studies, 63 North-east wind, 1 Novel reading, 85, 169, 259 OCTOBER, 221 Old truths, 151 Opinions, 215 Originality, 239 Orthodox, 141 PAINTERS, 39, 71, 141, 159 Parables, Nature's, 5, 99, 101, 127, 173, 175, 196, 197, 249 Passion, 35, 197, 213 --Week, 95 Patience, 59, 143, 237, 277, 281 Paul, St., 25, 53, 207 Peace, 23, 59, 193 Penitence, 191 Penuriousness, 67 Peter, St., 45, 148 Philamon, 9, 45 Physician, 233, 244 Pictures, 39, 71, 141 Plato, 171 Poetry, 23, 41, 69, 215 Political economy, 115, 261 Practice, 143, 267 Prayer, 89, 119, 163, 167, 227, 229, 241, 267 --the Lord's, 31 --unselfish, 31 Prayers for dead, 81 Present time, 3, 5 Presentiments, 143 Pride and humility, 193, 215, 235, 267 Problem of life, 135, 291 Profession, empty, 157, 213 Progress, 101, 163, 257, 291 Proverbs, 235 Providence, 115, 169, 243 --special, 55, 159, 209, 251 Psalms, 17, 191 Public opinion, 77 Punishment, 41, 135, 159, 191, 261, 281 Purgatory, 171 RAILROADS, 257 Rank, 15, 161 Reason, 35, 111, 143, 237 Redemption of earth and man, 153 Refinement, false, 161 Reformers, 77 Religion, 103, 265, 281 Renewal, the, 71, 81, 127, 185 Repentance, 41, 49, 157 Resignation, 117, 211, 217 Rest, 21, 49, 229, 253, 263 Resurrection, 63, 81, 93, 95, 98, 141, 145, 171, 185, 207 Retribution, 47, 81, 113, 135, 177 Reverence, 81, 175, 243 Reveries, 39 Righteousness, 117, 255, 281 Rights and duties, 39 Rock of Ages, 169, 235 Romance, 127 Rules of life, 83, 107, 163 Ruth, 79 SACRAMENTALISM, 15, 39, 101, 119, 213 Sacraments, 21, 146 Safety, 17, 57 Saints' Days, 24 Saints, the, 24, 98, 122, 141, 193, 268, 269, 294, 295 Salvation, 135 Sanitary science, 29, 261 Science, 33, 59, 115, 151, 227, 233, 261 Secular, 59 Self, 31, 233 Selfishness, 159, 219, 231, 281 Self-conceit, 205 Self-control, 165, 223, 241, 259, 263 Self-improvement, 215 Self-indulgence, 91, 275 Self-respect, 287 Self-sacrifice, 13, 21, 55, 71, 79, 95, 117, 146, 148, 189, 213, 231, 295 Security, false, 115 Sensuality, 133 Sentiment, 5 Shakespeare, 179 Shame, 199 Shelley, 267 Silence, 41, 139, 257, 259 Sin, 41, 135, 159, 169, 213, 233, 281 Sisters of Mercy, 237 Sneering, 281 Sorrow, 145, 183, 185, 227, 273 Spirit, the Holy, 146 Spiritual world, 179 Spring, 27, 51, 99, 101 Starlings, 51 Stream and shower, 119, 197 Strength, 263 Substitutes, 225 Success, 139, 227, 279 Summer days, 125, 129, 131, 137, 149 Superstition, 3, 137, 169, 175 Suspicion, 281 Symbols, 99, 101, 105, 127, 131, 151, 173, 196 Sympathy, 103, 151, 153 TACT, 35, 53, 113 Temperament, 231 Temperance, true, 223, 263 Temptation, 57 Theology, 87 Thrift, 131, 183, 259 Toleration, 63, 141, 277 Training, God's, 115, 129, 215 Transfiguration, the, 205 Trinity, the, 146 Trust, 239, 265 UNITY, 185 Usefulness, 225 Utopia, 167 VAGUENESS, 11, 161 Vineyards, 121 Violence, 139 Virgin, Blessed, 74 Virtue, 29, 41, 225 Visitation of God, 61 Voyagers, early, 243 WAITING, 135, 277 --of God, 181 War tragedies, 107 Water, 29, 119, 197 Welfare, 145, 255 Winter, 1, 27, 99 Wisdom, 37, 83, 105, 107, 163 Woman, 45, 153, 87 Woman's work, 39, 45, 79, 93, 231, 259 Women, educated, 85, 169 Word Christ, the, 7, 37 --the indwelling, 259 Words, 37, 113 --hard, 53 --of God, 141 Work, 71, 83, 133, 143, 157, 165, 175, 203, 209, 223, 263 World, the, 167 Worm, the undying, 195 Worship, 131 YOUTH, 13, 129 Footnotes: {3} The paper edition of this book has blank pages where the owner can write diary notes, etc. This is why the page numbers in the eText often miss out numbers.--DP. {97} Lines written under a pen and ink drawing of a stormy shoreless sea, with two human beings lashed to a cross floating on the crest of the waves. 
50916	----	book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Books project.) Transcriber's Note. Apparent typographical errors have been corrected, as have inconsistencies in the use of hyphens. A Table of Contents has been inserted to assist the reader. Italics are indicated by _underscores_. Small capitals have been replaced by full capitals. EVENING INCENSE. BY THE AUTHOR OF "MORNING AND NIGHT WATCHES," "WORDS OF JESUS," etc., etc. PHILADELPHIA: H. HOOKER, CHESTNUT & EIGHTH STREETS. 1856. KING & BAIRD, PRINTERS, 9 Sansom Street. "And thou shalt make an ALTAR to burn INCENSE upon: "And thou shalt put it ... before the MERCY-SEAT that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee. "And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at EVEN, he shall burn INCENSE upon it."--Exod. xxx. 1, 6, 8. "The star-lit sky's a temple-arch, The calm, still, evening air Is glorious with the spirit-march Of messengers of prayer. "Are gentle moon, or kindling sun, Or stars unnumbered, given As shrines to burn earth's incense on-- The altar-fires of heaven? "Nay! pale away must moon and sun, And star by star decline; O be, Thou ever living One, Thy 'GOLDEN ALTAR'--mine!" EVENING INCENSE. The writer has endeavored in the following pages to comply with frequent requests made to him to prepare a small volume of _Evening_ Prayers, suitable as a companion to the "_Morning_ Watches." May He with whom is "the residue of the Spirit," "cause His Angel to fly swiftly" and touch us in the time of our Evening Oblation; and may all that is amiss in thought and word be lost in the fragrant incense-cloud which ascends from the Golden Altar before the Throne! _December, 1855._ Table of Contents Evening Page I. FOR COMMUNION WITH GOD. 7 II. FOR PARDONING GRACE. 10 III. FOR RENEWING GRACE. 13 IV. FOR SANCTIFYING GRACE. 16 V. FOR RESTRAINING GRACE. 19 VI. FOR RESTORING GRACE. 22 VII. FOR QUICKENING GRACE. 26 VIII. FOR IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 29 IX. FOR PEACE IN BELIEVING. 32 X. FOR THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 35 XI. FOR WEANEDNESS FROM THE WORLD. 38 XII. FOR GRATITUDE FOR THE PAST. 41 XIII. FOR TRUST FOR THE FUTURE. 44 XIV. FOR KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST. 47 XV. FOR GUIDANCE IN PERPLEXITY. 50 XVI. FOR VICTORY OVER SIN. 53 XVII. FOR THE LIFE OF FAITH. 56 XVIII. FOR THE DAILY DEATH. 60 XIX. FOR RENUNCIATION OF SELF. 63 XX. FOR A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT. 66 XXI. FOR HEAVENWARD PROGRESS. 69 XXII. FOR HUMILITY OF HEART. 72 XXIII. FOR FIRMNESS IN TEMPTATION. 75 XXIV. FOR COMPOSURE IN TRIAL. 78 XXV. FOR ACTIVITY IN DUTY. 81 XXVI. FOR THE SPIRIT'S TEACHING. 85 XXVII. FOR THE WORLD'S CONVERSION. 88 XXVIII. FOR THE CHURCH'S REVIVAL. 91 XXIX. FOR SUPPORT IN DEATH. 94 XXX. FOR PREPARATION FOR JUDGMENT. 97 XXXI. FOR MEETING IN HEAVEN. 100 FIRST EVENING. FOR COMMUNION WITH GOD. "Abide with us; for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent."--Luke xxiv. 29. O God, I desire to approach Thy throne of Grace on the evening of this day, beseeching Thee to grant me Thy benediction and blessing. The shadows of night have once more gathered around me; may no shadow of sin or unbelief darken my soul, or interrupt my communion with Thee. "It is not night if Thou art near." Let me enter the inner chamber of Thy presence, and experience conscious fellowship with Thee my Father in Heaven. Do Thou graciously forgive all the sins of the past day, its sins of omission and of commission, of thought, and word, and deed. Hide me anew in the clefts of the Smitten Rock. I confidently repose my everlasting interests on the finished work and righteousness of a tried Redeemer. May I know more and more of the attractive power of His Cross--the adaptation of His character and work to all the wants and weaknesses, the sorrows and infirmities, of my tried and suffering and tempted nature. May I live more under the sovereign motive of love to Him, and experience more the happiness of life spent in His service. Gracious Lord! may a sense of Thy favor penetrate with its leavening power every duty in which I engage, lessening every cross and sweetening every care. Take what Thou wilt away, but take not Thyself; no earthly good can compensate for the loss of Thy friendship. Existence would be one vast blank without Thee. Give me to realize the blessedness of unfaltering dependence on Thy covenant mercy, knowing that all which befalls me is the pledge and dictate of unerring love, and that nothing can come wrong that comes from Thy hand. Thus while my daily walk is hallowed and brightened by Thy presence and fellowship, may I be enabled to look calm and undismayed on the unknown and chequered future, feeling that even over the gloomy portals of the grave, with Thee as my Portion and Heritage, I can write, "To die is gain!" Meanwhile do Thou fit me for every duty, prepare me for every trial. If Thou givest me the "full cup," give me grace to carry it with a steady hand. If Thou sendest adversity, let me regard it as Thine own gracious discipline, to wean me from earth and train me for glory. May it be my great ambition, through the help of Thy Blessed Spirit, to attain a gradual resemblance to the character and conformity to the will of my adorable Redeemer. May I be clothed with humility. May I be daily becoming more meek and gentle, more contented and thankful, more submissive and resigned, watching against anything in my heart or conduct that I know would be displeasing to Thee, making it my meat and my drink to do Thy holy will. Thou unslumbering Shepherd of Israel, vouchsafe Thy guardian care to all near and dear to me: shield them from danger: give Thine angels charge over them; sanctify them body, soul, and spirit; seal them unto the day of eternal redemption. May we all lie down to sleep this night in Thy fear, and awake in Thy favor, fitted for the duties of a new day. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." SECOND EVENING. FOR PARDONING GRACE. "For Thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great."--Ps. xxv. 11. Gracious God! do Thou look down upon me this night in Thy great mercy. May I have now the inner sunshine of Thy presence! Ere I retire to rest, let me pitch my tent near Thyself, and enjoy the tokens of Thy favor and blessing. Thy loving-kindness has been new to me every morning, and Thy faithfulness every night. I desire to render Thee the thank-offering of a grateful heart. My life is one wondrous attestation to Thy patience and forbearance. The kindness of the best earthly friend has been nothing to Thine. Thou mightest long ere now have left me to reap the fruits of my own guilty estrangement, withdrawing the grace and Spirit I have so long resisted, executing against me the awful doom of the cumberer. But I am still spared, a living monument of mercy. Thy ways are not as man's ways, nor Thy thoughts as man's thoughts. Lord, I would seek anew this night to close with the alone Sovereign remedy! Jesus! there is no other prop but Thee to support a sinking soul and a sinking world. There is nothing between me and everlasting destruction but Thy glorious work and finished righteousness. I rejoice to think that it is all I need--living or dying, for time or for eternity. O blot out in Thy precious blood my many, many sins. Nothing in my own hands I bring; I cling simply to Thy cross. Mercy and truth have there met together; righteousness and peace have embraced each other. Reposing in what Thou has done, and in what Thou art still willing to do, I can rejoicingly say, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul." Bring me to live more habitually under the constraining influence of redeeming love. Purchased at such a price, may I be willing freely to consecrate soul and body to Thy service. Let me feel that the bitterest of all trials is the forfeiture of Thy favor and love, and the loftiest joy is the assured possession of Thy gracious friendship. May my spirit be brought into blessed unison with Thine. May I become more gentle, and resigned, and submissive, and unselfish; more heavenly-minded; more Saviour-like. May I be led to regard _all_, even Thy darkest dealings to me here, as needful parts in Thy plan of stupendous wisdom. May I rest contented in the assurance that what I know not now I shall know hereafter. Unite me to all my dear friends, and them to me, in the bonds of Christian love. Amid all the fluctuations of this mortal life, may we ever have grace given us to cleave unto the Lord with full purpose of heart. Treading the same pilgrim-journey, may we arrive at last at the same pilgrim-home. I would retire to rest this night with my eye on the opened fountain. O give me that peace of Thine which the world knoweth not of, which the world cannot give, and, blessed be God, which the world cannot take away! Abide with me, for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent. Give thine angels charge over me during the unconscious hours of sleep, and, when all my evenings and mornings shall be finished, may it be mine to wake up with Thyself in glory everlasting, through Jesus Christ my only Lord and Saviour. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." THIRD EVENING. FOR RENEWING GRACE. "Renew a right spirit within me."--Psalm li. 10. Blessed God, I desire anew to end this night with Thee! Do Thou enkindle my soul as with a live coal from off Thy holy altar! Let all unhallowed and obtrusive thoughts and cares be set aside, that I may enjoy a season of fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. I rejoice to think that I have such a Friend to repair to--such a never-failing refuge in every season of perplexity and trouble; vicissitude is written on all around me, but "Thou art the same." Though often, alas! I have changed towards Thee, Thou hast never changed towards me. Thou didst love me from the beginning, and that love remains to this hour, infinite, unalterable! Lord, I am mourning over my many and grievous backslidings, my base and unworthy requital of all Thine unmerited kindness. Bring me in poverty of Spirit, with deep conscious unworthiness, to say, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Give me a realizing sense of the evil of sin, and my own sin in particular. I feel that I have no abiding and depressing consciousness of my guilt. How little of genuine, heartfelt contrition do I experience! How often I _appear_ to be humble and penitent when I am _not_! How do my very prayers condemn me; and my confessions of sin need themselves to be confessed! Oh renew me in the spirit of my mind.--May all old things pass away; may all things be made new. Transform me by the indwelling power of Thy quickening Spirit. May affections now alienated from Thee be reclaimed to Thy service. May I seek to be more animated by the sovereign motive of love to Him, whose I am, and whom it is alike my duty and my privilege to obey. Knowing that this is Thy will concerning me, even my sanctification, may it be my constant ambition to be growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I have in myself no might, no power, no sufficiency, to do any of these things. My sufficiency is of Thee. Do Thou make Thy grace sufficient for me, and perfect strength in weakness. Keep me from all evil that would be likely to grieve me. Wean me from all that is fleeting and perishable here, and may all Thy dealings towards me issue in the confirmed habit of a holy life. If Thou sendest affliction, let me regard it as Thine own way of dispensing spiritual blessing, and bow with lowly submission to Thy sovereign appointments. Bless all my beloved friends. Keep them as the apple of Thine eye. Hide them under the shadow of Thy everlasting wings. Sanctify trial to all in sorrow. Let the widow and the fatherless put their trust in Thee. Succor the poor and him that hath no helper. Support the aged. Sustain the dying. May we all bear one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ. As the pillar of cloud has been with me by day, so may the pillar of fire be with me this night. Watch over me during the unconscious hours of sleep, and when I awake may I be still with Thee. And all I ask is for the sake of Jesus Christ, my only Saviour. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." FOURTH EVENING. FOR SANCTIFYING GRACE. "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth."--John xvii. 17. Blessed Lord, do Thou bend Thy pitying eye of love and mercy upon me this evening. Draw Thou near to me as I venture once more on praying and on pleading ground. I desire to feel that I am one night nearer glory. Oh, enable me to feel, as night after night is silently stealing over my head, that my seasons and opportunities of grace are fleeting fast away, and that soon the night cometh, wherein I can work no more. Alas! O God, how little have I improved the time that is past! I am a wonder to myself, that with all my deep ingratitude and utter vileness I am yet permitted to approach Thy footstool: I have sinned against light and love--warning and mercy--grace and privilege. The retrospect of life is a retrospect of guilt. I mourn over my manifold shortcomings--the alienation of my heart from Thee--the fitfulness of my spiritual frames--the ebbings and flowings in the tide of my love. When tried by the lofty and unerring standard of Thy law, how are my best actions and duties marred with defilement! How much self-seeking and self-glorying--how little animated by the predominating motive of love to Thee, and singleness of eye to Thy service! Blessed Jesus! I flee anew to the pavilion of Thy love. I have no other hope, no other refuge, but in Thy finished work--Thy matchless atonement--Thy spotless righteousness. There is in Thee an all-sufficiency for every want. Finite necessities cannot exhaust Infinite fullness. Let me hear Thy voice saying, "Thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee!" O sprinkle me with Thy blood; sanctify me, body, soul, and spirit. Transform me more and more into Thine own image. May I know more and more the happiness of true holiness--that I am really blessed in seeking to walk so as to please God. May the power of grace wax stronger and stronger, and the power of sin wax weaker and weaker. May trials and crosses become light and easy to me when borne in a spirit of meek, unrepining submission to the Divine will. May this quiet every doubt and misgiving, "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." Lord, may every providential dealing prove a heart-searcher, testing the reality of my love to Thee, and my meetness and preparedness for Thy heavenly kingdom. Extend, Lord, Thy cause and Gospel everywhere. Strengthen Thy missionary and ministering servants. May they ever hear the sound of their Master's footsteps behind them. May thy churches walk in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Bless all my beloved friends wherever they are; do Thou be their Almighty Protector and Guide. Let the angel come at this the time of evening incense, touching all our hearts, and granting us an answer to our several petitions. Let us rise to-morrow refreshed for Thy service; and fitted for whatsoever in Thy good providence we may be called either to do or to suffer. Hear me, gracious God, for the sake of Him whom Thou hearest always. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." FIFTH EVENING. FOR RESTRAINING GRACE. "Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins."--Psalm xix. 13. Blessed God, Thou hast in Thy mercy permitted me to see the close of another day. With what unwearying watchfulness has Thou been compassing my path!--defending me from danger, guarding me from temptation, hedging up my way with thorns, "preventing me with the blessings of Thy goodness!" There is no friend in the world I have like Thee; none so able, none so willing to be my friend. If I have been successful in resisting sin, it is all Thy blessed grace which has enabled me. From how many slippery places has Thou rescued me! When often on the brink of the precipice, ready to fall, Thy interposing hand has saved me from inevitable destruction. When through my own weakness and unwatchfulness I must now have been wandering in hopeless alienation from Thee, Thou hast mercifully not suffered the bruised reed to be broken, nor the smoking flax to be quenched. Lord, my earnest prayer is that Thy grace may still be made sufficient for me. May no spiritual foe be allowed to invade my peace or endanger my safety. Let Thy love be restored to its rightful ascendancy in my affections. May no rival be allowed to usurp its place. May I ever exercise a holy jealousy over this truant, wandering, deceitful heart; seeking day by day to subdue unmortified sin. May all Thy dispensations issue in my sanctification. Let me seek no unruffled path; may the cross be willingly carried. Thou lovest me too well to give me my own way. Whatever Thy will and Thy dealings may be, be it mine cheerfully and rejoicingly to acquiesce in them, knowing them to be the dictate of infinite wisdom and unchanging love. May all my worldly business and engagements be interfused and hallowed with the blessed sense and assurance of Thy favor! Walking all the day in the light of Thy countenance, I must be safe! God of Bethel--God of all the families of the earth, vouchsafe Thy richest benediction on all near and dear to me. Give thine angels charge over them; let their names be written among the living in Jerusalem; and oh, may we all seek in our several spheres to glorify Thee on earth, either by active duty or by patient endurance; exemplifying in our daily walk the meek and lowly, the unselfish and self-denying, spirit of Him, who hath left us an example that we should follow His steps. Hasten the coming of Thy Son's kingdom. Arise, O God, and plead Thine own cause. "Save Thy people, bless Thine inheritance, feed them also and lift them up for ever." The curtain of night is again drawn around me. If it be Thy will, spare me to see the light and enjoy the comforts of a new day; may I seek anew to enjoy them in Thee; may every blessing be doubly sweet to me, bearing the impress of Thy love in Jesus. Guide me _in_ life, _through_ death, _into_ glory, for the sake of Him in whom is all my hope, and to whom, with Thee the Father, and Thee, ever-blessed Spirit, one God, be ascribed all blessing and honor and glory and praise, world without end. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." SIXTH EVENING. FOR RESTORING GRACE. "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation."--Ps. li. 12. Blessed God, I rejoice to know that the gates of prayer are ever open;--that for the sake of Jesus Christ, my adorable Redeemer, Thou art waiting to be gracious, not willing that any should perish. Come in the plenitude of Thy love this evening, that I may feel it to be good for me to draw near to God! Scatter my darkness, Thou better Sun, with the brightness of Thy rising. Give me filial confidence in approaching the mercy-seat, rejoicing in the mightiest of all Beings as my Father and Friend. Blessed Jesus! I would exercise a simple confidence and trust in Thy finished work, I would seek to wash anew in the opened fountain of Thy blood, to repose anew in the faithful saying which never can cease, to the sin-stricken, sin-burdened soul, to be worthy of all acceptation, that Thou didst come into the world to save the chief of sinners. I have to mourn, O Lord, my constant proneness to depart from Thee--the instability of my best purposes of obedience. Unsupported by Thy grace I must fall. There is nothing, O Thou great Intercessor within the veil, but Thine omnipotent pleadings between me and irretrievable ruin. But Thou hast prayed, and art even now praying, for me that my faith fail not. Oh if I am still prone to start aside, like a deceitful bow, do Thou bring me back again! Reclaim my truant heart from its wanderings. I would cast myself with simple dependence on Thy grace for the future. This is sufficient for all wants and equal to all exigencies. Thine everlasting arms are lower than my deepest necessities. Adorable Saviour, I may well cast my every care on Thee, for these cares Thou makest Thine own. Thou hast a heart to feel for those who have often no heart to feel for themselves. Oh let me ever seek to hear Thy directing voice and to hear no other. Do Thou carry on within me Thine own work in thine own way. Thou, Great Shepherd of Israel, canst not lead me wrong. I delight to trace Thy guiding love in the past, and I may well trust Thee still; going up through the wilderness may I lean on Thine arm; when I come to die may the gloom of the dark valley be lighted with the rays of Thy love, and may I hear Thy voice whispering in gentle accents, "Fear not, for I am with thee." Be gracious to all my beloved friends. Train them also, by Thy good Spirit, for eternity. Fit them for every duty. Arm them against every temptation. Dispose them to fear Thy glorious name, and to live from day to day under the powers and influences of a world to come. Compassionate the afflicted; comfort the bereaved; support the dying. Lord, take the charge of me during the silent watches of another night. May I rise on the morrow to renew my work and warfare on earth, looking forward to the time when the twilight of this world shall melt into everlasting day, and when nothing shall evermore mar or interrupt the blessedness of endless communion with Thee: through Jesus Christ, my only Lord and Saviour. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." SEVENTH EVENING. FOR QUICKENING GRACE. "Quicken me after Thy loving kindness, so shall I keep the testimony of Thy mouth."--Psalm cxix. 88. O God, on this the close of another day, I desire to approach the footstool of Thy throne. Glory be to Thy holy name that I can enjoy freedom of access into Thy presence, and with the confidence of a child unburden and unbosom to Thee all my wants and sins, my sorrows and infirmities, my perplexities and cares. Lord, how unworthy I am of the least of all Thy mercies! What righteous cause hast Thou to cut me down as a cumberer of the ground. How cold my love, how unfrequent my prayers! How full my heart of pride and vain-glory, self and sin! How little have I habitually realized Thy nearness and sought Thy favor as my chief good! There is enough of coldness and formality in my best approaches to Thy footstool to lead Thee in Thy wrath to spurn me forever away, and to mingle my blood with my sacrifices! I cast myself as a worthless unworthy sinner at the feet of Jesus. I need daily, hourly washing at that fountain which He has opened for sin and for uncleanness. Wash me, gracious Lord, fully, freely, and forever. Let me know the blessedness of "no condemnation." Deepen my contrition on account of my sin. I am apt to palliate its enormity, to invent vain excuses for its commission, to hide its heinousness from myself, and to hide it from Thee. Let me see all sin, and my own sin in particular, in the light of Calvary's cross. May I hate it with a perfect hatred, and resolve in Thy grace that it henceforth have no dominion over me. Oh quicken me by the indwelling of Thy blessed Spirit. May I seek to be progressing in the divine life. May my pathway heavenward be brightened by a lively sense of reconciliation through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Let me lean on Thy heavenly arm, seeking Thy glory with singleness of eye. May it be my greatest grief to give Thee pain, my greatest joy and happiness to do Thy will. Keep me from all hard thoughts and unrighteous surmises regarding Thy dealings. May I see them all as designed to quicken my steps in the heavenly way, to bring me nearer Thyself, and to impart an increasing meetness for glory. Let Thy kingdom come, let Thy blessed Gospel triumph over the pride and superstition and will-worship of man. Put an end to war and discord, and may all the ends of the earth see Thy salvation. Bless Thy ministering servants; may they be valiant for the truth, and have no fear but the fear of God. Be the Guide and Guardian of all whom I love. Preserve their bodies from danger and their souls from sin. Watch over them and me this night; be about our bed as Thou hast been about our path. Night after night as I retire to rest may I think of the deeper darkness of the night of death, which must, sooner or later encompass me. Reposing in the merits of my gracious Redeemer, may I be enabled to look _beyond_ death and the grave, to that morning without clouds, when I shall awake in His likeness, and be ushered into the full vision and fruition of Thee my God; and all that I ask or hope for is for His sake. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." EIGHTH EVENING. FOR IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe."--Rom. iii. 22. Almighty God, Father of all mercies, I desire to draw near into Thy sacred presence on this the evening of another day, under a deep sense of my own great unworthiness. What am I, guilty, sinful, polluted, that I should be permitted to take Thy name into my lips, or so much as lift up my eyes to the place where Thou in glory dwellest! I desire to renounce all dependence on myself. I come with all the great burden of my great guilt to a great Saviour. I seek to bring the unrighteousness of an unworthy creature to the infinite righteousness and everlasting faithfulness of a tried Redeemer. Where would I have been, Blessed Jesus! this night, _but for Thee_! All I am, and all I have, I owe to Thy free, sovereign, unmerited grace. All my temporal mercies are sweetened to me as flowing from Thy cross, and bearing on them the image and superscription of Thy love. And for every spiritual blessing I enjoy, and every spiritual hope I entertain, I desire doubly to adore thee, Thou Great Author and Finisher of my faith! Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none in all the earth I desire besides Thee. Thou alone canst fill up the aching voids of my heart. In vain can I look to a transient world, or to the perishable creature, for solid peace and permanent enjoyment. All my well-springs are in Thyself; with Thee for my portion I am independent of every other. I desire this night to obtain a lively and humbling view of my own spiritual poverty and deep creature destitution, that I may rejoice in the fullness and all-sufficiency of that righteousness which is unto all and upon all them that believe. In that righteousness I would seek to live, and in that righteousness I would seek to die. There is nothing else between me and everlasting ruin. But for Thee, Thou great Covenant-Angel standing in the breach, the fire of God would break forth and mingle my blood with this my evening sacrifice! But I "will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with a robe of righteousness." I take Thee, O adorable Saviour, as mine only, mine wholly; mine for all wants and all exigencies. I rejoice in the inexhaustible riches treasured up in Thee--that Thy fullness is adequate to supply all my present necessities; and out of that fullness I may still continue receiving, and that for ever and ever! Lord, look in great kindness on all whom I love. Pity a perishing world. Arrest the careless; reclaim the wandering; strengthen the feeble. Hasten Thy Son's coming and kingdom. How long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? Save Thy people; bless Thine inheritance; feed them also, and lift them up for ever. Let the curtain of Thy protecting providence be drawn around me this night. Let me fall asleep at peace with Thee, ready, if need be, to awake up in glory. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." NINTH EVENING. FOR PEACE IN BELIEVING. "Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."--Rom. v. 1. Gracious God, I would seek to end another day with Thee; I would desire to look up to Thee through Jesus Christ, Thy well-beloved Son, and to be made partaker of that peace which passeth all understanding. There is no other refuge for the sin-stricken, woe-worn spirit. In vain amid other portions and meaner joys can I say to my soul "peace, peace." There is no peace! But reposing, blessed Saviour, on Thy finished work and everlasting righteousness, I have a peace which the world knows not of, and which enables me to rise superior to all the vicissitudes and changes of this changing life. I desire to remember with a grateful heart that this peace has been purchased for me by the blood of the cross--that it is made as sure as everlasting power and wisdom and faithfulness can make it. O Thou great Prince, who hast power with God and dost prevail, I would lift the undivided eye of faith to Thy bleeding sacrifice! Do Thou dispel every disquieting fear with the thought that Thou hast done all, and suffered all, and procured all for me. Being justified by faith, I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. I rejoice in the plenitude of Thy promises, that they are all yea and amen to them that believe. Man's word may fail, man's faithfulness may falter, but "the word of the Lord is tried," Thy faithfulness is unto all generations! O God, enable me to rejoice more and more in Thee as my everlasting portion. May I know nothing to compare with the enjoyment of Thy favor. Other props may be removed, other refuges may prove refuges of lies, but Thou art the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. Give me grace to be active in Thy service while it is called to-day. Opportunities are fleeting. The night cometh wherein none of us can work. May simple believing be followed by the earnest cultivation of every Christian virtue, and by progressive advancement in the heavenly life. May I faithfully employ the talents Thou hast intrusted to me, and seek never to be weary in well doing. Preserve me from every unholy temper and unchristian deed. May I be gentle and meek, patient and forgiving, kind and benevolent, living in charity towards all men. On all my beloved friends I supplicate Thy richest blessing. Protect them with Thy favor as with a shield. Sanctify them, body, soul, and spirit. Seal them unto the day of eternal redemption. Bless all poor afflicted ones. Let them receive largely out of the wells of Thine own everlasting consolation. Let them see Thy sovereign hand alone in their trials, and say with unrepining submission, "The Lord's will be done!" Lord, take the charge of me through the silent watches of the night. May I fall asleep listening to the gracious benediction, "Peace be unto you." And when the gates of the morning are opened, may it be to hear anew Thy voice saying, "My presence will go with you." Hear, accept, and answer me, for the Redeemer's sake. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." TENTH EVENING. FOR THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."--Rom. viii. 15. Blessed Lord! I desire to draw near this night with holy boldness to the footstool of Thy throne, rejoicing that I can look up to Thee as my Father in heaven. "Behold what manner of love is this the Father hath bestowed on me, that I should be called a child of God." Thou mightest have righteously left me orphaned, friendless, portionless for ever. But in the midst of wrath Thou hast remembered mercy: the kindness of no earthly parent, O God, could equal thine. Thou hast borne with all my obstinacy, all my perverseness, and waywardness, and ingratitude. I am at this hour the monument of a love as wondrous as it is undeserved. Oh teach me to cultivate more and more a spirit of child-like obedience to Thee; to cherish a holy fear of offending so kind and forgiving and beneficent a Father. Whilst Thou art strewing my wilderness path with unmerited blessings, may I be enabled to rise above every earthly gift and mercy to the better inheritance I have in Thee, the bountiful Bestower of all! Let me feel every created blessing to be doubly sweet, as emanating from a Father's hand, and being a proof and pledge of a Father's love. Let the hour of prayer be doubly hallowed by the thought that I am permitted to haunt a Father's presence, and pour my wants into a Father's ear. Let the season of sorrow be sweetened by the thought that the rod is in a Father's hand, and that the voice, though apparently rough, is the tender whispering of parental love. Blessed Jesus! I desire to remember that it is Thou and Thou only who hast not left me "comfortless." It is Thou who hast devised and completed a way by which "Thy banished" may not be "expelled" from a Father's presence. Thou hast opened a door of welcome to the chief of sinners. It is Thy blessed voice and Thy glorious work which utter the gracious declaration, "In my Father's house there are many mansions." Oh let me lean with a more simple and entire dependence on Thee; let me live from day to day with an unfaltering trust in Thy mercy. May every new evening, as it finds me laying the incense-offering of gratitude and love on Thine altar, find me also a stage nearer my Father's house, nearer _home_, and nearer _Thee_. Take all my beloved friends under Thy shadowing wings this night. The darkness can not screen them from Thee; the curtains of night can not exclude Thy kind and watchful eye. Guide, guard, protect them, and bring them all at last to Thy heavenly kingdom. Bless Thy Church everywhere; lengthen her cords and strengthen her stakes. Be a wall of fire around Thy Zion and the glory in the midst thereof. Clothe her priests with salvation, let her saints and people shout aloud for joy. Bless those on whom Thou hast laid Thine afflicting hand. May they take refuge in the arms that are chastising them, and be enabled to say in unmurmuring submission, "The Lord's will be done." Hear me, gracious Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ, my blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." ELEVENTH EVENING. FOR WEANEDNESS FROM THE WORLD. "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."--John xvii. 16. O God, I desire to come into Thy gracious presence this night, beseeching Thee to bless me. Let my prayer come before Thee as incense. May the incense-offering of gratitude and thanksgiving ascend from a grateful heart. How manifold are the proofs I have to recount of kindness on thy part! how deep the ingratitude I have to mourn on my own! My sins have reached unto the clouds; they are more in number than the sand of the sea. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. I cannot evade Thy righteous scrutiny; all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom I have to do! Lord, I have to lament the proneness of this evil heart of unbelief ever to depart away from Thee, the living God. I mourn the debasing influence of earthly things; the fascinating power of a present evil world. How inclined to conform to its evil maxims and unholy practices! How often am I found ranged among those who "mind earthly things;" my soul cleaving to the dust, instead of soaring upwards to Thyself, my alone satisfying portion! Lord, it is my earnest prayer that Thou wouldst wean me from the world. Keep me from over-anxiety about the things that are seen--from being over-careful and troubled about earth's "many things," to the exclusion of the one thing needful! Break every alluring worldly spell; disenchant things temporal of their false and delusive charm; disengage me by all the salutary discipline of Thy providence from what is fleeting, uncertain, transient, perishable; and unite me to the things which cannot be shaken, but which remain forever! May my citizenship be more in heaven; imbibing more of the pilgrim spirit, may I declare plainly that I seek a better country. May the sins of the past day be forgiven; may the blood of sprinkling wash their guilt away. May I be driven nearer and closer to Him who is the true refuge and portion, and Saviour of His people. I rejoice to think that He has a balm for every wound, a comfort for every bosom, a solace for every tear. May it be mine to go up through the wilderness leaning on His arm. May Thy Holy Spirit carry on His own work of sanctification within me. May He enlighten, quicken, comfort, strengthen me; and mould me in gradual conformity to Thy divine will. Bless all connected with me, by whatever tie. When earth's separations are at an end, do Thou take me and all dear to me to the enjoyment of Thy presence and love in Thine own everlasting kingdom. Let the pillar of Thy presence be over us this night. Guard me during sleep's unconscious hours. Let no unquiet dreams disturb my repose; may I compose myself to rest under the sweet assurance that Thou the Lord sustainest me; and when I awake, may I be still with Thee, through Jesus Christ, my only Lord and Saviour. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." TWELFTH EVENING. FOR GRATITUDE FOR THE PAST. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits."--Psalm ciii. 2. O God Almighty, do Thou draw near to me at this time in Thy great mercy, and accept of this my Evening Sacrifice! I bless Thee for all that gladdens my earthly lot, for food and raiment, for friends and home, for health of body and soundness of mind. Lord, I delight to trace the wondrous way by which Thou hast hitherto led me! Thou hast compassed my path and my lying down. Thou hast supplied my ever-recurring necessities. My wants have been infinite, but infinite too has been the gracious supply. With a grateful heart I would set up my Ebenezer, saying, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped me." And remembering Thy faithfulness in the past, I would confidently trust Thee for the future. May I thankfully employ the manifold gifts of Thy bounty. Impress upon me the feeling that I am but a steward, responsible to Thee for all I possess. Let me not selfishly appropriate the varied means of usefulness thou hast put within my power, but willingly employ these in Thy service for the good of others. When Thou comest to demand a reckoning, may I be able to give a faithful account of my stewardship, paying Thee Thine own with usury. Lord, while I bless Thee for the other proofs and tokens of Thy love, far above all would I bless Thee for _Jesus_. Where would I have been this night but for _Him_? How dreary would have been the past! How dismal and hopeless the future! Thanks, eternal Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift! Let me feel, more than I _have_ done, the exceeding riches of Thy grace in Thy kindness toward me through Christ Jesus. Let all Thy dealings only serve to confirm my love to Him, and to lead me to cleave to Him with fuller purpose of heart. May he have my undivided homage. Let no earthly gift or blessing supplant the Giver, but may every rill of creative bliss be doubly sweet to me as flowing from His atoning sacrifice. I rejoice in the midst of trial and perplexity to think of Thee, Thou tried and suffering _One_. I rejoice that amid my sorrows I can remember _Thine_, that amid my very tears, I can remember _Jesus wept_. Thou canst enter into all the peculiarities of Thy people's case, for Thou wert in "_all_ points tempted." Let me feel, even amid the changes of life, that what I am apt to call vicissitudes, are the sovereign decrees and allotments of Thine infinite wisdom; and what I cannot comprehend now, be it mine to wait the disclosures of that blessed morning when, standing at the luminous portals of Heaven, I shall joyfully acknowledge that the Lord hath done all things well. Bless my beloved friends; may they be growing in thy fear and favor; may they all at last, as sheaves in thy heavenly garner, be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. I commend myself, gracious God, to Thy care; let me retire to rest this night in the blessed consciousness of Thy favor; and if spared to see the light of a new day, fit me for whatsoever Thou hast in store for me. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." THIRTEENTH EVENING. FOR TRUST FOR THE FUTURE. "I will trust, and be not afraid."--Isaiah xii. 2. O God, Thou makest the outgoings of the evening and the morning to rejoice over me. I thank Thee for Thy sparing mercy during the past day. While multitudes of my fellow-men have been called away into an eternal world, I am still preserved in the land of the living, and in the place of hope. It is of Thy compassions alone that I am not consumed. My way Zionward may well be studded with Ebenezers, testifying "the Lord hath helped me." I may well set to my seal that God is true. The pillar of Thy presence has guided me through many a perplexing path. Thy love has smiled through many a threatening cloud. Thy restraining grace has arrested me in many a slippery way; when "my soul was among lions," how often has the Lord "sent his angel" to rescue me and shut the lions' mouths. I am this night a marvel and miracle of Thy patience, and forbearance, and mercy. Lord, I joyfully take all these past kindnesses as tokens for the future. To Thee I would confidingly commit the unknown morrow, and cleave to Thy guiding arm with full purpose of heart. The lot is thrown into the lap, but the whole disposing of it is of the Lord; O, be it my joy and privilege, thus reposing in Thy covenant faithfulness, to say, "Undertake Thou for me." Looking forward to that time when all Thy inscrutable dealings will be unfolded, when inner meanings and purposes now undiscerned by the eye of sense will be brought to light, and all discovered to be full of infinite love. Keep me from dishonoring Thee by the workings of unbelief; I am prone to trust my own wisdom, O give me teachableness of spirit and simplicity of faith, waiting patiently on Thee; leaving all that concerns me and mine to Thy better direction. Blessed Jesus! I would seek to cleave closer and closer to Thy cross. I have no trust but in Thy finished work. Other refuges may fail, but I am as secure in Thee as everlasting love and wisdom and power can make me. O cleanse every guilty stain away in thy most precious blood. Let me live day by day at the opened fountain, and feel that I _only_ "live" while _there_. Thus simply relying on Thy justifying grace, may I seek to walk in Thy footsteps and to imbibe Thy spirit. May I follow Thee, O Lamb of God, whithersoever Thou seest meet to lead me. May I never feel as if I would wish one jot or tittle regarding me altered, when the reins of empire are in Thy hands. Take my beloved friends under Thy special care. Watch over them, provide for them, decide for them. In all their ways may they acknowledge Thee, and in all things seek Thy honor and glory. Pity the afflicted. Stay Thy rough wind in the day of Thy east wind. Let them rejoice that every bitter drop in the cup of life is appointed by Thee. May they submissively drink it, saying, "Thy will be done!" Hear, Lord, the voice of my supplications, when Thou hearest, forgive, and grant me an answer in peace, seeing all that I ask is in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, my only Saviour. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." FOURTEENTH EVENING. FOR KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST. "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings."--Phil. iii. 10. Almighty God, do Thou draw near to me this night in Thy great mercy. What am I, that infinite unworthiness and nothingness should be permitted to stand in the presence of infinite purity, majesty, and glory? Lord, I dare not have ventured to bow at thy footstool in my own merits. I am poor and wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked. Enter not in judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight no flesh living can be justified. But, adored be Thy name, I have an all-sufficient ground of confidence wherewith to approach Thee. I bless Thee, that by the doing and dying of Jesus, Thou hast opened up a way of reconciliation to the chief of sinners. Oh, enable me to know more fully the adaptation of His person and work to all the necessities and exigencies of my character and circumstances. Let me know him in His infinite Godhead, as "mighty to save;" in His spotless humanity, as mighty to compassionate. Let me know Him in all His offices, as my Prophet, my Priest, my King; my Kinsman-Redeemer within the veil, my Refuge in trouble, my Guide in perplexity, my Support in death, my Portion through eternity. I rejoice, blessed Jesus, at the hidden springs of life resident in Thee! Thou art suited to all the varied wants and circumstances, and trials of Thy people--for every moment of need, for every diversity of situation. I can mourn no real blank, if I have Thy presence and blessing. O Thou, better than the best of earthly friends, who, though enthroned amid the hosannas of angels, hast still Thy human sympathy unaltered and unchanged, draw near to me this night, and breathe upon me, and say, "Peace be unto thee." Let me know the melting energy of Thy love, and the attractive power of Thy cross. May I keep the unwavering eye of faith steadily directed to Thy all-glorious sacrifice. Be Thou the habitual object of my contemplation, the source of holiest joy, the animating principle of obedience. May all creature love be subordinated to Thine. May my temper, my walk, my conversation, be regulated in accordance with Thy blessed will and holy example. May this be the lofty aim and ambition of life, to act so as to please Jesus. Bless my dear friends, may they too be led to count all but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus their Lord, whom to know is life eternal. Pity the careless; reclaim the backsliding; comfort the sorrowful; sustain the dying. May the Lord arise and have mercy on Zion; may He show that the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come! Ere I lay my head on my nightly pillow, I would lay anew my guilt on the head of the Divine Surety; may I fall asleep under the blessed sense of sin forgiven, and look forward to that blessed day when earth's night-shadows shall have vanished forever, and when I shall be enabled more fully "to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge." And all I ask or hope for is for His sake. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." FIFTEENTH EVENING. FOR GUIDANCE IN PERPLEXITY. "Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto Thee."--Psalm cxliii. 8. O God, Thy favor is life, Thy loving-kindness is better than life. Thy mercies have been new to me every morning, and Thy faithfulness every night. Thou hast watched over me from the earliest years of infancy with more than a Father's care. The kindness of the kindest on earth has been coldness itself when compared with Thine. I rejoice that I can thus trace in a wondrous past the visible footsteps of Thy love, and fearlessly trust and repose in Thee for the future. Thou art a rich provider. None so able, none so willing to guide me in every perplexity, to extricate me from every difficulty, and to befriend me amid the fitful changes of life. What a safe anchorage is this amid the world's restless surges of vicissitude, "The Lord reigneth!" Do Thou enable me wholly to follow the Lord my God; to follow Thee not only in smooth places, but even when the path is rough and the way thorny. May I confide in the wisdom of all Thine allotments. I rejoice that all the changes Thou orderest for Thy covenant people are changes for the _better_, and not for the _worse_. O blessed Jesus! Thou who art the true pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night, do Thou precede me ever in all my wilderness wanderings. May I encamp only where Thou leadest me. May I strike my tent only when Thou speakest that I "go forward." Let me experience the conscious happiness of knowing no will but Thine, and of being solicitous in all things to follow the guiding voice and footsteps of the Great Shepherd of the flock. If there be aught in Thy providence perplexing me now, I would say in child-like simplicity, "I am oppressed, undertake Thou for me!" "My heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." Hide me in the crevices of that smitten Rock; let me know the safety and joy of being shielded _there_, until earth's calamities be overpast. Graciously forgive all the sins of this past day--the sins of thought, word and deed; all my selfishness and uncharitableness; all my pride and vain-glory; all my censoriousness and inconsideration of the wishes and feelings of others. Blessed Jesus! let me follow more closely Thy holy footsteps, and drink more deeply of Thy heavenly spirit. Bless all in sorrow, sanctify to them their trials, may they see and own a "need be" in them all. Prepare the dying for death, and spare useful lives. Take all belonging to me this night under the shield of Thy protecting providence, let them ever commit their way onto Thee, and do Thou bring it to pass. Hold up their goings in Thy word, that their footsteps may not stumble. Watch over me during the unconscious hours of sleep; and when all my days and nights on earth are finished, may it be mine to enjoy Thy presence in a cloudless, nightless Heaven; through Jesus Christ, my blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." SIXTEENTH EVENING. FOR VICTORY OVER SIN. "Sin shall not have dominion over you."--Rom. vi. 14. O God, Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Evil cannot dwell with Thee, fools cannot stand in Thy presence. Thou hast solemnly declared, "Thou canst by no means clear the guilty," and that "though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not escape unpunished." Lord, I rejoice that I can draw near to Thee in the name of Him by whom the guilty _have_ been cleared; and through whom it is that a holy and righteous and sin-hating God can yet be holy and just, in the very act of justifying the ungodly. I desire to adore Thee for all Thy creative and providential goodness. Thou hast loaded me with Thy benefits. The past is paved with love. I see in the retrospect of life nothing but amazing, unmerited kindness, mercy upon mercy! Amid manifold changes there has been no change in _Thee_, no altered looks, no fainting or weariness or estrangement. Amid the wanderings of my own fitful spirit I can write over every remembrance of the past, _But_ "_Thou_ art the same!" I desire with penitence of soul to mourn my own ingratitude and sin, the desperate wickedness and deceitfulness of my own evil heart, the power of corruption, the mastery of self, the alienation of my affections from Thee their rightful Sovereign and Lord. What an easy prey have I often fallen in the hour of temptation--by thought and word and deed dishonoring Thy name and basely requiting Thy love! Father, I have sinned against heaven and before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy child! Give me genuine contrition for the past, inspire me with new purposes of obedience for the future. Without Thy favor and reconciliation, in peace I cannot live, in peace I dare not die! My cry would be, "More grace, more grace!" Let me be gaining every day fresh victories over sin; may my soul be daily nurtured by the influence of heaven-born principles. May I know the expulsive power of the new implanted affection of love to Thee. Dethrone the world. Subjugate the power of sin. Give me greater tenderness of conscience; may I jealously guard every avenue to temptation, and be ready ever with the reply to the seductions of the tempter, "How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" Let me be willing to forego anything rather than forsake Thy ways. Be it my habitual purpose and desire to cleave unto Thee the Lord with full purpose of heart. Let me hallow all life's duties and engagements with Thy favor, looking forward to that time when _my_ will and _Thine_, blessed God! shall be one, and when there shall be no more sin to interrupt the interchange of love and devotedness. Bless all my dear friends; may the blessing of Jacob's God, the God of all the families of the earth, rest upon them. Give them all needful temporal blessings. Fill their souls with peace and joy in believing. May they and I look forward with joyful anticipation to that "morning without clouds," which knows no change nor vicissitude, when there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, because there will be no more sin; and all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." SEVENTEENTH EVENING. FOR THE LIFE OF FAITH. "The life which I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."--Gal. ii. 20. O God, I desire to draw near unto Thy blessed presence on this the evening of another day, adoring Thee for all the loving-kindness Thou art continually making to pass before me. May I ever be enabled to look up to Thee as the Author and Bestower of all my mercies. May no created good ever be suffered to dispossess Thee of my affections. May all that I enjoy, alike temporal and spiritual, be traced to Thee, the Fountain of all happiness. May prosperity be hallowed by receiving it as a pledge of Thy favor, and may trial lose its bitterness by the consciousness that every thorn in my path is permitted by Thee, and every bitter drop in the cup appointed by Thee. May I thus seek, O God, from day to day, to live a life of simple faith and dependence on Thy grace; with confiding love may I commit my every care and want and perplexity to Thy better direction, feeling sweetly assured that Thou wilt guide me by a _right_ way to the city of habitation. Above all would I seek a renewed interest in those covenant blessings which Christ died to purchase and which He is exalted to bestow. All my hope is in Him; weak, helpless, perishing, I flee to Him, as the help and hope and portion of all who seek Him. Hide me, O blessed Jesus, in Thy wounded side. I would overcome alone through the blood of the Lamb. Wash me thoroughly in Thy precious blood. May I hear Thine own voice of pardoning love saying, "Your sins which are many are all forgiven." After all Thou hast done for me, let me harbor no guilty and unworthy suspicions of Thy faithfulness. Let me feel assured that tender love regulates all Thy allotments. Thou art pledged to use the dealing and discipline best suited for Thy people's case, and what will best effect Thine own will concerning them, even their sanctification. Carry on within me Thine own work in Thine own way. Fortify me against temptation; let me not surrender myself to the base compliances of a world lying in wickedness. But, strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, may I know that He who is with me is greater far than all that can be against me. Oh enkindle afresh my expiring, languishing love; let me live more under the influence of "things not seen," having the eye of faith more upwards and homewards, looking for that blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of the great God my Saviour. Let Thy kingdom come! Arise, O God, and plead Thine own cause. May all the ends of the earth soon be gladdened with the Gospel's joyful sound! Bless all in sorrow, all bereaved of near and dear friends; may they see no hand in their trials but Thine. Thou givest us our blessings; and when Thou seest meet Thou revokest the grant. Let us see love in every threatening wave, all rolling at _Thy_ bidding. Lord, take the charge of me this night. Abide with me, blessed Saviour, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent. Oh, may it be mine to feel that each successive evening as it brings me nearer eternity, is ripening me for its never-ending joys. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." EIGHTEENTH EVENING. FOR THE DAILY DEATH. "I die daily."--1 Cor. xv. 31. O God Almighty, Father of all mercies, God of all grace, I beseech Thee to look down upon me at this time in Thy great kindness; let me feel it to be good for me to draw near unto God. I desire to come acknowledging my great unworthiness. Forgive, gracious Lord, my many, many sins of thought, word, and deed; wash out all the defilements of the day. If I were to be tried by the doings of any single hour, how would I stand condemned! I am a miracle of mercy; kept, sustained, upheld, moment by moment, by the power of God. Blessed Saviour! where could I have been this night _but_ for _Thee_? Thou art praying for me, as for Thy faltering disciple of old, that my faith fail not. I _do_ rejoice to think that the same hand that was once outstretched for me on _the_ cross is now lifted up in pleading love before the Throne, and that He who is _for_ me is greater far than all that can be _against_ me! Oh strengthen me with all might by Thy Spirit in the inner man. Subdue my corruptions, crucify all remaining sin. Let me die to the world; let me not imbibe its false maxims, conform to its sinful tastes, or accord with its evil practices. Let self in all its manifold forms be crucified, and God exalted. Come, Lord! search me, try me, prove me, and see if there be any wicked way in me. Let me maintain a constant and habitual hatred of those sins that do more easily beset me; may I exercise a holy jealousy over my own heart. Let no prosperity be strengthening my ties earthward, and weakening my ties heavenward. If Thou givest me much of worldly good, may I write upon it all, "the things which are seen are temporal." May it be my exalted ambition to use it for Thy glory. If Thou sendest trial, let it issue in the peaceable fruits of righteousness, producing a child-like acquiescence in Thy present dealings. Let me never forget my pilgrim attitude. Let me be ever looking forward to that joyous time when, "clean escaped" from the corruptions that are in the world, I shall stand "faultless before the Throne." Meanwhile, make me more heavenly-minded, copying the example of Him who was meek and lowly in heart. Let me be gentle and forgiving, let me not harbor unkind suspicions of others, but consider myself, lest I also be tempted. O give me the _character_ of Heaven on this side of death, that when I come to pass through the swellings of Jordan I may be prepared for the joyous welcome awaiting me on the shores of glory, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!" Have mercy on a world lying in wickedness! Pity the careless; arouse the slumbering; support the weak; succour the poor and those that have no helper. Bless Thy Church everywhere. May Thy ministering servants hide _themselves_, that their Lord may be exalted. Take the charge of me and of all near and dear to me this night. Keep me, O keep me, King of kings, beneath Thine own Almighty wings. Lying down in Thy fear may I awake in Thy favor, fitted for all the duties of a new day; and all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." NINETEENTH EVENING. FOR RENUNCIATION OF SELF. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God."--2 Cor. iii. 5. O God! do Thou bend Thy pitying eye upon me this night, as I venture once more into Thy sacred presence. What mercy it is that, with all my great unworthiness, a throne of grace is still open, and a God of grace is still waiting to be gracious! I come to Thee in deep creature-destitution, bringing nothing in my hands, but simply cleaving, blessed Jesus, to Thy cross; looking away from my guilty self and my guilty doings to Thee, who hast done all and suffered all for me, I rejoice to think that Thou hast broken every chain of condemnation--that Thou hast satisfied the requirements of a broken law; and having overcome the sharpness of death, Thou hast opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Oh let me not continue in sin because all this wondrous grace abounds. Let me not think lightly of the accursed thing which was the cause of all Thine untold and unutterable anguish. I know, Lord, that I am apt at times to plead vain excuses for my sins. I am unwilling to think them, and to think myself, so vile as I really am, in Thy pure and holy eye. My heart is deceitful; but "Thou art greater than my heart." Oh bring me in self-renouncing lowliness to cry out, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Let me cling to no remnants of my own self-righteousness. Let me see that my best actions are marred with defilement and mingled with impure and unworthy motives. Enable me to aim more and more at the conquest of self. Show me the plague of my own heart. Keep me from all that is unamiable and selfish, from all that is unkind and uncharitable, and that would exalt myself at the expense of others. Keep me holy. Keep me lowly.--Lead me through the valley of humiliation. May life become more one grand effort to crucify sin and to please God. Take, gracious Saviour, my whole heart, and make it Thine; occupy it without a rival. May there be no competing affection. Keep me from alienating existence from its great end, by living to myself. May this be the superscription on all my thoughts, and duties, and engagements--"I am not my own, I am bought with a price." May whatever be Thy time be mine. May I not murmur at deferred blessings or disappointed hopes. May my own will be resolved into the will of Him who knows best what to give and what to withhold. May the Lord have mercy upon Zion. May showers of blessing descend on Thy holy hill. Hasten the glories of the latter day, when Jesus shall take to Himself His great power and reign! Bless all my dear friends; may those ties which may be so soon severed here be rendered indissoluble by grace. Guard their couch and mine this night; give us refreshing sleep, lying down in Thy fear, and awaking in Thy favor, fitted for all the duties of a new day. And all we ask or hope for is for the Redeemer's sake. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." TWENTIETH EVENING. FOR A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT. "My soul is even as a weaned child."--Psalm cxxxi. 2. O Lord, I rejoice that I am permitted with filial confidence to approach Thy blessed presence. What a privilege it is to have such liberty of access to the Mercy-seat--to look upwards to Thee, the Infinite One, whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain, and call Thee my Father and my God! Earthly love may grow cold or changeable, or perish; but "Thou art the same." The mercy of God is from everlasting to everlasting. Like as a father pitieth his children, so doth the Lord pity them that fear Him. Alas! I have to mourn too often an unthankful spirit amid all Thy manifold mercies. I have been rebellious and wayward, ungrateful and selfish. Thou mightest righteously have surrendered me to my own perverse will; left me to the fruit of my own ways, and to be filled with my own devices. It is of the Lord's mercies that I am not consumed! Infinite is my want, but infinite too is my help. I would seek to stand before Thee, O God, in the nothingness of the creature, and to know the boundless resources treasured up for me in the great Redeemer. Unite me to Him by a living faith, as Thine own child by adoption; may it be my great desire to glorify Thee, my Father in Heaven; cherishing towards Thee a spirit of filial love and devotedness, seeking to do only what will please Thee, and having a salutary fear of offending so kind and forbearing a Parent. Oh keep me from any sullen fretfulness, or unbelieving misgivings, under the strokes of Thy chastening hand. Let there be no hard construction of Thy dealings. May I see all Thy chastisements tempered with gracious love--_all_ to be needful discipline. Give me an unwavering trust and confidence in Thy faithfulness. Nothing befalls me but by Thy direction; nothing is appointed but what is for my good. Let Thy varied dealings conform me to the image of my adorable Lord. Let me be willing to suffer patiently for _Him_ who so willingly and so patiently suffered for _me_. Let me not so much seek to have my afflictions removed as to have grace given me to glorify Thee in them, and in the spirit of a weaned child to say, "Even so, Father!" O may my heart become a living temple, my life a living sacrifice, breathing the incense of gratitude and love. Let me give myself no rest until in this soul of mine I find a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. Do Thou sanctify trial to all the sons and daughters of sorrow. Draw near to those bereaved of beloved relatives. Do Thou Thyself compensate for every earthly loss. May they know that Thou art faithful who hast promised, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Have mercy on Thy whole Church. Heal divisions. Bless Thy preached word. Strengthen Thy ministering servants, that they may be enabled to proclaim the whole counsel of God. Take the charge of me, and of all near and dear to me, this night. Give Thine angels charge over us. May no unquiet dreams disturb our rest, and when we awake may we be still with Thee. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." TWENTY-FIRST EVENING. FOR HEAVENWARD PROGRESS. "The path of the just is as the shining light, which shines more and more onto the perfect day."--Proverbs iv. 18. O God, I bless Thee that Thou hast spared me during another day, and permitted the shadows of another evening to gather around me in peace. It is Thou, Lord, only who makest me to dwell in safety. Enable me to live from day to day as the pensioner on Thy bounty; to feel my dependence; to receive every created blessing and gift direct from Thy hand, and to seek to have all of them sweetened and hallowed as the pledges of Thy covenant love in Jesus. I bless Thee, gracious God, for the richer tokens of Thy redeeming grace in Him. I bless Thee that His infinite merit has come in the place of my infinite demerit, that in Him there is "no condemnation;" that in His precious blood I have a secure shelter from the terrors of Thy righteous law and the accusations of a guilty conscience. May I know more and more the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. May my every hope of pardon centre in His cross. May I be living from day to day under the constraining influence of His love, and experience now a sweet foretaste of that everlasting communion which awaits me in His presence hereafter. Lord, quicken me in my heavenly way; let me not loiter or linger on the road. Let this be my habitual feeling and watchword, "I am journeying." May I seek to mark my progressive advancement in the divine life, my increasing conformity to the image and will of Thee, my God. Keep me humble, cherishing a constant sense of my dependence on Thee. Oh in every step Zionward, may I be led to cry, "_Hold Thou_ me up, and I shall be safe." Let there be no longer any halting between two opinions, any wavering or indecision. May I regard life as a great mission to please Thee. Let my animating wish be to be nearer Thee now, ere I come to be with Thee for ever in glory everlasting. Walking heavenwards, may I feel I am walking homewards. May I spend each day as if possibly it were my last, so that should the midnight cry break upon my ears, "Prepare to meet Thy God," it might be to me no unexpected summons, but as an angel whispering, "The Master is come and calleth for thee." Look down in mercy on the dark places of the earth full of the habitations of horrid cruelty. How long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? Go forth with Thy missionary servants in heathen lands; may they witness much of Thy power; may Thy word still be mighty as ever to the pulling down of Satan's strongholds. Give thy Churches at home grace to be more faithful in the fulfilment of the great commission of their Great Head--"Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature!" Take all my beloved friends this night under Thy guardian care. Shield them from all danger; and if Thou art pleased to spare us till to-morrow, may we rise refreshed and invigorated for the duties of a new day. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." TWENTY-SECOND EVENING. FOR HUMILITY OF HEART. "He giveth grace unto the humble."--James iv. 6. O God, Thou art great and greatly to be feared. Thy greatness is unsearchable. Thou art seated on a throne that is high and lifted up; myriads of blessed spirits cease not day nor night to celebrate Thy praise in their ever-triumphant hymn, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts." But I rejoice to think that though Heaven is Thy dwelling-place Thou deignest to dwell in the humble and contrite heart; no sacrifice dost Thou so love as that of the broken spirit; no incense so prized by Thee as the incense of a grateful, believing soul, which, oppressed with its own unworthiness and sin, reposes with unwavering trust in the work and righteousness of the Great Surety. Lord, on this ever-living, ever-loving Saviour I desire wholly to lean. As helpless, hopeless, friendless, portionless, I cast myself on Him who is Helper of the helpless and Friend of the friendless. There is nothing but Thy sacrifice and intercession, O Thou Lamb of God, between me and everlasting destruction. O wash every crimson and scarlet stain away in Thy precious blood. Let me lie low at the foot of Thy cross. Give me a lowly estimate of myself, and a lofty view of Thy all-glorious work and finished righteousness. I have no other hope of mercy, and, blessed be Thy name, I _need_ no other. While I take Thee as my Saviour, may I be enabled to follow Thee also as my pattern; conscious of the supreme enthronement of Thy love in my heart, may I feel superior to all the fluctuations and changes of a changing world. May I live as the chartered heir of a better inheritance; while in the world, may I seek not to be of it. May I diffuse around me the noiseless influence of a heavenly life, subordinating all I do to Thy glory. Lord, enable me to be useful in the sphere in which Thou hast placed me, to work while it is called to-day, remembering that there is no work nor device nor labor in the grave whither I am going. Bless all in sorrow. Sanctify their trials. Keep us ever from the guilty atheism of looking to second causes. May we ever rejoice in the elevating assurance that "the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth," and that Thou orderest all things wisely and well. May the Holy Spirit the Comforter pour his own balm into every bleeding heart. Have mercy on a world lying in wickedness. Hasten that glorious period when creation, now groaning and travailing in sin, shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption and be translated into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Let Thy word everywhere have free course and be glorified. May Jesus, faithfully "lifted up" by the attractive power of his cross, draw all men unto him. Let Thy best benediction rest on my friends. The Lord watch between them and me when we are absent one from another. May we experience Thy guardian care this night; and if spared to awake in the morning, may it be to spend a new day in Thy service, through Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." TWENTY-THIRD EVENING. FOR FIRMNESS IN TEMPTATION. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."--James iv. 7. O God, Thou art from everlasting to everlasting. Loving me at the beginning, Thou hast promised to love me even unto the end. Notwithstanding all the fitful changes of my own changing heart towards _Thee_, there _has_ been, and _can_ be, no shadow of turning in Thy covenant faithfulness towards _me_. I am at this hour the monument of Thy mercy--a living comment on the words, "Thy ways are not as man's ways, nor Thy thoughts as man's thoughts." If I have been enabled in any degree to resist the assaults of temptation, it is all Thy doing. I am "kept by the power of God." Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul must long ere now have dwelt in silence. By the grace of God I am what I am. Lord, indulged and cherished sin unfits me for the enjoyment of Thy service and favor. I have to lament my proneness to evil, the natural bias of my heart to that which is opposed to Thy pure and holy will. When I would do good, sin is too often present with me. I feel the power of my spiritual adversaries. If left to myself and my own unaided resources, I must often hopelessly resign the conflict. But I rejoice to think that there is help and hope and strength at hand. I would look to Him who is now bending upon me an eye of unchanging love from the throne. All Thy ascension glories, blessed Redeemer, have not obliterated the tenderness of Thy humanity. Thou art "that same Jesus;" Thou, the abiding Friend, art still left changeless among the changeable; and when Satan often desires to have me, that he might sift me as wheat, it is Thy intercessory prayer that saves me from utter ruin. Thou art pleading for me, that my faith fail not! Oh may I be found invincible in the hour of temptation, being made more than conqueror through Him that loved me. Sheltered in Thee the true Refuge, the wicked one will touch me not. Let me not trifle with my own soul or with the momentous interests of eternity. Let me every day be living under the realizing consciousness that Thy pure eye is upon me. Keep me from all that is at variance with Thy gracious mind. Keep me from unchristian tempers, from an unholy or inconsistent or uneven walk. By a Christ-like demeanor may I exhibit the sanctifying and transforming influence of the Gospel on my own soul, that others may take knowledge of me that I have been with Jesus. God of Bethel! do Thou take under Thy protecting providence all related to me by endearing ties. However far we may be separated from one another, let us never be separated from Thee. Let us often rejoice in this our common meeting-place; that around Thy mercy-seat in spirit we can assemble, and lay our evening incense in the one Golden Censer of our gracious High Priest! Take charge of me this night, defend me from all danger; whether I wake or sleep, may I live together with Thee; and all that I ask or hope for is in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, my only Saviour. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." TWENTY-FOURTH EVENING. FOR COMPOSURE IN TRIAL. "Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight."--Matt. xi. 26. O God, I come into Thy presence this night, rejoicing that amid all earth's vicissitudes, I have in Thee a rock that cannot be shaken. Thou doest according to Thy will in the armies of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth! Thou doest all things well, and nothing but what _is_ well. There is no finite wisdom in Thy dealings. All is the result of combined faithfulness, power, and love. Let me repose in the righteous ordinations of Thy will. If Thou withhold from me earthly blessings, let me feel that the very denial is precious because it is Thy sovereign pleasure. Covenant love and wisdom cannot lead or teach me wrong; every burden is imposed by Thee. The lot may be thrown into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. O Thou who turnest the shadow of death into the morning, may every wilderness-storm only drive me nearer Thyself, my true shelter. Thou takest the sting from every cross, the bitterness from every cup. Let me recognise in all that befalls me the tokens of a Father's love; and if sense and sight should at times fail to descry "the bright light in the cloud," may I see written over every dark trial Thine own unanswerable challenge, "He that spared not his own Son, but gave Him up to the death for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Lord! the end of all Thy sovereign dealings is to subjugate my wayward will, and to unfold more of the preciousness of Jesus. Blessed Spirit of all grace! do Thou take of the things that are Christ's and show them unto my soul. Let me not stagger at the promises through unbelief. Let me see nothing but love in the past, love in the present, and love looming through the mists of a cloudy future. Thou, O God, art seated by every furnace; all is meted out, all is provided for; all has a "need be" in it! Magnify the power of Thy grace in me, by a sweet spirit of patient submission to Thy righteous ordinations. May I seek to have no other prayer than this, "Father, glorify Thy name." Impart Thou that inner sunshine which no outward darkness or trial can obscure. May the peace of God, which passeth understanding, keep my heart. May Thy Holy Spirit shed abroad His blessed influences over the whole Church. Revive Thy work, O God, in the midst of the years. In wrath remember mercy. May Thy ministers be more faithful. May Thy people be more close and consistent in their walk with Thee. May the young be growing up in Thy fear and favor; may the aged find in Thee the staff of their declining years. May the sick and afflicted pillow their head on Thy promises. May the dying fall asleep in Jesus. I commend myself, my friends, and all belonging to me, to Thy paternal care and keeping; and when earth's long night-watches of trial and sorrow are ended, may I wake up in the sorrowless morning of glory, to enjoy uninterrupted fellowship with Thyself. Through Jesus Christ, my only Lord and Saviour. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." TWENTY-FIFTH EVENING. FOR ACTIVITY IN DUTY. "Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord."--Romans xii. 11. Lord, I come to Thee this night rejoicing in the thought that Thou faintest not, neither are weary: Thou art ever good, and doing me good. Thine arm is never shortened, Thine ear is never heavy. The gates of prayer are ever open. The Throne of the Heavenly Grace is ever accessible, none of Thy children need perish with hunger! May the darkness now gathering around me be as the shadow of Thine infinite presence. I take comfort in the thought that the Shepherd of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps; that He is ever bending over me his watchful, untiring eye, compassing my path and my lying down, and holding up my doings that my footsteps do not stumble. Lord, how sad is the contrast of Thine unwearied and unwearying watchfulness, with my negligence and inactivity in Thy service. How little have I sought to promote Thy glory. How little have I felt the solemnity and responsibility of being a steward in Thy household! Let me be more zealous for Thy honor in the future. Let me seek more than I have ever yet done, to ask in the midst of life's duties and engagements, its perplexities and trials, in simple faith, "Lord! what wouldst thou have me to do?" Let me feel that duty is a delight when done for Thee. Keep me from further relaxing my diligence. Let me not mock Thee any longer with the wrecks of a worn affection. Let there be no half-surrender of the heart and life to Thee, but may soul and body be consecrated as living sacrifices, and may I have the growing experience that active obedience in Thy service is self-rewarding. Lord! I have indeed a vast work to do and a brief time to do it in. May opportunities and talents, while I have them, be cheerfully given to Thee. May the warning words oft sound in my ear, "Work while it is called today, for the night cometh wherein no man can work." Oh prepare me for my Saviour's coming. Forbid that I should be found among the slothful servants or the faithless stewards who are squandering their Lord's money, and are living, forgetful that a time of reckoning is at hand! May I be so waiting and so watching, and so working, that the cry may never break too soon or too suddenly on my ears--"Behold, the Judge standeth before the door!" Send forth thy gracious Spirit into a world lying in wickedness. Scatter the darkness that is now brooding over the nations. Bless all thy ministering servants; may they be valiant for the truth; may the Lord send His own angel to stand by them, and to shut the mouths of every adversary. Bless all my friends; may they too be working out their own salvation with fear and trembling, and so be found at last prepared for the appearing and kingdom of Jesus. Take me under Thy protecting care this night; vouchsafe me a season of refreshing repose; spare me to awake in Thy favor; and may every returning morning find me better prepared for the glorious noon-day of immortality; through Jesus Christ, my ever-living Saviour. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." TWENTY-SIXTH EVENING. FOR THE SPIRIT'S TEACHING. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."--Rom. viii. 14. O Lord, Thou art the God of my life and the length of my days. There is no real happiness independent of Thee. Thy favor is life. In vain can I seek for any satisfying portion in an unsatisfying world. If bereft of Thee I am bereaved indeed. But with Thy countenance shining upon me, I must be safe, I must be happy. Do Thou pour down upon me the gifts and graces of Thy Holy Spirit. May he "garrison" my heart. May He write on its blood-besprinkled lintels the superscription, "Holiness to the Lord." Oh may this soul of mine become a living temple, an "habitation of God through the Spirit." Let me not trifle with convictions. Let me not grieve by my hardness and impenitency that gracious Agent, whereby I am sealed unto the day of redemption; but may all my affections be willingly surrendered to His service. By His omnipotent energy may every high thought and lofty imagination be brought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus. May I be enabled to lean upon Him in the extremity of my weakness. Fill me with all joy and peace in believing that I may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost; fitted for Thy service here, and for the enjoyment of Thee forever hereafter. I pray for the outpouring of the same blessed Spirit on the whole Church. May He descend like rain upon the mown grass, and as showers that water the earth. Come from the four winds, O Breath, and breathe upon the slain in the valley! Hasten that glorious period when the year of Thy redeemed shall come, when the earth shall be full of the tabernacles of the righteous, in which the voice of joy and melody will continually be heard! Oh that there were more in me of the mind of my gracious Saviour, on whom the Spirit was poured without measure. May I, like Him, be more meek and gentle, more amiable and forgiving, overcoming evil with good.--Transform me into the same image from glory to glory, by the Lord the Spirit. Hide all my friends under the shadow of Thy wings. Put Thy good Spirit also into their hearts. May He guide them into all the truth, and reveal to them more and more of the preciousness of Jesus. Let all poor afflicted ones rejoice in the presence and consolations of the promised Comforter; may He pour oil and wine into their wounds; may He strengthen them in the midst of all their tribulations, and enable them in lowly resignation to say, "The Lord's will be done." Teach us all to repose in that will as the best; and to make it day by day our aim and ambition to attain a greater conformity to it. Lord, take the charge of me through the watches of the night. Under the blessed sense of Thy presence and favor I would compose myself to rest, and when I awake, may I be still with Thee. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." TWENTY-SEVENTH EVENING. FOR THE WORLD'S CONVERSION. "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."--Isaiah xi. 9. O God, I desire to draw near into Thy blessed presence, beseeching Thee to lift upon me the light of Thy countenance and grant me a Father's blessing. I am utterly unworthy of Thy mercies. And it is only in Jesus, the Son of Thy love, that I dare venture to cast myself at Thy footstool. I rejoice to think that in Him there is an open door of welcome; that He has by His doing and dying satisfied the demands of Thy righteous law, and magnified all Thy glorious attributes. I would bury all my sins in the ocean-depths of His redeeming love. Oh let me now know the blessedness of _living_, and at last the blessedness of _dying_, at peace with Thee, in the sure and certain hope of a resurrection to eternal life. Darkness is still covering the lands, and gross darkness the people. Lord, do Thou have mercy on a world lying in wickedness. I rejoice to think of all Thy glorious promises concerning the latter day. That this creation of ours, now groaning and travailing in bondage under sin, is yet to be delivered from the yoke of corruption, and to be translated into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Glorify Thy great name in the salvation of sinners! Hasten the period of predicted glory, when all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God; when from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the Lord's name is to be praised. May Thine own omnipotent Spirit brood over the darkness, as He did over chaos of old, and say, "Let there be light, and there will be light." May gladsome voices soon be heard proclaiming, "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." Oh may I know personally something of that compassionate yearning over ruined souls and a ruined world that my Saviour had. Let me be prodigal in devising means for the extension of His kingdom and the good of my fellow-men. I would pray the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth laborers to the harvest. Stand by Thy missionary servants. May they have many souls for their hire. May mountains of difficulty be levelled before them; may crooked things be made straight and rough places plain, and may the glory of the Lord be revealed. Let them exercise simple faith in the power of Thy word and the efficacy of Thy grace. May they feel that these are mighty as they ever were to the pulling down of strongholds. Arouse Thy churches to greater zeal. May Jesus, faithfully lifted up by His servants, by the attractive power of His cross draw all men unto Him. May they be the honored instruments of preparing many gems for Immanuel's crown, who will be found unto praise and honor and glory at His second appearing. Lord, guard me through the silent watches of the night; be the defence and protection of my friends and relatives; may they too dwell under the shadow of Thy wings and experience the sleep of Thy beloved; and when the night of earth's ignorance shall vanish away, may we all wake up in glory everlasting, through Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Saviour. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." TWENTY-EIGHTH EVENING. FOR THE CHURCH'S REVIVAL. "Revive Thy work in the midst of the years."--Hab. iii. 2. O God, Thou hast permitted me in Thy great mercy to see another evening. How many of my fellow-men have this day slept the sleep of death, and are now beyond the reach of grace and privilege! I am still spared, all unworthy though I be, a monument of Thy forbearance and love. I desire to make acknowledgment of my many and grievous offences. They are more in number than the sand of the sea;--sins against light, and mercy, and warning; sins committed against the kindest of Benefactors, the most indulgent of Parents. I would seek anew to take refuge in the offered shelter of the Gospel, and to rejoice anew in the faithful saying that Jesus Christ came into the world to save the chief of sinners. Oh may I be enabled confidingly to repose in His matchless sacrifice, and with lively appropriating faith to say, "He loved _me_ and gave Himself for _me_!" Lord, carry on Thine own work within me. Quicken my languid and languishing affections by the omnipotent agency of Thy Holy Spirit. Let me not live at a guilty distance from Thy favor; but may I covet a close and habitual walk with Thee, and feel the sustaining power of Thy grace in my heart. Revive Thy work in Thine own Church universal, Thou great High Priest, who walketh in the midst of the golden candlesticks. Do Thou feed every lamp with the oil of Thy grace. Let them burn with a clearer, holier, more steady and consistent flame. As lights set in the world, may they diffuse Thy glory; and feel the honor of being instrumental in shedding abroad a Saviour's love. Oh may the Lord arise and have mercy upon Zion. May the time to favor her, yea, the set time, soon come. As there is but one Shepherd, so may there soon be but one sheep-fold. Let Thy churches no longer continue apart from one another in unholy estrangement, but live in the unity of the Spirit and in the bond of peace; holding fast that which they have, that no man take their crown. Spirit of all grace, come in all the plenitude of Thy love and mercy. Breathe upon every portion of Thy visible Church, and say, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost!" "Awake, O north wind! come, thou south! blow upon our garden, that the spices thereof may flow out." May Thy gracious influences descend like rain upon the mown grass, and as showers that water the earth. Bless all Thy faithful ministers. May peace be upon them and upon the whole Israel of God. Direct their hearts and the hearts of all Thy faithful people into Thy love, and into the patient waiting for Christ. Comfort all in sorrow. May they see a "need be" written on all their trials. May they look beyond the long night-watch of earth to the glories of that eternal morning when clouds and darkness shall for ever flee away. Take charge of me while I sleep, and as evening after evening comes round may I feel that a day has been spent for Thee. Hear me, gracious Lord, for the Redeemer's sake. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." TWENTY-NINTH EVENING. FOR SUPPORT IN DEATH. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me."--Ps. xxiii. 4. O God, I come to Thee this night through Jesus Christ, the Son of Thy love, beseeching Thee to have mercy upon me, and to impart unto me that Peace of Thine which passeth all understanding. Blessed be Thy great and glorious name for those hopes full of immortality which have been opened up to me in the Gospel. I rejoice in Christ as the great Abolisher of death. I rejoice that the rainbow of covenant faithfulness spans the entrance to the dark valley; that all that is terrible in the last enemy is in Him taken away, and that I can regard these closing hours of existence as the introduction and doorway into everlasting bliss. Give me grace, O God, to be living in constant preparation for death. Let me not unprofitably squander my present golden moments. Let me _live_ while I _live_--let me live a dying life. Let me feel that life is a trust given me by Thee. O Thou Great Proprietor of my being, may this all important talent of time be more consecrated to Thy glory. Let it not be mine, when the hour of death arrives, to bewail, when it is too late, lost and forfeited opportunities. Let me not leave till then, what best can be done and what only _may_ be done now. May it be my earnest endeavor while it is called today to secure a saving interest in the everlasting covenant, and then I need not fear how soon the silver cord may be loosed and the golden bowl broken. Through Jesus the darkness has been taken from death, and to His own true people its shadows will melt and merge into the brightness of eternal day. Thou art ever giving me impressive remembrances that "at such an hour as I think not," the summons may come, "Prepare to meet Thy God." The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Verily every moment there may be but a step between me and death. Let me be so living a life of habitual faith in the Son of God that this step may be changed into a step between me and glory. Lord, prepare all who may now be laid on dying couches for their great change. May their eyes be directed to Jesus. Pillowing their heads on his exceeding great and precious promises, may they fall asleep in the glorious hope of a joyful resurrection. Bless all in sorrow; those who have recently been bereaved of near and dear friends, who may have been called recently to the brink of the tomb, consigning their loved ones to the narrow house appointed for all living. May they be enabled to fix their sorrowing gaze on the brighter prospects beyond death and the grave, and anticipate that glorious hour when, reunited to death-divided friends, they will be able to exult together in the song, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" Take the charge of me this night. Watch over me during the unconscious hours of sleep, and when I too come to the long night and slumber of death, may it be the gentle rest of Thy beloved, a falling asleep in the arms of everlasting love, looking forward to the joyful waking time of immortality, through Jesus Christ my only Saviour. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." THIRTIETH EVENING. FOR PREPARATION FOR JUDGMENT. "Prepare to meet thy God."--Amos iv. 12. O God, Thou art daily loading me with Thy benefits. Thou art making the outgoings of the evening and morning to rejoice over me, giving me unnumbered causes for gratitude and thankfulness. No earthly friend could have loved and cared for me like Thee. Oh may the life Thou art thus preserving by Thine unceasing bounty be unreservedly dedicated to Thy praise. Lord, keep me mindful that I am soon to be done with this world, that I am fast borne along the stream of time to an endless futurity. "It is appointed unto all once to die, and after death the judgment." May I be living in a constant state of preparedness for that solemn hour when small and great shall stand before God, and the books shall be opened. Educate me for eternity. Let me not be frittering away these fleeting but precious moments. Impress on me the solemn conviction that "as men live so do men die," that as death leaves me so will judgment find me. Oh let death leave me falling asleep in Jesus, united to Him by a living faith, that so judgment may find me seated at His right hand, listening to the joyous welcome, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Blessed Jesus, all my hope of a glorious resurrection centres in Thee. I look to Thee as the strong tower which cannot be shaken. I flee anew to the holy sanctuary of Thy covenant love. Sheltered there, amid a dissolving earth, and burning worlds, I shall be able joyfully to utter the challenge, "Who shall separate me from the love of Christ?" Meanwhile may I seek to "occupy" till my Lord comes. Keep me from all negligence and unwatchfulness. Trim my flickering lamp. Let me live with Thy Judgment-throne in view. Whether waking or sleeping, may I bear about with me the thought that I must soon give an account of myself to God. May I feel that all the talents and means Thou hast given me are trusts to be laid out for Thee. When thou comest to demand a reckoning, may I not be among the number of those who have hid their talent in the earth, and have the cheerless retrospect of a misspent time. Lord! bless my friends, reward my benefactors, forgive my enemies. Sanctify sorrow to all the sons and daughters of trial. May the torch of Thy love light up their gloomy prospects. May every providential voice sound loud in their ears, "Arise and depart ye, for this is not your rest!" Gracious God, watch over me during the night, and grant that at last, when all earth's evenings and mornings shall have passed away, I may, on the great day-break of glory, wake up in Thy likeness, through Him in whom is all my hope, and to whom, with Thee, O Father, and Thee, ever blessed Spirit, one God, be everlasting praise, honor, and glory, world without end. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." THIRTY-FIRST EVENING. FOR MEETING IN HEAVEN. "Meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light."--Col. i. 12. O God, I come into Thy gracious presence on this the close of another day, beseeching Thee to accept of my evening sacrifice. May this my unworthy prayer come up before Thee perfumed with the fragrant incense of the Saviour's adorable merits. It is my comfort to know, O Thou blessed Intercessor within the veil, that Thou art even now appearing in the presence of God for me! The names of Thy covenant people are engraven on Thy breastplate, and, all unworthy in themselves, they are accepted in the Beloved. My special prayer to Thee this night is, that by Thy grace I may be made meet for Thy blood-bought inheritance in Glory. Transform me by the indwelling power of the Holy Ghost; may I be dying daily unto sin, and living daily unto righteousness. Make me more heavenly-minded. Give me more of a pilgrim attitude and a pilgrim spirit. May I ever feel that my true home is above, that I am here but a wayfarer and sojourner, as all my fathers were. May I attain, as I advance nearer heaven, the blessed habit of a holy life, bearing about with me the lofty impress of one who is born _from_ above and _for_ above, declaring plainly that I seek "a better country." Let me not arraign the appointments of Infinite wisdom, but patiently await the disclosures of the great day. Keep me from a hasty spirit under dark dispensations. I am no judge as to what fancied mercies are best withholden. Let me look to every trial as an appointed messenger from the Throne whispering in my ears, "Be ye also ready!" May I delight often to anticipate that happy time when I shall suffer no more, and sin no more; when Thou shalt no longer teach me by mysterious dispensations and a crossed will; when all shall be "a sea of glass" without one disturbing ripple, and I shall trace with joyous heart the long line of unbroken love and unchanging faithfulness! Anew I would wash in the atoning fountain. Anew I would take refuge "in the faithful saying." O blot out all the sins of the bygone day. Let them not rise up in the Judgment to condemn me. Let me close my eyes this night listening to the Saviour's own voice--"Your sins which are many are all forgiven you." May the Lord arise and have mercy upon Zion. May the streams of Thy grace make glad the city of God. Build up her broken walls; restore her ruined towers; may her watchmen be men of faith and men of prayer; making mention of the Lord, and keeping not silence, till He establish, and till he make Jerusalem again a praise in the earth. Lord, bless my friends. Let us exult in those ties which survive the uncertain ones of earth, and look forward to the hour when we shall come to stand at last faultless before Thy Throne. Oh, prepare us all for the breaking of that eternal day--that "morning without clouds," when in Thy light we shall see light--when the love of Christ shall be enthroned supremely in every heart, when the glory of Christ will form the animating motive and principle of life that shall never end: and all I ask is for His sake. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." THE END. BOOKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY H. HOOKER. A PLAIN COMMENTARY ON THE FOUR HOLY GOSPELS, intended chiefly for devotional reading. Complete from the London edition. In two volumes, 8vo. Price $4, in muslin, gilt; in half calf, $5 50, two volumes in one; in two volumes, half calf, $6. This is esteemed the best Commentary on the Holy Gospels ever published for general use. It is a mine of devotional thought and inspiration; beautiful and simple in style, and bringing to bear on the elucidation of the sacred text the choicest learning, both ancient and modern. It should find a welcome in every Christian family. SERMONS BY THE REV. ALEXANDER H. VINTON, D. D. In one volume. 12mo., $1. SERMONS BY THE REV. A. CLEVELAND COXE. In one volume, 12mo., $1. SERMONS BY THE RIGHT REV. GEORGE BURGESS, D. D. In one volume, 12mo., $1. SEARCH OF TRUTH; a Manual of Instruction concerning the Way of Salvation. By Rev. James Craik. 12mo., 75 cents. THE BOY TRAINED TO BE A CLERGYMAN. By Rev. John N. Norton. 18mo., 37 cents. DR. WORDSWORTH ON THE INSPIRATION AND CANON OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 18mo., $1 50. DR. WORDSWORTH ON THE APOCALYPSE. 8vo., $2. THE EPISCOPATE; ITS HISTORY, DUTIES, &c., &c. By Hugh Davey Evans, LL.D. 12mo., 62 cents. Two very desirable editions of THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. Just completed. THE BOOK OF THE HOMILIES OF THE CHURCH. In one volume, 8vo., $2 25. TWENTY-EIGHT LECTURES ON THE MORNING PRAYER: by Rev. Robert A. Hallam, D. D., Rector of St. James' Church, New London, Conn. "The Rev. Dr. Hallam's Lectures on the Morning Prayer are a valuable addition to the working material for ordinary parish instruction. He goes carefully, judiciously, moderately, through all the parts of the Morning Prayer, including the Litany, and draws out with great richness and fulness the admirable order, the wonderful connection of spirit and beauty, the deep inner life, of that inestimable Office. There is also a sufficient infusion of liturgical learning to make the volume very instructive to the great bulk of all our congregations. With all its wise moderation of statement, there is a warm glow in the language of Dr. Hallam's book, a fervor in the feeling, and even an eloquence of expression in many places, which cannot but produce in all its readers a more full and harmonious appreciation of our incomparable Liturgy. It will make the worship of our congregations a wonderfully more _reasonable, holy and living_ sacrifice unto God, inspiring it with a deeper and truer life wherever its healthful influence extends."--_Church Journal._ "A work of great merit, remarkable in its adaptations to defend and commend the Church. Let it be read for information about the Church and the improvement of devotional spirit in her members."--_Banner of the Cross._ "The book of Dr. Hallam is the best book we have seen to put into the hands of persons desiring to understand the Church." "The mode of treating the subject gives it full right to a place among works on _practical religion_. The leading object of the Lectures is to show that this was the design and intent of the Service, and that none who enter into its spirit can fail of being improved by its use. There is also something in the manner in which our author treats his subject--so much of his own agreeable peculiarities of thought and style characterizing it, as to throw an air of freshness over the subject itself, rendering the perusal as pleasant as it is profitable. In doctrine and usage, Dr. H. follows the golden mean, the _via media_ which has ever marked the course of the Church."--_The Calendar._ 
37292	----	[Transcriber's Note: Bold text is surrounded by =equal signs= and italic text by _underscores_.] THOUGHTS FOR THE QUIET HOUR Edited By D. L. Moody [Illustration] Fleming H. Revell Company CHICAGO : NEW YORK : TORONTO _Publishers of Evangelical Literature_ Copyrighted 1900 by Fleming H. Revell Company TO THE READER One of the brightest signs of the times is that many Christians in our Young People's Societies and churches are observing a "Quiet Hour" daily. In this age of rush and activity we need some special call to go apart and be alone with God for a part of each day. Any man or woman who does this faithfully and earnestly cannot be more than twenty-four hours away from God. The selections given in this volume were first published in the monthly issues of the "_Record of Christian Work_," and were found very helpful for devotional purposes. They are also a mine of thoughts, to light up the verses quoted. Being of permanent value, it has been thought desirable to transfer them from the pages of the magazine to this permanent volume. May they have a helpful ministry, leading many into closer communion with God! [Illustration: D. L. Moody] Index of Texts Quoted in This Volume. =Genesis= 1: 4, 34 2: 7, 36 3: 3, 71 9, 5 24, 109 4:15, 105 6: 8, 128 12: 1, 18 13:12, 124 15, 37 16: 9, 94 18:17, 96 25: 8, 18, 28 11, 68 28:12, 102 15, 60 16, 69, 102 32: 1, 24 32, 119 33: 1, 111 =Exodus= 2: 3, 32 4:13, 32 14:13, 6 19, 112 20: 3, 81 24:18, 11 28: 2, 12 33:14, 88 34: 2, 25 =Numbers= 9:23, 20 11:14, 51 13:27, 38 28, 38 =Deuteronomy= 1: 2, 26 4: 1, 102 18:14, 80 33:25, 63, 69 =Joshua= 4:21, 20 5:14, 26 23:11, 7 24:15, 114 =Judges= 6:14, 78 8:18, 38 =I. Samuel= 1:10, 128 13, 128 27, 50 28, 50 2: 3, 23 12:24, 43 =II. Samuel= 5:19, 57 22:36, 24 =I. Kings= 2:34, 106 8:12, 94 13, 94 17: 3, 52 10, 113 =II. Kings= 6:17, 11 10: 5, 74 25:30, 39, 113 =I. Chronicles= 4:23, 92 =Job= 5:17, 100 =Psalms= 5: 3, 12 16:11, 110 19:12, 74, 124 21: 4, 90 23: 2, 38 3, 31 25: 4, 12 32: 8, 93 34: 1, 51 19, 6 39: 3, 52 55:22, 58 62: 5, 40 63: 1, 45 65: 3, 112 78:14, 91 90: 1, 114 12, 96 91: 3, 104 9, 119 11, 98 100:2, 95 103:2, 122 4, 122 19, 53 118:14, 6 119:117, 72 134: 1, 17 3, 17 145: 2, 9 16, 17 =Proverbs= 4:18, 34 23, 53 11:25, 121 13:25, 47 16:32, 50 27: 1, 21 =Ecclesiastes= 9:10, 78 =Song of Solomon= 1: 5, 57 6, 37 2: 3, 13 15, 35 3: 1, 30 4:16, 70 7:10, 57 =Isaiah= 6: 5, 51 30:18, 19 32:20, 72 40: 8, 104 31, 10, 31, 42, 80 41:13, 43 14, 21 43: 2, 112 48:10, 94 49: 5, 14 23, 44 50:10, 105 56: 2, 72 =Jeremiah= 18: 4, 113 22:21, 104 =Ezekiel= 12: 8, 36 34:26, 85 36:37, 88 37: 3, 101 =Daniel= 5: 1, 122 6:20, 15 9: 9, 89 10: 8, 109 =Hosea= 6: 3, 18 =Jonah= 1:11, 125 =Micah= 7: 8, 100 =Zechariah= 4:10, 64, 116 13: 1, 56 =Malachi= 3: 6, 85 18, 123 =Matthew= 2:10, 100 13, 106 5:14, 45, 55 16, 106 45, 35 48, 65 6: 6, 95 32, 75 33, 30 8: 6, 72 10: 8, 68 42, 52 14:14, 81 23, 81 22, 59 15:28, 44 20:18, 92 28, 93 25:21, 59 26, 59 24-26, 44 26:39, 15 40, 40 27:32, 54 28:16, 107 18, 107 19, 107 20, 41 =Mark= 2: 3, 122 5:36, 99 6:41, 123 7:34, 46 10:17, 120 13:34, 22 14:41, 65 50, 121 =Luke= 2:10, 107 13, 126 14, 126 5: 3, 77 5, 85 7: 5, 19 10:29, 115 39, 98 14:10, 126 11, 49 27, 62 16:10, 8 24:16, 31 18, 13 31, 32 34, 47 =John= 1: 4, 45 36, 71 37, 71 45, 23 46, 23 2:3-5, 48, 76 11, 91 3: 8, 23 4: 6, 67 8, 67 39, 67 34, 40, 70 6:57, 29 8: 9, 110 29, 27 11: 9, 14 21-24, 58 12: 4, 68 6, 6 20:21, 56 25, 124 27, 124 29, 9 21: 3, 37 10, 22 12, 101 =Acts= 1: 3, 67 4, 61, 97 8, 28, 60 2: 1, 61 4, 61 41, 47 4:10, 64 13, 79, 99 6: 5, 20 8:21, 64 19:38, 94 11:26, 123 13: 2, 64 47, 60 14:8-10, 57 17: 6, 63, 119 20:19, 82 24, 119 28, 90 27:23-25, 42 =Romans= 5: 3, 46 6: 4, 15 7:11, 75 8:28, 11, 31 13:11, 89 15:13, 90 =I. Corinthians= 1: 7, 30 28, 95 3:10, 69 7:32, 87 10:12, 76 11: 1, 82 13:13, 124 15:58, 46 =II. Corinthians= 1:21, 116 22, 116 13:5, 114 17, 65 =Galatians= 1: 4, 55 2:20, 96, 103, 115 3:27, 58 6: 2, 33, 39 7, 25 9, 88 14, 127 =Ephesians= 1:13, 21 17, 109 18, 109 2:10, 78, 84 12, 120 21, 16 4:15, 113 5:8, 7, 77 15, 32 =Philippians= 1:21, 27 2:12 39, 41, 73 13, 39, 41, 73 3:13, 24 14, 24 4: 6, 42 12, 48 13, 55, 63 19, 8 =Colossians= 1:27, 96 3: 2, 46, 78 3, 75 11, 16 15, 87 16, 118 17, 54 24, 87 4: 2, 16, 76, 126 =I. Thessalonians= 5: 6, 66 8, 103 19, 27 24, 118 =I. Timothy= 1:15, 73 17, 73 =II. Timothy= 1:12, 61 2: 3, 62 12, 53, 86 15, 60 =Hebrews= 4: 9, 13 6:12, 125 19, 128 7:25, 127 10: 5, 27 19, 41 22, 41 32, 23, 118 11: 7, 83 8, 22 12: 1, 79 2, 79 2, 14 6, 47, 107, 117 13: 5, 118 =James= 1: 2, 8 4, 72 23, 125 25, 125 4: 4, 127 14, 123, 125 =I. Peter= 1:16, 96 21, 121 23, 86 2: 5, 20 21, 81 5: 5, 111 =II. Peter= 1: 5, 70 21, 121 3:18, 44, 74 =I. John= 1: 7, 48 9, 26 2: 6, 18 15, 17, 87 3: 2, 91 4:14, 88 16, 61, 98 18, 42 5: 4, 97 =Jude= 21, 28 =Revelation= 1:10, 117 11, 117 17, 66 2:10, 105 3:19, 20 4: 8, 30 7: 9, 34 22:12, 5 14, 109 [Illustration: JANUARY] =January 1st.= _Come up in the morning . . . and present thyself . . . to me in the top of the mount. Ex. xxxiv. 2._ My Father, I am coming. Nothing on the mean plain shall keep me away from the holy heights. Help me to climb fast, and keep Thou my foot, lest it fall upon the hard rock! At Thy bidding I come, so Thou wilt not mock my heart. Bring with Thee honey from heaven, yea, milk and wine, and oil for my soul's good, and stay the sun in his course, or the time will be too short in which to look upon Thy face, and to hear Thy gentle voice. Morning on the mount! It will make me strong and glad all the rest of the day so well begun.--_Joseph Parker._ =January 2nd.= _My reward is with me. Rev. xxii. 12._ We are to be rewarded, not only for work done, but for burdens borne, and I am not sure but that the brightest rewards will be for those who have borne burdens without murmuring. On that day He will take the lily, that has been growing so long among thorns, and lift it up to be the glory and wonder of all the universe; and the fragrance of that lily will draw forth ineffable praises from all the hosts of heaven.--_Andrew Bonar._ =January 3rd.= _Where art thou? Gen. iii. 9._ Art thou hiding thyself away from Him who would send thee forth to do His own blessed work in His own way? Oh, let me say to thee this morning, "The Lord hath need of thee." It may seem to be only a little thing He has for you to do, but it is an important one. He has "need of thee." Turn not thy back upon Him; put not thyself out of the way of being employed by Him; do not begin by laying down laws for thyself as to what thou wilt do and what thou wilt not do; but cry out from the very depth of thy heart, "Here am I, send me,"--_W. Hay Aitken._ =January 4th.= _Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. Psa. xxxiv. 19._ All the afflictions of the righteous open out into something glorious. The prisoner is not merely delivered, but he finds an angel waiting for him at the door. And with every deliverance comes a specific blessing. One angel is named faith; another, love; another, joy; another, longsuffering; another, gentleness; another, goodness; another, meekness; another, temperance; another, peace. Each of these graces says, "We have come out of great tribulation."--_G. Bowen._ =January 5th.= _The Lord is my . . . song. Psa. cxviii. 14._ Let us think of God Himself becoming our song. This is the fulness and perfection of knowing God: so to know Him that He Himself becomes our delight; so to know Him that praise is sweetest, and fullest, and freshest, and gladdest, when we sing of Him. He who has learned this blessed secret carries the golden key of heaven--nay, he hath fetched heaven down to earth, and need not envy the angels now.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =January 6th.= _Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord. Ex. xiv. 13._ Often God seems to place His children in positions of profound difficulty--leading them into a wedge from which there is no escape; contriving a situation which no human judgment would have permitted, had it been previously consulted. The very cloud conducts them thither. You may be thus involved at this very hour. It does seem perplexing and very serious to the last degree; but it is perfectly right. The issue will more than justify Him who has brought you hither. It is a platform for the display of His almighty grace and power. He will not only deliver you, but in doing so He will give you a lesson that you will never forget; and to which, in many a psalm and song in after days, you will revert. You will never be able to thank God enough for having done just as He has.--_F. B. Meyer._ =January 7th.= _Now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light. Eph. v. 8._ The influence we exert in the world is created by our relationship to Jesus Christ; and our relationship to Jesus Christ is revealed by our influence.--_Selected._ =January 8th.= _Take good heed therefore unto your souls. Josh. xxiii. 11._ (_Margin._) Gold cannot be used for currency as long as it is mixed with the quartz and rock in which it lies imbedded. So your soul is useless to God till taken out from sin and earthliness and selfishness, in which it lies buried. By the regenerating power of the Spirit you must be separated unto Christ, stamped with His image and superscription, and made into a divine currency, which shall bear His likeness among men. The Christian is, so to speak, the circulating medium of Christ, the coin of the realm by whom the great transactions of mercy and grace to a lost world are carried on. As the currency stands for the gold, so does the Christian stand for Christ, representing His good and acceptable will.--_A. J. Gordon._ =January 9th.= _He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much. Luke xvi. 10._ The least action of life can be as surely done from the loftiest motive as the highest and noblest. Faithfulness measures acts as God measures them. True conscientiousness deals with our duties as God deals with them. Duty is duty, conscience is conscience, right is right, and wrong is wrong, whatever sized type they be printed in. "Large" and "small" are not words for the vocabulary of conscience. It knows only two words--right and wrong.--_Alex. McLaren._ =January 10th.= _My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Phil. iv. 19._ What a source--"God"! What a standard--"His riches in glory"! What a channel--"Christ Jesus"! It is your sweet privilege to place _all your need_ over against _His riches_, and lose sight of the former in the presence of the latter. His exhaustless treasury is thrown open to you, in all the love of His heart; go and draw upon it, in the artless simplicity of faith, and you will never have occasion to look to a creature-stream, or lean on a creature-prop.--_C. H. M._ =January 11th.= _Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations. James i. 2._ We cannot be losers by trusting God, for He is honored by faith, and most honored when faith discerns His love and truth behind a thick cloud of His ways and providence. Happy those who are thus tried! Let us only be clear of unbelief and a guilty conscience. We shall hide ourselves in the rock and pavilion of the Lord, sheltered beneath the wings of everlasting love till all calamities be overpast.--_Selected._ =January 12th.= _Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. John xx. 29._ The seen are shadows: the substance is found in the unseen. . . . No doubt, in Christ, the foundation of our faith is unseen; but so is that of yonder tower that lifts its tall erect form among the waves over which it throws a saving light. It appears to rest on the rolling billows; but, beneath these, invisible and immovable, lies the solid rock on which it stands secure; and when the hurricane roars above, and breakers roar below, I could go calmly to sleep in that lone sea tower. Founded on a rock, and safer than the proudest palace that stands on the sandy, surf-beaten shore, it cannot be moved. Still less the Rock of Ages! Who trusts in that is fit for death, prepared for judgment, ready for the last day's sounding trumpet, since, "The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants, and none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate."--_Guthrie._ =January 13th.= _Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit. John xv. 8._ What a possibility, what an inspiration, that we can enhance the glory of "our Father"! Our hearts leap at the thought. How can this be done? By bearing "leaves,"--a _profession_ of love for Him? No. By bearing _some_ fruit? No. "That ye bear _much_ fruit." In the abundance of the yield is the joy, the glory of the husbandman. We should, therefore, aim to be extraordinary, "hundred-fold" Christians, satisfied with none but the largest yield. Our lives should be packed with good deeds. Then at harvest time we can say, "Father, I have glorified Thee on the earth!"--_W. Jennings._ =January 14th.= _Every day will I bless Thee; and I will praise Thy name for ever and ever. Psa. cxlv. 2._ There is a very beautiful device by which the Japanese are accustomed to express their wishes for their friends. It is the figure of a drum in which the birds have built their nest. The story told of it is that once there lived a good king, so anxiously concerned for the welfare of his people that at the palace gate he set a drum, and whoever had any wrong to be redressed or any want, should beat the drum, and at once, by day or night, the king would grant the suppliant an audience and relief. But throughout the land there reigned such prosperity and contentment that none needed to appeal for anything, and the birds built their nests within it and filled it with the music of their song. Such gracious access is granted to us even by the King of Heaven, and day and night His ready hearing and His help are within the reach of all that come to Him; but of all men most blessed are they who have found on earth a blessedness in which all want is forgotten, and trust rests so assured of safety in the Father's care that prayer gives place to ceaseless praise. They _rejoice in the Lord alway_.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =January 15th.= _They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.--Isa. xl. 31._ This, my soul, is the triumph of thy being--to be able to _walk_ with God! Flight belongs to the young soul; it is the _romance_ of religion. To run without weariness belongs to the _lofty_ soul; it is the _beauty_ of religion. But to walk and not faint belongs to the _perfect_ soul; it is the _power_ of religion. Canst thou walk in white through the stained thoroughfares of men? Canst thou touch the vile and polluted ones of earth and retain thy garments pure? Canst thou meet in contact with the sinful and be thyself undefiled? _Then_ thou hast surpassed the flight of the eagle!--_George Matheson._ =January 16th.= _And Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. Ex. xxiv. 18._ The life of fellowship with God cannot be built up in a day. It begins with the habitual reference of all to Him, hour by hour, as Moses did in Egypt. But it moves on to more and longer periods of communion; and it finds its consummation and bliss in days and nights of intercession and waiting and holy intercourse.--_F. B. Meyer._ =January 17th.= _Elisha said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. 2 Kings vi. 17._ This is the prayer we need to pray for ourselves and for one another, "Lord, open our eyes that we may see"; for the world all around us, as well as around the prophet, is full of God's horses and chariots, waiting to carry us to places of glorious victory. And when our eyes are thus opened, we shall see in all the events of life, whether great or small, whether joyful or sad, a "chariot" for our souls. Everything that comes to us becomes a chariot the moment we treat it as such; and, on the other hand, even the smallest trial may be a Juggernaut car to crush us into misery or despair if we so consider them. It lies with each of us to choose which they shall be. It all depends, not upon what these events are, but upon how we take them. If we lie down under them, and let them roll over us and crush us, they become Juggernaut cars, but if we climb up into them, as into a car of victory, and make them carry us triumphantly onward and upward, they become the chariots of God.--_Smith._ =January 18th.= _All things work together for good to them that love God. Rom. viii. 28._ In one thousand trials it is not five hundred of them that work for the believer's good, but nine hundred and ninety-nine of them, AND ONE BESIDE.--_George Müller._ =January 19th.= _Thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron. Ex. xxviii. 2._ Have we no garments of blue, and purple, and beautiful suggestiveness? We have garments of praise; we are clothed with the Lord Jesus. And have we no ornaments? The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is, in the sight of God, of great price. And have we no golden bells? We have the golden bells of holy actions. Our words are bells, our actions are bells, our purposes are bells. Whenever we move, our motion is thus understood to be a motion towards holy places, holy deeds, holy character.--_Joseph Parker._ =January 20th.= _My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up. Psa v. 3._ The morning is the gate of the day, and should be well guarded with prayer. It is one end of the thread on which the day's actions are strung, and should be well knotted with devotion. If we felt more the majesty of life we should be more careful of its mornings. He who rushes from his bed to his business and waiteth not to worship is as foolish as though he had not put on his clothes, or cleansed his face, and as unwise as though he dashed into battle without arms or armor. Be it ours to bathe in the softly flowing river of communion with God, before the heat of the wilderness and the burden of the way begin to oppress us.--_Spurgeon._ =January 21st.= _Show me Thy ways, O Lord; teach me Thy paths. Psa. xxv. 4._ There is a path in which every child of God is to walk, and in which alone God can accompany him.--_Denham Smith._ =January 22nd.= _There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Heb. iv. 9._ How sweet the music of this first heavenly chime floating across the waters of death from the towers of the New Jerusalem. Pilgrim, faint under thy long and arduous pilgrimage, hear it! It is REST. Soldier, carrying still upon thee blood and dust of battle, hear it! It is REST. Voyager, tossed on the waves of sin and sorrow, driven hither and thither on the world's heaving ocean of vicissitude, hear it! The haven is in sight; the very waves that are breaking on thee seem to murmur--"_So He giveth His beloved_ REST." It is the long-drawn sigh of existence at last answered. The toil and travail of earth's protracted week is at an end. The calm of its unbroken Sabbath is begun. Man, weary man, has found at last the long-sought-for _rest_ in the bosom of his God!--_Macduff._ =January 23rd.= _Under His shadow. Song of Sol. ii. 3._ Frances Ridley Havergal says: I seem to see four pictures suggested by that: under the shadow of a rock in a weary plain; under the shadow of a tree; closer still, under the shadow of His wing; nearest and closest, in the shadow of His hand. Surely that hand must be the piercèd hand, that may oftentimes press us sorely, and yet evermore encircling, upholding and shadowing! =January 24th.= _He made as though He would have gone further. Luke xxiv. 28._ Is not God always acting thus? He comes to us by His Holy Spirit as He did to these two disciples. He speaks to us through the preaching of the Gospel, through the Word of God, through the various means of grace and the providential circumstances of life; and having thus spoken, He makes as though He would go further. If the ear be opened to His voice and the heart to His Spirit, the prayer will then go up, "Lord, abide with me." But if that voice makes no impression, then He passes on, as He has done thousands of times, leaving the heart at each time harder than before, and the ear more closed to the Spirit's call.--_F. Whitfield._ =January 25th.= _My God shall be my strength. Isa. xlix. 5._ Oh, do not pray for easy lives! Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks! Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come in you by the grace of God.--_Phillips Brooks._ =January 26th.= _Despising the shame. Heb. xii. 2._ And how is that to be done? In two ways. Go up the mountain, and the things in the plain will look very small; the higher you rise the more insignificant they will seem. Hold fellowship with God, and the threatening foes here will seem very, very unformidable. Another way is, pull up the curtain and gaze on what is behind it. The low foot-hills that lie at the base of some Alpine country may look high when seen from the plain, as long as the snowy summits are wrapped in mist; but when a little puff of wind comes and clears away the fog from the lofty peaks, nobody looks at the little green hills in front. So the world's hindrances and the world's difficulties and cares look very lofty till the cloud lifts. But when we see the great white summits, everything lower does not seem so very high after all. Look to Jesus, and that will dwarf the difficulties.--_Alex. McLaren._ =January 27th.= _Are there not twelve hours in the day? John xi. 9._ The very fact of a Christian being here, and not in heaven, is a proof that some work awaits him.--_William Arnot._ =January 28th.= _Not as I will, but as Thou wilt. Matt. xxvi. 39._ There are no disappointments to those whose wills are buried in the will of God.--_Faber._ =January 29th.= _The living God. Dan. vi. 20._ How many times we find this expression in the Scriptures, and yet it is just this very thing that we are so prone to lose sight of! We know it is written "_the living God_"; but in our daily life there is scarcely anything we practically so much lose sight of as the fact that God is THE LIVING GOD; that He is now whatever He was three or four thousand years since; that He has the same sovereign power, the same saving love towards those who love and serve Him as ever He had, and that He will do for them now what He did for others two, three, four thousand years ago, simply because He is the living God, the unchanging One. Oh, how therefore we should confide in Him, and in our darkest moments never lose sight of the fact that He _is_ still and ever _will be_ THE LIVING GOD!--_George Müller._ =January 30th.= _Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Rom. vi. 4._ That is the life we are called upon to live, and that is the life it is our privilege to lead; for God never gives us a call without its being a privilege, and He never gives us the privilege to come up higher without stretching out to us His hand to lift us up. Come up higher and higher into the realities and glories of the resurrection life, knowing that your life is hid with Christ in God. Shake yourself loose of every incumbrance, turn your back on every defilement, give yourself over like clay to the hands of the potter, that He may stamp upon you the fulness of His own resurrection glory, that you, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, may be changed from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord.--_W. Hay Aitken._ =January 31st.= _Christ is all, and in all. Col. iii. 11._ The _service_ of Christ is the _business_ of my life. The _will_ of Christ is the _law_ of my life. The _presence_ of Christ is the _joy_ of my life. The _glory_ of Christ is the _crown_ of my life.--_Selected._ [Illustration] =February 1st.= _Continue in prayer. Col. iv. 2._ Dost thou want nothing? Then I fear thou dost not know thy poverty. Hast thou no mercy to ask of God? Then may the Lord's mercy show thee thy misery. A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus.--_Spurgeon._ =February 2nd.= _In whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. Eph. ii. 21._ The life-tabernacle is a wondrous building; there is room for workers of all kinds in the uprearing of its mysterious and glorious walls. If we cannot do the greatest work, we may do the least. Our heaven will come out of the realization of the fact that it was God's tabernacle we were building, and under God's blessing that we were working.--_Joseph Parker._ =February 3rd.= _Love not the world. 1 John ii. 15._ Love it not, and yet love it. Love it with the love of Him who gave His Son to die for it. Love it with the love of Him who shed His blood for it. Love it with the love of angels, who rejoice in its conversion. Love it to do it good, giving your tears to its sufferings, your pity to its sorrows, your wealth to its wants, your prayers to its miseries, and to its fields of charity, and philanthropy, and Christian piety, your powers and hours of labor. You cannot live without affecting it, or being affected by it. You will make the world better, or it will make you worse. God help you by His grace and Holy Spirit so to live in the world as to live above it, and look beyond it; and so to love it that when you leave it, you may leave it better than you found it.--_Guthrie._ =February 4th.= _Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. Psa. cxlv. 16._ Desire, it is a dainty word! It were much that He should satisfy the _need_, the _want_; but He goeth far beyond that. Pity is moved to meet our need; duty may sometimes look after our wants; but to satisfy the _desire_ implies a tender watchfulness, a sweet and gracious knowledge of us, an eagerness of blessing. God is never satisfied until He has satisfied our desires.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =February 5th.= _Ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord. . . . The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion. Psa. cxxxiv. 1, 3._ If I would know the love of my friend, I must see what it can do in the winter. So with the divine love. It is very easy for me to worship in the summer sunshine, when the melodies of life are in the air and the fruits of life are on the tree. But let the song of the bird cease, and the fruit of the tree fall; and will my heart still go on to sing? Will I stand in God's house by night? Will I love Him in His own night? Will I watch with Him even one hour in His Gethsemane? Will I help to bear His cross up the Via Dolorosa? My love has come to Him in His humiliation. My faith has found Him in His lowliness. My heart has recognized His majesty through His mean disguise, and I know at last that I desire not the gift, but the Giver. When I can stand in His house by night, I have accepted Him for Himself alone.--_George Matheson._ =February 6th.= _He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked. 1 John ii. 6._ The preaching that this world needs most is the _sermons in shoes_ that are walking with Jesus Christ.--_Selected._ =February 7th.= _Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord. Hosea vi. 3._ The Lord has brought us into the pathway of the knowledge of Him, and bids us pursue that path through all its strange meanderings until it opens out upon the plain where God's throne is. Our life is a following on to know the Lord. We marvel at some of the experiences through which we are called to pass, but afterwards we see that they afforded us some new knowledge of our Lord. . . . We have not to wait for some brighter opportunity; but by improvement of the present are to build for ourselves a bridge to that future.--_G Bowen._ =February 8th.= _Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house. Gen. xii. 1._ _Abraham . . . was gathered to his people. Gen. xxv. 8._ After all communion we dwell as upon islands, dotted over a great archipelago, each upon his little rock with the sea dashing between us; but the time comes when, if our hearts are set upon that great Lord whose presence makes us one, there shall be no more sea and all the isolated rocks shall be parts of a great continent . . . If we cultivate that sense of detachment from the present and of having our true affinities in the unseen, if we dwell here as strangers because our citizenship is in heaven, then death will not drag us away from our associates nor hunt us into a lonely land, but will bring us where closer bonds shall knit the "sweet societies" together, and the sheep shall couch close by one another because all gathered round the one Shepherd. Then many a tie shall be re-woven, and the solitary wanderer meet again the dear ones whom he had "loved long since and lost awhile."--_Alex. McLaren._ =February 9th.= _Therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you. Isa. xxx. 18._ This is God's way. In the darkest hours of the night His tread draws near across the billows. As the day of execution is breaking, the angel comes to Peter's cell. When the scaffold for Mordecai is complete, the royal sleeplessness leads to a reaction in favor of the threatened race. Ah, soul, it may have come to the worst with thee ere thou art delivered; but thou wilt be! God may keep thee waiting, but He will ever be mindful of His covenant, and will appear to fulfil His inviolable word.--_F. B. Meyer._ =February 10th.= _He loveth our nation and he hath built us a synagogue. Luke vii. 5._ Marble and granite are perishable monuments, and their inscriptions may be seldom read. _Carve your names on human hearts_; they alone are immortal!--_Theodore Cuyler._ =February 11th.= _As many as I love I . . . chasten. Rev. iii. 19._ I once saw a dark shadow resting on the bare side of a hill. Seeking its cause I saw a little cloud, bright as the light, floating in the clear blue above. Thus it is with our sorrow. It may be dark and cheerless here on earth; yet look above and you shall see it to be but a shadow of His brightness whose name is Love.--_Dean Alford._ =February 12th.= _What means these stones? Josh. iv. 21._ _Ye also as living stones. 1 Pet. ii. 5. (R. V.)_ There should be something so remarkable, so peculiar about the life and conversation of a Christian that men should be compelled to ask, "What does this mean?". . . . Is there anything in your character, words, and habits of life so different from the world around you that men are involuntarily compelled to ask themselves or others, "What does this mean?" Not that there is to be a forced singularity, a peculiarity for the sake of being peculiar; that were merely to copy the pharisaism of ancient days. . . . Oh, that we might realize that this is the purpose for which God sends us into the world, as He sent His only begotten Son!--_S. A. Blackwood._ =February 13th.= _All . . . saw his face as it had been the face of an angel Acts vi. 15._ The face is made every day by its morning prayer, and by its morning look out of windows which open upon heaven.--_Joseph Parker._ =February 14th.= _At the commandment of the Lord they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed. Num. ix. 23._ This is the secret of peace and calm elevation. If an Israelite, in the desert, had taken it into his head to make some movement independent of Jehovah; if he took it upon him to move when the crowd was at rest, or to halt while the crowd was moving, we can easily see what the result would have been. And so it will ever be with us. If we move when we ought to rest, or rest when we ought to move, we shall not have the divine presence with us.--_C. H. M._ =February 15th.= _In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise. Eph. i. 13._ The Lord puts a seal upon His own, that everybody may know them. The sealing in your case is the Spirit producing in you likeness to the Lord. The holier you become, the seal is the more distinct and plain, the more evident to every passer-by, for then will men take knowledge of you that you have been with Jesus.--_Andrew Bonar._ =February 16th.= _Boast not thyself of to-morrow. Prov. xxvii. 1._ The only preparation for the morrow is the right use of to-day. The stone in the hands of the builder must be put in its place and fitted to receive another. The morrow comes for naught, if to-day is not heeded. Neglect not the call that comes to thee this day, for such neglect is nothing else than boasting thyself of to-morrow.--_G. Bowen._ =February 17th.= _I will help thee, saith the Lord. Isa. xli. 14._ O my soul, is not this enough? Dost thou need more strength than the omnipotence of the united Trinity? Dost thou want more wisdom than exists in the Father, more love than displays itself in the Son, or more power than is manifest in the influences of the Spirit? Bring hither thine empty pitcher! Surely this well will fill it. Haste, gather up thy wants, and bring them here--thine emptiness, thy woes, thy needs. Behold, this river of God is full for thy supply; what canst thou desire beside? Go forth, my soul, in this thy might. The eternal God is thine helper!--_Spurgeon._ =February 18th.= _To every man his work. Mark xiii. 34._ He does the most for God's great world who does the best in his own little world.--_Selected._ =February 19th.= _Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. John xxi. 10._ Why was this? Oh, the Lord wants us to minister to Him as well as to receive from Him, and our service finds its true end when it becomes food for our dear Lord. He was pleased to feed on their fish while they were feeding on His. It was the double banquet of which He speaks in the tender message of revelation, "I will sup with him, and he with Me."--_A. B. Simpson._ =February 20th.= _By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. Heb. xi. 8._ Whither he went, he knew not; it was enough for him to know that he went with God. He leant not so much upon the promises as upon the Promiser. He looked not on the difficulties of his lot, but on the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, who had deigned to appoint his course, and would certainly vindicate Himself. O glorious faith! This is thy work, these are thy possibilities: contentment to sail with sealed orders, because of unwavering confidence in the love and wisdom of the Lord High Admiral: willinghood to rise up, leave all, and follow Christ, because of the glad assurance that earth's best cannot bear comparison with heaven's least.--_F. B. Meyer._ =February 21st.= _The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. 1 Sam. ii. 3._ God does not _measure_ what we bring to Him. He _weighs_ it.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =February 22nd.= _After ye were illuminated ye endured a great fight of afflictions. Heb. x. 32._ Our boldness for God _before the world_ must always be the result of individual dealing with God _in secret_. Our victories over self, and sin, and the world, are always first fought where no eye sees but God's. . . . If we have not these _secret_ conflicts, well may we not have any _open_ ones. The _outward_ absence of conflict betrays the _inward_ sleep of the soul.--_F. Whitfield._ =February 23d.= _Philip findeth Nathaniel and saith unto him, We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write. . . . Come and see. John i. 45, 46._ The next thing to knowing that "we have found Him" is to find someone else, and say, "Come and see."--_Frances Ridley Havergal._ =February 24th.= _The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit. John iii. 8._ We know that the wind listeth to blow where there is a vacuum. If you find a tremendous rush of wind, you know that somewhere there is an empty space. I am perfectly sure about this fact: if we could expel all pride, vanity, self-righteousness, self-seeking, desire for applause, honor, and promotion--if by some divine power we should be utterly emptied of all that, the Spirit would come as a rushing mighty wind to fill us.--_A. J. Gordon._ =February 25th.= _Thy gentleness hath made me great. 2 Sam. xxii. 36._ The gentleness of Christ is the comeliest ornament that a Christian can wear.--_William Arnot._ =February 26th.= _Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. Gen. xxxii. 1._ It is in the path where God has bade us walk that we shall find the angels around us. We may meet them, indeed, on paths of our own choosing, but it will be the sort of angel that Balaam met, with a sword in his hand, mighty and beautiful, but wrathful too; and we had better not front him! But the friendly helpers, the emissaries of God's love, the apostles of His grace, do not haunt the roads that we make for ourselves.--_Alex. McLaren._ =February 27th.= _I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me. John xiv. 6._ Heaven often seems distant and unknown, but if He who made the road thither is our guide, we need not fear to lose the way. We do not want to see far ahead--only far enough to discern Him and trace His footsteps. . . . They who follow Christ, even through darkness, will surely reach the Father.--_Henry Van Dyke._ =February 28th.= _Forgetting those things which are behind . . . I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Phil. iii. 13, 14._ It is not by regretting what is irreparable that true work is to be done, but by making the best of what we are. It is not by complaining that we have not the right tools, but by using well the tools we have. What we are, and where we are, is God's providential arrangement--God's doing, though it may be man's misdoing. Life is a series of mistakes, and he is not the best Christian who makes the fewest false steps. He is the best who wins the most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes.--_F. W. Robertson._ [Illustration: MARCH] =March 1st.= _Come up in the morning . . . and present thyself unto me in the top of the mount. Ex. xxxiv. 2._ The morning is the time fixed for my meeting the Lord. This very word _morning_ is as a cluster of rich grapes. Let me crush them, and drink the sacred wine. In the morning! Then God means me to be at my best in strength and hope. I have not to climb in my weakness. In the night I have buried yesterday's fatigue, and in the morning I take a new lease of energy. Sweet morning! There is hope in its music. Blessed is the day whose morning is sanctified! Successful is the day whose first victory was won in prayer! Holy is the day whose dawn finds thee on the top of the mount! Health is established in the morning. Wealth is won in the morning. The light is brightest in the morning. "Wake, psaltery and harp; I myself will awake early."--_Joseph Parker._ =March 2nd.= _Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Gal. vi. 7._ The most common actions of life, its every day and hour, are invested with the highest grandeur, when we think how they extend their issues into eternity. Our hands are now sowing seeds for that great harvest. We shall meet again all we are doing and have done. The graves shall give up their dead, and from the tombs of oblivion the past shall give up all that it holds in keeping, to bear true witness for or against us.--_Guthrie._ =March 3rd.= _There are eleven days' journey from Horeb, by the way of mount Seir, unto Kadesh-barnea. Deut. i. 2._ Eleven days, and yet it took them forty years! How was this? Alas! we need not travel far for the answer. It is only too like ourselves. How slowly we get over the ground! What windings and turnings! How often we have to go back and travel over the same ground, again and again. We are slow travelers because we are slow learners. Our God is a faithful and wise, as well as a gracious and patient Teacher. He will not permit us to pass cursorily over our lessons. Sometimes, perhaps, we think we have mastered a lesson and we attempt to move on to another, but our wise Teacher knows better, and He sees the need of deeper ploughing. He will not have us mere theorists or smatterers; He will keep us, if need be, year after year at our scales until we learn to sing.--=C. H. M.= =March 4th.= _If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John i. 9._ The same moment which brings the consciousness of sin ought to bring also the confession of it and the consciousness of forgiveness.--_Smith._ =March 5th.= _As captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. Josh. v. 14._ Surely Israel might now face the foe with unwavering confidence, and sing of victory even before the battle was gained. And so may the Christian. It is to no conflict of uncertain issue that he advances; the result of the battle is not doubtful. The struggle may be severe, the warfare long; he may sometimes, like the pilgrim, be beaten to the ground, and well-nigh lose his sword; but "though cast down" he is "not destroyed." The Captain of salvation is on his side, and in the midst of sharpest conflict he can say, "Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."--_S. A. Blackwood._ =March 6th.= _To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Phil. i. 21._ Live in Christ, and you are in the suburbs of heaven. There is but a thin wall between you and the land of praises. You are within one hour's sailing of the shore of the new Canaan.--_William Rutherford._ =March 7th.= _He that sent me is with me; the Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please Him. John viii. 29._ He who holds nearest communion with heaven can best discharge the duties of everyday life.--_Selected._ =March 8th.= _Quench not the Spirit. 1 Thess. v. 19._ In order that you may not quench the Spirit, you must make it a constant study to know what is the mind of the Spirit. You must discriminate with the utmost care between His suggestions and the suggestions of your own deceitful heart. You will keep in constant recollection what are the offices of the Spirit as described by Christ in the Gospel of John. You will be on your guard against impulsive movements, inconsiderate acts, rash words. You will abide in prayer. Search the Word. Confess Christ on all possible occasions. Seek the society of His people. Shrink from conformity to the world, its vain fashions, unmeaning etiquette. Be scrupulous in your reading. "What I say unto you, I say unto all, watch!" "Have oil in your lamps." "Quench not the Spirit."--_Bowen._ =March 9th.= _When He cometh into the world, He saith, . . . A body hast Thou prepared me. Heb. x. 5._ This word of Christ must be adopted by each of His followers. Nothing will help us to live in this world and keep ourselves unspotted but the Spirit that was in Christ, that looked upon His body as prepared by God for His service; that looks upon our body as prepared by Him too, that we might offer it to Him. Like Christ, we too have a body in which the Holy Spirit dwells. Like Christ, we too must yield our body, with every member, every power, every action, to fulfil His will, to be offered up to Him, to glorify Him. Like Christ, we must prove in our body that we are holy to the Lord.--_Andrew Murray._ =March 10th.= _Full of [satisfied with] years. Gen. xxv. 8._ Scaffoldings are for buildings, and the moments and days and years of our earthly lives are scaffolding. What are you building inside it? What kind of a structure will be disclosed when the scaffolding is knocked away? Days and years are ours, that they may give us what eternity cannot take away--a character built upon the love of God in Christ, and moulded into His likeness. Has your life helped you to do that? If so, you have got the best out of it, and your life is completed, whatever may be the number of its days. Quality, not quantity, is the thing that determines the perfectness of a life. Has your life this completeness?--_Alex. McLaren._ =March 11th.= _Keep yourselves in the love of God. Jude 21._ Fruit ripened in the sun is sweetest.--_Selected._ =March 12th.= _Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me. Acts i. 8._ Look at it! Think of it! A hundred and twenty men and women having no patronage, no promise of any earthly favor, no endowment, no wealth--a company of men and women having to get their living by common daily toil, and busied with all the household duties of daily life--and yet _they_ are to begin the conquests of Christianity! To them is entrusted a work which is to turn the world upside down. None so exalted but the influence of this lowly company shall reach to them, until the throne of the Cæsars is claimed for Christ. None so far off but the power of this little band gathered in an upper room shall extend to them until the whole world is knit into a brotherhood! Not a force is there on the earth, either of men or devils, but they shall overcome it, until every knee shall bow to their Master, and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord. A thing impossible, absurd, look at it as you will, until you admit this--_they are to be filled with the Holy Ghost_. Then difficulties melt into the empty air. Then there is no limit to their hopes, for there is no limit to their power. Their strength is not only "as the strength of ten," it is as the strength of the Almighty. This is Christ's idea of Christianity; the idea not of man--it is infinitely too sublime--the idea of God!--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =March 13th.= _He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing. John xv. 5._ Too much taken up with our work, we may forget our Master; it is possible to have the hand full, and the heart empty. Taken up with our Master we cannot forget our work; if the heart is filled with His love, how can the hands not be active in His service?--_Adolphe Monod._ =March 14th.= _He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me. John vi. 57._ To feed on Christ is to get His strength into us to be our strength. You feed on the corn field, and the strength of the corn field comes into you, and is your strength. You feed on Christ, and then go and live your life; and it is Christ in you that lives your life, that helps the poor, that tells the truth, that fights the battles, and that wins the crown.--_Phillips Brooks._ =Match 15th.= _I sought Him, but I found Him not. Song of Sol. iii. 1._ Tell me where you lost the company of Christ, and I will tell you the most likely place to find Him. Have you lost Christ in the closet by restraining prayer? Then it is there you must seek and find Him. Did you lose Christ by sin? You will find Him in no other way than by the giving up of the sin, and seeking by the Holy Spirit to mortify the member in which the lust doth dwell. Did you lose Christ by neglecting the Scriptures? You must find Him in the Scriptures. It is a true proverb, "Look for a thing where you dropped it; it is there." So look for Christ where you lost Him, for He has not gone away.--_Spurgeon._ =March 16th.= _Come behind in no gift. 1 Cor. i. 7._ The Scripture gives four names to Christians, taken from the four cardinal graces so essential to man's salvation: _Saints_ for their holiness, _believers_ for their faith, _brethren_ for their love, _disciples_ for their knowledge.--_Thomas Fuller._ =March 17th.= _They rest not day and night. Rev. iv. 8._ O blessed rest! When we rest not day and night, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!"--when we shall rest from sin, but not from worship; from suffering and sorrow, but not from joy! O blessed day, when I shall rest with God; when I shall rest in knowing, loving, rejoicing, and praising; when my perfect soul and body shall together perfectly enjoy the most perfect God; when God, who is love itself, shall perfectly love me, and rest in His love to me, and I shall rest in my love to Him; when He shall rejoice over me with joy, and joy over me with singing, and I shall rejoice in Him!--=Baxter.= =March 18th.= _They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk, and not faint. Isa. xl. 31._ The eagle that soars in the upper air does not worry itself as to how it is to cross rivers.--_Selected._ =March 19th.= _Their eyes were holden. Luke xxiv. 16._ _Their eyes were opened. Luke xxiv. 31._ There is much precious significance in this. The Lord is often present in our lives in things that we do not dream possess any significance. We are asking God about something which needs His mighty working, and the very instrument by which He is to work is by our side, perhaps for weeks and months and years all unrecognized, until suddenly, some day it grows luminous and glorious with the very presence of the Lord, and becomes the mighty instrument of His victorious working. He loves to show His hand through the unexpected. Often he keeps us from seeing His way until just before He opens it, and then, immediately that it is unfolded, we find that He was walking by our side in the very thing, long before we even suspected its meaning.--_A. B. Simpson._ =March 20th.= _All things work together for good to them that love God. Rom. viii. 28._ If our circumstances find us in God, we shall find God in all our circumstances.--_Selected._ =March 21st.= _He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Ps. xxiii. 3._ He always has a purpose in His leading. He knows where the bits of green pasture are, and He would lead His flock to these. The way may be rough, but it is the right way to the pasture. "Paths of righteousness" may not be straight paths; but they are paths that lead somewhere--to the right place. Many desert paths are illusive. They start out clear and plain, but soon they are lost in the sands. They go nowhere. But the paths of righteousness have a goal to which they unerringly lead.--_J. R. Miller._ =March 22nd.= _And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. Ex. iv. 13._ It was a very grudging assent. It was as much as to say, "Since Thou art determined to send me and I must undertake the mission, then let it be so; but I would that it might have been another, and I go because I am compelled." So often do we shrink back from the sacrifice or obligation to which God calls us, that we think we are going to our doom. We seek every reason for evading the divine will, little realizing that He is forcing us out from our quiet homes into a career which includes, among other things, the song of victory on the banks of the Red Sea; the two lonely sojourns for forty days in converse with God; the shining face; the vision of glory; the burial by the hand of Michael; and the supreme honor of standing beside the Lord on the Transfiguration mount.--_F. B. Meyer._ =March 23rd.= _See then that ye walk circumspectly. Eph. v. 15._ There is no such thing as negative influence. We are all positive in the place we occupy, making the world better or making it worse.--_T. DeWitt Talmage._ =March 24th.= _She took for him an ark of bulrushes . . . and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. Ex. ii. 3._ The mother of Moses laid the ark in the flags by the river's brink. Ay, but before doing so, she laid it on the heart of God! She could not have laid it so courageously upon the Nile, if she had not first devoutly laid it upon the care and love of God. We are often surprised at the outward calmness of men who are called upon to do unpleasant and most trying deeds; but could we have seen them in secret, we should have known the moral preparation which they underwent before coming out to be seen by men. Be right in the sanctuary, if you would be right in the market-place. Be steadfast in prayer, if you would be calm in affliction. Start your race from the throne of God itself, if you would run well, and win the prize.--_Joseph Parker._ =March 25th.= _Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Gal. vi. 2._ By lifting the burdens of others we lose our own.--_Selected._ =March 26th.= _I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. John xvii. 4._ Was the work of the Master indeed done? Was not its heaviest task yet to come? He had not yet met the dread hour of death. Why did He say that His work was done? It was because He knew that, when the will is given, the battle is ended. He was only in the shadows of the garden; but to conquer these shadows was already to conquer all. He who has willed to die has already triumphed over death. All that remains to Him is but the outer husk, the shell. The cup which our Father giveth us to drink is a cup for the will. It is easy for the lips to drain it when once the heart has accepted it. Not on the heights of Calvary, but in the shadows of Gethsemane is the cup presented; the act is easy after the choice. The real battle-field is in the silence of the spirit. Conquer there, and thou art crowned.--_George Matheson._ =March 27th.= _A great multitude . . . stood before the throne. Rev. vii. 9._ A _station on the feet_ in front of the throne in _heaven_ is the effect of being often _on the knees_ before the throne on _earth_.--_Selected._ =March 28th.= _God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. Gen. i. 4._ No sooner is there a good thing in the world than a _division is necessary_. Light and darkness have no communion; God has divided them, let us not confound them. Sons of light must not have fellowship with deeds, doctrines, or deceits of darkness. The children of the day must be sober, honest, and bold in their Lord's work, leaving the works of darkness to those who shall dwell in it forever. We should by our distinct separation from the world divide the light from the darkness. In judgment, in action, in hearing, in teaching, in association, we must discern between the precious and the vile, and maintain the great distinction which the Lord made upon the world's first day. O Lord Jesus, be Thou our light throughout the whole of this day, for Thy light is the light of men.--_Spurgeon._ =March 29th.= _The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Prov. iv. 18._ Have I begun this path of heavenly love and knowledge now? Am I progressing in it? Do I feel some dawnings of the heavenly light, earnests and antepasts of the full day of glory? Let all God's dealings serve to quicken me in my way. Let every affection it may please Him to send, be as the moving pillar-cloud of old, beckoning me to move my tent onward, saying, "Arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest." Let me be often standing now on faith's lofty eminences, looking for "the day of God"--the rising sun which is to set no more in weeping clouds. Wondrous progression! How will all earth's learning, its boasted acquirements and eagle-eyed philosophy sink into the lispings of very infancy in comparison with this manhood of knowledge! Heaven will be the true "_Excelsior_," its song, "_a song of degrees_," Jesus leading His people from height to height of glory, and saying, as He said to Nathaniel, "_Thou shalt see GREATER things than these!_"--_Macduff._ =March 30th.= _Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vineyards; for our vineyards are in blossom. Song of Sol. ii. 15. (R. V.)_ How numerous the little foxes are! Little compromises with the world; disobedience to the still, small voice in little things; little indulgences of the flesh to the neglect of duty; little strokes of policy; doing evil in little things that good may come; and the beauty, and the fruitfulness of the vine are sacrificed!--_J. Hudson Taylor._ =March 31st.= _The children of your Father which is in heaven. Matt. v. 45._ The best name by which we can think of God is Father. It is a loving, deep, sweet, heart-touching name, for the name of father is in its nature full of inborn sweetness and comfort. Therefore, also, we must confess ourselves children of God, for by this name we deeply touch our God, since there is not a sweeter sound to the father than the voice of the child.--_Martin Luther._ [Illustration: APRIL] =April 1st.= _In the morning came the word of the Lord unto me. Ezek. xii. 8._ A quiet hour spent alone with God at the beginning of the day is the best beginning for the toils and cares of active business. A brief season of prayer, looking above for wisdom and grace and strength, and seeking for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, helps us to carry our religion into the business of the day. It brings joy and peace within the heart. And as we place all our concerns in the care and keeping of the Lord, faithfully striving to do His will, we have a joyful trust that however dark or discouraging events may appear, our Father's hand is guiding everything, and will give the wisest direction to all our toils.--_Selected._ =April 2nd.= _The Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Gen. ii. 7._ And so this soul of mine is a compound of two worlds--dust and deity! It touches the boundary line of two hemispheres. It is allied on one side to the divine; on the other, to the beast of the field. Its beginning is from beneath, but its culmination is from above; it is started from the dust of the ground, but it is finished in the breath of God. My soul, art thou living up to thy twofold origin? Art thou remembering thy double parentage, and therefore thy double duty? Thou hast a duty to thy God, for His breath is in thee; thou hast a duty to the earth, for out of it wast thou taken.--_George Matheson._ =April 3rd.= _Always rejoicing. 2 Cor. vi. 10._ No Christian can ever know what is meant by those two little words, "always rejoicing," but the Christian who takes up his cross and follows Jesus.--_W. Hay Aitken._ =April 4th.= _All the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. Gen. xiii. 15._ God's promises are ever on the ascending scale. One leads up to another, fuller and more blessed than itself. In Mesopotamia God said, "I will show thee the land." At Bethel, "This is the land." Here, "I will give thee all the land, and children innumerable as the grains of sand." And we shall find even these eclipsed. It is thus that God allures us to saintliness. Not giving anything till we have dared to act--that He may test us. Not giving everything at first--that He may not overwhelm us. And always keeping in hand an infinite reserve of blessing. Oh, the unexplored remainders of God! Whoever saw His last star?--_F. B. Meyer._ =April 5th.= _That night they caught nothing. John xxi. 3._ God may let the sinful world succeed in their forbidden schemes, but, blessed be His name, He does not allow His chosen ones to prosper in the path which leads them out of His holy will! He has a storm to send after every Jonah, and an empty net for every unbelieving and inconsistent Simon.--_A. B. Simpson._ =April 6th.= _They made me keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept. Song of Sol. i. 6._ Our attention is here drawn to a danger which is preeminently one of this day: the intense activity of our times may lead to zeal in service _to the neglect of personal communion_; but such neglect will not only lessen the value of the service, but tend to incapacitate us for the highest service.--_J. Hudson Taylor._ =April 7th.= _We came unto the land whither thou sentest us . . . we saw the children of Anak there. Num. xiii. 27, 28._ It is when we are in the way of _duty_ that we find _giants_. It was when Israel was going _forward_ that the giants appeared. When they turned back into the wilderness they found none.--_Selected._ =April 8th.= _Each one resembled the children of a king. Judg. viii. 18._ Frances Ridley Havergal says: "If the King is indeed near of kin to us, the royal likeness will be recognizable." =April 9th.= _He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. Psa. xxiii. 2._ This suggests the rest into which our Good Shepherd leads His flock. Life is not all toil. God gives us many quiet resting-places in our pilgrim way. Night is one of these, when, after the day's toil, struggle, and exhaustion, we are led aside, and the curtains are drawn to shut out the noise, and He giveth His beloved sleep, in sleep giving the wonderful blessings of renewal. The Sabbath is another of these quiet resting-places. God would have us drop our worldly tasks, and have a day for the refreshing of both body and soul. . . . Friendship's trysts are also quiet resting-places, where heart may commune with heart, where Jesus comes, too, unseen, and gives His blessing. All ordinances of Christian worship--seasons of prayer and devotion, hours of communion with God--are quiet resting-places. Far more than we are apt to realize do we need these silent times in our busy life, needing them all the more the busier the life may be.--_J. R. Miller._ =April 10th.= _A daily rate for every day. 2 Kings xxv. 30._ One staff aids a traveler, but a bundle of staves is a heavy burden.--_Spurgeon._ =April 11th.= _Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Gal. vi. 2._ However perplexed you may at any hour become about some question of truth, one refuge and resource is always at hand: you can do something for some one beside yourself. At the times when you cannot see God, there is still open to you this sacred possibility, to _show_ God: for it is the love and kindness of human hearts through which the divine reality comes home to men, whether they name it or not. Let this thought, then, stay with you: there may be times when you cannot _find_ help, but there is no time when you cannot _give_ help.--_George Merriam._ =April 12th.= _Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Phil. ii. 12, 13._ It is not your business and mine to study whether we shall get to heaven, or even to study whether we shall be good men; it is our business to study how we shall come into the midst of the purposes of God and have the unspeakable privilege in these few years of doing something of His work.--_Phillips Brooks._ =April 13th.= _God . . . hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. iv. 6._ Christian! rest not until thou knowest the full, the unbroken shining of God in thy heart. To this end, yield to every stirring of it that shows thee some unconquered and perhaps unconquerable evil. Just bring it to the light; let the light shine upon it, and shine it out. Wait upon the Lord more than watchers for the morning, for "the path of the just is as the shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day." Count upon it that God wants to fill thee with the light of His glory: wait on Him more than watchers for the morning. "Wait, I say, on the Lord."--_Andrew Murray._ =April 14th.= _My soul, wait thou only upon God. Psa. lxii. 5._ Did it ever occur to you that if you do not hear God's answer to prayer, it may be not because He is dumb, but because you are deaf; not because He has no answer to give, but because you have not been listening for it? We are so busy with our service, so busy with our work, and sometimes so busy with our praying, that it does not occur to us to stop our own talking and listen if God has some answer to give us with "the still small voice"; to be passive, to be quiet, to do nothing, say nothing, in some true sense think nothing; simply to be receptive and waiting for the voice. "Wait thou only upon God," says the Psalmist; and again "Wait on the Lord."--_Selected._ =April 15th.= _Could ye not watch with me one hour? Matt. xxvi. 40._ Oh! ye who sigh and languish, and mourn your lack of power, Heed ye this gentle whisper, "Could ye not watch one hour?" To fruitfulness and blessing, there is no "royal road"; The power for holy service is intercourse with God. --_Selected._ =April 16th.= _My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me. John iv. 34._ Seek your life's nourishment in your life's work.--_Phillips Brooks._ =April 17th.= _It is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Phil. ii. 13._ Full salvation is to realize that everything we see in Christ, our Example, may be ours, not by imitation, but by reproduction.--_Selected._ =April 18th.= _Lo, I am with you all the days. Matt, xxviii. 20. (R. V., margin.)_ "ALL THE DAYS"--in winter days, when joys are fled; in sunless days, when the clouds return again and again after rain; in days of sickness and pain; in days of temptation and perplexity, as much as in days when the heart is as full of joy as the woodlands in spring are full of song. That day never comes when the Lord Jesus is not at the side of His saints. Lover and friend may stand afar, but He walks with them through the fires; He fords with them the rivers; He stands by them when face to face with the lion. We can never be alone. We must always add His resources to our own when making our calculations.--_F. B. Meyer._ =April 19th.= _Having . . . boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus . . . let us draw near with a true heart. Heb. x. 19, 22._ Oh, the glory of the message! For fifteen centuries Israel had a sanctuary with a Holiest of All, into which, under pain of death, no one might enter. Its one witness was: Man cannot dwell in God's presence; cannot abide in His fellowship. And now how changed is all! As then the warning sounded: "No admittance! enter not!" so now the call goes forth: "Enter in! the veil is rent; the Holiest is open; God waits to welcome you to His bosom; henceforth you are to live with Him." This is the message. Child! thy Father longs for thee to enter, to dwell, and to go out no more forever.--_Andrew Murray._ =April 20th.= _There stood by me this night the angel of God . . . saying, Fear not, Paul. . . . God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore . . . be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. Acts xxvii. 23, 24, 25._ An active faith can give thanks for a promise, though it be not yet performed; knowing that God's bonds are as good as ready money.--_Matthew Henry._ =April 21st.= _In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Phil, iv. 6._ The natural temptation with every difficulty is to plan for it, to put it out of the way yourself; but stop short with all your planning, your thinking, your worry, and talk to Him! "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee." You may not always be able to do this in a moment or two. Then keep on with supplication until you know He has it, and prayer becomes praise. Rest, trust, and wait, and see how He does that which you wanted to do, and had so much care about. "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord."--_A. E. Funk._ =April 22nd.= _They that wait upon the Lord shall . . . mount up with wings as eagles. Isa. xl. 31._ All creatures that have wings can escape from every snare that is set for them, if only they will fly high enough; and the soul that uses its wings can always find a sure "way to escape" from all that can hurt or trouble it.--_Smith._ =April 23rd.= _Perfect love casteth out fear. 1 John iv. 18._ Fear and love rise up in antagonism to each other as motives in life, like those two mountains from which respectively the blessings and curses of the old law were pronounced--the Mount of Cursing all barren, stony, without verdure and without water; the Mount of Blessing green and bright with many a flower, and blessed with many a trickling rill. Fear is barren. Love is fruitful. The one is a slave, and its work is little worth. The other is free, and its deeds are great and precious. From the blasted summit of the mountain which gendereth to bondage may be heard the words of the law; but the power to keep all these laws must be sought on the sunny hill where liberty dwells in love and gives energy to obedience. Therefore, if you would use in your own life the highest power that God has given us for our growth in grace, draw your arguments, not from fear, but from love.--_Alex. McLaren._ =April 24th.= _The love of Christ constraineth us. 2 Cor. v. 14._ The love of Christ is too large for any heart to hold it. It will overflow into others' hearts: it will give itself out, give itself away, for the enriching of other lives. The heart of Christ is a costly thing for any one to have. It will lead those who have it where it led Him. If it cost Him the cross, it will cost them no less.--_J. M. Campbell._ =April 25th.= _I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee. Isa. xli. 13._ Don't try to hold God's hand; let Him hold yours. Let Him do the _holding_, and you do the _trusting_.--_H. W. Webb Peploe._ =April 26th.= _Consider how great things He hath done for you. 1 Sam. xii. 24._ Look back on all the way the Lord your God has led you. Do you not see it dotted with ten thousand blessings in disguise? Call to mind the needed succor sent at the critical moment; the right way chosen for you, in stead of the wrong way you had chosen for yourself; the hurtful thing to which your heart so fondly clung, removed out of your path; the breathing-time granted, which your tried and struggling spirit just at the moment needed. Oh, has not Jesus stood at your side when you knew it not? Has not Infinite Love encircled every event with its everlasting arms, and gilded every cloud with its merciful lining? Oh, retrace your steps, and mark His footprint in each one! Thank Him for them all, and learn the needed lesson of leaning more simply on Jesus.--_F. Whitfield._ =April 27th.= _He . . . said . . . I . . . hid thy talent in the earth. . . . His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant. Matt. xxv. 24-26._ Between the great things we cannot do and the small things we will not do, the danger is that we shall do nothing.--_Monod._ =April 28th.= _To Him be glory both now and forever. 2 Pet. iii. 18._ Believer, you are anticipating the time when you shall join the saints above in ascribing all glory to Jesus; but are you glorifying Him _now_? The apostle's words are, "To Him be glory both _now_ and forever."--_C. H. Spurgeon._ =April 29th.= _Thou shall know that I am the Lord: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. Isa. xlix. 23._ J. Hudson Taylor says: "Quiet waiting before God could save from many a mistake and from many a sorrow." =April 30th.= _Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. Matt. xv. 28._ Oh, the victories of prayer! They are the mountain-tops of the Bible. They take us back to the plains of Mamre, to the fords of Peniel, to the prison of Joseph, to the triumphs of Moses, to the transcendent victories of Joshua, to the deliverances of David, to the miracles of Elijah and Elisha, to the whole story of the Master's life, to the secret of Pentecost, to the key-note of Paul's unparalleled ministry, to the lives of saints and the deaths of martyrs, to all that is most sacred and sweet in the history of the Church and the experience of the children of God. And when, for us, the last conflict shall have passed, and the footstool of prayer shall have given place to the harp of praise, the spots of time that shall be gilded with the most celestial and eternal radiance, shall be those, often linked with deepest sorrow and darkest night, over which we have the inscription, "Jehovah-Shammah: The Lord was there!"--_A. B. Simpson._ [Illustration: MAY] =May 1st.= _Thou art my God: early will I seek Thee. Psa. lxiii. 1._ In a world where there is so much to ruffle the spirit's plumes, how needful that entering into the secret of God's pavilion, which will alone bring it back to composure and peace! In a world where there is so much to sadden and depress, how blessed the communion with Him in whom is the one true source and fountain of all true gladness and abiding joy! In a world where so much is ever seeking to unhallow our spirits, to render them common and profane, how high the privilege of consecrating them anew in prayer to holiness and to God.--_Archbishop Trench._ =May 2nd.= _In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. John i. 4. Ye are the light of the world. Matt. v. 14._ In the light we can walk and work. We walk in the light and become entirely children of light. We let our light, the light of God, shine, so that men may see our good works, and glorify our Father in heaven. Gently, silently, lovingly, unceasingly, we give ourselves to transmit the light and the love God so unceasingly shines into us. Our one work is to wait, and admit, and then transmit the light of God in Christ.--_Andrew Murray._ =May 3d.= _Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. 1 Cor. xv. 58._ Activity in doing good is one recipe for being cheerful Christians; it is like exercise to the body, and it keeps the soul in health.--_Bishop Ryle._ =May 4th.= _Looking up to heaven He sighed. Mark vii. 34._ Too often we sigh and look within; Jesus sighed and looked without. We sigh, and look down; Jesus sighed, and looked up. We sigh, and look to earth; Jesus sighed, and looked to heaven. We sigh, and look to man; Jesus sighed, and looked to God.--_Stork._ =May 5th.= _We glory in tribulations. Rom. v. 3._ Have you ever thought that some day you will never have anything to try you or anybody to vex you again?--_A. B. Simpson._ =May 6th.= _Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Col. iii. 2._ He who has his affections set on things above is like one who hangs on by the skies; and, having a secure hold of these, could say, though he saw the world roll away from beneath his feet, "My heart is fixed; my heart is fixed; O Lord, I will sing and give praise!"--_Guthrie._ =May 7th.= _The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. Luke xxiv. 34._ _They . . . gladly received (Peter's) word; and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. Acts ii. 41._ Before the Lord can use us in His service we must have close individual dealing with Himself. He always will have to do in _secret_ with that soul that He intends to use in blessing others. Do you want to speak for Jesus to those around you? Then you must go to Jesus Himself for your message. What you say _for_ Jesus must be got _from_ Jesus. Oh, how much breath falls powerless on every side because it has not been inhaled in the sanctuary! We want more secret dealing with the living God. We run without being sent: we speak before God has spoken to us: no wonder we so often fail. Oh, what secret prayer and what heart-searching discipline the heart needs before God can use it!--_F. Whitfield._ =May 8th.= _The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul. Prov. xiii. 25._ Christ must satisfy; then, if we are not satisfied, it must be because we are not feeding on Him wholly and only. The fault is not in the provision which is made.--_Frances Ridley Havergal._ =May 9th.= _Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Heb. xii. 6._ It has been well said that "earthly cares are a heavenly discipline," but they are even something better than discipline; they are God's chariots, sent to take the soul to its high places of triumph. In the Canticles we are told of "a chariot paved with love." We cannot always see the love lining to our own particular chariot--it often looks very unlovely; but every chariot sent by God must necessarily be paved with love, since God is love. It is His love, indeed, that sends the chariot. Look upon your chastenings, then, no matter how grievous they may be for the present, as God's chariots, sent to carry your souls into the "high places" of spiritual achievement and uplifting, and you will find that they are, after all, "paved with love."--_Smith._ =May 10th.= _The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. 1 John i. 7._ Learn a lesson from the eye of the miner, who all day long is working amid the flying coal dust. When he emerges in the light of day his face may be grimy enough; but his eyes are clear and lustrous, because the fountain of tears in the lachrymal gland is ever pouring its gentle tides over the eye, cleansing away each speck of dust as soon as it alights. Is not this the miracle of cleansing which our spirits need in such a world as this? And this is what our blessed Lord is prepared to do for us by His cleansing blood, if only we will trust Him.--_F. B. Meyer._ =May 11th.= _Whatsoever He sayeth unto you, do it. John ii. 5._ Florence Nightingale said: "If I could give you information of my life, it would be to show how a woman of very ordinary ability has been led by God in strange and unaccustomed paths to do in His service what He has done in her. And if I could tell you all, you would see how God has done all, and I nothing. I have worked hard, very hard, that is all; and I have never refused God anything." =May 12th.= _I know how to abound. Phil. iv. 12._ It is a dangerous thing to be prosperous. The crucible of adversity is a less severe trial to the Christian than the refining-pot of prosperity. It needs more than human skill to carry the brimming cup of mortal joy with a steady hand; yet Paul had learned that skill, for he declares, "In all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry." When we have much of God's providential mercies it often happens that we have but little of God's grace; satisfied with earth, we are content to do without heaven. Rest assured, it is harder to know how to be full than it is to know how to be hungry, so desperate is the tendency of human nature to pride and forgetfulness of God. Take care that you ask in your prayers that God would teach you "how to be full."--_Spurgeon._ =May 13th.= _Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Luke xiv. 11._ . . . If you ask the way to the crown--'tis by the cross; to the mountain--'tis by the valley; to exaltation 'tis he that humbleth himself.--_J. H. Evans._ =May 14th.= _For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. John xvii. 19._ Do you remember, when Jesus was sitting with His disciples at the last supper, how He lifted up His voice and prayed, and in the midst of His prayer there came these wondrous words: "For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified"? Is there anything in all the teachings that man has had from the lips of God that is nobler, that is more far-reaching than that--to be my best not simply for my own sake, but for the sake of the world? You can help your fellow-men--you must help your fellow-men; but the only way you can help them is by being the noblest and the best man that it is possible for you to be.--_Phillips Brooks._ =May 15th.= _He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. Prov. xvi. 32._ More dear in the sight of God and His angels than any other conquest is the conquest of self, which each man, with the help of heaven, can secure for himself.--_Dean Stanley._ =May 16th.= _For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him: therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. 1 Sam. i. 27, 28._ God sometimes bestows gifts just that love may have something to renounce. The things that He puts into our hands are possibly put there that we may have the opportunity of showing what is in our heart. Oh, that there were in us a fervor of love that would lead us to examine everything that belongs to us, to ascertain how it might be made a means of showing our affection to Christ!--_George Bowen._ =May 17th.= _Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Matt. vi. 33._ We need have only one care, that we put the first thing first--faithfulness to God. Then all else we need for both worlds will be supplied. God will never fail us; but we forget, sometimes, in our rejoicing over such an assurance, that we must fulfil our part if we would claim the divine promise. It will not always be easy. To-morrow it may mean a distasteful task, a disagreeable duty, a costly sacrifice for one who does not seem worthy. Life is full of sore testings of our willingness to follow the Good Shepherd. We have not the slightest right to claim this assurance unless we have taken Christ as the guide of our life.--_J. R. Miller._ =May 18th.= _His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Psa. xxxiv. 1._ Let not thy praises be transient--a fit of music, and then the instrument hung by the wall till another gaudy day of some remarkable providence makes thee take it down. God comes not guestwise to His saints' house, but to dwell with them. David took this up for a life work: "As long as I live, I will praise thee."--_Gurnall._ =May 19th.= _I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. Num. xi. 14._ It is most needful for all servants of Christ to remember that whenever the Lord places a man in a position of responsibility, He will both fit him for it and maintain him in it. It is, of course, another thing altogether if a man will rush unsent into any field of work, or any post of difficulty or danger. In such a case we may assuredly look for a thorough breakdown, sooner or later. But when God calls a man to a certain position, He will endow him with the needed grace to occupy it. This holds good in every case. We can never fail if we only cling to the living God. We can never run dry if we are drawing from the fountain. Our tiny springs will soon dry up; but our Lord Jesus Christ declares, "He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."--_C. H. M._ =May 20th.= _Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone: because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Isa. vi. 5._ It is not the sight of our sinful heart that humbles us; it is a sight of Jesus Christ. I am undone because mine eyes have seen the King.--_Andrew A. Bonar._ =May 21st.= _While I was musing the fire burned. Psa. xxxix. 3._ My soul, if thou wouldst muse more, the fire would burn more. Why dost thou not retire oftener with thyself? Thou wouldst be better fitted for the world if thou wert less worldly. If thou hadst more heavenly fire thou wouldst have more earthly power. Is there no secret pavilion into which thou canst go and warm thyself? Is there no holy of holies where thou canst catch a glow of impulse that will make thee strong? Is it not written of the Son of Man that "as He _prayed_ the fashion of His countenance was altered"? Yes; it was from His prayer that His transfigured glory came. It was from the glow of His heart that there issued the glow of His countenance. It was when He was musing that the fire kindled. O my soul, wouldst thou have thy life glorified, beautified, transfigured to the eyes of men? Get thee up into the secret place of God's pavilion, where the fires of love are burning. Thy life shall shine gloriously to the dwellers on the plain. Thy prayers shall be luminous; they shall light thy face like the face of Moses when he wist not that it shone. Thy words shall be burning; they will kindle many a heart journeying on the road to Emmaus. Thy path shall be lambent; when thou hast prayed in Elijah's solitude thou shalt have Elijah's chariot of fire.--_George Matheson._ =May 22nd.= _Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in nowise lose his reward. Matt. x. 42._ We are in danger of looking too far for opportunities of doing good and communicating. In reaching for rhododendrons we trample down the daisies.--_Selected._ =May 23rd.= _Hide thyself by the brook. 1 Kings xvii. 3._ Not by the _river_, but by the _brook_. The river would always contain an abundant supply, but the brook might dry up at any moment. What does this teach us? God does not place His people in luxuriance here. The world's abundance might withdraw their affections from Him. He gives them not the river, but the brook. The brook may be running to-day, to-morrow it may be dried up. And wherefore does God act thus? To teach us that we are not to rest in His gifts and blessings, but in Himself. This is what our hearts are always doing--resting in the gift, instead of the Giver. Therefore God cannot trust us by the river, for it unconsciously takes up His place in the heart. It is said of Israel that when they were full they forgot God.--_F. Whitfield._ =May 24th.= _His kingdom ruleth over all. Psa. ciii. 19._ _His kingdom ruleth over all_--therefore thou canst find nothing which is not matter for praise, since there is nothing which is not the matter of thy Lord's gracious permission, or planning, or control. _Over all_--nowhere canst thou step outside His realm, nor in anything get beyond His care and government. _Over all_--therefore take all as from God; hold all as from God; and by thy gratitude give all back to God again, and thus complete the circle, making Him the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending of all things.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =May 25th.= _If we suffer we shall also reign with Him. 2 Tim. ii. 12._ The highest bidder for the crown of glory is the lowliest wearer of the cross of self-denial.--_A. J. Gordon._ =May 26th.= _Keep thy heart with all diligence: for out of it are the issues of life. Prov. iv. 23._ He who would keep his heart pure and holy, must plant a sentinel at every avenue by which sin may find access there, guarding against none more than the "little" sins, as they are called. The man of God has his _eyes_ to keep, and so Job said, "I have made a covenant with mine eyes"--his _tongue_, and hence the exhortation, "Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile"--his _ears_, and hence the warning, "Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err"--his _feet_, and hence David says, "I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep Thy word." And since there is no gate of the five senses by which the enemy may not come in like a flood, unless the Spirit lift up a standard against him, we have need to guard every port, and write over every portal, "Here there entereth nothing to hurt or to defile."--_Guthrie._ =May 27th.= _Whatsoever ye do, . . . do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Col. iii. 17._ Do little things as if they were great, because of the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ, who dwells in thee; and do great things as if they were little and easy, because of His omnipotence.--_Pascal._ =May 28th.= _Him they compelled to bear His cross. Matt. xxvii. 32._ There are many Christians of whom this is true. They are compelled to bear the cross, but how does it come? It comes by their running away from it. They make up their minds they won't have Christ's cross; and they find when the cross does come that it comes in a more terrible form, with a more crushing weight than ever it would have come had they only been content to submit themselves to the divine direction; for the cross has to come to all who are to be prepared for glory hereafter.--_W. Hay Aitken._ =May 29th.= _Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world. Gal. i. 4._ Attachment to Christ is the only secret of detachment from the world.--_A. J. Gordon._ =May 30th.= _Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Matt. v. 14._ Lamps do not talk, but they do shine. A lighthouse sounds no drum, it beats no gong; and yet far over the waters its friendly spark is seen by the mariner. So let your actions shine out your religion. Let the main sermon of your life be illustrated by all your conduct.--_Spurgeon._ =May 31st.= _Without me ye can do nothing. John xv. 5._ _I can do all things, through Christ which strengtheneth me. Phil. iv. 13._ Apart from Him we can do nothing. Whilst we are abiding in Him nothing is impossible. The one purpose of our life should therefore be to remain in living and intense union with Christ, guarding against everything that would break it, employing every means of cementing and enlarging it. And just in proportion as we do so, we shall find His strength flowing into us for every possible emergency. We may not feel its presence; but we shall find it present whenever we begin to draw on it. There is no temptation which we cannot master; no privation which we cannot patiently bear; no difficulty with which we cannot cope; no work which we cannot perform; no confession or testimony which we cannot make, if only our souls are living in healthy union with Jesus Christ; for as our day or hour, so shall our strength be.--_F. B. Meyer._ [Illustration: JUNE] =June 1st.= _As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. John xx. 21._ We should never leave our room until we have seen the face of our dear Master, Christ, and have realized that we are being sent forth by Him to do His will, and to finish the work which He has given us to do. He who said to His immediate followers, "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you," says as much to each one of us, as the dawn summons us to live another day. We should realize that we are as much sent forth by Him as the angels who "do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word." There is some plan for each day's work, which He will unfold to us, if only we will look up to Him to do so; some mission to fulfil; some ministry to perform; some lesson patiently to learn, that we may be able to "reach others also." As to our plans we need not be anxious; because He who sends us forth is responsible to make the plan, according to His infinite wisdom; and to reveal it to us, however dull and stupid our faculties may be. And as to our sufficiency, we are secure of having all needful grace; because He never sends us forth, except He first breathes on us and says, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." There is always a special endowment for special power.--_F. B. Meyer._ =June 2nd.= _A fountain . . . for sin and for uncleanness. Zech. xiii. 1._ You that have faith in the Fountain, _frequent it_. Beware of two errors which are very natural and very disastrous. Beware of thinking any sin too great for it; beware of thinking any sin too small. There is not a sin so little, but it may be the germ of everlasting perdition; there is not a sin so enormous, but a drop of atoning blood will wash it away as utterly as if it were drowned in the depths of the sea.--_James Hamilton._ =June 3rd.= _I am black . . . as the tents of Kedar. Song of Sol. i. 5._ _I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me. Song of Sol. vii. 10._ Nothing humbles the soul like sacred and intimate communion with the Lord; yet there is a sweet joy in feeling that _He_ knows _all_, and, notwithstanding, loves us still.--_J. Hudson Taylor._ =June 4th.= _David enquired of the Lord. 2 Sam. v. 19._ Christian, if thou wouldst know the path of duty, take God for thy compass; if thou wouldst steer thy ship through the dark billows, put the tiller into the hand of the Almighty. Many a rock might be escaped if we would let our Father take the helm; many a shoal or quicksand we might well avoid if we would leave it to His sovereign will to choose and to command. The Puritan said, "As sure as ever a Christian carves for himself he'll cut his own fingers." "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go," is God's promise to His people. Let us, then, take all our perplexities to Him and say, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Leave not thy chamber this morning without _enquiring of the Lord_.--_Spurgeon._ =June 5th.= _A certain man . . . who never had walked . . . heard Paul speak: who . . . perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said . . . Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. Acts xiv. 8, 9, 10._ Where true faith is, it will induce obedience and where it does induce obedience, it will always, in one form or another, bring a blessing.--_W. Hay Aitken._ =June 6th.= _Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord . . . I know that . . . whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto Him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. John xi. 21, 22, 23, 24._ Beware, in your prayer, above everything, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things, _above all that_ we ask or think. Each time you intercede, be quiet first and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, of how He delights to hear Christ, of your place in Christ; and expect great things.--_Andrew Murray._ =June 7th.= _As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Gal. iii. 27._ Not simply the righteousness of our Savior, not simply the beauty of His holiness or the graces of His character, are we to put on as a garment. The Lord Himself is our vesture. Every Christian is not only a Christ-bearer but a Christ-wearer. We are so to enter into Him by communion, to be so endued with His presence, and embued with His Spirit that men shall see Him when they behold us, as they see our garments when they look upon our bodies.--=A. J. Gordon.= =June 8th.= _Thou shalt never wash my feet. John xiii. 8._ Whatever hinders us from receiving a blessing that God is willing to bestow upon us is not humility, but the mockery of it. A genuine humility will ever feel the need of the largest measures of grace, and will be perfected just in the degree in which that grace is bestowed. The truly humble man will seek to be filled with all the fulness of God, knowing that when so filled there is not the slightest place for pride or for self.--_George Bowen._ =June 9th.= _Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. Psa. lv. 22._ He that taketh his own cares upon himself loads himself with an uneasy burden. The fear of what _may_ come, expectation of what _will_ come, desire of what will _not_ come, and the inability to redress all these, must needs bring him continual torment. _I_ will cast my cares upon _God_: He hath bidden me. They cannot hurt Him: He can redress them.--_Hall._ =June 10th.= _Well done, good and faithful servant. . . . Thou wicked and slothful servant. Matt. xxv. 21, 26._ God holds us responsible not for what we _have_, but for what we _might have_; not for what we _are_, but for what we _might_ be.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =June 11th.= _Jesus constrained His disciples to get into a ship. Matt. xiv. 22._ Jesus _constrained_ them to go! One would think that if ever there was the certain promise of success in a mission, it was here. Surely, here, if anywhere, a triumphant issue might have been confidently predicted; and yet here, more than anywhere, there was seeming failure. He sent them out on a voyage, and they met such a storm as they had never yet experienced. Let me ponder this, for it has been so with me, too. I have sometimes felt myself impelled to act by an influence which seemed above me--constrained to put to sea. The belief that I was constrained gave me confidence, and I was sure of a calm voyage. But the result was outward failure. The calm became a storm; the sea raged, the winds roared, the ship tossed in the midst of the waves, and my enterprise was wrecked ere it could reach the land. Was, then, my divine command a delusion? Nay; nor yet was my mission a failure. He did send me on that voyage, but He did not send me for _my_ purpose. He had one end and I had another. My end was the outward calm; His was my meeting with the storm. My end was to gain the harbor of a material rest; His was to teach me there is a rest even on the open sea.--_George Matheson._ =June 12th.= _Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Tim. ii. 15._ Have thy tools ready; God will find thee work.--_Charles Kingsley._ =June 13th.= _Come out from among them, and be ye separate. 2 Cor. vi. 17._ With all the world in his choice, God placed His ancient people in a very remarkable situation. On the north they were walled in by the snowy ranges of Lebanon; a barren desert formed their eastern boundary; far to the south stretched a sterile region, called the howling wilderness; while the sea--not then, as now, the highway of the nations, facilitating rather than impeding intercourse--lay on their west, breaking on a shore that had few harbors and no navigable rivers to invite the steps of commerce. May we not find a great truth in the very position in which God placed His chosen people? It certainly teaches us that to be holy, or sanctified, we must be a separate people--living in the world, but not of it--as oil, that may be mixed, but cannot be combined with water.--_Guthrie._ =June 14th.= _I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land. Gen. xxviii. 15._ "With thee," companionship; "Keep thee," guardianship; "Bring thee," guidance. =June 15th.= _I have set thee . . . that thou shouldst be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. Acts xiii. 47._ _Ye shall be witnesses unto me . . . unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Acts i. 8._ Men are questioning now, as they never have questioned before, whether Christianity is, indeed, the true religion which is to be the salvation of the world. Christian men, it is for us to give our bit of answer to that question. It is for us, in whom the Christian church is at this moment partially embodied, to declare that Christianity, that the Christian faith, the Christian manhood can do that for the world which the world needs. You ask, "What can I do?" You can furnish one Christian life. You can furnish a life so faithful to every duty, so ready for every service, so determined not to commit every sin, that the great Christian church shall be the stronger for your living in it, and the problem of the world be answered, and a certain great peace come into this poor, perplexed, phase of our humanity as it sees that new revelation of what Christianity is.--_Phillips Brooks._ =June 16th.= _I know whom I have believed. 2 Tim. i. 12._ Personal acquaintance with Christ is a living thing. Like a tree that uses every hour for growth, it thrives in sunshine, it is refreshed by rain--even the storm drives it to fasten its grip more firmly in the earth for its support. So, troubled heart, in all experience, say, "This comes that I may make closer acquaintance with my Lord."--_Selected._ =June 17th.= _Wait for the promise of the Father. Acts i. 4._ _When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place . . . and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Acts ii. 1, 4._ Obedience to a divine prompting transforms it into a permanent acquisition.--_F. B. Meyer._ =June 18th.= _We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. 1 John iv. 16._ The secret of walking closely with Christ, and working successfully for Him, is to fully realize that we are His beloved. Let us but feel that He has set His heart upon us, that He is watching us from those heavens with tender interest, that He is working out the mystery of our lives with solicitude and fondness, that He is following us day by day as a mother follows her babe in his first attempt to walk alone, that He has set His love upon us, and, in spite of ourselves, is working out for us His highest will and blessing, as far as we will let Him, and then nothing can discourage us. Our hearts will glow with responsive love. Our faith will spring to meet His mighty promises, and our sacrifices shall become the very luxuries of love for one so dear. This was the secret of John's spirit. "We have known and believed the love that God hath to us." And the heart that has fully learned this has found the secret of unbounded faith and enthusiastic service.--_A. B. Simpson._ =June 19th.= _Endure . . . as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 2 Tim. ii. 3._ Life is not victory, but battle. Be patient a little longer. By and by, each in his turn, we shall hear the sunset gun.--_Selected._ =June 20th.= _Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Luke xiv. 27._ There is always the shadow of the cross resting upon the Christian's path. Is that a reason why you should avoid or not undertake the duty? Have you made up your mind that you will follow your Master everywhere else, save when he ascends the path that leads to the cross? Is that your religion? The sooner you change it, the better. The religion of the Lord Jesus Christ is the religion of the cross, and unless we take up our cross, we can never follow Him.--_W. Hay Aitken._ =June 21st.= _These . . . have turned the world upside down. Acts xvii. 6._ The serene beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence in the world next to the might of God.--_Pascal._ =June 22nd.= _What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. John xiii. 7._ God keeps a school for His children here on earth and one of His best teachers is Disappointment. My friend, when you and I reach our Father's house, we shall look back and see that the sharp-voiced, rough; visaged teacher, Disappointment, was one of the best guides to train us for it. He gave us hard lessons; he often used the rod; he often led us into thorny paths; he sometimes stripped off a load of luxuries; but that only made us travel the freer and the faster on our heavenward way. He sometimes led us down into the valley of the death-shadow; but never did the promises read so sweetly as when spelled out by the eye of faith in that very valley. Nowhere did he lead us so often, or teach us such sacred lessons, as at the cross of Christ. Dear, old, rough-handed teacher! We will build a monument to thee yet, and crown it with garlands, and inscribe on it: _Blessed be the memory of Disappointment!_--_Theodore Cuyler._ =June 23rd.= _As thy days, so shall thy strength be. Deut. xxxiii. 25._ _I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Phil. iv. 13._ He will not impose upon you one needless burden. He will not exact more than He knows your strength will bear. He will ask no Peter to come to Him on the water, unless He impart at the same time strength and support on the unstable waves. He will not ask you to draw water if the well is too deep, or to withdraw the stone if too heavy. But neither at the same time will He admit as an impossibility that which, as a free and responsible agent, it is in your power to avert. He will not regard as your misfortune what is your crime.--_Macduff._ =June 24th.= _Thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Acts viii. 21._ The worst of all mockeries is a religion that leaves the heart unchanged: a religion that has _everything_ but the love of Christ enshrined in the soul.--_F. Whitfield._ =June 25th.= _The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. Acts xiii. 2._ We have such a nice little quiet, shady corner in the vineyard, down among the tender grapes, with such easy little weedings and waterings to attend to. And then the Master comes and draws us out into the thick of the work, and puts us in a part of the field where we never should have thought of going, and puts larger tools into our hands, that we may do more at a stroke. And we know we are not sufficient for these things, and the very tools seem too heavy for us, and the glare too dazzling and the vines too tall. Ah! but would we dally, go back? He would not be in the shady corner with us now; for when He put us forth He went before us, and it is only by closer following that we can abide with Him.--_Frances Ridley Havergal._ =June 26th.= _Small things. Zech. iv. 10._ It is the little words you speak, the little thoughts you think, the little things you do or leave undone, the little moments you waste or use wisely, the little temptations which you yield to or overcome--the little things of every day that are making or marring your future life.--_Selected._ =June 27th.= _Be perfect, be of good comfort. 2 Cor. xiii. 11._ A glance at the words is enough to make us feel how contradictory they are. _Be perfect_--that is a word that strikes us with despair; at once we feel how far away we are from our own poor ideal, and alas! how much further from God's ideal concerning us. _Be of good comfort_--ah, that is very different! That seems to say, "Do not fret; do not fear. If you are not what you would be, you must be thankful for what you are." Now the question is this--How can these two be reconciled? It is only the religion of Jesus Christ that reconciles them. He stands in our midst, and with the right hand of His righteousness He pointeth us upward, and saith, "Be perfect." There is no resting-place short of that. Yet with the left hand of His love He doth encompass us, as He saith, "Soul, be of good comfort; for that is what I came to do for thee."--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =June 28th.= _Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matt. v. 48._ Seeking the aid of the Holy Spirit, let us aim at perfection. Let every day see some sin crucified, some battle fought, some good done, some victory won; let every fall be followed by a rise, and every step gained become, not a resting-place, but a new starting-point for further and higher progress.--_Guthrie._ =June 29th.= _Sleep on now, and take your rest. Mark xiv. 41._ Never did that sacred opportunity to watch with Christ return to His disciples. Lost then, it was lost forever. And now when Jesus is still beholding the travail of His soul in the redemption of the world, if you fail to be with Him watching for souls as they that must give account, remember that the opportunity will never return. "Watch, therefore," says your Lord, "lest coming suddenly, He may find you sleeping."--_A. J. Gordon._ =June 30th.= _Let us not sleep, as do others. 1 Thess. v. 6._ There are many ways of promoting Christian wakefulness. Among the rest, let me strongly advise Christians to converse together concerning the ways of the Lord. Christian and Hopeful, as they journeyed towards the Celestial City, said to themselves: "To prevent drowsiness in this place, let us fall into good discourse." Christians who isolate themselves and walk alone are very liable to grow drowsy. Hold Christian company, and you will be kept wakeful by it, and refreshed and encouraged to make quicker progress in the road to heaven.--_Spurgeon._ [Illustration: JULY] =July 1st.= _He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not. Rev. i. 17._ One of Wellington's officers, when commanded to go on some perilous duty, lingered a moment as if afraid, and then said: "Let me have one clasp of your all-conquering hand before I go; and then I can do it." Seek the clasp of Christ's hand before every bit of work, every hard task, every battle, every good deed. Bend your head in the dewy freshness of every morning, ere you go forth to meet the day's duties and perils, and wait for the benediction of Christ, as He lays His hands upon you. They are hands of blessing. Their touch will inspire you for courage and strength and all beautiful and noble living.--_J. R. Miller._ =July 2nd.= _Being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Acts i. 3._ This lingering for forty days is the crowning proof of Christ's tender regard for His little flock. He who had laid down His life for them is loath to leave them. Though they had forsaken Him, and doubted Him, they had not wearied, much less had they worn out, His love. He stays to look again, and yet again, and yet again, upon them, as if turning back and lingering to bless them. It is all of a piece with His life of love. Everywhere He meets them without a touch of upbraiding, without recalling a single memory of all His bitter suffering, revealing Himself to the disciples with a tenderness and blessedness indescribably beautiful. How can He go till He has healed the Magdalene's broken heart? He must linger till poor Peter can venture near to have his forgiveness assured. He must stay to strengthen Thomas' faith. He must tarry with them till He has made them feel that He is just the same friendly, brotherly Jesus that He has ever been, caring for them in their work, watching them with a yearning pity, stooping to kindle a fire for their warmth, and to cook the fish for their meal, and then to bid them come and dine.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =July 3rd.= _Jesus, . . . being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well. . . . (For His disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) . . . And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on Him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. John iv. 6, 8, 39._ The bits of wayside work are very sweet. Perhaps the odd bits, when all is done, will really come to more than the seemingly greater pieces! . . . It is nice to know that the King's servants are always really on duty, even while some can only stand and wait.--_Frances Ridley Havergal._ =July 4th.= _Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you . . . let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John xiv. 27._ Dark hours come to us all; and if we have no clew to a peace that can pass unbroken through their murky gloom, we shall be in a state of continual dread. Any stone flung by a chance passer-by may break the crystal clearness of the Lake of Peace and send disturbing ripples across it, unless we have learnt to trust in the perpetual presence of Him who can make and keep a "great calm" within the soul. Only let nothing come to you which you shall not instantly hand over to Him--all petty worries, all crushing difficulties, all inability to believe.--_F. B. Meyer._ =July 5th.= _Isaac dwelt by the well Lahai-roi. Gen. xxv. 11._ Isaac dwelt there, and made the well of the living and all-seeing God his constant source of supply. The usual tenor of a man's life, the _dwelling_ of his soul, is the true test of his state. Let us learn to live in the presence of the living God. Let us pray the Holy Spirit that this day, and every other day, we may feel, "Thou God seest me." May the Lord Jehovah be as a well to us, delightful, comforting, unfailing, springing up unto eternal life. The bottle of the creature cracks and dries up, but the well of the Creator never fails. Happy is he who dwells at the well, and so has abundant and constant supplies near at hand! Glorious Lord, constrain us that we may never leave Thee, but dwell by the well of the living God!--_Spurgeon._ =July 6th.= _Judas Iscariot . . . was a thief, and had the bag, and bore what was put therein. John xii. 4, 6._ _Freely ye have received, freely give. Matt. x. 8._ Ah, but if we should go thoroughly into this matter, should we not probably find that many of us are guilty, in some modified and yet sufficiently alarming sense, of treachery to the poor? Are we not, some of us, sent to them with benefactions which never reach them, and are only unconscious of guilt because so long accustomed to look upon the goods as bestowed on us, whereas the light of God's word would plainly reveal upon those goods the names of the poor and needy?--_George Bowen._ =July 7th.= _Let every man take heed how he buildeth. 1 Cor. iii. 10._ Our business is not to build quickly, but to build upon a right foundation, and in a right spirit. Life is more than a mere competition as between man and man; it is not who can be done first, but who can work best; it is not who can rise highest in the shortest time, but who is working most patiently and lovingly in accordance with the designs of God.--_Joseph Parker._ =July 8th.= _As thy days, so shall thy strength be. Deut. xxxiii. 25._ No day without its duty; no duty without strength to perform it.--_Selected._ =July 9th.= _Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. Gen. xxviii. 16._ "Surely the Lord was in this place, and I knew it not." My soul, this is also thine experience! How often hast thou said in thy sorrow, "Verily thou art a God that hidest Thyself!" How often hast thou slept for very heaviness of heart, and desired not to wake again! And when thou didst wake again, lo, the darkness was all a dream! Thy vision of yesterday was a delusion. God had been with thee all the night with that radiance which has no need of the sun. O my soul, it is not only after the future thou must aspire; thou must aspire to see the glory of thy past. Thou must find the glory of that way by which thy God has led thee, and be able even of thy sorrow to say, "This was the gate of heaven!"--_George Matheson._ =July 10th.= _My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me. John iv. 34._ The real secret of an unsatisfied life lies too often in an unsurrendered will.--_J. Hudson Taylor._ =July 11th.= _Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue. 2 Pet. i. 5._ You will find it less easy to unroot faults than to choke them by gaining virtues. Do not think of your faults, still less of others' faults; in every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong; honor that; rejoice in it, and, as you can, try to imitate it; and your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.--_John Ruskin._ =July 12th.= _Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Song of Sol. iv. 16._ Sometimes God sends severe blasts of trial upon His children to develop their graces. Just as torches burn most brightly when swung violently to and fro; just as the juniper plant smells sweetest when flung into the flames; so the richest qualities of a Christian often come out under the north wind of suffering and adversity. Bruised hearts often emit the fragrance that God loveth to smell. Almost every true believer's experience contains the record of trials which were sent for the purpose of shaking the spice tree.--_Theodore Cuyler._ =July 13th.= _Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Song of Sol. iv. 16._ There are two winds mentioned in this beautiful prayer. God may send either or both, as seemeth Him good. He may send the north wind of conviction, to bring us to repentance, or He may send the south wind of love, to melt us into gratitude and holy joy. If we often require the sharp blasts of trial to develop our graces, do we not also need the warm south breezes of His mercy? Do we not need the new sense of Christ's presence in our hearts and the joys of the Holy Ghost? Do we not need to be melted, yes, to be overpowered by the love of Jesus?--_Theodore Cuyler._ =July 14th.= _Behold the man! John xix. 5._ "Behold the man!" was Pilate's jeer. That is what all the ages have been doing since, and the vision has grown more and more glorious. As they have looked, the crown of thorns has become a crown of golden radiance, and the cast-off robe has glistened like the garments He wore on the night of the transfiguration. Martyrs have smiled in the flames at that vision. Sinners have turned at it to a new life. Little children have seen it, and have had awakened by it dim recollections of their heaven-home. Toward it the souls of men yearn ever.--_Robert E. Speer._ =July 15th.= _He (John) saith, Behold the Lamb of God! And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. John i. 36, 37._ To be a Christian means to know the presence of a true personal Christ among us, and to follow.--_Phillips Brooks._ =July 16th.= _Ye shall not eat of it. Gen. iii. 3._ The Sin of Paradise was eating the tree of knowledge before the tree of life. Life must ever be first. Knowing and not being, hearing and not doing, admiring and not possessing, all are light without life.--_Selected._ =July 17th.= _Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James i. 4._ Are you where God would have you be? If not, come out, and at once, for you certainly ought not to be there. If you are, then be afraid to complain of circumstances which God has ordained on purpose to work out in you the very image and likeness of His Son.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =July 18th.= _Sow beside all waters. Isa. xxxii. 20._ Never mind whereabouts your work is. Never mind whether it be visible or not. Never mind whether your name is associated with it. You may never see the issues of your toils. You are working for eternity. If you cannot see results here in the hot working day, the cool evening hours are drawing near, when you may rest from your labors and then they will follow you. So do your duty, and trust God to give the seed you sow "a body as it hath pleased Him,"--_Alex. McLaren._ =July 19th.= _Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe. Psa. cxix. 117._ Do not spoil the chime of this morning's bells by ringing one half a peal! Do not say, "Hold thou me up," and stop there, or add, "But all the same I shall stumble and fall!" Finish the peal with God's own music, the bright words of faith that He puts into your mouth: "Hold thou me up, _and I shall be safe!_"--_Frances Ridley Havergal._ =July 20th.= _Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy. Matt. viii. 6._ We, in this age of the church, are in the position of that sick servant at Capernaum. To the eye of sense we are separated from the Savior. We see Him not--we can touch Him not--the hand cannot steal amid the crowd to catch His garment hem--we cannot hear His loved footsteps as of old on our threshold; but faith penetrates the invisible; the messenger--prayer--meets Him in the streets of the New Jerusalem; and faith and prayer together, the twin delegates from His church below, He has never yet sent empty away.--_Macduff._ =July 21st.= _Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Phil. ii. 12, 13._ What a staggering weight of thought is excited by these words! Stay, my soul, and wonder that the Eternal God should stoop to work within thy narrow limits. Is it not a marvel indeed, that He, whom the heavens cannot contain, and in whose sight they are not clean, should trouble Himself to work on such material, so unpromising, and amidst circumstances so uncongenial? How careful should we be to make Him welcome, and to throw no hindrance in His way! How eager to garner up all the least movements of His gracious operation, as the machinist conserves the force of his engine; and as the goldsmith, with miserly care, collects every flake of gold leaf! Surely we shall be sensible of the _fear_ of holy reverence and the _trembling_ of eager anxiety; as we "work out," into daily act and life, all that God our Father is "working in."--_F. B. Meyer._ =July 22nd.= _. . . Sinners of whom I am chief. . . . Now unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Tim. i. 15, 17._ Only those who have struck the deepest note of penitence can reach the highest note of praise.--_A. J. Gordon._ =July 23rd.= _Blessed is the man . . . that keepeth the Sabbath. Isa. lvi. 2._ The Sabbath is the savings-bank of human life, into which we deposit one day in seven to be repaid in the autumn of life with compound interest.--_Selected._ =July 24th.= _Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Psa. xix. 12._ The world wants men who are saved from secret faults. The world can put on an outside goodness and go very far in uprightness and morality, and it expects that a Christian shall go beyond it, and be free from secret faults. A little crack will spoil the ring of the coin. . . . The world expects, and rightly, that the Christian should be more gentle, and patient, and generous, than he who does not profess to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus. For the sake of those who take their notion of religion from our lives, we need to put up this prayer earnestly, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults."--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =July 25th.= _Do thou that which is good. 2 Kings x. 5._ Keep as few good intentions hovering about as possible. They are like ghosts haunting a dwelling. The way to lay them is to find bodies for them. When they are embodied in substantial deeds they are no longer dangerous.--_William Arnot._ =July 26th.= _Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 2 Pet. iii. 18._ Grace has its dawn as well as day; grace has its green blade, and afterwards its ripe corn in the ear; grace has its babes and its men in Christ. With God's work there, as with all His works, "in all places of His dominion," progress is both the prelude and the path to perfection. Therefore we are exhorted to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to go on to perfection, saying with Paul, "I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."--_Guthrie._ =July 27th.= _Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived, and by it slew me. Rom. vii. 11._ Christian, beware how thou thinkest lightly of sin. Take heed lest thou fall by little and little. Sin, a _little_ thing? Is it not a poison? Who knows its deadliness? Sin, a little thing? Do not the little foxes spoil the grapes? Doth not the tiny coral insect build a rock which wrecks a navy? Do not little strokes fell lofty oaks? Will not continual droppings wear away stones? Sin, a little thing? It girded the Redeemer's head with thorns, and pierced His heart! It made _Him_ suffer anguish, bitterness and woe. Could you weigh the least sin in the scales of eternity, you would fly from it as from a serpent, and abhor _the least appearance of evil_. Look upon all sin as that which crucified the Savior, and you will see it to be "exceeding sinful."--_Spurgeon._ =July 28th.= _Your heavenly Father knoweth. Matt. vi. 32._ The Master judges by the result, but our Father judges by the effort. Failure does not always mean fault. He knows how much things cost, and weighs them where others only measure. Your Father! Think how great store His love sets by the poor beginnings of the little ones, clumsy and unmeaning as they may be to others. All this lies in this blessed relationship, and infinitely more. Do not fear to take it all as your own.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =July 29th.= _Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Col. iii. 3._ It is neither talent, nor power, nor gifts that do the work of God, but it is that which lies within the power of the humblest; it is the simple, earnest life hid with Christ in God.--_F. W. Robertson._ =July 30th.= _The mother of Jesus saith unto Him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it. John ii. 3, 4, 5._ In asking for temporal blessings, true wisdom lies in putting the matter into the Lord's hand, and leaving it there. He knows our sorrows, and, if He sees it is good for us that the water should be turned into wine, He will do it. It is not for us to dictate: He sees what is best for us. When we ask for prosperity, perhaps the thing which we should have is trial. When we want to be relieved of a "thorn in the flesh," He knows what we should have is an apprehension of the fact that His grace is sufficient for us. So we are put into His school, and have to learn the lessons He has to teach us.--_W. Hay Aitken._ =July 31st.= _Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 1 Cor x. 12._ Angels fell in heaven, Adam in paradise, Peter in Christ's presence.--_Theophilus Polwheile._ [Illustration: AUGUST] =August 1st.= _Continue in prayer. Col. iv. 2._ The greatest and the best talent that God gives to any man or woman in this world is the talent of prayer. And the best usury that any man or woman brings back to God when He comes to reckon with them at the end of this world is a life of prayer. And those servants best put their Lord's money to the exchangers who rise early and sit late, as long as they are in this world, ever finding out, and ever following after better and better methods of prayer, and ever forming more secret, more steadfast, and more spiritually fruitful habits of prayer, till they literally pray without ceasing, and till they continually strike out into new enterprises in prayer, and new achievements, and new enrichments.--_Alex. Whyte._ =August 2nd.= _He entered into one of the ships . . . and . . . sat down. Luke v. iii._ When Jesus sits in the ship everything is in its right place. The cargo is in the hold, _not in the heart_. Cares and gains, fears and losses, yesterday's failure and today's success do not thrust themselves in between us and His presence. The heart cleaves to _Him_. "Goodness and mercy shall _follow_ me," sang the psalmist. Alas, when the goodness and mercy come before us, and our blessings shut Jesus from view! Here is the blessed order--the Lord ever first, I following Him, His goodness and mercy following me.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =August 3rd.= _Now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light. Eph. v. 8._ We do not realize the importance of the unconscious part of our life ministry. It goes on continually. In every greeting we give to another on the street, in every moment's conversation, in every letter we write, in every contact with other lives, there is a subtle influence that goes from us that often reaches further, and leaves a deep impression than the things themselves that we are doing at the time. It is not so much what we _do_ in this world as what we _are_, that tells in spiritual results and impressions.--_J. R. Miller._ =August 4th.= _Created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Eph. ii. 10._ Let us ask Him to work in us to _will_ those good works, so that our _will_, without being impaired in its free operation, may be permeated and moulded by His will, just as light suffuses the atmosphere without displacing it. And let us also expect that He will infuse into us sufficient strength that we may be able to _do_ His will unto all pleasing. Thus, day by day, our life will be a manifestation of those holy volitions and lovely deeds which shall attest the indwelling and inworking of God. And men shall see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven.--_F. B. Meyer._ =August 5th.= _Go in this thy might . . . have not I sent thee? Judges vi. 14._ God never leaves His child to fail when in the path of obedience.--_Theodore Cuyler._ =August 6th.= _Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Col. iii. 2._ _Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Eccles. ix. 10._ If we are to live separate from the world, how, since men only do well what they do with a will, are we, with affections fixed on things above, to perform aright the secular, ordinary duties of life? If our hearts are engrossed with heavenly things, how are we to obey this other, and equally divine, commandment, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might"? The two are perfectly consistent. Man standing between the celestial and terrestrial worlds is related to both; and resembling neither a flower, which, springing from the dust and returning to it, belongs altogether to the earth, nor a star which, shining far remote from its lower sphere, belongs altogether to the heavens, our hearts may be fitly likened to the rainbow that, rising into heaven but resting on earth, is connected both with the clods of the valley and the clouds of the sky.--_Guthrie._ =August 7th.= _Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. Heb. xii. 1, 2._ Think, as you sit here, of anything that you are doing that is wrong, of any habit of your life, of your self-indulgence, or of that great, pervasive habit of your life which makes you a creature of the present instead of the eternities, a creature of the material earth instead of the glorious skies. Ask yourself of any habit that belongs to your own personal life, and bring it face to face with Jesus Christ.--_Phillips Brooks._ =August 8th.= _They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. Acts iv. 13._ If I think of the world, I get the impress of the world; if I think of my trials and sorrows, I get the impress of my trials and sorrows; if I think of my failures, I get the impress of my failures; if I think of Christ, I get the impress of Christ.--_Selected._ =August 9th.= _Ye call me Teacher, and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. John xiii. 13. (R. V. margin)._ How wonderful a Teacher we have! Sometimes we seek Him in the house, but He is not there. We go forth seeking Him and find Him perhaps in the wilderness or on a mountain praying, or leading some poor blind man by the hand, or eating with publicans or sinners, or asleep in a storm or conversing with a Samaritan woman, or surrounded by wrathful men, or bearing a cross. It is not merely His words that instruct. His place, His occupation, His companions, His environment, His garment, His silence, His submission--all teem with instruction. And they that learn of Him are made like unto Him.--_George Bowen._ =August 10th.= _The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 1 John iv. 14._ It is a sweet thought that Jesus Christ did not come forth without His Father's permission, authority, consent, and assistance. He was sent of the Father that He might be the Savior of men. . . . Didst thou ever consider the depth of love in the heart of Jehovah, when God the Father equipped His Son for the great enterprise of mercy? If not, be this thy day's meditation. The _Father_ sent Him! Contemplate that subject. Think how Jesus works what the _Father_ wills. In the wounds of the dying Savior see the love of the great I AM. Let every thought of Jesus be also connected with the eternal, ever-blessed God.--_Spurgeon._ =August 11th.= _They that wait upon the Lord shall change their strength. Isa. xl. 31. (R. V.)_ Lord, what a change within us one short hour Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make! What heavy burdens from our bosoms take! What parched grounds refresh as with a shower! We kneel--and all around us seems to lower. We rise--and all the distant and the near Stand forth in sunny outline, brave and clear. We kneel--how weak: we rise--how full of power. Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong Or others--that we are not always strong; That we are ever overborne with care; That we should ever weak or heartless be, Anxious or troubled, while with _us_ is prayer, And joy and strength and courage are with _Thee_? --_Archbishop Trench._ =August 12th.= _As for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do. Deut. xviii. 14._ What a stepping-stone! We give thanks, often with a tearful, doubtful voice, for our spiritual mercies _positive_; but what an almost infinite field there is for mercies _negative_! We cannot even imagine all that God has suffered us _not_ to do, _not_ to be.--_Frances Ridley Havergal._ =August 13th.= _Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick. . . . And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come He was there alone. Matt. xiv. 14, 23._ Do we, like Him, combine the two great elements of human character? Are our _public_ duties, the cares, and business, and engrossments of the world, finely tempered and hallowed by a _secret_ walk with God? If the world were to follow us from its busy thoroughfares, would it trace us to our family altars and our closet devotions? Action and meditation are the two great components of Christian life, and the perfection of the religious character is to find the two in unison and harmony.--_Macduff._ =August 14th.= _Leaving you an example, that ye should follow His steps. 1 Pet. ii. 21. (R. V.)_ I have long since ceased to pray, "Lord Jesus, have compassion on a lost world!" I remember the day and the hour when I seemed to hear the Lord rebuking me for making such a prayer. He seemed to say to me, "I have had compassion upon a lost world, and now it is for you to have compassion."--_A. J. Gordon._ =August 15th.= _Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Ex. xx. 3._ If you find yourself beginning to love any pleasure better than your prayers, any book better than your Bible, any house better than God's, any table better than the Lord's, any person better than your Savior, any one better than your soul, a present indulgence better than the hope of heaven--take alarm!--_Guthrie._ =August 16th.= _Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. 1 Cor. xi. 1._ When in the Mexican war the troops were wavering, a general rose in his stirrups and dashed into the enemy's line, shouting, "Men, follow!" They, seeing his courage and disposition, dashed on after him, and gained the victory. What men want to rally them for God is an example to lead them. All your commands to others to advance amount to nothing so long as you stay behind. To effect them aright, you need to start for heaven yourself, looking back only to give the stirring cry of "Men, follow!"--_T. DeWitt Talmage._ =August 17th.= _Serving the Lord with all humility of mind. Acts xx. 19._ There is a legend of an artist who long sought for a piece of sandalwood, out of which to carve a Madonna. He was about to give up in despair, leaving the vision of his life unrealized, when in a dream he was bidden to carve his Madonna from a block of oak wood, which was destined for the fire. He obeyed, and produced a masterpiece from a log of common fire-wood. Many of us lose great opportunities in life by waiting to find sandalwood for our carvings, when they really lie hidden in the common logs that we burn.--_Orison Swett Marden._ =August 18th.= _My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 Cor. xii. 9._ God's way of answering His people's prayers is not by removing the pressure, but by increasing their strength to bear it. The pressure is often the fence between the narrow way of life and the broad road to ruin; and if our Heavenly Father were to remove it, it might be at the sacrifice of heaven. Oh, if God had removed that thorny fence in answer, often to earnest prayers, how many of us would now be castaways! How the song of many a saint now in glory would be hushed! How many a harp would be unstrung! How many a place in the mansions of the redeemed would be unfilled! If God answered all the prayers we put up to heaven, we should need no other scourge. Blessed it is that we have One who is too loving to grant what we too often so rashly ask.--_F. Whitfield._ =August 19th.= _Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. John xv. 4._ From moment to moment, and from hour to hour, the inner nature of man is to be continuously sustained with the life of God. Only as I am constantly receiving His fulness into my emptiness am I really living in the true, full, deep sense of the word, that life of eternity, which is my privilege now, and will be my glory hereafter.--_W. Hay Aitken._ =August 20th.= _By faith Noah . . . prepared an ark to the saving of his house. Heb. xi. 7._ What a humble, what a modest sphere for the exercise of faith! One would have said that the purpose was quite disproportionate to the work. The ark was a great undertaking, but what was it undertaken for? To save his own family. Is so narrow a sphere worthy to be the object of faith? Is so commonplace a scene as the life of the family circle fit to be a temple for the service of God? . . . My soul, when thou hast finished thy prayers and ended thy meditations, do not say that thou hast left the house of God. God's house shall to thee be everywhere, and thine own house shall be a part of it. Thou shalt feel that all the duties of this place are consecrated; that it is none other than the house of God and one of the gates to heaven. Thou shalt feel that every one of its duties is an act of high communion. Therefore be it thine to make thy house _His_ house. Be it thine to consecrate each word and look and deed in the social life of home. Be it thine to build thine ark of refuge for the wants of common day; verily, thy labor of love shall be called an act of faith.--_George Matheson._ =August 21st.= _We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Eph. ii. 10._ No man is born into the world whose work is not born with him. There is always work, and tools to work withal, for those who will.--_J. B. Lowell._ =August 22nd.= _He . . . began to wash the disciples' feet. John xiii. 5._ We forget that Jesus Christ is the same to-day, when He is sitting on the throne, as He was yesterday, when He trod the pathway of our world. And in this forgetfulness how much we miss! What He was, that He is. What He said, that He says. The Gospels are simply specimens of the life that He is ever living; they are leaves torn out of the diary of His unchangeable Being. To-day He is engaged in washing the feet of His disciples, soiled with their wilderness journeyings. Yes, that charming incident is having its fulfilment in thee, my friend, if only thou dost not refuse the lowly loving offices of Him whom we call Master and Lord, but who still girds Himself and comes forth to serve. And we must have this incessant cleansing if we would keep right. It is not enough to look back to a certain hour when we first knelt at the feet of the Son of God for pardon; and heard Him say, "Thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven." We need daily, hourly cleansing--from daily, hourly sin.--_F. B. Meyer._ =August 23rd.= _I am the Lord, I change not. Mal. iii. 6._ Our hope is not hung upon such untwisted thread as "I imagine so," or "it is likely"; but the cable, the strong rope of our fastened anchor, is the oath and promise of Him who is eternal verity. Our salvation is fastened with God's own hand and Christ's own strength to the strong stake of God's unchanging nature.--_William Rutherford._ =August 24th.= _I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. Ezek. xxxiv. 26._ What is thy _season_ this morning? Is it the season of drought? Then that is the season for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and black clouds? Then that is the season for showers. "As thy days so shall thy strength be." "I will give thee _showers_ of blessing." The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. All God's blessings go together, like links in a golden chain. If He gives converting grace, He will also give comforting grace. He will send "showers of blessings." Look up to-day, O parched plant, and open thy leaves and flowers for a heavenly watering.--_Spurgeon._ =August 25th.= _Nevertheless, at thy word. Luke v. 5._ Oh, what a blessed formula for us! This path of mine is dark, mysterious, perplexing; _nevertheless, at Thy word_ I will go forward. This trial of mine is cutting, sore for flesh and blood to bear. It is hard to breathe through a broken heart, Thy will be done. But, _nevertheless, at Thy word_ I will say, Even so, Father! This besetting habit, or infirmity, or sin of mine, is difficult to crucify. It has become part of myself--a second nature; to be severed from it would be like the cutting off of a right hand, or the plucking out of a right eye; _nevertheless, at Thy word_ I will lay aside every weight; this idol I will utterly abolish. This righteousness of mine it is hard to ignore; all these virtues, and amiabilities, and natural graces, it is hard to believe that they dare not in any way be mixed up in the matter of my salvation; and that I am to receive all from first to last as the gift of God, through Jesus Christ my Lord. _Nevertheless, at Thy word_ I will count all but loss for the excellency of His knowledge.--_Macduff._ =August 26th.= _If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. 2 Tim. ii. 12._ The photographer must have a negative, as he calls it, in order to furnish you with a picture. Now, the earthly cross is the negative from which the heavenly crown is to be made; the suffering and sorrow of the present time determining the glory, honor and immortality of the life to come.--_A. J. Gordon._ =August 27th.= _The word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. 1 Pet. i. 23._ The Word abideth. The Jew hated it--but it lived on, while the veil was torn away from the shrine which the Shekinah had forsaken, and while Jerusalem itself was destroyed. The Greek derided it--but it has seen his philosophy effete and his Acropolis in ruins. The Romans threw it into the flames--but it rose from its ashes, and swooped down upon the falling eagle. The reasoner cast it into the furnace, which his own negligence had heated "seven times hotter than its wont"--but it came out without the smell of fire. The formalist fastened serpents around it to poison it--but it shook them off and felt no harm. The infidel cast it overboard in a tempest of sophistry and sarcasm--but it rode gallantly upon the crest of the proud waters. And it is living still--yet heard in the loudest swelling of the storm--it has been speaking all the while--it is speaking now!--_Punshon._ =August 28th.= _Let the peace of God rule in your hearts. Col. iii. 15._ Years ago one of our fleets was terribly shattered by a violent gale--but it was found that some of the ships were unaffected by its violence. They were in what mariners call "the eye of the storm." While all around was desolation, they were safe. So it is with him who has the peace of God in his heart.--_Pilkington._ =August 29th.= _Ye serve the Lord Christ. Col. iii. 24._ Our business as Christians is to serve the Lord in every business of life.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =August 30th.= _Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. 1 John ii. 15._ If you will go to the banks of a little stream, and watch the flies that come to bathe in it, you will notice that, while they plunge their _bodies_ into the water, they keep their _wings_ high out of the water; and, after swimming about a little while, they fly away with their wings unwet through the sunny air. Now, that is the lesson for us. Here we are immersed in the cares and business of the world; but let us keep the wings of our soul, our faith and our love, out of the world, that, with these unclogged, we may be ready to take our flight to heaven.--_J. Inglis._ =August 31st.= _I would have you without carefulness. 1 Cor. vii. 32._ Do not look forward to the changes and chances of this life in fear. Rather look to them with full hope that, as they arise, God, whose you are, will deliver you out of them. He has kept you hitherto--do you but hold fast to His dear hand, and He will lead you safely through all things; and when you cannot stand, He will bear you in His arms. Do not look forward to what may happen to-morrow. The same everlasting Father who cares for you to-day will take care of you to-morrow, and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace then, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.--_Francis de Sales._ [Illustration: September] =September 1st.= _Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them. Ezek. xxxvi. 37._ Prayer is the forerunner of mercy. Turn to sacred history and you will find that scarcely ever did a great mercy come to this world unheralded by supplication. Prayer is always the preface to blessing. It goes before the blessing _as the blessing's shadow_. When the sunlight of God's mercies rises upon our necessities it casts the shadow of prayer far down upon the plain. Or, to use another illustration, when God piles up a hill of mercies He Himself shines behind them, and He casts on our spirits the shadow of prayer so that we may rest certain, if we are much in prayer, our pleadings are the shadows of mercy. Prayer is thus connected with the blessing to show us the value of it.--_Spurgeon._ =September 2nd.= _Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Gal. vi. 9._ The hours of this present life are the ages in embryo of the life to come.--_A. J. Gordon._ =September 3rd.= _My presence shall go with thee. Ex. xxxiii. 14._ We should never leave our prayer closets in the morning without having concentrated our thoughts deeply and intensely on the fact of the actual presence of God there with us, encompassing us, and filling the room as literally as it fills heaven itself. It may not lead to any distinct results at first, but, as we make repeated efforts to realize the presence of God, it will become increasingly real to us. And, as the habit grows upon us, when alone in a room, or when treading the sward of some natural woodland temple, or when pacing the stony street--in the silence of night, or amid the teeming crowds of daylight--we shall often find ourselves whispering the words, "Thou art near; thou art here, O Lord."--_F. B. Meyer._ =September 4th.= _To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness. Dan. ix. 9._ As a spring lock closes itself, but cannot be unlocked without a key, so we ourselves may run into sin, but cannot return without the key of God's grace.--_Cawdray._ =September 5th.= _It is high time to awake out of sleep. Rom. xiii. 11._ I have heard of a painter who loved to work by the morning light. He said that the colors were better understood by the light of the early day, and so he was wont to be in his studio waiting for the rising of the sun. Then every moment it grew lighter, and he found he could accomplish things which he could not reach if he waited till the day had advanced. Is there not work waiting for us--work that no one else can do--work, too, that the Master has promised to help us perform? Shall He come and find that we still sleep? Or shall the Son of Righteousness, when He appears, find us waiting, as that painter waited, looking and longing for the first gleam of day? Surely those of us who thus wait on the Lord shall renew our strength, and, eagle-like, rise to greet the Sun.--_Thomas Champness._ =September 6th.= _The church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. Acts xx. 28._ Surely He may do what He will with His own. The price He has paid to make them His own is a sufficient guarantee that He will never make light of anything in which their welfare is at all concerned. We are precious to Him by the virtue of the blood which He has shed for us, and for Him to be found at any time wanting in solicitude for our happiness would be for Him to treat that blood of His as the sinners of this world treat it. The persuasion of Christ's love must be graven in our hearts so deeply that no semblance of indifference on His part will ever make the slightest impression upon us. This is the victory which overcometh the world.--_George Bowen._ =September 7th.= _The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Rom. xv. 13._ In spiritual as in earthly things there is great strength in hope, and, therefore, God's people are carefully to cultivate that grace. A well-grounded hope that, having been made new creatures in Jesus Christ, we are His; that with our names, though unknown to fame, written in the Book of Life, we have grace in possession and heaven in prospect; that after a few more brief years, pure as the angels that sing before the throne, we shall be brought with gladness into the palace of the King, to be like Christ and with Christ, seeing Him eye to eye and face to face--such hopes are powerful springs of action.--_Guthrie._ =September 8th.= _He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest it him, even length of days or ever and ever. Psa. xxi. 4._ When poor men make requests of us we usually answer them as the echo does the voice--the answer cuts off half the petition. We shall seldom find among men Jael's courtesy, giving milk to those that ask water, except it be as this was, an entangling benefit, the better to introduce a mischief. There are not many Naamans among us, that, when you beg of them one talent, will force you to take two; but God's answer to our prayers is like a multiplying glass, which renders the request much greater in the answer than it was in the prayer.--_Bishop Reynolds._ =September 9th.= _This beginning of miracles did Jesus. John ii. 11._ It was out of the common thing that the precious thing was brought; and it is out of the common things of daily life, presented obediently to Jesus and laid at His feet, that He brings His own glorious gifts, so that our whole lives become one great sacrament.--_W. Hay Aitken._ =September 10th.= _In the daytime . . . He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. Psa. lxxviii. 14._ My day is my prosperity; it is the time when the sun of fortune is bright above me, and, therefore, it is the time when I need a shade. If my sunshine were not chequered I would forget Thee, O my God. But I have nights to meet as well as days. The night is my adversity; it is the time when the sun of fortune has gone down behind the hills, and I am left alone, and then it is, O my Father, that I need the light of Thy fire! My light of fire for the night is the vision of Calvary--the vision of Thy love in the Cross. I need the light of Thy fire "_all_ the night."--_George Matheson._ =September 11th.= _Now are we the sons of God: and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 1 John iii. 2._ "Now are we the sons of God." That is the pier upon one side of the gulf. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when He shall appear we shall be like Him." That is the pier on the other. How are the two to be connected? There is only one way by which the present sonship will blossom and fruit into the future perfect likeness, and that is, if we throw across the gulf, by God's help day by day, the bridge of growing likeness to Himself, and purity therefrom.--_Alex. McLaren._ =September 12th.= _Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. Matt. xx. 18._ Never had there been such a going up to Jerusalem as that which Jesus here proposes to His disciples. He goes up voluntarily. The act was not enforced by any external compulsion. Jerusalem might at this time have been avoided. It was deliberately sought. It was a going up to a triumph to be reached through defeat, a coronation to be attained through ignominy and humiliation. O believer, in your walk through the world to-day, be strengthened, be comforted, be inspired, by the spectacle of the Captain of your salvation thus going up to Jerusalem! And remember, in all those apparently _downward_ passages of life, where sorrow, and it may be death, lie before you, that all such descents, made or endured in the Spirit of Jesus, are really _upgoing_ steps, leading you to the mount of God and the resurrection glory.--_J. B. Stratton._ =September 13th.= _These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work. 1 Chron. iv. 23._ Anywhere and everywhere we may dwell "with the King for His work." We may be in a very unlikely or unfavorable place for this; it may be in a little country life, with little enough to be seen of the "goings" of the King around us; it may be among hedges of all sorts, hindrances in all directions; it may be, furthermore, with our hands full of all manner of pottery for our daily task. No matter! The King who placed us "there" will come and dwell there with us; the hedges are all right, or He would soon do away with them; and it does not follow that what seems to hinder our way may not be for its very protection; and as for the pottery, why, this is just exactly what He has seen fit to put into our hands, and therefore it is, for the present, "His work."--_Frances Ridley Havergal._ =September 14th.= I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go; _I will guide thee with mine eye. Psa. xxxii. 8._ When God does the directing, our life is useful and full of promise, whatever it is doing; and discipline has its perfecting work.--_H. E. Cobb._ =September 15th.= _The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. Matt. xx. 28._ We are so to surrender ourselves to Christ that this great purpose of His coming shall claim and possess the whole life. We are to live, like God, to bless others. This is His will, His purpose concerning us. This is what His power waits to do for us. And this too, is the claim of His great love upon us. Do not sigh a poor assent to the truth of it, and then pass by neglectfully on the other side. Do not think about it and pray about it without even a passing hope that the prayer will be answered. Do not gather yourself up in great resolutions to be good and useful. Kneel in sight of the Crucified. In the cross of Christ spell out His great purpose and yearning love to men. Let the heart feel all the might of the appeal that comes to us from those torn hands and feet and bleeding brow, from all the dreadful shame and agony of our dear Lord. And, bought and bound by all this, surrender yourself to Him for His great purpose. Take Him as your strength for this life-work.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =September 16th.= _Jesus . . . went about doing good. Acts x. 38._ The finest of all fine arts is the art of doing good; and yet it is the least cultivated.--_T. DeWitt Talmage._ =September 17th.= _And the angel of the Lord said unto her [Hagar], Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. Gen. xvi. 9._ SUBMISSION is a great Christian law, but we find it early in Genesis, early in the history of mankind, and angel-given.--_Selected._ =September 18th.= _Then spake Solomon . . . I have surely built thee an house to dwell in. 1 Kings viii. 12, 13._ Solomon, the prince of peace, alone could build the temple. If we would be soul-winners and build up the church, which is God's temple, let us note this; not by discussion nor by argument, but by lifting up Christ shall we draw men unto Him.--_J. Hudson Taylor._ =September 19th.= _I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. Isa. xlviii. 10._ Does not the word come like a soft shower, assuaging the fury of the flame? Yea, is it not an asbestos armor, against which the heat hath no power? Let affliction come--God has chosen me. Poverty, thou mayest stride in at my door--but God is in the house already, and He has chosen me. Sickness, thou mayest intrude, but I have a balsam ready--God has chosen me. Whatever befalls me in this vale of tears I know that He has "chosen" me. Fear not, Christian; Jesus is with thee. In all thy fiery trials His presence is both thy comfort and safety. He will never leave one whom He has chosen for His own. "Fear not, for I am with thee," is His sure word of promise to His chosen ones in the "furnace of affliction."--_Spurgeon._ =September 20th.= _Base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen. 1 Cor. i. 28._ In some of the great halls of Europe may be seen pictures not painted with the brush, but mosaics, which are made up of small pieces of stone, glass, or other material. The artist takes these little pieces, and, polishing and arranging them, he forms them into the grand and beautiful picture. Each individual part of the picture may be a little worthless piece of glass or marble or shell; but, with each in its place, the whole constitutes the masterpiece of art. So I think it will be with humanity in the hands of the great Artist. God is picking up the little worthless pieces of stone and brass that might be trodden under foot unnoticed, and is making of them His great masterpiece.--_Bishop Simpson._ =September 21st.= _Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. Psa. c. 2._ God wants our life to be a song. He has written the music for us in His Word and in the duties that come to us in our places and relations in life. The things we ought to do are the notes set upon the staff. To make our life beautiful music we must be obedient and submissive. Any disobedience is the singing of a false note, and yields discord.--_J. R. Miller._ =September 22nd.= _When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father, which is in secret. Matt. vi. 6._ This is faith's stronghold; here she weapons herself for the daily conflict. Silence in that closet of prayer bespeaks death throughout all the house. When that door is suffered to rust on its hinges, and that chamber is deserted, then the heart-house is soon retaken by Satan, and evil spirits come in and dwell there.--_Theodore Cuyler._ =September 23rd.= _Be ye holy; for I am holy. 1 Pet. i. 16._ The highway of holiness is along the commonest road of life--along your very way. In wind and rain, no matter how it beats--it is only going hand in hand with Him.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =September 24th.= _And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? Gen. xviii. 17._ Abraham, in communion with God, knew long before Lot, in Sodom, of the destruction of that city. Oh for more communion!--_Selected._ =September 25th.= _The life which I now live in the flesh. Gal. ii. 20._ I expect to pass through this world but once--therefore, if there be any kindness I can show or any good thing I can do to any fellow human being, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.--_Marcus Aurelius._ =September 26th.= _So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Psa. xc. 12._ Every day is a little life; and our whole life is but a day repeated: whence it is that old Jacob numbers his life by days; and Moses desires to be taught this point of holy arithmetic--to number not his years, but his days. Those, therefore, that dare lose a day, are dangerously prodigal; those that dare misspend it, desperate.--_Bishop Hall._ =September 27th.= _Christ in you the hope of glory. Col. i. 27._ Religion is not the simple fire-escape that you build in anticipation of a possible danger, upon the outside of your dwelling, and leave there until danger comes. You go to it some morning when a fire breaks out in your house, and the poor old thing that you built up there, and thought that you could use some day, is so rusty and broken, and the weather has so beaten upon it and the sun so turned its hinges, that it will not work. That is the condition of a man who has built himself what seems a creed of faith, a trust in God in anticipation of the day when danger is to overtake him, and has said to himself, I am safe, for I will take refuge in it then. But religion is the house in which we live, it is the table at which we sit, it is the fireside at which we draw near, the room that arches its graceful and familiar presence over us; it is the bed on which we lie and think of the past, and anticipate the future, and gather our refreshment.--_Phillips Brooks._ =September 28th.= _Wait for the promise of the Father. Acts i. 4._ Tarry at a promise till God meets you there. He always returns by way of His promises.--_Selected._ =September 29th.= _This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 1 John v. 4._ The world conquers me when it succeeds in hindering me from seeing, loving, holding communion with, and serving my Father, God. I conquer it when I lay my hand upon it and force it to help me to get nearer Him, to get more like Him, to think oftener of Him, to do His will more gladly and more constantly. The one victory over the world is to bend it to serve me in the highest things--the attainment of a clearer vision of the divine nature, the attainment of a deeper love to God Himself, and a more glad consecration and service to Him. That is the victory--when you can make the world a ladder to lift you to God. When the world comes between you and God as an obscuring screen, it has conquered you. When the world comes between you and God as a transparent medium you have conquered it. To win victory is to get it beneath your feet and stand upon it, and reach up thereby to God.--_Alex. McLaren._ =September 30th.= _He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. Psa. xci. 11._ Count no duty too little, no round of life too small, no work too low, if it come in thy way, since God thinks so much of it as to send His angels to guard thee in it.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ [Illustration: October] =October 1st.= _At Jesus' feet. Luke x. 39._ At Jesus' feet--that is our place of privilege and of blessing, and here it is that we are to be educated and fitted for the practical duties of life. Here we are to renew our strength while we wait on Him, and to learn how to mount on wings as eagles; and here we are to become possessed of that true knowledge which is power. Here we are to learn how real work is to be done, and to be armed with the true motive power to do it. Here we are to find solace amidst both the trials of work--and they are not few--and the trials of life in general; and here we are to anticipate something of the blessedness of heaven amidst the days of earth; for to sit at His feet is indeed to be in heavenly places, and to gaze upon His glory is to do what we shall never tire of doing yonder.--_W. Hay Aitken._ =October 2nd.= _God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 1 John iv. 16._ _God is love_; and it is good, as it is true, to think that every sun-ray that touches the earth has the sun at the other end of it; so every bit of love upon God's earth has God at the other end of it.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ _October 3rd._ _They took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. Acts iv. 13._ A Christian should be a striking likeness of Jesus Christ. You have read lives of Christ, beautifully and eloquently written, but the best life of Christ is His living biography, written out in the words and actions of His people. If we were what we profess to be, and what we should be, we would be pictures of Christ; yea, such striking likenesses of Him that the world would not have to hold us up by the hour together, and say, "Well, it seems somewhat of a likeness": but they would, when they once beheld us, exclaim, "He has been with Jesus; he has been taught of Him; he is like Him; he has caught the very idea of the holy Man of Nazareth, and he works it out in his life and every day actions."--_Spurgeon._ =October 4th.= _Be not afraid, only believe. Mark v. 36._ Be not downcast if difficulties and trials surround you in your heavenly life. They may be purposely placed there by God to train and discipline you for higher developments of faith. If He calls you to "toiling in rowing," it may be to make you the hardier seaman, to lead you to lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and, above all, to drive you to a holier trust in Him who has the vessel and its destinies in His hand, and who, amid gathering clouds and darkened horizon and crested billows is ever uttering the mild rebuke to our misgivings--"Said I not unto thee, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God."--_Macduff._ =October 5th.= _Happy is the man whom God correcteth. Job v. 17._ Happy, because the correction is designed to bring him into paths of blessedness and peace. Happy, because there is no unnecessary severity in it. Happy, because the chastisement is not so much against us, as against our most cruel enemies--our sins. Happy, because we have abundant words of consolation. Happy, because whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Happy, because our light affliction is but for a moment.--_George Bowen._ =October 6th.= _When they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Matt. ii. 10._ We who look for Jesus ought to be joyful; it is no credit to our Lord when we look as though we were seeking His grave. The dull looks of Christ's followers have injured Him in the sight of the world. Let us, then, smile as we go, for we have the star if we will look up and put ourselves in the right path.--_Thos. Champness._ =October 7th.= _When I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me. Micah vii. 8._ If you are willing to choose the seeming darkness of faith instead of the illumination of reason, wonderful light will break out upon you from the Word of God.--_A. J. Gordon._ =October 8th.= _I (Daniel) was left alone, and saw this great vision. Dan. x. 8._ Solitude is the antechamber of God; only one step more and you can be in His immediate presence.--_Landor._ =October 9th.= _Come and dine. John xxi. 12._ This morning the voice of the Beloved of our soul is heard giving us His invitation. "Children," He asks, "have ye any meat?" We answer, "No; of ourselves we have nothing but hunger and starvation. O God, we cannot feed ourselves!" Then it is that His own sweet voice replies, "Come and dine!"--_W. Hay Aitken._ =October 10th.= _O Lord God, Thou knowest! Ezek. xxxvii. 3._ Here is the response of faith. "Thou knowest!"--what a pillow for the heart to repose upon! "Thou knowest!"--what few but comprehensive words to sum up and express the heart's difficulties and perplexities and trials. "Thou knowest!"--what an inexpressibly sweet resting-place in the midst of life's tumultuous heavings; in the midst of a sea that knows no calm; in the midst of a scene in which tossings to and fro are the hourly history! What an answer they contain for every heart that can find no words to express its big emotions; for a heart whose sorrows are too deep for language to find its way to God! Oh, that they were ever uppermost in the soul, as the response to every difficulty in our path! They are God's answer to everything we cannot fathom; God's answer for our hearts to rest upon, and our lips to utter, when every way is hedged up so that we cannot pass. "O Lord God, thou knowest!" Rest here, believer. Lean thy soul on these words. Repose calmly on the bosom of thy God, and carry them with thee into every scene of life. "O Lord God, thou knowest."--_F. Whitfield._ =October 11th.= _Behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. Gen. xxviii. 12._ Think of that mystic ladder, which descends from the throne of God to the spot, however lowly, where you may be. It may be a moorland waste; a humble cottage; a ship's cabin; a settler's hut; a bed of pain; but Jesus Christ finds you out, and comes just where you are. The one pole of this ladder is the gold of His deity; the other is the silver of His manhood; the rungs are the series of events from the cradle of Bethlehem to the right hand of power, where He sits. That ladder sways beneath a weight of blessing for you. Oh, that you would send away your burdens of sin, and care, and fear, by the hands of the ascending angels of prayer and faith!--so as to be able to receive into your heart the trooping angels of peace, and joy, and love, and glory.--_F. B. Meyer._ =October 12th.= _Surely God is in this place, and I knew it not. Gen. xxviii. 16._ The Parish Priest, of austerity, Climbed up in the high church steeple To be nearer God, that he might hand His word down to the people. And in sermon script he daily wrote What he thought was sent from heaven; And he dropped it down on the people's heads Two times one day in seven. In his age God said, "Come down and die." And he cried out from the steeple: "Where art thou, Lord?" And the Lord replied: "Down here among My people."--_Selected._ =October 13th.= _Now therefore, hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you. Deut. iv. 1._ "Hearken" and "do," that ye may "live" and "possess." This is a universal and abiding principle. It was true for Israel, and it is true for us. The pathway of life and the true secret of possession is simple obedience to the holy commandments of God. We see this all through the inspired volume, from cover to cover. God has given us His Word, not to speculate upon it or discuss it, but that we may obey it. And it is as we, through grace, yield a hearty and happy obedience to our Father's statutes and judgments, that we tread the bright pathway of life, and enter into the reality of all that God has treasured up for us in Christ.--_C. H. M._ =October 14th.= _I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me. Gal. ii. 20._ The man who lives in God knows no life except the life of God.--_Phillips Brooks._ =October 15th.= _Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. 1 Thess. v. 8._ _Faith, love, hope_--these three form the defensive armor that guards the soul; and these three make self-control possible. Like a diver in his dress who is let down to the bottom of the wild, far-weltering ocean, a man whose heart is girt by faith and charity, and whose head is covered with the helmet of hope, may be dropped down into the wildest sea of temptation and of worldliness, and yet will walk dry and unharmed through the midst of its depths, and breathe air that comes from a world above the restless surges. _Faith_ will bring you into communication with all the power of God. _Love_ will lead you into a region where all the temptations round you will be touched as by Ithuriel's spear, and will show their own foulness. And _Hope_ will turn away your eyes from looking at the tempting splendor around, and fix them upon the glories that are above. And so the reins will come into your hands in an altogether new manner, and you will be able to be king over your own nature in a fashion that you did not dream of before, if only you will trust in Christ and love Him, and fix your desires on the things above. Then you will be able to govern yourself, when you let Christ govern you.--_Alex. McLaren._ =October 16th.= _The word of our God shall stand forever. Isa. xl. 8._ The Word of God is the water of life; the more ye lave it forth, the fresher it runneth. It is the fire of God's glory; the more ye blow it, the clearer it burneth. It is the corn of the Lord's field; the better ye grind it, the more it yieldeth. It is the bread of heaven; the more it is broken and given forth, the more it remaineth. It is the sword of the Spirit; the more it is scoured, the brighter it shineth.--_Bishop Jewel._ =October 17th.= _I spake unto thee in thy prosperity. Jer. xxii. 21._ We shade our eyes with the hand to shut out the glare of the strong daylight when we want to see far away. God thus puts, as it were, His hand upon our brows, and tempers the glow of prosperity, that we may take in the wider phases of His goodness. It is a common experience that, looking out from the gloom of some personal affliction, men have seen for the first time beyond the earth plane, and caught glimpses of the Beulah Land. Let us not shrink from the Hand which we know is heavy only with blessing.--_Ludlow._ =October 18th.= _Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler. Psa. xci. 3._ _He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler._ That is, from the little things, the hidden traps and nets that are set for us. Great sins frighten where little snares entangle. It is easier to escape the huntsman's arrow than the crafty lure. And where are they not set? Riches and poverty, sickness and strength, prosperity and adversity, friendship and loneliness, the work and the want of it--each has its snare, wherein not only are the unwary caught, but the wise and the watchful sometimes fall a prey. Little things, mere threads, hardly worth guarding against--yet they are strong enough to hold us and hinder us, and may be the beginning of our destruction.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =October 19th.= _The Lord set a mark upon Cain. Gen. iv. 15._ We speak of the mark of Cain as if it was the mark of a curse. In reality it was the mark of God's mercy, a defence against his enemies.--_D. J. Burrell._ =October 20th.= _Who is among you that feareth the Lord . . . that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. Isa. l. 10._ "In fierce storms," said an old seaman, "we can do but one thing, there is only one way; we must put the ship in a certain position and keep her there." This, Christian, is what you must do. Sometimes, like Paul, you can see neither sun nor stars, and no small tempest lies on you; and then you can do but one thing; there is only one way. Reason cannot help you. Past experiences give you no light. Even prayer fetches no consolation. Only a single course is left. You must put your soul in one position and keep it there. You must stay upon the Lord; and, come what may--winds, waves, cross seas, thunder, lightning, frowning rocks, roaring breakers--no matter what, you must lash yourself to the helm, and hold fast your confidence in God's faithfulness, His covenant engagement, His everlasting love in Christ Jesus.--_Richard Fuller._ =October 21st.= _Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Rev. ii. 10._ There is a heaven at the end of every faithful Christian's journey.--_Cuyler._ =October 22nd.= _Flee into Egypt. Matt. ii. 13._ Why? Because there is a cruel king who will seek the young child's life. Is Christ born in thee? Is thy life like that manger--precious as a casket, because of what it holds? Then have a care; for, craftier and more unscrupulous than Herod, the destroyer of souls will seek to destroy thee. There is a day coming when they shall say, "They are dead which sought the young child's life." Grace shall survive the foe, and we shall yet return to enjoy the comforts of life, with no Herod to threaten us. After all, it is sin which is short-lived, for goodness shall flourish when the evil one is chained up for ever.--_Thos. Champness._ =October 23rd.= _As my lord the king hath said, so will thy servant do. 1 Kings ii. 38._ There is something infinitely better than doing a great thing for God, and the infinitely better thing is to be where God wants us to be, to do what God wants us to do, and to have no will apart from His.--_G. Campbell Morgan._ =October 24th.= _Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matt. v. 16._ They say the world has an eagle eye for anything inconsistent, an eye sharp to discover the vagaries and inconsistencies in the defaulty and the unworthy. It has an eagle eye; but the eagle winks before the sun, and the burning iris of its eye shrinks abashed before the unsullied purity of noon. Let your light so shine before men, that others, awed and charmed by the consistency of your godly life, may come to enquire, and to say you have been with Jesus.--_Punshon._ =October 25th.= _The eleven disciples went . . . into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them . . . Jesus came and spake unto them saying . . . Go ye and teach all nations. Matt. xxviii. 16, 18, 19._ The considerable actions in the world have usually very small beginnings. Of a few letters, how many thousand words are made! Of ten figures, how many thousand numbers! A point is the beginning of all geometry. A little stone flung into a pond makes a little circle, then a greater, till it enlarges itself to both the sides. So from small beginnings God doth cause an efflux through the whole world.--_Charnock._ =October 26th.= _Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Luke ii. 10._ It is true that these good tidings of great joy were to be "for all people," but not _first_. The message falls on our own ears, and is first for our own souls. Oh, ponder this well! Take all God's truths home _first_ to thine own heart. Ask in earnest prayer that the Spirit may write them with the pen of heaven on thine own conscience. Then wilt thou be a vessel fitted for the Master's use, and carry His message with spiritual power to the souls of others.--_F. Whitfield._ =October 27th.= _Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Heb. xii. 6._ Earthly prosperity is no sign of the special love of heaven: nor are sorrow and care any mark of God's disfavor, but the reverse. God's love is robust, and true, and eager--not for our comfort, but for our lasting blessedness; it is bent on achieving this, and it is strong enough to bear misrepresentation and rebuke in its attempts to attune our spirits to higher music. It therefore comes instructing us. Let us enter ourselves as pupils in the school of God's love. Let us lay aside our own notions of the course of study; let us submit ourselves to be led and taught; let us be prepared for any lessons that may be given from the blackboard of sorrow: let us be so assured of the inexhaustible tenacity of His love as to dare to trust Him, though He slay us. And let us look forward to that august moment when He will give us a reason for all life's discipline, with a smile that shall thrill our souls with ecstasy, and constrain sorrow and sighing to flee away forever.--_F. B. Meyer._ =October 28th.= _Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you. John xvi. 23._ Prayer must be based upon promise, but, thank God, His promises are always broader than our prayers! No fear of building inverted pyramids here, for Jesus Christ is the foundation.--_Frances Ridley Havergal._ =October 29th.= _He riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. John xiii. 4, 5._ Acts are common and mean because they are ordinarily expressive of the common and mean thoughts of men. Let us not accuse the acts that make up our daily life of meanness, but our ignoble souls that reveal themselves so unworthily through those acts. The same act may successively mount up through every intermediate stage from the depth of unworthiness to a transcendent height of excellence, according to the soul that is manifested by it. One of the glorious ends of our Lord's incarnation was that He might propitiate us with the details of life, so that we should not disdain these as insignificant, but rather disdain ourselves for our inability to make these details interpreters of a noble nature. Oh, let us then look with affectionateness and gratitude upon the daily details of life, seeing the sanctifying imprint of the hand of Jesus upon them all!--_George Bowen._ =October 30th.= _He placed . . . cherubims, and a flaming sword . . . to keep the way of the tree of life. Gen. iii. 24._ _Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life. Rev. xxii. 14._ How remarkable and how beautiful it is that the last page of the Revelation should come bending round to touch the first page of Genesis. The history of man began with angels with frowning faces and flaming swords barring the way to the Tree of Life. It ends with the guard of cherubim withdrawn; or rather, perhaps, sheathing their swords and becoming guides to the no longer forbidden fruit, instead of being its guards. That is the Bible's grand symbolical way of saying that all between--the sin, the misery, the death--is a parenthesis. God's purpose is not going to be thwarted. The end of His majestic march through history is to be men's access to the Tree of Life, from which, for the dreary ages--that are but as a moment in the great eternities--they were barred out by their sin,--_Alex. McLaren._ =October 31st.= _That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. Eph. i. 17, 18._ We were coming down a mountain in Switzerland one evening, when a black thunder-storm blotted out the day, and all things were suddenly plunged into darkness. We could only dimly see the narrow, dusty footpaths, and the gloomy sides that were swallowed up in deeper gloom. What, then, of the majesty all about us, heights, and depths, and wonders? All was darkness. Then came the lightning--not flashes, but the blazing of the whole sky, incessant, and on every side. What recesses of glory we gazed into! What marvels of splendor shone out of the darkness! Think how with us, in us, is One who comes to make the common, dusty ways of life resplendent, illuminating our dull thoughts by the light of the glory of God; clearing the vision of the soul, and then revealing the greatness of the salvation that is ours in Christ.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ [Illustration: November] =November 1st.= _Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. John viii. 9._ Alone with Jesus! What a sweet and holy spot! What a blessed refuge to which the soul may betake itself from the charges of Satan, the accusations of the world, and the sorrows of life! Sweet spot for the heart to unfold itself, to tell its hidden tale in the ear of Infinite love, tenderness, and compassion! Alone with Jesus! How different a front would Christianity present to the world if the Lord's people were oftener there! What humility, and gentleness, and love, would characterize all their dealings! What holiness stamped on the very brow, that all might read! What few judgments passed on others, how many more on ourselves! What calmness and resignation and joyful submission to all the Lord's dealings! Be much "alone with Jesus!" Then will the passage to glory be one of sunshine, whether it be through the portals of the grave or through the clouds of heaven.--_F. Whitfield._ =November 2nd.= _Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psa. xvi. 11._ The man who walks along the path of life lives in the presence of the joy-giving God. Just in so far as he is true to that path of life, and wanders neither to the right hand nor to the left, his joy becomes deeper, nay! he becomes partaker of that very fullness of joy in which God Himself lives, and moves, and has His being. And while such is his experience in the midst of all the trials of life, he has also the privilege of looking forward to grander things yet in store for him, when that higher world shall be reached, and the shadows of time have passed away forever. "At Thy right hand," exclaims the psalmist, "there are pleasures for evermore."--_W. Hay Aitken._ =November 3rd.= _Be clothed with humility. 1 Pet. v. 5._ Is it not one of the difficulties of church work that we have more officers than men? We need more of the rank and file, who are willing to march anywhere, and to do the lowliest of tasks. We shall succeed in doing greater things when we are all of us willing to be subject. It is the bayonet rather than the gold lace which is wanted when the enemy is to be subdued.--_Thomas Champness._ =November 4th.= _Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. Gen. xxxiii. 1._ Do not lift up your eyes and look for Esaus. Those who look for troubles will not be long without finding trouble to look at. Lift them higher--to Him from whom our help cometh. Then you will be able to meet your troubles with an unperturbed spirit. Those who have seen the face of God need not fear the face of man that shall die. To have power with God is to have power over all the evils that threaten us.--_F. B. Meyer._ =November 5th.= _Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Cor. vii. 1._ The Tree of Life, according to some of the old rabbinical legends, lifted its branches, by an indwelling motion, high above impure hands that were stretched to touch them; and until our hands are cleansed through faith in Jesus Christ, its richest fruit hangs unreachable, golden above our heads. The fullness of the life of heaven is only granted to those who, drawing near Jesus Christ by faith on earth, have thereby cleansed themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.--_Alex. McLaren._ =November 6th.= _The pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them. Ex. xiv. 19._ It is not always guidance that we most need. Many of our dangers come upon us from behind. They are stealthy, insidious, assaulting us when we are unaware of their nearness. The tempter is cunning and shrewd. He does not meet us full front. It is a comfort to know that Christ comes behind us when it is there we need the protection.--_J. R. Miller._ =November 7th.= _Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, Thou shall purge them away. Psa. lxv. 3._ There is much earnest religion that lives in the dreary compass of these first four words, "Iniquities prevail against me," and never gets a glimpse beyond it. But do not put a full stop there. Fetch in One who can help. "As for our transgressions, THOU shalt purge them away." The moment we bring the Lord in, that moment defeat is turned to triumphant deliverance! Write that up in golden letters--THOU! And do not find in this word only a trembling hope, or a wondering wish. Listen to its full assurance--THOU SHALT! There is but one result that can warrant the agony of Calvary; there is but one result that can satisfy either our blessed Savior or ourselves; and that is our being conquerors over sin.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =November 8th.= _Speaking the truth in love. Eph. iv. 15._ The best way of eradicating error is to publish and practice truth.--_W. Arnot._ =November 9th.= _So he arose, and went to Zarephath. 1 Kings xvii. 10._ Let it be equally said of you to whatever duty the Lord may call you away, "He arose and went." Be the way ever so laborious or dangerous, still arise, like Elijah, and go. Go cheerfully, in faith, keeping your heart quietly dependent on the Lord, and in the end you will surely behold and sing of His goodness. Though tossed on a sea of troubles you may anchor on the firm foundation of God, which standeth sure. You have for your security His exceeding great and precious promises, and may say with the psalmist, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance, and my God."--_F. W. Krummacher._ =November 10th.= _A daily rate for every day. 2 Kings xxv. 30._ The acts of breathing which I performed yesterday will not keep me alive to-day; I must continue to breathe afresh every moment, or animal life ceases. In like manner yesterday's grace and spiritual strength must be renewed, and the Holy Spirit must continue to breathe on my soul from moment to moment in order to my enjoying the consolations, and to my working the works of God.--_Toplady._ =November 11th.= _And when the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Jer. xviii. 4. (R. V.)_ God's fairest, highest place of service in the land that lies beyond will be filled by the men and women who have been broken upon the wheel on earth.--_G. Campbell Morgan._ =November 12th.= _Examine yourselves. 2 Cor. xiii. 5._ If your state be good, searching into it will give you that comfort of it. If your state be bad, searching into it cannot make it worse; nay, it is the only way to make it better, for conversion begins with conviction.--_Bishop Hopkins._ =November 13th.= _Choose you this day whom ye will serve. Josh. xxiv. 15._ CHOICE AND SERVICE--these were demanded of the Israelites; these are demanded of you, these only. Choice and service--in these are the whole of life.--_Mark Hopkins._ =November 14th.= _Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Psa. xc. 1._ You cannot detain the eagle in the forest. You may gather around him a chorus of the choicest birds; you may give him a perch on the goodliest pine; you may charge winged messengers to bring him choicest dainties; but he will spurn them all. Spreading his lordly wings, and with his eye on the Alpine cliff, he will soar away to his own ancestral halls amid the munitions of rocks and the wild music of tempest and waterfall. The soul of man, in its eagle soarings, will rest with nothing short of the Rock of Ages. Its ancestral halls are the halls of heaven. Its munitions of rocks are the attributes of God. The sweep of its majestic flight is Eternity! "Lord, THOU hast been our dwelling place in all generations!"--_Macduff._ =November 15th.= _He hath said. Heb. xiii. 5._ If we can only grasp these words of faith, we have an all-conquering weapon in our hand. What doubt is there that will not be slain by this two-edged sword? What fear is there which shall not fall smitten with a deadly wound before this arrow from the bow of God's covenant? "He hath said!" Yes; whether for delight in our quietude, or for strength in our conflict, "He hath said!" must be our daily resort. Since "He hath said" is the source of all wisdom, and the fountain of all comfort, let it dwell in you richly, as "a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life." So shall you grow healthy, strong, and happy, in the divine life.--_Spurgeon._ =November 16th.= _Not I, but Christ liveth in me. Gal. ii. 20._ The wonder of the life in Jesus is this--and you will find it so, and you have found it so, if you have ever taken your New Testament and tried to make it the rule of your daily life--that there is not a single action that you are called upon to do of which you need be, of which you will be, in any serious doubt for ten minutes as to what Jesus Christ, if He were here, Jesus Christ being here, would have you do under those circumstances and with the material upon which you are called to act. The soul that takes in Jesus' word, the soul that through the words of Jesus enters into the very person of Jesus, the soul that knows Him as its daily presence and its daily law--it never hesitates.--_Phillips Brooks._ =November 17th.= _Who is my neighbor? Luke x. 29._ "Who is thy neighbor?" It is the sufferer, wherever, whoever, whatsoever he be. Wherever thou hearest the cry of distress, wherever thou seest anyone brought across thy path by the chances and changes of life (that is, by the Providence of God), whom it is in thy power to help--he, stranger or enemy though he be--_he_ is thy neighbor.--_A. P. Stanley._ =November 18th.= _He which stablisheth us . . . in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. 2 Cor. i. 21, 22._ When a Christian is "sealed" by the Holy Ghost, "sealed" as the property of his Master, there will be no need to ask, "Whose image and superscription is this" upon the "sealed" one? The King's, of course. Anyone can see the image. Of what use is a "seal" if it cannot be seen? Is the King's image visibly, permanently, stamped upon us? It is on every Spirit-filled, "sealed" believer.--_John McNeil._ =November 19th.= _They shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel. Zech. iv. 10._ It is joy to the Christian to know that the plummet is now in the hands of our great Zerubbabel, and that when He comes forth, the world's misrule shall be over. The false standards and false estimates of men shall be swept away. The standards of "expediency," of "conscience," of "every man thinking as he likes, if he is only _sincere_"--these, and all similar refuges of lies shall be like a spider's web. The measure of all things will be Christ, and Christ the Measurer of all things. How everything will be reversed! What a turning upside down of all that now exists! Blessed day, and longed for--the world's great jubilee, the earth's long-looked-for Sabbath, groaning creation's joy, and nature's calm repose! Who would not cry, "Come, Lord Jesus, and end this troubled dream! Shatter the shadows of the long, dark night of sin and sorrow, sighing and tears, despair and death!"--_F. Whitfield._ =November 20th.= _In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John xvi. 33._ Tribulation is God's threshing--not to destroy us, but to get what is good, heavenly, and spiritual in us separated from what is wrong, earthly, and fleshly. Nothing less than blows of pain will do this. The evil clings so to the good, the golden wheat of goodness in us is so wrapped up in the strong chaff of the old life that only the heavy flail of suffering can produce the separation.--_J. R. Miller._ =November 21st.= _I . . . heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying . . . Write. Rev. i. 10, 11._ It is very sweet to note that a voice from heaven said to John, "Write." Does not that voice come to us? Are there not those who would taste the joys of heaven if we wrote them words of forgiveness and affection? Are there not others who would dry their tears if we would remind them of past joys, when we were poor as they are now? Nay, could not some, who read these plain words, place inside the envelope something bearing their signature which would make the widow's heart dance for joy? What is our pen doing? Is it adding joy to other men's lives? If so, then angels may tune their harps when we sit at our desk. They are sent to minister to the heirs of salvation, and would be glad to look upon our pen as writing music for them to sing, because what we write makes their client's joy to be full.--_Thomas Champness._ =November 22nd.= _Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Heb. xii. 6._ We should ever bear in mind that the discipline of our heavenly Father's hand is to be interpreted in the light of our Father's countenance; and the deep mysteries of His moral government to be contemplated through the medium or His tender love.--_Selected._ =November 23rd.= _Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. 1 Thess. v. 24._ Earthly faithfulness is possible only by the reception of heavenly gifts. As surely as every leaf that grows is mainly water that the plant has got from the clouds, and carbon that it has got out of the atmosphere, so surely will all our good be mainly drawn from heaven and heaven's gifts. As certainly as every lump of coal that you put upon your fire contains in itself sunbeams that have been locked up for all these millenniums that have passed since it waved green in the forest, so certainly does every good deed embody in itself gifts from above. And no man is pure except by impartation; and every good thing and every perfect thing cometh from the Father of lights.--_Alex. McLaren._ =November 24th.= _Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Col. iii. 16._ Remember your life is to be a singing life. This world is God's grand cathedral for you. You are to be one of God's choristers, and there is to be a continual eucharistic sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving going up from your heart, with which God shall be continually well pleased. And there should be not only the offering of the lips, but the surrender of the life with joy. Yes, with _joy_, and not with _constraint_. Every faculty of our nature should be presented to Him in gladsome service, for the Lord Jehovah is my song as well as my strength.--_W. Hay Aitken._ =November 25th.= _Call to remembrance the former days. Heb. x. 32._ _The former days_--times of trial, conflict, discouragement, temptation. Did we oftener call these to remembrance, with how much more delight would we make the covert of God's faithfulness our refuge, exclaiming with the psalmist, "Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice."--_R. Fuller._ =November 26th.= _The Lord . . . thy habitation. Psa. xci. 9._ We go home without arrangement. We plan our visits, and then go home because they are over. Duty, want, a host of things, lead us forth elsewhere; but the heart takes us home. Blessed, most blessed is he whose thoughts pass up to God, not because they are driven like a fisherman's craft swept by the fierceness of the storm, not because they are forced by want or fear, not because they are led by the hand of duty, but because God is in his habitation and his home. Loosed from other things, the thoughts go home for rest. In God the blessed man finds the love that welcomes. There is the sunny place. There care is loosed and toil forgotten. There is the joyous freedom, the happy calm, the rest, and renewing of our strength--at home with God.--_Mark Guy Pearse._ =November 27th.= _These have turned the world upside down. Acts xvii. 6._ _None of these things move me. Acts xx. 24._ The men that move the world are the ones who do not let the world move them.--_Selected._ =November 28th.= _He touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank. Gen. xxxii. 32._ Whatever it is that enables a soul, whom God designs to bless, to stand out against Him, God will touch. It may be the pride of wealth, or of influence, or of affection; but it will not be spared--God will touch it. It may be something as _natural_ as a sinew; but if it robs a man of spiritual blessing God will touch it. It may be as _small_ a thing as a sinew; but its influence in making a man strong in his resistance of blessing will be enough to condemn it--and God will touch it. And beneath that touch it will shrink and shrivel, and you will limp to the end of life. Remember that the sinew never shrinks save beneath the touch of the angel hand--the touch of tender love.--_F. B. Meyer._ =November 29th.= _With God all things are possible. Mark x. 27._ Unbelief says, "How can such and such things be?" It is full of "hows"; but faith has one great answer to the ten thousand "hows," and that answer is--GOD!--_C. H. M._ =November 30th.= _Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them. 2 Cor. vi. 16._ These temples were reared for Him. Let Him fill them so completely that, like the oriental temple of glass in the ancient legend, the temple shall not be seen, but only the glorious sunlight, which not only shines into it, but through it, and the transparent walls are all unseen.--_A. B. Simpson._ [Illustration: DECEMBER] =December 1st.= _Without Christ. Eph. ii. 12._ Without a hope to cheer, a Pilot to steer, a Friend to counsel, grace to sustain, heaven to welcome us, and God to console!--_Selected._ =December 2nd.= _When I am weak, then am I strong. 2 Cor. xii. 10._ This is God's way. We advance by going backwards, we become strong by becoming weak, we become wise by being fools.--_F. Whitfield._ =December 3rd.= _Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Pet. i. 21._ The Bible is the writing of the living God. Each letter was penned with an almighty finger. Each word in it dropped from the everlasting lips. Each sentence was dictated by the Holy Spirit. Albeit that Moses was employed to write his histories with his fiery pen, God guided that pen. It may be that David touched his harp, and let sweet psalms of melody drop from his fingers; but God moved his hands over the living strings of his golden harp. Solomon sang canticles of love and gave forth words of consummate wisdom; but God directed his lips, and made the preacher eloquent. If I follow the thundering Nahum, when his horses plough the waters; or Habakkuk, when he sees the tents of Cushan in affliction; if I read Malachi, when the earth is burning like an oven; if I turn to the smooth page of John, who tells of love; or the rugged chapters of Peter, who speaks of fire devouring God's enemies; if I turn aside to Jude, who launches forth anathemas upon the foes of God--everywhere I find God speaking; it is God's voice, not man's; the words are God's words; the words of the Eternal, the Invisible, the Almighty, the Jehovah of ages. This Bible is God's Bible; and when I see it, I seem to hear a voice springing up from it, saying, "I am the Book of God. Man, read me. I am God's writing. Study my page, for I was penned by God. Love me, for He is my Author, and you will see Him visible and manifest everywhere."--_Spurgeon._ =December 4th.= _They all forsook Him, and fled. Mark xiv. 50._ Separation never comes from His side.--_J. Hudson Taylor._ =December 5th.= _Belshazzar the king made a great feast. Dan. v. 1._ There was one Guest not invited, but He came, and the work of His finger glowed upon the wall.--_Selected._ =December 6th.= _He that watereth shall be watered also himself. Prov. xi. 25._ The effective life and the receptive life are one. No sweep of arm that does some work for God but harvests also some more of the truth of God, and sweeps it into the treasury of life.--_Phillips Brooks._ =December 7th.= _And they came unto Him, bringing one sick of the palsy. Mark ii. 3._ Had it not been for the palsy, this man might never have seen Christ!--_Selected._ =December 8th.= _Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits . . . who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. Ps. ciii. 2, 4._ We talk about the telescope of faith, but I think we want even more the microscope of watchful and grateful love. Apply this to the little bits of our daily lives, in the light of the Spirit, and how wonderfully they come out!--_Frances Ridley Havergal._ =December 9th.= _When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee. Is. xliii. 2._ God's presence in the trial is much better than exemption from the trial. The sympathy of His heart with us is sweeter far than the power of His hand for us.--_Selected._ =December 10th.= _Then shall ye discern between the righteous and the wicked. Mal. iii. 18._ Said Anne of Austria to Cardinal Richelieu: "God does not pay at the end of every week, but He pays at last!"--_Selected._ =December 11th.= _What is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeared for a little time, and then vanisheth away. James iv. 14._ "Only one life; 'twill soon be past-- And only what's done for Christ will last."--_Selected._ =December 12th.= _He (Jesus) . . . looked up to heaven. Mark vi. 41._ In working for God, first look to heaven. It is a grand plan. Over and over again our Lord Jesus Christ looked to heaven and said, "Father." Let us imitate Him; although standing on the earth, let us have our conversation in heaven. Before you go out, if you would feed the world, if you would be a blessing in the midst of spiritual dearth and famine, lift up your head to heaven. Then your very face will shine, your very garments will smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces where you have been with your God and Savior. There will be stamped upon you the dignity and power of the service of the Most High God.--_McNeil._ =December 13th.= _The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. Acts xi. 26._ This name suggests that the clear impression made by our character, as well as by our words, should be that we belong to Jesus Christ. He should manifestly be the center and the guide, the impulse and the pattern, the strength and reward, of our lives. We are Christians. That should be plain for all folks to see, whether we speak or be silent. Is it so with you?--_Alex. McLaren._ =December 14th.= _Having therefore these promises. 2 Cor. vii. 1._ The forests in summer days are full of birds' nests. They are hidden among the leaves. The little birds know where they are; and when a storm arises, or when night draws on, they fly, each to his own nest. So the promises of God are hidden in the Bible, like nests in the great forests; and thither we should fly in any danger or alarm, hiding there in our soul's nest until the storm be overpast. There are no castles in this world so impregnable as the words of Christ.--_J. R. Miller._ =December 15th.= _Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor. xiii. 13. (R. V.)_ Love is the greatest thing that God can give us: for Himself is Love; and it is the greatest thing we can give to God: for it will give ourselves, and carry with it all that is ours.--_Jeremy Taylor._ =December 16th.= _He (Thomas) . . . said, Except I shall see . . . I will not believe. . . . Jesus . . . said . . . Be not faithless, but believing. John xx. 25, 27._ Every doubt in the heart of a Christian is a dishonor done to the Word of God, and the sacrifice of Christ.--_Selected._ =December 17th.= _Lot . . . pitched his tent toward Sodom. Gen. xiii. 12._ And soon Lot moved into Sodom; and before long Sodom moved into him.--_Theodore Cuyler._ =December 18th.= _Cleanse Thou me from secret faults. Psa. xix. 12._ The world needs men who are free from secret faults. Most men are free from gross, public faults.--_Selected._ =December 19th.= _A hearer of the word . . . a doer of the work. Jas. i. 23, 25._ Religion may be learned on Sunday, but it is lived in the week-day's work. The torch of religion may be lit in the church, but it does its burning in the shop and on the street. Religion seeks its life in prayer, but it lives its life in deeds. It is planted in the closet, but it does its growing out in the world. It plumes itself for flight in songs of praise, but its actual flights are in works of love. It resolves and meditates on faithfulness as it reads its Christian lesson in the Book of Truth, but "faithful is that faithful does." It puts its armor on in all the aids and helps of the sanctuary as its dressing-room, but it combats for the right, the noble, and the good in all the activities of practical existence, and its battle ground is the whole broad field of life.--_John Doughty._ =December 20th.= _Ye know not what shall be on the morrow. James iv. 14._ "To-morrow" is the devil's great ally--the very Goliath in whom he trusts for victory. "Now" is the stripling sent forth against him. . . . The world will freely agree to be Christians to-morrow if Christ will permit them to be worldly to-day.--_William Arnot._ =December 21st.= _The sea wrought, and was tempestuous. Jonah i. 11._ Sin in the soul is like Jonah in the ship. It turns the smoothest water into a tempestuous sea.--_Selected._ =December 22nd.= _Be not doubtful, but followers of them also, through faith and patience, inherit the promises. Heb. vi. 12._ God makes a promise. Faith believes it. Hope anticipates it. Patience quietly awaits it.--_Selected._ =December 23rd.= _Go and sit down in the lowest room. Luke xiv. 10._ He who is willing to take the lowest place will always find sitting room; there is no great crush for the worst places. There is nothing like the jostling at the back there is at the front; so if we would be comfortable, we shall do well to keep behind.--_Thomas Champness._ =December 24th.= _Continue in prayer. Col. iv. 2._ Our prayers often resemble the mischievous tricks of town children, who knock at their neighbor's houses and then run away; we often knock at heaven's door and then run off into the spirit of the world; instead of waiting for entrance and answer, we act as if we were afraid of having our prayers answered.--_Williams._ =December 25th.= _A multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest. Luke ii. 13, 14._ Angels had been present on many august occasions, and they had joined in many a solemn chorus to the praise of their Almighty Creator. They were present at the creation: "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." They had seen many a planet fashioned between the palms of Jehovah, and wheeled by His eternal hands through the infinitude of space. They had sung solemn songs over many a world which the Great One had created. We doubt not, they had often chanted, "Blessing and honor, and glory, and majesty, and power, and dominion, and might, be unto Him that sitteth on the throne," manifesting Himself in the work of creation. I doubt not, too, that their songs had gathered force through ages. As when first created, their first breath was song, so when they saw God create new worlds, then their song received another note; they rose a little higher in the gamut of adoration. But this time, when they saw God stoop from His throne and become a babe hanging upon a woman's breast, they lifted their notes higher still; and reaching to the uttermost stretch of angelic music, they gained the highest notes of the divine scale of praise and they sang, "Glory to God _in the highest_," for higher in goodness they felt God could not go. Thus their highest praise they gave to Him in the highest act of His Godhead.--_Spurgeon._ =December 26th.= _God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Gal. vi. 14._ The cross is the great center of God's moral universe! To this center God ever pointed, and the eye of faith ever looked forward, until the Savior came. And now we must ever turn to that cross as the center of all our blessing, and the basis of all our worship, both on earth and in heaven--in time and throughout all eternity. =December 27th.= _He ever liveth. Heb. vii. 25._ It is our hope for ourselves, and for His truth, and for mankind. Men come and go. Leaders, teachers, thinkers, speak and work for a season, and then fall silent and impotent. He abides. They die, but He lives. They are lights kindled, and therefore, sooner or later quenched, but He is the true Light from which they draw all their brightness, and He shines for evermore.--_Alex. McLaren._ =December 28th.= _The friendship of the world is enmity with God. James iv. 4._ It is like the ivy with the oak. The ivy may give the oak a grand, beautiful appearance, but all the while it is feeding on its vitals. Are we compromising with the enemies of God? Are we being embraced by the world by its honors, its pleasures, its applause? This may add to us in the world's estimation, but our strength becomes lost.--_Denham Smith._ =December 29th.= _She (Hannah) . . . prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore . . . she spake in her heart. 1 Sam. i. 10, 13._ For real business at the mercy-seat give me a home-made prayer, a prayer that comes out of the depths of my heart, not because I invented it, but because God the Holy Ghost, put it there, and gave it such living force that I could not help letting it out. Though your words are broken, and your sentences disconnected, if your desires are earnest, if they are like coals of juniper, burning with a vehement flame, God will not mind how they find expression. If you have no words, perhaps you will pray better without them than with them. There are prayers that break the backs of words; they are too heavy for any human language to carry.--_Spurgeon._ =December 30th.= _Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Gen. vi. 8._ Noah found grace in the same way that Paul obtained mercy (1 Tim. 1: 16), namely, by mercy's taking hold of him.--_Selected._ =December 31st.= _Which hope we have as an anchor to the soul. Heb. vi. 19._ Anchor to the throne of God, and then shorten the rope!--_Selected._ * * * * * Transcriber's Notes: Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Page 4, there was a reference "11:10" listed under Ephesians. As Ephesians doesn't have eleven chapters, the transcriber checked page 78. Ephesians 2, written as ii, is on page 78 and is already listed under Ephesians. The reference to 11:10 being on page 78 was removed. Page 4, "I." added to "Thessalonians". Pge 24, "regetting" changed to "regretting" (by regretting what is) Page 63, "Jnue" changed to "June" (June 22nd) Page 64, "closee" changed to "closer" (by closer following) Page 110, "porals" changed to "portals" (portals of the grave) 
14849	----	LEAVES OF LIFE FOR DAILY INSPIRATION BY MARGARET BIRD STEINMETZ 1914 The Bible text used in this book is taken from the American Standard Edition of the Revised Bible, copyright, 1901, by Thomas Nelson & Sons, and is used by permission. DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO HAVE HELPED IN GATHERING THESE LEAVES--AND TO THOSE WHO MAY GATHER SOMETHING FROM THEM. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Macmillan Company, New York, N.Y. Shailer Mathews, Jane Addams, Newell Dwight Hillis, Marion Crawford. The Century Company, New York, N.Y. S. Weir Mitchell, Theodore Roosevelt, John Kendrick Bangs, Richard Watson Gilder, Edith Thomas. Oxford University Press, London, E.C. Annie Matheson. The Saalfield Publishing Company, Akron, Ohio. Joseph Jefferson. Mitchell Kennerley, New York. Theodosia Garrison: My Litany. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York, N.Y. Charles W. Eliot: The Durable Satisfactions of Life. J.R. Miller. The Pilgrim Press, Boston, Mass. Henry Ward Beecher. Harper & Brothers, New York, N.Y. Will Carleton: Farm Legends. Margaret E. Sangster: Easter Bells. Elbert Hubbard, Roycroft Shop, East Aurora, N.Y. Printed by special permission of the publishers. W.B. Conkey, Hammond, Ind. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, copyrighted 1912. National W.C.T.U., Evanston, Ill. Frances E. Willard. American Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia, Pa. W.E. Winks. Rand, McNally & Company, Chicago, Ill. Marie Bashkirtseff. Tennesseean and American, Nashville, Tenn. G. Rice. Cosmopolitan Magazine, New York, N.Y. O. Henry. The H.M. Rowe Company, Baltimore, Md. Edwin Leibfreed: Poems. Permission from President Wilson for the excerpts from his speeches. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Mass. Kate Douglas Wiggin, Richard Watson Gilder, Josephine Peabody, John Hay, Hugo Münsterberg, Edith Thomas, Lyman Abbott, John Burroughs, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Julia Ward Howe, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Joel Chandler Harris, Lucy Larcom, Bret Harte, Bayard Taylor, Alice Freeman Palmer, Thomas W. Higginson. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, N.Y. Henry van Dyke: Music and Other Poems. Maltbie D. Babcock: Thoughts for Every Day Living. Sidney Lanier: Poems of Sidney Lanier. Robert Bridges: Robert Bridges' Poems. George Meredith: Last Poems. James Anthony Froude: Short Studies on Great Subjects. Robert Louis Stevenson: Poems and Works. W.E. Henley: Poems. Eugene Field: Western Verse. G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London. Arthur Christopher Benson: Along the Road, Silent Isle, From a College Window, Joyous Gard, Lord Vyet and Other Poems. Little, Brown & Company, Boston, Mass. Emily Dickinson, Laura E. Richards, Edward Everett Hale. George H. Doran Company, New York, N.Y. Sir Oliver Lodge, Arnold Bennett, J. Stalker, A.H. Begbie. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, N.Y. Percy C. Ainsworth, E.H. Divall, Margaret E. Sangster, J.H. Jowett, George Matheson. Longmans, Green & Company, New York and London. William James. Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, N.Y. Maurice Maeterlinck, Hamilton Mabie, Ian Maclaren, Jerome K. Jerome, G.K. Chesterton, Paul Laurence Dunbar. Small, Maynard & Company, Boston, Mass. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, John B. Tabb, Ernest Crosby. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, Boston, Mass. Paul Hamilton Hayne. Doubleday, Page & Company, Garden City, New York Charles Wagner, Edwin Markham, Helen Keller. E.P. Dutton Company, New York. George Macdonald. JANUARY Janus am I; oldest of potentates; Forward I look, and backward, and below I count, as god of avenues and gates, The years that through my portals come and go. I block the roads, and drift the fields with snow; I chase the wild fowl from the frozen fen; My frosts congeal the rivers in their flow, My fires light up the hearths and hearts of men. --Henry W. Longfellow. JANUARY FIRST Bartolome Esteban Murillo, baptized 1618. Paul Revere born 1735. Betsy Ross born 1752. Maria Edgeworth born 1767. Arthur Hugh Clough born 1819. Old things need not be therefore true, O brother men, nor yet the new; Ah! still awhile the old thought retain, And yet consider it again! We! what do we see? each a space Of some few yards before his face; Does that the whole wide plan explain? Ah, yet consider it again! Alas! the great world goes its way, And takes its truth from each new day; They do not quit, nor can retain, Far less consider it again. --Arthur Hugh Clough. There are two sorts of content; one is connected with exertion, the other habits of indolence. The first is a virtue; the other a vice. --Maria Edgeworth. Oh send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me: Let them bring me unto thy holy hill, And to thy tabernacles. --Psalm 43. 3. Almighty God, lead me in the search for life. Teach me what is important and what is unimportant; what is false, and what is true. Remove the hindrances that keep me from the worthiest deeds, and grant that I may have the peace that comes with surrender of self to thy will. Amen. JANUARY SECOND General James Wolfe born 1727. Colonial flag first raised 1776. Mary Carey Thomas born 1857. To what profit we could use the time for our present task that we spend in impatient waiting and wondering over the future! So often the future is just one step up from the present, but some of us miss it by preferring to wait for an elevator. --M. B. S. Prepare to live by all means, but for heaven's sake do not forget to live. You will never have a better chance than you have at present. You may think you will have, but you are mistaken. --Arnold Bennett. He that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night; while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him. He that lives on hope will die fasting. --Benjamin Franklin. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, whither thou goest. --Ecclesiastes 9. 10. Gracious Father, my heart burns with shame when I think how much I claim, and how little I am. I pray that my body may not cast a shadow to-day, and cloud the light of my life to-morrow. Cleanse the windows of my soul that I may take in thy glory. Amen. JANUARY THIRD Marcus Tullius Cicero born B.C. 106. Martin Luther excommunicated 1521. Douglas Jerrold born 1803. Charles Wagner (France) born 1852. To be continually advancing in the paths of knowledge is one of the most pleasing satisfactions of the human mind. These are pleasures perfect consistent with every degree of advanced years. --Cicero. Fidelity in small things is at the base of every great achievement. We too often forget this and yet no truth needs more to be kept in mind particularly in the troubled eras of history and in the crises of individual life. In shipwreck a splintered beam, an oar, any scrap of wreckage saves us. To despise the remnants is demoralization. --Charles Wagner. He that is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much and he that is unrighteous in a very little is unrighteous also in much. --Luke 16. 10 Almighty God, may I understand that thou art in everything and that I cannot hide from thee, for thou boldest me though I know it not. Give me the desire, and help me to learn of thy laws, that I may know that even in the least of things, I have the liberty to obtain happiness by obeying them. Amen. JANUARY FOURTH Archbishop Usher born 1580. Jacob L. Carl Grimm born 1785. Elizabeth Peabody died 1894. Years rush by us like the wind, we see not whence the eddy comes, nor whitherward it is tending, and we seem ourselves to witness their flight without a sense that we are changed: and yet time is beguiling man of his strength, as the winds rob the trees of their foliage. --Sir Walter Scott. The bell strikes one. We take no note of Time But from its loss. To give it, then a tongue Is wise in man; as if an angel spoke I feel the solemn sound. If heard aright It is the knell of my departed hours: Where are they? --Edward Young. Days should speak, And multitude of years should teach wisdom. And the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding. It is not the great that are wise, Nor the aged that understand justice. --Job 32. 7, 9. Lord God, help me to see my mistakes, and bring me to the realization of my life. Grant that I may no longer use the time that thou gavest me to learn in, heedlessly, but to give it my best thought and care. Amen. JANUARY FIFTH Stephen Decatur born 1779. Robert Morrison born 1782. Thomas Pringle born 1789. Let me go where'er I will, I hear a sky-born music still: It sounds from all things old, It sounds from all things young, From all that's fair, from all that's foul, Peals out a cheerful song. It is not only in the rose, It is not only in the bird, Not only where the rainbow glows, Nor in the song of woman heard, But in the darkest, meanest things There alway, alway something sings. 'Tis not in the high stars alone, Nor in the cup of budding flowers, Nor in the redbreast's mellow tone, Nor in the bow that smiles in showers, But in the mud and scum of things There alway, alway something sings. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament showeth his handiwork. --Psalm 19. 1. Almighty God, grant that my life may no longer be a noise, but be kept in tune with the sublimest melodies, that wherever I am, there may be no discords in the songs of my soul. Through thy loving-kindness may my songs resound. Amen. JANUARY SIXTH Epiphany, or Twelfth-Day. Joan d'Arc born 1412. David Dale born 1739. 'Twas even so! and thou the shepherd's child, Joanne, the lowly dreamer of the wild! Never before and never since that hour Hath woman, mantled with victorious power, Stood forth as thou beside the shrine didst stand, Holy amidst the knighthood of the land. --Mrs. Felicia Hemans. Every one must recognize the splendid work which has been done by women in social and educational fields. And it will, I believe, come more and more to be recognized that in some respects women are specially fitted for government and for official-municipal life. --Sir Oliver Lodge. Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she judged Israel at that time. And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill-country of Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. --Judges 4. 4, 5. My Father, help me to be thoughtful and just. May I consider the great truths and broader visions that may not be seen from where I stand. May I be willing to accept a better view. Grant that I may realize that the battle of life is not a sham battle, but a struggle for the advancement of life. Amen. JANUARY SEVENTH General Putnam born 1718. Robert Nicholl born 1814. T. DeWitt Talmage born 1832. Opportunities fly in a straight line, touch us but once and never return, but the wrongs we do others fly in a circle; they come back from the place they started. --T. DeWitt Talmage. Our share of night to bear, Our share of morning, Our blank is bliss to fill, Our blank is scorning. Here a star, and there a star, Some lose their way, Here a mist, and there a mist, Afterwards--day! --Emily Dickinson. Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your resting-place. --Micah 2. 10. Lord God, give me the desire to be persistent in service, while I have health and strength. May I experience the sweetness that comes in doing the thing that I ought to have done, as well as that in which I took the most pleasure. Help me to so live that my days may be useful, and be recalled with bright and happy recollections. Amen. JANUARY EIGHTH John Earl of Stair died 1707. Sir William Draper died 1787. Alfred Russel Wallace born 1823. William Wilkie Collins born 1824. Sir Laurence Alma-Tadema born 1836. A blue bird built his nest Here in my breast. "O bird of Light! Whence comest thou?" Said he, "From God above: My name is Love." A mate he brought one day, Of plumage gray. "O bird of Night! Why comest thou?" Said she: "Seek no relief! My name is Grief." --Laurence Alma-Tadema. It is not so much resolution as renunciation, not so much courage as resignation, that we need. He that has once yielded thoroughly to God will yield to nothing but God. --John Ruskin. Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, Neither will he uphold the evildoers. He will yet fill thy mouth with laughter, And thy lips with shouting. --Job 8. 20, 21. Almighty God, help me to understand that peace does not come in rebellion or grieving, but is obtained through the calm of the soul. Grant that if I may be perplexed or worried to-day, I may have the power to control myself and wait in thy strength. Amen. JANUARY NINTH Dr. Thomas Brown born 1778. Elizabeth O. Benger died 1822. Caroline Lucretia Herschel died 1848, aged ninety-seven. Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness altogether past calculation its powers of endurance. Efforts to be permanently useful must be uniformly joyous--a spirit of all sunshine. --Thomas Carlyle. Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting. --Washington Irving. A laugh is worth a hundred groans in any market. --Charles Lamb. A glad heart maketh a cheerful countenance; But by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken. Better is a dinner of herbs, where love is, Than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. --Proverbs 15. 13, 17. Gracious Father, if I am sorrowing over disappointment and am forgetful, grant that I may see the things thou hast made, for which I should be thankful. Help me to so live that I may have a right to claim a cheerful heart. Amen. JANUARY TENTH Dr. George Birkbeck born 1776. Michel or Marshal Ney born 1769. Karl von Linné, Linnæus, died 1778. Ethan Allen born 1737. Shall I hold on with both hands to every paltry possession? All I have teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. The practical weakness of the vast mass of modern pity for the poor and the oppressed is precisely that it is merely pity; the pity is pitiful but not respectful. Men feel that the cruelty to the poor is a kind of cruelty to animals. They never feel that it is injustice to equals; nay, it is treachery to comrades. --G.K. Chesterton. Be ye all like-minded, compassionate, loving as brethren, tender-hearted, humble-minded: not rendering evil for evil, or reviling for reviling; but contrariwise blessing. --1 Peter 3. 8, 9. God of justice, may I pause to remember that while I may do a mean act and keep it hidden from others, I cannot keep it hidden from myself, nor from thee. Help me to have a nobler sense of the quality of life, and less anxiety for the quantity, that I may avoid harshness and selfishness, and be given to tenderness and justice. Amen. JANUARY ELEVENTH Alexander Hamilton born 1757. Bayard Taylor born 1825. William James born 1842. Alice Caldwell Regan Rice born 1870. The paternal relation to man was the basis of that religion which appealed directly to the heart; so the fraternity of each man with his fellow was its practical application. --Bayard Taylor. It is indeed a remarkable fact that sufferings and hardships do not, as a rule, abate the love of life; they seem on the contrary, usually to give it a keener zest; and the sovereign source of melancholy is repletion. Need and struggle are what excite and inspire. Our hour of triumph is what brings the void. --William James. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to them that love him. --James 1. 12. Lord God, I come to thee for help that the small things may not force themselves into my life, and keep me from pursuing the larger things which are continually open to me. May I not be blind to what I may have and be, through inspiration and work. Grant that I may not be satisfied to remain in that in which I have triumphed, but climb to greater endeavors. Amen. JANUARY TWELFTH Edmund Burke born 1729. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi born 1746. François Coppée born 1842. John S. Sargent born 1856. Show the thing you contend for to be reason; show it to be common sense; show it to be the means of attaining some useful end. The question with me is not whether you have a right to render your people miserable, but whether it is your interest to make them happy. --Edmund Burke. Like the star That shines afar, Without haste And without rest, Let each man wheel with steady sway Round the task that rules the day, And do his best. --Goethe. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. --1 Corinthians 13. 4. Gracious Father, cause me to be critical of my life, that I may not be deceived in myself. Help me to look into my soul and see what thou dost find there; and with humility may I acknowledge what I am to thee, and seek thy wisdom and love. Amen. JANUARY THIRTEENTH George Fox, founder Society of Friends, died 1691. Samuel Woodworth (Old Oaken Bucket) born 1785. Order of King's Daughters founded 1886. Have thy soul feel the universal breath With which all nature's quick, and learn to be Sharer in all that thou dost touch or see; Break from thy body's grasp thy spirit's trance; Give thy soul air, thy faculties expanse; Love, joy, even sorrow,--yield thyself to all! They make thy freedom, groveling, not thy thrall. Knock off the shackles which thy spirit bind To dust and sense, and set at large the mind! Then move in sympathy with God's great whole, And be like man at first, a _Living Soul_. --Richard Henry Dana. I was deeply impressed by what a gardener once said to me concerning his work. "I feel, sir," he said, "when I am growing the flowers or rearing the vegetables, that I am having a share in creation." I thought it a very noble way of regarding his work. --J.H. Jowett. For we are God's fellow workers: ye are God's husbandry, God's building. --1 Corinthians 3. 9. Creator of all, help me to see what there is for me to do; and help me to know that I cannot be productive if I am hovering in the choice of my work. May I learn from thy great works of heaven and earth the ways of selection and steadfastness. Give me the desire to work and the confidence that is needed to carry on my work. Amen. JANUARY FOURTEENTH Madame de Sévigné died 1696. Edmund Halley died 1742. Pierre Loti born 1850. Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute What you can do, or dream you can; begin it; Boldness has genius, power magic in it. Only engage, and then the mind grows heated; Begin and then the work will be completed. --Goethe. Were half the power that fills the world with terror, Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts, Given to redeem the human mind from error, There were no need of arsenals or forts. --Henry W. Longfellow. Choose you this day whom ye will serve;... but as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah. --Joshua 24. 15. Almighty God, help me to appreciate the sacredness of work while I have it to do. Grant that I may be spared the wretchedness that comes from working with fragments from idleness. May I do my part, even if it be in obscurity and the night overtakes me before it is done. Amen. JANUARY FIFTEENTH Molière born 1622. Dr. Samuel Parr born 1747. Edward Everett died 1865. The sun withholds his generous beam; Athwart my soul the shadows stream; The weird winds boisterously blow, And drift the melancholy snow. When I, in sorrow and despair, Expect the storm, with tender care He rends the clouds and through the blue The glorious sun breaks forth anew. --M.B.S. So with the wan waste grasses on my spear, I ride forever seeking after God. My hair grows whiter than my thistle plume And all my limbs are loose; but in my eyes The star of an unconquerable praise; For in my soul one hope forever sings, That at the next white corner of the road My eyes may look on Him. --G.K. Chesterton. He brought me forth also into a large place; He delivered me, because he delighted in me. --Psalm 18. 19. Loving Father, if I may be discouraged to-day, strengthen my faith. May I not weary of waiting for thee, but trust in thy promises. Amen. JANUARY SIXTEENTH Edmund Spenser died 1599. Johann August Neander born 1789. Edward Gibbon died 1794. Sir John Moore died 1809. But lovely concord, and most sacred peace, Doth nourish vertue, and fast friendship breeds; Weake she makes strong, and strong thing does increase, Till it the pitch of highest praise exceeds. --Edmund Spenser. Perfect good-breeding is the result of nature and not of education; for it may be found in a cottage, and may be missed in a palace. 'Tis the genial regard for the feeling of others that springs from an absence of selfishness. --Disraeli. Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither can salt water yield sweet. --James 3. 12. Heavenly Father, help me to value my thoughts, words, and deeds. If at the close of the day, there may be one who has been wounded by my injustice, may I be willing to make quick atonement. May I avoid the ways and words that hurt; and not only wish rightly and work rightly, but speak to enrich others with tenderness. Amen. JANUARY SEVENTEENTH John Ray died 1705. Benjamin Franklin born 1706. George Bancroft died 1891. Employ thy time well if thou meanest to gain leisure; and since thou art not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour! Leisure is time for doing something useful; this leisure the diligent man will obtain, but the lazy man never; a life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. --Benjamin Franklin. There is nothing to gain and everything to lose by despising the example of nature, and making arbitrary rules for oneself. Our liberty wisely understood is but a voluntary obedience to the universal laws of life. --Amiel. I will meditate on thy precepts, And have respect unto thy ways. --Psalm 119. 15. My Father, help me to understand the power of nature, that I may be willing to obey her laws. I pray that I may so live that my life will proclaim itself without need of boasting or deception. Forbid that I should spend my life in perfecting trifles, and have no leisure to enjoy thy great gifts. Amen. JANUARY EIGHTEENTH Charles de Montesquieu born 1689. John Gillies born 1747. Daniel Webster born 1782. We would leave for the consideration of those who shall occupy our places some proof that we hold the blessings transmitted from our fathers in just estimation; some proof of our attachment to the cause of good government and of civil and religious liberty; some proof of a sincere and ardent desire to promote every thing which may enlarge the understanding and improve the hearts of men. --Daniel Webster. Brother and friend, the world is wide, But I care not whether there be The soothing song of a summer tide Or the thrash of a wintry sea, If but through shimmer and storm you bide, Brother and friend, with me. --Percy C. Ainsworth. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the King. --1 Peter 2. 17. Almighty God, I thank thee for all the tender influences of life; for all the gentleness and strength that may be given and received through friendship. Help me to be careful of what I do, for my sake, and for the sake of those who may follow me. Amen. JANUARY NINETEENTH Hans Sachs died 1576. William Congreve died 1729. James Watt born 1736. Robert E. Lee born 1807. Edgar Allan Poe born 1809. I stand amid the roar Of a surf-tormented shore, And I hold within my hand Grains of the golden sand-- How few! Yet how they creep Through my fingers to the deep, While I weep--while I weep! O God, can I not save One from the pitiless wave? Is all that we see or seem But a dream within a dream? --Edgar Allan Poe. Do not train up your children in hostility to the government of the United States. Remember that we are one country now. Dismiss from your mind all sectional feeling, and bring them up to be Americans. --Robert E. Lee. Wait for Jehovah: Be strong, and let thy heart take courage; Yea, wait thou for Jehovah. --Psalm 27. 14. Lord God, I pray that if I have struggled for the wrong, and have worked with weak hands, thou wilt forgive me for my lost strength. Give me more light to shine upon my work, upon thy promises, and upon my duties; and with thy wisdom may I search for the truth that is behind every wrong, and for the purpose that is beyond all journeyings. Amen. JANUARY TWENTIETH Eve of Saint Agnes. David Garrick died 1779. John Howard died 1790. John Ruskin died 1900. Nathaniel P. Willis born 1806. How like a mounting devil in the heart Rules the unreigned ambition! Let it once But play the monarch, and its haughty brow Glows with a beauty that bewilders thought And unthrones peace forever. Putting on The very pomp of Lucifer, it turns The heart to ashes. --Nathaniel P. Willis. Temperance, in the nobler sense, does not mean a subdued and imperfect energy; it does not mean a stopping short in any good thing, as love or in faith; but it means the power which governs the most intense energy, and prevents its acting in any way but as it ought. --John Ruskin. And thy gentleness hath made me great. --Psalm 18. 35. Gracious Father, I pray that I may be willing to profit by the experience of great teachers, and appreciate the value of strong principles. May I too live for the higher ideals of life, and through a sympathetic response add power and virtue to other lives, while gaining strength for my own. Amen. JANUARY TWENTY-FIRST Miles Coverdale died 1568. John Fitch born 1743. John C. Fremont born 1813. Thomas Erskine born 1750. Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson born 1824. So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend. --Robert L. Stevenson. So to the calmly gathered thought The innermost of life is taught, The mystery dimly understood, That love of God is love of good: That to be saved is only this-- Salvation from our selfishness. --John Greenleaf Whittier. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: love therefore is the fulfillment of the law. And this, knowing the season, that already it is time for you to awake out of sleep: for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed. --Romans 13. 10, 11. Tender Father, may I not attempt to serve life for my own gratification. May I not interpret love through vanity, but from reality. Make me worth while, that I may be relied upon for my pledges, and needed for my services. Amen. JANUARY TWENTY-SECOND Andrea del Sarto died 1531. Francis Bacon born 1561. Lord George Byron born 1788. Queen Victoria died 1901. Father of light! to thee I call, My soul is dark within: Thou who canst mark the sparrow's fall, Avert the death of sin, Thou who canst guide the wandering star, Who calm'st the elemental war, Whose mantle is yon boundless sky, My thoughts, my words, my crimes forgive; And since I soon must cease to live, Instruct me how to die. --Lord Byron. Knowledge, whether it descend from divine inspiration or spring from human sense, would soon perish and vanish to oblivion if it were not preserved in books, traditions, conferences, and places appointed. --Francis Bacon. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein. --Revelation 1. 3. Almighty God, I would have thy counsel as I read the words and follow the deeds of helpful lives, that I may be inspired to nobler activities. Give me the desire to know more of thy holy word, that I may have a better knowledge of life. Amen. JANUARY TWENTY-THIRD John Hancock born 1737. William Pitt died 1806. Charles Kingsley died 1875. Paul Gustave Doré died 1883. Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful. Welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower, and thank Him for it, who is the fountain of all loveliness. --Charles Kingsley. Nature never did betray The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege Through all the years of this life, to lead, From joy to joy; for she can so impress With quietness and beauty, and so feed With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, * * * * * Nor all the dreary intercourse of daily life, Shall e'er prevail against us or disturb Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold Is full of blessings. --William Wordsworth. Is not God in the height of heaven? And behold the height of the stars, how high they are! And thou sayest, What doth God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness? --Job 22. 12, 13. Lord God, I pray that I may not overlook thy blessings of beauty while endeavoring to perform my duties. Guide me that I may not struggle to be where thou wouldst not have me go. Amen. JANUARY TWENTY-FOURTH Charles Earl of Dorset born 1637. Frederick the Great born 1712. Charles James Fox born 1749. The great Gods pass through the great Time-hall, Stately and high; The little men climb the low clay wall To gape and spy; "We wait for the Gods," the little men cry, "But these are our brothers passing by." The great Gods pass through the great Time-hall; Who can see? The little men nod by the low clay wall, So tired they be; '"Tis weary waiting for Gods," they yawn, "There's a world o' men, but the Gods are gone." --A.H. Begbie. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. --Luke 24. 16. My Father, may I be careful of getting weary and missing the best through the need of rest. Intensify my desire for the songs and glorious ways, that I may not settle into dullness and slumber, while others pass on in the light. I pray for a keener sense of the possessions made possible by the deeds and cares of noble men and women. Amen. JANUARY TWENTY-FIFTH Robert Burns born 1759. Lord Frederick Leighton died 1896. Daniel Maclise born 1811. When ranting round in pleasure's ring Religion may be blinded: Or if she gie a random sting, It may be little minded: But when on life we're Tempest-driv'n-- A conscience but a canker, A correspondence fixed wi' Heav'n, Is sure a noble anchor. --Robert Burns. Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do noble things, not dream them, all day long: And so make life, death, and that vast forever One grand sweet song. --Charles Kingsley. O Lord, by these things men live; And wholly therein is the life of my spirit: Wherefore recover thou me, and make me to live. --Isaiah 38. 16. Gracious Father, grant that I may not be willing to spend my life for trivial needs, for thou dost measure me for what I am, and boldest me for what I lose in waste. Be with me in my judgment of what is best, that I may make the most of my life. Amen. JANUARY TWENTY-SIXTH Lord George Sackville born 1716. Benjamin Robert Haydon born 1786. Mary Mapes Dodge born 1838. General Gordon (Chinese Gordon) killed 1885. Ave Maria! blessed be the hour, That time, the clime, the spot, where I so oft Have felt that moment in its fullest power Sink o'er the earth so beautiful and soft, While swung the deep bell in the distant tower Or the faint dying day-hymn stole aloft, And not a breath crept through the rosy air, And yet the forest leaves seemed stirred with prayer. --Lord Byron. I am quite happy, thank God, and like Lawrence, I have tried to do my duty. --General Gordon (just before death). For in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly in his pavilion: In the covert of his tabernacle will he hide me; He will lift me up upon a rock. --Psalm 27. 5. Heavenly Father, teach me how to breathe in the sweetness of life. Reveal to me the life that will bring peace to the soul. May I not be dismayed, but find the "Peace that passeth all understanding," the perfect peace that comes from thee. Amen. JANUARY TWENTY-SEVENTH Johannes Wolfgang Mozart born 1756. A.W. von Schlegel born 1767. David Friedrich Strauss born 1808. To keep young, every day read a poem, hear a choice piece of music, view a fine painting, and, if possible, do a good action. Man's highest merit always is, as much as possible, to rule external circumstances, and as little as possible to let himself be ruled by them. --Goethe. Let us not always say, "Spite of this flesh to-day I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!" As the bird wings and sings, Let us cry, "All good things Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more now than flesh helps soul!" --Robert Browning. Surely goodness and loving-kindness shall follow me all the days of my life. --Psalm 23. 6. Loving Father, help me to foresee that it is what I care for to-day that determines how I will find old age. May I not bring my closing years to weariness and lonesomeness, but may I have the restfulness that comes with communing with thee. Amen. JANUARY TWENTY-EIGHTH Charlemagne died 814. Sir Francis Drake died 1596. Peter the Great died 1725. Charles George Gordon (Chinese Gordon) born 1833. He only is advancing in life whose heart is getting softer, whose blood warmer, whose brain quicker, and whose spirit is entering into living peace. And the men who have this life in them are the true lords and kings of the earth--they, and they only. --John Ruskin. Just where you stand in the conflict, There is your place! Just where you think you are useless, Hide not your face! God placed you there for a purpose, What e'er it be; Think you he has chosen you for it: Work loyally. --Anonymous. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! --Romans 11. 33. My Father, I thank thee that thou hast endowed me with a will; help me to use it aright. May I have the knowledge of what thou dost demand of my soul, that I may do my best with what thou hast given me. Help me that I may reach out for the highest ideals of life. Amen. JANUARY TWENTY-NINTH Emanuel Swedenborg born 1688. Thomas Paine born 1737. Adelaide Ristori born 1822. William McKinley, Ohio, twenty-fourth President United States, born 1843. God will keep no nation in supreme place that will not do supreme duty. --William McKinley. Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and the angels know of us. --Thomas Paine. The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another. --George Eliot. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, Upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. So shall we not go back from thee: Quicken thou us, and we will call upon thy name. --Psalm 80. 17, 18. My Father, I pray that I may be just and be given to kindness. May I be conscious of my virtues, and use them to overcome my faults. May I hear clearly thy call that I may be sure of the way as I lead others to duty and happiness. Amen. JANUARY THIRTIETH Archbishop Butler born 1774. Walter Savage Landor born 1775. Henri Rochefort born 1830. Why, why repine, my pensive friend, At pleasures slipped away? Some the stern fates will never lend, And all refuse to stay. I see the rainbow in the sky, The dew upon the grass; I see them and I ask not why They glimmer or they pass. With folded arms I linger not To call them back; 'twere vain; In this, or in some other spot, I know they'll shine again. --Walter Savage Landor. When disappointment comes meet it, but do not carry it along with you; nor fetter your spirit by changeless haste. "Memory will always pursue some precious instance of itself," which will bring either renewed confidence or resignation. --M. B. S. For thou shalt forget thy misery; Thou shalt remember it as waters that are passed away. --Job 11. 16. Gracious Father, help me to "Lift mine eyes unto the hills" that glorify the discouraging ways. May I appreciate thy great love, and from my limitations find the possibilities that are limitless. Amen. JANUARY THIRTY-FIRST Cromwell dissolved Parliament 1655. Charles Edward (Young Pretender) died 1788. Franz Schubert born 1797. James G. Elaine born 1830. Nature demands that man be ever at the top of his condition. He who violates her laws must pay the penalty, though he sit on a throne. --James G. Elaine. Dig channels for the streams of love, Where they may broadly run; And love has overflowing streams To fill them every one. For we must share if we must keep The good things from above; Ceasing to give, we cease to have-- Such is the law of love. --R. C. Trench. And thy life shall be clearer than the noonday; Though there be darkness, it shall be as the morning. --Job 11. 17. My Father, I would remember that it is mostly from my inspirations that I conceive life. Take away hatred and vanity that keep me in faults, and awake in me the thoughts that are responsible for visions that lead to high ideals. Amen. FEBRUARY Then came old February, sitting In an old wagon, for he could not ride, Drawn of two fishes for the season fitting, Which through the flood before did softly slide And swim away; yet he had by his side His plow and harness fit to till the ground, And tools to prune the trees, before the pride Of hasting prime did make them bourgeon wide. --Edmund Spenser. FEBRUARY FIRST Ben Jonson born 1574. John Philip Kemble born 1757. Arthur Henry Hallam born 1811. George Cruikshank died 1878. It is not growing like a tree In bulk, doth make man better be; Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere: A lily of a day Is fairer far in May, Although it fall and die that night-- It was the plant and flower of Light. In small proportions we just beauties see; And in short measure life may perfect be. --Ben Jonson. There are four things which are little upon the earth, But they are exceeding wise: The ants are a people not strong, Yet they provide their food in the summer; The conies are but a feeble folk, Yet make they their houses in the rocks; The locusts have no king, Yet go they forth all of them by bands; The lizard taketh hold with her hands, Yet is she in king's palaces. --Proverbs 30. 24-28. Creator of all, lead me to see the light, and instruct me that I may be able to reason. Guard me against spectacular endeavors, that I may be genuine. Amen. FEBRUARY SECOND Candlemas Day. Nell Gwynn born 1650. Hannah More born 1745. William Henry Burleigh born 1812. 'Twas doing nothing was his curse-- Is there a vice can plague us worse? The wretch who digs the mine for bread, Or plows, that others may be fed, Feels less fatigue than that decreed To him who cannot think, or read. Not all the peril of temptations, Not all the conflict of the passions, Can quench the spark of Glory's flame, Or quite extinguish Virtue's name. --Hannah More. Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife! To all the sensual world proclaim, One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name. --Sir Walter Scott. He went out, and found others standing; and he saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard. --Matthew 20. 6, 7. Eternal God, who hath weighed the mountains and measured the seas, I pray that I may not be satisfied to wait in idleness, and let thy wisdom pass away from me as the days. Steady me in my weakness, and reveal to me my strength as I draw near and ask of thee. Amen. FEBRUARY THIRD Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy born 1809. Horace Greeley born 1811. Frederick William Robertson born 1816. Sidney Lanier born 1842. My soul is sailing through the sea, But the past is heavy and hindereth me. The past hath crusted cumbrous shells That hold the flesh of cold sea-mells About my soul. The huge waves wash, the high waves roll, Each barnacle clingeth and worketh dole And hindereth me from sailing. --Sidney Lanier. To stand with a smile upon your face, against a stake from which you cannot get away--that no doubt is heroic. True glory is resignation to the inevitable. But to stand unchained, with perfect liberty to go away held only by the higher chains of duty, and let the fire creep up to the heart--that is heroism. --F.W. Robertson. We are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed. --2 Corinthians 4. 8, 9. Gracious Father, thou knowest what I am and the condition of my life. May I seek thy will for me. Grant that I may never struggle for consolation through indulgence and indolence, but in my sorrow and failure may I reach out for thy enduring comfort. Amen. FEBRUARY FOURTH Mark Hopkins born 1802. W. Harrison Ainsworth born 1805. Jean Richepin born 1849. Thomas Carlyle died 1881. Life is not a May-game, but a battle and a march, a warfare with principalities and powers. No idle promenade through fragrant orange groves and green flowery spaces, waited on by coral muses, and the rosy hours; it is a stern pilgrimage through the rough, burning, sandy solitudes, through regions of thick-ribbed ice. --Thomas Carlyle. For all sweet and pleasant passages in the great story of life men may well thank God; for leisure and ease and health and friendship may God make us truly and humbly grateful; but our chief song of thanksgiving must be always for our kinship with him, with all that such divinity of greatness brings of peril, hardship, toil, and sacrifice. --Hamilton Mabie. Thy bars shall be iron and brass; And as thy days, so shall thy strength be. --Deuteronomy 33. 25. My Father, help me to choose the road that leads to my work, and may I not fail to reach it, by wandering away from it. Keep me in touch with the human side of life, holding in mind that "Truth and honesty are the noblest works of God." Amen. FEBRUARY FIFTH Sir Robert Peel born 1788. Ole Boreman Bull born 1810. John Muir born 1810. Dwight L. Moody born 1837. When a great man dies, then has the time come for putting us in mind that he was alive! --Thomas Carlyle. If I practice one day, I can see the result. If I practice two days, my friends can see it. If I practice three days, the great public can see it. --Ole Bull. Those who say they will forgive but can't forget an injury simply bury the hatchet while they leave the handle out, ready for immediate use. --Dwight L. Moody. But I hold not my life of any account as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish my course. --Acts 20. 24. Almighty God, if I am uncertain, and tremble at the crossroads in doubt of the right way, may I wait and be led by thee, and follow on, even if the way be dark and rough. May I be faithful and have thy presence as thou promised at the end. Amen. FEBRUARY SIXTH Queen Anne of England born 1665. Aaron Burr born 1756. Sir Henry Irving born 1838. Nothing earthly will make me give up my work in despair. I encourage myself in the Lord my God and go forward. --David Livingstone. To expect defeat is nine tenths of defeat itself. --Marion Crawford. I do not see how any man can afford, for the sake of his nerves and his nap, to spare any action in which he can partake. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. Art is a jealous mistress, she requires the whole man. --Michael Angelo. Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. --1 Corinthians 16. 13. Almighty God, help me to have true conceptions, that my life may not be secured to needless purposes. May my soul be influenced by high ideals, and my work be the production of truth and not of selfishness. Protect me from evil that I may be kept pure and strong for my work. Amen. FEBRUARY SEVENTH Millard Fillmore, New York, thirteenth President United States born 1800. Sir Thomas More born 1478. Charles Dickens born 1812. Anne Radcliffe died 1823. Sidney Cooper died 1902. Let no man turn aside ever so slightly, from the broad path of honor, on the plausible pretense that he is justified by the goodness of his end. All good ends can be worked out by good means. --Charles Dickens. If evils come not, then our fears are vain; And if they do, fear but augments the pain. --Sir Thomas More. A human heart knows aught of littleness, Suspects no man, compares with no one's ways, Hath in one hour most glorious length of days, A recompense, a joy, a loveliness; Like eaglet keen, shoots into azure far, And always dwelling nigh is the remotest star. --William Ellery Channing. Teach me thy way, O Jehovah; I will walk in thy truth: Unite my heart to fear thy name. --Psalm 86. 11. Gracious Father, I pray that thou wilt control my impulses, and protect me from false interpretations. May I have wisdom, and search for the high and holy ways. Help me to be patient for thy purposes, and may my relations to life be triumphant in thy standards. Amen. FEBRUARY EIGHTH Samuel Butler born 1612. John Ruskin born 1819. General Sherman born 1820. Jules Verne born 1828. Richard Watson Gilder born 1844. If you want knowledge, you must toil for it; and if pleasure, you must toil for it. Toil is the law. Pleasure comes through toil, and not by self-indulgence and indolence. When one gets to love work his life is a happy one. --John Ruskin. Whatever sceptic could inquire for, For every why he had a wherefore. --Samuel Butler. Through love to light! O wonderful the way, That leads from darkness to the perfect day! From darkness and from sorrow of the night To morning that comes singing o'er the sea. Through love to light! through light O God to Thee! Who art the love, the eternal light of light! --Richard Watson Gilder. We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. --John 9. 4. My Father, I pray that I may not weight my life with worthless efforts. May I be guided to the right work, and through the love of it find strength for my soul. Amen. FEBRUARY NINTH C.F. Volney born 1757. William Henry Harrison, Virginia, ninth President United States, born 1773. Anthony Hope (Hawkins) born 1863. George Ade born 1866. A man's own observation, what he finds good of, and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health. But it is a safer conclusion to say, "This agreeth not well with me, therefore I will not continue it"; than to say, "I find no offense of this, therefore I may use it." For strength of nature in youth passeth over many excesses, which are owing a man till his age. --Francis Bacon. Though man a thinking being is defined, Few use the grand prerogative of mind. How few think justly of the thinking few! How many never think, who think they do! --Jane Taylor. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life. --James 1. 12. Almighty God, I would learn that while thou art a forgiving Lord, nature has no mercy on them that break her laws. Forgive me for all my neglect, and help me to see the way in which thou hast through mercy led me. Give me the power to endure and the strength to resist temptation. May I seek to understand thy laws, that I may not fail through ignorance. Amen. FEBRUARY TENTH Rev. Henry Hart Milman born 1791. Charles Lamb born 1775. Sir William Napier died 1860. Never let the most well-intended falsehood escape your lips; for Heaven, which is entirely Truth, will make the seed which you have sown of untruth to yield miseries a thousandfold. --Charles Lamb. We cannot command veracity at will; the power of seeing and reporting truly is a form of health that has to be distinctly guarded, and as an ancient rabbi has solemnly said, "The penalty of untruth is untruth." --George Eliot. The bat hangs upside down and laughs at a topsy-turvy world. --Unknown. The lip of truth shall be established for ever; But a lying tongue is but for a moment. --Proverbs 12. 19. Lord God, give me the will to hold to the truth and the strength to help keep the world true; and may I help others to look up and catch the truth from the purest light. Amen. FEBRUARY ELEVENTH Mary, Queen of England, born 1516. Daniel Boone born 1735. Lydia M. Child born 1802. Washington Gladden born 1836. Thomas A. Edison born 1847. Few, in the days of early youth, Trusted like me in love and truth. I've learned sad lessons from the years; But slowly and with many tears; For God made me to kindly view The world that I was passing through. And all who tempt a trusting heart From faith and hope to drift apart, May they themselves be spared the pain Of losing power to trust again! God help us all to kindly view The world that we are passing through! --Lydia M. Child. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing; and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. --Isaiah 55. 12. Lord God, I pray that I may not rest my hope in self alone, but know that the greatest joy is in the hope of the world. Help me to have faith in mankind; and with a loyal heart and a brave spirit be as kind to the world as I can. Amen. FEBRUARY TWELFTH Dr. Cotton Mather born 1663. Peter Cooper born 1791. Abraham Lincoln, Kentucky, sixteenth President United States, born 1809. Robert Charles Darwin born 1809. George Meredith born 1828. With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds, ... to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. --Abraham Lincoln. The great moral combat between human life and each human soul must be single.... When a soul arms for battle she goes forth alone. --Owen Meredith. According to the grace of God which was given unto me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. --1 Corinthians 3. 10. Almighty God, I thank thee for the courage that comes with a great life. Help me to be brave, even if it is only that others may be blest. May I lay a careful foundation and plan to build the best that I can afford. Amen. FEBRUARY THIRTEENTH David Allan born 1744. Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord born 1754. Richard Wagner died 1883. A man is not his hope, nor yet his despair, nor yet his past deed. We know not yet what we have done; still less what we are doing. Wait till evening, and other parts of our work will shine than we had thought at noon, and we shall discover the real purport of our toil. --Henry D. Thoreau. When you make a mistake don't look back at it long. Take the reason of the thing into your mind, and look forward. Mistakes are lessons of wisdom.... The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power. --Hugh White. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing seed for sowing, Shall doubtless come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with him. --Psalm 126. 6. My Father, help me to survey my life. Make me compassionate and considerate, that I may be qualified to promote that which is helpful. May I appreciate that what is worth keeping I can obtain from thee. Amen. FEBRUARY FOURTEENTH Saint Valentine's Day. Captain James Cook killed 1779. Jean Ernest Reynaud born 1808. Oh! little loveliest lady mine, What shall I send for your valentine? Summer and flowers are far away; Gloomy old Winter is king to-day; Buds will not blow, and sun will not shine: What shall I do for a valentine? I've searched the gardens all through and through For a bud to tell of my love so true; But buds are asleep and blossoms are dead, And the snow beats down on my poor little head: So, little loveliest lady mine, Here is my heart for your valentine. --Laura E. Richards. Oh rank is gold, and gold is fair, And high and low mate ill; But love has never known a law Beyond its own sweet will! --John G. Whittier. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God. --1 John 4. 7. Loving Father, may I not fall to nodding in the balmy air of luxury and miss the messages of love. Arouse me, that I may give and take in the treasures of love as they come my way, and that they may not pass unnoticed. Amen. FEBRUARY FIFTEENTH Galileo Galilei born 1564. Louis XV born 1710. S. Weir Mitchell born 1829. Sir Frederick Treves born 1853. The night I know is nigh at hand, The mists lie low on hill and bay, The autumn sheaves are brown and dry, But I have had the day. Yes, I have had, dear Lord, the day. When at thy call I have the night Brief be the twilight as I pass From light to dark, from dark to light. --S. Weir Mitchell. If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small--too small to be worth talking about, for the day of adversity is its first real opportunity. --Maltbie Babcock. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. --Romans 8. 37. My Father, may my daily work not be the means of separating me from thee, but may I have thee for my companion through my work. Forbid that I should ever submit to despair from weakness of body, but that I may be blest and grow strong as my spirit lives in thee. Amen. FEBRUARY SIXTEENTH Philip Melanchthon born 1497. Gasper de Coligny born 1517. Thomas Robert Malthus born 1766. Ernst Heinrich Haeckel born 1834. Thy love shall chant its own beatitudes After its own life working. A child's kiss Set on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad. A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich; A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong; Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense Of service which thou renderest. --Elizabeth B. Browning. Ask nothing more of me, sweet; All I can give you I give. Heart of my heart, were it more, More would be laid at your feet: Love that should help you to live, Song that should help you to soar. --Algernon Charles Swinburne. All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them. --Matthew 7. 12. Lord God, I pray that I may not neglect the help and happiness that I may give with compassion and love. Make me strong in all the senses that answer to the call of humanity. Help me to guide and protect little children, and to care for the comforts of the old. Amen. FEBRUARY SEVENTEENTH Kate Greenaway born 1846. Michael Angelo Buonarroti died 1563. Giordano Bruno burned at Rome 1600. Molière died 1673. Rose Terry Cooke born 1827. Frances E. Willard died 1898. It is not much To give a gentle word or kindly touch To one gone down Beneath the world's cold frown, And yet who knows How great a thing from such a little grows? O, oftentimes, Some brother upward climbs And hope again Uplifts its head, that in the dust had lain, Gives place to morning's light. --E. H. Divall. I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick. --Ezekiel 34. 16. My Father, may I not sorrow so that I fail to comfort the sorrowing, and may I not be so happy that I fail to see that others need to be glad. I thank thee for thy providences. May I serve thee in helping others to brighter lives. Amen. FEBRUARY EIGHTEENTH Martin Luther died 1546. George Peabody born 1795. Wilson Barrett born 1846. A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing: Our helper he amid the flood Of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe Doth seek to work us woe; His craft and power are great: And, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal. --Martin Luther. Let us stand by our duty fearlessly and effectively. I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to the light that I have. --Abraham Lincoln. Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; My God, my rock, in whom I will take refuge. --Psalm 18. 2. Lord God, help me to lay my life in the rocks of thy foundation, and not in moving sands which are tossed from shore to shore. May I cling to the rock that was cleft for me and trust for thy care. Amen. FEBRUARY NINETEENTH Copernicus born 1473. Leonard Bacon born 1802. W.W. Story born 1819. Adelina Patti born 1843. So mine are these new fruitings rich, The simple to the common brings; I keep the youth of souls who pitch Their joy in this old heart of things; Full lasting is the song, though he The singer passes; lasting too, For souls not lent in usury, The rapture of the forward view. --George Meredith. All deep things are Song. It seems, somehow, the very central essence of us, Song; as if all the rest were wrappages and hulls! the primal element of us; of us, and all things. --Thomas Carlyle. Ye shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come unto the mountain of Jehovah. --Isaiah 30. 29. Lord God, help me to feel the power of praise. "As words without thoughts never to heaven go," so the highest praises are never sung alone, but rendered with service and love. May I have the heart to sing thy praises far and near, and rejoice in him from whom all blessings flow. Amen. FEBRUARY TWENTIETH J.H. Voss born 1828. Joseph Jefferson born 1829. Mihaly Munkacsy (Michael Lieb) born 1844. Who serves his country well has no need of ancestors. --Voltaire. Lo, Spring comes forth with all her warmth and love, She brings sweet justice from the realms above; She breaks the chrysalis, she resurrects the dead; Two butterflies ascend encircling her head. And so this emblem shall forever be A sign of immortality. --Joseph Jefferson. Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, And afterward receive me to glory. --Psalm 73. 24. Lord God, I pray that I may not neglect my soul in trying to fathom immortal life. If I may be hesitating between comfort and work, remind me of the greatness of the place which I started to reach. May I not grow weary of climbing and falter on the stair. Breathe upon me thy inspiration and love, that I may continue in faith all the way. Amen. FEBRUARY TWENTY-FIRST Edmund William Gosse born 1849. Karl Czerny born 1791. Cardinal John H. Newman born 1801. Jean L.E. Meissonier born 1815. Alice Freeman Palmer born 1855. Prune thou thy words, the thoughts control That o'er thee swell and throng; They will condense within thy soul, And change to purpose strong. --John H. Newman. Think truly, and thy thoughts Shall the world's famine feed; Speak truly, and each word of thine Shall be a fruitful seed; Live truly, and thy life shall be A great and noble creed. --Horatio Bonar. We ought to love everybody and make everybody love us. Then everything else is easy. --Alice Freeman Palmer. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy healing shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of Jehovah shall be thy rearward. --Isaiah 58. 8. Almighty God, look upon me with pity; so often I have obeyed the thoughts that have been misleading and profitless. Make me more careful of what I think and say, and may I learn from my mistakes the forbidden paths. Help me to keep my mind in unity with thy will. Amen. FEBRUARY TWENTY-SECOND George Washington, Virginia, first President United States, born 1732. James Russell Lowell born 1819. Margaret E. Sangster born 1838. Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience. --George Washington. Life is a sheet of paper white Whereon each one of us may write His word or two, and then comes night. Greatly begin! though thou hast time But for a line, be that sublime. Not failure, but low aim is crime. --James Russell Lowell. God keep us through the common days, The level stretches white with dust, When thought is tired, and hands upraise Their burdens feebly since they must; In days of slowly fretting care Then most we need the strength of prayer. --Margaret E. Sangster. Make level the path of thy feet, And let all thy ways be established. --Proverbs 4. 26. Lord God, help me to realize the influence of the individual life. And as I would care for my own, may I seek to do for others; and may I not criticize, but help all who are trying to make the world better. Amen. FEBRUARY TWENTY-THIRD Samuel Pepys born 1633. George F. Handel born 1685. George Frederick Watts born 1817. John Keats died 1821. Margaret Deland born 1857. Labor is life! 'tis the still water faileth; Idleness ever despaireth, bewaileth: Keep the watch wound, or the dark rust assaileth; Flowers droop and die in the stillness of noon. Labor is glory! the flying cloud lightens; Only the waving wing changes and brightens, Idle hearts only the dark future frightens, Play the sweet keys, wouldst thou keep them in tune. --Frances S. Osgood. KEATS Palled death, with kisses ghostly, Wooed and won him while too young, And the world reveres him mostly, For the songs he might have sung. --Samuel A. Wood. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations; spare not: lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. --Isaiah 54. 2. Almighty God, I pray for the will to do my finest work. Disclose to me if I am being detained by serving selfishness in myself or in others. Lead me to what is right for me to do; and may I diligently tarry in it. Amen. FEBRUARY TWENTY-FOURTH Samuel Lover born 1797. Robert Fulton died 1815. George William Curtis born 1824. 'Tis not to enjoy that we exist, For that end only; something must be done; I must not walk in unreproved delight These narrow bounds, and think of nothing more, No duty that looks further and no care. --William Wordsworth. We weave our thoughts into heart-spun plans, And weave secure for a fitful day, But lose in the web of earthly things The pattern of sublimity. Shall days spring up as wild vines grow, Unheeding where they climb or cling? Consider, child, before you sow, And wait not until harvesting. --M.B.S. Jehovah is my strength and my shield; My heart hath trusted in him, and I am helped: Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; And with my song will I praise him. --Psalm 28. 7. Loving Father, command my judgment for the influences which I permit to come into my life. Grant that I may not delay my purposes for the lack of comforts which are so often made more than life. With thy strength may I be steadfast in what I would achieve. Amen. FEBRUARY TWENTY-FIFTH William Seely died 1521. Sir Christopher Wren died 1723. Jane Goodwin Austin born 1831. Camille Flammarion born 1842. In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes. All other passions do occasionally good; but wherever pride puts in its word everything goes wrong. --John Ruskin. He that is proud eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise. --William Shakespeare. Save me alike from foolish pride Or impious discontent; At aught Thy wisdom hath denied, Or aught Thy wisdom lent. --Alexander Pope. A man's pride shall bring him low; But he that is of a lowly spirit shall obtain honor. --Proverbs 29. 23. Heavenly Father, I pray that I may not let pride keep me down when it may be mine to be carried to the heights. With tenderness take me out of myself, that I may see how pride deceives, and destroys an humble spirit. Help me to master both stubbornness and pride. Amen. FEBRUARY TWENTY-SIXTH Christopher Marlowe (baptized 1564). Victor Hugo born 1802. Lord Cromer born 1841. Thomas Moore died 1852. When I go down to the grave I can say, like so many others, I have finished my work; but I cannot say I have finished my life; my day's work will begin again the next morning. My tomb is not a blind alley; it is a thoroughfare. It closes in the twilight to open in the dawn. --Victor Hugo. There's nothing bright above, below, From flowers that bloom to stars that glow, But in the light my soul can see Some feature of the Deity. There's nothing dark below, above, But in its gloom I trace God's love, And meekly wait that moment when His truth shall turn all bright again. --Thomas Moore. Jehovah redeemeth the soul of his servants; And none of them that take refuge in him shall be condemned. --Psalm 34. 22. Lord God, may I not only feel the need of thee when I am burdened with sorrow and care, but may I have need of thee in my pleasures and joys. I thank thee for thy gracious kindness, thy mercy and thy protection. Amen. FEBRUARY TWENTY-SEVENTH Henry Wadsworth Longfellow born 1807. Ellen Terry born 1848. Mary F. Robinson born 1857. Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time-- Footprints that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's wintry main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again. --Henry W. Longfellow. They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak; They are slaves who will not choose Hatred, scoffing, and abuse, Rather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think; They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three. --James Russell Lowell. Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. --Matthew 5. 16. Merciful Father, help me to know that my shadow cannot fall without me, and that my footprints cannot be found where I have never trodden. I pray that thou wilt make me so familiar with the right path that it may be mine to have the privilege of leading others to the right places. Amen. FEBRUARY TWENTY-EIGHTH Montaigne born 1533. Mary Lyon born 1797. Sir John Tenniel born 1820. Soul, rule thyself; on passion, deed, desire, Lay thou the laws of thy deliberate will. Stand at thy chosen post, Faith's sentinel: Though Hell's lost legions ring thee round with fire, Learn to endure. --Arthur Symonds. The confidence in another man's virtue is no slight evidence of a man's own, and God willingly favors such a confidence. --Montaigne. Though a host should encamp against me, My heart shall not fear: Though war should rise against me, Even then will I be confident. --Psalm 27. 3. My Father, may I ever be kept in remembrance of my virtue, and may I be sensitive to its strength. As I go on my way, keep me within control of the impetuous desires of my nature, and in call of the duties and obligations of my daily life. Amen. FEBRUARY TWENTY-NINTH Anne Lee born 1736. G.A. Rossini born 1792. John Landseer died 1852. Happy is he and more than wise Who sees with wondrous eyes and clean This world through all the gray disguise Of sleep and custom in between. --G.K. Chesterton. In the morning, when thou findest thyself unwilling to rise, consider with thyself presently, if it is to go about a man's work that I am stirred up. Or was I made for this, to lay me down, and make much of myself in a warm bed. --Marcus Aurelius. Arise and be doing, and Jehovah be with thee. --1 Chronicles 22. 16. Gracious Father, help me to take of the wealth of my day, while it is in season, and accessible. May I not be ignorant of the abundance in which I live, and be found in overwhelming regret. Forgive me for all that I have missed in life, and make me more watchful of that which is to come. Amen. MARCH Spring still makes spring in the mind, When sixty years are told; Love makes anew this throbbing heart, And we are never old. Over the winter glaciers, I see the summer glow, And through the wild-piled snowdrift The warm rosebuds below. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. MARCH FIRST Alexander Balfour born 1767. Frederick François Chopin born 1809. Augustus Saint-Gaudens born 1848. William Dean Howells born 1837. Thy soul shall enter on its heritage Of God's unuttered wisdom. Thou shalt sweep With hand assured the ringing lyre of life, Till the fierce anguish of its bitter strife, Its pain, death, discord, sorrow, and despair, Break into rhythmic music. Thou shalt share The prophet-joy that kept forever glad God's poet-souls when all a world was sad. Enter and live! Thou hast not lived before. --S. Weir Mitchell. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; For Jehovah hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, Mine eyes from tears, And my feet from falling. --Psalm 116. 7, 8. Almighty God, grant that I may never be so discouraged that I feel my life has been spent. Help me to so live, that I may not follow into hopeless days, but look for the bright and beautiful in to-morrow. Forgive me for all that I have asked for and accepted through willful judgment, and make me more careful in selecting my needs. Amen. MARCH SECOND Juvenal born A.D. 40. John Wesley died 1791. Horace Walpole died 1797. Nature never says one thing, Wisdom another. --Juvenal. By all means, use some times to be alone; Salute thyself--see what thy soul doth wear; Dare to look in thy chest, for 'tis thine own, And tumble up and down what thou findest there. --William Wordsworth. Lonesomeness is part of the cost of power. The higher you climb, the less can you hope for companionship. The heavier and the more immediate the responsibility, the less can a man delegate his tasks or escape his own mistakes. --Shailer Mathews. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee. --Matthew 6. 6. My Father, I pray that thou wilt take care of my thoughts when I am alone and tired, and keep them strong and clean. Grant that while I commune with thee I may yield to my needs and be restored with keener energy for worthier deeds. May I ask of thy wisdom every day. Amen. MARCH THIRD Edmund Waller born 1605. George Herbert died 1633. Christine Nilsson born 1843. Pitch thy behaviour low, thy projects high, So shalt thou humble and magnanimous be; Sink not in spirit: who aimeth at the sky, Shoots higher than he that means a tree. --George Herbert. We and God have business with each other; and in opening ourselves to his influence our deepest destiny is fulfilled. --William James. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. --2 Corinthians 4. 18. Almighty God, help me to remember that "the power of character is the highest point of success," and that thou hast put within reach of all the choice ideals of life. May I have the desire to cultivate strong purposes, and strive for high endeavors, that I may not aim for the low. Amen. MARCH FOURTH Casimer Pulaski born 1748. Sir Henry Raeburn born 1756. E.W. Bull, originator Concord grape, born 1806. Alexander Graham Bell born 1847. It is perfectly obvious that men do necessarily absorb, out of the influences in which they grow up, something which gives a complexion to their whole after-character. --Anthony Froude. All common things, each day's events That with the hour begin and end, Our pleasures and our discontents Are rounds by which we may ascend. --Henry W. Longfellow. Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt. I --Shakespeare. And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead; and the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell upon his face to the earth. --1 Samuel 17. 49. My Father, I would remember that my life may decline from the neglect of small things; for as thou dost nourish the wheat from flakes of snow, and supply the springs from drops of rain, so thou wilt strengthen my soul from every little blessing. I pray that I may not forget to watch my habits, and keep track of the hours that culture and sustain my life. Amen. MARCH FIFTH Correggio died 1534. Howard Pyle born 1853. Arthur Foote born 1853. When I have the time so many things I'll do, To make life happier and more fair For those whose lives are crowded now with care, I'll help to lift them from their low despair When I have time. When I have time the friend I love so well Shall know no more the weary, toiling days; I'll lead his feet in pleasant paths always, And cheer his heart with words of sweetest praise, When I have time. Now is the time! Speed, friend; no longer wait To scatter loving smiles and words of cheer To those around whose lives are drear; They may not need you in the far-off year: Now is the time. --Unknown. Behold now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. --2 Corinthians 6. 2. Lord God, teach me this day to know that the veriest trifle often keeps happiness alive, and that the smallest trifle often may kill it. I pray that now thou wilt put within my heart that touch of love, which brings consideration for others, and the care that brings the greatest happiness. Amen. MARCH SIXTH Michael Angelo Buonarroti born 1475. Elizabeth Barrett Browning born 1806. George du Maurier born 1831. Beloved, let us love so well Our work shall still be better for our love, And still our love be sweeter for our work: And both commended for the sake of each By all true workers and true lovers born. --Elizabeth B. Browning. Earth saddens, never shall remove, Affections purely given; And e'en that mortal grief shall prove The immortality of love, And heighten it with heaven. --Elizabeth B. Browning. And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. --1 Corinthians 13. 3. Loving Father, I pray that I may not try to change the standard of love by grafting on my own selfishness and infirmities. May I remember that it is mostly for gratification that love is held to the base in life; may I follow it to the summits, where it is divine. Amen. MARCH SEVENTH Sir Thomas Wilson died 1755. Sir Edwin Landseer born 1802. Luther Burbank born 1849. Earth gets its price for what it gives us; The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in, The priest has his fee who comes and shrives us, We bargain for the graves we lie in; At the devil's booth are all things sold, Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; For a cap and bells our lives we pay, Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking; 'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 'Tis only God may be had for the asking. --James Russell Lowell. We are our own fates. Our own deeds Are our doomsmen. Man's life was made Not for men's creeds, But men's actions. --Owen Meredith. The free gift of God is eternal life. --Romans 6. 23. Gracious Father, may the world speak to me of thy love, and of thy gifts of peace and power, which it freely offers. May I not pass by its great values, and prefer to purchase at a great cost my indolence and dissipation. --Amen. MARCH EIGHTH Dr. John Fothergill born 1712. C.P. Cranch born 1813. Anna Letitia Barbauld died 1825. O boundless self-contentment voiced In flying air-born bubbles! O joy that mocks our sad unrest, And frowns our earth-born troubles! The life that floods the happy fields With song and light and color, Will shape our lives to richer states And heap our measures fuller. --C.P. Cranch. One may secure and preserve that repose in the turbulence of a great city--as Shakespeare surely found and preserved it in the London of the sixteenth century. For repose does not depend on external conditions; it depends on sound adjustment to tasks, opportunities, pleasures, and the general order of life. --Hamilton Mabie. That we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in godliness and gravity. --1 Timothy 2.2. Gracious Father, help me to understand that peace cannot abide in misery, nor can it stay with every mood. May I be able to overcome the depression that may keep me in sadness and isolation, and have delight in the gladness of friends, and live in the peace of strong resolutions. Amen. MARCH NINTH Americus Vespucius born 1451. Lewis Gonzaga born 1568. Comte de Mirabeau born 1749. William Cobbett born 1762. Edwin Forrest born 1806. Yet nerve thy spirit to the Proof, and blanch not at thy chosen lot; The timid good may stand aloof, the sage may frown--yet faint thou not; Nor heed the shaft too surely cast, the foul and hissing bolt of scorn; For with thy Side shall dwell, at last, the victory of endurance born. --William C. Bryant. You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself into one. --James Anthony Froude. Can thy heart endure, or can thy hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? --Ezekiel 22.14. Loving Father, search me, and if there be any evil ways in me, correct them, and lead me into the ways everlasting. I pray that I may not be deformed from selfishness, but with a lowly and expectant heart run with patience and triumph the race that is set before me. Amen. MARCH TENTH Bishop Duppa born 1698. Professor Playfair born 1748. Charles Loyson (Père Hyacinthe) born 1827. So he died by his faith. That is fine-- More than the most of us do. But stay. Can you add to that line That he lived for it too? It is easy to die. Men have died For a wish or a whim-- From bravado or passion or pride. Was it hard for him? But to live: every day to live out All the truth that he dreamt, While his friends met his conduct with doubt, And the world with contempt. Was it thus that he plodded ahead, Never turning aside? Then we'll talk of the life that he led. Never mind how he died. --Ernest Crosby. For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord Jehovah: wherefore turn yourselves, and live. --Ezekiel 18. 32. Almighty God, help me to live an upright life. Give me courage to abandon useless customs, and seeming duties that keep me from perfecting my life. Amen. MARCH ELEVENTH Torquato Tasso born 1544. Alexander Mackenzie died 1820. Henry Drummond died 1897. There is nothing that is puerile in nature; and he who becomes impassioned of a flower, a blade of grass, a butterfly's wing, a nest, a shell, wraps around a small thing that always contains a great truth. To succeed in modifying the appearance of a flower is insignificant in itself, if you will; but reflect upon it for however short a while and it becomes gigantic. --Maurice Maeterlinck. O world, as God has made it! All is beauty: And knowing this, is love, and love is duty: What further may be sought for or declared? --Robert Browning. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. --Matthew 6. 28, 29. Creator of all, I do know that if I may hold myself close enough, I can hear restful music through the breeze, and find secrets in the flowers and leaves. I rejoice that thou hast made the woods and rivers that thou dost love, so I too might possess them, and not be a tenant of them only. May I look and study deeper the things which bring me closer to thee. Amen. MARCH TWELFTH Cesare Borgia killed 1507. Bishop Buckley born 1684. Simon Newcomb born 1835. Among the happiest and proudest possessions of a man is his character. It is a wreath, it is a bank in itself. What is the essence and life of character? Principle, integrity, independence. --Bulwer Lytton. No great genius was ever without some mixture of madness, nor can anything grand or superior to the voice of common mortals be spoken except by the agitated soul. --Aristotle. Handsome is that handsome does. --Oliver Goldsmith. Since thou hast been precious in my sight, and honorable, and I have loved thee; therefore will I give men in thy stead, and peoples instead of thy life. --Isaiah 43. 4. Lord God, forbid that I should try to supplant character with manners and worldly goods. May I remember that thou seest me, and knowest me, and I need no shield from thee. Help me that I may be found acceptable while thou dost search me to the depths of the soul. Amen. MARCH THIRTEENTH Joseph Priestley born 1733. Esther Johnson (Stella) born 1681. Regina Maria Roche died 1845. If stores of dry and learned lore we gain We keep them in the memory of the brain; Names, things, and facts--whate'er we knowledge call, There is the common ledger for them all; And images on this cold surface traced Make slight impressions and are soon effaced. But we've a page more glowing and more bright On which our friendship and our love to write; That these may never from the soul depart, We trust them to the memory of the heart. There is no dimming--no effacement here; Each pulsation keeps the record clear; Warm golden letters all the tablet fill, Nor lose their luster till the heart stands still. --Daniel Webster. I often wonder why it is that we are not all kinder than we are. How much the world needs it! How easily it is done! How instantaneously it acts! How infallibly it is remembered! --Henry Drummond. Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days. --Ecclesiastes 11. 1. My Father, thou hast taught me through the gifts of life, that there is no labor or price too dear to pay for love. I pray to love thee more that I may have more love to bestow on others. Amen. MARCH FOURTEENTH Thomas H. Benton born 1782. Johann Strauss born 1804. Victor Emmanuel born 1820. Rivers to the ocean run, Nor stay in all their course; Fire ascending seeks the sun; Both speed them to their source; So a soul that's born of God, Pants to view his glorious face, Upward tends to his abode, To rest in his embrace. --Robert Seagrave. As the bird trims her to the gale I trim myself to the storm of time; I man the rudder, reef the sail, Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime; Lowly faithful, banish fear, The port well worth the cruise is near And every wave is charmed. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, So panteth my soul after thee, O God. --Psalm 42. 1. My Father, I pray that if I meet with difficulty, I may not go backward, nor stand still, and fear to go forward. Unfold to me the depth and breadth of the ideal and beautiful, that I may not be content to succeed in the shallowness of life: but may I aspire to the height of the soul, even if I fail to acquire great things. Amen. MARCH FIFTEENTH Julius Cæsar killed B.C. 44. Peasants War began 1512. Andrew Jackson, North Carolina, seventh President United States, born 1767. John Davenport died 1670. I will take the responsibility! --Andrew Jackson. What ought to be possible for everyone is to arrive at a sort of harmony of life, to have definite things that they want to do.... The people whom it is hard to fit into any scheme of benevolent creation are the vague, insignificant, drifting people, whose only rooted tendency is to do whatever is suggested to them. --Arthur C. Benson. Heard are the voices, Heard are the sages, The worlds, and the ages; Choose well! your choice is Brief and endless. --Goethe. Only be strong and very courageous, to observe to do according to all the law.... --Joshua 1. 7. Gracious Father, I pray that thou wilt free me from evil thoughts before they become a habit. Create in me that freedom which makes me not ashamed to acknowledge the wrong, and which will enable me to stand for the right. Quicken my thoughts, that they may keep my heart inspired. Amen. MARCH SIXTEENTH James Madison, Virginia, fourth President United States, born 1751. Caroline Lucretia Herschel born 1750. Alexander Watts born 1797. If we live truly we shall see truly. It is as easy for the strong man to be strong as it is for the weak to be weak. When we have new perception we shall gladly disburthen the memory of the hoarded treasures as old rubbish. When a man lives with God his voice shall be as sweet as the murmur of the brook and the rustle of the corn. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. The tissue of the life to be, We weave with colors all our own, And in the field of Destiny We reap as we have sown. --Raphael. Now when they beheld the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. --Acts 4. 13. Lord God, quiet me if I am not calm, that my soul may be able to contemplate and have an opportunity to grow. Help me, that I may be able even in discouragements to have the true perception of life. Amen. MARCH SEVENTEENTH Saint Patrick's Day. Ebenezer Elliott born 1781. Dr. Thomas Chalmers born 1780. Moncure D. Conway born 1832. Clara Morris born 1849. What is really wanted is to light up the spirit that is within a child. In some sense and in some effectual degree there is in every child the material of good work in the world; and in every child, not only in those who are brilliant, not only in those who are quick, but in those who are stolid, and even in those who are dull. --William Gladstone. If you make children happy now, you will make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it. --Kate Douglas Wiggin. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. --Deuteronomy 6. 6, 7. Lord God, may I be diligent for the progress of little children. Show me how I may minister unto them; and grant that I may be able to see the necessity of giving, more than I do the pleasure of receiving. Amen. MARCH EIGHTEENTH William Byrd died 1674. John C. Calhoun born 1782. Grover Cleveland, New Jersey, twenty-second President United States, born 1837. My minde to me a kingdom is: Such perfect joy therein I finde As far exceeds all earthly blisse That God or nature hath assignede. --William Byrd. Teach your proud will to make those nobler choices Which bring to soul and heart enduring health. Deafen your ears to those contending voices, Look in your heart, learn your own being's wealth. Its resources vast, its undiscovered treasure Waiting for these same idle hands to mine. Learn that the grandest of Nature's creations May not be bounded by man's limitations. --Rose E. Cleveland. But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. --Job 23. 13. Almighty God, grant that I may never succumb to the controlling influences of the body, and lose the power of my mind. May I guard the dictates of my heart and keep my mind in command to obey thy will. Amen. MARCH NINETEENTH David Livingstone born 1813. Alice French (Octave Thanet) born 1850. William Jennings Bryan born 1860. Isn't it interesting to get blamed for everything? But I must be thankful in feeling that I would rather perish than blame another for my misdeeds and deficiencies. --David Livingstone. Criticism is helpful. If a man makes a mistake, criticism enables him to correct it; if he is unjustly criticized, the criticism helps him. I have had my share of criticism since I have been in public life, but it has not prevented me from doing what I thought proper to do. --William Jennings Bryan. For himself hath said, I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee. So that with good courage we say, The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. --Hebrews 13. 5, 6. Loving Father, I thank thee that thou art the same yesterday, to-day, and forever; and I am glad I cannot receive from thee the slights and wounds that I may give or receive from my friends. May I be considerate and more forgiving, and by my sincerity be worthy of the purpose which I pursue. Amen. MARCH TWENTIETH Publius Ovidius (Ovid) born B.C. 43. Sir Isaac Newton died 1727. Karl August Nicander born 1799. Henrik Ibsen born 1828. Whoever is not with me in the essential things of life, him I no longer know--I owe him no consideration. --Henrik Ibsen. Only he who lives in truth finds it. The deepest truth is not born of conscious striving, but comes in the quiet hour when a noble nature gives itself into the keeping of life, to suffer, to feel, to think, and to act as it is moved by a wisdom not its own. --Hamilton Mabie. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God. --Philippians 3. 13, 14. Lord God, I thank thee for the silent ways of revelation which bring hopeful communion with thee. Help me to be composed, that my life may not create a noise and my soul miss the messages that come from the depths of truth and love. Amen. MARCH TWENTY-FIRST Johann Sebastian Bach born 1685. Archbishop Cranmer burnt at Oxford 1556. Jean Paul Richter born 1763. Henry Kirke White born 1785. Go through life with soft influences breathing around thee. Keep thy heart high above the many-colored mist of earth and above its storm clouds. --Jean Paul Richter. Recollection is the only paradise from which we cannot be turned out. --Jean Paul Richter. Come, Disappointment, come! Thou art not stern to me; Sad monitress! I own thy sway, A votary sad in every day, I bend my knee to thee, From sun to sun My race will run; I only bow, and say, My God, thy will be done! --Henry Kirke White. If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad countenance, and be of good cheer. --Job 9. 27. Gracious Father, help me to respond cheerfully when called upon to give. May I never repent of tenderness which others fail to appreciate, but may I be glad of all that I give and for all I receive. Amen. MARCH TWENTY-SECOND Sir Anthony Vandyke born 1599. Caroline Sheridan Norton born 1808. Johann Goethe died 1832. Dr. Farrar, Dean of Canterbury, died 1903. Rosa Bonheur born 1822. Red Love still rules the day, white Faith enfolds the night, And hope, green-mantled, leads the way by the walls of the City of Light. Therefore I walk as one who sees the joy shine through Of the other Life behind our life, like the stars behind the blue. --Dean Farrar. There can be no greater delight than is experienced by a man who, by his own unaided resources, frees himself from the consequences of error: Heaven looks down with satisfaction upon such a spectacle. --Goethe. Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold a land that reacheth afar. --Isaiah 33. 17. Lord God, help me to remember that I may not only be forgiven for my transgression, but with thy help I may be led away from the wrong. May I be content to follow where thou dost lead. Amen. MARCH TWENTY-THIRD Pierre Savant La Place born 1749. Schuyler Colfax born 1823. Richard A. Proctor born 1837. Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together; that at length they may emerge, full-formed and majestic, into the daylight of life.... Nay, in thy own mean perplexities, do thou thyself but hold thy tongue for one day; on the morrow how much clearer are thy purposes and duties! --Thomas Carlyle. Deliberate much before you say and do anything; for it will not be in your power to recall what is said or done. --Epictetus. Set a watch, O Jehovah, before my mouth; Keep the door of my lips. --Psalm 141. 3. My Lord, make me a lover of the truth. Make me careful of my thoughts, and the words I would speak, that I may not think selfishly and speak cruelly, but keep myself holy unto thee. Amen. MARCH TWENTY-FOURTH Queen Elizabeth died 1603. Fanny Crosby born 1820. Henry W. Longfellow died 1882. Sir Edwin Arnold died 1904. Every quivering tongue of flame Seems to murmur some great name, Seems to say to me "Aspire!" No endeavor is in vain; Its reward is in the doing, And the rapture of pursuing Is the prize of vanquished gain. --Henry W. Longfellow. Never be sad or desponding If thou hast faith to believe; Grace for the duties before thee Ask of thy God and receive. --Fanny Crosby. I spread forth my hands unto thee: My soul thirsteth after thee, as a weary land. --Psalm 143. 6. Almighty God, make me conscious of my weaknesses, and make me ashamed of my indulgences. Give me a victory over self; and may I consider more what I put in my life. May I be eager for that which will inspire me for greater aspirations. Amen. MARCH TWENTY-FIFTH Archbishop John Williams born 1582. Joachim Murat born 1771. Anna Seward died 1809. How awful is the thought of the wonders underground, Of the mystic changes wrought in the silent, dark profound! How each thing upward tends by necessity decreed, And the world's support depends on the shooting of a seed! The summer's in her ark, and this sunny-pinioned day Is commissioned to remark whether Winter holds her sway: Go back, thou dove of peace, with myrtle on thy wing, Say that floods and tempests cease, and the world is ripe for Spring. --Horace Smith. I should never have made my success in life if I had not bestowed upon the least thing I have ever undertaken the same attention and care that I have bestowed upon the greatest. --Charles Dickens. Gather up the broken pieces which remain over, that nothing be lost. --John 6. 12. Loving Father, cause me to learn from nature that to have perfection I must be attentive at the beginning of growth. Help me to select with care the soil wherein I plant; and to weed and cultivate my life that it may grow to beauty and usefulness. Amen. MARCH TWENTY-SIXTH Konrad von Gesner born 1516. W. E. H. Lecky born 1838. Gustave Guillaumet born 1840. Walt Whitman died 1892. Every man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him, but a day comes when he begins to care that he do not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well. He has changed his market-cart into a chariot of the sun. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. He that is unacquainted with the nature of the world must be at a loss to know where he is. And he that cannot tell the ends he was made for is ignorant both of himself and the world too. --Marcus Aurelius. Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth. --2 Timothy 2. 15. Almighty God, may I not only approve of justice and kindness, but practice it. Grant that I may be attentive to the call of work and steadfast in completing it. May I be sincere to those who are dear to me, and never falter in my support to those who are dependent upon me. Amen. MARCH TWENTY-SEVENTH Alfred Vigny born 1799. General A. W. Greely born 1847. Sir Gilbert Scott died 1878. It takes great strength to bring your life up square With your accepted thought and hold it there: Resisting the inertia that drags it back From new attempts, to the old habit's track. It is so easy to drift back, to sink. So hard to live abreast of what you think. --Charlotte Perkins Stetson. If a person had delivered up your body to anyone whom he met in his way, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in delivering up your own mind to be disconcerted and confounded by anyone who happens to give you ill language. --Epictetus. Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision. --Acts 26. 19. My Father, my soul sinks with shame when I think of the great moments that I have given over to mean little things. Help me that I may reckon more on the value of time, and live not to tolerate life, but to have a great need for it, that day by day I may have a deeper consciousness of its appropriate use. Amen. MARCH TWENTY-EIGHTH Santi d'Urbino Raphael born 1483. Sir Thomas Smith born 1514. Margaret (Peg) Woffington died 1760. They may not need me, Yet they might; I'll let my heart be Just in sight-- A smile so small As mine might be Precisely their Necessity. --Unknown. You hear that boy laughing?--you think he's all fun; But the angels laugh too at the good he has done; The children laugh loud as they troop to his call, And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all. --Oliver Wendell Holmes. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other. --Ephesians 4. 31. Lord God, I pray that I may be fair, and not pass judgment on those whom I like or those whom I dislike, and so bring unhappy regrets. May I remember that, though hasty judgment often may be temporary, the gain or loss of a friend may be permanent. Amen. MARCH TWENTY-NINTH Dr. John Lightfoot born 1602. John Tyler, Virginia, tenth President United States, born 1790. Amelia Barr born 1831. The year's at the spring And the day's at the morn; The hillside's dew-pearled; The lark's on the wing: The snail's on the thorn; God's in his heaven: All's well with the world. --Robert Browning. Dear Lord and Father of mankinds Forgive our feverish ways; Reclothe us in our rightful mind; In purer lives thy service find, In deeper reverence praise. --John G. Whittier. In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. --Isaiah 30. 15. Lord God, I beseech thee to give me the strength which endures. Grant that I may have the ceaseless content which is secured by choosing and continuing in the right way. From the wealth of each day renew my hope, and quiet my soul with the calm of thy peace. Amen. MARCH THIRTIETH Sir Henry Wotton born 1568. Archbishop Somner born 1606. John Fiske born 1842. John Constable died 1837. I said, "Let us walk in the field." He said, "Nay walk in the town." I said, "There are no flowers there." He said, "No flowers but a crown." I said, "But the air is thick, And the fogs are veiling the sun." He answered, "Yet souls are sick And souls in the dark undone." I cast one look at the field, Then set my face to the town. He said: "My child, do you yield? Will ye leave the flowers for the crown?" Then into his hand went mine And into my heart came He, And I walked in a light divine The path I had feared to see. --George Macdonald. Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of Jehovah your God. --Jeremiah 26. 13. Eternal God, teach me the way of a complete and unbroken trust. In my disappointments, and in my devotions, may my faith and hope be as immortal as my soul. May I listen for thy voice and answer thy call. Amen. MARCH THIRTY-FIRST Ludwig von Beethoven died 1827. Joseph Francis Haydn born 1732. Andrew Lang born 1844. Charlotte Brontë died 1855. The Great Being unseen, but all-present, who in his beneficence desires only our welfare, watches the struggle between good and evil in our hearts, and waits to see whether we obey his voice, heard in the whispers of conscience, or lend an ear to the Spirit Evil, which seeks to lead us astray. Rough and steep is the path indicated by divine suggestion; mossy and declining the green way along which temptation strews flowers. Then conscience whispers, "Do what you feel is right, obey me, and I will plant for you firm footing." --Charlotte Brontë. God help us do our duty, and not shrink, And trust in heaven humbly for the rest. --Owen Meredith. I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life. --Deuteronomy 30. 19. My Father, as I review my life I am impressed how accurately my deeds have copied my thoughts. And though I have failed the so often, yet I pray that thou wilt accept my yearnings, to think and work for the best in every day. Amen. APRIL God's April is coming up the hill, and the noisy winds are quieting down, subdued by the fragrance of the wild flowers on the way. Lest we miss the richness of life, while pursuing the world, God continues to pour out precious fragrance from his storehouse, and unconsciously, our souls are lulled to peace through the sweetness of April days. --M.B.S. APRIL FIRST All Fools' Day. William Harvey born 1578. Prince von Bismarck born 1815. Edwin A. Abbey born 1852. Agnes Repplier born 1858. It is a peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others, and to forget his own. --Cicero. A man may be as much a fool from the want of sensibility as the want of sense. --Mrs. Jameson. He that knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool: shun him. --Arabian Maxim. Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him. --Proverbs 26. 12. Almighty God, grant that I may be spared the allurements of deceptive happiness which leaves weary days. I ask for wisdom that I may not speak foolishly, think foolishly, or act foolishly; and may I not be detained by the foolishness of others, but pursue my work, whether it be far or near. Amen. APRIL SECOND Charlemagne born 742. Thomas Jefferson, Virginia, third President United States, born 1743. Hans Andersen born 1805. Frederic A. Bartholdi born 1834. Emile Zola born 1840. When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself public property. --Thomas Jefferson. We hold these truths to be self-evident--that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. --Declaration of Independence. Breathes there the man with soul so dead Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land! Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned As home his footsteps he hath turned From wandering on a foreign strand? --Sir Walter Scott. Render therefore unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's. --Matthew 22. 21. My Lord, I thank thee for the wisdom and love that is spoken through the lives of strong men and women. Grant that I may be willing to learn of them, and gladly serve where I am needed, remembering that thou art Lord of all. Amen. APRIL THIRD George Herbert born 1593. Washington Irving born 1783. Edward Everett Hale born 1822. John Burroughs born 1837. Sum up at night what thou hast done by day And in the morning what thou hast to do: Dress and undress thy soul: mark the decay And growth of it; if with thy watch that too Be dowl, then wind up both; since we shall be Most surely judged, make thy accounts agree. --George Herbert. To look up and not down, To look forward and not back, To look out and not in, and To lend a hand. --Edward E. Hale. There is a healthy hardiness about real dignity that never dreads contact and communion with others, however humble. --Washington Irving. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: My justice was as a robe and a diadem. --Job 29. 14. My Lord, I pray that I may always be found clothed in love and kindness. Make me worthy to minister to those who may be dependent on me, and whether they be rich or poor, high or low, may I try to help them. Amen. APRIL FOURTH Oliver Goldsmith died 1774. Dorothea Dix born 1802. James Freeman Clarke born 1810. "The greatest object in the universe," said a certain philosopher, "is a good man struggling with adversity"; yet there is still a greater, which is the good man who comes to relieve it. --Oliver Goldsmith. Yet I believe that somewhere, soon or late, A peace will fall Upon the angry reaches of my mind; A peace initiate In some heroic hour when I behold A friend's long-quested triumph, or unbind The tressed gold From a child's laughing face. I still believe-- So much believe. --J. Drinkwater. But whoso hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him? --1 John 3. 17. Almighty God, may I have a liberal heart. Grant that I may feel the needs of thy children in all lands; and may I be willing to give of thy blessings, as I am ready to receive them. May my tribute be not only of tender thoughts and kind words, but may I give of myself, and of what I have, as thou hast through love and wisdom done for me. Amen. APRIL FIFTH Elihu Yale born 1648. Sir Henry Havelock born 1795. Frank Stockton (Francis) born 1834. Algernon Charles Swinburne born 1837. As morning hears before it run The music of the mounting sun, And laughs to watch his trophies won From darkness, and her hosts undone, And all the night becomes a breath, Nor dreams that fear should hear and flee The summer menace of the sea, So hear our hope what life may be, And know it not for death. --Algernon Charles Swinburne. I came from God, and I'm going back to God, and I won't have any gaps of death in the middle of my life. --George MacDonald. The hope of the righteous shall be gladness; But the expectation of the wicked shall perish. --Proverbs 10. 28. Lord God, teach me the way and show me the light of the eternal day; and may the vision fill my soul as I take courage and follow it. May I not be fearful of what may be provided, but remember that before the creation of life thou didst have a purpose in death. May I be trustful. Amen. APRIL SIXTH Albert Dürer died 1528. James Mill born 1773. Jean Baptiste Rousseau born 1669. Even if the sacrifices which are made to duty and virtue are painful to make, they are well repaid by the sweet recollections which they leave at the bottom of the heart. --Jean B. Rousseau. I am the man of a thousand loves, A thousand loves have I; And all my loves are white-winged doves, That into my soul would fly. I am the man of a thousand friends Of tuneful memory; And each of them spends the delicate ends Of a brilliant day with me. And all my gifts are magical words That sing sweet songs to me; And the sensitive words are caroling birds In the garden of imagery. --Edwin Leibfreed. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life. --Revelation 2. 10. Loving Father, I bless thee for thy love and ministry. May I enter into a broader conception of sharing thy gifts. May I not seek thy blessings to keep, but to use for renewed inspiration. Amen. APRIL SEVENTH Saint Francis Xavier born 1506. William Wordsworth born 1770. William Ellery Channing born 1780. My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! The child is Father of the Man; And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety. --William Wordsworth. A self-controlled mind is a free mind, and freedom is power. I call that mind free which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers. I call that mind free which resists the bondage of habit, which does not live on its old virtues, but forgets what is behind, and rejoices to pour itself forth in fresh and higher exertions. --William Ellery Channing. That ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. --Ephesians 4. 23, 24. Lord God, give me the power to control my mind and heart, that I may not be a slave to habits that may keep me from eternal love and blessedness. May I have sympathy and compassion for others, and cherish thy tenderness and mercy as I hold it in my daily life. Amen. APRIL EIGHTH Petrarch crowned 1341. William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, born 1580. David Rittenhouse born 1732. If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life from aching, Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin Unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain. --Emily Dickinson. The most solid comfort one can fall back upon is the thought that the business of one's life is to help in some small way to reduce the sum of ignorance, degradation, and misery on the face of this beautiful earth. --George Eliot. Make full my joy, that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; doing nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself. --Philippians 2. 2, 3. My Father, take away the spirit, if I may be inclined to keep the best, and to be always seeking my portion. May I have the desire to share with those who have less, and to give to those who may have more, whether it be of bread or love. Amen. APRIL NINTH Fisher Ames born 1758. John Opie died 1807. Dante Gabriel Rossetti died 1882. Gather a shell from the strown beach And listen at its lips; they sigh The same desire and mystery, The echo of the whole sea's speech. And all mankind is this at heart-- Not anything but what thou art: And Earth, Sea, Man are all in each. --Dante Gabriel Rossetti. And as, in sparkling majesty, a star Gilds the bright summit of some glory cloud; Brightening the half-veil'd face of heaven afar; So when dark thoughts my boding spirit shroud, Sweet Hope! celestial influence round me shed, Waving the silver pinions o'er my head. --John Keats. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit. --Romans 15. 13. Almighty God, may I ever know the generous glow that comes with an overwhelming desire to cultivate the soul. With hope may I find the way through the darkness that leads to immortality, even if I may have to experience the weariness that may accompany it. Amen. APRIL TENTH Hugo Grotius born 1583. William Hazlitt born 1778. General Lew Wallace born 1827. General William Booth born 1829. The essence of happy living is never to find life dull, never to feel the ugly weariness which comes of overstrain; to be fresh, cheerful, leisurely, sociable, unhurried, well-balanced. It seems to me impossible to be these things unless we have time to consider life a little, to deliberate, to select, to abstain. --Arthur C. Benson. Four things come not back--the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, the neglected opportunity. --William Hazlitt. Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure. --2 Peter 1. 10. My Father, may I not miss my work through indifference and feel it is thy neglect of me. May I be reminded that the enrichment of life comes through persistency and being consistent, and may not be found on the idle paths of extravagant ways. Help me to take up my work with a willing spirit and give my best to it. Amen. APRIL ELEVENTH George Canning born 1770. Edward Everett born 1794. Donald G. Mitchell (Ik Marvel) born 1822. The safe path to excellence and success in every calling, is that of appropriate preliminary education, diligent application to learn the art of assiduity and practicing it. --Edward Everett. That nothing walks with aimless feet; That not one life shall be destroyed, Or cast as rubbish to the void, When God hath made the pile complete. Behold, we know not anything: I can but trust that good shall fall At last--far off--at last, to all, And every winter change to spring. --Alfred Tennyson. And we desire that each one of you may show the same diligence unto the fullness of hope even to the end: that ye be not sluggish, but imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. --Hebrews 6. 11, 12. Lord God, help me in all my circumstances, and be with me in my daily work. Help me in my efforts, as I endeavor to attain, and may my will be hid in thine. Amen. APRIL TWELFTH Edward Young died 1765. Edward Bird born 1772. Henry Clay born 1777. I would rather be right than be President. --Henry Clay. Who does the best his circumstances allow Does well, acts nobly; angels could no more. --Edward Young. Pedigree haz no more to do in making a man aktually grater than he iz than a pekok's feather in his hat haz in making him aktually taller. When the world stands in need of an arestokrat, natur pitches one into it, and furnishes him papers without enny flaw in them. --Josh Billings. Cast not away therefore your boldness, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise. --Hebrews 10. 35, 36. Lord God, help me to select with care the site, the plans, and the foundation of my life. May I use the best material; and may it be worthy of a permanent home. Amen. APRIL THIRTEENTH Madame Jeanne Guyon born 1648. Dr. Thomas Beddoes born 1760. James Harper born 1795. If there were dreams to sell, Merry and sad to tell, And the crier rang the bell, What would you buy? A cottage lone and still With bowers nigh, Shadowy, my woes to still, Until I die. Such pearl from Life's fresh crown Fain would I shake me down, Were dreams to have at will This would best heal my ill, This would I buy. --Thomas Lovell Beddoes. I pray you, bear me hence From forth the noise and rumor of the field Where I may think the remnant of my thoughts In peace, and part this body and my soul With contemplation and devout desires. --William Shakespeare. Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile. --Mark 6. 31. Lord God, help me to bear in mind that to step aside and safeguard the mind in contemplation is a safe guard to the soul. Amen. APRIL FOURTEENTH Dr. George Gregory born 1754. George Frederic Handel died 1759. Horace Bushnell born 1802. Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies-- Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, Little flower--but if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is. --Alfred Tennyson. So much is history stranger than fiction, and so true it is Nature has caprices which Art dares not imitate. --Thomas Macaulay. Nature is the face of God. He appears to us through it, and we can read his thoughts in it. --Victor Hugo. Many, O Jehovah my God, are the wonderful works which thou hast done, And thy thoughts which are to us-ward. --Psalm 40. 5. Eternal God, I thank thee for the seasons which bring abundance and beauty. I thank thee for thy loving care, which is over all and forever. May I behold thy works and make thee a very present help for all my needs, and perceive the joy of thy love through the greatness of the earth. Amen. APRIL FIFTEENTH Emile Souvestre born 1806. John Lothrop Motley born 1814. Henry James born 1843. Abraham Lincoln died 1865. Two thirds of human existence are wasted in hesitation, and the last third in repentance. --Emile Souvestre. And, having thus chosen our course, let us renew our trust in God and go forward without fear and with manly hearts. --Abraham Lincoln. The barriers are not erected which shall say to aspiring talent, "Thus far and no further." --Beethoven. Be strong and of good courage. --Joshua 1. 6. Almighty God, I pray that I may always be alive to my opportunities, but may I never leave others impoverished by taking advantage of them. May my prosperity be conducted with my eyes open, guarding what I give and receive, that my possessions may remain valuable through life. Amen. APRIL SIXTEENTH Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax, born 1661. Charles W. Peale born 1741. Sir John Franklin born 1786. Weary of myself and sick of asking What I am, and what I ought to be, At the vessel's prow I stand, which bears me Forward, forward, o'er the starlit sea O air-born voice! long since severely clear, A cry like thine in my own heart I hear. Resolve to be thyself: and know that he Who finds himself, loses his misery. --Matthew Arnold. This above all to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou can'st not then be false to any man. --William Shakespeare. Let thine eyes look right on, And let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Make level the path of thy feet, And let all thy ways be established. --Proverbs 4. 25, 26. My Father, give me a sense of nearness to thee when I may be faltering from weariness in well doing. May I hold to my determinations. Help me to know what is useless, that I may not give unnecessary energy, and to know what is worth while, that I may acquire strength through the power of truth. Amen. APRIL SEVENTEENTH Bishop Benjamin Hoadley died 1761. Benjamin Franklin died 1790. William G. Simms born 1806. Shall I ask the brave soldier who fights at my side, In the cause of mankind, if our creeds agree? Shall I give up the friend I have valued and tried, If he kneel not before the same altar as me? --Thomas Moore. I met a little Elf-man once, Down where the lilies blow. I asked him why he was so small And why he didn't grow. He slightly frowned, and with his eye He looked me through and through. "I'm quite as big for me," said he "As you are big for you." --John Kendrick Bangs. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! --Isaiah 5. 21. Loving Father, grant that I may not barter love with formalities, nor sacrifice love for customs. But, may I have a fellowship that is true and sincere, and that may be counted on, though all and for all. Amen. APRIL EIGHTEENTH Lord Jeffreys died 1689. George Henry Lewes born 1817. Sir Francis Baring born 1740. Nor can I count him happiest who has never Been forced with his own hand his chains to sever, And for himself find out the way divine; He never knew the aspirer's glorious pains, He never earned the struggler's priceless gains. --James Russell Lowell. There is not time for hate, O wasteful friend. Put hate away until the ages end. Have you an ancient wound? Forget the wrong-- Out in my West a forest loud with song Towers high and green over a field of snow, Over a glacier buried far below. --Edwin Markham. Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold on the life eternal, whereunto thou wast called, and didst confess the good confession in the sight of many witnesses. --1 Timothy 6. 12. Lord God, help me to realize the power of my life. I feel ashamed and alarmed when I think of the grievous wrongs I may have done for greed. May I have delight in the struggles I have made for the ways of righteousness. Make me careful to avoid the things that debase life. May I aspire for the highest and best. Amen. APRIL NINETEENTH Roger Sherman born 1721. Lord Byron died 1824. Lord Beaconsfield (Disraeli) died 1881. Charles Darwin died 1882. The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes. --Disraeli. One sees, and the other does not see; one enjoys an unspeakable pleasure, and the other loses that pleasure which is as free to him as the air.... The whole outward world is the kingdom of the observant eye. He who enters into any part of that kingdom to possess it has a store of pure enjoyment in life which is literally inexhaustible and immeasurable. His eyes alone will give him a life worth living. --Charles W. Eliot. Having eyes, see ye not? --Mark 8. 18. My Father, help me to realize that I cannot feel the joy that breathes through the early morning unless I am with it. May I see distinctly the glory of to-day. Help me to be watchful and keep my spirit awake, that I may receive thy revelations. Amen. APRIL TWENTIETH Marcus Aurelius born 121. Elizabeth Barton (Maid of Kent) executed 1534 Sir Francis T. Baring born 1796. Alice Cary born 1820. Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to throw away. Death stands at your elbow. Be good for something while you live and it is in your power. --Marcus Aurelius. And O, my heart, my heart, Be careful to go strewing in and out The way with good deeds, lest it come about That when thou shalt depart, No low lamenting tongue be found to say, The world is poorer since thou went'st away --Alice Cary. A good man prolongs his life; to be able to enjoy one's past life is to live twice. --Martial. The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance. --Psalm 112. 6. Heavenly Father, thou hast made my life dear; forgive me if I have made dearer the things that I have put around it. Many days have been used for costly things that have faded and are laid aside. May I realize the meaning of days that have been lost. Make me more concerned for what I put in the days to come. Amen. APRIL TWENTY-FIRST Peter F. Abelard died 1142. Friedrich Fröbel born 1782. Reginald Heber born 1783. James Martineau born 1805. Charlotte Brontë born 1816. Henry Shaw (Josh Billings) born 1818. Education should lead and guide man to clearness concerning himself and in himself, to peace with nature, and to unity with God. --Friedrich Fröbel. When spring unlocks the flowers, to paint the laughing soil; When summer's balmy showers refresh the mower's toil; When winter binds in frosty chains the fallow and the flood, In God the earth rejoiceth still, and owns its maker good. --Reginald Heber. A memory without a blot or contamination must be an inexhaustible source of pure refreshment. --Charlotte Brontë. For ye are all sons of light, and sons of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. --1 Thessalonians 5. 5. Lord of light, thou art the light of my life. May I make thee the joy and light of my soul. Call me to where it is clear and high, that I may see above the mist. May I not weary in climbing to reach thee in the high places. Amen. APRIL TWENTY-SECOND Henry Fielding born 1707. Immanuel Kant born 1724. Philip James Bailey born 1816. We live in deeds, not years: in thoughts, not breaths: In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. --Philip James Bailey. Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations. The only sin is limitation. As soon as you once come up with a man's limitations it is all over with him. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. But he that looketh into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and so continueth, being not a hearer that forgeteth but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in his doing. --James 1. 25. Lord God, help me to break away from habits that fasten me in the ruts of life. Draw me out to thy broad way, where there are no limits to thy wonderful works, that I may expand my life. Amen. APRIL TWENTY-THIRD William Shakespeare born 1564, died 1616. Cervantes died 1616. J.M.W. Turner born 1775. James Buchanan, Pennsylvania, fifteenth President United States, born 1791. James Anthony Froude born 1818. Thomas Nelson Page born 1853. Edwin Markham born 1852. My crown is in my heart, not on my head: Not decked with diamonds and Indian Stones, Nor to be seen. My crown is called content. A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy. --William Shakespeare. At the heart of the cyclone tearing the sky And flinging the clouds and the towers by Is a place of central calm: So here in the roar of mortal things, I have a place where my spirit sings, In the hollow of God's Palm. --Edwin Markham. Rest in Jehovah, and wait patiently for him: Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way. --Psalm 37. 7. Almighty God, my heart beats quicker and the desire for thy care grows stronger when I remember thy promises are given for all eternity. May I be grateful and contented with thy love and care. Amen. APRIL TWENTY-FOURTH Edmund Cartwright born 1743. Anthony Trollope born 1815. Arthur Christopher Benson born 1862. By religion I mean the power, whatever it be, which makes a man choose what is hard rather than what is easy; what is lofty and noble rather than what is mean and selfish; that puts courage into timorous hearts and gladness into clouded spirits. --Arthur C. Benson. For all noble things the time is long and the way rude.... For every start and struggle of impatience there shall be so much attendant failure.... But the fire which Patience carries in her own hand is that truly stolen from heaven--unquenchable incense of life. --John Ruskin. But they that wait for Jehovah shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint. --Isaiah 40. 31. My Father, I pray that I may not be indifferent to the call of my soul. May I not seek to serve the disappearing and neglect to make life worthy. Acquaint me with the permanent values of life. Make clear the way of strength, that I may not be misled by ease and carried to weakness. May my life be ennobled by the power of my possessions. Amen. APRIL TWENTY-FIFTH Oliver Cromwell born 1599. John Keble born 1792. Alexander Duff born 1806. Guglielmo Marconi born 1874. Mrs. Burton Harrison (Constance Cary) born 1846. Samuel Wesley died 1735. Truly God follows us with encouragements: let him not lose his blessing upon us! They come in season, and with all the advantages of heartening, as if God should say, "Up and be doing, and I will stand by you and help you!" There is nothing to be feared but our own sin and sloth. --Oliver Cromwell. Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear, It is not night if thou be near; O may no earthborn cloud arise To hide thee from thy servants' eyes. --John Keble. For Jehovah God is a sun and a shield: Jehovah will give grace and glory; No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. --Psalm 84. 11. My Father, may I not err in choosing thy benefits, nor fail from the neglect to use them. Make me appreciative of all thy gifts, and, through thy wisdom and power, may I find the best use for them. Amen. APRIL TWENTY-SIXTH David Hume born 1711. Daniel Defoe died 1791. Charles F. Browne (Artemus Ward) born 1834. How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life of man! and by what secret different springs are the affections hurried about, as different circumstances present! To-day we love what to-morrow we hate; to-day we seek what to-morrow we shun; to-day we desire what to-morrow we fear; nay, even tremble at the apprehension of. --Daniel Defoe. Now don't do nothin' which isn't your Fort, for ef you do you'll find yourself splashin' round in the Kanawl, figgeratively speakin'. --Artemus Ward. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministrations, and the same Lord. And there are diversities of workings, but the same God, who worketh all things in all. --1 Corinthians 12. 4-6. Lord forbid that I should fear to change for the better or be so pleased with myself and the things which surround me that I feel no need for a higher life. Make me dissatisfied if I am not trying to grow in truth and to live in noble deeds. Amen. APRIL TWENTY-SEVENTH Samuel Morse born 1791. Lajos Kossuth born 1802. Herbert Spencer born 1820. Ulysses S. Grant, Ohio, eighteenth President United States, born 1822. Ralph Waldo Emerson died 1882. People who are dishonest, or rash, or stupid will inevitably suffer the penalties of dishonesty, or rashness, or stupidity. --Herbert Spencer. Abide in the simple and noble regions of thy life; obey thy heart. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. Well, then, we must cut our way out. --General Grant. Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. --Ephesians 6. 13. Loving Father, help me to live a simple and noble life. Grant that I may have the blessedness that comes through peace, and escape the misery that comes from cruelty and untruth. Through my life may what I reap show that I have been careful in choosing and cultivating what I have sown. Amen. APRIL TWENTY-EIGHTH Charles Cotton born 1630. James Monroe, Virginia, fifth President United States, born 1758. Anthony Ashley, Earl of Shaftesbury, born 1801. During a long life I have proved that not one kind word ever spoken, not one kind deed ever done, but sooner or later returns to bless the giver, and becomes a chain, binding men with golden bands to the throne of God. --Earl of Shaftesbury. There's many a time when the bitterest thing Is said without reason, and God knows The courage it takes to suffer the sting, By hiding the wounds that the heart shows. There's many a sob we bravely keep down For the sake of old times revered so, There's many a head with thorns for a crown Where kisses would soon make the heart glow. --Edwin Leibfreed. So shalt thou know wisdom to be unto thy soul; If thou hast found it, then shall there be a reward, And thy hope shall not be cut off. --Proverbs 24. 14. My Father, if I am to-day without happiness, may I go in search of it. Help me to remember that the will thou hast given me to overcome evil with good I may use to overcome misery with happiness. Make me careful that I may not be trapped by selfishness as I look for joy. May I delight in the sweet sensations that are felt in having consideration for others, and may I make kindness a daily habit. Amen. APRIL TWENTY-NINTH Michel Ruyter died 1676. Abbe Charles de St. Pierre died 1743. Matthew Vassar born 1792. Edward Rowland Sill born 1841. Never yet was a springtime, Late though lingered the snow, That the sap stirred not at the whisper Of the south wind, sweet and low; Never yet was a springtime When the buds forgot to blow. Ever the wings of the summer Are folded under the mold; Life that has known no dying, Is Love's, to have and to hold, Till, sudden, the burgeoning Easter! The song! the green and the gold![1] --Margaret E. Sangster. In tracing the shade, I shall find out the sun. --Owen Meredith. All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness. --Hebrews 12. 11. Almighty God, grant that as the fulfillment of the green comes to the withered grass, so thy restoring may come to me with the glory of life that comes in the resurrection of the soul. I trust thee to bring me out of winter's seal, that I may help make the spring. Amen. [Footnote 1: From Easter Bells. Copyright, 1897, by Harper & Brothers.] APRIL THIRTIETH Chevalier de Bayard killed 1524. Sir John Lubbock born 1834. James Montgomery died 1854. David Livingstone died 1873. We scatter seeds with careless hands, And dream we ne'er shall see them more; But for a thousand years Their fruit appears In weeds that mar the land. --John Keble And there came up a sweet perfume From the unseen flowers below, Like the savor of virtuous deeds, Of deeds done long ago. --Mrs. Southey. Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of pure nard, very precious, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. --John 12. 3. My Father, I pray that it may be mine to have the recollection of happy deeds, and not the memory of unkept promises. Help me to remember that one act is worth a thousand intentions, and that memory is the storehouse that supplies old age. Make me careful of my memory, that it may not be burdened. Amen. MAY I cannot see what flowers are at my feet, Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs, But, in the embalmed darkness, guess each sweet Wherewith the seasonable month endows The grass, the thicket, and the fruit tree wild; White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine; Fast-fading violets covered up in leaves; And mid-May's wildest child, The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine, The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves. --John Keats. Such a starved bank of moss Till that May morn, Blue ran the flash across: Violets were born. --Robert Browning. MAY FIRST Arbor Day. Joseph Addison born 1672. Arthur, Duke of Wellington, born 1769. If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius. --Joseph Addison. He who plants a tree, he plants love; Tents of coolness spreading out above Wayfarers, he may not live to see. Gifts that grow are best; Hands that bless are blest; Plant-life does the rest! Heaven and earth help him who plants a tree, And his work his own reward shall be. --Lucy Larcom. And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water, That bringeth forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also doth not wither; And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. --Psalm 1. 3. My Creator, give me joyful eyes for joyful nature. May I be alive to the gentle influences of a May day which bring new experiences to all who may receive them: and may I serve thee by unfolding to others the love of truth, the love of good, and the love of beauty. Amen. MAY SECOND Leonardo da Vinci died 1519. Robert Hall born 1764. Jerome K. Jerome born 1859. William Henry Hudson born 1862. Without a false humility; For this is love's nobility,-- Not to scatter bread and gold, Goods and raiment bought and sold; But to hold fast his simple sense, And speak the speech of innocence, And with hand and body and blood, To make his bosom-counsel good. He that feeds man serveth few; He serves all who dares be true. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. Small service is true service while it lasts: Of humblest friends scorn not one: The daisy, by the shadow it casts, Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun. --William Wordsworth. Surely then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; Yea, thou shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear. --Job 11. 15. Heavenly Father, I would be thankful for the blessings I am inclined to forget. Give me a heart of gratitude, and forbid that I should hold my friends for material gain or selfish ends. May I through the truthfulness of my lips, and the honor of my acts, be a necessary friend. Amen. MAY THIRD Niccolo Machiavelli born 1469. Thomas Hood died 1845. Jacob Riis born 1849. The longing for ignoble things; The strife for triumph more than truth; The hardening of the heart that brings Irreverence for the dreams of youth; All these must first be trampled down Beneath our feet, if we would gain In the bright fields of fair renown The right of eminent domain. --John Keble. One lesson, and only one, history may be said to repeat with distinctness; that the world is built somehow on moral foundations; that in the long run, it is well with the good; in the long run it is ill with the wicked. --James Anthony Froude. No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier. And if also a man contend in the games, he is not crowned, except he have contended lawfully. --2 Timothy 2. 4, 5. Gracious Father, may my heart be mindful of thee, that I may discover the truth and possess it. Steady me in my affections and save me from wandering impulses; and may I help to put wrong down and uplift humanity. Amen. MAY FOURTH Frederick Edwin Church born 1826. Isaac Barrow died 1677. John James Audubon born 1780. Horace Mann born 1796. Thomas Henry Huxley born 1825. The chess board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game we call the laws of nature. My metaphor will remind some of you of the famous picture in which Retzsch has depicted Satan playing chess with man for his soul. Substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture a calm, strong angel, who is playing "for love," as we say, and would rather lose than win, and I should accept it as an image of human life. --Thomas Henry Huxley. Riches and nobility fade together. O, my God! be thou praised for having made love for all time, and immortal as thyself. --George Sand. He hath given food unto them that fear him: He will ever be mindful of his covenant. The works of his hands are truth and justice; All his precepts are sure. --Psalm 111. 5, 7. Father of life, I know I cannot hold youth. I may have prosperity or poverty. I thank thee that thou hast taught me that love may be kept changeless through all. Amen. MAY FIFTH Napoleon Bonaparte died 1821. Empress Eugenie born 1826. Bret Harte died 1902. As I stand by the cross, on the lone mountain's crest, Looking over the ultimate sea, In the gloom of the mountain a ship lies at rest, And one sails away from the lea; One spreads its white wings on the far-reaching track, With pennant and sheet flowing free; One hides in the shadow with sails laid aback-- The ship that is waiting for me. But lo! in the distance the clouds break away, The gate's glowing portals I see, And I hear from the outgoing ship in the bay The song of the sailors in glee. So I think of the luminous footprints that bore The comfort o'er dark Galilee, And wait for the signal to go to the shore To the ship that is waiting for me. --Bret Harte. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. --Psalm 23. 4. Eternal God, I praise thee, that "thy love is broader than the measure of man's mind," and that through all my years I may hide myself in thee, trusting thee to the end. Amen. MAY SIXTH Plato born B.C. 427. Robespierre born 1758. General Andrea Messena born 1758. Hard ye may be in the tumult, Red to your battle hilts; Blow give blow in the foray, Cunningly ride in the tilts. But tenderly, unbeguiled-- Turn to a woman a woman's Heart, and a child's to a child. Test of the man if his worth be In accord with the ultimate plan That he be not, to his marring, Always and utterly man. That he may bring out of the tumult, Fetter and undefiled, To woman the heart of a woman-- To children the heart of a child.[1] --O. Henry. A man's concern is only whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong--acting the part of a good man or a bad. --Plato. A faithful man shall abound with blessings. --Proverbs 28. 20. Almighty God, I pray that I may seek sincerely those whom I approach with sympathy, and by my honor may they feel the same sincerity for me. Amen. [Footnote 1: Special permission Cosmopolitan Magazine, New York.] MAY SEVENTH Correggio born 1494. Robert Browning born 1812. Johannes Brahms born 1833. Lord Rosebery (Archibald Primrose) born 1847. So, take and use thy work: amend what flaws may lurk, What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim! My times be in Thy hand! perfect the cup as planned! Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same! --Robert Browning. No matter how often defeated, you are born to victory. The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. When I hear a young man spoken of as giving promise of high genius, the first question I ask about him is always--Does he work? --John Ruskin. Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. --Matthew 5. 48. O God, I pray that thou wilt search me, and in the silent moments show me myself without obstruction. Breathe upon me thy awakening breath, that I may be revived to nobler activities. Amen. MAY EIGHTH Rev. William Jay born 1769. François Mignet born 1796. Louis Gottschalk born 1829. John Stuart Mill died 1873. A profound conviction raises a man above the feeling of ridicule. --John Stuart Mill. A garden is a lonesome thing, God wot! Rose plot, Fringed pool, Ferned grot-- The veriest school Of peace; and yet the fool Contends that God is not-- Not God! in the gardens! when the eve is cool? Nay but I have a sign; 'Tis very sure God walks in mine. --Thomas E. Brown. Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee: Jehovah make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. --Numbers 6. 24, 25, 26. My Father, may this be a day of usefulness. Make me sure of myself, that I may not spend my days in questioning, but accept with gratefulness thy love and tender care. Make me worthy to be called thy child. Amen. MAY NINTH John Brown (Ossawattomie) born 1800. Johann Schiller died 1805. J.M. Barrie born 1860. Have love! not love alone for one, But man as man thy brother call: And scatter like the circling sun Thy charities on all. --Johann Schiller. He spoke, and words more soft than rain Brought the Age of Gold again: His action won such reverence sweet, As hid all measure of the feat. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. That their hearts might be comforted, they being knit together in love. --Colossians 2. 2. Gracious Lord, I pray that I may not only be known to those who are my own, but may I consider all mankind. May those who need me find me through my gentleness, and may they be assured by quiet confidence and faith. Amen. MAY TENTH Rouget de l'Isle born 1760. Jared Sparks born 1789. James Bryce born 1838. Sir Henry Stanley died 1904. For four months and four days I lived with David Livingstone in the same house, or in the same boat, or in the same tent, and I never found a fault in him. I am a man of quick temper, and often without sufficient cause, I dare say, have broken the ties of friendship; but with Livingstone I never had cause for resentment, but each day's life with him added to my admiration for him. --Sir Henry Stanley. In speech right gentle, yet so wise: princely of mien, Yet softly mannered; modest, deferent, And tender-hearted, though of a fearless blood. --Edwin Arnold. Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. --Matthew 5. 14. Almighty God, help me to aspire, that my life may tend toward the ideal. May I be persuaded that I cannot be that which I do not possess, nor can I live in that which I do not know. Help me to put the best in what I do, that I may not feel I have failed, even though it may not seem to be a success. Amen. MAY ELEVENTH Baron Münchhausen born 1720. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, died 1778. Jean Léon Gérôme born 1824. And methought that beauty and terror are only one, not two; And the world has room for love, and death, and thunder and dew; And all the sinews of hell slumber in the summer air; And the face of God is a rock, but the face of the rock is fair. Beneficent streams of tears flow at the finger of pain; And out of the cloud that smites, beneficent rivers of rain. --Robert Louis Stevenson. It is more shameful to be distrustful of our friends than to be deceived by them. --La Rochefoucauld. Thou shalt rejoice in all the good which Jehovah thy God hath given unto thee. --Deuteronomy 26. 11. Lord God, may I comprehend the sacredness of friendship. I thank thee for my friends, and for all the beautiful influences which they bring to my life. May I never hold friendship without the sincerity to return it. Correct my faults, and cause me to learn the secret of cheerful endurance, that I may be steadfast. Amen. MAY TWELFTH Robert Fielding died 1712. James Sheridan Knowles born 1784. Dante Gabriel Rossetti born 1828. Jules Massenet born 1842. Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been; I am also called No-more, Too-late, Farewell; Unto thine ear I hold the dead sea-shell Cast up thy Life's foam-fretted feet between; Unto thine eyes the glass where that is seen Which had Life's form and Love's, but by my spell Is now a shaken shadow intolerable, Of ultimate things unuttered the frail screen. --Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Let me not pass my work at morn And then at eve, Find for what purpose I was born-- Just as I leave. --M.B.S. We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. --John 9. 4. Lord God, I do earnestly pray that thou wilt give me strength to break away, if I may be trying to free myself from habits that mar my character. May I not lose courage and fall back in the old ways, but by faith be led where I should go. Amen. MAY THIRTEENTH Carolus Linnæus (Karl von Linné) born 1707. Alphonse Daudet born 1840. Sir Arthur Sullivan born 1842. I heard a voice in the darkness singing (That was a valiant soul I knew), And the joy of his song was a wild bird winging Swift to his mate through a sky of blue. And his song was of love and all its bringing And of certain day when the night was through; I raised my eyes where the hope was springing, And I think in his heaven God smiled too (That was a valiant soul I knew). --J. Stalker. The soul aids the body, and at certain moments raises it. It is the only bird which bears upward its own cage. --Victor Hugo. But desire earnestly the greater gifts. --1 Corinthians 12. 31. Gracious Lord, I rejoice that thou dost know the depths of my soul, and that I may call upon thee to supply its needs. Make me worthy that I may not be kept from the springs of joy where my soul may be refreshed, and where I may gather hope and encouragement for the greater loves of life. Amen. MAY FOURTEENTH John Dutton born 1659. Gabriel D. Fahrenheit born 1686. Robert Owen born 1771. Henry Grattan died 1820. They that wander at will where the Works of the Lord are revealed, Little guess what joy can be got From a cowslip out of the field. --Alfred Tennyson. Move onward serenely, cast aside regret, cleanse and purify life, only be undismayed and hopeful, as you turn page after page of the revelation of God. --Arthur C. Benson. Thou wilt show me the path of life: In thy presence is fullness of joy; In thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. --Psalm 16. 11. My Father, I thank thee that nature reveals thy power as she unfolds her beauty and wonder to the searching eye. Guide me that I may see in the little flower the smile of welcome, the look of kindness, and the beauty of hope which it renders to all; and may I learn from it thy protection in the smallest things of life. Amen. MAY FIFTEENTH Ephraim Chambers died 1740. Florence Nightingale born 1820. Michael W. Balfe born 1808. Edmund Keane died 1833. Daniel O'Connell died 1847. Light human nature is too lightly lost And ruffled without cause, complaining on, Restless with rest, until being overthrown, It learneth to lie quiet. --Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Was the trial sore? Temptation sharp? Thank God a second time! Why comes temptation but for a man to meet And master and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestaled in triumph? Pray "Lead us into no such temptations, Lord!" Yea, but, O thou whose servants are the bold, Lead such temptations by the head and hair, Reluctant dragons, up to who dares fight That so he may do battle and have praise. --Robert Browning. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest haply we drift away from them. --Hebrews 2. 1. Almighty God, if I am overwhelmed by the tides of temptation and discouragement, let me not drift away to sea, but anchor and take harbor in thee. May I not be afraid to trust in thy protection, but calmly wait and watch for thy deliverance. Amen. MAY SIXTEENTH Sir William Patty born 1623. Honore de Balzac born 1799. William H. Seward born 1801. Felicia Hemans died 1835. Favored of Heaven! O Genius! are they thine, When round thy brow the wreaths of glory shine; While rapture gazes on thy radiant way, 'Midst the bright realms of clear mental day? No! sacred joys! 'tis yours to dwell enshrined, Most fondly cherished, in the purest mind. --Felicia Hemans. Genius is intensity. --Honore Balzac. But what if I fail of my purpose here? It is but to keep the nerves at strain, To dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall, And, baffled, get up and begin again-- So the chase takes up one's life, that's all. --Robert Browning. Be urgent in season, out of season. --2 Timothy 4. 2. My Lord, my life makes me conscious of weakness, and my memory brings regret; forgive me for the lost strength I neglected to develop. In thy compassion encourage me to be more watchful of my power, that I may usefully increase it, and not willfully deplete it. May I learn the need of constancy in well-doing. Amen. MAY SEVENTEENTH Heloise died 1163. Matthew Parker died 1575. Edwin Jenner born 1749. The weakest among us has a gift, however seemingly trivial, which is peculiar to him, and which worthily used, will be a gift to his race forever. --John Ruskin. Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God who is our home. --William Wordsworth. A weak mind sinks under prosperity as well as under adversity. A strong and deep mind has two highest tides--when the moon is at full, and when there is no moon. --Julius Hare. Thou hast granted me life and lovingkindness; And thy visitation hath preserved my spirit. --Job 10. 12. Almighty God, I pray that I may have a true appreciation of the quality of life. Reveal to me my responsibilities and help me to make them my opportunities. Keep me in search of thoughts and deeds that will increase the delight of my soul. Amen. MAY EIGHTEENTH Francis Mahony (Father Prout) died 1866. Mrs. Johnson (Stella) born 1735. John Wilson (Christopher North) born 1785. Longing is God's fresh heavenward will, With our poor earthly striving; We quench it, that we may be still Content with merely living. But would we learn that heart's full scope Which we are hourly wronging, Our lives must climb from hope to hope, And realize our longing. --James Russell Lowell. Pretexts are not wanted when one wishes a thing. --Goldoni. Friendship is for all aid and comfort through all the relations of life and death--for serene days and graceful gifts and country rambles; but also for rough roads, and hard fare, shipwreck, poverty, and persecution. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. Strive to enter in by the narrow door. --Luke 13. 24. Eternal God, I pray that thou wilt graciously restore my spirits if I may have settled into despondency over my disappointments. May I have the will to rise above them, and patiently strive for renewed hope. Amen. MAY NINETEENTH James Boswell died 1795. Johann Gottlieb Fichte born 1762. William E. Gladstone died 1898. Tired! Well, what of that? Didst fancy life was spent on beds of ease, Fluttering the rose-leaves scattered by the breeze? Come! rouse thee, work while it is called to-day! Coward, arise--go forth upon the way! Lonely! And what of that? Some one must be lonely; 'tis not given to all To feel a heart responsive rise and fall, To blend another life into its own; Work may be done in loneliness; work on. Dark! Well, what of that? Didst fondly dream the sun would never set? Dost fear to lose thy way? Take courage yet, Learn thou to walk by faith and not by sight, Thy steps will be guided, and guided right. --Unknown. And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. --Galatians 6. 9. My Father, if thou wert far off I could not reach thee in time, for I falter so much and need thee so often. I pray that thou wilt keep so near that I can feel thy love and strength breathing within me. Amen. MAY TWENTIETH Elizabeth G. Fry born 1780. John Stuart Mill born 1806. Alfred Domett born 1811. Rudolf H. Lotze born 1817. Marquis de Lafayette died 1834. Nature has written a letter of credit upon some men's faces which is honored wherever presented. You cannot help trusting such men; their very presence gives confidence. There is a "promise to pay" in their faces which gives confidence, and you prefer it to another man's indorsement. Character is credit. --William M. Thackeray. Henry Drummond has told us how in the heart of Africa he came across men and women who remembered the only white man they ever saw before--David Livingstone; and as you cross his footsteps in the dark continent men's faces light up as they speak of the kind doctor who passed there years ago. They could not understand him; but they felt the love that beat in his heart. Who is wise and understanding among you? let him show by his good life his works in meekness of wisdom. --James 3. 13. My Lord, inspire me with kind words and thoughtful deeds, that I may share the yearnings and sympathy of others. May my life show that I am dependable, and may none be left lonely to-day because of my forgetfulness. Amen. MAY TWENTY-FIRST Albrecht Dürer born 1471. Fernando de Soto died 1542. Alexander Pope born 1688. Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake; The center moved, a circle straight succeeds, Another still, and still another spreads; Friend, parent, neighbor, first it will embrace, Its country next, and next, the human race. --Alexander Pope. A gentleman is one who understands and shows every mark of deference to the claim of self-love in others, and exacts it in return from them. --William Hazlitt. But he knoweth the way that I take; When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held fast to his steps; His way have I kept, and turned not aside. --Job 23. 10. Lord God, teach me how secret actions make or destroy my life. Show me the deep lines made by sorrow and discontent that cannot be effaced. May I look toward the corrections of life and not on my imperfections, that my life may be a helpful influence. Amen. MAY TWENTY-SECOND Newman Hall born 1816. Wilhelm Richard Wagner born 1813. Maria Edgeworth died 1849. Victor Hugo died 1885. Who cares for the burden, the night, and the rain, And the long, steep, lonesome road, When at last through the darkness a light shines plain, When a voice calls "Hail," and a friend draws rein, With an arm for the stubborn load? For life is the chance of a friend or two This side of the journey's goal. Though the world be a desert the long night through, Yet the gay flowers bloom and the sky shows blue When a soul salutes a soul. --Unknown. In all misfortune the greatest consolation is a sympathizing friend. --Cervantes. They help every one his neighbor; and every one saith to his brother, Be of good courage. --Isaiah 41. 6. Loving Father, may I lay hold upon the highest standards of friendship and so be qualified to be a friend. May those who call and lean on me feel secure in my support. May none ever be ashamed to call me friend. Grant that those whom I love may keep faith with me. Amen. MAY TWENTY-THIRD Thomas Hood born 1798. Margaret Fuller Ossoli born 1810. Henrik Ibsen died 1896. Dr. John Campbell died 1861. Chance cannot touch me! Time cannot hush me! Fear, Hope, and longing, at strife; Sink as I rise, on, on, upward forever, Gathering strength, gaining breath-- Naught can sever Me from the Spirit of Life. --Margaret Fuller. But evil is wrought by want of thought, as well as want of heart. --Thomas Hood. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward. --Romans 8. 18. Heavenly Father, cause the newness of life to continue to flow through my heart, that I may not be fatigued, as I struggle with discouragements. Release me from hopeless cares that I have made mine, thinking they were thine. May I trust in the boundless limit of thy mercy, and rejoice in the world of living light. Amen. MAY TWENTY-FOURTH Jean Paul Marat born 1744. Stephen Girard born 1750. Sir Robert Adair born 1763. Queen Victoria born 1819. Caroline Fox born 1819. I see my way as birds their trackless way. I shall arrive! what time, what circuit first, I ask not: but unless God send his hail Or blinding fireballs, sleet, or stifling snow, In some time, his good time, I shall arrive: He guides me and the bird. --Robert Browning. To live in the presence of great truths and eternal laws--that is what keeps a man patient when the world ignores him, and calm and unspoiled when the world praises him. --Honore Balzac. But whoso putteth his trust in Jehovah shall be safe. --Proverbs 29. 25. Lord Jehovah, all goodness, tenderness, and forbearance that are in my life have come from thee. May I not lose them in self, but by them make possible happiness and endurance for others. Amen. MAY TWENTY-FIFTH Ralph Waldo Emerson born 1803. Edward Bulwer-Lytton (George) born 1803. Dr. William Paley died 1805. William Henry Channing born 1810. Hast thou named all the birds without a gun? Loved the wild rose, and left it on the stalk? At rich men's tables eaten bread and pulse? Unarmed faced danger with a heart of trust? And loved so well a high behavior, In man or maid, that thou from speech refrained, Nobility more noble to repay? O, be my friend and teach me to be thine! --Ralph Waldo Emerson. What the superior man seeks is in himself; What the small man seeks is in others. --Confucius. Make no friendship with a man that is given to anger; And with a wrathful man thou shalt not go. --Proverbs 22. 24. Lord God, may I live for the pure and upright, and have the blessedness of a rejoicing heart. May I yearn for the secrets of nature. Grant that my life may not seek destruction, but tenderly find and protect life. Amen. MAY TWENTY-SIXTH The Venerable Bede died 735. Count Nicolas Ludwig Zinzendorf born 1800. Capel Lofft died 1821. Let us disengage ourselves from care about the passing things of time; let us soar above our worldly possessions. The bee does not less need its wings when it has gathered an abundant store, for if it sink in the honey, it dies. --Saint Augustine. Perhaps if we could penetrate nature's secrets, we should find that what we call needs are more essential to the well-being of the world than the most precious grain or fruit. --Nathaniel Hawthorne. We trust the Lord in faith serene, A ladder he hath given; The lower rounds in earth are seen, The higher reach to heaven. --Thomas Brevior. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment? --Matthew 6. 25. Almighty God, I bless thee for the privilege of a great life. May I not be satisfied to rest with idle hands in youth and make age regretful because I have lived a useless life: but with a clear eye and an exalted mind may I choose the "durable satisfactions" that may be mine. Amen. MAY TWENTY-SEVENTH Alighieri Dante born 1265. John Calvin died 1564. Julia Ward Howe born 1819. Noah Webster died 1843. John Kendrick Bangs born 1862. To your judgments give ye not the reins With too much eagerness, like him who ere The corn be ripe, is fain to count the grains: For I have seen the briar through the winter snows Look sharp and stiff--yet on a future day High on its summit bear the tender rose: And ship I've seen, that through the storm hath passed, Securely bounding o'er the watery way, At entrance of the harbor wrecked at last. --Dante, translated by Wright. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me: As he died to make men holy, let us die to make them free, While God is marching on. --Julia Ward Howe. Trust in Jehovah with all thy heart, And lean not upon thine own understanding. --Proverbs 3. 5. Lord God, help me to know my ability, that I may not attempt with weakness that which requires strength to undertake; and make me stable that I may not relax vigilance even though victory seems assured. Amen. MAY TWENTY-EIGHTH William Pitt born 1759. Thomas Moore born 1779. Louis Agassiz born 1807. The bird let loose in eastern skies, When hastening fondly home, Ne'er stoops to earth her wing, nor flies Where idle warblers roam; But high she shoots through air and light, Above all low delay, Where nothing earthly bounds her flight, Nor shadow dims her way. --Thomas Moore. Remember, the essence of religion is, a heart void of offense toward God and man; not subtle speculative opinions, but an active principle of faith. --William Pitt. And hope putteth not to shame; because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts. --Romans 5. 5. God of mercy, reveal to me the hallowed life. May I be reminded that, while I may save and keep the dust from things that perish, my life, though unkept and undeveloped, tells in itself the value and need of the most watchful care. Amen. MAY TWENTY-NINTH Patrick Henry born 1736. Joseph Fouche born 1763. Josephine died 1814. Gerald Massey born 1829. Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death. --Patrick Henry. Though hearts brood o'er the past, our eyes With smiling features glisten; For lo! our day bursts up the skies, Lean out your souls and listen! The world is following freedom's way, And ripening with her sorrow; Take heart! Who bears the cross to-day Shall wear the crown to-morrow. --Gerald Massey. For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and discipline. --2 Timothy 1. 7. Lord God, may I never feel that I have a right to sell thy joys, nor the privilege of giving away my burdens. Grant that I may not forsake my principles, but may I keep the way clear that memory may find an unruffled rest. Amen. MAY THIRTIETH Decoration Day. Joan d'Arc burned at Rouen 1431. Alexander Pope died 1744. Voltaire died 1778. Alfred Austin born 1835. Here is the nation God has builded by our hands. What shall we do with it? Who stands ready to act again and always in the spirit of this day of reunion and hope and patriotic fervor? The day of our country's life has but broadened into morning. Do not put uniforms by. Put the harness of the present on. Lift your eyes to the great tracts of life yet to be conquered in the interest of righteous peace, of that prosperity which lies in a people's hearts and outlasts all wars and errors of men. --Woodrow Wilson. Cover them over with beautiful flowers: Deck them with garlands these brothers of ours; Lying so silent, by night and by day, Sleeping the years of their manhood away; * * * * * Give them the laurels they lost with their life. --Will Carleton. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. --John 15. 13. My Father, as I pause this day to think of the brave men and women who have given their lives for the sake of others, may I be thankful for them. May I remember that noble deeds and kind words are never lost, but that self may block the way to justice. O Father, make war to cease! and lead us to victories that are won through peace. Amen. MAY THIRTY-FIRST Ludwig Tieck born 1773. Joseph Haydn died 1809. Walt Whitman born 1819. Passage, immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins! Away, O soul! hoist instantly the anchor! Out the hawser--haul out--shake out every sail! Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough? Have we not groveled here long enough eating and drinking like mere brutes? Have we not darkened and dazed ourselves with books long enough? Sail forth--steer for the deep waters only, Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me, For we are bound where mariner has not dared to go, And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all. --Walt Whitman. Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be affrighted at them: for Jehovah thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. --Deuteronomy 31. 6. My Father, give me joyful courage to squarely face my life. Help me to know that I cannot vanquish life by evading duties, nor encircling myself with indulgences. If I may be blind to my situation, restore my sight that I may make ready a worthy passage with thee. Amen. JUNE There lives a glory in these sweet June days Such as I found not in the days gone by, A kindlier meaning in the unclouded sky, A tenderer whisper in the woodland ways; And I have understanding of the lays, The birds are singing, forasmuch as I Have learned how love avails to satisfy A man's whole heart, and fills his lips with praise. --Percy C. Ainsworth JUNE FIRST Nicolas Poussin born 1594. Sir Christopher Marlowe died 1593. Sir David Wilkie died 1841. Hugo Münsterberg born 1863. In every act of ours, in every feeling and every volition and every thought, we are conscious of a self which expresses its aims and meanings. Every idea of ours points beyond itself, every volition binds us in decision, and every experience gets meaning by our attitudes. The most immediate task which life demands from us in the understanding of ourselves and of others is, therefore, to interpret our ideas, to draw the consequences of our will, to appreciate the attitudes, to measure them by higher standards. --Hugo Münsterberg. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. --Genesis 1. 26. My Creator, I pray that I may not only have the desire to know life, but the assurance to live it. Help me to understand that my earthly possessions are not the measure of my life, nor my body the boundary of my living. May I reach for the high standards that are free, without limit, to all. Amen. JUNE SECOND Ethelbert baptized 597. John Randolph born 1773. Thomas Hardy born 1840. In battle or business, whatever the game, In law or in love, it is ever the same: In the struggle for power, or scramble for pelf, Let this be your motto: "Rely on yourself." --John G. Saxe. Labor is necessary to excellence. This is an eternal truth, although vanity cannot be taught to believe or indolence to heed it. --John Randolph. But let each man prove his own work, and then shall he have his glorying in regard of himself alone, and not of his neighbor. --Galatians 6. 4. Almighty God, I regret the hours of indiscretion and waste; through thy forgiveness may I have thy help over past wrongs. May I have a deeper conception of a profitable life, that I may hereafter live by it. Amen. JUNE THIRD Sydney Smith born 1771. Dr. John Gregory born 1724. Richard Cobden born 1804. Jefferson Davis born 1808. Norman Macleod born 1812. Certainly, let the board be spread and let the bed be dressed for the traveler; but let not the emphasis of hospitality lie in these things. Honor to the house where they are simple to the verge of hardship, so that there the intellect is awake and reads the law of the universe, the soul worships truth and love, honor and courtesy flow into all deeds. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. Kind actions, and good wishes, and pure thoughts No mystery is here: Here is no boon For high--yet not for low: The smoke ascends To heaven as lightly from the cottage hearth As from the haughtiest palace. --William Wordsworth. Given to hospitality. --Romans 12. 13. Gracious Father, I beseech thee to give me wisdom for kind thoughts and deeds. Teach me true hospitality, that I may be gracious in my own home and appreciative in the home of others. May I not temper my hospitality for certain reasons, but have a genuine welcome for all. Amen. JUNE FOURTH George III born 1738. Lord Edward Fitzgerald died 1798. General Garnet Wolseley born 1833. This is the gospel of labor--ring it, Ye bells of the kirk-- The Lord of Love came down from above To live with the men who work. This is the rose he planted, here In the thorn-cursed soil; Heaven is blest with perfect rest, but The blessing of earth is toil. --Henry van Dyke No man is born into the world whose work Is not born with him. There is always work And tools to work withal, for those who will; And blessed are the horny hands of toil. --James Russell Lowell. Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest. --Exodus 23. 12. My Father, I pray for the love of work, and the desire to cultivate life. Stir me, that I may be ambitious. May I not stare at life in an everyday way and forget that others are watching for the surprises. Help me to be considerate and kind in all that I do. Amen. JUNE FIFTH Socrates born B.C. 469. Dr. Adam Smith born 1723. Karl Maria von Weber died 1826. O. Henry died 1910. You think that upon the score of foreknowledge and divining I am infinitely inferior to the swans. When they perceive approaching death they sing more merrily than before, because of the joy they have in going to the God they serve. --Socrates. O yet we trust that somehow good Will be the final goal of ill, To pangs of nature, sins of will, Defects of doubt, and taints of blood; That nothing walks with aimless feet; That not one life shall be destroyed, Or cast as rubbish to the void, When God hath made the pile complete. --Alfred Tennyson. How precious is thy lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge under the shadow of thy wings. --Psalm 36. 7. Eternal God, forbid that I should try to set up thy judgment-seat in so small a place as self, and attempt to render decisions for thee. My soul lives anew as I think of thy love, and that there is no place where thy mercy can be withheld from me. Amen. JUNE SIXTH Diego R. Velasquez born 1599. Pierre Corneille born 1606. Nathan Hale born 1755. Sir John Stainer born 1840. These stones that make the meadow brooklet murmur Are the keys on which it plays. O'er every shelving rock its touch grows firmer, Resounding notes to raise. If every path o'er which footsteps wander, Were smooth as ocean strand, There were no theme for gratitude and wonder At God's delivering hand. --W. E. Winks. We also rejoice in our tribulations: knowing that tribulation worketh steadfastness; and steadfastness, approvedness; and approvedness, hope. --Romans 5. 3, 4. My Father, if rain may come to-day, may I realize its help, with the power of the sun, to increase life; and may its influence be sweet and wholesome to me, as I learn that sadness is temporary and will disappear with the coming of gladness. May I go search for the joy that may be mine to-day. Amen. JUNE SEVENTH Robert Bruce died 1329. George Bryan (Beau Brummel) born 1778. Rev. W.D. Conybeare born 1787. When the lamp is shattered The light in the dust lies dead-- When the cloud is scattered The rainbow's glory is shed. When the lute is broken Sweet tones are remembered not; When the lips have spoken Loved accents are soon forgot. --Percy Bysshe Shelley. A slip of the rose may take root, and bring forth a bloom to give peace to the soul. A slip of the tongue may take root, and bring forth a thorn that will torture the soul. --M.B.S. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me. --John 15. 4. Many of us, O Father, overlook the fragrance of the rose while we are being pierced by its thorn. Increase my faith in life and in thee, that I may not be dismayed over mysteries, but sincerely wait for deliverance. Amen. JUNE EIGHTH Mohammed died 632. Thomas Rickman born 1776. Charles Reade born 1814. John Everett Millais born 1829. If one touch of nature makes the whole world kin, methinks that sweet and wonderful thing sympathy is not less powerful. What golden barriers, what ice of centuries, it can melt in a moment! --Charles Reade. If I had two loaves of bread, I would sell one to buy white hyacinths to feed my soul. --Mohammed. What do you live for if it is not to make life less difficult for each other? --George Eliot. Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. --James 1. 27. My Father, help me to understand that kind hearts and willing hands are made possible by the depth and greatness of thy love. May I possess the spirit of forgiveness and consideration, that I may not hold prejudice and revenge, but help with sympathy and tenderness. Amen. JUNE NINTH George Stephenson born 1781. John Howard Payne born 1791. Richard D. Blackmore born 1825. Charles Dickens died 1870. Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many; not upon your past misfortunes, of which all have some. --Charles Dickens. 'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home! A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there, Which, sought through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere. Home! home! sweet, sweet home! There's no place like home! --John Howard Payne. For thou shalt forget thy misery; Thou shalt remember it as waters that are passed away. --Job 11. 16. Lord God, my soul fills with gratitude for the blessings which I have received and enjoyed. Help me to conform to thy will concerning my duties. May I not try to resist thy providence. I pray that thou wilt bless my daily life, and make my home a place to dispense kindness and cheerfulness. Amen. JUNE TENTH Sir Edwin Arnold born 1832. Henry M. Stanley born 1840. Edward Everett Hale died 1809. Robert Schumann born 1810. What have you done with your soul, my friend? Where is the ray you were wont to send, Glancing bright through the outer night, Touching with hope what was dark before, Glimmering on to the further shore? --Arthur C. Benson. God suffers the light to know eclipse, Dashes the cup from the eager lips; You perchance would have drunk too deep. --Arthur C. Benson. Lift where you stand. --Edward Everett Hale. A friend is the first person who comes in when the whole world has gone out. --Unknown. Who comforteth us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. --2 Corinthians 1.4. Almighty God, help me to correct my mistakes, and to be more careful of what I take in my life. May I always stretch out a hand of love to inspire others with confidence to care more for themselves and more for thee. Amen. JUNE ELEVENTH Roger Bacon died 1292. George Wither born 1588. John Constable born 1776. Exceeding gifts from God are not blessings, they are duties. They do not always increase a man's happiness; they always increase his responsibilities. --Charles Kingsley. Make a rule and pray for help to keep it. Once a day spare room for a thought that will pursue a strong purpose. Help in some way the progress of a weary soul who cannot repay you. --M. B. S. There is no true potency, remember, but that of help; nor true ambition, but ambition to save. --John Ruskin. And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then shall thy light rise in darkness, and thine obscurity be as the noon day. --Isaiah 58. 10. Heavenly Father, when I think of how little I have given away my heart burns with shame, as I recall what thou hast given to me. May I from this day be more thoughtful of thy tender compassion by being less selfish with what I have. Amen. JUNE TWELFTH Harriet Martineau born 1802. Charles Kingsley born 1819. Dr. Thomas Arnold (Arnold of Rugby) died 1842. Sir Oliver Lodge born 1851. Do to-day's duty, fight to-day's temptation, and do not weaken and distract yourself by looking-forward to things which you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them. --Charles Kingsley. Genuine religion has its roots deep down in the heart of humanity.... The actions of the Deity make no appeal to any special sense. We are deaf and blind, therefore, to the imminent grandeur around us unless we have insight enough to appreciate the whole and to recognize the woven fabric of existence flowing steadily from the loom of an infinite progress toward perfection. --Sir Oliver Lodge. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning. --James 1. 17. Gracious Father, forbid that I should make thee regret thy gifts to me; and if I have failed to appreciate them, look upon me with pity, for I have cheated myself more than I have thee. Give me a deeper appreciation, that I may be strengthened day by day in the veriest duties of life. Amen. JUNE THIRTEENTH Dr. Thomas Young born 1773. General Winfield Scott born 1786. Dr. Thomas Arnold (Arnold of Rugby) born 1795. William Butler Yeats born 1865. Beyond all wealth, honor, or even health, is the attachment we form to noble souls, because to become one with the good, generous, and true is to become, in a measure, good, generous, and true ourselves. --Thomas Arnold. Open thy bosom, set thy wishes wide, and let in manhood--let in happiness; admit the boundless theater of thought from nothing up to God ... which makes a man. --Thomas Young. Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, and hath not another to lift him up. --Ecclesiastes 4. 9, 10. Heavenly Father, I thank thee for good friends, and for the delight that dwells in fellowship. Give me the power to apprehend love, and guard me against the ways to lose it. May I look to my friends to help me to be pure, and to help me live my truest life. Amen. JUNE FOURTEENTH Carlo Guidi born 1650. Harriet Beecher Stowe born 1812. Mary Carpenter died 1877. When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you till it seems as if you couldn't hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that's just the time and place that the tide will turn. --Harriet Beecher Stowe. I cannot do it alone, The waves run fast and high, And the fogs close chill around, And the light goes out in the sky; But I know that we two Shall win in the end-- God and I. --Unknown. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not. --Hebrews 10. 23. Almighty God, I pray that thou wilt sustain me when I may be enduring for a purpose, and to accomplish it seems beyond my strength. Renew me with courage, and give me unceasing hope, and faith that is able to hold out to the end. Amen. JUNE FIFTEENTH Thomas Randolph born 1605. Edward Grieg born 1843. Thomas Campbell died 1844. What is rightly done stays with us, to support another right beyond, or higher up; whatever is wrongly done vanishes; and by the blank, betrays what we would have built above. --John Ruskin. The seed ye sow another reaps, The wealth ye find another keeps, The robe ye weave another wears, The arms ye forge another bears. --Percy Bysshe Shelley. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. --Lamentations 3. 57, 58. Lord God, reveal to me my selfishness if I am receiving much and giving little to satisfy life. May I be grateful and considerate of all those who labor to give me comfort and happiness. Amen. JUNE SIXTEENTH Hugh Capet succeeds to throne of father 956. Sir Richard Fanshawe died 1666. Sir John Cheke born 1514. When to the sessions of sweet, solemn thought I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought. But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restored and sorrows end. --William Shakespeare. Seldom can the heart be lonely If it seek a lonelier still-- Self-forgetting, seeking only Emptier cups of love to fill. --F. R. Havergal. The Lord Jehovah hath given me the tongue of them that are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary. --Isaiah 50. 4. Gracious Father, keep within me that cheer and courage which never has a place for weary murmurings; and with peace make the hours of solitude profitable as they pass. Help me to seek those who are in need of sympathy and encouragement, that I may help them to have a tranquil life. Amen. JUNE SEVENTEENTH Joseph Addison died 1719. Charles François Gounod born 1818. Sir E. C. Burne-Jones died 1898. He who plants a tree Plants a hope. Rootlets up through fibers blindly grope, Leaves unfold unto horizons free. So man's life must climb From the clods of time Unto heavens sublime. Canst thou prophesy, thou little tree, What the glory of the boughs shall be? --Lucy Larcom. Very early, I perceived that the object of life is to grow. --Margaret Fuller. Many a genius has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for a thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed. --George Henry Lewes. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. --Luke 2. 52. Almighty God, thy power is so great I cannot express it; help me to comprehend the meaning of it, that I may feel more profoundly thy expectations of my life. May I remember that to forget that life is eternal may make me to lose all it has grown. Amen. JUNE EIGHTEENTH Robert Stewart born 1769. Battle of Waterloo 1815. William Cobbett died 1835. Not he the threatening texts who deals Is highest 'mong the preachers, But he who feels the woes and weals Of all God's wandering creatures. He doth good work whose heart can find The spirit 'neath the letter; Who makes his kind of happier mind, Leaves wiser men and better. Dear Bard and Brother! let who may Against thy faults be railing, (Though far, I pray, from us be they That never had a failing!) --James Russell Lowell. Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath of God: for it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord. --Romans 12. 19. Heavenly Father, I pray that I may not be so occupied in expressing my judgment of others, that I will forget to live in thy judgment myself. May I have the compassion for others that I hope to receive from thee. Amen. JUNE NINETEENTH Magna Charta signed, Runnymede, 1215. Blaise Pascal born 1623. Charles H. Spurgeon born 1834. Find your niche and fill it. If it is ever so little, if it is only a hewer of wood or a drawer of water, do something in the great battle for God and truth. --Charles Spurgeon. If I do what I may in earnest, I need not mourn if I work no great work on earth. To help the growth of a thought that struggles toward the light; to brush with gentle hand the stain from the white of one snowdrop--such be my ambition. --George Macdonald. Jehovah thy God will bless thee in all thy work, and in all that thou puttest thy hand unto. --Deuteronomy 15. 10. Lord God, I pray that I may not through conceit be betrayed into slacking my work, or through visions of greatness lose it. Teach me how to obtain the secret wealth in the smallest thing; and may I recognize thy treasures, and fill my life with the finest that may be given me. Amen. JUNE TWENTIETH John of Lancaster born 1389. Dr. Adam Ferguson born 1723. Anna Letitia Aiken (Mrs. Barbauld) born 1743. If the soft hand of winning Pleasure leads By living waters, and through flowery meads, Where all is smiling, tranquil, and serene, Oh! teach me to elude each latent snare, And whisper to my sliding heart, "Beware!" With caution let me hear the Syren's voice, And doubtful, with a trembling heart rejoice. If friendless in a vale of tears I stray, Where briars wound, and thorns perplex my way, Still let my steady soul thy goodness see, And, with a strong confidence, lay hold on Thee. --Anna Letitia Barbauld. For thou, O God, hast proved us: Thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. --Psalm 66. 10. O Lord, teach me to select my pleasures with care, that I may not plunge into joyful moments that are irretrievable. May I indulge in the pleasures that bring happiness and not weariness. Grant that I may have the honor to protect others from harm and loss, as I engage in my pleasures and in my work. Amen. JUNE TWENTY-FIRST Captain John Smith died 1631. Anthony Collins born 1676. Jacques Offenbach born 1819. In our eagerness to solve life we start out to trace its mysteries and trample God's truths as we search. As we return we discover the shattered treasures, and gladly stoop to gather up the fragments, and with them translate the revelations of the soul. --M.B.S. I stretch my hands out in the empty air; I strain my eyes into the heavy night; Blackness of darkness!--Father, hear my prayer; Grant me to see the light! --George Arnold. But when he came to himself he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father. --Luke 15. 17, 18. Heavenly Father, I pray that as I search for the truth I will not be so eager to seek thy mysteries as I am to extend thy ministries. Grant that by thy love I will be guided in comprehending and exalting thy kingdom. May my service bring me wisdom as I obey thy laws. Amen. JUNE TWENTY-SECOND Matthew Henry died 1714. Karl Wilhelm von Humboldt born 1767. H. Rider Haggard born 1856. The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment. Sorrow is a kind of rust in the soul, which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour away. --Dr. Johnson. We may be sure that one principle will hold throughout the whole pursuit of thoughtful happiness--the principle that the best way to secure future happiness is to be as happy as is rightfully possible to-day. To secure any desirable capacity for the future, near or remote, cultivate it to-day. What would be the use of immortality for a person who cannot use well half an hour? asks Emerson. --Charles W. Eliot. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not. --Isaiah 35. 3, 4. Loving Father, help me that I may realize the depth of thy love. If I may be discouraged over my failures, speak to me hopefully and lead me out where I may find the right way to succeed. May I not be kept in sorrow, but find each day the happiness that brings a thankful heart. Amen. JUNE TWENTY-THIRD Mark Akenside died 1770. John Fill born 1625. Josephine born 1763 Could we by a wish Have what we will and get the future now, Would we wish aught done undone in the past? So, let him wait God's instant men call years; Meantime hold hard by truth and his great soul, Do out the duty! Through such souls alone God stooping shows sufficient of his light For us i' the dark to rise by. And I rise. --Robert Browning. Press not thy purpose on thy Lord, Urge not thy erring will, Nor dictate to the Eternal mind Nor doubt thy Maker's skill. --Lydia H. Sigourney. Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning; For in thee do I trust: Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; For I lift up my soul unto thee. --Psalm 143. 8. My Father, help me to see that in my portion of work thou hast entrusted me to help further thy kingdom. Correct me if I am wrong in interpreting thy way. May I concentrate my mind and make my heart and hands do the work which thou hast given for me to do. Amen. JUNE TWENTY-FOURTH Jean Baptiste Massillon born 1663. Alexandre Dumas born 1803. Henry Ward Beecher born 1813. General Lord Kitchener born 1850. All the world cries, "Where is the man who will save us?" Don't look so far for this man, you have him at hand. This man--it is you, it is I, it is each one of us! How to constitute oneself a man? Nothing harder if one knows not how to will it; nothing easier if one wills it. --Alexandre Dumas. Many of our troubles are God dragging us, and they would end if we would stand upon our feet and go whither he would have us. --Henry Ward Beecher. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and mine ordinances; which if a man do, he shall live in them. --Leviticus 18. 5. Gracious Lord, I pray that I may have reverence for that which is pure and holy, and that my soul may delight in the presence of the good. Help me to so live that I may have the memory of precious deeds, and that I may not have to depend on the service of others to supply contentment for my closing days. Amen. JUNE TWENTY-FIFTH William Smellie died 1795. Antoine Jean Gros died 1835. Lucy Webb Hayes died 1889. In every feast remember there are two guests to be entertained--the body and the soul; and what you give the body you presently lose, but what you give the soul remains forever. --Epictetus. We take pains and weary to faultlessly clothe the body. We persevere, and often struggle, to adorn the mind. As we pass through the rays of truth, sometimes we find, after all we have put on, we have left bare the soul. --M.B.S. For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? --Matthew 16. 26. Lord God, help me to understand that thou hast made the principle of truth so that I cannot add to it, nor take from it, lest in altering it I might destroy it. May I never try to make my purpose cover the truth, but without fear, face the light where truth shines the brightest. Amen. JUNE TWENTY-SIXTH Archbishop Robert Leighton died 1684. Dr. Philip Doddridge born 1702. George Morland born 1763. Why are we so glad to talk and take our turns to prattle, when so rarely we get back to the stronghold of our silence with an unwounded conscience? --Thomas a Kempis. I have read that those who listened to Lord Chatham felt that there was something finer in the man than anything which he said. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. Speech is like the cloth of Arras opened and put abroad, whereby the imagery doth appear in figure; whereas in thoughts they lie but as in packs. --Plutarch. Keep thy tongue from evil, And thy lips from speaking guile. --Psalm 34. 13. Tender Father, make me more watchful of the time that I give to useless thoughts and words, and save me from cutting words, which make deeper impressions than can be cut with sharp tools. Forgive me for the hours that have not been profitable; I would I had them back, for my heart and mind have need of them. Amen. JUNE TWENTY-SEVENTH Paul Laurence Dunbar born 1872. Lafcadio Hearne born 1850. Helen Keller born 1880. Of course, it was not easy at first to fly. The speech wings were weak and broken; nothing was left save the impulse to fly, but that was something. One can never consent to creep when one has an impulse to soar. There are so many difficulties in the way, so many discouragements; but I kept on trying, knowing that perseverance and patience win in the end. --Helen Keller. De da'kest hour, dey allus say, Is des' befo' de dawn, But it's moughty ha'd a-waitin' Were de night goes frownin' on; An' it's moughty ha'd a-hopin' When de clouds is big and black, An' all de t'ings you's waited fu' Has failed, er gone to wrack-- But des' keep on a joggin' ind a little bit o song. De moon is allus brightah w'en de night's been long. --Paul Laurence Dunbar. Weeping may tarry for the night, But joy cometh in the morning. --Psalm 30. 5. My Father, I thank thee for life and its faculties. May I not be deceived by gratification and miss the permanent satisfactions. Make me brave that I may be courageous in affliction, and not be dismayed over humiliations and disappointments. May I be kept in harmony with thy will. Amen. JUNE TWENTY-EIGHTH Henry VIII born 1491. Jean Jacques Rousseau born 1712. John Wesley born 1703. Frederick William Faber born 1814. Workman of God! O lose not heart, But learn what God is like; And in the darkest battlefield Thou shalt know where to strike. For right is right, since God is God; And right the day must win; To doubt would be disloyalty, To falter would be sin. --F. W. Faber. Leisure and I have parted company. I look upon the world as my parish. The best of all is, God is with us. To overdo is to undo. --John Wesley. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only. --James 1. 22. Lord God, I pray for a desire to work. May I not be deceived in my convictions, and work for that of which I may afterward be ashamed. Lead me into a clear conception of right and wrong. Help me to see as thou dost see, that I may walk with confidence in thy steps. Amen. JUNE TWENTY-NINTH Paul Rubens born 1577. Baron John De Kalb born 1721. Elizabeth Barrett Browning died 1861. Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, Ere the sorrow comes with years? They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, And they cannot stop their tears. The young lambs are bleating in the meadows; The young birds are chirping in the nests; The young fawns are playing with the shadows; The young flowers are blowing toward the west: But the young, young children, O my brothers! They are weeping bitterly. They are weeping in the playtime of the others, In the country of the free. --Elizabeth B. Browning. Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. --Ezekiel 16. 20. Father of all, I pray that I may always love children. May I never forget that I wanted things and needed things when I was a child, and that the help and neglect which I received then told in my life. Make me interested in the purposes that will help the progress of the child to-day, and may I realize that the child does not need my casual charity as much as it needs my permanent justice. Amen. JUNE THIRTIETH Alexander Brome died 1666. Archibald Campbell beheaded 1685. Sir Thomas Pope Blount died 1697. Be useful where thou livest, that they may Both want and wish thy pleasing presence still; Kindness, good parts, great places are the way To compass this. Find out men's wants and will, And meet them there. All worldly joys go less To the one joy of doing kindnesses. --George Herbert. Thrice happy he, who by some shady grove, Far from the clamorous world, doth live his own; Though solitary, who is not alone, But doth converse with that eternal love --William Drummond. Seek, and ye shall find. --Matthew 7. 7. My Father, help me to draw from the wisdom of life, that my soul may grow in knowledge and power. May I have the quiet confidence that comes in trusting thee. May I help others to think on the uplifting things of life. Amen. JULY Then came hot July, boiling like to fire, That all his garments he had cast away; Upon a lion raging yet with ire He boldly rode, and made him to obey. --Edmund Spenser. A pleasing land of drowsyhead it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye; And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, For ever flushing round a summer sky. --James Thomson. JULY FIRST Comte de Rochambeau born 1725. Gideon Welles born 1802. George Frederick Watts died 1904. There is no unbelief! Whoever plants a seed beneath a sod, And waits to see it push away the clod, He trusts in God. There is no unbelief! And day by day, and night, unconsciously, The heart lives by that faith the lips deny-- God knoweth why. --Bulwer Lytton. More and more I see that nothing is so necessary for the religious condition of the mind as absolute simplicity. We know what we have got to do, and the only thing is to ask ourselves whether we are doing it as well as we can. --George Frederick Watts. Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God. --Romans 5. 1. My Creator, I praise thee for the knowledge of life, and the hope of immortality. Help me to express my belief, and to give my utmost for the divinest, that I may be worthy of life eternal. Amen. JULY SECOND Archbishop Cranmer born 1489. Christopher W. Gluck born 1714. Richard Henry Stoddard born 1825. Sir Robert Peel died 1850. One step more, and the race is ended; One word more, and the lesson's done; One toil more, and a long rest follows At set of sun. Who would fail, for one step withholden? Who would fail, for one word unsaid? Who would fail, for a pause too early? Sound sleep the dead. --Christina G. Rossetti. One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, Sleep to wake. --Robert Browning. He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. --Matthew 10. 22. My Father, thou hast proven the strength of thy promises by thy tender love and mercy through the darkest hours. Help me always to cling to the hope that thou hast provided for my soul. May I be trustful, and be thankful to "see so much as one side of a celestial idea, one side of the rainbow, and the sunset sky." Amen. JULY THIRD John S. Copley born 1737. Henry Grattan born 1746. Eugene Sue died 1857. Not from the dangers that beset our path From storm or sudden death, or pain or wrath, We pray deliverance; But from the envious eye, the narrowed mind Of those that are the vultures of mankind Thy aid advance. Not at the strong man's righteous rage or hate, But at the ambushed malice laid in wait Thy strength arise; At those who ever seek to spot the fair White garments of a neighbor's character With mud of lies. --Theodosia P. Garrison.[1] Putting away therefore all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings. --1 Peter 2. 1. My Lord, may I remember that to protect the character of others is to add virtue to my own. Grant that I may see the good and not be looking for the evil. Cause me to know that peace will not abide in deceit or revenge, but may be found in a happy and charitable spirit. Help me to earn thy peace. Amen. [Footnote 1: Special permission by Mitchell Kennerly, New York.] JULY FOURTH Independence Day. Colonel William Byrd died 1704. Nathaniel Hawthorne born 1804. Thomas Jefferson died 1826. By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto, "In God is our trust"; And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! --Francis Scott Key. Seek not to keep your soul perpetually in the unwholesome region of remorse. It was needful to pass through that dark valley, but it is infinitely dangerous to linger there too long. --Nathaniel Hawthorne. And this city shall be to me for a name of joy, for a praise and for a glory, before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them. --Jeremiah 33. 9. Lord of justice and peace, may I not pause at the marked stones of the brave to learn of liberty, but may I look for the opportunities that I may measure up to because of them, and do my part to keep the peace and spread the blessings of our land. Amen. JULY FIFTH Mrs. Sarah Siddons born 1755. David G. Farragut born 1801. George Sand born 1804. Cecil Rhodes born 1853. Nature alone can speak to our intelligence an imperishable language, never changing, because it remains within the bounds of eternal truth and of what is absolutely noble and beautiful. --George Sand. Say, dost thou understand the whispered token, The promise breathed from every leaf and flower? And dost thou hear the word ere it be spoken, And apprehend love's presence by its power? --Unknown. But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; And the birds of the heavens, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these, That the hand of Jehovah hath wrought this? --Job 12. 7-9. Lord God, direct me away from self, that I may learn of thy wisdom, and help further thy kingdom. Give me patience to search for thy truths, that I may obtain the noblest to use for thy service. Amen. JULY SIXTH John Huss burned at Constance, Baden, 1369. Baron Wilhelm Leibnitz born 1646. John Paul Jones born 1747. John Flaxman born 1755. No man likes to acknowledge that he has made a mistake in the choice of his profession, and every man worthy of the name will row long against wind and tide before he allows himself to cry out, "I'm baffled!" and submit to be floated passively back to land. --Charlotte Brontë. There is nothing so small but that we honor God by asking his guidance of it, or insult him by taking it into our hands. --John Ruskin. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, And thy right hand shall hold me. --Psalm 139. 9, 10. My Father, I pray that I may have wise judgment and use discretion in the choice of my work. May I remember that only that is genuine which is received and used for thee. Amen. JULY SEVENTH Alexis, son of Peter the Great, died in prison 1718. Thomas Blacklock died 1791. Richard Brinsley Sheridan died 1816. The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed. --Richard B. Sheridan. I felt my hot blood a-tingling flow; With thrill of the fight my soul did glow; And when, braced and pure, I emerged secure From the strife that had tried my courage so, I said, "Let heaven send me sun or rain, I'll never know flinching fear again." --Thomas Crawford. For the Lord Jehovah will help me; therefore have I not been confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. --Isaiah 50. 7. Lord Jehovah, help me to learn how to be strong and brave, that I may not remain in fear and weakness. Help me to conquer unworthiness, and to overcome discouragements, that I may be spared the needless battles that are brought on through impatience and selfishness. Keep my soul in repose, that I may add to my conquering strength. Amen. JULY EIGHTH Jean de La Fontaine born 1621. Dr. Samuel D. Gross born 1805. Joseph Chamberlain born 1836. Neither gold nor grandeur can render us happy. --La Fontaine. Spirit of God! descend upon my heart; Wean it from earth; through all its pulses move; Stoop to my weakness, mighty as thou art, And make me love thee as I ought to love. I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies, No sudden rending of the veil of clay: No angel visitant, no opening skies-- But take the dimness of my soul away. --George Croly. For a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. --Luke 12. 15. Eternal God, help me to honor my life; and may I realize, whether I select good or bad, much or little, the harvesting is for eternity. Grant that I may not make my life accumulate gold and grandeur, and laden it with much spending; but may I strive and love what thou dost love, and make my life worthy of my labor. Amen. JULY NINTH Henry Hallam born 1777. Edmund Burke died 1797. Elias Howe born 1819. Discretion of speech is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words or in good order. --Francis Bacon. When anyone provokes you, be assured it is your opinion which provokes you. Try therefore, in the first place, not to be hurried away with appearance. For if you once gain time and respite, you will more easily command yourself. --Epictetus. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer each one. --Colossians 4. 6. My Father, help me to learn through kindness and tenderness the value of self-control. Help me in the moods of jealousy and impatience, that I may not cause others unhappiness by words or deeds. Teach me how to overcome the ways that keep me discontented, that I may have a brighter speech. Amen. JULY TENTH John Calvin born 1509. Sir William Blackstone born 1723. Frederick Marryat born 1792. The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed; It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes. 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; * * * * * It is enthroned in the hearts of kings; It is an attribute to God himself. --William Shakespeare. His gain is loss; for he that wrongs his friend Wrongs himself more, and ever has about A silent court and jury, and himself The prisoner at the bar, ever condemned. --Alfred Tennyson. Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to thyself, lest thou also be tempted. --Galatians 6. 1. My Father, help me to avoid the critical spirit that leans toward injustice. Grant that none may be made despondent waiting for my mercy; but through forgiveness may I inspire confidence in those who have made mistakes, and influence them to a better life. Amen. JULY ELEVENTH Robert de Bruce born 1274. Jean Marmontel born 1723. John Quincy Adams, Massachusetts, sixth President United States, born 1767. Susan Warner (E. Wetherell) born 1819. A friend to chide me when I'm wrong, My inmost soul to see: And that my friendship prove as strong For him as his for me. --John Quincy Adams. Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can: this is the service of a friend. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. --Ecclesiastes 7. 5, 6. My Father and Friend, who calleth me to check the progress of the wrong, make me submissive and eager for what is right, that I may learn and uphold to others thy purposes and desires. Amen. JULY TWELFTH Caius Julius Cæsar born B.C. 100. Josiah Wedgwood born 1730. Alexander Hamilton killed 1804. Henry David Thoreau born 1817. Clara Louise Kellogg born 1842. Each reaching and aspiration is an instinct with which all nature consists and cooperates, and therefore it is not in vain. If a man believes and expects great things of himself it makes no odds where you put him, he will be surrounded by grandeur. --Henry David Thoreau. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost--that is where they should be: now put foundations under them. --Henry David Thoreau. He is like a man building a house, who digged and went deep, and laid a foundation upon the rock: and when a flood arose, the stream brake against that house, and could not shake it: because it had been well builded. --Luke 6. 48. Lord of strength, I pray that while I may lay a strong foundation for my life, I may remember that I should not delay the building by neglecting to complete the plans. May I look to-day and see if I am making my words stronger than my life. With thy wisdom help me to realize that the test of life is made with the soul. Amen. JULY THIRTEENTH Richard Cromwell died 1712. Elijah Fenton died 1730. Jean Paul Marat killed by Charlotte Corday 1793. Let each day take thought for what concerns it, liquidate its own affairs, and respect the day which is to follow, and then it shall be ready. --Amiel. What does your anxiety do? It does not empty to-morrow, brother, of its sorrow; but ah! it empties to-day of its strength. It does not make you escape the evil; it makes you unfit to cope with it if it comes. --Ian Maclaren. Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. --Matthew 6. 25. My Father, save me from the habit of borrowing. So often I borrow trouble and cannot use it, when the peace that I possess is all that I need. Help me, that I may not miss the glory of to-day, by anticipating the uncertainty of to-morrow; but may I discern my place and have delight in every day. Amen. JULY FOURTEENTH Bastille destroyed 1789. Jane Baillie Welch Carlyle born 1801. Owen Wister born 1860. Sail fast, sail fast, Ark of my hopes, Ark of my dreams; Sweep lordly o'er the drowned Past, Fly glittering through the sun's strange beams; Sail fast, sail fast. Breath of new buds from off some drying lea, With news about the Future scent the sea; My brain is beating like the heart of Haste. I'll loose me a bird upon this Present waste; Go, trembling song, And stay not long; O, stay not long; Thou art only a gray and sober dove, But thine eye is faith and thy wing is love. --Sidney Lanier. God speed thee, pretty bird; may thy small nest, With little ones all in good time be blest. I love thee much; For well thou managest that life of thine, Well I!--O ask not what I do with mine! Would I were such! --Jane Welch Carlyle. Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they? --Matthew 6. 26. My Father, may I start this day with more faith in myself and greater love for thy world. May my soul be awakened to the highest and be ready for the joys of to-day. Amen. JULY FIFTEENTH Inigo Jones born 1573. Rembrandt born 1607. Henry Edward Manning born 1808. William Winter born 1836. His was the heart that overmuch In human goodness puts its trust, And his the keen, satiric touch That shrivels falsehood into dust. Fierce for the right, he bore his part In strife with many a valiant foe; But laughter winged his polished dart, And kindness tempered every blow. --William Winter. A wise man will so act that whatever he does may rather seem voluntary and of his own free will than done by compulsion, however much he may be compelled by necessity. --Machiavelli. Wherefore I saw that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him back to see what shall be after him? --Ecclesiastes 3. 22. Lord God, may I not forget that it is in the light, and not the darkness, that my work is revealed. I beseech thee to pour in thy light as I plan my life, and open my heart and mind for the reception of thy truth. Amen. JULY SIXTEENTH Andrea del Sarto born 1486. Sir Joshua Reynolds born 1723. Margaret Fuller Ossoli perished at sea 1850. Reverence the highest, have patience with the lowest. Let this day's performance of the meanest duty be thy religion. Are the stars too distant? Pick up the pebble that lies at thy feet and from it learn all. --Margaret Fuller. The situation that has not its Duty, its Ideal, was never yet occupied by man. Yet, here is this miserable, despicable Actual, wherein thou standest--here or nowhere is thy Ideal! Work it out therefrom! --Thomas Carlyle. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward. --Matthew 10. 42. Great God, may I begin this day bearing in mind that the things which I think and do are my life. I pray that thou wilt keep me from making great efforts for that which is valueless, and thus waste my life. May I watch my pride and indolence that they may not cause me to lose the best. Amen. JULY SEVENTEENTH Dr. Isaac Watts born 1674. Charlotte Corday guillotined 1793. Paul Delaroche born 1797. J.A. McNeil Whistler died 1903. So frail is the youth and beauty of men, Though they bloom and look gay like the rose; But all our fond cares to preserve them is vain, Time kills them as fast as he goes. Then I'll not be proud of my youth nor my beauty, Since both of them wither and fade; But gain a good name by well doing my duty; For this will scent like the rose when I'm dead. --Isaac Watts. Onward, onward may we press Through the path of duty; Virtue is true happiness, Excellence true beauty; Minds are of supernal birth, Let us make a heaven of earth. --James Montgomery. All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them. --Matthew 7. 12. My Lord and my strength, I pray that I may possess that expectancy which comes in joyous hope and have the endurance that is controlled by courage and energy. Grant in the future that I may be less concerned about my living and more anxious for what I make of my life. Amen. JULY EIGHTEENTH William Makepeace Thackeray born 1811. Jane Austen died 1817. Jean Antoine Watteau died 1721. Learn to admire rightly: the great pleasure of life is that. Note what great men admired; they admired great things; narrow spirits admire basely and worship meanly. --W.M. Thackeray. Our thoughts are often more than we are, just as they are often better than we are. And God sees us as we are altogether, and not in separate feelings or actions, as our fellow men see us. We are always doing each other injustice, and thinking better or worse of each other than we deserve, because we only hear separate feelings or actions. We don't see each other's whole nature. --George Eliot. The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. --Isaiah 35. 1. Eternal God, may I become more like thee. Give me the desire to associate myself with people and places where the divine spirit is supreme. May my soul breathe in the influence of all that is good and true; and may I use my life for thy honor and praise. Amen. JULY NINETEENTH John Martin born 1789. Samuel Colt born 1814. Charles Victor Cherbuliez born 1829. In love, if love be love, if love be ours, Faith and unfaith can ne'er be equal powers: Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all. It is the little rift within the lute That by and by will make the music mute, And ever widening slowly silence all. The little rift within the lover's lute, Or little pitted speck in garner'd fruit, That rotting inward slowly molders all. It is not worth the keeping: let it go: But shall it? Answer, darling, answer no. And trust me not at all or all in all. --Alfred Tennyson. Take us the foxes, the little foxes, That spoil the vineyards; For our vineyards are in blossom. --Song of Solomon 2. 15. Loving Father, help me to put away the distractions and cares that make me discontented. Grant that I may not set myself in "gilded pride" and keep out the precious things of life. Help me to abandon doubt and suspicion, and keep the faith that is happy to believe and willing to forgive. Amen. JULY TWENTIETH Petrarch born 1304. Thomas Lovell Beddoes born 1803. John Sterling born 1806. Jean Ingelow died 1897. Let thy day be to the night A letter of good tidings! Let thy praise Go up as birds go up--that when they awake, Shake off the dew and soar. --Jean Ingelow. I, and the bird, And the wind together, Sang a supplication In the winter weather. The bird sang for sunshine, And the trees for winter fruit, And for love in the spring time When the thickets shoot. And I sang for patience When the teardrops start; Clean hands and clear eyes, And a faithful heart. --Arthur C. Benson. Unto thee, O Jehovah, do I lift up my soul. --Psalm 25. 1. Lord God, if I am discouraged this morning, may I pause for thine encouragement. Grant that the fear of the night may make no decline in my morn, but that "into the future I may fuse the past," and use what is clearest for to-day. Amen. JULY TWENTY-FIRST Matthew Pryor born 1664. William Lord Russell beheaded 1683. Robert Burns died 1796. Our heaven must be within ourselves, Our home and heaven the work of faith And thro' this race of life which shelves Downward to death. While over all a dome must spread, And love shall be that dome above; And deep foundations must be laid, And these are love. --Christina Rossetti. If happiness has not her seat And center in the breast, We may be wise or rich or great, But never can be blest. --Robert Burns. Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life. --Proverbs 4. My Father, if I choose to be unhappy and miserable, may I not be to myself and friends as "a harp with one string." Help me to free myself from thinking and anticipating things that keep me from the pleasure that I might receive and give. May I have more trust in my friends and in thee. Amen. JULY TWENTY-SECOND Sir John Graham killed 1298. Pilgrims started for America 1620. Earl of Shaftesbury (Anthony Ashley Cooper) born 1621. How comes it to pass, then, that we appear such cowards in reasoning, and are so afraid to stand the test of ridicule? --Earl of Shaftesbury. He that of such a height hath built his mind, And reared the dwelling of his thoughts so strong, As neither fear nor hope can shake the frame Of his resolved powers; nor all the wind Of vanity or malice pierce to wrong His settled peace, or to disturb the same: What a fair seat hath he, from whence he may The boundless wastes and wilds of man survey? --Samuel Daniel. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee. --Isaiah 26. 3. O Lord, it is not that I am ashamed to ask thee for the truth that I do not more diligently seek it, but it is because I fear the sacrifice that may follow in obtaining it. I would that I could understand that thy strength is given in the sacrifice. Make me braver as I seek to live in the truth. Amen. JULY TWENTY-THIRD Richard Gibson died 1690. Charlotte Cushman born 1816. Coventry Patmore born 1823. I do not ask, O Lord, that life may be A pleasant road; I do not ask that thou would'st take from me Aught of its load. For one thing only, Lord, dear Lord, I plead: Lead me aright-- Though strength should falter, and though heart should bleed-- Through peace to light. --Adelaide A. Procter. O, why and whither?--God knows all, I only know that he is good, And that whatever may befall Or here or there, must be the best that could. --John G. Whittier. Lead me, O Jehovah, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; Make thy way straight before my face. --Psalm 5. 8. Loving Father, may I never fail to ask for thy guidance, for thou hast promised to lead me to the cool springs while I pass through the desert places. Help me to put myself in thy keeping and say, "Thy will be done." Amen. JULY TWENTY-FOURTH Rev. John Newton born 1725. John P. Curran born 1750. J.G. Holland born 1819. As the winged arrow flies Speedily the mark to find; As the lightning from the skies Darts and leaves no trace behind; Swiftly thus our fleeting days Bear us down life's rapid stream; Upward, Lord, our spirits raise; All below is but a dream. --John Newton. O gentlemen! the time is short; To spend that shortness basely were too long, If life did ride upon a dial's point, Still ending at the arrival of an hour. --William Shakespeare. Jehovah, make me to know mine end, And the measure of my days, what it is; Let me know how frail I am. --Psalm 39. 4. Lord, forbid that I should overcast my life with intentions, and neglect to put in the deeds. May I not be satisfied to spend my days in being merely occupied, but live to learn and work. May I not be dismayed over what I might have been, but with all my might do what I can now. Amen. JULY TWENTY-FIFTH Thomas à Kempis died 1471. Simon Bolivar born 1783. Arthur James Balfour born 1848. Blessed indeed are those ears which listen not after the voice which is sounding without, but after the truth teaching within. --Thomas à Kempis. How joyed my heart in the rich melodies That overhead and round me did arise! The moving leaves--the water's gentle flow-- Delicious music hung on every bough. Then said I in my heart, "If that the Lord Such lively music on the earth accord; If to weak, sinful man such sounds are given, O! what must be the melody of heaven!" --Izaak Walton. But thou, O Jehovah, knowest me; thou seest me, and triest my heart toward thee. --Jeremiah 12. 3. Loving Father, thou hast made it needful for me to know that the songs which are sung by divine love are rarely heard by cruel hearts. Grant that my soul may chord with the sweetest music that vibrates in the beauty and harmony of life. Amen. JULY TWENTY-SIXTH Charles Emmanuel died 1630. John Wilmot died 1680. George Clinton born 1739. Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm. --Robert L. Stevenson. I have learned, as days have passed me, Fretting never lifts the load; And worry, much or little, Never smooths an irksome road; For do you know that somehow, always, Doors are opened, ways are made; When we work and live in patience Under all the cross that's laid. --Unknown. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely, And shall be quiet without fear of evil. --Proverbs 1. 33. Merciful and just God, I pray that I may regulate my life by thy standards and conform my life to thy laws, that thy goodness and mercy may not be wasted on me. Help me to bear in mind, that willingness is the power that starts the hands to work. May I have thy presence while I wait in quietness, that I may be helped through the anxious moments. Amen. JULY TWENTY-SEVENTH Thomas Campbell born 1777. Alexandre Dumas-fils born 1824. Dr. John Dalton died 1844. What's hallowed ground? 'Tis what gives birth To sacred thoughts in souls of worth!-- Peace! Independence! Truth! go forth Earth's compass round; And your high-priesthood shall make earth All hallowed ground. --Thomas Campbell. Remember the week day to keep it holy. --Elbert Hubbard. The meaning of life comes to us mostly in great revealing flashes and intense emotions. --Dean Farrar. To the pure all things are pure. --Titus 1. 15. Gracious Father, may I not feel that it is necessary to wait for certain days and ceremonies to prepare to worship thee, while at every moment thy love is pleading for me. May I through the busiest hours and the most perplexing moments serve thee in reverence and obedience, and ever give praise to thy holy name. Amen. JULY TWENTY-EIGHTH John Sebastian Bach died 1750. Robespierre executed 1794. Jean Baptiste Corot born 1796. O Light that followest all my way, I yield my flickering torch to thee; My heart restores its borrowed ray, That in thy sunshine's blaze its day May brighter, fairer be. --George Matheson. Follow your Star that lights a desert pathway, yours or mine, Forward, till you learn the highest Human Nature is divine. Follow Light and do the Right--for man can half control his doom-- Till you see the deathless Angel seated in the vacant Tomb. --Alfred Tennyson. My soul waiteth for the Lord, More than watchmen wait for the morning; Yea, more than watchmen for the morning. --Psalm 130. 6. Almighty God, help me to kindle my life by the shining light of thy power and love, that I may be an ambassador for thee. Amen. JULY TWENTY-NINTH Andrew Marvell died 1678. William Wilberforce died 1833. Dr. Thomas Dick died 1857. I wrestle not with rage While fury's flame doth burn; It is vain to stop the stream Until the tide doth turn. But when the flame is out And ebbing wrath doth end I turn a late enraged foe Into a quiet friend. --Robert Southwell. If I can lend A strong hand to the fallen, or defend The right against a single envious strain, My life though bare Perhaps of much that seemeth dear and fair To us on earth, will not have been in vain. --Unknown. A friend loveth at all times; And a brother is born for adversity. --Proverbs 17. 17. Gracious Father of us all, if I may have cause to be provoked to-day, help me to rise above my angry passions, and not from weakness plunge into that for which I may be sorry. Make me self-forgetful, that I may be willing to make peace with those whom I may have displeased. Amen. JULY THIRTIETH Samuel Rogers born 1763. Thomas Gray died 1771. W.T. Adams (Oliver Optic) born 1822. Prince Bismarck died 1898. Sit down, sad soul, and count The moments flying; Come, tell the sweet amount That's lost by sighing! How many smiles?--a score? Then laugh, and count no more; For day is dying. Lie down sad soul, and sleep, And no more measure The flight of time, nor weep The loss of leisure; But here by this lone stream, Lie down with us, and dream Of starry treasure. Bryan Waller Procter. The only thing grief has taught me is to know how shallow it is. Grief will not carry you one step into real nature; grief can teach me nothing. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. Leave off, ye simple ones, and live; And walk in the way of understanding. --Proverbs 9. 6. God of love, may I come quickly to thee, when I am in need of protection and sympathy. Guard me against sorrow that is drawn from the imagination. May I not allow grief to drag me into misery, but with strength and courage may I find happiness in thy daily will. Amen. JULY THIRTY-FIRST John Conybeare died 1775. John Ericsson born 1803. Paul B. Du Chaillu born 1835. Phoebe Cary died 1871. Be wise to-day; 'tis madness to defer; Next day the fatal precedent will plead; Thus on, till wisdom is pushed out of life. Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled, And to the mercies of a moment leaves The vast concerns of an eternal scene. --Dr. Edward Young. O, my friend, rise up and follow Where the hand of God shall lead; He has brought thee through affliction, But to fit thee for his need. --Mary Howitt. For he is our God, And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To-day, O that ye would hear his voice! Harden not your heart. --Psalm 95. 7, 8. Lord God, I come to thee for help, that I may make more of my life. Steady me, that I may know its value without wavering, and the loss it sustains from wasted days. I pray that I may live more in thy commandments, and with my work accept the joy of thy love. Amen. AUGUST Flame-like, the long midday, With not so much of sweet air as hath stirred The down upon the spray, Where nests the panting bird, Dozing away the hot and tedious noon, With fitful twitter, sadly out of tune. Pleasantly comest thou, Dew of the evening, to the crisped-up grass; And the curled corn-blades bow, As the light breezes pass, That their parched lips may feel thee, and expand, Thou sweet reviver of the fevered land. So, to the thirsting soul, Cometh the dew of the Almighty's love; And the scathed heart, made whole, Turneth in joy above, To where the spirit freely may expand, And rove, untrammeled, in that "better land." --William D. Gallagher. AUGUST FIRST Andrew Melville born 1545. Richard Henry Dana, Jr., born 1815. Maria Mitchell born 1818. Am I wrong to be always so happy? This world is full of grief; Yet there is laughter of sunshine, to see the crisp green on the leaf, Daylight is ringing with song-birds, and brooklets are crooning at night; And why should I make a shadow when God makes all so bright? Earth may be wicked and weary, yet cannot I help being glad! There is sunshine without and within me, and how should I mope or be sad? God would not flood me with blessings, meaning me only to pine Amid all the bounties and beauties he pours upon me and mine; Therefore I will be grateful, and therefore will I rejoice; My heart is singing within me; sing on, O heart and voice. --Walter C. Smith. Rejoice always. --1 Thessalonians 5. 16. Gracious Father, my soul floods with joy for the blessings of life. May it be my privilege to be happy in them. Help me not to ask thee for anything which will cause loss to another; may I not delight in a lonely view, but as I see thy glory bring others to the vision also. Amen. AUGUST SECOND Thomas Gainsborough died 1788. Elisha Gray born 1835. Marion Crawford born 1854. William Watson born 1859. The Holy Supper is kept, indeed, In whatso we share with another's need; Not what we give, but what we share, For the gift without the giver is bare; Who gives himself with his alms feeds three, Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me. --James Russell Lowell. And when o'er storm and jar I climb, Beyond life's atmosphere, I shall behold the lord of time And space--of world and year. O vain, far quest! not thus my heart Shall ever find its goal! I turn me home--and there thou art, My Father, in my soul. --George Macdonald. That they should seek God, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our being. --Acts 17. 27, 28. O Lord, my gracious Father, may I not be so eager for more, that I feel I have nothing to spare. Help me to realize that if I may be on the mountain-top, or at the level of the sea, thy spirit may dwell in my soul. May I rejoice that I can always receive and share thy grace and love. Amen. AUGUST THIRD John Henley born 1692. Henry Cuyler Bunner born 1855. Eugene Sue died 1857. Set out in the very morning of your lives with a frank and manly determination to look simply for what is right and true in all things.... This is the only way to know God's will and do it. You may not find it at once, but you have set your face in the true direction to find it. --Jeremy Taylor. The important thing in life is to have a great aim, and to possess the aptitude and perseverance to attain it. --Goethe. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, That seek him with the whole heart. --Psalm 119. 2. Lord God, forbid that I should lose the opportunities of making my life by waiting for sudden developments. Cause me to notice that the tree that bears fruit must first grow the blossom before it may be perfected by the sun: whether thou hast made me greater or less, may I be ashamed to live in untruth and wait in idleness. Amen. AUGUST FOURTH Percy Bysshe Shelley born 1792. Edward Irving born 1792. Walter H. Pater born 1839. We look before and after, And pine for what is not; Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught; Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. Yet if we could scorn Hate and pride and fear, If we were things born Not to shed a tear, I know not how thy joy we ever could come near. --Percy Bysshe Shelley. It becomes no man to nurse despair, But in the teeth of clenched antagonisms To follow up the worthiest till he die. --Alfred Tennyson. He suffered no man to do them wrong; Yea, he reproved kings for their sakes. --1 Chronicles 16. 21. My Father, I bless thee for thy patience and forbearance. I pray that thou wilt forgive me for all the sorrow that I have made from rebellion and despair, and with thy forgiveness may I receive patience and cheerful courage. Amen. AUGUST FIFTH John Eliot born 1604. John, Lord Wrottesley, born 1798. Richard Lord Howe died 1799. To live within a cave--it is most good; But if God made a day, And some one come, and say, "Lo! I have gathered faggots in the wood!" E'en let him stay, And light a fire, and fan a temporal mood! So sit till morning! when the light is grown That he the path can read, Then bid the man Godspeed! His morning is not thine: yet must thou own Those ashes on the stone. They have a cheerful warmth. --Thomas Edward Brown. It is given to us sometimes, even in our everyday life, to witness the saving influence of a noble nature, the divine efficacy of rescue that may lie in a self-subduing act of fellowship. --George Eliot. And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me. --Matthew 25. 40. Father of mankind, may I not be a barrier to the discouraged, but help them in the ways of encouragement. May I not allow pride and prejudice to keep me from acts of love and deeds of kindness, but may I be worthy of thy trust. Amen. AUGUST SIXTH Ben Jonson died 1637. François Fénelon born 1651. Daniel O'Connell born 1775. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, born 1809. O well for him whose will is strong! He suffers, but he will not suffer long; He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong; For him nor moves the loud world's random mock, Not all Calamity's hugest waves confound, Who seems a promontory rock, That compassed round with turbulent sound, In middle ocean meets the surging shock, Tempest-buffeted, citadel-crowned. --Alfred Tennyson. Grandeur of character lies in force of soul--that is, in the force of thought, moral principle, and love; and this may be found in the humblest condition of life. --William Ellery Channing. So then, brethren, stand fast. --2 Thessalonians 2. 15. Eternal God, help me that I may not be deceived by my surroundings as I seek to have life abundantly. Instruct me that it is by the way of character that I must attain the laws of growth, and learn reverence for the spirit of divine life. Amen. AUGUST SEVENTH Battle of Thermopylae B.C. 480. Frederick William (Dean) Farrar born 1831. Alexander M. Bell died 1905. Although a friend may remain faithful in misfortune, yet none but the very best and loftiest will remain faithful to us after our errors and our sins. --Dean Farrar. Friendship is like a debt of honor: the moment it is talked of it loses its real name, and assumes the more ungrateful form of obligation. From hence we find that those who regularly undertake to cultivate friendship find ingratitude generally repays their endeavors. --Oliver Goldsmith. For even in their wickedness shall my prayer continue. --Psalm 141. 5. Lord God, may I ever continue to be thankful for the times thou hast helped me, when I have asked for thy compassion; may I recall the joy in which I received it, when it may be mine to have compassion and extend a helping hand to others. I pray that I may place my life where it will be stronger than adversity and controlled by sincerity and love. Amen. AUGUST EIGHTH Charles A. Dana born 1819. Laurence Hutton born 1843. Cecile Chaminade born 1861. Lo! all the glory gone! God's masterpiece undone! The last created and the first to fall; The noblest, frailest, godliest of all. Child of the humble sod, Wed with the breath of God, Descend! for with the lowest thou must lie-- Arise! thou hast inherited the sky. --John B. Tabb. Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations; I cannot reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead. --Louisa M. Alcott. I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains: From whence shall my help come? --Psalm 121. 1. Heavenly Father, may I see as I raise my eyes to the mountains that without the deep shadows there would be no vision of the high-light, and still higher may I see that without the sun there would be no color to encircle the rainbow. And beyond, O Father, may I believe that without the shadow of the cross we could not have the glory of the resurrection. May I keep the vision clear. Amen. AUGUST NINTH Izaak Walton born 1593. John Dryden born 1631. Francis Scott Key born 1780. Joseph Jacques Tissot died 1902. All habits gather, by unseen degrees, Brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas. --John Dryden. Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected now shines on the stream; 'Tis the star-spangled banner; O yet may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! --Francis Scott Key. Do not be troubled because you have not great virtues. God made a million spears of grass where he made one tree.... Only have enough of little virtues and common fidelities, and you need not mourn because you are neither a hero nor a saint. --Henry Ward Beecher. The reward of humility and the fear of Jehovah Is riches, and honor, and life. --Proverbs 22. 4. Lord God, who keepest truth to generations, and who through love and wisdom hath gathered us into nations, forgive me for what I have done that is wrong, and for what I have neglected that was right. May I give greater loyalty to my country and to thee. Amen. AUGUST TENTH Founding of Greenwich Observatory 1675. Sir Charles Napier born 1782. George Park Fisher born 1827. No one can ask honestly or hopefully to be delivered from temptation unless he has himself honestly and firmly determined to do the best he can to keep out of it. --John Ruskin. Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. --William Shakespeare. The greatest punishment one can have is to discover, not how hard, but how low he has fallen. --M.B.S. O Timothy, guard that which is committed unto thee, turning away from the profane babblings and oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so-called. --1 Timothy 6. 20. Almighty God, through thy mercies may I recognize my faults, and correct any evil that is in me. Make me strong, that I may not yield to temptation. May I have regard for thy will and be prepared to take thy messages as they are flashed to the soul. Amen. AUGUST ELEVENTH Jean Victor Moreau born 1761. Octave Feuillet born 1821. Signer Crispi died 1901. Heaven overreaches you and me, And all earth's gardens and her graves. Look up with me, until we see The day break and the shadows flee. What though to-night wrecks you and me If so to-morrow saves? --Christina G. Rossetti. The essence of joy lies in the doing rather than in the result of the doing. There is a lifelong and solid satisfaction in any productive labor, manual or mental, which is not pushed beyond the limit of strength. --Charles W. Eliot. Show me thy ways, O Jehovah; Teach me thy paths. Guide me in thy truths, and teach me. --Psalm 25. 4, 5. My Father, keep me where my eyes may look expectantly toward the dawn, through the darkness. Take away everything that comes between me and the brightness of the morning. Amen. AUGUST TWELFTH Robert Southey born 1774. Francis Horner born 1778. Edith Thomas born 1854. Katherine Lee Bates born 1859. Our restlessness in this world seems to indicate that we are intended for a better. We have all of us a longing after happiness; and surely the Creator will gratify all the natural desires he has implanted in us. --Robert Southey. Whenso my quick, light-sandaled feet Bring me where Joys and Pleasures meet, I mingle with their throng at will; They know me not an alien still, Since neither words nor ways unsweet Of stored bitterness I spill; Youth shuns me not nor gladness fears, For I go softly all my years. --Edith Thomas. He hath swallowed up death forever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces. --Isaiah 25. 8. Loving Father, help me to guard my inclinations. May I be able to appreciate that though I may be restless from ambition, I also may be restless through discontent. Correct my life, that my desires may meet the true demands of my soul. Strengthen me with the power of calmness, that "I may go softly all my years," even though I walk through the bitterness of sorrow. Amen. AUGUST THIRTEENTH Jeremy Taylor died 1667. Dr. William Wotton born 1669. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward born 1844. Elizabeth Prentiss died 1878. Sir John Millais died 1896. Feeling the way--and all the way up hill; But on the open summit, calm and still, The feet of Christ are planted; and they stand In view of all the quiet land. Feeling the way--and if the way is cold, What matter? since upon the fields of gold His breath is melting; and the warm winds sing While rocking summer days for him. --Elizabeth S. Phelps. All the performances of human art, at which we look with praise and wonder, are instances of the resistless force of perseverance. --Samuel Johnson. But abide thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. ---2 Timothy 3. 14. My Lord, I would remember to ask thee this morning for that of which I seem to have most need. May I have the will to keep my patience and realize the untold power of my words and actions. Give me thy peace, not only to rest in, but that I may have it to give to others. Amen. AUGUST FOURTEENTH Dr. Meric Casaubon born 1599. Dr. Charles Button born 1737. Walter Besant born 1836. Ernest Thompson Seton born 1860. Florence Nightingale died 1910. I count this thing to be grandly true, That a noble deed is a step toward God; Lifting the soul from the common clod To a purer air and a broader view. We rise by the things that are under our feet, By what we have mastered of good or gain, By the pride deposed and the passion slain, And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet. --Richard Watson Gilder. No Apostle of Liberty much to my heart ever found I; License each for himself, this was at bottom their want. Liberator of many! first dare to be Servant of many; What a business is that, would'st thou know it, go try! --Goethe. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. --1 Thessalonians 5. 21. Gracious Father, if I may be beginning this day with an unclean purpose in my heart, help me to clear it away; if I may be trying to avoid some urgent duty, make me ashamed to resist it. Keep away the desires that harm my life, and that withhold the enjoyment of my common work. Amen. AUGUST FIFTEENTH Jeremy Taylor baptized 1613. Napoleon Bonaparte born 1769. Sir Walter Scott born 1771. Thomas de Quincey born 1785. And do our loves all perish with our frames? Do those that took their root and put forth buds, And their soft leaves unfolded in the warmth Of mutual hearts, grow up and live in beauty, Then fade and fall, like fair, unconscious flowers? O, listen, man! A voice within us speaks the startling word, "Man, thou shalt never die!" --Richard Henry Dana. I am drawing near to the close of my career; I am fast shuffling off the stage. I have been perhaps the most voluminous author of the day; and it is a comfort to me to think I have tried to unsettle no man's faith, to corrupt no man's principle, and that I have written nothing which on my deathbed I should wish blotted. --Sir Walter Scott. But concerning love of the brethren ye have no need that one write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. --1 Thessalonians 4. 9. Almighty God, may I have that faith in eternal life which will make me careful of what I choose for my own and more careful of what I put in the lives of others. Amen. AUGUST SIXTEENTH Ralph Thoresby born 1658. Dr. Thomas Fuller died 1661. Dr. Matthew Tindal died 1733. The secret of goodness and greatness is in choosing whom you will approach and live with, in memory or imagination, through the crowding obvious people who seem to live with you. --Robert Browning. Fair Nature's book together read, The old wood-paths that knew our tread, The maple shadows overhead-- Where'er I look, where'er I stray, Thy thought goes with me on my way, And hence the prayer I breathe to-day. --John Greenleaf Whittier. Shall two walk together, except they have agreed? --Amos 3. 3. Lord God, I thank thee for the delight of congenial companions and the memory of friendship. May I not be quick to lose my friends through misunderstanding and selfishness. May I be considerate and constant and be able to climb to the highest steeps of friendship. Amen. AUGUST SEVENTEENTH Dr. William Carey born 1761. David Crockett born 1786. Mary Abigail Dodge (Gail Hamilton) died 1896. The destiny of nations lies far more in the hands of women--the mothers--than in the hands of those who possess power. We must cultivate women, who are educators of the human race, else a new generation cannot accomplish its task. --Froebel. In an old continental town they will show you a prison in a tower, and on all the stones of that prison within reach one word is carved--it is, "Resist!" Years ago a godly woman was for forty years immured in that dungeon, and she spent her time in cutting with a piece of iron on every stone that one word, for the strengthening of her own heart and for the benefit of all who might come after her, "Resist!" "Resist!" "Resist!" --J.G. Mantle. Then Mordecai bade them return answer unto Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews ... and who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this? --Esther 4. 13, 14. Lord God, give me wisdom to help relieve the ignorant and suffering. May I strive in every way to free thy people, that they may be uplifted in the progress of life. Amen. AUGUST EIGHTEENTH Virginia Dare, first English child born in America, 1587. Dr. Henry Hammond born 1605. Robert Williams Buchanan born 1841. John Russell born 1792. Pour out thy love like the rush of a river, Wasting its waters for ever and ever, Through the burnt sands that reward not the giver; Silent or songful thou nearest the sea. Scatter thy life as the summer showers pouring. What if no bird through the pearl rain is soaring? What if no blossom looks upward adoring? Look to the life that was lavished for thee. --Unknown. Who is the happiest person? He whose nature asks for nothing that the world does not wish and use. --Goethe. Freely ye received, freely give. --Matthew 10. 8. My Father, I pray that I may have the sympathy that responds with consideration and devotion. May it be a joy for me to give comfort and render service where I may help. Grant that I may not linger too long in happiness and miss thy blessings, but remember that to "travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Amen. AUGUST NINETEENTH Augustus Cæsar died A.D. 14. James Watt died 1819. Robert Bloomfield died 1823. Honore Balzac died 1850. It is written not, "Blessed is he that feedeth the poor," but "Blessed is he that considereth the poor." And you know a little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money. --John Ruskin. So pity never leaves the gentle breast Where love has been received a welcome guest; As wandering saints poor huts have sacred made, He hallows every heart he once has swayed, And, when his presence we no longer share, Still leaves compassion as a relic there. --Thomas Sheridan. If a brother or sister be naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; and yet ye give them not the things needful to the body; what doth it profit? --James 2. 16. Tender Father, help me to consider those who receive the crust of bread at my door; for if it be needed it is asked for by sad and desperate lives. Make me conscious of thy mercy and help, that I may be considerate for the one with the outstretched hand. Amen. AUGUST TWENTIETH Saint Bernard died 1153. Robert Herrick born 1591. John and Cornelius De Witt killed 1672. Francis Asbury born 1745. Henry P. Liddon born 1829. Benjamin Harrison, Ohio, twenty-third President United States, born 1833. The busy world shoves angrily aside The man who stands with arms akimbo set Until occasion tells him what to do; And he who waits to have his task marked out Shall die and leave his errand unfulfilled. --James Russell Lowell. Awake, arise! the hour is late! Angels are knocking at thy door! They are in haste and cannot wait, And once departed come no more. --Henry W. Longfellow. Boast not thyself of to-morrow; For thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. --Proverbs 27. 1. Gracious Father, grant that I may not tarry so long, that when I arrive I will hear, "Too late, too late, ye cannot enter now"; but may I be so persistent with every day that when I arrive I may be ready as well as on time. Amen. AUGUST TWENTY-FIRST Lady Mary Montagu died 1762. Jules Michelet born 1798. John Tyndall born 1820. Let us never be afraid of innocent joy; God is good and what he does is well done; resign yourself to everything, even happiness; ask for the spirit of sacrifice, of detachment, of renunciation, and above all, for the spirit of joy and gratitude. --Amiel. That's the wise thrush; He sings each song twice over, Lest you should think he never could recapture The first fine careless rapture! --Robert Browning. And these things we write, that our joy may be made full. --1 John 1. 4. Lord God, help me to keep the things under my feet that are inclined to destroy happiness. Show me clearly the line which divides right and wrong, that I may not fear the censure of the world. Help me to act with good judgment and be calm in obeying thy laws. Amen. AUGUST TWENTY-SECOND John B. Gough born 1817. Warren Hastings died 1818. G. W. De Long born 1844. I never saw a moor, I never saw the sea; Yet know I how a heather looks And what a wave must be. I never spoke with God, Nor visited in heaven; Yet certain am I of the spot As if the chart were given. --Emily Dickinson. I don't want to possess a faith; I want a faith which will possess me. --Charles Kingsley. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts. --Zechariah 4. 6. My Father, may there be no room in my soul for doubt. Help me to be cautious and careful that my own neglect and carelessness may not cause the loss of my faith. May I be trustful as I look for the great light that guides me over the uncertain way. Amen. AUGUST TWENTY-THIRD Rowland Hill born 1744. Louis XVI born 1754. William E. Henley born 1849. Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. --W. E. Henley. A man who has borne himself honorably through a whole life makes an action honorable which might appear ambiguous in others. --Goethe. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable. --1 Corinthians 15. 58. Father of mercy, I beseech thee to protect me in my endeavors as I try to live my ideals. May I not choose unnecessary burdens, and when I most need to be strong find that I have lived in that which has weakened my life. I ask for a clear mind and a strong heart that I may be "Captain of my soul." Amen. AUGUST TWENTY-FOURTH William Wilberforce born 1759. William Thomas Moncrieff born 1794. Theodore Parker born 1810. Give me, Lord, eyes to behold the truth; A seeing sense that knows the eternal right; A heart with pity filled, and gentlest ruth; A manly faith that makes all darkness light: Give me the power to labor for mankind; Make me the mouth of such as cannot speak; Eyes let me be to groping men and blind. --Theodore Parker. Love's hearts are faithful, but not fond, Bound for the just, but not beyond; Not glad, as the low-loving herd, Of self in other still preferred, But they have heartily designed The benefit of broad mankind. And they serve men austerely, After their own genius, clearly, Without a false humility. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. Herein I also exercise myself to have a conscience void of offense toward God and men always. --Acts 24. 16. Heavenly Father, help me to-day to look into my heart and see the truth of my life, and show me thy heart that I may see the truth of life. Amen. AUGUST TWENTY-FIFTH Thomas Chatterton died 1770. Sir William Herschel died 1822. Francis Bret Harte died 1902. O teach me in the trying hour, When anguish swells the dewy tear, To still my sorrows, own thy power, Thy goodness love, thy justice fear. Then why, my soul, dost thou complain? Why drooping seek the dark recess? Shake off the melancholy chain, For God created all to bless. --Thomas Chatterton. Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows which show like grief itself, but are not so: For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears, Divides one thing entire to many shadows. --William Shakespeare. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God. --Psalm 42. 5. Loving Father, forbid that I should be lonesome, and forget thou art my friend: and may I not pass over thy mercies while waiting for thy compassion. Help me to find contentment in the inheritances of the earth, where I may always draw from thee. Amen. AUGUST TWENTY-SIXTH Sir Robert Walpole born 1676. Adam Clarke died 1832. Henry Fawcett born 1833. Lord, for to-morrow and its needs I do not pray; Keep me, my God, from stain of sin Just for to-day. Help me to labor earnestly, And duly pray; Let me be kind in word and deed, Father, to-day. Let me no wrong or idle word Unthinking say; Set thou a seal upon my lips Through all to-day. Let me in season, Lord, be grave, In season gay; Let me be faithful to thy grace, Dear Lord, to-day. --Ernest Wilberforce. And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure of his life? --Matthew 6. 27. My Lord, I pray that thou wilt control my life, and bless the going out of my work, be it ever so great or small. Help me to realize the necessity of earnestness, that I may "work while it is to-day," and I have the light, and not wait for the night, when it is too dark for work to be done. May I be faithful in my work until it is completed. Amen. AUGUST TWENTY-SEVENTH William Woollett born 1735. James Thomson died 1748. George W. F. Hegel born 1770. Who are thy playmates, boy? "My favorite is joy, Who brings with him his sister Peace, to stay The livelong day. I love them both; but he Is most to me!" And where are thy playmates now, O man of sober brow? "Alas! dear joy, the merriest is dead, But I have wed Peace; and our babe, a boy Newborn, is joy." --John B. Tabb. Depart from evil, and do good; Seek peace, and pursue it. --Psalm 34. 14. Lord God, may I realize more my dependence on thee for the joys of life. I pray that as I accept thy gifts I will not neglect to take the peace and happiness which thou dost give with them. Grant that I may have the bright hope and cheerful courage that is the experience of power and truth. Amen. AUGUST TWENTY-EIGHTH Johann W. von Goethe born 1749. Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel born 1809. Jones Very born 1813. Count Lyoff (Leo) Tolstoy born 1828. Sir Edward Burne-Jones born 1833. Leigh Hunt died 1859. All truly wise thoughts have been already thought a thousand times; but to make them truly ours we must think them over again honestly, till they take firm root in our personal experience. --Goethe. The light that fills thy house at morn Thou canst not for thyself retain; But all who with thee here are born It bids to share an equal gain. The wave, the blue encircling wave, No chain can bind, no fetter hold; Its thunders tell of Him who gave What none can ever buy for gold. --Jones Very. And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them --John 17. 22. Father of love, I thank thee for thy daily love and for thy daily bread. May I feel that thy gifts are for all, and not mine to keep and store from those who are in need. Help me as I say, "Thy will be done to me," to so will it to others. Amen. AUGUST TWENTY-NINTH John Locke born 1632. John Fawcett born 1768. Frederick D. Maurice born 1805. Oliver Wendell Holmes born 1809. Maurice Maeterlinck born 1862. Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea! --Oliver Wendell Holmes. We all live in the sublime. Where else can we live? That is the only place of life. Though you have but a little room, do you fancy that God is not there, too, and it is impossible to live therein a life that shall be somewhat lofty? Do you imagine that you can possibly be alone, that love can be a thing one knows, a thing one sees; that events can be weighed like the gold and silver of ransom? --Maurice Maeterlinck. My soul waiteth in silence for God only: From him cometh my salvation. --Psalm 62. 1. Loving Father, help me to live, that my spirit may always dwell in thy protecting love. Amen. AUGUST THIRTIETH Cleopatra died B. C. 30. William Paley born 1743. Julian A. Weir born 1852. Thyself and thy belongings Are not thine own so proper as to waste Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee. Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched But to fine issues, nor Nature never lends The smallest scruple of her excellence, But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines Herself the glory of a creditor, Both thanks and use. --William Shakespeare. Brethren, be ye imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk even as ye have us for an ensample. --Philippians 3. 17. My Father, I pray that I may not let my life become commonplace through habit. May I not be content to rest in my virtues and let the days pass neglected. Awaken my dull satisfactions to a desire to live for the greatest, that I may have the greatest to live for. Amen. AUGUST THIRTY-FIRST John Bunyan died 1686. Charles James Lever born 1806. Theophile Gautier born 1811. Queen Wilhelmina of Holland born 1880. Let us be patient, and endure a while; the time may come that God may give us a happy release; but let us not be our own murderers. --John Bunyan. He that is down need fear no fall; He that is low no pride; He that is humble ever shall Have God to be his guide. --John Bunyan. Time delivers fools from grief and reason wise men. --Epictetus. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory. --2 Corinthians 4. 17. My Lord, if I may be walking through fields that are rough with grief and care, may I have the courage to continue on to the smooth pastures, where I may walk with comfort and peace. May I not let the weariness and sorrow that may come to my heart to-day dwarf my hope and enjoyment of the future. Amen. SEPTEMBER Go forth at eventide, The eventide of summer, when the trees Yield their frail honors to the passing breeze, And woodland paths with autumn tints are dyed; When the mild sun his paling luster shrouds In gorgeous draperies of golden clouds, Then wander forth, mid beauty and decay, To meditate alone--alone to watch and pray. --Emma C. Embury. SEPTEMBER FIRST Edward Alleyn born 1566. Lydia Sigourney born 1791. James Gordon Bennett, Sr., born 1795. William Stanley Jevons born 1835. O ye, who proudly boast, In your veins, the blood of sires like these, Look to their lineaments. Dread lest ye lose Their likeness in your sons. Should mammon cling Too close around your heart, or wealth beget That bloated luxury which eats the core From manly virtue, or the tempting world Make faint the Christian purpose in your soul, Turn ye to Plymouth Rock, and where they knelt Kneel, and renew the vow they breathed to God. --Lydia Sigourney. Educate children without religion, and you make a race of clever devils. --Duke of Wellington. Remember his covenant for ever, The word which he commanded to a thousand generations. --1 Chronicles 16. 15. O Lord of wisdom, kindle me with a love for true knowledge, that I may strive, in the moments I have now, to culture my life. Not by might, not by power, but by thy spirit, O Lord, may I learn and teach thy children. Amen. SEPTEMBER SECOND John Howard born 1726. Henry George born 1839. George R. Sims born 1842. Eugene Field born 1850. Newell Dwight Hillis born 1858. And thus we sat in darkness, Each one busy in his prayer; "We are lost!" the captain shouted, As he staggered down the stair. But the little daughter whispered, As she took his icy hand, "Isn't God upon the ocean, Just the same as on the land?" --Eugene Field. Happiness is through helpfulness. Every morning let us build a booth to shelter some one from life's fierce heat. Every noon let us dig some life-spring for thirsty lips. --Newell Dwight Hillis. Jehovah is nigh unto all them that call upon him, To all that call upon, him in truth. --Psalm 145. 18. Heavenly Father, may I live that my spirit may never feel lost from thee; and when I am in great need of thee, even unto death, may I know that thou art very near. Amen. SEPTEMBER THIRD Oliver Cromwell died 1658. George Lillo died 1739. Bishop James Harrington born 1847. Sarah Orne Jewett born 1849. Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee: Corruption wins not more than honesty. Still in thy right hand carry peace, To silence envious tongues. Be just and fear not: Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, Thy God's and truth's; then if thou fallest, O Cromwell, Thou fallest a blessed martyr. --William Shakespeare. Surely, the only true knowledge of our fellow man is that which enables us to feel with him, which gives us a fine ear for the heart-pulses that are beating under the mere clothes of circumstance and opinion. --George Eliot. With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. --Ephesians 4. 2. Lord, give thy people consistency of judgment, one heart, and mutual love; and go on to deliver them, and with the work of the reformation; and make the name of Christ glorious in the world. Teach those who look too much on thy instruments to depend more upon thyself. Pardon the folly of this short prayer: Even for Christ's sake. And give us a good night, if it be thy pleasure. Amen. --Prayer by Oliver Cromwell, just before death. SEPTEMBER FOURTH Pindar, poet, born B. C. 522. William E. Dodge born 1805. Phoebe Cary born 1824. Sir Wilfred Lawson born 1829. I ask not wealth, but power to take And use the things I have, aright; Not years, but wisdom that shall make My life a profit and delight. --Phcebe Gary. Another day may bring another mind, A mind to learn when there is none to teach; To follow when no leader we can find; To enjoy when good is now beyond our reach. A better mind, but not a better time, A mind to will, but not a time to do What had been done, if we in life's bright prime, When God was ready, had been ready too. --Thomas T. Lynch. Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. --2 Timothy 2. 15. My Father, help me to have lofty thoughts, and may I not be content until they are carried into purpose. Help me to conquer that which will keep me from an act of happiness, and grant that by thinking of that which is pure, and doing that which is good, I may be made helpful and true. Amen. SEPTEMBER FIFTH Catherine Parr died 1548. Cardinal Richelieu born 1585. Robert Fergusson born 1750. Giacomo Meyerbeer born 1791. Richard C. Trench born 1807. Be patient! O, be patient! Put your ear against the earth; Listen there how noiselessly the germ o' the seed has birth-- How noiselessly and gently it upheaves its little way, Till it parts the scarcely broken ground, and the blade stands up in day. Be patient! O, be patient!--though yet our hopes are green, The harvest fields of freedom shall be crowned with sunny sheen. Be ripening! be ripening--mature your silent way, Till the whole broad land is tongued with fire on freedom's harvest day. --Richard C. Trench. And let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing. --James 1. 4. Gracious Father, help me to see the truth as thou hast made it, and may I not be indifferent to the beauty and patience of the earth's revelations. May I not mistake indolence for patient ambition, which I would have for anxious hours, and which I need for my heart's desires. Amen. SEPTEMBER SIXTH Moses Mendelssohn born 1729. Marquis de Lafayette born 1757. Jane Addams born 1860. God will not seek thy race, Nor will he ask thy birth; Alone he will demand of thee, What hast thou done on earth? --Persian. One dreams of the time when the interest and capacity of each person shall be studied with reference to the industry about to be undertaken. --Jane Addams. Honor is purchased by deeds we do, honor is not won, until some honorable deed is done. --Sir Christopher Marlowe. In diligence not slothful; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord. --Romans 12. 11. Gracious Father, wilt thou bring to my mind and heart the important things which are needed in preparing life. Help me to use the strength that is given to me for to-day, that I may not have to give to-morrow to learning what I should have known. Amen. SEPTEMBER SEVENTH Queen Elizabeth born 1533. Comte de Buffon born 1707. Victorien Sardou born 1831. Hannah More died 1833. John G. Whittier died 1892. Side by side In the low sunshine by the turban stone They knelt; each made his brother's woe his own, Forgetting, in the agony and stress Of pitying love, his claim of selfishness; Peace, for his friend besought, his own became; His prayers were answered in another's name; And when at last they rose up to embrace, Each saw God's pardon in his brother's face. --John G. Whittier. My care is like my shadow in the sun, Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it; Stands and lies by me, does what I have done, This too familiar care does make me rue it. No means I find to rid him from my breast, Till by the end of things it be suppressed. --Queen Elizabeth. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. --Galatians 6. 2. Lord God, help me to look for those who are in need of help. Forgive me for my failures, and may I gather up my broken promises and try to redeem them. I ask for thy forgiveness, as I ask that thou wilt help me to forgive them who may have trespassed against me. Amen. SEPTEMBER EIGHTH Richard Coeur de Lion born 1157. A.W. Schlegel born 1767. Antonin Dvorak born 1841. All service ranks the same with God,-- With God, whose puppets, best and worst, Are we: there is no last nor first. --Robert Browning. Thou needest not man's little life of years, Save that he gather wisdom from them all; That in thy fear he lose all other fears, And in thy calling heed no other call. Then shall he be thy child to know thy care, And in thy Self the eternal Sabbath share. --Jones Very. He that keepeth the commandment keepeth his soul; But he that is careless of his ways shall die. --Proverbs 191. 6. My Lord, forbid that I should want to live to be known only for power and pride. Help me to strive for that which is helpful and lovely. May I never be restrained from thee, but delight to follow in thy way. Help me to be obedient to thy laws, that I may learn thy truths. Amen. SEPTEMBER NINTH Battle of Flodden. James the Fourth of Scotland killed 1513. Luigi Galvani born 1737. Then welcome each rebuff That turns earth's smoothness rough, Each sting that bids nor sit, nor stand but go! Be our joys three-parts pain! Strive and hold cheap the strain; Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe. --Robert Browning. Life without industry is guilt; and industry without art is brutality. --John Ruskin. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life. --James 1. 12. Almighty God, help me as I start this day to remember how easy it is to drive the peace from it. May I do my best to keep it, and defy any indolence or disposition, that may make me spoil it. May I lay me down at night in peace and sleep because of the contentment that has filled the hours. Amen. SEPTEMBER TENTH William the Conqueror died 1087. Dr. Thomas Sheridan died 1788. Mungo Park born 1771. Mrs. Godwin (Mary Wollstonecraft) died 1797. Let the wind blow east, west, north, or south, the immortal soul will take its flight to the destined point. --Thomas Sheridan. He is void of true taste who strives to have his house admired by decorating it with showish outside; but to adorn our character by gentleness of a communicative temper is a proof of good taste and good nature --Epictetus. Let fortune empty her whole quiver on me. I have a soul that, like an empty shield, Can take it all, and verge enough for more. --Thomas Dryden. The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will save me unto his heavenly kingdom. --2 Timothy 4. 18. Almighty God, I bless thee that it is thou who brought me to live on earth; and I rejoice that it is thou who wilt judge my life when thou takest me away. May I be saving thy rich gifts that I may not be found poor; and may I be worthy to receive thine inheritance and hear thee say, "Well done." Amen. SEPTEMBER ELEVENTH Battle of Marathon B. C. 490. William Lowth born 1661. James Thomson born 1700. But what is virtue but repose of mind, A pure ethereal calm, that knows no storm; Above the reach of wild ambitious wind, Above the passions that this world deform. --James Thomson. And if I pray, the only prayer That moves my lips for me Is, "Leave the heart that now I bear, And give me liberty!" Yes, as my swift days near their goal, 'Tis all that I implore; In life and death, a chainless soul With courage to endure. --Emily Brontë. Cast not away therefore your boldness, which hath great recompense of reward. --Hebrews 10. 35. Tender Father, may I pause this morning to look at that which I keep uppermost in my life; and if it may not be worthy of thy esteem, may I be bold enough to revise my ideals. With thy compassion may I free my heart and mind of all unworthiness, and be given endurance to restore the empty places. Amen. SEPTEMBER TWELFTH Jean-Philippe Rameau born 1693. Griffith Jones died 1786. Charles Dudley Warner born 1829. Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires, but according to our powers. --Amiel. How good is man's life, the mere living! how fit to employ All the heart and the soul and the senses for ever in joy! --Robert Browning. Do something! No man is born with a mortgage on his soul; but every man is born a debtor to Time. Meet this obligation before you find too late that your life is impoverished and you cannot redeem it. --M.B.S. Let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need. --Ephesians 4. 28. My Father, what I have left out of my life I know I cannot recover now. I pray that I may give the best to what is left. Make me deliberate, that I may prove my earnestness. Make me industrious, that I may use my best resources to develop my life and further thy kingdom. Amen. SEPTEMBER THIRTEENTH William Cecil born 1520. Michael de Montaigne died 1592. General Wolfe died 1759. Charles James Fox died 1806. And thou, O river of to-morrow, flowing Between thy narrow adamantine walls, But beautiful, and white with waterfalls And wreaths of mist, like hands the pathway showing; I hear the trumpets of the morning blowing. It is the mystery of the unknown That fascinates us; we are children still, Wayward and wistful; with one hand we cling To the familiar things we call our own, And with the other, resolute of will, Grope in the dark for what the day will bring. --Henry W. Longfellow. Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth. --Job 5. 17. Almighty God, I pray that thou wilt help me to correct my life to-day that I may know a better way to-morrow; and may I be mindful and try to do right. Grant that I may be patient and kind if I may be sick or in need, and always keep uppermost the faith of deliverance and eternal care. Amen. SEPTEMBER FOURTEENTH Alighieri Dante died 1321. Alexander Baron von Humboldt born 1769. Julia Magruder born 1854. Charles Dana Gibson born 1867. Since it is Providence that determines the fates of men, their inner nature is thus brought into unison. There is such harmony, as in all things of nature, that one might explain the whole without referring to a higher Providence. But this only proves the more clearly and certainly this higher Providence, which has given existence to this harmony. --Wilhelm von Humboldt. The good mariner, when he draws near the port, furls his sails and enters it softly; so ought we to lower the sails of our worldly operations, and turn to God with all heart and understanding. --Dante. Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God; Thy judgments are a great deep: O Jehovah, thou preservest man and beast. --Psalm 36. 6. My Father in heaven, may I hear thy voice to-day! May I be quiet as I listen to thee. Above the clamor of the crowd may I hear thee calling me. May I hear thee in my joys and in my sorrows; in my work and in my leisure. May I listen to thee oftener, that I may be familiar with thy ways. Amen. SEPTEMBER FIFTEENTH James Fenimore Cooper born 1789. Louis Joseph Martel born 1813. Porfirio Diaz born 1830. William Howard Taft, Ohio, twenty-sixth President United States, born 1857. Friendship is one of the cheapest and most accessible of pleasures; it requires no outlay and no very serious expenditure of time or trouble. It is quite easy to make friends, if one wants to... There is surely no greater pleasure in the world than to feel one is needed, welcomed, missed, and loved. --Arthur C. Benson. "Friendship is love without his wings." --William H. Taft (from Byron). Without sympathy, in the highest sense of intellectual penetration, kindness may be a folly, and intended aid, oppression. --John Ruskin. He that maketh many friends doeth it to his own destruction; but there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. --Proverbs 18. 24. My Father, may I know the delight of true friendship which is responsive and sincere. May I never feel so secure in myself that I will cease to want friends, or be so dependent on others that I will be continually seeking them. May I understand the value of having a stanch friend and of being one. Amen. SEPTEMBER SIXTEENTH Gabriel D. Fahrenheit died 1736. W. Augustus Muhlenberg born 1796. Francis Parkman born 1823. Yes, to this thought I hold with firm persistence-- The last result of wisdom stamps it true: He only earns his freedom and existence Who daily conquers them anew. --Goethe. For thee hath been dawning Another blue day; Look how thou let it Slip empty away. --Goethe. Happy the man, and happy he alone, Who can call to-day his own: He who, secure within, can say, "To-morrow, do thy worst, for I have lived to-day." --John Dryden. Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee. --Isaiah 60. 1. Gracious Father, help me to be alert this morning and select the noblest that is in to-day. May I be diligent and not find in the evening that I have been unworthy of the day. Amen. SEPTEMBER SEVENTEENTH Samuel Prout born 1783. Dr. John Kidd died 1851. Walter Savage Landor died 1864. In the hour of distress and misery the eye of every mortal turns to friendship; in the hour of gladness and conviviality, what is your want? It is friendship. When the heart overflows with gratitude or with other sweet and sacred sentiment, what is the word to which it would give utterance? A friend. --Walter Savage Landor. The hurried quest of some people to get hold of new friends is so perpetual that they never have time to get acquainted with anyone. --M.B.S. Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not; And go not to thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity: Better is a neighbor that is near than a brother far off. --Proverbs 27. 10. My Lord and my Friend, I pray that my sympathy may be sincere and comforting, and with a glad heart I may bring rejoicing to my friends. May I learn from thee how I may be a permanent friend. Amen. SEPTEMBER EIGHTEENTH Trajan, Roman emperor, born 1584. James Shirley born 1596. Samuel Johnson born 1709. Joseph Story born 1779. There is no greater happiness than to be able to look on a life usefully and virtuously employed: to trace our own purposes in existence by such tokens that excite neither shame nor sorrow. --Dr. Johnson. The perfect poise that comes-from self-control, The poetry of action, rhythmic, sweet-- The unvexed music of the body and soul That the Greeks dreamed of, made at last complete. Our stumbling lives attain not such a bliss; Too often, while the air we vainly beat, Love's perfect law of liberty we miss. --Annie Matheson. Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day. --Acts 23. 1. Heavenly Father, may I not confuse my life with rebellion, but through thy guidance find peace. Help me through the perplexities that may keep me from the quietness of to-day. Keep me in sight of the great plan of life, that I may grow steadfastly toward thee. Amen. SEPTEMBER NINETEENTH Battle of Poitiers 1356. Hartley Coleridge born 1796. President Garfield died 1881. Be not afraid to pray--to pray is right. Pray if thou canst, with hope; but ever pray Though hope be weak, or sick with long delay; Pray in the darkness, if there be no light. Far is the time, remote from human sight, When war and discord on earth shall cease: Yet every prayer for universal peace Avails the time to expedite. --Hartley Coleridge. More things are wrought by prayer Than the world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day. For what are men better than sheep or goats That nourish a blind life within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer Both for themselves and those who call them friend? For so the whole world is every way Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. --Alfred Tennyson. Continue stedfastly in prayer, watching therein with thanksgiving. --Colossians 4. 2. O Lord, give me the desire to pray, and teach me to pray as thou wouldst have my needs. Sustain me, that I may overcome my weaknesses, and strengthen me, that I may have thine approval. May I be reverent and unselfish as I come to thee in prayer. Amen. SEPTEMBER TWENTIETH Battle of Salamis B. C. 480. Alexander the Great born B. C. 356. Robert Emmet died 1803. David Ross Locke (Petroleum V. Nasby) born 1833. 'Tis weary watching wave by wave, And yet the tide heaves onward; We climb, like corals, grave by grave, That pave a pathway sunward. We're driven back, for our next fray A newer strength to borrow; And where the vanguard camps to-day, The rear shall rest to-morrow. --Gerald Massey. Be like the bird, that, pausing in her flight A while on boughs too slight, Feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, Knowing that she hath wings. --Victor Hugo. Trust in Jehovah, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on his faithfulness. --Psalm 37. 3. Eternal God, help me to realize that life is not only endless but, whether I live in love and obedience, or wait in neglect and indifference, that I can never separate myself from thee. May I be diligent in worthy endeavors to do my best for thee. Amen. SEPTEMBER TWENTY-FIRST Girolamo Savonarola born 1452. Emperor Charles V died 1558. Sir Walter Scott died 1832. It is the secret sympathy, The silver link, the silken tie, Which heart to heart and mind to mind In body and in soul can bind. --Sir Walter Scott. No action, whether foul or fair, Is ever done, but it carves somewhere A record, written by fingers ghostly, As a blessing or a curse, and mostly In the greater weakness or greater strength Of the acts which follow it. --Henry W. Longfellow. And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outermost part of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye do. --Judges 7. 17. Loving Father, may I remember that from the beginning, all things were created beautiful and were given for love. I pray that I may be willing to be guided to the beautiful things of life and receive from them the delight of thy love. Amen. SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SECOND Peter Simon Pallas born 1741. Michael Faraday born 1791. Theodore Edward Hook born 1788. Man learns to swim by being tossed into life's maelstrom and left to make his way ashore. No youth can learn to sail his life-craft in a lake sequestered and sheltered from all the storms, where other vessels never come. Skill comes through sailing one's craft amidst rocks and bars and opposing fleets, amidst storms and whirls and counter currents. --Newell Dwight Hillis. O, a trouble's a ton or a trouble's an ounce, Or a trouble is what you make it! And it isn't the fact that you're hurt that counts, But only--how did you take it? --Edmund C. Vance. And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise. --Hebrews 6. 15. Tender Father, may I not encourage the disposition to enlarge and make much of the troubles and disappointments of life, and make light of the joys and privileges. I pray that I may keep a large place for happiness. Amen. SEPTEMBER TWENTY-THIRD Karl Theodore Körner born 1791. Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen born 1848. Wilkie Collins died 1889. M.F.H. De Haas died 1895. When over the fair fame of friend or foe The shadow of disgrace shall fall; instead Of words to blame, or reproof of thus and so, Let something good be said. Forget not that no fellow-being yet May fall so low but love may lift his head; Even the cheek of shame with tears is wet If something good be said. --Author unknown. The right Christian mind will ... find its own image wherever it exists; it will seek for what it loves, and draw out of all dens and caves, and it will believe in its being, often when it cannot see it; and so it will lie lovingly over the faults and rough places of the human heart, as the snow from heaven does over the hard, and black, and broken mountain rocks. --John Ruskin. To him that is ready to faint kindness should be showed from his friend. --Job 6. 14. Lord God, grant that after years of climbing I may not find the mist in my soul has dulled the vision of thy glory. Keep me from the habit of looking for faults, and missing the virtues in others. Forbid that I should be so occupied in taking measure of other lives that I neglect to measure my own. Amen. SEPTEMBER TWENTY-FOURTH John Marshall born 1755. Zachary Taylor, Virginia, twelfth President United States, born 1784. S.R. Crockett born 1860. Get the truth once uttered, and 'tis like A star newborn that drops into its place, And which, once circling in its placid round, Not all the tumult of the earth can shake. --James Russell Lowell. If you would be well spoken of, learn to speak well of others. And when you have learned to speak well of them, endeavor likewise to do well to them; and reap the fruit of being well spoken of by them. --Epictetus. He that slandereth not with his tongue, Nor doeth evil to his friend, Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor; He that doeth these things shall never be moved. --Psalm 15. 3, 5. Lord God, I bless thee for the lives of men and women who are willing to be led by the truth, and who are worthy to follow thee. I pray that thou wilt make me truthful, and keep me steadfast, that none may go astray by the uncertainty of my way. Amen. SEPTEMBER TWENTY-FIFTH William Romaine born 1714. Felicia D. Hemans born 1793. W.M. Rossetti born 1829. Not as the conqueror comes, They, the true-hearted, came; Not with the roll of the stirring drums, And the trumpet songs of fame: Amidst the storm they sang, And the stars heard and the sea; And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang To the anthem of the free. Ay, call it holy ground, The soil where first they trod; They have left unstained what there they found-- Freedom to worship God. --Felicia D. Hemans. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid. --Micah 4. 4. Eternal God, may I look to the Pilgrims and learn that to pray by faith with the heart is not to pray by faith of the imagination. Help me to pray, and have faith to struggle for that which I would rightfully have. Amen. SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SIXTH Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood born 1750. Dr. Mary Walker born 1832. Irving Bacheller born 1859. Frederic William Faber died 1863. God is never so far off as even to be near-- He is within: Our spirit is the home he holds most dear. To think of him as by our side is almost as untrue As to remove his throne beyond the starry blue. --F.W. Faber. Nearer, my God, to thee, Nearer to thee! E'en though it be a cross That raiseth me; Still all my song shall be-- Nearer, my God, to thee, Nearer to thee! --Sarah F. Adams. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. --Job 27. 6. My Father, may I consider the place in which I stand: and may I not be deceived in thinking I am near thee while I am living far away. Teach me the way to draw nearer to thee each day, until my spirit may continually dwell with thee. Amen. SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH George Cruikshank born 1792. Samuel Francis Dupont born 1803. Aimé Millet born 1819. Henri Frédéric Arniel born 1821. The man who has no refuge in himself, who lives, so to speak, in his front rooms, in the outer whirlwind of things and opinions, is not properly a personality at all; ... he is one of a crowd. --Amiel. Happy the heart that keeps its twilight hour, And in the depths of heavenly peace reclined, Loves to commune with thoughts of tender power-- Thoughts that ascend, like angels beautiful. --Paul Hamilton Hayne. The art of meditation may be exercised at all hours and in all places; and men of genius in their walks, at table, and amidst assemblies, turning the eye of the mind inward, can form an artificial solitude; retired amidst a crowd, calm amidst distractions, and wise amidst folly. --Disraeli. Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. --Psalm 4. 4. Heavenly Father, save me from being so poor in spirit, that I will have to be sustained by the bright spirits of others. May I be continually refreshed by the spirit of life that may be found at all times. Amen. SEPTEMBER TWENTY-EIGHTH Francis Turner Palgrave born 1824. Frances E. Willard born 1839. General John D. French born 1852. Mary Anderson born 1859. Unless there is a predominating and overmastering purpose to which all the accessories and incidents of life contribute, the character will be weak, irresolute, uncertain. --Frances E. Willard. Life is not an idle ore, But iron dug from central gloom, And heated hot with burning fears, And dipt in baths of hissing tears, And battered with the shocks of doom To shape and use. --Alfred Tennyson. He that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.... A double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. --James 1. 6, 8. O God, help me to be positive. May I not want to be in so many places, and in so many things, that I can never be found in anything. Help me to know that a purpose secured is worth many attempts, and that to have a character I must build it. Amen. SEPTEMBER TWENTY-NINTH Pompey killed B.C. 48. Robert Lord Clive born 1725. Horatio Nelson born 1758. O strange and wild is the world of men Which the eyes of the Lord must see-- With continents, inlands, tribes, and tongues, With multitudes bond and free! All kings of the earth bow down to him, And yet--he can think of me. For none can measure the mind of God Or the bounds of eternity, He knows each life that has come from him, To the tiniest bird and bee, For the love of his heart is so deep and wide That it takes in even me. --Mary E. Allbright. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father: but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. --Matthew 10. 29, 30. Almighty God, cause me to look out this morning, and open wide my eyes, that I may see what great preparation thou hast made that I might live. May I be ashamed to start wrong and be unworthy of the glory of this day. Amen. SEPTEMBER THIRTIETH George Whitefield died 1770. William Hutton born 1723. John Dollond died 1761. Up, up, my soul, the long-spent time redeeming; Sow thou the seeds of better deeds and thought; Light other lamps while yet thy lamp is beaming-- The time is short. Think of the good thou might'st have done when brightly The suns to thee life's choicest season brought; Hours lost to God in pleasure passing lightly-- The time is short. If thou hast friends, give them thy best endeavor, Thy warmest impulse, and thy purest thought, Keeping in mind and words and action ever-- The time is short. --Elizabeth Prentiss. What is your life? For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. --James 4. 14. Loving Father, help me to realize that I am not living in the right way nor the right place if I am discontented, or happy in trifles and untruth. Help me to find my place, and with thy help may I stand firm and confident. Amen. OCTOBER The morns are meeker than they were, The nuts are getting brown; The berry's cheek is plumper, The rose is out of town. The maple wears a gayer scarf, The field a scarlet gown; Lest I should be old-fashioned, I'll put a trinket on. --Emily Dickinson. OCTOBER FIRST Saint John Viscount Bolingbroke born 1678. Pierre Corneille died 1684. Rufus Choate born 1799. He speaks not well who doth his time deplore, Naming it new and a little obscure, Ignoble and unfit for lofty deeds. All times were modern in the time of them, And this no more than others. Do thy part Here in the living day, as did the great Who made old days immortal. --Richard Watson Gilder. He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and will find the flaw when he may have forgotten the cause. --Henry Ward Beecher. For use almost can change the stamp of nature, And master the devil, or throw him out With wondrous potency. --William Shakespeare. And when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house (now his windows were open in his chamber toward Jerusalem;) and he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. --Daniel 6. 10. Heavenly Father, help me to get away from doubt that leads to despair. Give me a vision of hope that is stayed on faith. May I be conscious and appreciative of my privileges while they come to me and make them immortal. Amen. OCTOBER SECOND Aristotle died B.C. 322. Major John Andre hanged 1780. William Ellery Channing died 1842. I am not earth-born, though I here delay; Hope's child, I summon infiniter powers, And laugh to see the mild sunny day Smile on the shrunk and thin autumnal hours; I laugh, for hope hath a happy place for me-- If my bark sinks, 'tis to another sea. --William E. Channing. The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years; But thou shall flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the war of elements, The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds. --Thomas Addison. For with thee is the fountain of life: In thy light shall we see light. --Psalm 36. 9. My Father, I would pray that my sense of gloom may not be more than thy grace. May the glorious light of thy love break through my disheartened soul, and reveal the sincerity of thy promises, that I may be happy in thy care. Amen. OCTOBER THIRD Robert Barclay died 1690. George Bancroft born 1800. William Morris died 1896. Come hither, lads, and harken, For a tale there is to tell Of the wonderful days a-coming, When all shall be better than well. Come, then, let us cast off fooling, And put by ease and rest, For the cause alone is worthy Till the good days bring the best. --William Morris. Man's life is but a working day Whose tasks are set aright; A time to work, a time to pray, And then a quiet night. And then, please God, a quiet night Where palms are green and robes are white; A long-drawn breath, a balm for sorrow, And all things lovely on the morrow. --Christina G. Rossetti. And the ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. --Isaiah 61. 11. Heavenly Father, help me to see that before the night thou hadst planned the morning, and that thou hast never sent the night without the hope of the morning. Before I rest in the night may I be ready for the morning. Amen. OCTOBER FOURTH Francis of Assisi died 1226. Edmund Malone born 1741. François Guizot born 1787. Jean François Millet born 1814. Rutherford B. Hayes, Ohio, nineteenth President United States, born 1822. M.E. Braddon born 1837. We ought to rise day by day with a certain zest, a clear intention, a design to make the most of every hour; not to let the busy hours shoulder each other or tread on each other's heels, but to force every action to give up its strength and sweetness. There is work to be done, and there are empty hours to be filled as well.... But, most of all, there must be something to quicken, enliven, practice the soul. --Arthur C. Benson. Men's souls ought to be left to see clearly; not jaundiced, blinded, twisted all awry, by revenge, moral abhorrence, and the like. --Thomas Carlyle. But there is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding. --Job 32. 8. Spirit of life, I pray that thou wilt continually live within me. May my days be spent neither in waste nor idleness, but planned to use, with the best that is given me. Amen. OCTOBER FIFTH Jonathan Edwards born 1703. Denis Diderot born 1713. Horace Walpole born 1717. Nancy Hanks died 1818. Chester A. Arthur, Vermont, twenty-first President United States, born 1830. H.R. Guy de Maupassant born 1850. Earth gets its price for what earth gives us; The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in, The priest has his fee who comes and shrives us, We bargain for the graves we lie in; At the devil's booth are all things sold, Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; For a cap and bells our lives we pay, Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking; 'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 'Tis only God may be had for the asking. --James Russell Lowell. The free gift of God is eternal life. --Romans 6. 23. Gracious Father, may the world speak to me of thy gifts, and of the peace and power which it freely offers. May I not pass by thy great appeals, and prefer to purchase at a great cost my indolence and dissipation. Amen. OCTOBER SIXTH Jenny Lind Goldschmidt born 1820. Harriet G. Hosmer born 1830. Charles Stewart Parnell died 1891. Alfred Tennyson died 1892. The heart which boldly faces death Upon the battlefield, and dares Cannon and bayonet, faints beneath The needle-points of frets and cares. The stoutest spirits they dismay-- The tiny stings of every day. Ah! more than martyr's aureole And more than hero's heart of fire, We need the humble strength of soul Which daily toils and ills require. Sweet patience, grant us, if you may An added grace for every day. --Adelaide A. Procter. Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea. --Alfred Tennyson. Fret not thyself. --Proverbs 24. 19. My Father, I pray that I may not be dismayed over life, and its trifles. Help me to master difficulties great and small, and give me patience through all until I reach the untroubled way. Amen. OCTOBER SEVENTH Sir Philip Sidney died 1586. Edgar Allan Poe died 1849. Oliver Wendell Holmes died 1894. Mary J. Holmes died 1907. Yet in opinions look not always back; Your wake is nothing, mind the coming track; Leave what you've done for what you have to do; Don't be "consistent," but be simply true. --Oliver Wendell Holmes. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has nothing to do. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward. --Exodus 14. 15. Heavenly Father, I pray that I may not be so consistent in the small things of life that I will lose the great inspirations that come to the soul. Broaden my life, that I may have the freedom of heart and mind to pass over the failures and interruptions, and with vigorous energy continue in the progress of life. Amen. OCTOBER EIGHTH Caroline Howard Gilman born 1794. Edmund Clarence Stedman born 1833. John Hay born 1838. He weren't no saint; them engineers Is pretty much alike-- One wife in Natchez-under-the-Hill, Another one here in Pike; A keerless man in his talk was Jim, And an awkward hand in a row, But he never flunked, and he never lied-- I reckon he never knowed how. --John Hay. He is brave whose tongue is silent Of the trophies of his word. He is great whose quiet bearing Marks his greatness well assured. --Edwin Arnold. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as the rest of men. --Luke 18. 11. Lord God, thou knowest what I am and where I belong. Have mercy upon me and strengthen me, that I may not through weakness stay in the darkness. Lead me out into the light; and may I find my way and be contented with it. Amen. OCTOBER NINTH Michael Cervantes born 1547. Jacques Auguste de Thuanus (De Thou) born 1553. Charles Camilla Saint-Saëns born 1835. I will not doubt, though all my ships at sea Come drifting home with broken masts and sails; I shall believe the Hand which never fails From seeming evil worketh good for me; And though I weep because those sails are battered, Still will I cry, while my best hopes lie shattered, "I trust in Thee." --Ella Wheeler Wilcox.[1] Cease every joy to glimmer on my mind. But leave, O leave the light of hope behind. --Thomas Campbell. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick; But when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life. --Proverbs 13. 12. Loving Father, help me to pass by my discouragements of yesterday and look into the hope of to-day. Make me more careful of my strength, and less forgetful of thy promises and of my trust. Amen. [Footnote 1: Special permission W.B. Conkey, Hammond, Indiana. Copyright 1912.] OCTOBER TENTH Henry Cavendish born 1731. Benjamin West born 1738. Hugh Miller born 1802. Giuseppe Verdi born 1813. Fridtjof Nansen born 1861. We cannot make bargains for blisses, Nor catch them like fishes in nets; And sometimes the thing our life misses Helps more than the thing which it gets. For good lieth not in pursuing, Nor gaining of great nor small, But just in the doing and doing As we would be done by is all. --Alice Gary. True, it is most painful not to meet the kindness and affection you feel you have deserved, and have a right to expect from others; but it is a mistake to complain, for it is no use; you cannot extort friendship with a cocked pistol. --Sydney Smith. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. --Matthew 22. 39. Lord God, help me to understand that true affection is not that which as it gives feels it merits return. May I avoid being selfish and stubborn; and with my affections give peace and joy. Amen. OCTOBER ELEVENTH Sir Thomas Wyatt died 1542. Dr. Samuel Clarke born 1675. James Barry born 1741. Ask God to give thee skill In comfort's art, That thou may'st consecrated be And set apart, Unto a life of sympathy; For heavy is the weight of ill In every heart; And comforters are needed much Of Christlike touch. --Alexander Hamilton. The man who melts With social sympathy though not allied, Is than a thousand kinsmen of more worth. --Euripides. Who comforteth us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. --2 Corinthians 1. 4. Heavenly Father, thou hast made sympathy divine. May I never make it commonplace. Grant that as thou dost bless and comfort me I may be willing to comfort others, and do whatsoever thou wouldst have me do. Amen. OCTOBER TWELFTH Columbus discovered America 1492. Lyman Beecher born 1775. George W. Cable born 1844. Helena Modjeska born 1844. One poor day! Remember whose and how short it is! It is God's day, it is Columbus's. One day with life and heart is more than time enough to found a world. --James Russell Lowell. An illusion haunts us, that a long duration, as a year, a decade, a century, is valuable. But an old French sentence says, "God works in moments." We ask for long life, but 'tis deep life or grand moments that signify. Let the measure of Time be spiritual, not mechanical. Life is unnecessarily long. Moments of insight, of fine personal relation, a smile, a glance--what ample borrowers of eternity they are! --Ralph Waldo Emerson. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. --2 Peter 3. 8. My Father, I pray that when the "sun sets to-day my hope may not set with it." Be with me earlier than the dawn, that I may plan with thee a new day. I pray that thou wilt release me from anything that keeps me from reaching the highest. Amen. OCTOBER THIRTEENTH Theodore Beza died 1605. Murat, King of Naples, shot 1815. Elizabeth Fry died 1845. What stronger breast-plate than a heart untainted! Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just, And he but naked, though locked up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. --William Shakespeare. A man's accusations of himself are always believed, his praises never. --Montaigne. Justice needs that two be heard. --From Goethe's Autobiography. That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live. --Deuteronomy 16. 20. Lord of justice, if I may be influenced this morning by doubt and am inclined to be resentful, wilt thou cause me to have a generous spirit and keep my faith. May I never descend to anything base or deceitful, but may I remember that if I lay down my life, I may have the power to take it up again. Amen. OCTOBER FOURTEENTH William Penn born 1644. James Fenimore Cooper died 1851. Duke of Wellington died 1852. Do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good. If thou wouldst be happy, bring thy mind to thy condition, and have an indifferency for more than what is sufficient. --William Penn. The finest fruit earth holds up to its Maker is a finished man. --Humboldt. I considered Napoleon's presence in the field equal to forty men in the balance. --Duke of Wellington. What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honor. --Psalm 8. 4, 5. Eternal God, may I know the value of the gift of life. May I think seriously of it, and not through abuse or neglect cripple it, remembering that it is mine to sow, to grow, and to reap. I pray that I may care more for the food and raiment of my soul than I care for the food and raiment of my body. Amen. OCTOBER FIFTEENTH Virgil born B.C. 70. Evangelista Torricelli born 1608. Edward Fitzgerald born 1763. Being not unacquainted with woe, I learned to help the unfortunate. --Virgil. There are some hearts like wells green-mossed and deep As ever summer saw, And cool their water is, yea, cool and sweet; But you must come to draw. They hoard not, yet they rest in calm content, And not unsought will give; They can be quiet with their wealth unspent, So self-contained they live. --Author unknown. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be made sorry, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. --2 Corinthians 2. 4. Gracious Father, help me to understand that while I may be content to rest with what I have gathered, I cannot preserve the strength of my soul unless I share my possessions. Give me a passion for humanity that will advance gifts through love, and offer service without the need of an appeal. Amen. OCTOBER SIXTEENTH Bishop Hugh Latimer burned at Oxford 1555. Albrecht von Haller born 1708. Noah Webster born 1758. Robert Stephenson born 1803. As ships meet at sea--a moment together, when words of greeting must be spoken, and then away upon the deep--so men meet in this world; and I think we should cross no man's path without hailing him, and if he needs, giving him supplies. --Henry Ward Beecher. Nothing is more unaccountable than the spell that often lurks in a spoken word. A thought may be present to the mind, and two minds conscious of the same thought, but as long as it remains unspoken their familiar talk flows quietly over the hidden idea. --Nathaniel Hawthorne. And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? --Matthew 5. 47. Heavenly Father, I pray that thou wilt give me a generous heart. May I not lose sight of the truth, that thou hast made others to have the same needs and wants that I may have. May I not through pride or egoism fail to help, and neglecting to speak, miss an opportunity to assist. May I be self-forgetful in friendly service. Amen. OCTOBER SEVENTEENTH Andreas Osiander died 1552. Frederic Chopin died 1849. Good name, in man or woman, dear my Lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls; Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed. --William Shakespeare. Keep back your tears when a soul is untrue; "Sorrow is shallow"; and one can wade through The mud and the marshes, and still endure If he finds he has kept his spirit pure. The rose near died when it fell to its lot To break its heart for forget-me-not; But after its heart was healed by the dew, Right by its side a sweet violet grew! --M.B.S. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, And loving favor rather than silver and gold. --Proverbs 22. 1. My Father, teach me the value of the possessions that can neither be handled nor seen; and may I not take them away from others. Help me to keep thy commandment "Thou shalt not steal," and interpret it in all its relations to life. Amen. OCTOBER EIGHTEENTH Matthew Henry born 1662. Margaret (Peg) Woffington born 1720. Helen Hunt Jackson born 1831. Frederick Harrison born 1831. Yet I argue not against heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot of heart of hope;, but still bear up and steer right onward. --John Milton. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly until he knows that every day is doomsday. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. He mourns that day so soon has glided by: E'en like the passage of an angel's tear That falls through the clear ether silently. --John Keats. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will counsel thee with mine eye upon thee. --Psalm 32. 8. My Father, if I may be living in bad habits, help me to get out of them. If I may be neglectful of good deeds, help me to get at them. May I reach for the highest purposes as I search for the realities, and may I not delay, but start to-day. Amen. OCTOBER NINETEENTH Dean (Jonathan) Swift died 1745. Leigh Hunt born 1784. Henry Kirke White died 1806. Don't look too hard except for something agreeable; we can find all the disagreeable things we want, between our own hats and boots. --Leigh Hunt. Instead of a gem or a flower, cast the gift of a lovely thought into the heart of a friend. --George Macdonald. For the want of common discretion the very end of good breeding is wholly perverted; and civility, intended to make us easy, is employed in laying chains and fetters upon us, in debarring our wishes, and in crossing our most reasonable desires and inclinations. --Jonathan Swift. If it be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men. --Romans 12. 18. My Lord, help me to adjust my life to what I ought to be, rather than be content in what I am. May I not spend my time in dreaming of obstacles, or searching for things that hurt, but may I be gentle and kind, and as I see the truth speak for it and follow it. Amen. OCTOBER TWENTIETH Sir Christopher Wren born 1632. Thomas Hughes born 1823. Charles Dudley Warner died 1900. There has always seemed to me something impious in the neglect of health. I could not do half the good I do if it were not for the strength and activity some consider coarse and degrading. --Charles Kingsley. To keep well drink often, but water; Eat not that which makes life shorter; But first, with all your might and skill, Just chain your habits to your will. --M.B.S. I will be lord over myself. No one who cannot master himself is worthy to rule, and only he can rule. --Goethe. Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? --1 Corinthians 6. 19. Lord God, may I not wait until I am afflicted and cannot use them to thank thee for my blessings. Guard me against infirmities that are brought on through indulgences, and help me to control my life. May I never forget that regret will not retrieve the life that is spent, even if it brings forgiveness and hope for the days to come. Amen. OCTOBER TWENTY-FIRST Samuel Taylor Coleridge born 1772. Alphonse Lamartine born 1790. Samuel F. Smith born 1808. Will Carleton born 1845. He prayeth best who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all. --Samuel Taylor Coleridge. We thank thee, O Father, for all that is bright-- The gleam of the day and the stars of the night, The flowers of our youth and the fruits of our prime, And the blessings that march down the pathway of time. --Will Carleton. Thanklessness is a parching wind, drying up the fountain of pity, the dew of mercy, the streams of grace. For doth not that rightly seem to be lost which is given to one ungrateful? --Saint Bernard. O give thanks unto Jehovah; for he is good; For his lovingkindness endureth for ever. --Psalm 136. 1. My Father, help me to understand that I cannot have self-development unless the spirit of truth drills my character. Cleanse my heart from all impurity, and strengthen me for all usefulness: help me to daily live this prayer. Amen. OCTOBER TWENTY-SECOND Charles Martel died 741. Franz Liszt born 1811. George Eliot born 1819. Sarah Bernhardt born 1844. O may I join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence: live In pulses stirred to generosity, In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn For miserable aims that end with self, In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, And with their mild persistence urge man's search To vaster issues. This is life to come, Which martyred men have made more glorious For us to strive to follow. May I reach That purest heaven, be to other souls The cup of strength in some great agony, Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love, Beget the smiles that have no cruelty, Be the sweet presence of a good diffused, And in diffusion ever more intense! So shall I join the choir invisible Whose music is the gladness of the world. --George Eliot. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish. --John 10. 28. My Father, I pray that I may be more generous with my smiles and gladness, and more saving with my tears and sadness. Amen. OCTOBER TWENTY-THIRD Anne Oldfield died 1730. Robert Bridges born 1844. Mollie Elliot Seawell born 1860. O youth whose hope is high, Who doth to truth aspire, Whether thou live or die, O look not back nor tire. Thou that art bold to fly Through tempest, flood and fire, Nor dost not shrink to try Thy heart in torments dire-- If thou canst Death defy, If thy faith is entire, Press onward, for thine eye Shall see thy heart's desire. --Robert Bridges. Doubt indulged becomes doubt realized. To determine to do anything is half the battle. Courage is victory, timidity is defeat. --Nelson. And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions. --Ezekiel 2. 6. Gracious Father, try me again by the courage I have to-day, if thou art judging me by the fear I held yesterday. Help me to see that wavering is misleading and temperament is deceptive. May I learn self-control. Amen. OCTOBER TWENTY-FOURTH Hugh Capet died 996. Sir Moses Montefiore born 1784. Daniel Webster died 1852. Exceeding peace made Ben Adhem bold, And to the presence in the room he said, "What writest thou?" The vision raised its head, And, with a look made of all sweet accord, Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord." "And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so," Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low, But cheerily still; and said, "I pray thee, then, Write me as one that loves his fellow men." The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night It came again, with a great awakening light, And showed the names whom love of God had blessed-- And, lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest! --Leigh Hunt. Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and will show thee great things. --Jeremiah 33. 3. Lord God, may I keep within my heart that secret sympathy that adds to the power of life. Help me to seek the things that are real, and not be deceived by the things which only appear to be. May all with whom I have to do feel the better for my companionship. Amen. OCTOBER TWENTY-FIFTH Geoffrey Chaucer died 1400. William Hogarth died 1764. George W. Faber born 1773. Thomas B. Macaulay born 1800. Wav'ring as winds the breath of fortune blows, No power can turn it, and no prayers compose. Deep in some hermit's solitary cell, Repose, and ease, and contemplation dwell. Let conscience guide thee in the days of need, Judge well thy own, and then thy neighbor's deed. --Geoffrey Chaucer. To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late; And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers And the temples of his gods. --Thomas B. Macaulay. Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. --Matthew 20. 28. Heavenly Father, help me to remember that I am to cover life's journey, even though I may go the way carelessly and aimlessly. May I make an estimate of what I am losing, by waiting so long at the resting places, "For the road winds up hill all the way to the end, and the journey takes the whole day long, from morn to night." Amen. OCTOBER TWENTY-SIXTH Dr. Philip Doddridge died 1751. Count Von Moltke born 1800. Elizabeth Cady Stanton died 1902. One of the notable eddies of the present-day world currents is what has been loosely called the "Woman Movement." The sensitive and vicarious spirit of womanhood has been enlisted for service in behalf of those who have been denied a fair chance, or who are the victims of oppression, greed, and ignorance. --William T. Ellis. And whether consciously or not, you must be in many a heart enthroned: queens you must always be: queens to your lovers; queens to your husbands and sons; queens of higher mystery to the world beyond, which bows itself, and will forever bow, before the myrtle crown, and the stainless scepter of womanhood. --John Ruskin. O woman, great is thy faith: be it done unto thee even as thou wilt. --Matthew 15. 28. Lord and Master of all, I pray that thou wilt make me see through my prejudices and beyond my desires to the very "top of my condition." May I not wait for places or circumstances that are dimly in the distance or that are near at hand, but accomplish the work I should do to-day. Amen. OCTOBER TWENTY-SEVENTH James Cook born 1728. Nicolo Paganini born 1782. Theodore Roosevelt, New York, twenty-fifth President United States, born 1858. The vice of envy is not only a dangerous, but a mean vice; for it is always a confession of inferiority. It may promote conduct which will be fruitful of wrong to others, and it must cause misery to the man who feels it. --Theodore Roosevelt. Of all the passions, jealousy is that which exacts the hardest service, and pays the bitterest wages. Its service is to watch the success of one's enemy; its wages to be sure of it. --C.C. Colton. Dear to me is the friend, yet I can also make use of an enemy. The friend shows me what I can do, the foe teaches me what I should. --Schiller. Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another. --Galatians 5. 26. Almighty God, I would ask thee that my days be filled with aspiration, and that my heart may know no envy. Help me to love humanity. May I be so glad of the success of others that I may never know what it is to be envious. Amen. OCTOBER TWENTY-EIGHTH Desiderius Erasmus born 1465. John Locke died 1704. Georges Jacques Danton born 1759. Not so in haste, my heart! Have faith in God and wait; Although he linger long, He never comes too late. Until he cometh, rest, Nor grudge the hours that roll; The feet that wait for God Are soonest at the goal; Are soonest at the goal That is not gained by speed; Then hold thee still, my heart, For I shall wait his lead. --Bayard Taylor. It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Jehovah. --Lamentations 3. 26. Lord of life, may I pause to remember that rest may not be obtained with wretched thoughts, nor can it be enjoyed in discontent. In my moments of rest wilt thou show me how to relax, and with tranquillity may I gather hope for renewed ambition. Amen. OCTOBER TWENTY-NINTH Sir Walter Raleigh beheaded 1618. James Boswell born 1740. John Keats born 1795. Thomas Bayard born 1828. Thomas Edward Brown died 1897. Rise, O my soul, with thy desires to heaven, And with divinest contemplation use Thy time where time's eternity is given, And let vain thoughts no more thy thoughts abuse; But down in darkness let them lie: So live thy better, let thy worse thoughts die! --Sir Walter Raleigh. The great elements we know of are no mean comforters; the open sky sits upon our senses like a sapphire crown--the air is our robe of state, the Earth is our throne, and the Sea a mighty minstrel playing before it. --John Keats. Ah Lord Jehovah! behold, thou hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and by thine outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for thee. --Jeremiah 32. 17. Almighty God, I thank thee for the power that gives me the breath of life. May I be willing to be controlled by its guiding care. Amen. OCTOBER THIRTIETH Rev. John Whitaker died 1808. John Adams, Massachusetts, second President United States, born 1735. Adelaide Anne Procter born 1825. And yet thou canst know, And yet thou canst not see; Wisdom and sight are slow In poor humanity. If thou couldst trust, poor soul, In Him who rules the whole, Thou wouldst find peace and rest; Wisdom and right are well, but trust is best. --Adelaide Anne Procter. The heart to speak in vain essayed, Nor could his purpose reach-- His will nor voice nor tongue obeyed, His silence was his speech. --John Quincy Adams. But still believe that story wrong Which ought not to be true. --Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Blessed is the man that maketh Jehovah his trust. --Psalm 40. 4. My Father, may I not be given to unkindly speech. Deliver me from a critical spirit; and may I not encourage mistrust, but cultivate the kindly considerations in which life abounds. Amen. OCTOBER THIRTY-FIRST All Hallow's Eve. John Evelyn born 1620. Christopher Anstey born 1724. Ere, in the northern gale The summer tresses of the trees are gone, The woods of autumn, all around our vale, Have put their glory on. The mountains that unfold, In their wide sweep, the colored landscape round, Seem groups of giant kings, in purple and gold, That guard the enchanted ground. Ah! 'twere a lot too blessed Forever in thy colored shades to stray; Amid the kisses of the soft southwest To rove and dream for aye; And leave the vain low strife That makes men mad; the tug for wealth and power, The passions and the cares that wither life, And waste its little hour. --William Cullen Bryant. Let the field exult, and all that is therein; Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy. --Psalm 96. 12. My Father, may I have an appreciation of the wonderful creations of the earth. Give me a discriminating eye, that I may know the precious things that thou art growing; and throughout my life may I love the beautiful, and choose that which will make my life worthy of growth. Amen. NOVEMBER Who said November's face was grim? Who said her voice was harsh and sad? I heard her sing in wood paths dim, I met her on the shore so glad, So smiling, I could kiss her feet! There never was a month so sweet. --Lucy Larcom. NOVEMBER FIRST Sir Matthew Hale born 1609. William M. Chase born 1849. Sir Robert Grant died 1892. O worship the King, all glorious above, O gratefully sing his power and his love; Our Shield and Defender, the ancient of days, Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise. Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite? It breathes in the air, it shines in the light; It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain, And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain. --Robert Grant. Ye shall walk in all the way which Jehovah your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess. --Deuteronomy 5. 33. Almighty God, help me to make my life refulgent while I have the abundance of summer, that I may not find the November of life bleak and barren. Help me to live in the realities of life, that I may gain energy and repose, to use for the lonesome and anxious hours. May I be watchful for the conditions that thwart life, and with patience wait for the awakening of truth. Amen. NOVEMBER SECOND Marie Antoinette born 1755. Field-Marshal Radetzky born 1766. James Knox Polk, North Carolina, eleventh President United States, born 1795. Overmastering pain--the most deadly and tragical element in life--alas! pain has its own way with all of us; it breaks in, a rude visitant, upon the fairy garden where the child wanders in a dream, no less surely than it rules upon the field of battle, or sends the immortal war-god whimpering to his father; and innocence, no more than philosophy, can protect us from this sting. --Robert Louis Stevenson. My hopes retire; my wishes as before Struggle to find their resting place in vain; The ebbing sea thus beats against the shore; The shore repels it; it returns again. --W.S. Landor. Yet Jehovah will command his loving-kindness in the day-time, And in the night his song shall be with me. --Psalm 42. 8. Loving Father, I bless thee for thy goodness and tender mercy which is over all. May I trust thy provision and love through all circumstances, and as I trust myself to thee may I have faith to believe that thou wilt give me strength for what I may have to endure, and believe that thou wilt care for me, as thou dost care for all. Amen. NOVEMBER THIRD Lucan born A.D. 39. William Cullen Bryant born 1794. Francis D. Millet born 1846. John Watson (Ian Maclaren) born 1850. Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie (John Oliver Hobbes) born 1867. Whither, midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue Thy solitary way! Vainly the fowler's eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, As, darkly painted on the crimson sky, Thy figure floats along. He who, from zone to zone, Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread alone, Will lead my steps aright. --William Cullen Bryant. For Jehovah your God dried up the waters of the Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over. --Joshua 4. 23. Almighty God, help me to guard against gratification that leads to disappointment, that I may not miss the true way. I pray that thou wilt lift me in my weakness, and carry me over the rough and discouraging places, that I may be made strong in thy loving care, and be able to continue alone. Amen. NOVEMBER FOURTH Guido Reni born 1575. James Montgomery born 1771. Edmund Keane born 1787. Ernest Howard Crosby born 1856. Eugene Field died 1895. Keep me, I pray, in wisdom's way, That I may truths eternal seek; I need protecting care to-day-- My purse is light, my flesh is weak. --Eugene Field. No one could tell me where my Soul might be, I searched for God, but God eluded me. I sought my brother out, and found all three. --Ernest H. Crosby. In all thy ways acknowledge him, And he will direct thy paths. --Proverbs 3. 6. My Father, may I not face the going down of the sun to-day, looking at life, in a mirror that reflects my own privileges and prejudices, but may I see it as it is, known to those who are living to make it better. May the days to come prove my sincerity in wanting the truth that I might live by it, and help to do good with it. Amen. NOVEMBER FIFTH Hans Sachs born 1494. Dr. John Brown born 1715. Benjamin Butler born 1818. The thing that goes the farthest Toward making life worth while, That costs the least, and does the most, Is just a pleasant smile. That smile that bubbles from a heart That loves its fellow men Will drive away the cloud of gloom And coax the sun again. --Anonymous. One whom I knew intimately, and whose memory I revere, once in my hearing remarked that, "Unless we love people we cannot understand them." This was a new light to me. --Christina G. Rossetti. Oil and perfume rejoice the heart; So doth the sweetness of a man's friend that cometh of hearty counsel. --Proverbs 27. 9. Lord God, I pray that I may be worthy of my friends. May I not fear to go where I am called, and may I go cheerfully, even though the way be dark and lonesome. Amen. NOVEMBER SIXTH James Gregory born 1638. John Bright born 1811. Sir George Williams died 1905. Look full into thy spirit's self, The world of mystery scan; What if thy way to faith in God Should lie through faith in man? --John Bright. Blessed are they who have the gift of making friends, for it is one of God's best gifts. It involves many things, but above all, the power of going out of oneself and seeing and appreciating whatever is noble and loving in another. --Thomas Hughes. Be perfected; be comforted; be of the same mind; live in peace: and the God of love and peace shall be with you. --2 Corinthians 13. 11. Lord God, I earnestly entreat thee to show me if I may be cramping the happiness in another's life by forcing in my selfishness and demands. May I understand that perfect gifts are those that come through loving sacrifice. Make me ashamed to ask for what I refuse or prefer not to give. Amen. NOVEMBER SEVENTH Sir Martin Frobisher died 1594. William Stukeley born 1687. Friedrich Leopold, Count von Stolberg, born 1750. Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side; Some great cause, God's new Messiah offering each the bloom or blight, Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right; And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light. --James Russell Lowell. We cannot command veracity at will; the power of seeing and reporting truly is a form of health that has to be delicately guarded, and as an ancient rabbi has solemnly said, "The penalty of untruth is untruth." --George Eliot. Behold, this only have I found: that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions. --Ecclesiastes 7. 29. My Father, help me to speak the truth and guard the truth, that righteousness may be an abiding influence in my life. Amen. NOVEMBER EIGHTH Edmund Halley born 1656. John Milton died 1674. Owen Meredith (Bulwer Edward Lytton) born 1831. The morning drum-call on my eager ear Thrills unforgotten yet! the morning dew Lies yet undried along my field of noon. But now I pause a while in what I do, And count the bell, and tremble lest I hear (My work untrimmed) the sunset gun too soon. --Robert Louis Stevenson. I fear Life's many changes, not Death's changelessness. So perfect is this moment's passing cheer, I needs must tremble lest it pass to less. Thus in fickle love of life I live, Lest fickle life me of my love deprive. --Owen Meredith. And Jehovah said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore art thou thus fallen upon thy face? Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow. --Joshua 7. 10, 13. Almighty God, help me in these fleeting days that I may not use my time to consider and hesitate, but be positive in my desires and pursue them. Grant that I may have the strength to hold each day precious, and live it more than consistently. Amen. NOVEMBER NINTH Mark Akenside born 1721. William Sotheby born 1757. Charles F. Thwing born 1853. The victor's road is the easy way. Straight it stretches and climbs to where Fame is waiting with garlands gay To wreathe the fighter who clambers there. There's applause in plenty and gold's red gleam For the man who plays on the winning team. The loser travels a longer lane; Level it leads to a lonely land. There's little glory for him to gain The voices mock him on either hand; But the man who wins in the greater game Is the man who, beaten, fights on the same. --G. Rice. The hero is not fed on sweets, Daily his own heart he eats; Chambers of the great are jails, And head-winds right for royal sails. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. He thanked God, and took courage. --Acts 28. 15. O Lord, I pray that whether I may be successful in the sight of the world, or whether I may be successful in my own sacrifices, I may have the freedom of courage, and be master of my life. Amen. NOVEMBER TENTH Martin Luther born 1483. William Hogarth born 1697. Oliver Goldsmith born 1728. Johann von Schiller born 1759. Joaquin Miller born 1841. Henry van Dyke born 1852. As faith, so is God. --Martin Luther. Learn the luxury of doing good. --Oliver Goldsmith. Love is the ladder by which we climb up to the likeness of God. --Johann von Schiller. And who will walk a mile with me Along life's weary way? A friend whose heart has eyes to see The stars shine out o'er the darkening lea, And the quiet rest at the end of the day-- A friend who knows and dares to say, The brave sweet words that cheer the way Where he walks a mile with me. --Henry van Dyke. And whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him two. --Matthew 5. 41. My Father, may I not dwell in the appearances of life, where I may grow selfish; but live in the realities of simplicity. May I not only seek those who may return me pleasure, but may I find delight in brightening the walk of a weary friend. Amen. NOVEMBER ELEVENTH Alfred de Musset born 1810. Thomas Bailey Aldrich born 1836. Rev. Joshua Brookes died 1821. I'll not confer with Sorrow Till to-morrow, But joy shall have her way This very day. --Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Shall we have ears on the stretch for the footfalls of sorrow that never come, but be deaf to the whirr of the wings of happiness that fill all space? --Maurice Maeterlinck. This day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, punishment will overtake, us; now therefore come, let us go and tell the king's household. --2 Kings 7. 9. Loving Father, I pray that thou wilt help me to overcome unhappiness. May I not let depression overpower me, but claim the promises of joy that are open to every life. May I be blest by my own cheerfulness and encourage others to possess it. Amen. NOVEMBER TWELFTH Saint Augustine died A. D. 354. Richard Baxter born 1615. Amelia Opie born 1769. Elizabeth Cady Stanton born 1815. Thomas Lord Fairfax died 1671. In life it is difficult to say who do you the most mischief--enemies with the worst intentions or friends with the best. --Edward Bulwer. The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel. --William Shakespeare. Where persons who ought to esteem and love each other are kept asunder, as often happens, by some cause which three words of frank explanation would remove, they are fortunate if they possess an indiscreet friend who blurts out the whole truth. --Thomas B. Macaulay. Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, Who did eat of my bread, Hath lifted up his heel against me. --Psalm 41. 9. Lord God, help me to consider more carefully what I offer to my friends; and may I not be critical of what I receive from my friends. May I not be a hindrance instead of a help to those who would have my companionship. Amen. NOVEMBER THIRTEENTH Sir John Moore born 1761. Robert Louis Stevenson born 1850. Sir John Forbes died 1861. Little do we know our own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the True Success is to labor. --Robert Louis Stevenson. Whether thy work be fine or coarse, planting corn or writing epics, so only it be honest work, done to thine own approbation, it shall earn a reward to sense as well as to the thought. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nature gives to labor; and to labor alone. In a very garden of Eden a man would starve but for human exertion. --Henry George. But let each man prove his own work, and then shall he have his glorying in regard of himself alone, and not of his neighbor. --Galatians 6. 4. My Father, make pure living clear to me, that I may not be deceived in my work; and may I not use my working hours searching for more suitable work, but may I be sure in what I am that I may feel secure in what I undertake to do. Amen. NOVEMBER FOURTEENTH Bishop Hoadley born 1676. Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel born 1805. Robert Smythe Hichens born 1864. Give us, O give us, the man who sings at his work! Be his occupation what it may, he is better than any of those who follow the same pursuit in silent sullenness. --Thomas Carlyle. What doctor possesses such curative resources as those latent in a single ray of hope? The mainspring of life is in the heart. Joy is the vital air of the soul, and grief is a kind of asthma complicated by atony. --Amiel. I will sing unto Jehovah as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have any being. --Psalm 104. 33. Loving Father, restore the spirit of gentleness and meekness if it may be withered within me, that I may be contented. May I make it a habit to be happy over my work and cheerful about my duties. May I never lose the view of the glory of thy kingdom. Amen. NOVEMBER FIFTEENTH William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, born 1708. William Cowper born 1731. Sir William Herschel born 1738. Johann Lavater born 1741. Richard Henry Dana born 1787. Ida Tarbell born 1857. The parting sun sends out a glow Across the placid bay, Touching with glory all the show-- A breeze! Up helm! Away! Careening to the wind, they reach, With laugh and call, the shore. They've left their footprints on the beach, But them I hear no more. --Richard Henry Dana. Art little? Do thy little well: And for thy comfort know The great can do their greatest work No better than just so. --Goethe. But be thou an ensample to them that believe, in word, in manner of life, in love, in faith, in purity. --1 Timothy 4. 12. Lord God, grant that if I may be complaining of what Providence has not sent me, I may not be neglecting what Providence has given me. May I not pause too long over what I have done, or over what I might have done, but may I be appreciative of what thou dost expect of me and endeavor to accomplish it. Amen. NOVEMBER SIXTEENTH Tiberius born B.C. 42. Gustavus Adolphus killed 1632. Francis Danby born 1793. Judge not the workings of his brain And of his heart thou canst not see; What looks to thy dim eyes a stain In God's pure light may only be A scar, brought from some well-won field, Where thou would'st only faint and yield. And judge none lost; but wait and see, With hopeful pity, not disdain; The depth of the abyss may be The measure of the height of pain And love and glory that may raise The soul to God in after days! --Adelaide A. Procter. I am more afraid of deserving criticism, than of receiving it. --William Gladstone. Judge not, that ye be not judged. --Matthew 7.1. Lord Jehovah, judge of all mankind, forbid that I should set myself as a judge of another's life, and neglect to live for the higher judgment of my own. May I not be absorbed in that which thrives in darkness, but live in the light of honesty and gentleness. Amen. NOVEMBER SEVENTEENTH Queen Mary of England died 1558. Joost van den Vondel born 1587. George Grote born 1794. There are evergreen men and women in the world, praise be to God!--not many of them, but a few. They are not the showy folk. (Nature is an old-fashioned shopkeeper; she never puts her best goods in the window.) They are only the quiet, strong folk; they are stronger than Fate. The storms of life sweep over them, and the biting frosts creep round them; but the winds and the frosts pass away, and they are still standing, green and straight. --Jerome K. Jerome. And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water, That bringeth forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also doth not wither; And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. --Psalm 1.3. Gracious Lord, may I not spend most in equipment and forget the tides, which may desert me on the sands, or the rocks in the channels, which may crush the finest vessel. May I be prepared for the hard knocks if they come, but may I know how to keep clear of them. Amen. NOVEMBER EIGHTEENTH Sir David Wilkie born 1785. Louis J. M. Daguerre born 1789. Cyrus Field born 1819. William S. Gilbert born 1836. If e'er when man had fallen asleep, I heard a voice, "Believe no more," A warmth within the breast would melt The freezing reason's colder part, And like a man in wrath, the heart Stood up and answered, "I have felt." --Alfred Tennyson. Faith is the deep want of the soul. We have faculties for the spiritual, as truly as for the outward world. God, the foundation of all existence, may become to the mind the most real of all beings. The believer feels himself resting on an everlasting foundation. --William Henry Channing. And they said one to another, Was not our heart burning within us, while he spake to us in the way, while he opened to us the scriptures? --Luke 24. 32. Lord God, save me from a hard and doubting heart. May I be trustful and come to thee in faith. All the days of my life may my lips sing thy praise as I unfold thy love and purposes. Amen. NOVEMBER NINETEENTH Nicolas Poussin died 1665. Albert Thorwaldsen born 1770. James A. Garfield, Ohio, twentieth President United States, born 1831. Mary Hallock Foote born 1847. Count Lyoff (Leo) Tolstoy died 1910. And son I live, you see, Go through the world, try, prove, reject, Prefer, still struggling to effect My warfare; happy that I can Be crossed and thwarted as a man, Not left in God's contempt apart, With ghastly smooth life, dead at heart, Tame in earth's paddock, as her prize. --Robert Browning. Be good at the depths of you, and you will discover that those who surround you will be good even to the same depths. Therein lies a force that has no name; a spiritual rivalry that has no resistance. --Maurice Maeterlinck. First of all, I must make myself a man; if I do not succeed in that, I can succeed in nothing. --James A. Garfield. That we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error. --Ephesians 4. 14. Eternal God, I thank thee for all the sterling elements that greaten the individual life. I pray that I may not desire to be kept a small creature, but seek to grow in wisdom and love, and qualify for mighty purposes and achievements. Amen. NOVEMBER TWENTIETH Paul Potter born 1625. Thomas Chatterton born 1752. William Ellery Channing born 1818. Sir Wilfred Laurier born 1841. Then why, my soul, dost thou complain? Why drooping seek the dark recess? Shake off the melancholy chain, For God created all to bless. The gloomy mantle of the night, Which on my sinking spirits steals, Will vanish at the morning light, Which God, my East, my Sun, reveals. --Thomas Chatterton. Lady, there is a hope that all men have-- Some mercy for their faults, a grassy place To rest in, and a flower-strewn, gentle grave: Another hope which purifies our race, That when that fearful bourne forever past, They may find rest--and rest so long to last. I seek it not, I ask no rest forever, My path is onward to the farthest shores. --William Ellery Channing. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay; And he set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he put a new song in my mouth. --Psalm 40. 2, 3. My Father, I pray that I may have patience to live through the difficulties of life. May I correct my faults, that they may not destroy my peace and take from me my strength; help me to center my life in brightness and hope. Amen. NOVEMBER TWENTY-FIRST Claude Lorraine died 1682. Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall) born 1787. Mary Johnston born 1870. There is not a creature from England's king To the peasant that delves the soil, Who knows half the pleasures the seasons bring If he had not his share of toil. --Barry Cornwall. It may be proved, with much certainty, that God intends no man to live in this world without working; but it seems to me no less evident that he intends every man to be happy in his work. Now, in order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; and they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it. --John Ruskin. Let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need. --Ephesians 4. 28. My Father, if my work seems hard to-day, may I not cease working if I grow weary, but may my strength be renewed to continue my work. May the aim of my work be to please thee, and to help in the progress of humanity. Amen. NOVEMBER TWENTY-SECOND Saint Cecilia martyred A.D. 230. Sir Henry Havelock died 1857. Justin M'Carthy born 1830. Sometimes the sun, unkindly hot, My garden makes a desert spot, Sometimes a blight upon the tree Takes all my fruit away from me; And then with throes of bitter pain Rebellious passions rise and swell; And so I sing and all is well. --Paul Laurence Dunbar. Such songs have power to quiet The restless pulse of care, And come like benediction That follows after prayer. --Henry W. Longfellow. Songs consecrate to truth and liberty. --Percy Bysshe Shelley. David took the harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. --1 Samuel 16. 23. Almighty God, I thank thee that thou wilt come to me as my heart cries for need. I bless thee that thou dost come to me as my lips sing thy praise. I pray that I may be saved from a cruel and cheerless heart, and be a sharer of the songs that are sung to the soul. Amen. NOVEMBER TWENTY-THIRD Thomas Tallis died 1585. Franklin Pierce, New Hampshire, fourteenth President United States, born 1804. Marie Bashkirtseff born 1860. Asleep, awake, by night or day, The friends I seek are seeking me; No word can drive my bark astray, Nor change the tide of destiny. The stars come nightly to the sky, The tidal wave unto the sea; Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high, Can keep my own away from me. --John Burroughs. If a man could make a single rose we would give him an empire; yet flowers no less beautiful are scattered in profusion over the world, and no one regards them. --Martin Luther. Let patience have its perfect work. --James 1. 4. My Creator, may I remember that after thou didst create the earth thou didst say it was good. May I love the fragrance and beauty of the flowers which were made to nourish the soul, and the fruits and herbs which were made to nourish the body. May my song of thanksgiving be new every morning, as I awake in the abundance of what thou hast prepared. Amen. NOVEMBER TWENTY-FOURTH John Knox died 1572. Baron Spinoza born 1632. Grace Darling born 1815. Frances Hodgson Burnett born 1849. I waited long until the sky Should give me of its blue To weave and wear, and share, and weave The very stars into. The days they went, the years they went, And left my hands instead Another thing for wonderment, The mending and the bread. Ah me, and one must set a hand To burnish up the task, And hush and hush the old demand A wakeful heart will ask. But with a star's clear eye on me, O, I can hear it said, "What souls there be that only see The mending and the bread!" --Josephine P. Peabody. The riches of a commonwealth Are free, strong minds and hearts of health. And more to her than gold or grain, The cunning hand and cultured brain. --John G. Whittier. For the life is more than the food, and the body than the raiment. --Luke 12. 23. My Father, I pray that thou wilt help me, that I may not consume my life in preparing clothes and food for my body. Amen. NOVEMBER TWENTY-FIFTH Charles Kemble born 1775. John Bigelow born 1817. Paul Haupt born 1858. John Kitto died 1854. I will not kill or hurt any living creature needlessly, nor destroy any beautiful thing, but will strive to save and comfort all gentle life and guard and perfect all natural beauty on earth. I will strive to raise my own body and soul daily into all the higher powers of duty and-happiness, not in rivalship or contention with others, but for help, delight, and honor of others and for the joy and peace of my own life. --John Ruskin. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea. --Isaiah 11. 9. Lord God, I rejoice in the blessedness of peace. May I not try to force peace where cruelty has entered, but keep a watch for what may come into my life. I pray that if I may be in turbulence to-day, thou wilt quiet me with thy peace which knows no fear or wrong. Amen. NOVEMBER TWENTY-SIXTH Sir William Ware born 1594. John Elwes died 1789. John Loudoun Macadam died 1836. I'd like a way To change the clouds that bring us sorrow, And build to-day a bright to-morrow; To banish cares that tarry long, And have the days like the blue-bird's song-- I'd like a way. I'll find a way-- I'll set sail when the breeze is high, And calmly drift when pleasure's nigh; I'll steer a course afar from tears, And take in joy the coming years-- I'll find a way. I've lost the way! Out through the gloom a beam of light Looks like a purpose looming bright! Up with the sail! I'll out to sea And bring that purpose back with me, Or go its way. --M.B.S. Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: He is gracious, and merciful, and righteous. --Psalm 112. 4. My Father, I pray that I may not through indifference wander without a purpose, or through discouragement stumble through the darkness. May I be drawn to the light by the vision of hopeful and useful days. Amen. NOVEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH Horace died B.C. 8. Marquise d'Aubigné Maintenon born 16324. General Artemus Ward born 1727. Fanny Kemble born 1809. Alexandra Dumas died 1895. Be this thy brazen bulwark of defense, to preserve a conscience void of offense, and never turn pale with guilt. --Horace. Is life a noxious weed which whirlwinds sow? A useless flint o'er which the waters flow? Not so! A life well spent has not its weight in gold; It is the clearest crystal earth doth hold, A gem beside which suns seem dull and cold. --Robert Louis Stevenson. That they may lay hold on the life which is life indeed. --1 Timothy 6. 19. Lord God, I pray that my life may not be impoverished by neglect, nor burdened with indulgences, but that it may be kept in condition for high endeavors. Grant that I may never be content to rest in satisfaction and ease when I could struggle and accomplish a good work. Amen. NOVEMBER TWENTY-EIGHTH William Blake born 1757. Anton G. Rubinstein born 1829 Washington Irving died 1859. The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal, every other affliction to forget. Take warning by the bitterness of this thy contrite affliction over the dead, and henceforth be more faithful and affectionate in the discharge of thy duties to the living. --Washington Irving. Joy and woe are woven fine, A clothing for the soul divine; Every grief and pine Runs a joy with a silken twine. --William Blake. Ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. --John 16. 20. Heavenly Father, grant that I may not lose the kindness that I may give and receive to-day. I thank thee for the memories of yesterday, the hope of to-morrow, and the wisdom of to-day. May I have a vision of immortality that will keep me through the closest sorrow. Amen. NOVEMBER TWENTY-NINTH Sir Philip Sidney born 1554. A. Bronson Alcott born 1799. Wendell Phillips born 1811. Louisa M. Alcott born 1832. Truth is sensitive and jealous of the least encroachment of its sacredness. --A. Bronson Alcott. Faith that withstood the shocks of toil and time, Hope that defied despair, Patience that conquered care, And loyalty whose courage was sublime; Teaching us how to seek the highest goal, To earn the true success; To live to love, to bless, And make death proud to take a royal soul. --Louisa M. Alcott. Nor is it Wiser to weep a true occasion lost, But trim our sails, and let old bygones be. --Alfred Tennyson. In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before times eternal. --Titus 1. 2. Heavenly Father, I pray that I may live in truth; and without fear of life or death live content in the faith of eternal life. Amen. NOVEMBER THIRTIETH Peregrine White born New England 1620. Jonathan Swift born 1687. Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) born 1835. Winston Churchill born 1874. He gave it for his opinion that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together. --Jonathan Swift. That man may last, but never lives, Who much receives, but nothing gives; Whom none can love, whom none can thank,-- Creation's blot, creation's blank. --Thomas Gibbons. Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again. --Luke 6. 38. My Father, preserve my soul from all selfishness. May I delight in thy teaching as I trust in thy word. I pray that I may not only speak truthfully, but that I may leave the door of my spirit open, that truth may always enter and abide continually. Amen. DECEMBER He comes--he comes--the Frost Spirit comes: You may trace his footsteps now On the naked woods and the blasted fields, And the brown hill's withered brow. He has smitten the leaves of the gray old trees, Where their green came forth, And the winds, which follow wherever he goes, Have shaken them down to earth. He comes--he comes--the Frost Spirit comes! Let us meet him as we may, And turn with the light of the parlor fire His evil power away; And gather closer the circle round, Where the firelight dances high, And laugh at the shriek of the baffled fiend, As his sounding wing goes by. --John G. Whittier. DECEMBER FIRST Dr. George Birkbeck died 1841. Queen Alexandra born 1844. R.W. Dale born 1829. Ebenezer Elliott died 1849. We would fill the hours with the sweetest things, If we had but a day: We should drink alone at the purest springs, In our upward way: We should guide our wayward or wearied will, By the clearest light: We should keep our eyes on the heavenly hills, If they lay in sight: We should be from our clamorous selves set free, To work and pray: And be what the Father would have us to be, If we had but a day. --Margaret E. Sangster. Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. --Philippians 4. 8. Gracious Father, help me to understand that my life grows out of what I put into my days. Forgive me for the unspoken words and the kind deeds which I kept for rare days, and had so few occasions to use. May I be as useful in kindness as I am in work, remembering that to thee every day is a golden day. Amen. DECEMBER SECOND David Masson born 1822. John Brown hanged, Charlestown, West Virginia 1859. Hugh Miller died 1856. The solitude of life is known to us all; for the most part we are alone, and the voices of friends come only faint and broken across the impassable gulfs which surround every human soul. --Hamilton Mabie. To have an ideal or to have none, to have this ideal or that--this is what digs gulfs between men, even between those who live in the same family circle, under the same roof, or in the same room. You must love with the same love, think with the same thoughts as some one else if you are to escape solitude. --Amiel. The plans of the heart belong to man; But the answer of the tongue is from Jehovah. --Proverbs 16. 1. Lord God, help me to take in the glory of life, that my spirit may never be lonely, even though I may have to be much alone. I pray that thou wilt spare me the loneliness and the solitude that may be brought on by selfishness. Make me considerate of others. May I soar above the disappointments and losses that may come to me, and stay where I may have thy companionship. Amen. DECEMBER THIRD Samuel Crompton born 1753. Sir Frederick Leighton born 1830. Robert Louis Stevenson died 1894. To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying "Amen" to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive. --Robert Louis Stevenson. There is precious instruction to be got by finding we were wrong. Let a man try faithfully, manfully to be right. He will grow daily more and more right. --Thomas Carlyle. The hero is the man who is immovably centered. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. Let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience: and having our body washed with pure water. --Hebrews 10. 22. Gracious Father, grant that I may not be content to follow through ignorance and indolence and be led to the lowly paths of life. Make my Hie positive; and from my surroundings may I look out and struggle to mount to the highest ideals, that I may be qualified to select the best in life. Amen. DECEMBER FOURTH Cardinal Richelieu died 1642. William Drummond died 1649. Madame Recamier born 1777. Thomas Carlyle born 1795. John Kitto born 1804. It is with a man's soul as it is with nature: the beginning of Creation is--Light. Till the eye have visions the whole members are in bonds. Divine moment, when over the tempest-tost Soul, as once over the wild-weltering Chaos, it is spoken: Let there be Light! --Thomas Carlyle. What in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That to the light of this great argument I may assert eternal Providence And justify the ways of God to men. --John Milton. For thou art my lamp, O Jehovah; And Jehovah will lighten my darkness. --2 Samuel 22. 29. My Lord, forgive me if I have allowed bitterness and misery to darken my life, for my soul yearns continually for the light. In thy compassion lead me to the "sunny side of the road where the beautiful flowers grow," that my path may be made bright and cheerful all the rest of the way. Amen. DECEMBER FIFTH Martin Van Buren, New York, eighth President United States, born 1782. Christina G. Rossetti born 1830. Alice Brown born 1857. A cold wind stirs the blackthorn To burgeon and to blow, Besprinkling half-green hedges With flakes and sprays of snow. Through coldness and through keenness, Dear hearts take comfort so: Somewhere or other doubtless These make the blackthorn blow. --Christina G. Rossetti. There are some men and women in whose company we are always at our best. All the best stops in our nature are drawn out by their intercourse, and we find a music in our souls never there before. --Henry Drummond. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works. --Hebrews 10. 24. My Father, I thank thee for life. Make me sensitive to the unseen influences that bring thy messages. May I be led where great riches may be found through small kindnesses, and where I may learn from the meek the beauty of earth. Amen. DECEMBER SIXTH General George Monk born 1608. Warren Hastings born 1732. Dr. Richard Barham born 1786. That low man seeks a little thing to do, Sees it and does it: This high man, with a great thing to pursue, Dies ere he knows it. That low man goes on adding one to one, His hundred's soon hit: This high man, aiming at a million, Misses an unit. That, has the world here--should he need the next, Let the world mind him! This, throws himself on God, and unperplexed Seeking shall find him. --Robert Browning. Hitch your wagon to a star. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Jehovah, will I seek. --Psalm 27. 8. Almighty God, show me what thou hast given for me to do, that I may not leave undone that which is mine. Forgive me for useless planning and blind asking for the things which cannot be mine. I pray that my work may be honest work, well done, and acceptable for thy service. Amen. DECEMBER SEVENTH Cicero assassinated B.C. 43. John Dalton born 1766. Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, born 1542. It is virtue--yes, let me repeat it again--it is virtue alone that can give birth, strength, and permanency to friendship. For virtue is a uniform and steady principle ever acting consistently with itself. --Cicero. A common friendship--who talks of a common friendship? There is no such thing in the world. On earth no word is more sublime. --Henry Drummond. But thou shalt surely open thy hand unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need. --Deuteronomy 15. 8. Lord God, wilt thou reveal to me my weakness if I may be insincere; and give me the strength that I lack to keep me true. May I not take advantage of the ignorant, or thoughtlessly lead the innocent into temptation. Grant that I may be a trustful and kind friend. Amen. DECEMBER EIGHTH John Pym died 1643. Richard Baxter died 1691. Thomas De Quincey died 1859. Elihu Burritt born 1810. Robert Collyer born 1823. Into the dusk of the East, Gray with the coming of night, This may we know at least-- After the night comes light! Over the mariners' graves, Grim in the depths below, Buoyantly breasting the waves, Into the East we go. On to a distant strand, Wonderful, far, unseen, On to a stranger land, Skimming the seas between; On through the days and nights, Hope in each sailor's breast, On till the harbor lights Flash on the shores of rest! J.H. Jowett. So he bringeth them unto their desired haven. --Psalm 107. 30. Lord God, I pray that thou wilt provide me with thy indwelling peace. May it keep me reconciled to the decline of years, and enable me to bear the earthly separation from those whom I love. May I always have hope and trust in thee. Amen. DECEMBER NINTH John Milton born 1608. Sir Anthony Van Dyck died 1641. Joel Chandler Harris born 1848. Doth God exact day labor, light denied? I fondly ask: but Patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need Either man's work, or his own gifts; who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best; his state Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest; They also serve who only stand and wait." --John Milton. "'Tain't on'y chilluns w'at got de consate er doin' eve'ything dey see yuther folks do. Hit's grown folks w'at oughter know better," said Uncle Remus. --Joel Chandler Harris. Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe. --Hebrews 12. 28. My Father, teach me to select my work from that which is noble and true. May I not mold my life in affectation or feel that I must imitate the lives of others, but grant that I may perfect my life through experiences which are worthy of increasing endeavors. Amen. DECEMBER TENTH Thomas Holcroft born 1745. Dr. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet born 1787. Eugene Sue born 1804. Be of good cheer. Do not think of to-day's failures, but of success that may come to-morrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will have a joy in overcoming obstacles--a delight in climbing rugged paths which you would perhaps never know if you did not sometimes slip backward, if the road were always smooth and pleasant. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost. --Helen Keller. We rise by things that are beneath our feet, By what we have mastered by good and gain, By the pride deposed and passion slain, And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet. --J.G. Holland. He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with, me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne. --Revelation 3. 21. My Father, I pray that I may not be given to contradicting and doubting, nor take for granted that which needs to be considered. Grant that I may have the faith and strength of heart to fulfill the longings of my soul. Amen. DECEMBER ELEVENTH Sir Roger L'Estrange died 1704. Dr. William Cullen born 1712. Colley Cibber died 1757. Lord, subdue our selfish will; Each to each our tempers suit, By thy modulating skill, Heart to heart, as lute to lute. --Charles Wesley. One of the last, slowly murmured sayings of Whittier, was this: "Give--my--love--to--the--world." And this is the world's supreme need to-day; more than our eloquence, or our knowledge, or our wealth, or all else besides, it needs our love. True, even love may sometimes err; but the cure for love's mistakes is just more love; we often blunder because we do not love enough. God help us all that, like Whittier, we may live and die, giving our love to the world. --George Jackson. Love never faileth. --1 Corinthians 13. 8. Lord God, help me to see the beauty of the world, and through my duty may I find the love in the world. May I not spend my life in discontent, but may I remember that thou hast said, "The meek shall inherit the earth." Fill my heart with compassion, that I may love my fellow man as I love myself. Amen. DECEMBER TWELFTH Chief Justice John Jay born 1745. Gustav Flaubert born 1821. Robert Browning died 1889. A people is but the attempt of many To rise to the completer life of one. And those who live for models for the mass Are singly of more value than they all. --Robert Browning. Give me the power to labor for mankind; Make me the mouth of such as cannot speak; Eyes let me be to groping men and blind; A conscience to the base; and to the weak Let me be hands and feet, and to the foolish, mind; And lead still further on such as thy kingdom seek. --Theodore Parker. I was eyes to the blind, And feet was I to the lame. --Job 29. 15. Almighty God, wilt thou guide me in the direction where I may choose a useful life; open wide my heart as well as my eyes, that I may early see my work and be diligent in its prosecution. Reveal to me, when I may have failed, that I may do better to-morrow. Amen. DECEMBER THIRTEENTH William Drummond born 1585. Dr. Samuel Johnson died 1784. Joseph Noel Paton born 1821. Phillips Brooks born 1835. Hamilton Mabie born 1846. When the clouds of sorrow gather over us, we see nothing beyond them, nor can imagine how they can be dispelled; yet a new day succeeded to the night, and sorrow is never long without a dawn of ease. --Dr. Samuel Johnson. The fountains of joy and sorrow are for the most part locked up in ourselves.... There come to great, solitary, and sorely smitten souls moments of clear insight, of assurance of victory, of unspeakable fellowship with truth and life and God, which outweigh years of sorrow and bitterness. --Hamilton Mabie. And ye therefore now have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh away from you. --John 16. 22. My Father, may I remember that the days of my life that I give over to grief can never be reclaimed. Help me that I may not want to keep sorrow in my life, but with faith may I believe that "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Amen. DECEMBER FOURTEENTH Daniel Neal born 1678. Rev. Charles Wolfe born 1791. George Washington died 1799. Frances Ridley Havergal born 1836. Seldom can the heart be lonely, If it seek a lonelier still; Self-forgetting, seeking only Emptier cups of love to fill. --Frances R. Havergal. When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought. And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste * * * * * But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restored, and sorrows end. --William Shakespeare. The Lord Jehovah hath given me the tongue of them that are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary. --Isaiah 50. 4. Gracious Father, keep me cheerful and courageous, that I may not be given to weary murmurings. May my hours of solitude be spent profitably as they pass. Grant that I may be a help to those who are in need of sympathy and encouragement, and through the peace that is given to me help them to a tranquil life. Amen. DECEMBER FIFTEENTH Catherine of Aragon born 1485. George Romney born 1734. Franklin B. Sanborn born 1831. Yet frequent visitors shall kiss the shrine, And ever keep its vestal lamp alight; All noble thoughts, all dreams divinely bright, That waken or delight this soul of mine. --F.B. Sanborn. One small cloud can hide the sunlight; Loose one string, the pearls are scattered; Think one thought, a soul may perish; Say one word, a heart may break. --A.A. Procter. Self-scrutiny is often the most unpleasant, and always the most difficult, of moral actions. But it is also the most important and salutary; for, as the wisest of the Greeks said, "An unexamined life is not worth living." --J. Strachan. Try your own selves, whether ye are in the faith; prove your own selves. --2 Corinthians 13. 5. Gracious Father, help me that I may not be thoughtless and unkind. May I be gentle and sympathetic. Forgive me for any unhappiness which I may have made, and may it be mine to know the rejoicing that comes hi lifting a discouraged life in time. Amen. DECEMBER SIXTEENTH John Selden born 1584. François La Rochefoucauld born 1610. George Whitefield born 1714. Jane Austen born 1775. So live that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan that moves To that mysterious realm where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him and lies down to pleasant dreams. --William Cullen Bryant. As the wind extinguishes a taper but kindles the fire, so absence is the death of an ordinary passion, but lends strength to the greater. --La Rochefoucauld. If a man die, shall he live again? --Job 14. 14. Heavenly Father, with thy help may I enter into the hope that overcomes the fear of death. May my days be full of aspiration, and through faith may my life move toward the eternal and the sublime. Amen. DECEMBER SEVENTEENTH Sir Roger L'Estrange born 1616. Ludwig van Beethoven born 1770. Sir Humphry Davy born 1779. John Greenleaf Whittier born 1807. The night is mother of the day, The winter of the spring; And ever upon old decay The greenest mosses cling. Behind the cloud the starlight lurks, Through showers the sunbeams fall; For God, who loveth all his works, Has left his hope with all. --John Greenleaf Whittier. The sun set; but not his hope: Stars rose; his faith was earlier up. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. What I am I have made myself. --Sir Humphry Davy. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: My flesh also shall dwell in safety. --Psalm 16. 9. My Father, may I never be content to pass by thy beautiful offerings and keep on in wretched despair. Save me if I may 'be inclining toward misery. Give me the spirit of repose, and help me to confide in thee as I daily seek the strength of thy love. Amen. DECEMBER EIGHTEENTH Charles Wesley born 1708. Lyman Abbott born 1835. Samuel Rogers died 1855. Sir Joseph John Thomson born 1845. And let this feeble body fail, And let it faint or die; My soul shall quit this mournful vale, And soar to worlds on high. --Charles Wesley. It were better to live an immortal life and be robbed of immortality hereafter by some supernal power, than to live the mortal, fleshly animal life, and live it endlessly. Who would not rather have a right to immortality than to be immortal without a right to be? --Lyman Abbott. So when a great man dies, For years beyond our ken, The light he leaves behind him lies Upon the paths of men. --Henry W. Longfellow. But he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life. --Galatians 6. 8. My Father, I pray that I may be spared the deprivations that may come from years spent in selfishness. Help me to realize before it is too late how little self can hold and how much remorse may accumulate. Help me to aspire to ideals that compel me to live an immortal life. Amen. DECEMBER NINETEENTH Gustavus Adolphus born 1594. Horatio Bonar born 1808. F. Delsarte born 1811. Mary A. Livermore born 1820. J.M.W. Turner died 1851. If a man is to be a pillar in the temple of his God by and by, he must be some kind of a prop in God's house to-day. We are here to support, not to be supported. No one can be a living stone on the foundations of the Spiritual House which is God's habitation without being a foundation to the stones above him. --Maltbie Babcock. Since trifles make the sum of human things, And half our misery from our foibles springs; Since life's best joys consist in peace and ease, O let th' ungentle spirit learn from hence, A small unkindness is a great offense. --Hannah More. He that overcometh I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out thence no more. --Revelation 3. 12. My Father, grant that I may not deceive myself and expect big results from little efforts; nor be willing to receive assistance and refuse my support. May I not only be anxious to give others all that I can, and share their burdens, but may I be glad to help make fewer burdens for others to bear. Amen. DECEMBER TWENTIETH Louis the Dauphin died 1765. John Wilson Croker born 1780. Cyrus Townsend Brady born 1861. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken. It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. --William Shakespeare. I will not doubt the love untold Which not my worth nor want hath bought, Which wooed me young and wooes me old, And to this evening hath me brought. --Henry David Thoreau. Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. --Jeremiah 81. 3. Loving Father, teach me the secret of constancy, that none may ever be disappointed in me. May I not reckon what I give on recompense, but have the spirit of giving which has no measure for what it may receive in return. May I not be forgetful of thy love which will hold me to deeper reverence and devotion. Amen. DECEMBER TWENTY-FIRST Jean Baptiste Racine born 1639. Robert Moffat born 1795. Laura Bridgman born 1829. To think and to feel constitute the two grand divisions of men and genius--the men of reasoning and the men of imagination. --Disraeli. Grow old along with me! the best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made: Our times are in his hand who saith, a whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid! --Robert Browning. But the path of the righteous is as the dawning light, That shineth more and more unto the perfect day. --Proverbs 4. 18. Almighty God, I pray that I may have the grace to penetrate the deep things of life and test their truth and greatness. May I have faith in thy power and train for the best which thou hast made possible for me to live. Help me to think and feel aright, that I may be thine to-day, and in the days of to-morrow may I still be thine, ever keeping bright memories of past days. Amen. DECEMBER TWENTY-SECOND Franz Abt born 1819. Thomas W. Higginson born 1823. George Eliot died 1880. Love and Pain Make their own measure of all things that be. No clock's slow ticking marks their deathless strain; The life they own is not the life we see; Love's single moment is eternity. --Thomas W. Higginson. Life is made stronger Giving, receiving; Love is made longer Hoping, believing. Life is made sweeter, Truly worth living; Love is completer, Trusting, forgiving. --M.B.S. In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another; in honor preferring one another. --Romans 12. 10. Loving Father, I thank thee that every morn breaks in a new day without the sadness of yesterday or the gladness of to-morrow. I pray that I may not lose the love and joy that it brings to-day. Amen. DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD Michael Drayton died 1631. Robert Barclay born 1648. James Sargent Storer died 1854. When heaven endows you with all gifts, you are an incomplete being if you stay still in your corner instead of taking advantage of your real value. --Marie Bashkirtseff. Life, which ought to be a thing complete in itself, and ought to be spent partly in gathering materials, and partly in drawing inferences, is apt to be a hurried accumulation lasting to the edge of the tomb. We are put into the world, I cannot help feeling, to be rather than do. --Arthur C. Benson. Jehovah is the strength of my life. --Psalm 27. 1. Heavenly Father, I pray that thou wilt reverse my standards of life if I may be striving only for selfish gain. May I care for all that I could be, and may I care for where I should be found, but, most of all, may I care for what I really am. Help me to keep my mind on thee that I may find delight in doing thy will. Amen. DECEMBER TWENTY-FOURTH George Crabbe born 1754. Kit Carson born 1809. Matthew Arnold born 1822. John Morley born 1838. William Makepeace Thackeray died 1863. Ah, friend, let us be true To one another! For the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain, And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. --Matthew Arnold. We take care of our health, we lay up money, we make our roof tight and our clothing sufficient, but who provides wisely that we shall not be wanting in the best property of all--friends? --Ralph Waldo Emerson. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. --Proverbs 27. 6. Gracious Lord, fill my life with the spirit of love and sacrifice. I bless thee for the deep fellowships and tender intimacies; and on the eve of this Christmas ask thy blessing for all, as my heart rings with joy for those whom I love. Amen. DECEMBER TWENTY-FIFTH Christmas Day. Sir Isaac Newton born 1642. William Collins born 1721. Father Taylor born 1794. This is the month, and this is the happy morn, Wherein the Son of heaven's eternal King, Of wedded maid, and virgin mother born, Our great redemption from above did bring. --John Milton. Christmas is here; Winds whistle shrill, Icy and chill, Little care we; Little we fear Weather without, Shelter'd about The Mahogany tree. --William M. Thackeray. And the angel said unto them, Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people: for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. --Luke 2. 10, 11. Almighty God, I give honor and praise to express my joy for thy great love in the gift of thy Son, Jesus Christ. With a glad heart I wish all mankind "A merry Christmas," and may I ever remember, where the angels sang, "Peace on earth, good will toward men." Amen. DECEMBER TWENTY-SIXTH Thomas Gray born 1716. Mrs. Southworth born 1818. Stephen Girard died 1831. Let not ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile The short and simple annals of the poor. Nor you, ye proud, impute to those the fault, If memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise, Where, through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault, The pealing anthem swells the note of praise. Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. --Thomas Gray. Jehovah, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; Neither do I exercise myself in great matters, Or in things too wonderful for me. --Psalm 131. 1. Gracious Father, give me the courage to live my life, and the endurance to overcome the disappointments that may come to me. May I not be neglectful of the great opportunities of which I am privileged to take advantage. May I not be pretentious of what I have not done, or boastful of what I am, but with my best ability live in truth. Amen. DECEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH Jacques Bernoulli born 1654. Johann Kepler born 1571. Charles Lamb died 1834. There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better or worse, as his portion; that, though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. Knowing ourselves, our world, our task so great, Our time so brief, 'tis clear if we refuse The means so limited, the tools so rude To execute our purpose, life will fleet, And we shall fade, and leave our task undone. --Robert Browning. Study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your hands. --1 Thessalonians 4. 11. Lord God of life, give me the desire to learn, and the wisdom to live in my best. May I not fail to culture my mind and heart and make life productive and worthy. Help me to see the mistakes that I have made in the past, and in the year that is approaching not only try to avoid them, but try to make amends for them. Amen. DECEMBER TWENTY-EIGHTH Catherine M. Sedgwick born 1789. Woodrow Wilson, Virginia, twenty-seventh President United States, born 1856. Thomas B. Macaulay died 1859. The government might be serviceable for many things. It might assist in a hundred ways to safeguard the lives and the health and promote the comfort and happiness of the people; but it can do these things only if they respond to public opinion, only if those who lead government see the country as a whole, feel a deep thrill of intimate sympathy with every class and every interest in it. --Woodrow Wilson. The hearts of men are their books; events are their tutors; great actions are their eloquence. --Thomas B. Macaulay. Be of good courage, and let us play the man for our people, and for the cities of our God: and Jehovah do that which seemeth him good. --2 Samuel 10. 12. Lord God, I pray that my estimate of life may not be as I take it, but as thou hast given it for peace and prosperity. Teach me my duty to my country, and make me useful in uplifting and serving humanity. Amen. DECEMBER TWENTY-NINTH Thomas a Becket died 1170. Andrew Johnson, Tennessee, seventeenth President United States, born 1808. William E. Gladstone born 1809. Margaret Bottome born 1827. Pauline O. Louise, Queen of Roumania (Carmen Sylva), born 1843. Christina G. Rossetti died 1894. One example is worth a thousand arguments. --William E. Gladstone. One day at a time! That's all it can be No faster than that is the hardest of fate, And days have their limit, however we Begin them too early or stretch them late. --J.R. Miller. He lives happy and master of himself Who can say, as each day passes on, I have lived! no matter whether to-morrow The great Father shall give us a clouded sky or a clear day. --Horace. Give us this day our daily bread. --Matthew 6. 11. Eternal God, guard me against the love of praise, that I may not lose the sense of duty. Start me for the right places and give me strength with my days, that I may press toward their possession. Deliver me from drifting when it is mine to pull against the tide, that I may not be carried out of my course. Shield me from the storms that may gather about me, and bring us all to the desired haven safe in thy keeping. Amen. DECEMBER THIRTIETH Titus born A.D. 40. William R. Alger born 1822. Rudyard Kipling born 1865. God of our fathers, known of old, Lord of our far-flung battle line, Beneath whose awful hand we hold Dominion over palm and pine: Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget--lest we forget! For heathen heart that puts her trust In reeking tube and iron shard; All valiant dust that builds on dust, And guarding calls not thee to guard: For frantic boast and foolish word, Thy mercy on thy people, Lord! Amen. --Rudyard Kipling. But thou shalt remember Jehovah thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth. --Deuteronomy 8. 18. Almighty God, as I come to thee wilt thou forgive me for the errors I have made, and for the promises that I have broken. Help me to be as true as the holly that keeps itself red through the snow. Remind me of my opportunities as I breathe in thy blessings, "Lest I forget!" Amen. DECEMBER THIRTY-FIRST New Year's Eve. John Wycliffe died 1384. Battle of Wakefield 1460. Charles Marquis Cornwallis born 1738. Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out old shapes of foul disease, Ring out the narrow lust of gold: Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace. --Alfred Tennyson. Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close. --John Ruskin. The night is far spent, and the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. --Romans 13. 12. My Father, as I look to the past days, I feel much of my happiness and much of my misery has come from my own choice. May I be more watchful of my standards and less wasteful of my time, and keep a poise in life that will leave a memory of well-spent days. For the year that has passed and for its blessings I thank thee. Amen. 
23241	----	Transcriber's Note: In the "April 15" meditation, the author mentions reading from Tennyson's "Palace of Sin", which doesn't appear to exist. Possibly "Vision of Sin" was meant? DAILY MEDITATION "_The greatest living master of the homiletic art._" --_British Weekly._ by J. H. JOWETT, D.D. Things That Matter Most Devotional Papers. A Book of Spiritual Uplift and Comfort. 12mo, cloth, net $1.25 The Transfigured Church A Portrayal of the Possibilities Within the Church. 12mo, cloth, net $1.25 The High Calling Meditations on St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians, 12mo, cloth, net $1.25 The Silver Lining A Message of Hope and Cheer, for the Troubled and Tried. 12mo, cloth, net $1.00 Our Blessed Dead 16mo, boards, net 25c The Passion for Souls Devotional Messages for Christian Workers. 16mo, cloth, net 50c The Folly of Unbelief And Other Meditations for Quiet Moments. 12mo, cloth, net 50c * * * * * _SENTENCE PRAYERS for EVERY DAY_ ================================ "Brief, pertinent, helpful. Each prayer can be read in a minute, but will give inspiration for the entire day." The Daily Altar A Prayer for Each Day. Cloth, net 25c Leather, net 35c Yet Another Day A Prayer for Each Day. 32mo, cloth, net 25c Leather, net 35c A new large type edition. Cloth, net 75c Leather, net $1.00 * * * * * MY DAILY MEDITATION FOR THE CIRCLING YEAR by JOHN HENRY JOWETT New York Chicago Fleming H. Revell Company Copyright, 1914, by Fleming H. Revell Company New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 125 N. Wabash Ave. Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street FOREWORD The title of this book sufficiently interprets its purpose. I hope it may lead to such practical meditation upon the Word of God as will supply vision to common tasks, and daily nourishment to the conscience and will. And I trust that it may so engage the thoughts upon the wonders of meditation, as will fortify the soul for its high calling in Jesus Christ our Lord. J. H. JOWETT. Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York. JANUARY The First _THE UNKNOWN JOURNEY_ "_He went out not knowing whither he went._" --HEBREWS xi. 6-10. Abram began his journey without any knowledge of his ultimate destination. He obeyed a noble impulse without any discernment of its consequences. He took "one step," and he did not "ask to see the distant scene." And that is faith, to do God's will here and now, quietly leaving the results to Him. Faith is not concerned with the entire chain; its devoted attention is fixed upon the immediate link. Faith is not knowledge of a moral process; it is fidelity in a moral act. Faith leaves something to the Lord; it obeys His immediate commandment and leaves to Him direction and destiny. And so faith is accompanied by serenity. "He that believeth shall not make haste"--or, more literally, "shall not get into a fuss." He shall not get into a panic, neither fetching fears from his yesterdays nor from his to-morrows. Concerning his yesterdays faith says, "Thou hast beset me behind." Concerning his to-morrows faith says, "Thou hast beset me before." Concerning his to-day faith says, "Thou hast laid Thine hand upon me." That is enough, just to feel the pressure of the guiding hand. JANUARY The Second _THE LARGER OUTLOOK_ GENESIS xv. 5-18. "And He brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven!" The tent was changed for the sky! Abraham sat moodily in his tent: God brought him forth beneath the stars. And that is always the line of the Divine leading. He brings us forth out of our small imprisonments and He sets our feet in a large place. He desires for us height and breadth of view. For "as the heavens are high above the earth" so are His thoughts higher than our thoughts, and His ways than our ways. He wishes us, I say, to exchange the tent for the sky, and to live and move in great, spacious thoughts of His purposes and will. How is it with our love? Is it a thing of the tent or of the sky? Does it range over mighty spaces seeking benedictions for a multitude? Or does it dwell in selfish seclusion, imprisoned in merely selfish quest? How is it with our prayers? How big are they? Will a tent contain them, or do they move with the scope and greatness of the heavens? Do they just contain our own families, or is China in them, and India, and "the uttermost parts of the earth"? "Look now towards the heavens!" Such must be our outlook if we are the companions of God. JANUARY The Third _THE NEVER-FAILING SPRINGS_ GENESIS xvii. 1-8. "I will establish My covenant." The good promises of God are never revoked. They are like springs which know no shrinking in times of drought. Nay, in time of drought they reveal a richer fulness. The promises are confirmed in the hour of my need, and the greater my need the greater is my bounty. And so it was that the Apostle Paul came to "rejoice in his infirmities," for through his infirmities he discovered the riches of Divine grace. He brought a bigger pitcher to the fountain, and he always carried it away full. "As thy days so shall thy strength be." So I need never fear that the promise of yesterday will exhaust itself before to-morrow. God's covenant goes with us like the ever-fresh waters of the wilderness. "They drank of that rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ." Every fulfilment of God's promise is the pledge of one to come. God has no road without its springs. If His path stretches across the waste wilderness the "fountains shall break out in the desert," and "the wilderness shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." JANUARY The Fourth _THE GOD OF THEIR SUCCEEDING RACE_ EXODUS vi. 2-8. "I appeared unto Abraham.... I will be to you a God." The covenant made with the father was renewed to the children. The father's death did not disannul the promise of the Lord. Death has no power in the realms of grace. His moth and his rust can never destroy the ministries of Divine love. Abraham died and was laid to rest, but the river of life flowed on, and the bounties of the Lord never failed. The village well quenches the thirst of many generations: and so is it through the generations with the wells of grace and salvation. The villagers have not to dig a new well when the patriarch dies: "the river of God is full of water." And thus I am privileged to share the spiritual resources of Abraham, and the still richer resources of the Apostle Paul. Nothing was given to him that is withheld from me. He is like a great mountaineer, and he has climbed to lofty heights; but I need not be dismayed. All the strength that was given to him, in which he reached those lofty places, is mine also. I may share his elevation and his triumph. "For the promise is unto you and your children, and to all that are afar off." JANUARY The Fifth _THE FLOWERS THAT NEVER FADE_ 1 PETER i. 1-9. "An inheritance incorruptible." I am writing these words in the Island of Arran. To-morrow I shall leave the land behind, but I shall take the landscape with me! It will be with me in the coming winter, and I shall gaze upon Goat Fell in the streets of New York. The land is a temporary possession, the landscape abides! The praise of men often dies with the shout that proclaims it. Another idol appears and the feverish worship is transferred to him. The world's garland begins to fade as soon as it is laid upon the brow. The morning after the coronation I possess a handful of withering leaves. But the garland of God's praise acquires new grace and beauty with the years. It is never so fresh and flourishing as just when everything else is fading away. It is glorious in the hour of death! The soul goes, wearing her garland, into the presence of the gracious Lord who gave it. We can begin even now to wear the flowers of Paradise. We can begin even now to furnish our minds with lovely thoughts and memories. We can have "the mind of Christ." JANUARY The Sixth "_COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS_" PSALM cv. 1-15. "Count your blessings!" Yes, but over what area shall I look for them? There is my personal life. Let me search in every corner. I have found forget-me-nots on many a rutty road. I have found wild-roses behind a barricade of nettles. Professor Miall has a lecture on "The Botany of a Railway Station." He found something graceful and exquisite in the midst of its soot and grime. So I must look even in the dark patches of life, among my disappointments and defeats, and even there I shall find tokens of the Lord's presence, some flowers of His planting. And there is my share in the life of the nation. "Ye seed of Abraham His servant, ye children of Jacob His chosen." There are hands that stretch out to me from past days, laden with bequests of privilege and freedom. Our feet "stand in a large place," and the place was cleared by the fidelity and the courage of the men of old. I have countless blessings that were bought with blood. The red marks of sacrifice are over all my daily ways. Let me not take the inheritance and overlook the blood marks, and stride about as though it were nought but common ground. Mercies abound on every hand! "Count your blessings!" JANUARY The Seventh _A JOURNAL OF MERCIES_ NEHEMIAH ix. 6-11. "Thou hast performed Thy words: for Thou art righteous." Frances Ridley Havergal kept a journal of mercies. She had a record book, and she crowded it with her remembrances of God's goodness. She was always on the look-out for tokens of the Lord's grace and bounty, and she found them everywhere. Everywhere she had communion with a covenant-keeping God. The Bible became to her more and more the history of her own life and experience. Promise after promise told the story of her own triumphs. She appropriated the goodness of God, and she set her own seal to the testimony that God is true. Many a complaining life would be changed into music and song by a journal of mercies. Many a fear can be dispersed by a ready remembrance. Memory can be made the handmaid of hope. Yesterday's blessing can kindle the courage of to-day. That is the purposed ministry of "the days that have been." We are to harness the strength of their experiences to the tasks and burdens of to-day; and in the remembrance of God's providences we shall march through our difficulties with singing. JANUARY The Eighth _HE IS FAITHFUL!_ 1 KINGS viii. 54-61. "There hath not failed one word of all His good promise." Supposing one word had failed, how then? If one golden promise had turned out to be counterfeit, how then? If the ground had yielded anywhere we should have been fearful and suspicious at every part of the road. If the bell of God's fidelity had been broken anywhere the music would have been destroyed. But not one word has failed. The road has never given way in time of flood. Every bell of heaven is perfectly sound, and the music is full and glorious. "God is faithful, who also will do it." "God is love," and "love never faileth." The lamp will not die out at the midnight. The fountain will not fail us in the wilderness. The consolations will not be wanting in the hour of our distresses. Love will have "all things ready." "He has promised, and shall He not do it?" All the powers of heaven are pledged to the fulfilment of the smallest word of grace. We can never be deserted! "God cannot deny Himself." Every word of His will unburden its treasure at the appointed hour, and I shall be rich with the strength of my God. JANUARY The Ninth _THE PERILS OF POSSESSIONS_ GENESIS xiii. 1-9. There is nothing more divisive than wealth. As families grow rich their members frequently become alienated. It is rarely, indeed, that love increases with the increase of riches. Luxurious possessions appear to be a forcing-bed in which the seeds of sleeping vices waken into strength. For one thing, selfishness is often quickened with success. Plenty, as well as penury, can "freeze the genial currents of the soul." And with selfishness comes a whole brood of mean and petty dispositions. Envy comes with it, and jealousy, and a morbid sensitiveness which readily leaps into strife. So do our possessions multiply our temptations. So does the bright day "bring forth the adder." So do we need extra defences when "fortune smiles upon us." But our God can make us proof against "the fiery darts" of success. Abram remained unscathed in "the garish day." The Lord delivered him from "the destruction that wasteth at noonday." His wealth increased, but it was not allowed to force itself between his soul and God. In the midst of all his prosperity, he dwelt in "the secret place of the Most High," and he abode in "the shadow of the Almighty." JANUARY The Tenth _THE LUST OF THE EYE_ GENESIS xiii. 10-18. Look at Lot. He was a man of the world, sharp as a needle, having an eye to the main chance. He boasted to himself that he always "took in the whole situation." He said that what he did not know was not worth knowing. But such "knowing" men have always very imperfect sight. Lot saw "all the well-watered plain of Jordan," but he overlooked the city of Sodom and its exceedingly wicked and sinful people. And the thing he overlooked was the biggest thing in the outlook! It was to prove his undoing, and to bring his presumptuous selfishness to the ground. Look at Abram. His spirit was cool and thoughtful, unheated by the feverish yearning after increased possessions. He had a "quiet eye," the fruit of his faithful communion with God. He was more intent on peace than plenty. He preferred fraternal fellowship to selfish increase. And so he chose the unselfish way, and along that way he discovered the blessing of God. "The Lord is mindful of His own. He remembereth His children." In the unselfish way we always enjoy the Divine companionship, and in that companionship we are endowed with inconceivable wealth. JANUARY The Eleventh _SELF-MADE OR GOD-MADE_ MATTHEW vi. 26-33. Think of Lot and then think of a lily of the field! Think of the feverishness of the one and of the serenity of the other, or think of the ugly selfishness of the one, and of the graceful beauty of the other! Look upon avarice at its worst, upon a Shylock, and then gaze upon a lily of the field! How alarming is the contrast! The one is self-made, guided by vicious impulses; the other is the handiwork of God. The one is rooted in self-will; the other is rooted in the power of the Divine grace. God has nothing to do with the one; He has everything to do with the other. So one becomes "big" and ugly; the other grows in strength and beauty. Now the wonder is this, that we, too, may be rooted in the power from which the lily draws its grace. We may draw into our souls the wealth of the Eternal, even the unsearchable riches of Christ. We may put on "the beauty of holiness." We may become clothed in the graces of the Spirit. When we are in the field of the lilies we may appear unto the Lord as kindred flowers of His own garden. "He that abideth in Me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit." "Rooted in Him," we shall "grow up in all things unto Him." JANUARY The Twelfth _TWO OPPOSITES_ "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." --1 JOHN ii. 13-17. No man can love two opposites any more than he can walk in contrary directions at the same time. No man can at once be mean and magnanimous, chivalrous and selfish. We cannot at the same moment dress appropriately for the arctic regions and the tropics. And we cannot wear the habits of the world and the garments of salvation. When we try to do it the result is a wretched and miserable compromise. I have seen a shopkeeper on the Sabbath day put up one shutter, out of presumed respect for the Holy Lord, and behind the shutter continue all the business of the world! That one shutter is typical of all the religion that is left when a man "loves the world" and delights in its prizes and crowns. His religion is a bit of idle ritual which is an offence unto God! So I must make my choice. Shall I travel north or south? Which of the two opposites shall I love--God or the world? Whichever love I choose will drive out and quench the other. And thus if I choose the love of God it will destroy every worldly passion, and the river of my affections and desires will be like "the river of water of life, clear as crystal." JANUARY The Thirteenth _THE MIRACLE IN A DRY PLACE_ PSALM cvii. 33-43. "He turneth ... the dry ground into water-springs." This is one of the miracles of grace. The good Lord makes a dry experience the fountain of blessing. I pass into an apparently waste place and I find riches of consolation. Even in "the valley of the shadow" I come upon "green pastures" and "still waters." I find flowers in the ruts of the hardest roads if I am in "the way of God's commandments." God's providence is the pioneer of every faithful pilgrim. "His blessed feet have gone before." What I shall need is already foreseen, and foresight with the Lord means forethought and provision. Every hour gives the loyal disciples surprises of grace. Let me therefore not fear when the path of duty turns into the wilderness. The wilderness is as habitable with God as the crowded city, and in His fellowship my bread and water are sure. The Lord has strange manna for the children of disappointment, and He makes water to "gush forth from the rock." Duty can lead me nowhere without Him, and His provision is abundant both in "the thirsty desert and the dewy mead." There will be a spring at the foot of every hill, and I shall find "lilies of peace" in the lonely valley of humiliation. JANUARY The Fourteenth _FORGETTING GOD_ DEUTERONOMY viii. 11-20. "Beware ... lest when thou hast eaten and art full ... thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God." I was in a little cottage near Warwick. I said to the good man who lived in it, "Can you see the castle?" and he replied, "We can see it best in the winter when the leaves are off the trees. In the summer time it is apt to be hid!" The summer bounty hid the castle; the winter barrenness revealed it! And so it is in life. In the season of fulness we are prone to be blind to "the house of many mansions," and we forget the Master of the house, the Lord our God. Our material wealth hides our eternal treasure. What, then, shall we do in the days of our prosperity, when all our trees are in full leaf? We must pray that material things may never become opaque, that they may be always transparent, so that through the seen we may behold the unseen. This is a gift of the Spirit, and it may be ours. He will anoint our eyes with the eye-salve of grace, and everything will become to us a symbol of something better, so that even in the midst of material plenty our hearts will be with our treasure in heaven. Everything will be to us "as it were transparent glass." JANUARY The Fifteenth _THE MINISTRY OF PRAISE_ PSALM cxv. "The Lord hath been mindful of us: He will bless us." In that joyful assurance there is both retrospect and prospect. There is the trodden pathway of Providence, and there is the star of hope! The eyes are steadied and refreshed in sacred memories, and then they gaze into the future with serene and happy confidence. And so the Ebenezer of the soul becomes both a thanksgiving and a reconsecration. Now perhaps our hopes are thin because our praises are scanty. Perhaps our expectations are clouded because our memories are dim. There is nothing so quickens hope as a journey among the mercies of our yesterdays. The heart lays aside its fears amid the accumulated blessings of our God. Worries pass away like cloudlets in the warmth of a summer's morning. And the recollections of God's goodness always make summer even in the wintriest day. Now I see why the New Testament is so urgent in the matter of praise. Without praise many other virtues and graces cannot be born. Without praise they have no breath of life. Praise quickens a radiant company of heavenly presences, and among them is the shining spirit of hope. JANUARY The Sixteenth _THE DISTINCTION OF BEING RECOGNIZED_ JOHN x. 1-18. The Good Shepherd knows His sheep, and knows them by name. And that is what I am tempted to forget. I think of myself as one of an innumerable multitude, no one of whom receives personal attention. "My way is overlooked by my God." But here is the evangel--the Saviour would miss me, even me! At a great orchestral rehearsal, which Sir Michael Costa was conducting, the man who played the piccolo stayed his fingers for a moment, thinking that his trifling contribution would never be missed. At once Sir Michael raised his hand, and said: "Stop! Where's the piccolo?" He missed the individual note. And my Lord needs the note of my life to make the music of His Kingdom, and if the note be absent He will miss it, and the glorious music will be broken and incomplete. There is a common vice of self-conceit, but there is also a common vice of excessive self-depreciation. "My Lord can do nothing with me!" Yes, my Lord knows thee and needs thee! And by the power of His grace thou canst accomplish wonders! JANUARY The Seventeenth _SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT_ "_My sheep hear My voice!_" --JOHN x. 19-30. This is spiritual discernment. We may test our growth in grace by our expertness in detecting the voice of our Lord. It is the skill of the saint to catch "the still small voice" amid all the selfish clamours of the day, and amid the far more subtle callings of the heart. It needs a good ear to catch the voice of the Lord in our sorrows. I think it requires a better ear to discern the voice amid our joys! The twilight helps me to be serious; the noonday glare tends to make me heedless. "_And they follow Me!_" Discernment is succeeded by obedience. That is the one condition of becoming a saint--to follow the immediate call of the Lord. And it is the one condition of becoming an expert listener. Every time I hear the voice, and follow, I sharpen my sense of hearing, and the next time the voice will sound more clear. "_And I give unto them eternal life._" Yes, life is found in the ways of a listening obedience. Every faculty and function will be vitalized when I follow the Lord of life and glory. "In Christ shall all be made alive." My Saviour, graciously give me the listening ear! Give me the obedient heart. JANUARY the Eighteenth _FALSE SHEPHERDS_ EZEKIEL xxxiv. 1-10. This word of the Lord puts before me the unlovely lineaments of the false shepherds. They are self-seeking. They "_feed themselves_," but they "_feed not the flock_." They take up religion for what they can make out of it! It is a carnal ambition, not a holy service. It is used for getting, not for giving, for self-glorification and not for self-sacrifice. It is selfishness masquerading as holiness, the thief in the garb of the shepherd. And, therefore, the false shepherds are devoid of sympathy. "_The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick._" Selfishness always tends to benumbment. Humaneness is fostered by sacrifice. Our sympathetic chords are kept refined by chivalrous deeds. Drop the deeds and all our refinements begin to coarsen, and we make no response to our brother's cries of need and pain. And because there is no sympathy there is no quest. "_My sheep wandered ... and none did seek after them._" How can we seek them if we have never missed them, if we have no sense that they are lost? Our Lord came in travail of soul to "seek that which was lost." And I must share His travail if I would share in the search. JANUARY The Nineteenth _THE LOST SHEEP_ EZEKIEL xxxiv. 11-19. And now, again, I am bidden to contemplate the gracious ministries of the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd searches the "far country" for His lost sheep. "_I will bring them ... out of all places where they have been scattered._" He goes into the hard wilderness of cold indifference, and wasteful pride, and desolating sin, searching "high and low" for His foolish sheep. And no place is unvisited by the Great Seeker! Every perilous ravine, where a sheep can be lost, knows the footprints of the Shepherd. And He knows my far-country, and He is seeking me! And the Good Shepherd brings His wandering sheep back home. "_I will bring them ... to their own land._" We return from the land of pride to the home of lowliness, from hard indifference to gracious sympathy, from the barrenness of sin to the beauty of holiness. We come back to God's beautiful "lily-land" of eternal light and peace. And what nutriment the Good Shepherd provides for the home-coming sheep! "_I will feed them in a good pasture._" Our wasted powers shall be renewed and strengthened by the fattening diet of grace. Love shall be both host and meat! "He will satisfy thy mouth with good things." JANUARY The Twentieth _THE PASSING OF THE BEAST_ EZEKIEL xxxiv. 23-31. When the Good Shepherd has charge of His flock "_the wild beasts will cease out of the land_." All beastly passions shall be destroyed. The fair gardens of our souls shall no longer be ravaged by sleek pride, or fierce appetite, or ravenous lust. "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet." And the forces of nature shall be in friendly co-operation. "_I will cause the shower to come down in his season._" We are to have mystic allies in sky and field. Nature sides with the man who sides with God. Our very garden becomes our helpmeet when we are cultivating the fruits of the Spirit. The heavens assume a friendly aspect when we are "marching to beautiful Zion." But when we are against the Lord all these forces appear to be hostile. "The stars in their courses fought against Sisera." And we are to have a joyful assurance of the companionship of our God. "_This shall they know, that I, the Lord their God, am with them._" And in that precious assurance every other treasure is found! Only be sure of that, and we shall walk about as kings and queens! JANUARY the Twenty-first _THE VALUE OF ONE SOUL_ MATTHEW xviii. 7-14. What an infinite value the Lord attaches to one soul! "And _one of them_ be gone astray!" I thought He might never have missed the one! And yet the Eastern shepherd says that out of his great flock he can miss the individual face. A face is missing, as though a child were absent from the family circle. When a soul is wandering in the far country there is an awful gap in the Father's house! Is thy place empty? Is mine? And mark the pangs of the Shepherd's quest. He "_goeth into the mountain and seeketh!_" The Eastern shepherd goes out in tempest, and in rocky ravine, or in thorny scrub that tears the hands and feet, he seeks and finds his sheep. And my Lord sought me, in stony and thorny places, in the darkness of Gethsemane, and in the awful desolations of The Hill. And the Shepherd found His sheep, and He returns across the hills singing the song of the triumph of grace-- "And up from the mountains, thunder-riven, And up from the rocky steep, A cry arose to the gates of heaven, 'Rejoice! I have found My sheep!' And the angels echo around the throne, 'Rejoice! for the Lord brings back His own!'" JANUARY The Twenty-second _MY OWN SHEPHERD_ PSALM xxiii. How shall we touch this lovely psalm and not bruise it? It is exquisite as "a violet by a mossy stone!" Exposition is almost an impertinence, its grace is so simple and winsome. There is the ministry of rest. "_He maketh me to lie down in green pastures._" The Good Shepherd knows when my spirit needs relaxation. He will not have me always "on the stretch." The bow of the best violin sometimes requires to have its strings "let down." And so my Lord gives me rest. And there is the discipline of change. "_He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness._" Those strange roads in life, unknown roads, by which I pass into changed circumstances and surroundings! But the discipline of the change is only to bring me into new pastures, that I may gain fresh nutriment for my soul. "Because they have no changes they fear not God." And there is "_the valley of the shadow_," cold and bare! What matter? He is there! "I will fear no evil." What if I see "no pastures green"? "Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me!" The Lord, who is leading, will see after my food. "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." I have a quiet feast while my foes are looking on! JANUARY The Twenty-third _THE GIVER'S HAND_ GENESIS iv. 3-15. Cain and Abel both brought an offering unto the Lord, but one was accepted and the other rejected. It is the giver who determines the worth or the worthlessness of the gift. God looks not at the gift, but at the hand that brings it. "Your hands are full of blood!" "Your hands are unclean!" The Lord demands "clean hands." He will not have our compliments if there is defilement behind them. Our courtesies are rejected if iniquity attends them. The shining gloss on the linen is an offence if the dirt looks through! Who cares for food if presented by unclean hands? "Be ye clean, ye that bear the vessels of the Lord!" Every gift is welcome to the Lord if offered with clean hands. A mite, or a cup of cold water, or our daily labour, or the first-fruits of garden or field--all receive the blessing of our God if the hands that bring them are free from defilement. So is it with everything we offer to the Lord. A song of praise makes sweet music in the hearing of our God if it come from pure lips! Purity, as Thomas a' Kempis says, gives the wings which carry everything into the Father's presence. JANUARY The Twenty-fourth _THE VOICE OF THE DEAD_ HEBREWS xi. 1-6. With what voice shall we speak when we are dead? What will men hear when they turn their thoughts toward us? What part of us will remain alive, singing or jarring in men's remembrance? It is the biggest part of us that retains its voice. In some it is wealth, in others it is goodness; some go on speaking in their cruelty, others in their gentleness. Cain still speaks in his jealous passion. Abel speaks in his faith. Dorcas speaks in her "good works and alms-deeds which she did"; Judas Iscariot speaks in his betrayal. Yes, something goes on speaking. What shall it be? But these biggest things not only continue to speak in the ears of memory, they persist as actual forces in the common life of men. Our faith is not buried with our bones, nor is our avarice or pride. Our characters do not die when our hearts cease to beat. "The evil that men do lives after them," and so does the good. But deeper than our deeds, our dominant dispositions persist and mingle as friends or enemies in the lives of others. By them we, being dead, still speak, and we speak in subtle forces which aid or hinder other pilgrims who are fighting their way to God and heaven. JANUARY The Twenty-fifth _FIRST, MY BROTHER!_ MATTHEW v. 17-24. "First be reconciled to thy brother." We are to put first things first. When we bring a gift unto the Lord He looks at the hand that brings it. If the hand is defiled the gift is rejected. "Wash you, make you clean." "First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." All this tells us why some resplendent gifts are rejected, and why some commonplace gifts are received amid heavenly song. This is why the widow's mite goes shining through the years. The hand that offered it was hallowed and purified with sacrifice. Shall we say that in that palm there was something akin to the pierced hands of the Lord? The mite had intimate associations with the Cross. And it also tells me why so much of our public worship is offensive to our Lord. We come to the church from a broken friendship. Some holy thing has been broken on the way. Someone's estate has been invaded, and his treasure spoiled. Someone has been wronged, and God will not touch our gift. "Leave there thy gift; first be reconciled to thy brother." JANUARY The Twenty-sixth _THE FIRE OF ENVY_ "_Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work!_" --JAMES iii. 13-18. In Milton's "Comus" we read of a certain potion which has the power to pervert all the senses of everyone who drinks it. Nothing is apprehended truly. Sight and hearing and taste are all disordered, and the victim is all unconscious of the confusion. The deadly draught is the minister of deceptive chaos. And envy is like that potion when it is drunk by the spirit. It perverts every moral and spiritual sense. The envious is more fatally stricken than the blind. He gazes upon untruth and thinks it true. He looks upon confusion and thinks it order. Envy is colour-blind. It is like jealousy, of which it is a blood-relation. It never sees anything in its natural hues. It misinterprets everything. No one can quench the unholy fire of envy but the mighty God Himself. It is like a prairie fire: once kindled it is beyond our power to stamp it out. But God's coolness is more than a match for all our feverish heat. His quenchings are transformations. He converts the perverted and changes envy into goodwill. The bitter pool is made sweet. For confusion He gives order, for ashes He gives beauty, and in the face of an old enemy we see the countenance of a friend. JANUARY The Twenty-seventh _THE CONFESSION OF SIN_ "_I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me._" --PSALM li. 1-12. Sin that is unconfessed shuts out the energies of grace. Confession makes the soul receptive of the bountiful waters of life. We open the door to God as soon as we name our sin. Guilt that is penitently confessed is already in the "consuming fire" of God's love. When I "acknowledge my sin" I begin to enter into the knowledge of "pardon, joy, and peace." But if I hide my sin I also hide myself from "the unsearchable riches of Christ." "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I must then make confession of sin in my daily exercises in the presence of the Lord. I am taking the way to recovered victory when I tell the Lord the story of my defeat. Satan strengthens his awful chains when he can induce me to keep silence concerning my sin. All his plans are thrown into confusion as soon as I "pour out my soul before the Lord." When I fall let me not add to my guilt the further sin of secrecy. Unconfessed sin breeds in its lurking-place and multiplies its hateful offspring. The soul that makes confession is washed through and through, and the seeds of iniquity are driven out of my soul. JANUARY The Twenty-eighth _CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANGER_ EPHESIANS iv. 25-32. "Let all anger be put away from you." And yet only a moment ago the Apostle had written the words, "Be ye angry and sin not." My power of anger is not to be destroyed, it is to be transformed and purified. Anger can be like an unclean bonfire; it can also be like "a sea of glass mingled with fire." There can be more smoke than light in it, more selfish passion than holy purpose. The fuel that feeds it may be envy, and jealousy, and spite, and not a big desire for the good of men and the glory of God. Worldly anger "is set on fire of hell"; holy anger borrows flame from the altar-fires of God. Our anger reveals our character. What is the quality of our anger? What kindles it? Is it incited by our own wrongs or by the wrongs of another? Is it set on fire by self-indulgence or by a noble sympathy? Here is a sentence which describes the anger of the Apostle Paul: "Who is made to stumble and I burn not?" Paul's holy anger was made to burn by oppression, by the cruelty inflicted upon his fellow-men. His fire had nothing unclean in it; it was pure as the flame of oxygen. This is the anger we must cherish. We cannot "work ourselves up" into it. We must seek to be "baptized with the Holy Ghost _and with fire_." JANUARY The Twenty-ninth _NOBLE REVENGE_ "_I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy._" --PSALM vii. 4. That is the noblest revenge, and in those moments David had intimate knowledge of the spirit of his Lord. "If thine enemy hunger, feed him!" _Evil for good is devil-like._ To receive a favour and to return a blow! To obtain the gift of language, and then to use one's speech to curse the giver! To use a sacred sword is unholy warfare! All this is devil-like. _Evil for evil is beast-like._ Yes, the dog bites back when it is bitten. The dog returns snarl for snarl, venom for venom. And if, when I have been injured, I "pay a man back in his own coin," if I "give him as good as he gave," I am living on the plane of the beast. _Good for good is man-like._ When I requite a man's kindness by kindness! When I send presents to one who loads me with benefits! This is a true and manly thing to do, and lifts us far above the beast. _Good for evil is God-like._ Yes, that lifts me into "the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Then I have "the mind of Christ." Then do I unto others as my Saviour has done unto me. JANUARY The Thirtieth _IRRESISTIBLE ARTILLERY_ "_When I cry unto Thee, then shall mine enemies turn back._" --PSALM lvi. But it must be a real "cry"! It must not be an idle recitation which sheds no blood. It must be a cry like the cry of the drowning, a cry which cleaves the air like a bullet. Said a man to me some while ago, "Assault the heavens with cries for me!" That is the cry which takes the kingdom by storm. When such a cry rends the heavens, "my enemies turn back." A secret and irresistible artillery begins to play upon them, and their strength fails. Yes, believing prayer calls these invisible allies into the field. "The mountains are full of horses and chariots of fire round about!" And the enemy flies! "_This I know._" The psalmist is building upon experience. The miracle has happened a hundred times. Many a morning has he seen the enemy vaingloriously tramping the field, and he has cried unto the Lord, and before nightfall there has been a perfect rout. Blessed is the man who has had such heartening dealings with the Lord that he can now face a hostile host in unclouded faith and assurance! JANUARY The Thirty-first _UNDER HIS WINGS_ "_In the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge._" --PSALM lvii. Could anything be more tenderly gracious than this figure of hiding under the shadow of God's wings? It speaks of bosom-warmth, and bosom-shelter, and bosom-rest. "Let me to Thy bosom fly!" And what strong wings they are! Under those wings I am secure even from the lions. My animal passions shall not hurt me when I am "hiding in God." The fiercest onslaughts of the devil are powerless to break those mighty wings. The tenderest little chick, "one of these little ones," nestling behind this soft and gentle shelter, shall be perfectly secure; "none of its bones shall be broken." I do not wonder that this sheltering psalmist begins to sing! "_I will sing and give praise!_" I have often listened to the sheltering chicks, hiding behind the mother's wings, and I have heard that quaint, comfortable, contented sound for which our language has no name. It is a sound of incipient song, the musical murmur of satisfaction. "I will sing unto Thee ... for Thy mercy is great." FEBRUARY The First _THE SOUL IN PRISON_ "_Bring my soul out of prison!_" --PSALM cxlii. I too, have my prison-house, and only the Lord can deliver me. There is _the prison-house of sin_. It is a dark and suffocating hole, without friendly light or morning air. And it is haunted by such affrighting shapes, as though my iniquities had incarnated themselves in ugly and repulsive forms. None but the Lord can bring me out. And there is _the prison-house of sorrow_. My griefs sometimes wrap me about like cold confining walls, which have neither windows nor doors. It seems as though a fluid sorrow can congeal into a cold, hard temperament, and hold me in its icy embrace. And none but the Lord can bring me out. And there is _the prison-house of death_. I must perforce pass through the gate of death. Shall I find it a castle of gloom, or is there another gate through which I shall emerge into the fair, sweet paradise of God? My Master is Lord of the road! And He tells me that death shall not be a castle of captivity, but only a thoroughfare through which I shall pass into the realm of eternal day. FEBRUARY The Second _HOW TO APPROACH A CRISIS_ "_It shall be given you in that same hour._" --MATTHEW x. 16-28. And so I am not to worry about the coming crisis! "God never is before His time, and never is behind!" When the hour is come, I shall find that the great Host hath made "all things ready." When the crisis comes _He will tell me how to rest_. It is a great matter to know just how to rest--how to be quiet when "all without tumultuous seems." We irritate and excite our souls about the coming emergency, and we approach it with worn and feverish spirits, and so mar our Master's purpose and work. When the crisis comes _He will tell me what to do_. The orders are not given until the appointed day. Why should I fume and fret and worry as to what the sealed envelope contains? "It is enough that He knows all," and when the hour strikes the secrets shall be revealed. And when the crisis comes _He will tell me what to say_. I need not begin to prepare my retorts and my responses. What shall I say when death comes, to me or to my loved one? Never mind, He will tell thee. And what when sorrow or persecution comes? Never mind, He will tell thee. FEBRUARY The Third _TRANSFORMING THE HARD HEART_ _The Lord "turned the flint into a fountain of waters."_ --PSALM cxiv. What a violent conjunction, the flint becoming the birthplace of a spring! And yet this is happening every day. Men who are as "hard as flint," whose hearts are "like the nether millstone," become springs of gentleness and fountains of exquisite compassion. Beautiful graces, like lovely ferns, grow in the home of severities, and transform the grim, stern soul into a garden of fragrant friendships. This is what Zacchæus was like when his flint became a fountain. It is what Matthew the publican was like when the Lord changed his hard heart into a land of springs. No one is "too far gone." No hardness is beyond the love and pity of God. The well of eternal life can gush forth even in a desert waste, and "where sin abounds grace doth much more abound." Let us bring our hardness to the Lord. Let us see what He can make of our flint. When we are dry and "feelingless," and desire is dead, let us bring this Sahara to the great Restorer, and "the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the rose." FEBRUARY The Fourth _SPIRITUAL BUOYANCY_ "_When thou passeth through the waters they shall not overflow thee._" --ISAIAH xliii. 1-7. When Mrs. Booth, the mother of the Salvation Army, was dying, she quietly said, "The waters are rising but I am not sinking." But then she had been saying that all through her life. Other floods besides the waters of death had gathered about her soul. Often had the floods been out and the roads were deep in affliction. But she had never sunk! The good Lord made her buoyant, and she rode upon the storm! This, then, is the promise of the Lord, not that the waters of trouble shall never gather about the believer, but that he shall never be overwhelmed. He shall "keep his head above them." Yes, to him shall be given the grace of "aboveness." He shall never be under, always above! It is the precious gift of spiritual buoyancy, sanctified good spirits, the power of the Christian hope. When we are in Christ Jesus circumstances shall never be our master. One is our Master, and "we are more than conquerors in Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood." FEBRUARY The Fifth _EVERYWHERE THE GATE OF HEAVEN_ "_Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not._" --GENESIS xxviii. 10-22. That is the first time for many a day that Jacob had named the name of God. In all the dark story of his wicked intrigue the name of God is never mentioned. Jacob wanted to forget God! God would be a disturbing presence! But here he encounters Him in a dream, and in the most unlikely place. "And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place!" Jacob had yet to learn that there is everywhere "a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reaches to heaven." There was a ladder from the very tent in which he wore his deceptive skin. There was a ladder from the secret place where he and his mother wove their mischievous plot. There is no corner of earth which is cut away from the Divine vigilance. God gets at us everywhere. But there is a merciful side to all this. If the ladder be everywhere, and God can get at us, then also everywhere we can get at God. There are "ascending angels" who will carry our confessions, our prayers, our sighs and mournings, to the very heart of the eternally gracious God. FEBRUARY The Sixth _THE HOME-BIRD_ PSALM xci. 1-12. I read a sentence the other day in which a very powerful modern writer describes a certain woman as "having God on her visiting list." We may recoil from the phrase, but it very vitally describes a very awful commonplace. Countless thousands have God on their visiting lists. They pay Him courtesy-calls, and between the calls He is forgotten. Perhaps the call is paid once a week in the social function of worship. Perhaps it is paid more rarely, like calls between comparative strangers. How great the contrast between a caller and one who dwells in the secret place! It is the difference between a flirt and a "home-bird," between one who flits about on a score of fancies, and one who settles down in the solid satisfaction of a supreme affection. "_Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty._" Such is the reward of the "home-bird," the settled friend of the Lord. The shadow of the Lord shall rest upon him continually. I sometimes read of our monarchs being "shadowed" by protective police. In an infinitely more real and intimate sense the soul that dwells in "the secret place" is shadowed by the sleepless grace and love of God. FEBRUARY The Seventh _LEAVING ITS MARK_ "_Fear not, thou worm Jacob, I will make thee a threshing instrument with teeth._" --ISAIAH xli. 8-14. Could any two things be in greater contrast than a worm and an instrument with teeth? The worm is delicate, bruised by a stone, crushed beneath a passing wheel; an instrument with teeth can break and not be broken, it can grave its mark upon the rock. And the mighty God can convert the one into the other. He can take a man or a nation, who has all the impotence of the worm, and by the invigoration of His own Spirit He can endow them with strength by which they will leave a noble mark upon the history of their time. And so the "worm" may take heart. The mighty God can make us stronger than our circumstances. We can bend them all to our good. In God's strength we can make them all pay tribute to our souls. We can even take hold of a black disappointment, break it open, and extract some jewel of grace. When God gives us wills like iron we can drive through difficulties as the iron share cuts through the toughest soil. "I will make thee," saith the Lord, "and shall He not do it?" FEBRUARY The Eighth _REVISITING OLD ALTARS_ "_I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress._" --GENESIS xxxv. 1-7. It is a blessed thing to revisit our early altars. It is good to return to the haunts of early vision. Places and things have their sanctifying influences, and can recall us to lost experiences. I know a man to whom the scent of a white, wild rose is always a call to prayer. I know another to whom Grasmere is always the window of holy vision. Sometimes a particular pew in a particular church can throw the heavens open, and we see the Son of God. The old Sunday-school has sometimes taken an old man back to his childhood and back to his God. So I do not wonder that God led Jacob back to Bethel, and that in the old place of blessing he reconsecrated himself to the Lord. It is a revelation of the loving-kindness of God that we have all these helps to the recovery of past experiences. Let us use them with reverence. And in our early days let us make them. Let us build altars of communion which in later life we shall love to revisit. Let us make our early home "the house of God and the gate of heaven." Let us multiply deeds of service which will make countless places fragrant for all our after years. FEBRUARY The Ninth _THE ROCK AND THE BOWING WALL_ PSALM lxii. Here are two symbols by which the psalmist describes the confidence of the righteous. "_He only is my rock._" Only yesterday I had the shelter of a great rock on a storm-swept mountain side. The wind tore along the heights, driving the rain like hail, but in the opening of the rock our shelter was complete. And the second symbol is this: "_He is my high place._" The high place is the home of the chamois, out of reach of the arrow. "Flee as a bird to your mountain!" Get beyond the hunter's range! Our security is found in loftiness. It is our unutterable privilege to live in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Such is the confidence of the righteous. In this psalm there is also another pair of symbols describing the futility of the wicked. The wicked is "_as a bowing wall._" The wall is out of perpendicular, out of conformity with the truth of the plumb-line, and it will assuredly topple into ruin. So is it with the wicked: he is building awry, and he will fall into moral disaster. He is also "_as a tottering fence._" The wind and the rain dislodge the fence, it rots at its foundations, and one day it lies prone upon the ground. FEBRUARY The Tenth _REGISTERING A VERDICT_ "_The Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey._" --JOSHUA xxiv. 22-28. Here was a definite decision. Our peril is that we spend our life in wavering and we never decide. We are like a jury which is always hearing evidence and never gives a verdict. We do much thinking, but we never make up our minds. We let our eyes wander over many things, but we make no choice. Life has no crisis, no culmination. Now people who never decide spend their days in hoping to do so. But this kind of life becomes a vagrancy and not a noble and illumined crusade. We drift through our days, we do not steer, and we never arrive at any rich and stately haven. It is therefore vitally wise to "make a vow unto the Lord." It is good to pull our loose thinkings together and to "gird up the loins of the mind." Let a man, at some definite place, and at some definite moment, make the supreme choice of his life. FEBRUARY The Eleventh _THE HILL COUNTRY OF THE SOUL_ PSALM cxxi. There should be a hill country in every life, some great up-towering peaks which dominate the common plain. There should be an upland district, where springs are born, and where rivers of inspiration have their birth. "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills." The soul that knows no hills is sure to be oppressed with the monotony of the road. The inspiration to do little things comes from the presence of big things. It is amazing what dull trifles we can get through when a radiant love is near. A noble companionship glorifies the dingiest road. And what if that Companion be God? Then, surely, "the common round and daily task" have a light thrown upon them from "the beauty of His countenance." The "heavenlies" are our salvation and our defence. "His righteousness is like the great mountains." "The mountains bring forth peace unto His people." FEBRUARY The Twelfth _THE BULB AND THE SOIL_ "_He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me._" --JOHN xiv. 15-24. Yes, but how can I keep them? Some one sent me a bulb which requires a certain kind of soil, but he also sent me the soil in which to grow it. He sent instructions, but he also sent power. And when I am bidden to keep a commandment I feel as though I have received the bulb but not the soil! But is this God's way of dealing with His people? I will read on if perchance I may find the gift of the soil. "He that abideth in Me ... the same bringeth forth much fruit." That is the gift I seek. For the keeping of His commandments the Lord provides Himself. I am not called upon to raise fruits out of the soil of my own will, out of my own infirmity of aspiration or desire. I can rest everything in God! I can "abide in Him," and I may have the holy energies of the Godhead to produce in me the fruits of a holy and obedient life. The good Lord provides both the bulb and the soil. It is the tragedy of life that we forget this, and seek to make a soil-bed of our own. And thus do we suffer the calamity of fruitless labour, the heavy drudgery of tasks beyond our strength. "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." FEBRUARY The Thirteenth _GRUDGES_ "_Thou shalt not bear any grudge._" --LEVITICUS xix. 11-18. How searching is that demand upon the soul! My forgiveness of my brother is to be complete. No sullenness is to remain, no sulky temper which so easily gives birth to thunder and lightning. There is to be no painful aloofness, no assumption of a superiority which rains contempt upon the offender. When I forgive, I am not to carry any powder forward on the journey. I am to empty out all my explosives, all my ammunition of anger and revenge. I am not to "bear any grudge." I cannot meet this demand. It is altogether beyond me. I might utter words of forgiveness, but I cannot reveal a clear, bright, blue sky without a touch of storm brewing anywhere. But the Lord of grace can do it for me. He can change my weather. He can create a new climate. He can "renew a right spirit within me," and in that holy atmosphere nothing shall live which seeks to poison and destroy. Grudges shall die "like cloud-spots in the dawn." Revenge, that awful creation of the unclean, feverish soul, shall give place to goodwill, the strong genial presence which makes its home in the new heart. FEBRUARY The Fourteenth _IMPERFECT CONSECRATION_ MATTHEW xix. 16-22. The rich young ruler consecrated a part, but was unwilling to consecrate the whole. He hallowed the inch but not the mile. He would go part of the way, but not to the end. And the peril is upon us all. We give ourselves to the Lord, but we reserve some liberties. We offer Him our house, but we mark some rooms "Private." And that word "Private," denying the Lord admission, crucifies Him afresh. He has no joy in the house so long as any rooms are withheld. Dr. F. B. Meyer has told us how his early Christian life was marred and his ministry paralyzed just because he had kept back one key from the bunch of keys he had given to the Lord. Every key save one! The key of one room kept for personal use, and the Lord shut out. And the effects of the incomplete consecration were found in lack of power, lack of assurance, lack of joy and peace. The "joy of the Lord" begins when we hand over the last key. We sit with Christ on His throne as soon as we have surrendered all our crowns, and made Him sole and only ruler of our life and its possessions. FEBRUARY The Fifteenth _THE WITNESS OF YESTERDAY_ PSALM lxxviii. 1-8. Our yesterdays are to be the teachers of our children. We are to take them over our road, and show them the pitfalls where we stumbled and the snares that lured us away. And we are to show them how we found the springs of grace, and how the Lord made Himself known to us in daily providence and care. We are to relate His exploits, "His wonderful dealings with the children of men." We must make our life witness of God to our children, and when their minds roam over our road they must see it radiant with the grace and mercy of the Lord. The best inheritance I can give my child is a steadfast witness of my knowledge of God. The testimony of a light that never failed may give him the needful wisdom when his own way becomes troubled with clouds and darkness. And what a story it is, this story of the deeds of our gracious God. It is full of quickening for weary and desponding souls. It is a perfect reservoir of inspiration for those whose desire has failed, and in whose lives the wells of impulse have become dry. Let us bring forward yesterday's wealth to enrich the life of to-day. "Do ye not remember the miracle of the loaves?" FEBRUARY The Sixteenth _CROWDING OUT GOD_ "_Lest thou forget._" --DEUTERONOMY iv. 5-13. That is surely the worst affront we can put upon anybody. We may oppose a man and hinder him in his work, or we may directly injure him, or we may ignore him, and treat him as nothing. Or we may forget him! Opposition, injury, contempt, neglect, forgetfulness! Surely this is a descending scale, and the last is the worst. And yet we can forget the Lord God. We can forget all His benefits. We can easily put Him out of mind. We can live as though He were dead. "My children have forgotten Me." What shall we do to escape this great disaster? "_Take heed to thyself!_" To take heed is to be at the helm and not asleep in the cabin. It is to steer and not to drift. It is to keep our eyes on the compass and our hands on the wheel. It is to know where we are going. We never deliberately forget our Lord; we carelessly drift into it. "Take heed." "_And keep thy soul diligently._" Gardens run to seed, and ill weeds grow apace. The fair things are crowded out, and the weed reigns everywhere. It is ever so with my soul. If I neglect it, the flowers of holy desire and devotion will be choked by weeds of worldliness. God will be crowded out, and the garden of the soul will become a wilderness of neglect and sin. FEBRUARY The Seventeenth _BLESSINGS AND CURSINGS_ "_He read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings._" --JOSHUA viii. 30-35. We are inclined to read only what pleases us, to hug the blessings and to ignore the warnings. We bask in the light, we close our eyes to the lightning. We recount the promises, we shut our ears to the rebukes. We love the passages which speak of our Master's gentleness, we turn away from those which reveal His severity. And all this is unwise, and therefore unhealthy. We become spiritually soft and anæmic. We lack moral stamina. We are incapable of noble hatred and of holy scorn. We are invertebrate, and on the evil day we are not able to stand. We must read "all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings." We must let the Lord brace us with His severities. We must gaze steadily upon the appalling fearfulness of sin, and upon its terrific issues. At all costs we must get rid of the spurious gentleness that holds compromise with uncleanness, that effeminate affection which is destitute of holy fire. We must seek the love which burns everlastingly against all sin; we must seek the gentleness which can fiercely grip a poisonous growth and tear it out to its last hidden root. We must seek that holy love which is as a "consuming fire." FEBRUARY The Eighteenth _THE SUBTLETY OF TEMPTATION_ JAMES i. 12-20. Evil enticements always come to us in borrowed attire. In the Boer War ammunition was carried out in piano cases, and military advices were transmitted in the skins of melons. And that is the way of the enemy of our souls. He makes us think we are receiving music when he is sending explosives; he promises life, but his gift is laden with the seeds of death. He offers us liberty, and he hides his chains in dazzling flowers. "Things are not what they seem." And so our enemy uses mirages, and will-o'-the-wisps and tinselled crowns. He lights friendly fires on perilous coasts to snare us to our ruin. And therefore we need clear, sure eyes. We need a refined moral sense which can discriminate between the true and the false, and which can discern the enemy even when he comes as "an angel of light." And we may have this wisdom from "the God of all wisdom." By His grace we may be kept morally sensitive, and we shall know our foe even when he is a long way off. FEBRUARY The Ninteenth _THE THOUGHT AFAR OFF_ PSALM cxxxix. 1-12. "Thou knowest my thought afar off." That fills me with awe. I cannot find a hiding-place where I can sin in secrecy. I cannot build an apparent sanctuary and conceal evil within its walls. I cannot with a sheep's skin hide the wolf. I cannot wrap my jealousy up in flattery and keep it unknown. "Thou God seest me." He knows the bottom thought that creeps in the basement of my being. Nothing surprises God! He sees all my sin. So am I filled with awe. "Thou knowest my thought afar off." This fills me also with hope and joy. He sees the faintest, weakest desire, aspiring after goodness. He sees the smallest fire of affection burning uncertainly in my soul. He sees every movement of penitence which looks toward home. He sees every little triumph, and every altar I build along life's way. Nothing is overlooked. My God is not like a policeman, only looking for crimes; He is the God of grace, looking for graces, searching for jewels to adorn His crown. So am I filled with hope and joy. FEBRUARY The Twentieth _TAMPERING WITH THE LABEL_ 1 JOHN iii. 4-10. Sin is transgression. It is the deliberate climbing of the fence. We see the trespass-board, and in spite of the warning we stride into the forbidden field. Sin is not ignorance, it is intention. We sin when we are wide-awake! There are teachers abroad who would soften words like these. They offer us terms which appear to lessen the harshness of our actions; they give our sin an aspect of innocence. But to alter the label on the bottle does not change the character of the contents. Poison is poison give it what name we please. "Sin is the transgression of the law." Let us be on our guard against the men whose pockets are filled with deceptive labels. Let us vigilantly resist all teachings which would chloroform the conscience. Let us prefer true terms to merely nice ones. Let us call sin by its right name, and let us tolerate no moral conjuring either with ourselves or with others. The first essential in all moral reformation is to call sin "sin." "If we confess our sin He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin." FEBRUARY The Twenty-first _GRACE REIGNS!_ ROMANS v. 12-21. When old Mr. Honest came to the river, and he entered the cold waters of death, the last words he was heard to utter by those who stood on the shore were these:--"Grace reigns!" All through his pilgrimage old Mr. Honest had been in Emmanuel's land where grace reigned night and day. It was through grace that he had found the way of life. It was through grace that he had been delivered from the beasts and pitfalls of the road. It was grace that had given him lilies of peace, and springs of refreshment, and the fine air that inspired him in difficult tasks. And in death he still found "grace abounding," and the Lord of the changing road was also Lord of the dark waters through which he passed into the radiant glories of the cloudless day. In every yard of a faithful pilgrimage we shall find the decrees of sovereign love. We are never in alien country. "Grace reigns" in every hill and valley, through every green pasture and over every rugged road, in every moment of "the day of life," and in the last sharp passage through the transient night of death. FEBRUARY The Twenty-second _THE THREE GARDENS_ REVELATION xxii. 1-14. The Bible opens with a garden. It closes with a garden. The first is the Paradise that was lost. The last is Paradise regained. And between the two there is a third garden, the garden of Gethsemane. And it is through the unspeakable bitterness and desolation of Gethsemane that we find again the glorious garden through which flows "the river of water of life." Without Gethsemane no New Jerusalem! Without its mysterious and unfathomable night no blessed sunrise of eternal hope! "We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son." We are always in dire peril of regarding our redemption lightly. We hold it cheaply. Privileges easily come to be esteemed as rights. And even grace itself can lose the strength of heavenly favour and can be received and used as our due. "Gethsemane can I forget?" Yes, I can; and in the forgetfulness I lose the sacred awe of my redemption, and I miss the real glory of "Paradise regained." "Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price." That is the remembrance that keeps the spirit lowly, and that fills the heart with love for Him "whose I am," and whom I ought to serve. FEBRUARY The Twenty-third _THE PROCESS AND THE END_ "_Ye have seen the end of the Lord: that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy._" --JAMES v. 7-11. And so we are bidden to be patient. "We must wait to the end of the Lord." The Lord's ends are attained through very mysterious means. Sometimes the means are in contrast to the ends. He works toward the harvest through winter's frost and snow. The maker of chaste and delicate porcelain reaches his lovely ends through an awful mortar, where the raw material of bone and clay is pounded into a cream. In that mortar-chamber we have no hint of the finished ware. But be patient, even in this chamber of affliction the ware is on the way to glory! And so it is with the ministries of our Lord. He leads us through discords into harmonies, through opposition into union, through adversities into peace. His means of grace are processes, sometimes gentle, sometimes severe; and our folly is to assume that we have reached His ends when we are only on the way to them. "The end of the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." "Be patient, therefore," until it shall be spoken of thee and me, "And God saw that it was good." FEBRUARY The Twenty-fourth _MOVING TOWARDS DAYBREAK_ "_He hath brought me into darkness, but not into light._" --LAMENTATIONS iii. 1-9. But a man may be in darkness, and yet in motion toward the light. I was in the darkness of the subway, and it was close and oppressive, but I was moving toward the light and fragrance of the open country. I entered into a tunnel in the Black Country in England, but the motion was continued, and we emerged amid fields of loveliness. And therefore the great thing to remember is that God's darknesses are not His goals; His tunnels are means to get somewhere else. Yes, His darknesses are appointed ways to His light. In God's keeping we are always moving, and we are moving towards Emmanuel's land, where the sun shines, and the birds sing night and day. There is no stagnancy for the God-directed soul. He is ever guiding us, sometimes with the delicacy of a glance, sometimes with the firmer ministry of a grip, and He moves with us always, even through "the valley of the shadow of death." Therefore, be patient, my soul! The darkness is not thy bourn, the tunnel is not thy abiding home! He will bring thee out into a large place where thou shalt know "the liberty of the glory of the children of God." FEBRUARY The Twenty-fifth _THE FRESH EYE_ "_His compassions fail not: they are new every morning._" --LAMENTATIONS iii. 22-33. We have not to live on yesterday's manna; we can gather it fresh to-day. Compassion becomes stale when it becomes thoughtless. It is new thought that keeps our pity strong. If our perception of need can remain vivid, as vivid as though we had never seen it before, our sympathies will never fail. The fresh eye insures the sensitive heart. And our God's compassions are so new because He never becomes accustomed to our need. He always sees it with an eye that is never dulled by the commonplace; He never becomes blind with much seeing! We can look at a thing so often that we cease to see it. God always sees a thing as though He were seeing it for the first time. "Thou, God, seest me," and "His compassions fail not." And if my compassions are to be like a river that never knows drought, I must cultivate a freshness of sight. The horrible can lose its horrors. The daily tragedy can become the daily commonplace. My neighbour's needs can become as familiar as my furniture, and I may never see either the one or the other. And therefore must I ask the Lord for the daily gift of discerning eyes. "Lord, that I may receive my sight." And with an always newly-awakened interest may I reveal "the compassions of the Lord!" FEBRUARY The Twenty-sixth _THE CELLARS OF AFFLICTION_ PSALM xxxiv. 9-22. Samuel Rutherford used to say that whenever he found himself in the cellars of afflictions he used to look about for the King's wine. He would look for the wine-bottles of the promises and drink rich draughts of vitalizing grace. And surely that is the best deliverance in all affliction, to be made so spiritually exhilarant that we can rise above it. I might be taken out of affliction, and emerge a poor slave and weakling. I might remain in affliction, and yet be king in the seeming servitude, "more than conqueror" in Christ Jesus. It is a great thing to be led through green pastures and by still waters; I think it is a greater thing to have a "table prepared before me _in the presence of mine enemies_." It is good to be able to sing in the sunny noon; it is better still to be able to sing "songs in the night." And this deliverance may always be ours in Christ Jesus. The Lord may not smooth out our circumstances, but we may have the regal right of peace. He may not save us from the sorrows of a newly-cut grave, but we may have the glorious strength of the immortal hope. God will enable us to be masters of all our circumstances, and none shall have a deadly hold upon us. FEBRUARY The Twenty-seventh _THE MIGHT OF FRAILTY_ PSALM cv. 23-36. That is the wonder of wonders, that the Almighty God will use frail humanity as the vehicles of His power, and will make Moses and Aaron shine with reflected glory. Man can send an electric current into a fragile carbon film and make it incandescent. He can send his voice across a continent, and make it speak on a distant shore. And the Lord God can do wonders compared with which these are only as the dimmest dreams. He can send His holy power into human speech, and the words can wake the dead. He can send His virtue into the human will, and its strength can shake the thrones of iniquity. He can send His love into the human heart, and the power of its affection can capture the bitterest foe. And so the word "impossible" becomes itself impossible when the soul of man is in fellowship with the Lord of Hosts. The pliant will becomes an iron pillar. The weak heart becomes "as a defended city" when it is the home of God. Dumb lips become the thrones of mysterious eloquence when touched with divine inspiration. FEBRUARY The Twenty-eighth _THE TEST OF FULNESS_ DEUTERONOMY viii. 1-10. "And thou shalt eat and be full, and thou shalt bless the Lord thy God." Fulness is surely a more searching test than want. Fulness induces sleep and forgetfulness. Many a man fights a good fight with Apollyon in the narrow way, who lapses into sleepy indifference on the Enchanted Ground. Men often sit down to a full table without "grace." Pain cries out to God, while boisterous health strides along in heedlessness. Yes, it is our fulness that constitutes our direst peril. "This was the iniquity of Sodom, _fulness_ of bread and abundance of idleness." And so our tests may come on the sunny day. A nation's supreme tests may come in its prosperity. The sunshine may do more damage than the lightning. The soul may falter even in Beulah land, where "the sun shines night and day." Prayer must not, therefore, tarry until sickness and adversity come. We must "pray without ceasing" in the cloudless noon, lest we are stricken with "the arrow that flieth by day." We must seek the eternal strength when no apparent enemy crouches at our gate, and when our easy road is lined with luxuriant flowers and fruit. FEBRUARY The Twenty-ninth _INVINCIBLE RELIANCE_ HEBREWS xi. 17-22. "Accounting that God was able." That is the faith that makes moral heroes. That is the faith that prompts mighty ventures and crusades. It is faith in God's willingness and ability to redeem His promises. It is faith that if I do my part He will most assuredly do His. It is faith that He cannot possibly fail. It is faith that when He makes a promise the money is already in the bank. It is faith that when He sends me into the wilderness the secret harvest is already ripe from which He will give me "daily bread." It is faith that "all things are now ready," and in that faith I will face the apparently impossible task. And thus the "impossible" leads me to the "prepared." The desert leads me to "fields white already." The hard call to sacrifice leads me to the "lamb in the thicket." "God is able," and He is never behind the time. The critical need unveils His grace. Faith goes out on this invincible reliance. It is "the assurance of things hoped for." And by faith it inherits these things and is rich and strong in their possession. MARCH The First _OVERCHARGING THE HEART_ LUKE xxi. 25-36. Here is a great peril. Our hearts may be "_overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares_." Our mode of living may send our spirits to sleep. Yes, we may so ill-use our bodies that the watchman sleeps at his post! We can over-eat, and dim our moral sight. A man's daily meals have vital relationship with his vision of the Lord. If I would have a clear spirit I must not overburden the flesh. And therefore am I bidden to "_take heed_" to myself. I must exercise common sense, the most important of all the senses. I must put a bridle upon my appetite, and hold it in subjection to my Lord. And I must "_watch_!" The devil is surpassingly cunning, and, if he can, he will mix an opiate even with the sacramental wine. He will lure me among the winsome poppies, and put me into a perilous sleep. And I must "_pray_!" I have a great and glorious Defender! Let me humbly yet confidently use Him, and I shall be delivered from the snares of appetite, and from the benumbing influence of all excess. MARCH The Second _THE POWER OF THE CROSS_ JOHN x. 11-18. "I lay down my life." In that supreme sacrifice all other sacrifices turn pale. In the power of that sacrifice the blackest guilt finds forgiveness. Its energies seek out the ruined and desolate life with glorious offer of renewal. When the Lord laid down His life the entire race found a new beginning. Our hope is born at the Cross. It is there that "the burden of our sin rolls away." In His night we find daybreak. When He said, "It is finished," our soul could sing, "Life is begun." And so pilgrims gather at the Cross. Songs are heard there, the "sweetest ever sung by mortal tongues." And the power of the Cross never wanes. Its glorious grace reaches the soul to-day as in the earliest days. It inspires the despairing heart. It transforms the mind. It remakes the tissues of the will. There is no shattered power that the power of the Cross cannot restore. "We are complete in Him." "In the Cross of Christ I glory, Towering o'er the wrecks of time; All the light of sacred story Gathers round its head sublime." MARCH The Third _PREPARING FOR THE BRIDE_ JOHN xiv. 1-14. Our Lord has prepared a place. It is the Bridegroom "getting the house ready" for the bride. And, therefore, the preparations are not made grudgingly and with slow reluctance. Everything is of the best, and done with the swift delight of love. "Come, for all things are now ready." And our Lord will fetch His bride to the prepared place. "I am the way." We become so wrapt up in Him that nothing else counts. I once travelled through the Black Country with a fascinating friend, and I never saw it! And we can become so absorbed in our glorious Bridegroom that we shall be almost oblivious of adverse circumstances which may beset us. Yes, even this is possible: "He that believeth in Me shall never see death!" "I will receive you unto Myself." The last obscuring veil is to be rent, and we are to see Him "face to face." And that will be home, for that will be satisfaction and peace. The deepest hunger of the soul will be gratified in a glorious contentment, and we shall find that "the half hath not been told." MARCH The Fourth _THE GREAT COMPANION_ JOHN xiv. 15-31. And so even the road is to have the home-feeling in it. "_I will not leave you orphans._" Yes; there is to be something of home even in the way to it. I find something of Devonshire even in Dorsetshire; Shropshire gives me a taste of Wales. My Lord will not leave me comfortless. Heaven runs over, and I find its bounty before I arrive at its gate. The "Valley of Baca" becomes "a well." And there are to be wonderful visions to speed the pilgrim's feet. "_I will manifest Myself unto him._" At unexpected corners the glory will break! We shall be assuming that we have picked up a common traveller, and suddenly we shall discover it is the Lord, for He will be made known to us "in the breaking of bread." And at many "risings" of the road, where the climbing is stiff and burdensome, we shall be inspired with many a glorious view, and we shall see "the land that is very far off." The one condition is, that I keep His word. If I am obedient, He will appear unto me, and the humdrum road will shine with miracles of grace. MARCH The Fifth _THE TENT AND THE BUILDING_ 2 CORINTHIANS v. 1-9. At present we live in a tent--"_the earthly house of this tabernacle._" And often the tent is very rickety. There are rents through which the rain enters, and it trembles ominously in the great storm. Some tents are frail from the very beginning, half-rotten when they are put up, and they have no defence even against the breeze. But even the strongest tent becomes weather-worn and threadbare, and in the long run it "falls in a heap!" And what then? We shall exchange the frail tent for the solid house! "_If the earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens._" When we are unclothed we shall find ourselves clothed with our house which is from heaven. The glory of this transition can only be confessed by "the saints in light." To awake, and discover that the creaking, breaking cords are left behind, that all the leakages are over, that we are no longer exposed to the cutting wind, that pain is passed, and sickness, and death--this must be a wonder of inconceivable ecstasy! And "absent from the body" we shall be "present with the Lord." MARCH The Sixth _HOME-LIFE IN GOD_ JOHN xvii. 20-26. The home-life in God is to be a life of perfect union--"_I in them, and Thou in Me._" Home is only another name for union. It is the perfect fusion of life with life, the harmonizing of differences as many different notes combine to form the mystery of choral song. And so will it be in the home-land! Our manifold individualities will be retained, but we shall "fit into one another," and in the perfect harmony we shall hear the "new song" of heaven. And we are to prepare that union by the contemplation of the glory of the Lord. "_That they may behold My glory._" Yes, and we can begin to do that now. We can lift our eyes away from the ugly compromises of men and fix them upon the radiant holiness of the Lord. We can look away from the dirty Alpine village and gaze upon the virgin snow of the uplifted heights. "Looking unto Jesus!" And in that contemplation we shall most assuredly become transformed. "_I have given unto them the glory which Thou gavest Me._" That is our wonderful possibility. For thee and me is this prize offered, we can "awake in His likeness." MARCH The Seventh _THINGS MISSING IN HEAVEN_ REVELATION xxi. 1-7. What a number of "conspicuous absences" there are to be in "the home-land!" No more sea! John was in Patmos, and the sea rolled between him and his kinsmen. The sea was a minister of estrangement. But in the home-country every cause of separation is to be done away, and the family life is to be one of inconceivable intimacy. No more sea! And no more pain! Its work is done, and therefore the worker is put away. When the building is completed the scaffolding may be removed. When the patient is in good health the medicine bottles can be dispensed with. And so shall it be with pain and all its attendants. "The inhabitant never says: 'I am sick!'" And no more death! "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death." Yes, he, too, shall drop his scythe, and his lax hand shall destroy no more for ever. Death himself shall die! And all things that have shared his work shall die with him. "The former things have passed away." The wedding-peal which welcomes the Lamb's bride will ring the funeral knell of Death and all his sable company. MARCH The Eighth _THE CITIZENS OF THE HOME-LAND_ REVELATION vii. 9-17. The citizen of "the home-land" wears white robes. His habits are perfectly clean. And the purity which he wears is a Divine gift and not a human accomplishment. It cannot be attained by self-sacrifice; it is ours through the sacrifice of our Lord. "They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." And every citizen of the home-land bears a palm in his hand. It is the emblem of conquest and sovereignty. By the grace of Christ they have been lifted above self and sin, and the devil, and death, and "made to sit with Him" on His throne. The palm is the heavenly symbol that all their spiritual enemies are under their feet. And every citizen of the home-land takes part in the new song. The home-folk are therefore one in purity, one in self-conquest, and one in praise. "Salvation unto our God which sitteth upon the throne!" In that melody of thankfulness their union is deepened and enriched. And we, too, can begin now to wear the white robe! And even now can we carry the palm! And even now we can join in the song of ceaseless praise. MARCH The Ninth _NEARING HOME!_ 2 TIMOTHY iv. 1-8. Here is a most valiant pilgrim nearing home! By the mercy of Christ he can look back upon a brave day, and there's a fine hopeful light in the evening sky. He has fought well! "_I have fought a good fight._" And his has been a hard field. The enemy has ever regarded him as a leader in the army of the Lord and against him has the fiercest fight been waged. But he has never lost or stained his flag. And he has run well! "_I have finished my course._" There was no melancholy turning back when the feverish start had cooled. There was no shrinking when the biting wind of malice and persecution swept across his track. On and on he ran, with increasing speed and ardour, until he reached the goal. And well had he guarded his treasure! "_I have kept the faith._" He was the custodian of "unsearchable riches," and he watched, day and night, lest any infernal burglar should despoil him of his wealth. He guarded his gospel, his liberty, his hope, as the sentinels guard the crown jewels in the Tower. And now the hard day is nearly over. "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord will give me at that day." MARCH The Tenth _EXALTATION BY SEPARATION_ 2 CORINTHIANS vi. 11-18. When we turn away from the world, and leave it, we ourselves are not left to desolation and orphanhood. When we "come out from among them" the Lord receives us! He is waiting for us. The new companionship is ours the moment the old companionship is ended. "I will not leave you comfortless." What we have lost is compensated by infinite and eternal gain. We have lost "the whole world" and gained "the unsearchable riches of Christ." And therefore separation is exaltation. We leave the muddy pleasures of Sodom and we "drink of the river of His pleasures." We leave "the garish day," and all the feverish life of Vanity Fair, and He maketh us "to lie down in green pastures," "He leadeth us beside the still waters." We leave a transient sensation, we receive the bread of eternity. We forfeit fireworks, we gain the stars! What fools we are, and blind! We prefer the scorched desert of Sodom to the garden of Eden. We prefer a loud reputation to noble character. We prefer delirium to joy. We prefer human applause to the praise of God. We prefer a fading garland to the crown of life. Lord, that we may receive our sight! MARCH The Eleventh _GOOD AND BAD ROADS_ PSALM i. There is nothing breaks up more speedily than a badly-made road. Every season is its enemy and works for its destruction. Fierce heat and intensest cold both strive for its undoing. And "the way of the ungodly" is an appallingly bad road. There is rottenness in its foundations, and there is built into it "wood, and hay, and stubble," How can it stand? "The Spirit of the Lord breatheth upon it," and it is surely brought to nought. All the forces of holiness are pledged to its destruction, and they shall pick it to pieces, and shall scatter its elements to the winds. "I am the way!" That road remains sound "in all generations." Changing circumstances cannot affect its stability. It is proof against every tempest, and against the most violent heat. It is a road in which little children can walk in happiness and in which old people can walk in peace. It is firm in the day of life, and it is absolutely sure in the hour of death. It never yields! "Thou hast set my feet upon a rock and hast established my goings." "This is the way, walk ye in it." MARCH The Twelfth _THE COMING OF THE LORD_ LUKE xvii. 22-32. In a certain very real way the Lord is coming every moment. And the great art of Christian living is to be able to discern Him when He arrives. He may appear as the village carpenter; or we may "suppose Him to be one of the gardeners," and we may mistake His appearing! He may meet us in some lowly duty, or in some seemingly unpleasant task. He may shine in the cheeriness of some triumph, or whisper to us in a message of good news. "I come again." And if our eyes are open we shall see Him coming continually. It is by this perception that the value of our life is measured and weighed. But He will also come again "suddenly," when the soul will be translated into unknown climes. He will come again in the sable robes of death. Shall we know Him? Will our eyes be so keen and true that we shall be able to pierce the dark veil and say "It is the Lord!" This has been the joyful experience of countless multitudes. When the summons came their souls went forth, not as victims to encounter death, but as the bride "to meet the bridegroom!" They had intimacy with Him in life; they had glorious fellowship with Him in death! MARCH The Thirteenth _SICKNESS AMONG CHRIST'S FRIENDS_ JOHN xi. 1-16. And so sickness can enter the circle of the friends of the Lord. "_He whom Thou lovest is sick._" My sicknesses do not mean that I have lost His favour. The shadow is His, as well as the sunshine. When He removes me from the glare of boisterous health it may be because of some spiritual fern which needs the ministry of the shade. "_This sickness is ... for the glory of God._" Something beautiful will spring out of the shadowed seclusion, something which shall spread abroad the name and fame of God. And, therefore, I do not wonder at the Lord's delay. He did not hasten away to the sick friend: "_He abode two days still in the same place where He was._" Shall I put it like this: the awaking bulbs were not yet ready for the brighter light--just a little more shade! We are impatient to get healthy; the Lord desires that we become holy. Our physical sickness is continued in order that we may put on spiritual strength. And there are others besides sick Lazarus concerned in the sickness: "I am glad _for your sakes_ I was not there." The disciples were included in the divine scheme. Their spiritual welfare was to be affected by it. Let me ever remember that the circle affected by sickness is always wider than the patient's bed. And may God be glorified in all! MARCH The Fourteenth "_EVEN NOW!_" JOHN xi. 17-31. Let me consider this marvellous confession of Martha's faith. "I know that _even now_, whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee!" Mark the "even now"! Lazarus was dead, and it was midnight in the desolate home. But "even now"! Beautiful it is when a soul's most awful crises are the seasons of its most radiant faith! Beautiful it is when our lamp shines steadily in the tempest, and when our spiritual confidence remains unshaken like a gloriously rooted tree. Beautiful it is when in our midnight men can hear the strains of the "even now"! And let me consider the wonder of the Divine response. "_I am the resurrection and the life._" A faith like Martha's will always win the Saviour's best. And here is an overwhelming best before which we can only bow in silent homage and awe. He is the Fountain in whom the stagnant brook shall find currency again. He is the Life in whom the fallen dead shall rise to their feet again. And what is this? "Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me _shall never die_!" We shall go to sleep, but we shall never taste the bitterness of death. In the very act of closing our material eyes we shall open our spiritual eyes, and find ourselves at home! MARCH The Fifteenth _JESUS AT A GRAVE_ JOHN xi. 32-45. Here is Jesus weeping. "Jesus wept." Why did He weep? Perhaps He wept out of sheer sympathy with the tears of others. And perhaps, too, He wept because some of our tears were needless. If we were better men we should know more of the love and purpose of our Lord, and perhaps many of our tears would be dried. Still, here is the sweet and heartening evangel. He sympathizes with my grief! Never a bitter tear is shed without my Lord sharing the tang and the pang. Here is Jesus praying! "Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me." Then it is not so much a prayer as a thanksgiving. He gives thanks for what He is "about to receive." Is this my way? Perhaps I do it before I take a meal. Do I do it before I begin to live the day? In the morning do I thank my God for what I am about to receive? Can I confidently give thanks before I receive the gifts of God, before the dish-covers are removed? Can I trust Him? And here is Jesus commanding, clothed in sovereign power: "Lazarus, come forth!" That is the same voice which "in the beginning created the heavens and the earth." MARCH The Sixteenth _THE NEMESIS OF BIGOTRY_ JOHN xi. 46-57. A fearful nemesis waits upon the spirit of bigotry. Oliver Wendell Holmes has said that bigotry is like the pupil of the eye, the more light you pour into it the more it contracts. The scribes and Pharisees became smaller men the more the Lord revealed His glory. In the raising of Lazarus they saw nothing of the glory of the resurrection life, nothing of the joy of the reunited family, nothing of the gracious ministry of the Lord! "Darkness had blinded their eyes." And it is also the nemesis of bigotry to be bitter, cruel, and violent. They sought to kill the Giver of life! It is the ministry of light to ripen and sweeten the dispositions. "The fruit of the light is in all goodness." It is the ministry of the darkness to make men sour and unsympathetic, and revengeful, and to so pervert the heart as to make it a minister of poison and death. And yet, how powerless is bigotry in the long run! It can no more stay the progress of the Kingdom than King Canute could check the flowing tide! Bigotry slew the Lord, and He rose again! And so it ever is. "Truth crushed to earth shall rise again; the eternal years of God are hers." MARCH The Seventeenth _THE COMMONPLACE OF DEATH_ LUKE vii. 11-18. Death is never a commonplace. We never become so accustomed to funerals as not to see them. Everybody sees the mournful procession go along the street. A momentary awe steals over the flippant thought, and for one brief season the superficial opens into the infinite abyss. And yet, while a thousand are arrested, only a few are compassionate. There can be awe without pity; there can be interest without service. When this humble funeral train trudged out of the city of Nain our Lord halted, and His heart melted! There was an "aching void," and He longed to fill it. There was a bleeding, broken heart, and He yearned to stand and heal it. He found His own joy in removing another's tears, His own satisfaction in another's peace. "_The Lord hath visited His people!_" That is what the people said, and I do not wonder at the saying! And let me, too, be a humble visitor in the troubled ways of men! Let my heart be a well of sweet compassion to all the sons and daughters of grief! Like Barnabas, let me be "a son of consolation." MARCH The Eighteenth _SERENITY IN THE TEMPEST_ JOB xix. 23-27. Perhaps I am akin to Job in having experienced the pressure of calamity. I have felt the shock of adverse circumstances, and the house of my life has trembled in the convulsion. Or death has been to my door and has returned again and again, and every time he has left me weeping! All God's billows have gone over me! Verily, I can take my place by the patriarch Job. But can I share his witness, "_I know that my Redeemer liveth_"? Have I a calm assurance that my ruler is not caprice, and that my comings and goings are not determined by unfeeling chance? When death knocked at my door, did I know that the King had sent him? When some cherished scheme toppled into ruin, had I any thought that the Lord's hand was concerned in the shaking? Even when my circumstances are dubious, and I cannot trace a gracious purpose, do I know that my Vindicator liveth, and that some day He will justify all the happenings of the troubled road? I will pay for this gracious confidence. I would have a firm step even among disappointments; yea, I would "sing songs in the night!" MARCH The Nineteenth _DEATH AS MY SERVANT_ REVELATION xx. 1-6. Even now I would rise from the dead. Even now I would know "the power of His resurrection." Even now I would taste the rapture of the deathless life. And this is my glorious prerogative in grace. Yes, even now I can be "risen with Christ," and "death shall no more have dominion over me!" And yet I must die! Yes, but the old enemy shall now be my friend. He will not be my master, but my servant. He shall just be the porter, to open the door into my Father's house, into the home of unspeakable blessedness and glory. Death shall not hurt me! I have seen a little child fall asleep while out in the streets of the city, and the kind nurse has taken charge of the sleeper, and when the little one awaked she was at home, and she opened her eyes upon her mother's face. So shall it be with all who are alive in Christ, and who have risen from a spiritual grave. They shall just fall into a brief sweet sleep, and gentle death shall usher them into the glory of the endless day. MARCH The Twentieth _THE LORD IS AT HAND!_ "_Ye know not what hour your Lord doth come._" --MATTHEW xxiv. 42-51. Then let me always live as though my Lord were at the gate! Let me arrange my affairs on the assumption that the next to lift the latch will be the King. When I am out with my friend, walking and talking, let me assume that just round the corner I may meet the Lord. And so let me practise meeting Him! Said a mother to me one day concerning her long-absent boy: "I lay a place for him at every meal! His seat is always ready!" May I not do this for my Lord? May I not make a place for Him in all my affairs--my choices, my pleasures, my times of business, my season of rest? He may come just now; let His place be ready! If He delay, I must not become careless. If He give me further liberty, I must not take liberties with it. Here is the golden principle, ever to live, ever to think, ever to work as though the Lord had already arrived. For indeed, He has, and when the veil is rent I shall find Him at my side. MARCH The Twenty-first _IN THE GOLDEN CITY_ ISAIAH lii. 1-12. And so these are the glories of the golden city. There is _wakefulness_. "Awake! awake!" In the golden city none will be asleep. Everybody will be bright-eyed, clear-minded, looking upon all beautiful things with fresh and ready receptiveness. "The eyes of them that see shall not be dim." There is _strength_. "Put on thy strength!" There will be no broken wills in the golden city, and no broken hearts. No one will walk with a limp! Everybody will go with a brave stride as to the strains of a band. And no one will tire of living, and the inhabitant never says, "I am sick." And there is _beauty_. "Put on thy beautiful garments." Bare strength might not be attractive. But strength clothed in beauty is a very gracious thing. The tender mosses on the granite make it winsome. Strength is companionable when it is united with grace. In the golden city there will be tender sentiment as well as rigid conviction. And these glories will be our defence. A positive virtue is our best rampart against vice. A robust health is the best protection against the epidemic. "The prince of this world cometh, and he hath nothing in me." MARCH The Twenty-second _COUNSEL AND MIGHT_ PSALM cxix. 33-40. The psalmist prays for an _illumined understanding_. "Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes." We are so prone to be children of the twilight, and to see things out of their true proportions. Therefore do we need to be daily taught. I must go into the school of the Lord, and in docility of spirit I must sit at His feet. "O, teach me, Lord, teach even me!" And the psalmist prays for _rectified inclinations_. "Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies." We so often have the wrong bias, the fatal taste, and our desires are all against the will of the Lord. If only my leanings were toward the Lord how swift my progress would be! I strive to walk after holiness, while my inclinations are in the realm of sin. And so I need a clean mouth, with an appetite for the beautiful and the true. "Blessed are they that hunger after righteousness." And the psalmist prays for _a strenuous will_. "Make me to go in the path of Thy commandments." He is praying for "go," for moral persistence, for power to crash through all obstacles which may impede his heavenly progress. And such is my need. Good Lord, endow me with a will like "an iron pillar," and help me to "stand in the evil day." MARCH The Twenty-third _THE DARK BETRAYAL_ JOHN xviii. 1-14. Our Master was betrayed by a disciple, "one of the twelve." The blow came from one of "His own household." The world employed a "friend" to execute its dark design. And so our intimacy with Christ may be our peril; our very association may be made our temptation. The devil would rather gain _one_ belonging to the inner circle than a thousand who stand confessed as the friends of the world. What am I doing in the kingdom? Can I be trusted? Or am I in the pay of the evil one? And our Master was betrayed in the garden of prayer. In the most hallowed place the betrayer gave the most unholy kiss. He brought his defilement into the most awe-inspiring sanctuary the world has ever known. And so may it be with me. I can kindle the unclean fire in the church. I can stab my Lord when I am on my knees. While I am in apparent devotion I can be in league with the powers of darkness. And this "dark betrayal" was for money! The Lord of Glory was bartered for thirty pieces of silver! And the difference between Judas and many men is that they often sell their Lord for less! From the power of Mammon, and from the blindness which falls upon his victims, good Lord, deliver me! MARCH The Twenty-fourth _IN GETHSEMANE_ LUKE xxii. 39-46. Surely this is the very Holy of Holies! It were well for us to fall on our knees and "be silent unto the Lord." I would quietly listen to the awful words, "Remove this cup from Me!" and I would listen again and again until never again do I hold a cheap religion. It is in this garden that we learn the real values of things, and come to know the price at which our redemption was bought. No one can remain in Gethsemane and retain a frivolous and flippant spirit. "_And there appeared unto Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him._" I know that angel! He has been to me. He has brought me angel's food, even heavenly manna. Always and everywhere, when my soul has surrendered itself to the Divine will, the angel comes, and my soul is refreshed. The laying down of self is the taking up of God. When I lose my will I gain the Infinite. The moment of surrender is also the moment of conquest. When I consecrate my weakness I put on strength and majesty like a robe. "_And when He rose up from His prayer_"--what then? Just this, He was quietly ready for anything, ready for the betraying kiss, ready for crucifixion. "Arise, let us be going." MARCH The Twenty-fifth _THE FEAR OF MAN_ JOHN xviii. 15-27. And this is the disciple who had been surnamed "The Rock"! Our Lord looked into the morrow, and He saw Simon's character, compacted by grace and discipline into a texture tough and firm as granite. But there is not much granite here! Peter is yet loose and yielding; more like a bending reed than an unshakable rock. A servant girl whispers, and his timid heart flings a lie to his lips and he denies his Lord. Peter denied the Master, not because he coveted money, but because he feared men. He was not seeking crowns, but escaping frowns. He was not clutching at a garland, but avoiding a sword. It was not avarice but cowardice which determined his ways. He shrank from crucifixion! He saw a possible cross, and with a great lie he passed by on the other side. But the Lord has not done with Peter. He is still "in the making." Some day he will justify his new name. Some day we shall find it written: "When they saw the boldness of Peter, they marvelled"! Once a maid could make him tremble. Now he can stand in high places, "steadfast and unmovable"! From the spirit of cowardice and from all temporising, and from the unholy fear of man, deliver me, good Lord! MARCH The Twenty-sixth _THE KING OF KINGS_ JOHN xviii. 28-38. What a strange King our Lord appears, claiming mystic sovereignty, and yet betrayed by a false friend! And yet, even in His apparent subjection His majestic kingliness stands revealed. When I watch the demeanours of Pilate and Jesus, I can see very clearly who it is who is on the throne; Pilate wears the outer trappings of royalty, but my Lord's is "the power and the glory." Pilate fusses about in a little "brief authority," but my Lord stands possessed of a serene dominion. Even at Pilate's judgment bar Jesus is the King. But His kingdom is "_not of this world_." And therefore this King is unlike every other King. He seeks His possessions not by fighting, but by "lighting"; not by coercion, but by constraint. His servants do not go forth with swords, but with lamps; not to drive the peoples, but to lead them. His visible throne is a cross, and His conquests are made in the power of sacrifice. And so His armaments are the Truth, and the Truth alone. "_For this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the Truth._" When the Truth wins and wooes, the triumph is lasting. Garlands won by the sword perish before the evening. To be one of the King's subjects is to share His nature. "Everyone that is of the truth heareth My voice." MARCH The Twenty-seventh _THE SILENCE OF JESUS_ "_He answered him nothing!_" --LUKE xxiii. 1-12. And yet, "Ask, and it shall be given you!" Yes, but everything depends upon the asking. Even in the realm of music there is a rudeness of approach which leaves true music silent. Whether the genius of music is to answer us or not depends upon our "touch." Herod's "touch" was wrong, and there was no response. Herod was flippant, and the Eternal was dumb. And I, too, may question a silent Lord. In the spiritual realm an idle curiosity is never permitted to see the crown jewels. Frivolousness never goes away from the royal Presence rich with surprises of grace. "Thy touch has still its ancient power!" So it has, but the healing touch is the gracious response to the touch of faith. "She touched Him, and...!" "_And Herod ... mocked Him._" That was the real spirit behind the eager curiosity. And I, too, may mock my Lord! I may bow before Him, and array Him in apparent royalty, while all the time my spirit is full of flippancy and jeers. I may lustily sing: "Crown Him Lord of all," while I will not recognize His rights on a single square foot of the soil of my inheritance. And this it is to be the kinsman of Herod. And this, too, will be the issue; the heavens will be as brass, and the Lord will answer us nothing. MARCH The Twenty-eighth _THE CHOICE OF BARABBAS_ LUKE xxiii. 13-24. Barabbas rather than Christ! The destroyer of life rather than the Giver of life! This was the choice of the people; and it is a choice which has often stained and defiled my own life. When I choose revenge rather than forgiveness, I am preferring Barabbas to Christ. For revenge is a murderer, while forgiveness is a healer and saviour of men. But how often I have sent the sweet healer to the cross, and welcomed the murderer within my gate! When I choose carnal passion before holiness, I am preferring Barabbas to Christ. For is there any murderer so destructive as carnality? And holiness stands waiting, ready to make me beautiful with the wondrous garments of grace. But I spurn the angel, and open my door to the beast. The devil is always soliciting my service, and the devil "is a murderer from the beginning." Have I never preferred him, and sent my Lord to be "crucified afresh," and "put Him to an open shame"? Again let me pray--for all my unholy and unwholesome choices, for all my preference of the murderer, forgive me, good Lord! MARCH The Twenty-ninth _MYSTIC ALARM-BELLS_ MATTHEW xxvii. 19-25. Pilate was warned. Pilate's wife had a dream, and in the dream she had glimpses of reality, and when she awoke her soul was troubled. "Have thou nothing to do with that just man!" And I, too, have mysterious warnings when I am treading perilous ways. Sometimes the warning comes from a friend. Sometimes "the angel of the Lord stands in the way for an adversary." My conscience rings loudly like an alarm-bell in the dead of night. Yes, the warnings are clear and pertinent, but...! Pilate ignored the warning, and handed the Lord to the revengeful will of the priests. Pilate defiled his heart, and then he washed his hands! What a petty attempt to escape the certain issues! And yet we have shared in the small evasion. We have crucified the Lord, and then we wear a crucifix. We violate the spirit, and then we do reverence to the letter. We hand the Lord over to be crucified, and then we practise the postures and gait of the saints. Yes, we have all sought an escape in outer ceremony from the nemesis of our shameful deeds. My soul, attend thou to the mystic warnings, and "play the man"! MARCH The Thirtieth _THE VICTORY OF MEEKNESS_ 1 PETER ii. 17-25. Then I may be not only the betrayer, but the betrayed. In my inner circle there may be a friend who will play me false, and hand me over to the wolves. What then? Just this--I must imitate the grace of my Lord, and "consider Him." There must be no violent retaliation. "_When He was reviled, He reviled not again._" The fire of revenge may singe or even scorch my enemy, but it will do far more damage to the furniture of my own soul. After every indulgence in vengeful passion some precious personal possession has been destroyed. The fact of the matter is, this fire cannot be kept burning without making fuel of the priceless furnishings of the soul. "Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself." There must be a serene committal of the soul to the strong keeping of the Eternal God. "_He committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously._" This is the way of peace, as this is the way of victory. If ever the enemy is to be conquered this must be the mode of the conquest. When men persecute us, let us rest more implicitly in our God. MARCH The Thirty-first _AT THE CROSS!_ MATTHEW xxvii. 38-50. Let me listen to the ribald jeers which were flung upon my Lord. And let me listen, not as a judge, but as one who has been in the company of the callous crowd. For I, too, have mocked Him! I have said: "Hail, King!" and I have bowed before Him, but it has been mock and empty homage! I have sung: "Crown Him Lord of all!" but there has been no real recognition of His sovereignty; mine has been a mock coronation. From the seat of the mocker, deliver me, good Lord! And let me stand near the cross while that awful voice of desolation rends the heavens. "_My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?_" In that agonizing cry I am led to the real heart of the atonement. My Saviour was standing where His believers will never stand. That was the real death, the death of an inconceivable abandonment. And "He died for me!" He so died in order that I may never taste death. "He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." Every believer will go to sleep, and through a short sleep he will wake in the glory of the Eternal Presence. But he will never die: no, never die! APRIL The First _THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS_ LUKE xxiii. 33-47. Look at our Lord in relation to His foes. "_Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do!_" Their bitterness has not embittered Him. The "milk of human kindness" was still sweet. Nothing could sour our Lord, and convert His goodwill into malice, His serene beneficence into wild revenge. And how is it with me? Are my foes able to maim my spirit as well as my body? Do they win their end by making me a smaller man? Or am I magnanimous even on the cross? And look at our Lord in relation to the penitent thief. "_To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise._" There was no self-centredness in our Saviour's grief. He was the good Physician, even when His body was mangled on the cross. He healed a broken heart even in the very pangs of death. When "there was darkness over all the earth," He let the light of the morning into the heart of a desolate thief. And, good Lord, graciously help me to do likewise! And all this amazing graciousness is explained in our Lord's relation to His Father. "_Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit!_" Yes, everything is there! When I and My Father are one, my spirit will remain sweet as the violet and pure as the dew. APRIL The Second "_ON HIM!_" "_The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all._" --ISAIAH liii. Let me tell a dream which was given by night to one of my dearest friends. He beheld a stupendous range of glorious sun-lit mountains, with their lower slopes enfolded in white mist. "Lord," he cried, "I pray that I may dwell upon those heights!" "Thou must first descend into the vale," a voice replied. Into the vale he went. And down there he found himself surrounded with all manner of fierce, ugly, loathsome things. As he looked upon them he saw that they were the incarnations of his own sins! There they were, sins long ago committed, showing their threatening teeth before him! Then he heard some One approaching, and instinctively he knew it was the Lord! And he felt so ashamed that he drew a cloak over his face, and stood in silence. And the Presence came nearer and nearer, until He, too, stood silent. After a while my friend mastered sufficient courage to lift the corner of his cloak and look out upon the Presence: and lo! all the loathsome things were _on Him_! "The Lord had laid on Him the iniquity of us all." APRIL The Third _THE STONE ROLLED AWAY_ MARK xvi. 1-8. I am always wondering who will roll away the stone! There is a great obstacle in the way, and my frailty is incompetent to its removal. And lo! when I arrive at the place I find that the angel has been before me, and the obstacle is gone! And I would that I might learn wisdom to-day from the miracle of yesterday. Let me not be confounded about a new stone when I know that my fears about the old one had no foundation. And then the young man at the sepulchre! He is a type of eternal youth, and he is sitting serenely in a routed grave. He represents the unwithering in the very home of corruption. And this, too, is my hope! It is mine in Christ to put on incorruption, and through a brief sleep to become clothed with immortal youth. "There everlasting spring abides, and never withering flowers!" And I may have the assurance of the coming glory even now. Even now may I taste the heavenly feast, and wear some of the unfading flowers of the glorified. Yes, even now my leaf need not wither, and my hopes may remain unshaken through all my troubled years. APRIL The Fourth _THE RESURRECTION MORNING_ MATTHEW xxviii. 1-15. Let me reverently mark the happenings of this most wonderful morn. "_It began to dawn._" Yes, that was the first significance of the resurrection. It was a new day for the world. Everything was to be seen in a new light. Everything was to wear a new face--God, and heaven, and life, and duty, and death! "All things are become new." "_And there was a great earthquake._" Yes, and this was significant of the tremendous upheaval implied in the resurrection. The kingdom of the devil was upheaved from its foundations. All the boasted pomp of his showy empire was turned upside down. "I beheld Satan falling!" "_And the angel rolled away the stone._" And that, too, is significant of the resurrection. The awful barrier was rolled away, and the grave became a thoroughfare! "This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes." And there was "_fear and great joy_." And mingled awe and gladness, a reverential delight. APRIL The Fifth _THE EMPTY TOMB_ LUKE xxiv. 1-12. That empty tomb means the conquest of death. The Captive proved mightier than the captor. He emerged from the prison as the Lord of the prison, and death reeled at His going. In the risen Saviour death is dethroned; he takes his place at the footstool to do the bidding of his sovereign Lord and King. And that empty tomb means the conquest of sin. Sin had done its worst, and had failed. All the forces of hell had been rallied against the Lord, and above them all He rose triumphant and glorified. A little while ago I discovered a spring. I tried to choke it. I heaped sand and gravel upon it; I piled stones above it! And through them all it emerged, noiselessly and irresistibly, a radiant resurrection! And so the empty tomb becomes the symbol of a thoroughfare between life in time and life in the unshadowed Presence of our God. Death is now like a short tunnel which is near my home; I can look through it and see the other side! In the risen Lord death becomes transparent. "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" APRIL The Sixth _FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST_ "_Last of all He was seen of me also._" --1 CORINTHIANS xv. 1-11. And by that vision Saul of Tarsus was transformed. And so, by the ministry of a risen Lord we have received the gift of a transfigured Paul. The resurrection glory fell upon him, and he was glorified. In that superlative light he discovered his sin, his error, his need, but he also found the dynamic of the immortal hope. "Seen of me also!" Can I, too, calmly and confidently claim the experience? Or am I altogether depending upon another man's sight, and are my own eyes unillumined? In these realms the witness of "hear-says" counts for nothing; he only speaks with arresting power who has "seen for himself." "Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of Me?" That is the question which is asked, not only by the Master, but by all who hear us tell the story of the risen Lord. "Has He been seen of thee also?" My Saviour, I humbly pray Thee to give me first-hand knowledge of Thee. Let me be a witness who can say, "I know that my Redeemer liveth!" Before all the doubts and hesitancies of man enable me to answer, "Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?" APRIL The Seventh _IF CHRIST WERE DEAD!_ 1 CORINTHIANS xv. 12-26. "_If Christ be not risen!_" That is the most appalling "if" which can be flung into the human mind. If it obtains lodging and entertainment, all the fairest hopes of the soul wither away like tender buds which have been nipped by sharp frost! See how they fade! "_Your faith is vain._" It has no more strength and permanency than Jonah's gourd. Nay, it has really never been a living thing! It has been a pathetic delusion, beautiful, but empty as a bubble, and collapsing at Joseph's tomb. "_Ye are yet in your sins._" The hope of forgiveness and reconciliation is stricken, and there is nothing left but "a certain fearful looking-for of judgment." Nemesis has only been hiding behind a screen of decorated falsehoods, and she will pursue us to the bitter end. "_We are of all men the most miserable._" Joy would fall and die like a fatally wounded lark. The song would cease from our souls. The holy place would become a tomb. "But now _is_ Christ risen from the dead!" Yes, let me finish on that word. That gives me morning, and melody, and holy merriment that knows no end. April The Eighth _MY INHERITANCE IN THE RISEN LORD_ 1 PETER i. 1-9. In my risen Lord I am born into "a living hope," a hope not only vital, but vitalizing, sending its mystic, vivifying influences through every highway and by-way of my soul. In my risen Lord mine is "_an inheritance incorruptible_." It is not exposed to the gnawing tooth of time. Moth and rust can not impair the treasure. It will not grow less as I grow old. Its glories are as invulnerable as my Lord. In my risen Lord mine is "an inheritance ... _undefiled_." There is no alloy in the fine gold. The King will give me of His best. "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him." The holiest ideal proclaims my possibility, and foretells my ultimate attainment. Heaven's wine is not to be mixed with water. I am to awake "in His likeness." And mine is "an inheritance ... that _fadeth not away_." It shall not be as the garlands offered by men--green to-day and to-morrow sere and yellow. "Its leaf also shall not wither." It shall always retain its freshness, and shall offer me a continually fresh delight. And these are all mine in Him! "Thou, O Christ, art all I want." APRIL The Ninth _THE EVER-LIVING LORD_ REVELATION i. 9-18. Let me take the simple words, and quietly gaze into the wonderful depths of their fathomless simplicity. An old villager used to tell me it would strengthen my eyes if I looked long into deep wells. And it will assuredly strengthen the eyes of my soul to gaze into wells like these. "_I am He that liveth._" What a marvellous transformation it worked upon Dr. Dale, when one day, in his study, it flashed upon him, as never before, that Jesus Christ is alive! "Christ is alive!" he repeated again and again, until the clarion music filled all the rooms in his soul. "Christ is alive!" "_And was dead._" Yes, the Lord has gone right through that dark place. There are footprints, and they are the footprints of the Conqueror, all along the road. "Christ leads me through no darker room than He went through before." "_And, behold, I am alive for ever more._" "Jesus has conquered death and all its powers." Never more will it sit on a transient throne. Its power is broken, its "sting" has lost its poison, there isn't a boast left in its apparently omnivorous mouth! "Where's thy victory, O grave?" And here is the gospel for me--"Because I live ye shall live also." APRIL The Tenth _RESURRECTION-LIGHT_ "_If we believe that Jesus died and rose again...._" --1 THESSALONIANS iv. 13-18. That is the eastern light which fills the valley of time with wonderful beams of glory. It is the great dawn in which we find the promise of our own day. Everything wears a new face in the light of our Lord's resurrection. I once watched the dawn on the East Coast of England. Before there was a grey streak in the sky everything was held in grimmest gloom. The toil of the two fishing-boats seemed very sombre. The sleeping houses on the shore looked the abodes of death. Then came grey light, and then the sun, and everything was transfigured! Every window in every cottage caught the reflected glory, and the fishing-boats glittered in morning radiance. And everything is transfigured in the Risen Christ. Everything is lit up when "the Sun of Righteousness arises with healing in His wings." Life is lit up, and so is death, and so are sorrow and daily labour and human friendships! Everything catches the gleam and is changed. "We are no longer of the night, but of the day." "Walk as children of light." "Awake, thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee." APRIL The Eleventh _THROUGH DEATH TO LIFE_ ROMANS v. 1-11. The Lord went through death to make a path to life. He descended into shame and suffering, and appalling desolation in order that He might "open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers." And the way is now open! Therefore, "_let us have peace with God_." Let us reverently and willingly tread the heavenly road, and seek the King's presence, and gratefully accept "the everlasting covenant." Let us go, as once rebel soldiers, and let us surrender our arms, and at His bidding take them again, to fight in His service. And let us "_glory in tribulation_." If we are in the King's road, at peace with the King, every stormy circumstance will be made to do us service. Yes, all our troubles will be compelled to minister to us, to robe us, and to adorn us, and to make us more like the sons and daughters of a royal house. "Out of the eater will come forth meat, and out of the strong will come forth sweetness." And, therefore, let us "_joy in God_." Don't let us be "the King's own," and yet march in the sulks! Let us march to the music of grateful song and praise. "Children of the heavenly King, As ye journey, sweetly sing." APRIL The Twelfth _THE LAMB ON THE THRONE_ "_In the midst of the throne stood a Lamb as it had been slain!_" --REVELATION v. 6-14. How strange and unexpected is the figure! A lamb--the supreme type of gentleness! A throne, the supreme symbol of power! And the one is in the very midst of the other. The sacrificial has become the sovereign: the Cross is the principal part of the throne. "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." Yes, this sovereign sacrificial Lord is to receive universal homage and worship. "_Every creature which is in heaven and on the earth_" is to pay tribute at His feet. And this, not by a terrible coercion, but by a gracious constraint. We are not to be driven, we are to be drawn; we are to move by love--compulsion: the Lamb in God is to win the wills of men. And I, too, may take my harp and make melodious praise before my King. And I, too, may fill the "golden vials" with my grateful intercession, and heaven shall be the sweeter for the odour of my prayers. And I, too, may sound my loud "Amen," the note of gladsome resignation to the sovereign will of God. Yes, even now I may be one of "the multitude whom no man can number," who, in a new song, ascribe all worthiness to "the Lamb that was slain." APRIL The Thirteenth _PURE GOLD_ "_Thou shalt overlay it with pure gold.... And there I will meet with thee._" --EXODUS xxv. 10-22. I must put my best into my preparations, and then the Lord will honour my work. My part is to be of "pure gold" if my God is to dwell within it. I must not satisfy myself with cheap flimsy and then assume that the Lord will be satisfied with it. He demands my very best as a condition of His enriching Presence. My prayers must be of "pure gold" if He is to meet me there. There must be nothing vulgar about them, nothing shoddy, nothing hastily constructed, nothing thrown up anyhow. They must be chaste and sincere, and overlaid with pure gold. My home must be of "pure gold" if He is to meet me there. No unclean passion must dwell there, no carnal appetite, no defiling conversation, no immoderateness in eating and drinking. How can the Lord sit down at such a table, or make One at such a fireside? Let me present to Him pure gold. Let me offer Him nothing cheap. Let me ever make the ark of my best, and the Lord will meet me there. APRIL The Fourteenth _RELIGION AS MERE MAGIC_ "_And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout._" --1 SAMUEL iv. 1-11. They were making more of the ark than of the Lord. Their religion was degenerating into superstition. I become superstitious whenever the means of worship are permitted to eclipse the Object of worship. I then possess a magic instrument, and I forget the holy Lord. It can be so with prayer. I may use prayer as a magic minister to protect me from invasive ills. I do not pray because I desire fellowship with the Father, but because I should not feel safe without it. The ark is more than the Lord. It can be so with a crucifix. A crucifix may become a mere talisman, and so supplant the Lord. I may wear the thing and have no fellowship with the Person. And so may it be with the Lord's Supper. I may come to regard it as a magic feast, which makes me immune from punishment, but not immune from sin. It may be a minister of safety, but not of holiness. So let mine eyes be ever unto the Lord! Let me not be satisfied with the ark, but let me seek Him whose name is holy and whose nature is love. APRIL The Fifteenth _DEGRADING HOLY THINGS_ 1 SAMUEL vi. 1-15. I must remember that a holy thing can be the minister of a plague. Things that were purposed to be benedictions can be changed into blights. The very ark of God must be in its appointed place or it becomes the means of sickness and destruction. So it is with all the holy things of God: if I dethrone them they will uncrown me. It is even so with music. Unless I give it its holy sovereignty it will become a minister of the passions, and the angel within me is mastered by a beast. Let me read again Tennyson's "Palace of Sin," and let me heedfully note how music becomes the instrument of ignoble sensationalism, and aids in man's degradation. "But exalt her, and she shall exalt thee." It is even so with art. It is purposed to be the holy dwelling-place of God, but I can so abuse it as to make it the agent of degradation. Instead of hallowing the life it will debase and impoverish it. I will therefore remember that, if I infringe the Divine order, I can turn the sacramental cup into a vehicle of moral poison and spiritual blight. "They must be holy who bear the vessels of the Lord." APRIL The Sixteenth _PRIESTS OF THE LORD_ "_None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites._" --1 CHRONICLES xv. 1-3, 11-15. There are prepared people for prepared offices. The Lord will fit the man to the function, the anointed and consecrated priest for the consecrated and consecrating ministry. But now, in the larger purpose of the Lord, and in "the exceeding riches of His grace," everybody may be a priest of the Lord. "He hath made us to be priests and kings unto God." And He will prepare us to carry our ark, and to "minister in holy things." I can be His priest in the home. He will anoint me as one who is to engage in holy ministries, and I shall be serving at the altar even while engaged in the lowly duties of the house. The humble meal will be sacramental, and common work will be heavenly sacrifice. I can be His priest in my class. The Lord will clothe me in "linen clean and white," and in my consecrated spirit my scholars shall discern the incense of sacrifice. And woe is me if I attempt to fill the godly office without my God. And I can be His priest in my workshop. Yes, in the carpenter's shop I may wear the radiant robe of the sanctified. And I, too, as one of the priests of the Lord, can "bear the sin of many, and make intercession for the transgressor." APRIL The Seventeenth _GREAT PRAISE_ 1 CHRONICLES xvi. 7-36. "Great is the Lord!" So many people have such a little God! There is nothing about Him august and sublime. And so He is not greatly praised. The worship is thin, the thanksgivings are scanty, the supplications are indifferent. All great saints have a great God. He fills their universe. Therefore do they move about in a fruitful awe, and everywhere there is only a thin veil between them and His appearing. Everywhere they discern His holy presence, as the face of a bride is dimly seen beneath her bridal veil. And so even the common scrub of the wilderness is aflame with sacred fire: the humble "primrose on the rock" becomes "the court of Deity": and the "strength of the hills is His also"! Yes, a great God inspires great praise, and in great praise small cares and small meannesses are utterly consumed away. When praise is mean, anxieties multiply. Therefore let me contemplate the greatness of God in nature and in providence, in His power, and His holiness, and His love. Let me "stand in awe" before His glory: and in the fruitful reverence the soul will be moved in acceptable praise. APRIL The Eighteenth _MECHANICAL PIETY_ PHILEMON 10-18. The Apostle Paul declares that benefits may be given in one of two ways--"_of necessity_" and "_willingly_." One is mechanical, the other is spontaneous. I once saw a little table-fountain playing in a drawing-room, but I heard the click of its machinery, and the charm was gone! It had to be wound up before it would play, and at frequent periods it "ran down." A little later I saw another fountain playing on a green lawn, and it was fed from the deep secret resources of the hills! There is a generosity which is like the drawing-room fountain. If you listen you can hear the mechanical click, and a sound of friction, arising from murmuring and complaint. And there is a generosity which is like the fountain that is the child of the hills. It is clear, and sweet, and musical, and flows on through every season! One is "of necessity"; the other is "willingly." And "God loveth a cheerful giver." And prayer can be of the same two contrary orders. One prayer is mechanical, it is hard, formal, metallic. The other is spontaneous, forceful, and irresistible. Listen to the Pharisee--"Lord, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are." It is the click of the machine! Listen to the publican--"God be merciful to me, a sinner!" It is the voice of the deeps. APRIL The Ninteenth _UNION IN HARMONY_ "_Be ye all of one mind._" --1 PETER iii. 8-17. But this is not unison: it is harmony. When an orchestra produces some great musical masterpiece, the instruments are all of one mind, but each makes its own individual contribution. There is variety with concordance: each one serves every other, and the result is glorious harmony. "By love serve one another." It is love that converts membership into fraternity: it is love that binds sons and daughters into a family. Look at a field of wild-flowers. What a harmony of colour! And yet what a variety of colours! Nothing out of place, but no sameness! All drawing resource from the same soil, and breathing the vitalizing substance from the same air! "And ye, being rooted and grounded in love," will grow up, a holy family in the Lord. If love be the common ground the varieties in God's family may be infinite! And so the unity which the apostle seeks is a unity of mood and disposition. It is not a unity which repeats the exact syllables of a common creed, but a unity which is built of common trust, and love, and hope. It is not sameness upon the outer lips, but fellowship in the secret place. APRIL The Twentieth _THE JOY OF THE LOVER_ ROMANS xii. 9-18. Love finds her joy in seeing others crowned. Envy darkens when she sees the garland given to another. Jealousy has no festival except when she is "Queen of the May." But love thrills to another's exaltation. She feels the glow of another's triumph. When another basks in favour her own "time of singing of birds is come!" And all this is because love has wonderful chords which vibrate to the secret things in the souls of others. Indeed, the gift of love is just the gift of delicate correspondence, the power of exquisite fellow-feeling, the ability to "rejoice with them that do rejoice, and to weep with them that weep." When, therefore, the soul of another is exultant, and the wedding-bells are ringing, love's kindred bells ring a merry peal. When the soul of another is depressed, and a funeral dirge is wailing, love's kindred chords wail in sad communion. So love can enter another's state as though it were her own. Our Master spake condemningly of those who have lost this exquisite gift. They have lost their power of response. "We have piped with you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned with you, and ye have not lamented." They lived in selfish and loveless isolation. They have lost all power of tender communion. APRIL The Twenty-first _LOVE AS THE GREAT MAGICIAN_ 1 JOHN ii. 1-11. A new commandment! And yet it is an old one with a new meaning. It is the old water-pot, but its water has been changed into wine. It is the old letter with a new spirit. It is the old body with a new soul. Love makes all things new! It changes duty into delight, and statutes into songs. What a magic difference love makes to a face. It at once becomes a face illumined. Love makes the plainest face winsome and attractive. It adds the light of heaven, and the earthly is transfigured. No cosmetics are needed when love is in possession. She will do her own beautifying work, and everybody will know her sign. What a magic difference love makes in service! The hireling goes about his work with heavy and reluctant feet: the lover sings and dances at his toil. The hireling scamps his work: the lover is always adding another touch, and is never satisfied. Just one more touch! And just another! And so on until the good God shall say that loving "patience has had her perfect work." Love lights up everything, for she is the light of life. Let her dwell in the soul, and every room in the life shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. APRIL The Twenty-second _SPEECH AS A SYMPTOM OF HEALTH_ "_The tongue of the wise is health._" --PROVERBS xii. 13-22. Our doctors often test our physical condition by the state of our tongue. With another and deeper significance the tongue is also the register of our condition. Our words are a perfect index of our moral and spiritual health. If our words are unclean and untrue, our souls are assuredly sickly and diseased. A perverse tongue is never allied with a sanctified heart. And, therefore, everyone may apply a clinical test to his own life: "What is the character of my speech? What do my words indicate? What do they suggest as to the depths and background of the soul?" "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." God delighteth in truthful lips. Right words are fruit from the tree of life. The Lord turns away from falsehood as we turn away from material corruption, only with an infinitely intenser loathing and disgust. It is only the lips that have been purified with flame from the holy altar of God that can offer words that are pleasing unto Him. "Take my lips and let them be Filled with messages from Thee." APRIL The Twenty-third _MASCULINE FORGIVENESS_ COLOSSIANS iii. 12-17. True forgiveness is a very strong and clean and masculine virtue. There is a counterfeit forgiveness which is unworthy of the name. It is full of "buts," and "ifs," and "maybes," and "peradventures." It moves with reluctance, it offers with averted face, it takes back with one hand what it gives with the other. It forgives, but it "cannot forget." It forgives, but it "can never trust again." It forgives, but "things can never be the same as they were." What kind of forgiveness is this? It is the mercy of the police-court. It is the remission of penalty, not the glorious "abandon" of grace! It is a cold "Don't do it again," not the weeping and compassionate goodwill of the Lord. "_Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye._" That is to be our motive, and that is to be our measure. We are to forgive _because_ Christ forgave us. The glorious memory of His grace is to make us gracious. His tender, healing words to us are to redeem our speech from all harshness. In the contemplation of His cross we are to become "partakers of His sufferings," and by the shedding of our own blood help to close and heal the alienation of the world. And we are to forgive _as_ Christ forgave us. Resentment is to be changed into frank goodwill, and filled with the grace of the Lord. APRIL The Twenty-fourth LIMITED FORGIVENESS LUKE xvii. 3-10. We are always inclined to set a limit to our moral obligations. We wish, as we say, "to draw a line somewhere." We want to appoint a definite place where obligation ceases, and where the moral strain may be released. The Apostle Peter wished his Master to draw such a line in the matter of forgiveness. "Lord, how oft shall I forgive? Till seven times?" He wanted a tiny moral rule which he could apply to his brother's conduct. Not so the Lord. Our Master tells His disciple that in those spiritual realms relations are not governed by arithmetic. We cannot, by counting, measure off our obligations. Our repeated acts of forgiveness never bring us nearer to the freedom of revenge. No amount of sweetness will ever permit us to be bitter. We cannot, by being good, obtain a license to be evil. The fact of the matter is, if our goodness is of genuine quality, every act will more strongly dispose us to further goodness. It is the counterfeit element in our goodness that inclines us to the opposite camp. It is when our forgiveness is tainted that we anticipate the "sweetness" of revenge. APRIL The Twenty-fifth _THE HIDDEN FOES_ MATTHEW v. 21-26. Our Lord always leads us to the secret, innermost roots of things. He does not concern Himself with symptoms, but with causes. He does not begin with the molten lava flowing down the fair mountain slope and destroying the vineyards. He begins with the central fires in which the lava is born. He does not begin with uncleanness. He begins with the thoughts which produce it. He does not begin with murder, but with the anger which causes it. He pierces to the secret fires! Now, all anger is not of sin. The Apostle Paul enjoins his readers to "be angry, and sin not." To be altogether incapable of anger would be to offer no antagonism to the wrongs and oppressions of the world. "Who is made to stumble, and I burn not?" cries the Apostle Paul. If wrong stalked abroad with heedless feet he burned with holy passion. There is anger which is like clean flame, clear and pure, as "the sea of glass mingled with fire." And there is anger which is like a smoky bonfire, and it pollutes while it destroys. It is the unclean anger which is of sin. It seeks revenge, not righteousness. It seeks "to get its own back," not to get the wrong-doer back to God. It follows wrong with further wrong. It spreads the devil's fire. APRIL The Twenty-sixth _GOLIATH VERSUS GOD!_ 1 SAMUEL xvii. 1-11. Goliath seemed to have everything on his side _except_ God. And the things in which he boasted were just the things in which men are prone to boast to-day. He had physical strength. "His height was six cubits and a span." Athletics had done all they could for him, and he was a fine type of animal perfection. He had splendid military equipment. "A helmet of brass," and "a coat of mail," and "a spear like a weaver's beam!" Surely, if fine material equipment determines combats, the shepherd-lad from the hills of Bethlehem will be annihilated. And he enjoyed the enthusiastic confidence of the Philistines. He was his nation's pride and glory! He strode out amid their shouts, and the cheers were like iron in his blood. But all this counted for nothing, because God was against him. Men and nations may attain to a fine animalism, their warlike equipment may satisfy the most exacting standard, and yet, with God against them, they shall be as structures woven out of mists, and they shall collapse at the touch of apparent weakness. The issue was not Goliath versus David, but Goliath versus God! APRIL The Twenty-seventh _OBSCURE BIRTHPLACES_ 1 SAMUEL xvii. 12-27. God's champion is at present feeding sheep! Who would have expected that Goliath's antagonist would emerge from the quiet pastures? "Genius hatches her offspring in strange places." Very humble homes are the birthplaces of mighty emancipations. There was a little farm at St. Ives, and the farmer lived a quiet and unsensational life. But the affairs of the nation became more and more confused and threatening. Monarchical power despoiled the people's liberties, and tyranny became rampant. And out from the little farm strode Oliver Cromwell, the ordained of God, to emancipate his country. There was an obscure rectory at Epworth. The doings in the little rectory were just the quiet practices of similar homes in countless parts of England. And England was becoming brutalized, because its religious life was demoralized. The Church was asleep, and the devil was wide awake! And forth from the humble rectory strode John Wesley, the appointed champion of the Lord to enthuse, to purify, and to sweeten the life of the people. On what quiet farm is the coming deliverer now labouring? Who knows? APRIL The Twenty-eighth _PREPARING FOR GREAT ENCOUNTERS_ 1 SAMUEL xvii. 28-37. This young champion of the Lord had won many victories before he faced Goliath. Everything depends on how I approach my supreme conflicts. If I have been careless in smaller combats I shall fail in the larger. If I come, wearing the garlands of triumph won in the shade, the shout of victory is already in the air! Let me look at David's trophies before he removed Goliath's head. He had conquered his temper. Read Eliab's irritating taunt in the twenty-eighth verse, and mark the fine self-possession of the young champion's reply! That conquest of temper helped him when he took aim at Goliath! There is nothing like passion for disturbing the accuracy of the eye and the steadiness of the hand. He had conquered fear. "_Let no man's heart fail because of him._" There was no panic, there was no feverish and wasteful excitement. There was no shouting "to keep the spirits up!" He was perfectly calm. And he had conquered unbelief. He had a rich history of the providential dealings of God with him, and his confidence was now unclouded and serene. He had known the Lord's power when he faced the bear and the lion. Now for Goliath! APRIL The Twenty-ninth _THE MOOD OF TRIUMPH_ "_I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts._" --1 SAMUEL xvii. 38-54. The man who comes up to his foes with this assurance will fight and win. Reasonable confidence is one of the most important weapons in the warrior's armoury. Fear is always wasteful. The man who calmly expects to win has already begun to conquer. Our mood has so much to do with our might. And therefore does the Word of God counsel us to attend to our dispositions, lest, having carefully collected our material implements, we have no strength to use them. And the man who comes up to his foes with holy assurance will fight with consummate skill. He will be quite "collected." All his powers will wait upon one another, and they will move together as one. He is as self-possessed upon the battlefield as upon parade, as undisturbed before Goliath as before a flock of sheep! And therefore do I say that, fighting with perfect composure, he fights with superlative skill. The right moment is seized, the right stone is chosen, the right aim is taken, and great Goliath is brought low. APRIL The Thirtieth _THE TEST OF VICTORY_ "_David behaveth himself wisely._" --1 SAMUEL xvii. 55--xviii. 5. The hour of victory is a more severe moral test than the hour of defeat. Many a man can brave the perils of adversity who succumbs to the seductions of prosperity. He can stand the cold better than the heat! He is enriched by failure, but "spoilt by success." To test the real quality of a man, let us regard him just when he has slain Goliath! "David behaved himself wisely"! He was not "eaten up with pride." He developed no "side." He went among his friends as though no Goliath had ever crossed his way. He was not for ever recounting the triumph, and fishing for the compliments of his audience. He "behaved wisely." So many of us tarnish our victories by the manner in which we display them. We put them into the shop-window, and they become "soiled goods." And in this hour of triumph David made a noble friend. In his noonday he found Jonathan, and their hearts were knit to each other in deep and intimate love. It is beautiful when our victories are so nobly borne that they introduce us into higher fellowships, and the friends of heaven become our friends. MAY The First _THE CONDITIONS OF SERENITY_ PSALM cxxiv. If I would be like the Psalmist, I must _clearly recognize my perils_. He sees the "waters," the "proud waters." He beholds the "enemy," and his "wrath," and his "teeth." He sees "the fowler" with his snare! I must not shut my eyes, and "make my judgment blind." One of the gifts of grace is the spirit of discernment, the eyes which not only detect hidden treasure, but hidden foes. The devil is an expert in mimicry; he can make himself look like an angel of light. And so must I be able to discover his snares, even when they appear as the most seductive food. And if I would be like the Psalmist, I must _clearly recognize my great Ally_. "If it has not been the Lord, who was on our side!" To see the Ally on the perilous field, and to see Him on my side, gives birth to holy confidence and song. "The Lord is on my side, whom shall I fear?" I must make sure of the Ally, and "victory is secure." And if I would be like the Psalmist, I must not omit the doxology of praise. When the prayer is answered, I am apt to forget the praise. My thanksgivings are not so ready as my requests. And so the apparently conquered enemy steals in again at the door of an ungrateful heart. May The Second _THE HAPPY WARRIOR_ EPHESIANS vi. 10-18. Here is a portrait of the happy warrior! Let me first look at the warrior, and then at the implements with which he fights. "You cannot fight the French merely with red uniforms; there must be men inside them!" So said Thomas Carlyle. Well, look at this man. "_Strengthened in the Lord, and in the power of His might._" There is a secret communion with the Almighty, and he draws his resources from the Infinite. The water in my home comes from the Welsh hills; every drop was gathered on those grand and expansive uplands. And this man's soldierly strength is drawn from the hills of God; every ounce of his fighting blood comes from the veins of the Lord. And mark the nature of his armoury. His weapons are dispositions. He fights with "truth," and "righteousness," and "peace," and "faith," and "prayer"! There are no implements like these. A sword will fail where a courtesy will prevail. We can kill our enemies by kindness. And as for the devil himself there is nothing like a grace-filled disposition for putting him to flight! A prayerful disposition can drive him off any field, at any hour of the day or night. "Put on the whole armour of God." May The Third _OTHER GODS!_ "_Thou shalt have no other gods before Me._" --EXODUS xx. 1-11. If we kept that commandment all the other commandments would be obeyed. If we secure this queen-bee we are given the swarm. To put nothing "before" God! What is left in the circle of obedience? God first, always and everywhere. Nothing allowed to usurp His throne for an hour! I was once allowed to sit on an earthly throne for a few seconds, but even that is not to be allowed with the throne of God. Nothing is to share His sovereignty, even for a moment. His dominion is to be unconditional and unbroken. "Thou shalt have no other gods beside Me." But we have many gods we set upon His throne. We put money there, and fame, and pleasure, and ease. Yes, we sometimes usurp God's throne, and we ourselves dare to sit there for days, and weeks, and years, at a time. Self is the idol, and we enthrone it, and we fall down and worship it. But no peace comes from such sovereignty, and no deep and vital joy. For the real King is not dead, and He is out and about, and our poor little monarchy is as the reign of the midge on a summer's night. Our real kingship is in the acknowledgment of the King of kings. When we worship Him, and Him only, He will ask us to sit on His throne. MAY The Fourth _A HEALTHY PALATE_ "_How sweet are Thy words unto my taste._" --PSALM cxix. 97-104. Some people like one thing, and some another. Some people appreciate the bitter olive; others feel it to be nauseous. Some delight in the sweetest grapes; others feel the sweetness to be sickly. It is all a matter of palate. Some people love the Word of the Lord; to others the reading of it is a dreary task. To some the Bible is like a vineyard; to others it is like a dry and tasteless meal. One takes the word of the Master, and it is "as honey to the mouth"; to another the same word is as unwelcome as a bitter drug. It is all a matter of palate. But what is a man to do who has got a perverted palate, and who calls sweet things bitter and bitter things sweet? He must get a new mouth! And where is he to get it? Not by any ministry of his own creation; his own endeavours will be impotent. A healthy moral palate depends upon the purity of the heart. Our spiritual discernments are all determined by the state of the soul. If the heart be pure, the mouth will be clean, and we shall love God's law. If the soul-appetite be healthy, God's words will be sweet unto our taste. And so does the good Lord give us new palates by giving us new hearts. "Create within us clean hearts, O God, and renew right spirits within us." MAY The Fifth _HEALTHY LISTENING_ "_Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only._" --JAMES i. 21-27. When we hear the word, but do not do it, there has been a defect in our hearing. We may listen to the word for mere entertainment. Or we may attach a virtue to the mere act of listening to the word. We may assume that some magical efficacy belongs to the mere reading of the word. And all this is perverse and delusive. No listening is healthy which is not mentally referred to obedience. We are to listen _with a view to obedience_, with our eyes upon the very road where the obedient feet will travel. That is to say, we are to listen with purpose, as though we were Ambassadors receiving instructions from the King concerning some momentous mission. Yes, we must listen with an eye on the road. "Doing" makes a new thing of "hearing." The statute obeyed becomes a song. The commandment is found to be a beatitude. The decree discloses riches of grace. The hidden things of God are not discovered until we are treading the path of obedience. "And it came to pass that as he went he received his sight." In the way of obedience the blind man found a new world. God has wonderful treasures for the dutiful. The faithful discover the "hidden manna." MAY The Sixth _THE PERFECTING OF LOVE_ "_Herein is our love made perfect._" --1 JOHN iv. 11-21. How? By dwelling in God and God in us. Love is not a manufacture; it is a fruit. It is not born of certain works; it springs out of certain relations. It does not come from doing something; it comes from living with Somebody. "Abide in Me." That is how love is born, for "love is of God, and God is love." How many people are striving who are not abiding. They live in a manufactory, they do not live in a home. They are trying to make something instead of to know Somebody. "This is life, to know Thee." When I am related to the Lord Jesus, when I dwell with Him, love is as surely born as beauty and fragrance are born when my garden and the spring-time dwell together. If we would only wisely cultivate the fellowship of Jesus, everything else would follow in its train--all that gracious succession of beautiful things which are called "the fruits of the Spirit." And "herein is our love made perfect." It is always growing richer, because it is always drawing riches from the inexhaustible love of God. How could it be otherwise? Endless resource must mean endless growth. "Our life is hid with Christ in God," and hence our love will "grow in all wisdom and discernment." MAY The Seventh _IN THE WAYS OF OBEDIENCE_ PSALM xix. 7-14. Let me listen to the exquisite chimes of this wonderful psalm as they ring out the blessedness of the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord. What shall he find in the ways of obedience? He shall find restoration. "Restoring the soul." He shall find new stores of food along the way. In every emergency he shall find fresh provision; every new need shall discover new supplies. When one store is spent, another shall take its place. "Thou re-storest my soul." In the ways of righteousness the good Lord has appointed ample stores for the provision of all His faithful pilgrims. He shall find joy. "Rejoicing the heart." In the way of obedience there shall be springs of delight as well as stores of provision. "With joy shall ye draw waters out of the wells of salvation." Fountains of delicious satisfaction rise in the realm of duty, the satisfaction of being right with God, and in union with the eternal will. There is no day without its spring, and "the joy of the Lord is our strength." He shall find vision. "Enlightening the eyes." The eyes of the obedient are anointed with the eye-salve of grace, and wondrous panoramas break upon the sight. Visions of grace! Visions of love! Visions of glory! MAY The Eighth _HOW NOT TO FORGET_ DEUTERONOMY xi. 18-25. If we wish to retain "the word of the Lord" everything depends upon where we keep it. If we just keep it in the mind, a leaky memory may waste the treasure. A Chinese convert declared that he found the best way to remember the word was to do it! The engraved word became character, written upon the fleshy tables of the heart. He incarnated the word, and it became a vital part of his own personality. He lived it and it lived in him. The word became flesh. This is the only really vital "way of remembrance," to convert the word into the primary stuff of the life. There is a secondary way by which we may help our apprehension of God's word. "Ye shall teach them." Our hold upon a truth is increased while we impart it to others. The gospel becomes more vivid as we proclaim it to our fellow-men. We see it while we explain it. It grips us the more firmly as we use it to grip our children. This is a great law in life. In these matters it is literally true that memory best retains what she gives away. A truth that is never shared is never really possessed. The word that we teach becomes rooted in our own mind. MAY The Ninth _LOVING THE LORD_ LUKE x. 21-28. The secret of life is to love the Lord our God, and our neighbours as ourselves. But how are we to love the Lord? We cannot manufacture love. We cannot love to order. We cannot by an act of will command its appearing. No, not in these ways is love created. Love is not a work, it is a fruit. It grows in suitable soils, and it is our part to prepare the soils. When the conditions are congenial, love appears, just as the crocus and the snowdrop appear in the congenial air of the spring. What, then, can we do? We can seek the Lord's society. We can think about Him. We can read about Him. We can fill our imaginations with the grace of His life and service. We can be much with Him, talking to Him in prayer, singing to Him in praise, telling Him our yearnings and confessing to Him our defeats. And love will be quietly born. For this is how love is born between heart and heart. Two people are "much together," and love is born! And when we are much with the Lord, we are with One who already loves us with an everlasting love. We are with One who yearns for our love and who seeks in every way to win it. "We love Him because He first loved us." And when we truly love God, every other kind of holy love will follow. Given the fountain, the rivers are sure. MAY The Tenth _GOD'S USE OF MEN_ "_I have surely seen the affliction of My people ... come now, therefore, I will send thee._" --EXODUS iii. 1-14. Does that seem a weak ending to a powerful beginning? The Lord God looks upon terrible affliction and He sends a weak man to deal with it. Could He not have sent fire from heaven? Could He not have rent the heavens and sent His ministers of calamity and disasters? Why choose a man when the arch-angel Gabriel stands ready at obedience? This is the way of the Lord. He uses human means to divine ends. He works through man to the emancipation of men. He pours His strength into a worm, and it becomes "an instrument with teeth." He stiffens a frail reed and it becomes as an iron pillar. And this mighty God will use thee and me. On every side there are Egypts where affliction abounds, there are homes where ignorance breeds, there are workshops where tyranny reigns, there are lands where oppression is rampant. "Come now, therefore, I will send thee." Thus saith the Lord, and He who gives the command will also give the equipment. MAY The Eleventh _BUT----!_ "_And Moses answered and said, But_----" --EXODUS iv. 1-9. We know that "but." God has heard it from our lips a thousand times. It is the response of unbelief to the divine call. It is the reply of fear to the divine command. It is the suggestion that the resources are inadequate. It is a hint that God may not have looked all round. He has overlooked something which our own eyes have seen. The human "buts" in the Scriptural stories make an appalling record. "Lord, I will follow Thee, but----" There is something else to be attended to before discipleship can begin. Obedience is not primary: it must wait for something else. And so our obedience is not a straight line: it is crooked and circuitous; it takes the way of by-path meadow instead of the highway of the Lord. We do not wait upon the Lord's pleasure; we make Him wait upon ours. There need be no "buts" in our relationship to the King's will. Everything has been foreseen. Nothing will take the Lord by surprise. The entire field has been surveyed, and the preparations are complete. When the Lord says to thee or me, "I will send thee," every provision has been made for the appointed task. "I will not fail thee." MAY The Twelfth _MOUTH AND MATTER_ "_Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth._" --EXODUS iv. 10-17. And what a promise that is for anyone who is commissioned to proclaim the King's decrees. Here can teachers and preachers find their strength. God will be with their mouths. He will control their speech, and order their words like troops. He does not promise to make us eloquent, but to endow our words with the "demonstration of power." "_And I will teach thee what thou shall say._" The Lord will not only be with our mouths, but with our minds. He will guide our thoughts as well as our words. He will be as sentinel at the lips. He will be our guide in our processes of meditation and judgment, and He will bring us to enlightened ends. All of which is just this: He will give us mouth and matter. This does not put a premium upon idleness. The Lord guides when men are honestly groping. He gives us fire when we have built the altar. He works His miracle when we have provided the five loaves. He sends His light through diligent thinking. The divine power is given through the consecrated strength. MAY The Thirteenth _COMMONPLACE FIDELITIES_ EXODUS ii. 11-25. God prepares us for the greater crusades by more commonplace fidelities. Through the practice of common kindnesses God leads us to chivalrous tasks. Little courtesies feed nobler reverences. No man can despise smaller duties and do the larger duties well. Our strength is sapped by small disobediences. Our discourtesies to one another impair our worship of God. The neglect of the "pointing" of a house may lead to dampness and fatal disease. And thus the only way to live is by filling every moment with fidelity. We are ready for anything when we have been faithful in everything. "Because thou hast been faithful in that which is least!" That is the order in moral and spiritual progress, and that is the road by which we climb to the seats of the mighty. When every stone in life is "well and truly laid" we are sure of a solid, holy temple in which the Lord will delight to dwell. The quality of our greatness depends upon what we do with "that which is least." MAY The Fourteenth _CALAMITY AS REVEALER_ "_In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord._" --ISAIAH vi. 1-8. He lost a hero, and he found the Lord. He feared because a great pillar had fallen: and he found the Pillar of the universe. He thought everything would topple into disaster, and lo! he felt the strength of the everlasting arms. When Uzziah lived Isaiah had forgotten his Lord. He so depended on the earthly that he had overlooked the heavenly. Uzziah concealed his Lord as a thick veil can hide a face. And when Uzziah died, when the earthly king passed away, the eternal King was revealed; as when by the passing of an earth-born cloud the moon reigns radiant in the open sky. And thus it is that apparent calamity is often the minister of revelation. The great storm clears the air, and luminous vistas come into view. The howling wind of adversity drives away the earth-born clouds and we see the face of God. Our sorrows prove the occasion of our visions. We see new panoramas through our tears. Bereavement gives us spiritual surprises, and death becomes the servant of life. And so it happens that days which began in gloom end in revelation, and we keep their recurring anniversary with deepening praise. MAY The Fifteenth _GOD IS WIDE-AWAKE_ "_Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree._" --JEREMIAH i. 7-19. And through the almond tree the Lord gave the trembling young prophet the strength of assurance. The almond tree is the first to awake from its wintry sleep. When all other trees are held in frozen slumber the almond blossoms are looking out on the barren world. And God is like that, awake and vigilant. Nobody anticipates Him. Wherever Jeremiah was sent on his prophetic mission the Lord would be there before him. Before the prophet's enemies could get to work the Lord was on the field. In the wintriest circumstances of a prophet's life God is wide awake: "He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." And still the almond tree has its heartening significance for thee and me. Our God is wide-awake. He looks out upon our wintry circumstances, and nothing is hid from His sight. There is no unrecognized and uncounted factor which may steal in furtively and take Him by surprise. Everything is open. He is wide-awake on the far-off field where the isolated missionary is ploughing his lonely furrow. He is wide-awake on the field of common labour where some young disciple finds it hard to keep clean hands while he earns his daily bread. MAY The Sixteenth _THE DETAILS OF PROVIDENCE_ "_The very hairs of your head are all numbered._" --MATTHEW x. 24-31. Providence goes into details. Sometimes, in our human intercourse, we cannot see the trees for the wood. We cannot see the individual sheep for the flock. We cannot see the personal soul for the masses. We are blinded by the bigness of things; we cannot see the individual blades of grass because of the field. Now God's vision is not general, it is particular. There are no "masses" to the Infinite. "He calleth His own sheep _by name_." The single one is seen as though he alone possessed the earth. When God looks at the wood He sees every tree. When He looks at the race He sees every man. And, therefore, I need not fear that "my way is overlooked by my God." He knows every turning. He knows just where the strain begins at the hill. He knows the perils of every descent. He knows every happening along the road. He knows every letter that came to me by this morning's post. He knows every visitor who knocks at the door of my life, whether the visitor come at the high noon or at the midnight. "There is nothing hid." "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." MAY The Seventeenth _MY BODILY INFIRMITIES_ JOHN ix. 1-12. An infirmity becomes doubly burdensome when we give it a false interpretation. The weight of a thing is determined by our conception of it. If I look upon my ailment as the stroke of an offended God, I wear it like the chains of a slave. If I look upon it as the fire of the gracious Refiner, I can calmly await the beneficent issue. It is my Lord, engaged in chastening His jewels! And so our Master first of all relieves the blind man of the false interpretation of his infirmity. "_Neither did this man sin, nor his parents._" That lifts the sorrow out of the winter into the spring. It sets it in the warm, sweet light of grace. It becomes transfigured. It wears a new face, placed there in "the light of His countenance." And then our Lord relieves the blind man of the infirmity itself. The ministry of blindness was accomplished, and sight was given. No man is kept in the darkness a moment longer than infinite love deems good. Our Lord does not overlook the prison-house, and leave us there forgotten. "He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." So cheer thee, my soul! The Lord is on thy side! The Miracle-worker knows His time and "the dreariest path, the darkest way, shall issue out in heavenly day." MAY The Eighteenth _BLINDED JUDGMENTS_ JOHN ix. 13-25. Here is a ceremonialism which is blind to the humane. Its scrupulous ritualisms have dried up its philanthropy. It thinks more of etiquette than equity. It esteems genuflexions more than generosity. It values the husk more than the kernel. It is Sabbatarian but not humanitarian. My God, deliver me from all pious conventionalities which make me indifferent to the ailments and cries of my fellow-men! And here is a dense prejudice which is blind to the evident. "_They did not believe that he had been blind._" A prejudice can deflect the judgment, as subtle magnetic currents can deflect the needle. The film of an ecclesiastical prejudice can be so opaque as to make us "blind to facts." We do not "see things as they are." Our perverted eyes give us a crooked world. And here is a bitter violence which is blind to the glory of the Lord. "We know that this man is a sinner!" And so it comes to that. Our judgments can become so warped that when we look upon Him, "who is the chief among ten thousand and the altogether lovely," "there is no beauty that we should desire Him"! And therefore let this be my daily prayer, "Lord, that I might receive my sight!" MAY The Nineteenth _THE ROCK OF EXPERIENCE_ JOHN ix. 26-41. The Lord gains a witness, and a stalwart witness too! First, he stood upon his own inalienable experience. "_One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see._" Second, he drew his own firm inferences from the beneficence of the work. And, in the third place, he reached his grand conclusion. "_If this man were not of God, He could do nothing._" A grand testimony, and given by one who "dared to stand alone!" And the witness gained a Friend. "Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when He had found him...." Our Lord is always seeking the outcasts. He never abandons the abandoned. When the faithful witness is driven into the wilderness he finds "a table spread" before him "in the presence of his enemies." The man who had recovered his sight was cast out, but on the threshold he met his Lord! And further sight was given. By the first sight he could see his parents, by the second sight he saw the Son of God. The film was first removed from his eyes, and then from his soul, and he saw "the glory of the Lord." "And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him." MAY The Twentieth _THE LONE CRY IN THE BIG CROWD_ MARK x. 46-52. Our Lord hears the cry of need even when it rises from the midst of the tumultuous crowd. A mother can hear the faint cry of her child in the chamber above, even when the room resounds with the talk and laughter of her guests. And our Lord heard the wail of poor Bartimæus! That lone, sorrowful cry pierced the clamour, "and Jesus stood still." My soul, cry to Him! "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." And Bartimæus knew what he wanted. He merged all his petitions in one. "Lord, that I might receive my sight!" And let me, too, come to my Saviour with some great, dominant, all-commanding request. I trifle with my Master. I ask Him for toys, for petty things, while all the time He is waiting to give me "unsearchable wealth," "sight, riches, healing of the mind." "The Lord is great"; and shall I add, "and greatly to be _prayed_!" And how delicately gracious it is that our Lord should attribute the miracle to Bartimæus himself. "_Thy faith hath made thee whole!_" As though the Lord had had no share in the ministry! He makes so much of our faith, and our endeavour, and our obedience. "If ye had faith as a grain of mustard-seed!" That's all He wants, and miracles are accomplished. MAY The Twenty-first _HUMAN FRAILTIES_ ISAIAH xlii. 1-7. What a winsome revelation of the delicate gentleness of the Lord! "The bruised reed"--is it the impaired musical reed, that cannot now emit a musical sound, and can only be thrown away? He will not snap it and cast it to the void. The discordant life can be made tuneful again: He will put "a new song in my mouth." "And the smoking flax"--the life that has lost its fire, and therefore its light, its enthusiasm, and therefore its ideals; the life that is smouldering into the cold ashes of moral and spiritual death! He will not stamp it out with His foot. The smouldering fire can be rekindled, a spent enthusiasm can be revived. "He shall baptize you ... with fire!" And so He comes to minister to the infirm. He comes to restore injured faculty; "_to open blind eyes_." He comes to give vision to restored sight: "_to be a light of the Gentiles_." And He comes to endow the restored life with a rich and gracious freedom: "_to bring out the prisoners from the prison_." Sight, and light, and freedom! And my Lord is at the gate, and these gifts are in His hand. MAY The Twenty-second _THE LIGHT AS DARKNESS_ MATTHEW xiii. 10-17. The condition of the heart determines the quality of my discernment. If "the heart is waxed gross," the ears will be "dull of hearing," and the eyes will be "closed." My spiritual senses gain their acuteness or obtuseness from my affections. If my love is muddy my sight will be dim. If my love be "clear as crystal" the spiritual realm will be like a gloriously transparent air. And the awful nemesis of sin-created blindness is this, that it interprets itself as sight. "The light that is in thee is darkness." We think we see, and all the time we are the children of the night. We think it is "the dawn of God's sweet morning," and behold! it is the perverse flare of the evil one. He has given us a will-o'-the-wisp, and we boastfully proclaim it to be "the morning star." But there is hope for any man, however blind he be, who will humbly lay himself at Jesus' feet. Let this be my prayer, O Lord, "Cleanse Thou me from secret faults." Deliver me from self-deception, save me from confusing the fixed light of heaven with the wandering beacon-lights of hell. And again and again will I pray, "Lord, that I might receive my sight!" MAY The Twenty-third _WIND AND FIRE_ ACTS ii. 1-21. The Holy Spirit will minister to me as a _wind_. He will create an atmosphere in my life which will quicken all sweet and beautiful growth. And this shall be my native air. Gracious seeds, which have never awaked, shall now unfold themselves, and "the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." It was a saying of Huxley, that if our little island were to be invaded by tropical airs, tropical seeds which are now lying dormant in English gardens and fields would troop out of their graves in bewildering wealth and beauty! "Breathe on me, breath of God!" And the Holy Spirit will minister to me as a _fire_. And fire is our supreme minister of cleansing. Fire can purify when water is impotent. The great fire burnt out the great plague. There are evil germs which cannot be dealt with except by the searching ministry of the flame. "He shall baptize you ... _with fire_." He will create a holy enthusiasm in my soul, an intense and sacred love, which will burn up all evil intruders, but in which all beautiful things shall walk unhurt. "Kindle a flame of sacred love On these cold hearts of ours." MAY The Twenty-fourth _CALVARY AND PENTECOST_ ACTS ii. 22-36. The Apostle Peter traces the stream of Pentecostal blessing to a tomb. This "river of water of life" has its "rise" in a death of transcendent sacrifice. And I must never forget these dark beginnings of my eternal hope. It is well that I should frequently visit the sources of my blessedness, and kneel on "the green hill far away." It will save me from having a cheap religion. I shall never handle the gifts of grace as though they had cost nothing. There will always be the marks of blood upon them, the crimson stain of incomparable sacrifice. And it will save me from all flippancy in my religious life. When I visit the cross and the tomb, life is transformed from a picnic into a crusade. For that is ever my peril, to picnic on the banks of the river and to spend my days in emotional loitering. After all, my Pentecost is purposed to prepare me for my own Gethsemane and Calvary! Life is given me in order that I may spend it again in ready and fruitful sacrifice. MAY The Twenty-fifth _VISIONS AND DREAMS_ JOEL ii. 21-32. And this old-world promise is good for me to-day. It is like some weather-stained well, whose waters have continued flowing throughout the generations, right down to my own time. Let me drink! Holy inspiration will give me insight into the mind of my God. "_Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy._" The breath of God creates an atmosphere in which spiritual realities are clearly seen. It is like the Sabbath air in some busy city, when the fumes and smoke of commerce have been blown away. "Thou shalt behold the land that is very far off." And so in my younger days holy inspiration will give me visions. "Your young men shall see visions." I shall be an idealist, and I shall see things as they exist in God's idea, even though at present they be maimed and imperfect. I shall see them "according to the pattern on the Mount." And in my later days holy inspiration will give me dreams. "_Your old men shall dream dreams._" And what shall they dream about? Not like the Chinese, of a golden age in a distant past, but of a golden age to be. Their dreams shall have a "forward-looking eye." They shall see "the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God." MAY The Twenty-sixth _THE UNITING OF SUNDERED PEOPLES_ "_On the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost._" --ACTS x. 34-48. And this is ever the issue of a true outpouring of the Spirit: sundered peoples become one. At "low tide" there are multitudes of separated pools along the shore: at "high tide" they flow together, and the little distinctions are lost in a splendid union. It is so racially. "Jew and Gentile!" Peter and Cornelius lose their prejudices in the emancipating ministry of the Spirit. And so shall it be with English and Irish, with French and German, with Asiatic and European: they shall be "all one" in Christ. It is so socially. "Bond and free!" The master and the servant shall discover a glorious intimacy and union. And so shall rich and poor, the learned and the illiterate, the many-talented and the obscure. The pools shall flow together. It is so ecclesiastically. Our sectarianisms are always most frowning and obtrusive when spiritually we are at "low tide." When the tide rises, it is amazing how the ramparts are submerged. It is not round-table conferences that we need, but seasons of communion when together we shall await the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. MAY The Twenty-seventh _RECEIVING THE HOLY GHOST_ ACTS ii. 37-47. The sacred process by which the Holy Spirit is received is the same throughout all the years. First there is _repentance_. And repentance is not a flow of emotion, but a certain direction of mind. I may repent with dry eyes. It is not a matter of feeling, but of willing. It is to lay hold of the aimless, drifting thought, and _steer it toward God_! It is a change of mind. Second, there is a definite and avowed choice of my new Goal, my new Lord and King. The Christian life cannot be a subterfuge. It cannot be lived incognito. I cannot be the Christ's and wear the livery of an alien power. There must be _confession_, a bold and clarion-like avowal that henceforth I am a soldier of the Lord. And the spiritual experiences will be sure, as sure as the law-governed processes of the material world. There will be "_remission of sins_." The old guilt will fall away from my soul as the chains fell from Peter's limbs when the angel touched them. And there will be "_the gift of the Holy Ghost_." A new dynamic is mine! I enter into fellowship with the power of the ascended Lord. MAY The Twenty-eighth _THE SONS OF GOD_ "_For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God._" --ROMANS viii. 9-17. And how unspeakably wealthy are the implications of the great word! If a son, then what holy freedom is mine! Mine is not "_the spirit of bondage_." The son has "the run of the house." That is the great contrast between lodgings and home. And I am to be at home with the Lord. And if a son, then heir! "All things are yours." Samuel Rutherford used to counsel his friends to "take a turn" round their estate. And truly it is an inspiring exercise! The Spirit shall lead me over my estate, and I will survey, with the sense of ownership, "the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." I wonder if I have the manner of a king's son? I wonder if there is anything in my very "walk" which indicates distinguished lineage and royal blood? Or am I like a vagrant who has no possessions and no heartening expectations? "Lord, I would serve, and be a son!" MAY The Twenty-ninth _MANY GIFTS--ONE SPIRIT_ 1 CORINTHIANS xii. 1-13. There is no monotony in the workmanship of my God. The multitude of His thoughts is like the sound of the sea, and every thought commands a new creation. When He thinks upon me, the result is a creative touch never again to be repeated on land or sea. And so, when the Holy Spirit is given to the people, the ministry does not work in the suppression of individualities, but rather in their refinement and enrichment. Our gifts will be manifold, and we must not allow the difference to breed a spirit of suspicion. Because my brother's gift is not mine I must not suspect his calling. To one man is given a trumpet, to another a lamp, and to another a spade. And they are all the holy gifts of grace. And thus the gifts are manifold in order that every man may find his completeness in his brother. One man is like an eye--he is a seer of visions! Another man is like a hand--he has the genius of practicality! He is "a handy man"! One is the architect, the other is the builder. And each requires the other, if either is to be perfected. And so, by God's gracious Spirit, the individual man is only a bit, a portion, and he is intended to fit into the other bits, and so make the complete man of the race. MAY The Thirtieth _FINDING THE DEEP THINGS_ "_The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God._" --1 CORINTHIANS ii. 7-12. The deep things of God cannot be discovered by unaided reason. "_Eye hath not seen:_" they are not to be apprehended by the artistic vision. "_Ear hath not heard:_" they are not unveiled amid the discussion of the philosophic schools. "_Neither hath entered into the heart of man:_" even poetic insight cannot discern them. All the common lights fail in this realm. We need another illumination, even that provided by the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit is offered unto us "that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." And here we have the reason why so many uncultured people are spiritually wiser than many who are learned. They lack talent, but they have grace. They lack accomplishments, but they have the Holy Ghost. They lack the telescope, but they have the sunlight. They are not scholars, but they are saints. They may not be theologians, but they have true religion. And so they have "the open vision." They "walk with God," and "the deep things of God" are made known to their souls. We must put first things first. We may be busy polishing our lenses when our primary and fundamental need is light. It is not a gift that we require, but a Friend. MAY The Thirty-first _CONNECTION AND CONCORD_ "_By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body._" --1 CORINTHIANS xii. 12-19. It is only in the spirit that real union is born. Every other kind of union is artificial, and mechanical, and dead. We can dovetail many pieces of wood together and make the unity of an article of furniture, but we cannot dovetail items together and make a tree. And it is the union of a tree that we require, a union born of indwelling life. We may join many people together in a fellowship by the bonds of a formal creed, but the result is only a piece of social furniture, it is not a vital communion. There is a vast difference between a connection and a concord. Many members of a family may bear the same name, may share the same blood, may sit and eat at the same table, and yet may have no more vital union than a handful of marbles in a boy's pocket. But let the spirit of a common love dwell in all their hearts and there is a family bound together in glorious union. And so it is in the spirit, and there alone, that vital union is to be found. And here is the secret of such spiritual union. "By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." The Spirit of God, dwelling in all our spirits, attunes them into glorious harmony. Our lives blend with one another in the very music of the spheres. JUNE The First _THE BEAUTY OF VARIETY_ 1 CORINTHIANS xii. 20-31. God's glory is expressed through the harmony of variety. We do not need sameness in order to gain union. I am now looking upon a scene of surpassing loveliness. There are mountains, and sea, and grassland, and trees, and a wide-stretching sky, and white pebbles at my feet. And a white bird has just flown across a little bank of dark cloud. What variety! And when I look closer the variety is infinitely multiplied. Everything blends into everything else. Nothing is out of place. Everything contributes to finished power and loveliness. And so it is in the grander sphere of human life. The glory of humanity is born of the glory of individuals, each one making his own distinctive contribution. And thus we have need of one another. Every note in the organ is needed for the full expression of noble harmony. Every instrument in the orchestra is required unless the music is to be lame and broken. God has endowed no two souls alike, and every soul is needed to make the music of "the realm of the blest." JUNE The Second _OUR SPIRITUAL GUIDE_ "_When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth._" --JOHN xvi. 7-14. How great is the difference between a guide-post and a guide! And what a difference between a guide-book and a companion! Mere instructions may be very uninspiring, and bare commandments may be very cold. Our Guide is an inseparable Friend. And how will He guide us? He will give us insight. "He will guide you into all truth." He will refine our spirits so that we may be able to distinguish "things that differ," and that so we may know the difference between "the holy and the profane." Our moral judgment is often dull and imperceptive. And our spiritual judgment is often lacking in vigour and penetration. And so our great Spirit-guide puts our spirits to school, and more deeply sanctifies them, that in holiness we may have discernment. And He will also give us foresight. He will enable us to interpret circumstances, to apprehend their drift and destiny. We shall see harvests while we are looking at seeds, whether the seeds be seeds of good or evil. All of which means that the Holy Spirit will deliver our lives from the governance of mere whim and caprice, and that He will make us wise with the wisdom of God. JUNE The Third _THE SAFETY OF THE OCCUPIED HEART_ GALATIANS v. 16-25. Two friends were cycling through Worcestershire and Warwickshire to Birmingham. When they arrived in Birmingham I asked them, among other things, if they had seen Warwick Gaol along the road. "No," they said, "we hadn't a glimpse of it." "But it is only a field's length from the road!" "Well, we never saw it." Ah, but these two friends were lovers. They were so absorbed in each other that they had no spare attention for Warwick Gaol. Their glorious fellowship made them unresponsive to its calls. They were otherwise engaged. "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." That great Companionship will make us negligent of carnal allurements. "The world, and the flesh, and the devil" may stand by the wayside, and hold their glittering wares before us, but we shall scarcely be aware of their presence. We are otherwise engaged. We are absorbed in the "Lover of our souls." This is the only real and effective way to meet temptation. We must meet it with an occupied heart. We must have no loose and trailing affections. We must have no vagrant, wayward thoughts. Temptation must find us engaged with our Lover. We must "offer no occasion to the flesh." Walking with the Holy One, our elevation is our safety. JUNE The Fourth _LIFE'S REAL VALUES_ PROVERBS viii. 10-19. Here is a man who knows the relative values of things. "_Instruction is better than silver_"; "_knowledge rather than choice gold_"; "_wisdom is better than rubies._" He weighs the inherent worth of things, and puts his choice upon the best. Let me remember that "all is not gold that glitters." The leaden casket is often the shrine of the priceless scroll. The glaring and the theatrical have often a ragged and seamy interior, and won't bear "looking into." A man may have much display and be very lonely; he may have piles of wealth and be destitute of joy. His libraries may cover an acre, and yet he may have no light. And a man may have only "a candle, and a table, and a bed," and he may be the companion of the eternal God. I would seek these priceless things. And I would "_seek them early_." I have so often been late in the search. I have given the early moments to seeking the world's silver and gold, and the later weary moments have been idly devoted to God. "They that seek Me early shall find Me." Let me put "first things first." "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." JUNE The Fifth _THE SPEECH OF EVENTS_ ACTS xiii. 14-23. Do I sufficiently remember the witness of history? Do I reverently listen to the "great voice behind me"? God has spoken in the speech of events. "Day unto day" has uttered speech. There has been a witness in national life, sometimes quiet as a fragrance, and sometimes "loud as a vale when storms are gone." Is it all to me as though it had never been, or is it part of the store of counsel by which I shape and guide my life? And do I sufficiently remember my own providences, "_all the way my God has led me_"? When a day is over, do I carry its helpful lamp into the morrow? Do I "learn wisdom" from experience? That is surely God's purpose in the days; one is to lead on to another in the creation of an ever brightening radiance, that so at eventide it may be light. And do I sufficiently remember that I, too, am making history for my fellows who shall succeed me? What kind of a witness will it be? Grim and full of warning, like the pillar of salt, or winsome and full of heartiness, like some "sweet Ebenezer" built by life's way? Let me pray and labour that my days may so shine with grace that all who remember me shall adore the goodness of my Lord. JUNE The Sixth _LOVE'S EXPENDITURES_ 1 JOHN iii. 11-18. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because "_He laid down His life for us_." And the real test of any love is what it is prepared to "lay down." How much is it ready to spend? How much will it bleed? There is much spurious love about. It lays nothing down; it only takes things up! It is self-seeking, using the speech and accents of love. It is a "work of the flesh," which has stolen the label of a "fruit of the Spirit." Love may always be known by its expenditures, its self-crucifixions, its Calvarys. Love is always laying down its life for others. Its pathway is always a red road. You may track its goings by the red "marks of the Lord Jesus." And this is the life, the love-life, which the Lord Jesus came to create among the children of men. It is His gracious purpose to form a spiritual fellowship in which every member will be lovingly concerned about his fellows' good. A real family of God would be one in which all the members bleed for each, and each for all. How can we gain this disposition of love? "God is love." "We love because He first loved us." At the fountain of eternal love we too may become lovers, becoming "partakers of the divine nature," and filled with all "the fulness of God." JUNE The Seventh _MORAL SURGERY_ GALATIANS vi. 1-8. This is a surgical operation in the realm of the soul. A man has been "_overtaken in a fault_," some evil passion has pounced upon him, and he is broken. Some holy relationship has been snapped, and he is crippled in his moral and spiritual goings. Perhaps his affections have been broken, or his conscience, or his will. Or perhaps he has lost his glorious hope or the confidence of his faith. Here he is, a broken man, the victim of his own broken vows, lame and halt in the pilgrim-way! And some surgeon is needed to re-set the dislocation, and to make him whole again. And who is to be the surgeon? "_Ye which are spiritual restore such a one._" The men who live under the control of God's Spirit are to be the surgeons for broken hearts and souls. When a man has fallen by reason of sin, the Christian is to be a Good Samaritan, seeking to restore the cripple to health and strength again. We are to kneel and minister to him, binding up his wounds, giving him the balm and cordial of oil and wine. And what is to be the spirit of the surgeon? "The spirit of meekness." We are not to be supercilious, for the "touch" of pride is never the minister of healing. We are to heal as though some day we may need to be healed. JUNE The Eighth _THE NEW BIRTH_ JOHN iii. 1-21. Here is the Life in contact with the icy legalism of the day. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, and his piety was cold and mechanical. Religion had become a bloodless obedience to lifeless rules. Men cared more about being proper than about being holy. Modes were emphasized more than moods. An external pose was esteemed more highly than an internal disposition. The popular Saint lived on "the outsides of things." Then came the Life. And what will He say to the externalist? "Ye must be born again." Nothing else could He have said. If the mechanical is to become the vital there is nothing for it but a new birth. To get from the outside into the inside of things, from the letter into the spirit, we need the miracle of renewal, the recreating ministry of grace. And so it is to-day. The ritualistic is vitalized by the evangelistic. If the mechanical is to become the spontaneous, there is need of the "well of living water, springing up unto eternal life." When we are born again, ritual becomes helpful trellis for the spiritual flowers; the outward form becomes the helpmeet of redeeming grace. JUNE The Ninth _THE STORY OF A SORROWFUL SOUL_ PSALM iii. This tearful little psalm tells me where a sorrowful soul found a place of help and consolation. He resorted to God. "_Thou art a shield about me._" He got the Lord between him and his circumstances. There is nothing else subtle enough to interpose. Our hurtful circumstances are so invasive and so immediate that only God can come between us and them. But when God gets in between we are immune. "Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear." "_Thou art my glory._" And that is an honour that need never be stained. My worldly glory can be besmirched. An evil man throws mud, and my poor reputation is gone. "There's always somebody ready to believe it!" But my glory with God, and in God--man's mud cannot touch that fair fame! Even Absalom cannot defile that resplendent robe. "_Thou art the lifter-up of my head._" The flower is "looking up" again! In the Lord's presence we recover our lost spirits. "He restoreth my soul." "And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me." JUNE The Tenth _PILLARS OF CLOUD AND FIRE_ "_The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud._" --EXODUS xiii. 17--xiv. 4. I need His leadership in the daytime. Sometimes the daylight is my foe. It tempts me into carelessness. I become the victim of distraction. The "garish day" can entice me into ways of trespass, and I am robbed of my spiritual health. Many a man has been faithful in the twilight and night who has lost himself in the sunshine. He went astray in his prosperity: success was his ruin. And so in the daytime I need the shadow of God's presence, the cooling, subduing, calming influence of a friendly cloud. "_And by night in a pillar of fire._" And I need God's leadership in the night. Sometimes the night fills me with fears, and I am confused. The darkness chills me, sorrow and adversity make me cold, and I shiver along in uncertain going. But my God will lead me as a presence of fire. He will keep my heart warm even in the midnight, and He will guide me by the kindlings of His love. There shall be "nothing hid from the heat thereof." And my bewildering fears shall flee away, and I will sing "songs in the night." JUNE The Eleventh _THE PATH ACROSS THE SEA_ "_Thy way is in the sea._" --PSALM lxxvii. 11-20. And the sea appears to be the most trackless of worlds! The sea is the very symbol of mystery, the grim dwelling-house of innumerable things that have been lost. But God's way moves here and there across this trackless wild. God is never lost among our mysteries. He knows his way about. When we are bewildered He sees the road, and He sees the end even from the beginning. Even the sea, in every part of it, is the Lord's highway. When His way is in the sea we cannot trace it. Mystery is part of our appointed discipline. Uncertainty is to prepare us for a deeper assurance. The spirit of questioning is one of the ordained means of growth. And so the bewildering sea is our friend, as some day we shall understand. We love to "lie down in green pastures," and to be led "beside the still waters," and God gives us our share of this nourishing rest. But we need the mysterious sea, the overwhelming experience, the floods of sorrows which we cannot explain. If we had no sea we should never become robust. We should remain weaklings to the end of our days. God takes us out into the deeps. But His way is in the sea. He knows the haven, He knows the track, and we shall arrive! JUNE The Twelfth _WAITING FOR THE SPECTACULAR_ "_The waves covered their enemies.... Then believed they His words._" --PSALM cvi. 1-12. Their faith was born in a great emergency. A spectacular deliverance was needed to implant their trust in the Lord. They found no witness in the quiet daily providence; the unobtrusive miracle of daily mercy did not awake their song. They dwelt upon the "special" blessing, when all the time the really special blessing was to be found in the sleepless care which watched over them in their ordinary and commonplace ways. It is the old story. We are wanting God to appear in imperial glory; and He comes among us as a humble carpenter. We want great miracles, and we have the daily Providence. We see His dread goings in the earthquake; we do not feel His presence in the lilies of the field. We watch Him in the smoke and flames of Vesuvius; we do not recognize His footprints in the little turf-clad hill that is only a few yards from our own door. It is a great day when we discover our God in the common bush. That day is marked with glory when our daily bread becomes a sacrament. When we enjoy a closer walk with God, common things will wear the hues of heaven. JUNE the Thirteenth _CLOUDED BUT NOT LOST!_ "_Clouds and darkness are round about Him._" --PSALM xcvii. When Lincoln had been assassinated, and word of the tragedy came to New York, "the people were in a state of mind which urges to violence." A man appeared on the balcony of one of the newspaper offices, waving a small flag, and a clear voice rang through the air: "Fellow-citizens! Clouds and darkness are round about Him! His pavilion is dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies! Justice and judgment are the habitation of His throne! Fellow-citizens, God reigns!" It was the voice of General Garfield. That voice proclaimed the divine sovereignty, even when the heavens were black with the menace of destruction. Lincoln had been assassinated, but God lived! Human confusion does not annihilate His throne. God liveth! "The firm foundation standeth sure." This is the only rock to stand upon when the clouds have gathered, and the waters are out, and the great deeps are broken up. God's sceptre does not fall from His grasp, nor is snatched by alien hands. The throne abideth. Joy will rise from the apparent chaos as springs are unsealed by the earthquake. He will bring fortune out of misfortune; the darkness shall be the hiding-place of His grace. JUNE The Fourteenth _THE LAW IN THE HEART_ "_I will put My laws into their hearts._" --HEBREWS x. 16-22. Everything depends on where we carry the law of the Lord. If it only rests in the memory, any vagrant care may snatch it away. The business of the day may wipe it out as a sponge erases a record from a slate. A thought is never secure until it has passed from the mind into the heart, and has become a desire, an aspiration, a passion. When the law of God is taken into the heart, it is no longer something merely remembered: it is something loved. Now things that are loved have a strong defence. They are in the "keep" of the castle, in the innermost custody of the stronghold. The strength of the heart is wrapped about them, and no passing vagrant can carry them away. And this is where the good Lord is willing to put His laws. He is wishful to put them among our loves. And the wonderful thing is this: when laws are put among loves they change their form, and His statutes become our songs. Laws that are loved are no longer dreadful policemen, but compassionate friends. "O! how I love Thy law!" That man did not live in a prison, he lived in a garden, and God's will was unto him as gracious flowers and fruits. And so shall it be unto all of us when we love the law of the Lord. JUNE The Fifteenth _THE KING'S GUESTS_ "_Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?_" --PSALM xxiv. Who shall be permitted to pass into the sanctuary of the cloud, and have communion with the Lord in the holy place? "He that hath clean hands." These hands of mine, the symbols of conduct, the expression of the outer life, what are they like? "Your hands are full of blood." Those hands had been busy murdering others, pillaging others, brutally ill-using their fellow-men. We may do it in business. We may do it in conversation. We may do it in a criminal silence. Our hands may be foul with a brother's blood. And men and women with hands like these cannot "ascend into the hill of the Lord." There must be no stain of an unfair and scandalous life. "And a pure heart." We need not trouble about the hands if the heart be clean. If all the presences that move in the heart--desires, and motives, and sentiments, and ideals--are like white-robed angels "without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing," everything that emerges into outer life will share the same radiant purity. The heart expresses itself in the hands. Character blossoms in conduct. The quality of our current coin is determined by the quality of the metal in the mint. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." JUNE The Sixteenth _SINAI AND CALVARY_ HEBREWS xii. 18-28. We need not live at the foot of Mount Sinai. It is like living at the foot of Mount Pelee, the home of awful eruption, and therefore the realm of gloom and uncertainty and fear. We are not saved by law, neither indeed can we be. Neither can law heal us after our transgressions and defeats. The law has nothing for prodigal men but "blackness, and darkness, and tempest." It has no sound but dreaded decree, no message but menace, no look but a frown. Who will build his house at the foot of Mount Sinai? "But ye are come unto Mount Zion." Our true home is not at Sinai, but at Calvary. There is no place for the sinner at the first mount; at the second mount there is a place for no one else. At Calvary we may find our way back to the holiness we lost at Sinai. Through grace we may drop the burden of our sin and begin to wear the garments of salvation. The way back to heaven is by "the green hill, without a city wall." It is a mount that can be reached by the most exhausted pilgrim; and the one who has "spent all" will assuredly find a full restoration of life at the gate of his Saviour's death. "Ye are come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant." JUNE The Seventeenth _THE INVISIBLE PRESENCE_ "_Show me Thy glory._" --EXODUS xxxiii. 12-23. Moses wist not what he asked. His speech was beyond his knowledge. The answer to his request would have consumed him. He asked for the blazing noon when as yet he could only bear the quiet shining of the dawn. The good Lord lets in the light as our eyes are able to bear it. The revelation is tempered to our growth. The pilgrim could bear a brightness in Beulah land that he could not have borne at the wicket-gate; and the brilliance of the entry into the celebrated city throws the splendours of Beulah into the shade. Yes, the gracious Lord will unveil His glory as our "senses are exercised to receive it." "My Presence shall go with thee." That is all the glory we need upon the immediate road. His companionship means everything. The real glory is to possess God; let Him show us His inheritance as it shall please Him. Life's glory is to "feel Him near." When the loving wife feels that the husband is in the house, and when the loving husband feels that the wife is in the house, that is everything! The joy of each other's presence is the crown of married bliss. And so it is with the soul that is married to the Lord: His presence is the soul's delight. "Thou, O Christ, art all I want." "O Master, let me walk with Thee." JUNE The Eighteenth _THE BENEFITTED AS BENEFACTORS_ "_Who comforteth us ... that we may be able to comfort._" --2 CORINTHIANS i. 3-7. And how does the Lord comfort us? He has a thousand different ways, and no one can ever tell by what way the comfort will come to his soul. Sometimes it comes by the door of memory, and sometimes by the door of hope. Sometimes it is borne to us through the ministry of nature, and at other times through the ministry of human speech and kindness. But always, I think, it brings us the sense of a Presence, as though we had a great Friend in the room, and the troubled heart gains quietness and peace. The mist clears a little, and we have a restful assurance of our God. Now comforted souls are to be comforters. They who have received benefits of grace are to be benefactors. They who have heard the sweet music of God's abiding love are to sing it again to others. They who have seen the glory are to become evangelists. We must not seek to hoard spiritual treasure. As soon as we lock it up we begin to lose it. A mysterious moth and rust take it away. If we do not comfort others, our own comfort will turn again to bitterness; the clouds will lower and we shall be imprisoned in the old woe. But the comfort which makes a comforter grows deeper and richer every day. JUNE The Nineteenth _RECKONING UP THINGS_ PSALM xc. 1-12. Numbering things is one of the healthful exercises of the spiritual life. Unless we count, memory is apt to be very tricky and to snare us into strange forgetfulness. Unless we count what we have given away, we are very apt to exaggerate our bounty. We often think we have given when we have only listened to appeals; the mere audience has been mistaken for active beneficence. The remedy for all this is occasionally to count our benevolences and see how we stand in a balance-sheet which we could present to the Lord Himself. And we must count our blessings. It is when our arithmetic fails in the task, and when counting God's blessings is like telling the number of the stars, that our souls bow low before the eternal goodness, and all murmuring dies away "like cloud-spots in the dawn." And we must also "number our days." We are wasteful with them, and we throw them away as though they are ours in endless procession. And yet there are only seven days in a week! A day is of immeasurable preciousness, for what high accomplishment may it not witness? A day in health or in sickness, spent unto God, and applied unto wisdom, will gather treasures more precious than rubies and gold. JUNE The Twentieth _THE REVEALING PRESENCE OF THE LORD_ EPHESIANS vi. 1-10. A starling never reveals the richness of its hues until we see it in the sunlight. A duty never discloses its beauties until we set it in the light of the Lord. It is amazing how a dull road is transfigured when the sunshine falls upon it! God's grace reveals the graces in all healthy things. Hidden lovelinesses troop out when we set them in the presence of the Lord. And so the Apostle counsels an obedience which is "in the Lord." He wants us to know how beautiful common things can be when they are linked to Christ. And what he says about obedience he says about everything. One of the great secrets in the teaching of Paul is expressed in just this phrase, "in the Lord," "in Christ." It meant connection with a power-house whose energy would light up all the common lamps of life--the lamps of hope, of faith, of love, of daily labour, and of human service. And this is the secret of the Christian life. We need no other; at least, all other secrets are involved in this. If we attend to this little preposition "in," we have entry into the infinite. If we are "in Christ," we are in the kingdom of everything that endures, and we are outside nothing but sin. JUNE The Twenty-first _ROOM FOR THE SAPLINGS_ "_Children crying in the temple, saying Hosanna!_" --MATTHEW xxi. 1-16. Children's voices mingling in the sounds of holy praise! A little child can share in the consecrated life. Young hearts can offer love pure as a limpid spring. Their sympathy is as responsive as the most sensitive harp, and yields to the touch of the tenderest joy and grief. No wonder the Lord "called little children unto Him"! They were unto Him as gracious streams, and as flowers of the field. Let the loving Saviour have our children. Let there be no waiting for maturer years. Maturity may bring the impaired faculty and the embittered emotion. Let Him have things in their beginnings, the seeds and the saplings. Let Him have life before it is formed, before it is "set" in foolish moulds. Let us consecrate the cradle, and the good Lord will grow and nourish His saints. JUNE The Twenty-second _CHILDLIKENESS_ MARK ix. 33-41. It is the child-spirit that finds life's golden gates, and that finds them all ajar. The proudly aggressive spirit, contending for place and power, may force many a door, but they are not doors which open into enduring wealth and peace. Real inheritances become ours only through humility. The proud are, therefore, self-deceived. They think they have succeeded when they have signally failed. They have the shadow, but they have missed the substance. They may have the applause of the world, but the angels sigh over their defeat. They pride themselves on having "got on"; the angels weep because they have "gone down." When we grow away from childlikeness we are "in a decline." "God resisteth the proud; He giveth grace to the humble." The lowly make great discoveries; to them the earth is full of God's glory. JUNE The Twenty-third _THE GREATEST BENEFACTORS_ MATTHEW x. 29-42. It is a very wonderful thing that the finest services are within the power of the poorest people. The deepest ministries find their symbols in "cups of cold water," which it is in the power of everybody to give. The great benefactors are the great lovers, and their coin is not that of material money, but the wealth of the heart. A bit of affection is worth infinitely more than the gift of a necklace of pearls. To kindle hope in a fainting soul is far more precious than to adorn the weary pilgrim with dazzling gems. "He brought me heaps of presents, but I was hungering for love!" Such was the pathetic cry of one who was "clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day." "Cups of cold water," simple ministries of refreshment, the love-thought, the love-prayer, the love-word--these are the privileged services of all of us. And everybody needs these gentle and gracious services of refreshment, and often there is greatest need where there seems to be least. JUNE The Twenty-fourth _AT EASE IN ZION_ "_Woe to them that are at ease in Zion!_" --AMOS vi. 1-7. I would be delivered from the folly of confusing ease and rest. There is an infinite difference between comforts and comfort. It is one thing to lie down on a luxurious couch: it is a very different thing to "lie down in green pastures" under the gracious shepherdliness of the Lord. The ease which men covet is so often a fruit of stupefaction, the dull product of sinful drugs, the wretched sluggishness of carnal gratification and excess. The rest which God giveth is alive and wakeful, abounding in tireless and fruitful service. "Oh, rest in the Lord." But is it not a strange thing that men can be "at ease in Zion"? That they can play the beast in the holy place? Zion was full of holy memory, and abounded with suggestions of the Divine Presence. And yet here they could carouse, and lose themselves in swinish indulgence! A little while ago I saw a beautiful old church which had been turned into a common eating-house! My soul, be on thy guard. Be watchful and diligent, and busy thyself in the practice of "self-knowledge, self-reverence, self-control." JUNE The Twenty-fifth _DESOLATIONS WROUGHT BY SIN_ "_The Lord hath spoken this word._" --ISAIAH xxiv. 1-12. "The Lord hath spoken this word," and it is a word of judgment. It unveils some of the terrible issues of sin. See the effects of sin upon the spirit of man. "_The merry-hearted do sigh._" Life loses its wings and its song. The buoyancy and the optimism die out of the soul. The days move with heavy feet, and duty becomes very stale and unwelcome. If only our ears were keen enough we should hear many a place of hollow laughter moaning with troubled and restless sighs. The soul cannot sing when God is defied. But see another effect of sin. "_The earth moaneth._" That is a frequent note in Bible teaching. The forces of nature are mysteriously conditioned by the character of man. When man is degraded, nature is despoiled. The beauty of the garden is checked when man has lost his crown. "The whole creation groaneth in pain," waiting for the manifestation of the children of God. Sin spreads desolation everywhere. When I sin, I become the centre of demoralizing forces which influence the universe. And so let me ever pray, "Deliver me from evil." JUNE The Twenty-sixth _CRUCIFYING THE FLESH_ "_Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind._" --1 PETER iv. 1-8. Let not the body be dominant, but the soul. Let me study the example and counsel of the Apostle Paul. "_I keep my body under._" Literally, I pummel it! If it is obtrusive and aggressive, its appetites clamouring for supremacy, I pummel it! Paul was not afraid of severe measures where carnality was concerned. He would fast a whole day in order to put the flesh in its place. And so should it be with all the Lord's children. We are too self-indulgent. It is well at times to put the body on the cross, and crucify its cravings. "_Give no occasion to the flesh._" Do not give it a chance of mastery! And, therefore, do not feed it with illicit thought. Turn the mind away from the subjects in which the body will find exciting stimulant. It is thought which awakes passion, and thought can do much to destroy it. "Set your mind on things which are above." Keep the mind pure, and the swine will never enter the holy place. JUNE The Twenty-seventh _GOD IS LIGHT!_ "_In Him is no darkness at all._" --1 JOHN i. That wonderful mansion of God's Being is gloriously radiant in every room! In the house of my life there are dark chambers, and rooms which are only partially illumined, the other parts being in the possession of night. Some of my faculties and powers are dark ministers, and some of my moods are far from being "homes of light." But "God is light," and everything is glorious as the meridian sun! His holiness, His grace, His love, His mercy: there are no dark corners where uncleanness hides; everything shines with undimmed and speckless radiancy! And if I "walk in the light," I, too, shall become illumined. "They looked unto Him and were lightened." We are fashioned by our highest companionships. We acquire the nature of those with whom we most constantly commune. And the light He gives is also fire. It will burn away our sin. We may measure the reality and strength of our communion by the destruction of our sin. A great burning will be proceeding in our life, and one evil habit after another will be in the love-furnace of purification. The Lord still "purifies Jerusalem by the spirit of burning." JUNE The Twenty-eighth _THE WAITING LIGHT_ 2 CORINTHIANS iv. 1-6. I can shut out the sweet light of the morning. I can refuse to open the shutters and draw up the blinds. And I can shut out the Light of life. I can draw the thick blinds of prejudice, and close the impenetrable shutters of sin. And the Light of the world cannot get into my soul. And I can let in the waiting light of the morning, and flood my room with its glory. And the Light is "a gracious, willing guest." No fuss is needed, no shouting is required. Open thy casement, and the gracious guest is in! And my Lord has no reluctance in His coming; we have not to drag Him to our table. Open thy heart, and the Lord is in! And when the light is within there will be radiance at the windows. And when the Lord is shining in our hearts there will be a witness in the life. Men will see that we are "with Jesus," because we are "light in the Lord." Good Lord, deliver me from "the god of this world" lest I be blinded and become unable to see Thee! I open my heart to Thee! Shine in, Thou light of life, and make my soul the radiant witness of Thy grace. JUNE The Twenty-ninth _EFFECTUAL PRAYERS_ "_The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much._" --JAMES v. 13-20. Or, as Weymouth translates it, "The heartfelt supplication of a righteous man exerts a mighty influence." Prayer may be empty words, with no more power than those empty shells which have been foisted upon the Turks in their war with the Balkan States. Firing empty shells! That is what many professed prayers really are; they have nothing in them, and they accomplish nothing. They are just forged upon the lips, and they drop to the earth as soon as they are spoken. Effectual prayers are born in the heart; they are stocked with heart-treasure, with faith, and hope, and desire, and holy urgency, and they go forth with power to shake the world. What are my prayers like? _If I were God, could I listen to them?_ Are they mere pretences at prayer, full of nothing but sound? Is there any reasonable ground for assuming that they can accomplish anything? Or are my prayers weighted with sincere desire? Do they comprehend my brother's good as well as my own? Are they spoken in faith? Do they go forth in great expectancy? Then do they surely "exert a mighty influence," and they become fellow-labourers with all God's ministries of grace. The greatest thing I can do is greatly to pray. JUNE The Thirtieth _GOD MY STRENGTH AND SONG_ "_The Lord is my strength and my song._" --PSALM cxviii. 14-21. Yes, first of all "my strength" and then "my song"! For what song can there be where there is languor and fainting? What brave music can be born in an organ which is short of breath? There must first be strength if we would have fine harmonies. And so the good Lord comes to the songless, and with holy power He brings the gift of "saving health." "And my song"! For when life is healthy it instinctively breaks into song. The happy, contented soul goes about the ways of life humming its satisfactions to itself, and is now and again heard by the passer-by. The Lord fills the life with instinctive music. When life is holy it becomes musical with His praise. So here I see the appointed order in Christian service. It is futile to try to make people joyful unless we do it by seeking first to make them strong. First the good, and then the truly happy! First the holy, and then the musical. First God, and then the breath of His Holy Spirit, and then "the new song." JULY The First _THE LIFE OR THE LIGHT OF MEN_ "_In Him was life._" --JOHN i. 1-18. Not merely a pool of life, but the well-spring. All rivers of enriching vitality have their source in Him. Nowhere is there a crystal stream which was not born at the Fountain. Let us make our claim for the Lord all-comprehensive and inclusive. Whatever energizes body, mind, or soul, has its origin in our Sovereign King. "All our springs are in Thee." "Thou of life the Fountain art." "_And the life was the light of men._" And what did He not light up? His amazing rays streamed down the darkest ways of men, and illumined the vast, sombre chambers of human circumstance. He lit up sin and showed its true colour! He lit up sorrow, and transfigured it! He lit up duty, and gave it a new face. He lit up common work, and glorified it. He lit up death, and we could see through it! But, above all, He lit up God, and "the people that sat in darkness saw a great light." "_And the darkness apprehended it not._" The darkness could not lay hold of it and quench it! It was not overwhelmed and eclipsed by the murkiest fog of prejudice, or by the dingiest antagonism of sinful pride. "The light showeth in the darkness," inviolable and invincible! JULY The Second _LIGHT AND LIGHTNING_ "_And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him._" --ISAIAH xi. 1-10. And the spirit is one of light! All the doors and windows are open. His correspondences are perfect and unbroken. He is of "quick understanding," keen-scented to discern the essences of things, alert to perceive the reality behind the semblance, to "see things as they are." All the great primary senses are awake, and He has knowledge of every "secret place." "_He shall smite ... with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay._" The spirit of light follows a crusade of holiness. The light becomes lightning! The "breathing," which cools the fever-stricken, can also become a hot breath, which wastes and destroys every plant of evil desire. It is an awful thing, and yet a gracious thing, that "our God is a consuming fire." It was foretold of our Lord that He should baptize "with fire." And this crusade of holiness is in the ministry of peace. He will burn away all that defileth, in order that He may create a profound and permanent fellowship. When His work is done, there will be a mingling of apparent opposites, and antagonisms will melt into a gracious union. "The sucking child will play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den." JULY The Third _MY ELDER BROTHER_ HEBREWS ii. 9-18. And doth my Lord call me one of His brethren? Let me leisurely think upon it, until my very soul moves amid my affairs in noble and hallowed dignity. If I steadily remember "who I am," it will assuredly transfigure "what I am." I lose the sense of my high kinship, and then I am quite content to be "sent into the fields to feed swine." And my elder Brother came to "destroy the works of the devil." That is the entire ministry of destruction. Nothing beautiful does He destroy, nothing winsome: only the insidious presences which are the foes of these things. He will destroy only the pestiferous microbes which ravage the vital peace of the soul. Our Lord is the enemy of the deadly, and therefore of "him that had the power of death--that is, the devil!" And in this holy ministry of destruction He can defend my soul as "one who knows," Himself "having been tempted." He knows the subtlety of the devil, and where the soul is most perilously exposed, and He is therefore "able to succour them that are tempted." JULY The Fourth _EMPTYING ONESELF_ "_He emptied Himself._" --PHILIPPIANS ii. 1-11. In Mr. Silvester Horne's garden a very suggestive scene was one day to be witnessed. A cricketer of world-wide renown was playing a game with Mr. Horne's little four-year-old son! And the fierce bowler "emptied himself," and served such gentle, dainty little balls that the tiny man at the wickets was not in the least degree afraid! And the Lord of glory "emptied Himself," fashioning Himself to our "low estate," and in His unspeakably gentle approaches we find our peace. And I, too, am to seek a corresponding lowliness of mind in order that I, too, may be of service to my weak and needy brother. It is for me to empty myself of the pride of strength, the brutal aggressiveness of success, the sometimes unfeeling obtrusiveness of health; I must empty myself, and "get down" by the side of weakness and infirmity, and in gentle fellowship humbly proffer my help. And if the mind is to be in me "which was also in Christ Jesus," it is needful for me to commune with Him "without ceasing." His gentleness can make me great. JULY The Fifth _THE DISCIPLESHIP THAT TELLS_ "_He that followeth Me._" --JOHN viii. 12-20. Yes, but I must make sure that I follow Him in Spirit and in truth. It is so easy to be self-deceived. I may follow a pleasant emotion, while all the time a bit of grim cross-bearing is being ignored. I may be satisfied to be "out on the ocean sailing," singing of "a home beyond the tide," while all the time there is a piece of perilous salvage work to be done beneath the waves. To "follow Jesus" is to face the hostility of scribes and Pharisees, to offer restoring friendship to publicans and sinners, to pray in blood-shedding in Gethsemane, to brave the derision of the brutal mob, and to be "ready" for the appalling happenings on Calvary! Therefore, following is not a light picnic; it is a possible martyrdom! But if I set my face "to go," the Lord Himself will visit me with "_the light of life_." And the resource shall not be broken and spasmodic: it shall be mine without ceasing. "Be thou faithful ... and I will give thee ... life." That life will flow into my soul, just as the oxygenating air flows down to the diver who is faithfully busy recovering wreckage from the wealth-strewn bed of the mighty sea. Let me be faithful, and every moment the Lord will crown me with His own vitalizing life! JULY The Sixth _LIFE AS A VOICE_ JOHN i. 19-34. This man humbly desires to be "_a voice_." He has no ambition to receive popular homage. He does not covet the power of the lordly purple. He does not crave to be a great person; he only wants to be a great voice! He wants to articulate the thought and purpose of God. He is quite content to be hidden, like a bird in a thick bush, if only his song may be heard. And in order that he may be a voice he retires into the silent solitudes of the desert. He will listen before he speaks. Come thou, my soul, into his secret! The air is clamorous with speech behind which there has been no hearing. Men speak, and in their words there is no pulse of the Infinite. In their consolations there is no balm. In their reproaches there is no sword. Their words are empty vessels, full of sound! Let my voice be hushed until I have heard the voice of the Highest. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." And when he spake, it was in clear and definite testimony, "Behold the Lamb of God!" The "voice" succeeded, for men began to look away from the herald to the herald's Lord. In forgetting John they found the King. They passed the _signpost_, and arrived at _home_! JULY The Seventh _IN THE GOLDEN AGE_ ISAIAH xl. 1-10. And so these things are to happen when the Lord has come to His own, and His decrees are honoured in our midst. Certain _inequalities_ are to be ended. Valleys are to be exalted, and mountains are to be made low. There is to be a levelling! Men are to be equal in freedom and opportunity. Certain _crookednesses_ are to be ended. They are to be "made straight." Society has become warped with the heat of lust, and the fierce fever of competition, and the hot, devouring fires of greed. When the Lord is enthroned the fires will be put out, the heat will pass, and the twisted fellowships will be rectified. Certain _roughnesses_ are to be ended. Class works against class with jagged edge, like the teeth of a saw. They tear and rend one another, and the family of God is always bleeding. These "rough places" are to be "made plain." We are to "work in to one another," smoothly, congenially, in a frictionless peace. And this Lord is coming, coming every day, and "His arm shall rule for Him." "Say unto the cities of Judah--Behold your God!" JULY The Eighth _WHAT MANNER OF MAN?_ MATTHEW xi. 7-15. There are some men who are only as _desert reeds_! They move to the breath of the desert wind. They bend before it, no matter in what way it may be blowing. They never resist the wind. They never become "hiding places from the wind," stemming a popular drift. They are the victims of passing opinions, and are swayed by the current passions. And some men are "_clothed in soft raiment_"! They shrink from the rough fustian, the labourer's cotton smock, the leather suit of George Fox. They are ultra-"finicky." They are afraid of the mire. They touch the sorrows of the world with a timid finger, not with the kindly, healing grasp of a surgeon. And other men are "_prophets_"! They have a secret fellowship with the Infinite. When we listen to them it is like putting one's ear to the seashell: we catch the sound of the ocean roll. "The voice of the Great Eternal dwells in their mighty tones." And others are "_children of the Kingdom_." They are greater than the old prophets, because the mystic voice has become a Presence, and they have "seen the Lord." The veil has been rent, and they "walk in the light" as "children of light." JULY The Ninth _SCHOLARS IN CHRIST'S SCHOOL_ "_He taught His disciples._" --MARK ix. 30-37. And my Lord will teach me. He will lead me into "the deep things" of God. There is only one school for this sort of learning, and an old saint called it the Academy of Love, and it meets in Gethsemane and Calvary, and the Lord Himself is the teacher, and there is room in the school for thee and me. But the disciples were not in the mood for learning. They were not ambitious for heavenly knowledge, but for carnal prizes, not for wisdom, but for place. "They disputed one with another who was the greatest." And that spirit is always fatal to advancement in the school of Christ. Our petty ambitions close the door and windows of our souls, and the heavenly light can find no entrance. We turn Gethsemane into "a place of strife," and we carry our clamour even to Calvary itself. From this, and all other sinful folly, good Lord, redeem us! They who would be great scholars in this school must become "as little children." Through the child-like spirit we attain unto God-like wisdom. By humility is honour and life. JULY The Tenth _THE GREAT RENUNCIATION_ MATTHEW xvii. 1-13. What if the Transfiguration was the type of the purposed consummation of every life? If we had remained "without sin," it may be that we should have gradually ripened up to a moment when we should have become transfigured, and in the surpassing brilliance have been translated to higher planes of being. Perhaps our Lord had reached this material consummation, and was now on the wonderful border land, and could by choice slip into "the glory!" But He made another choice. And this was, of a truth, the "great renunciation!" He turned His back on the glory, and deliberately faced the darkening way which led to Calvary and the grave. I do not wonder that His mysterious visitors spake with Him "of the decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem." He could talk about nothing else! He "set His face to go." And in my Master's choice of death I find my hope of life. Through "the dark gate" I can find "the mount." My transfiguration is made possible in His humiliation. If my Lord had never descended I could never have ascended. If He had abode on the mount I should have remained in my sin. He has "opened to me the gates of righteousness." JULY The Eleventh _THE FRIEND OF THE BRIDEGROOM_ "_He that hath the bride is the bridegroom._" --JOHN iii. 23-36. We ministers sometimes speak of "my church." I occasionally read of Mr. So-and-So's church! I know that the phrase is colloquially used, but nevertheless, it is unfortunate. Words that are perversely used tend to pervert the spirit. And this phrase tends to displace the Bridegroom. It helps to make us obtrusive, unduly aggressive, when we ought to be reverently hiding our faces with our wings. The Bride is His! "_But the friend of the bridegroom._" That is my place, and that is my dignity. And what a title it is, making me a member of the finest and most select aristocracy in heaven or on earth! The "friend of the bridegroom" used to carry messages to the bride, to share in the wooing, and to help to bring the wedding about. And that, too, is my gracious office, to be a match-maker for my Lord, to testify concerning Him, to speak His praises, until the soul "fall in love" with Him. "_He must increase, but I must decrease._" Yes, when the sun is rising the moon becomes dim! When the glory of the Bridegroom breaks upon the bride He becomes "all in all," "the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely." JULY The Twelfth _PREPARING HIS SERVANTS_ JOHN i. 35-51. Our Lord does not stumble upon His disciples by accident. His discoveries are not surprises. He knows where His nuggets lie. Before He calls to service He has been secretly preparing the servant. "I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me." He knew all about Simon. "_Thou art Simon_"--just a _listener_, not yet a strong, bold doer: a man of many opinions not yet consolidated into the truth of experimental convictions. "_Thou shalt be called Peter._" Simon become Peter! Loose gravel become hard rock! Hear-says become the "verilies" of unshakable experience! The Lord proclaims our glorious possibilities. And He knew all about Nathanael. "_When thou wast under the fig-tree I saw thee._" "In that secret meditation of thine, when thy wishes and desires were being born, 'I saw thee!'" "When others saw nothing, I had fellowship with thee in the secret place." And He knows all about thee and me. "I know My sheep." We do not take Him by surprise. He does not come in late, and find the performance half over! He is in at our beginnings, when grave issues are being born. "I am Alpha." JULY The Thirteenth _PLAIN GLASS_ "_They were fishers._" --MATTHEW iv. 12-22. And so our Lord went first to the fishing-boats and not to the schools. Learning is apt to be proud and aggressive, and hostile to the simplicities of the Spirit. There is nothing like plain glass for letting in the light! And our Lord wanted transparent media, and so He went to the simple fishermen on the beach. "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world." And by choosing labouring men our Master glorified labour. He Himself had worn the workman's dress, and the garment which the King wears becomes regal attire. Yes, the workingman, if he only knew it, is wearing the imperial robe. He is one of the kinsmen of the Lord of Glory! Our Lord took the fisherman's humble calling, and made it the symbol of spiritual service. "_I will make you fishers of men._" And He will do the same for thee and me. He will turn our daily labour into an apocalypse, and through its ways and means He will make us wise in the ministry of the kingdom. He will make the material the handmaid of the spiritual, and through the letter He will lead us into the secret places of the soul. JULY The Fourteenth _THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE UNLIKELY_ MATTHEW ix. 1-13. A Disciple from among the publicans! In what waste places our Lord Jesus finds His jewels! What exquisite possibilities Ruskin saw in a pinch of common dust! What radiant glory the lapidary can see in the rough, unpolished gem! The Lord loves to go into the unlikely place, and lead forth His saints. "In the wilderness shall waters break out!" We must prayerfully cultivate this sacred confidence in the possibilities of the unlikely. We can never be successful helpers of the Lord unless we can see the diamond in the soot, and the radiant saint in the disregarded publican. It is a most gracious art to cultivate, this of discerning a man's possible excellencies even in the blackness of his present shame. To see the future best in the present worst, that is the true perception of a child of light. "O give us eyes to see like Thee!" Well, this is the medium of vision:--"Blessed are the pure in heart, for _they shall see_ God," and the god-like, even in the wilderness of sin. "Anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou may'st see!" JULY The Fifteenth _THE DAILY CROSS_ LUKE ix. 18-26. Our Lord never bribes His disciples by promising them ways of sunny ease. He does not buy them with illicit gold. He does not put the glittering crown upon the entrance-gate, and hide the cross behind the wall. No: on the very first stage of the sacred pilgrimage there falls "the shadow of the Cross." "_Let him take up his cross daily, and follow Me._" And yet, the Lord's blessing is hidden in the apparent curse. In the act of bearing the cross we increase our strength. That is the heartening paradox of grace. Virtuous energies pass from our very burdens into our spirits, and thus "out of the eater comes forth meat." We bravely shoulder our load, and lo! a mystic breath visits the heart, and a strange facility attends our goings! The dead cross becomes a tree of life, and a secret vitality renews our souls. How foolish, then, O heart of mine, to avoid and evade Thy cross! Refuse the burden, and thou declinest the strength! Ignore the duty, and thou shalt feel no inspiration! Carefully husband thy blood, and thou shalt remain for ever anæmic! But lose thy life, and thou shalt find it! JULY The Sixteenth _THE VINE AND THE BRANCH_ JOHN xv. 1-16. I need the Lord. What can a branch do apart from the vine? It may retain a certain, momentary greenness, but death is advancing apace. And there are multitudes of professing Christians who are like detached branches; their spiritual life is ebbing away: they do not startle the beholder and cause him to exclaim, "How full of life!" They do not _strike_ at all! They have no splendid "_force_ of character," and they therefore exercise no arresting witness for the King. They are not "abiding" in the Eternal, and therefore there is no powerful pulse from the Infinite. "Apart from Me ye can do nothing!" And my Lord needs me. For the vine has need of the branch! The vine expresses itself in the branch, and comes to manifestation in leaf, and flower, and fruit. And my Lord would manifest Himself in me, and cause my branch to be heavy with the glorious fruits of His grace. And if I deprive Him of the branch, and deny Him this means of expression, I am "limiting the Holy One of Israel." "My son, give Me thine heart!" Lord, help me to abide in Thee! Save me from the follies of a fatal independence! Good Lord, "Abide in me." JULY The Seventeenth _THE DYING OF SELF_ JOHN xii. 12-36. "Except a corn of wheat ... die!" Yes, it is through death we pass to life. Discipleship in which there is no death can never be truly alive. The nipping winter is essential to the green and flowery spring. No tomb, no resurrection glory! In every life there must be a grave, and self must be buried within it. We must die to self _in our prayers_. In many prayers self is obtrusive and aggressive from end to end. It is self, self, self! That self must be crucified. We must make more room for others in our supplications. On our knees the egotist must die, and the altruist be born. And "if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit"! There are multitudes of professing Christians who would experience a wonderful resurrection if they were more "given to hospitality" in their communion with the Lord. And if self die in our prayers, nowhere else will it be seen. That which is truly slain when we are upon our knees will not reassert itself when we return to common ways of work and service. And, therefore, let the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die! JULY The Eighteenth _THE MESMERISM OF THE WORLD_ MATTHEW xix. 23-30. Material possessions multiply our spiritual difficulties. It is hard for a rich man "_to enter into the kingdom of heaven_." For what is the kingdom? It is "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." It is easy for a rich man to appear respectable, but how hard is it to be holy! He may surround himself with comforts, but how hard to get into peace! He may move in the cold gleam of a glittering happiness, but how hard to get into the rich, warm quietness of an abiding joy! Yes, our material possessions so easily range themselves as ramparts between us and our destined spiritual wealth. And if we find that any material thing so mesmerizes us that we are held in fatal bondage, we are to sacrifice it. "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee!" Whatever interposes itself between us and our Lord must go! It is a hard way, but it leads to a sound and boisterous health. We verily "receive an hundredfold!" We lose "a thing," and gain a grace. We lose fickle sensations and gain abounding inspiration. We lose the world, and gain the Lord! JULY The Nineteenth _THE WRATH OF THE LAMB_ JOHN ii. 13-22. The narrative of the cleansing follows the story of the wedding-feast. In the one the Lord has taken the spirit of the sanctuary into a worldly feast, and thereby illumined and glorified the feast. In the other, the spirit of the world has invaded the sanctuary, and thereby defiled and dishonoured it. The spirit of worldliness, like an unclean, insurgent flood, would enter and possess the entire realm of human life and service. And here it converted a legitimate convenience into an unhallowed business. It transformed a needful expedient into an unholy end. It fixed its tables in the very courts of the Temple, and exalted the quest of money above the worship of God. "_And He made a scourge of cords._" And is this "the Lamb of God"? Yes, "the Lamb of God" is also "the lion of Judah." The mild sunshine can become focussed into scorching flame! As soon as blessings touch sin they become curses. "For this was the Son of Man manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." My soul, remember thou the scourge of thy Lord, and do not trifle in His holy place! Seek thou the clean hands and the pure heart, and the thunders of Sinai shall come to thee as beatific music from the hill. JULY The Twentieth _DEFILING THE HOLY PLACE_ MARK xi. 11-19. It was a teaching of the old Rabbis that no one should make a thoroughfare of the Temple, or enter it with the dust upon his feet. The teaching was full of sacred significance, however far their practice may have departed from its truth. Let me not use the Temple as a mere passage to something else. Let me not use my religion as an expedient for more easily reaching "the chief seats" among men. Let me not put on the garments of worship in order that I may readily and quickly fill my purse. Let me not make the sanctuary "a short cut" to the bank! And let me not carry the dust of the world on to the sacred floor. Let me "wipe my feet." Let me sternly shake off some things--all frivolity, easeful indifference, the spirit of haste and self-seeking. Let me not defile the courts of the Lord. And let me remember that "the whole earth is full of His glory." Everywhere, therefore, I am treading the sacred floor! Lord, teach me this high secret! Then shall I not demean the Temple into a market, but I shall transform the market into a temple. "Lo, God is in this place, and I knew it not!" JULY The Twenty-first _PURIFYING THE SANCTUARY_ 2 CHRONICLES xxix. 1-11, 15-19. Worship has vital connections with work. There are nerve-relationships between the heart and the hand. The condition of the sanctuary is reflected in the state of the empire. If there is uncleanness in "the holy place," there will be blight and degeneracy among the people. The fatal seeds of national instability and decay are not found in economics; they are found in the sanctuary. "Until I went into the sanctuary ... then understood I!" Hezekiah cleansed "the house of the Lord." He cast forth the filthiness out of the holy place. He ushered in his golden age with the reformation of worship. He recalled exiled and white-robed Piety to her appointed throne. He began the re-establishment of right by recognizing the rights of God. He gave the Lord His due! All our rights are born out of our "being right" with God! We begin to be rich when we cease to rob God! "_And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also._" That is ever so. Our real songs begin with our sacrifices. We enter the realm of music when we enter the realm of self-surrender. A willing offering, on a clean altar, introduces the soul into "the joy of the Lord." JULY The Twenty-second _VISIONS AND TASKS_ 2 CHRONICLES xxxiv. 1-11. Josiah "_began to seek after God_." The other day I saw a young art student copying one of Turner's pictures in the National Gallery. His eyes were being continually lifted from his canvas to his "master." He put nothing down which he had not first seen. He was "seeking after" Turner! And thus it was with Josiah. His eyes were "ever toward the Lord!" He studied the "ways" of the Lord, in order that he might incarnate them in national life and practice. Wise doings always begin in clear seeing. We should be far more efficient in practice if we were more diligently assiduous in vision. It is never a waste of time to "look unto Him." Looking is a most needful part of our daily discipline. "What I say unto you, I say unto all, _Watch_!" And because Josiah saw the holiness of the Lord he saw the uncleanness of the people. He had a vision of God's holy place, and he therefore saw the defilement of the material worship. "_In the twelfth year he began to purge Judah._" Yes, that is the sequence. The reformer follows the seer. We shall begin to sweep the streets of our own city when we have gazed upon the glories of the holy city, the New Jerusalem. JULY The Twenty-third _A GREAT SOUL AT PRAYER_ 2 CHRONICLES vi. 12-21. Let me reverently study this great prayer in order that, when I go to the house of God, I may be able to enrich its ministry by the wealth of my own supplications. Solomon prayed that the eyes of the Lord might be open toward the house "day and night." Like the eyes of a mother upon her child! Like the eyes of a lover upon his beloved! And therefore it is more than protective vision; shall we reverently say that it is _inventive_ vision, devising gracious surprises, anticipating needs, preparing love-gifts; it is sight which is both insight and foresight, ever inspecting and prospecting for the loved one's good. And Solomon prayed that God's ear might be open to the cry of His people's need. "_Hear Thou from Thy dwelling-place._" He prayed that the house of God might be the place of open communion. That is ever the secret of peace, and therefore of power. If I know that I have correspondence with the Holy One, I shall walk and work as a child of light. If God hear me, then I can sing! And Solomon prays for the grace of forgiveness. He prays for the sense of sweet emancipation which is the gift of grace. It is the miracle of renewal, and it ought to happen every time we open the doors of the sanctuary. JULY The Twenty-fourth _LOVE OF THE SANCTUARY_ PSALM lxxxiv. Gracious is the strength of this man's desire for the holy place. He covets the privilege of the very sparrow which builds its nest beneath the sacred eaves! When he is away from the Temple its worship and music haunt his mind and soul. It wooes him in the market-place. Its insistent call is with him by the fireside. Yes, "in his heart are the highways to Zion!" And the permanency of this devotional mood transfigures every place. It turns "_the valley of weeping_" into "_a place of springs_." The colour of any place is largely determined by our moods. It is surprising what treasures we find when our soul is full of light. What discoveries old Scrooge made when the Christmas mood possessed his own heart! When we carry about the spirit of the sanctuary, we convert every spot into rich and hallowed ground. "_I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness._" Better to have the temple-spirit, even as a menial, than the unhallowed heart in the glittering high places of sin. "God's worst is better than the devil's best." JULY The Twenty-fifth _NO TEMPLE THEREIN_ "_And I saw no temple therein!_" --REVELATION xxi. 22-27. And that because it was all temple! "Every place was hallowed ground." There was no merely localized Presence, because the Presence was universal. God was realized everywhere, and therefore the little meeting-tent had vanished, and in place of the measurable tabernacle there were the immeasurable and God-filled heavens. Even here on earth I can measure my spiritual growth by the corresponding enlargement of my temple. What is the size of my sanctuary? Am I moving toward the time when nothing shall be particularly hallowed because all will be sanctified? Are the six days of the week becoming increasingly like the seventh, until people can see no difference between my Monday manners and my Sunday mood? And how about places? Do I still speak of "religion being religion," and "business being business," or is something of the sanctuary getting into my shop, and is the exchange becoming a side-chapel of the Temple? "_And the Lamb is the light thereof._" When we have done with the local temple we can dispose of its candles. When we pass out of the twilight into the morning "the stars retire." The fore-gleams will change into the wondrous glory of the ineffable day. JULY The Twenty-sixth _THE WELLS OF SALVATION_ JOHN iii. 1-21. The springs of our redemption are found in infinite love. "God is love!" Redemption was not inspired by anger, but by grace. We do not contemplate an angry God, demanding a victim, but a compassionate Father making a sacrifice. At one extreme of our golden text is eternal "love," and at the other extreme is "eternal life." What if the two are one? Etymologically, "love" and "life" are akin. What if they are only two names for the same thing? To "believe" in the love is to receive the life. For when I believe in a person's love I open my doors to the lover. And to believe in the love of God is to let the heavenly Lover in. And with love comes a wonderful tropical air--light, and warmth, and air; and "all things become new!" It is the letting in of the spring, and things which have been in wintry bondage awake, and arise from their graves. And so I "_enter into the kingdom of God_." I become a native of a new and marvellous country. I begin to be acclimatized in the realm of the blest. And I "_see_ the kingdom of God." Spiritual perceptions become mine, and I gaze upon the mystic glories of the home of God. JULY The Twenty-seventh _THE WORK OF FAITH_ 1 JOHN v. 1-13. And so by belief _I find life_. I do not obtain the vitalizing air through controversy, or clamour, or idle lamentation, but by opening the window! Faith opens the door and window of the soul to the Son of God. It can be done without tears, it can be done without sensationalism. "If any man will open the door, I will come in." "And he that hath the Son hath the life." And by belief _I gain my victories_. "Who is he that overcometh ... but he that believeth?" It is not by flashing armour that we beat the devil, but by an invincible life. On these battlefields a mystic breath does more destruction than all our fine and costly expedients. To believe is to obtain the winning spirit, and every battle brings its trophies to our feet. And by belief _I gain assurance_. "He that believeth ... hath the witness in him." So many Christians fight in doubt and indecision, and their uncertainty impairs their strength and skill. It is the man who can quietly say "I know" who is terrible in battle and who drives his foes in confusion from the field. JULY The Twenty-eighth _ALL THINGS NEW!_ 2 CORINTHIANS v. 14-21. Here is a new constraint! "The love of Christ constraineth me." The love of Christ _carries me along like a crowd_. I am taken up in its mighty movement and swept along the appointed road! Or it _arrests me_, and makes me its willing prisoner. It lays a strong hand upon me, and I have no option but to go. A gracious "necessity is laid upon me." _I must!_ And here is a new world. "_Old things are passed away._" The man who is the prisoner of the Lord's love will find himself in new and wonderful scenery. Everything will wear a new face--God, man, self, the garden, the sky, the sea! We shall look at all things through love-eyes, and it is amazing in what new light a great love will set familiar things! Commonplaces become beautiful when looked at through the lens of Christian love. When we "walk in love" our eyes are anointed with "the eye-salve" of grace. And here is a new service. "We are ambassadors ... for Christ." When we see our Lord through love-eyes, and then our brother, we shall yearn to serve our brother in Christ. We shall intensely long to tell the love-story of the Lord our Saviour. What we have seen, with confidence we tell. JULY The Twenty-ninth _NAMES AND NATURES_ ROMANS viii. 1-10. Men will recognize my Christianity by the sign of the Spirit of Christ. And they will accept no other witness. I saw a plant-pot the other day, full of soil, bearing no flower, but flaunting a stick on which was printed the word "Mignonette." "Thou hast a name to live and art dead." The world will take no notice of our labels and our badges: it is only arrested by the flower and the perfume. "If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His." And in the Spirit of Christ I shall best deal with "_the things of the flesh_." There are some things which are best overcome by neglecting them. To give them attention is to give them nourishment. Withdraw the attention, and they sicken and die. And so I must seek the fellowship of the Spirit. That friendship will destroy the other. "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." If I am in communion with the Holy One the other will pine away, and cease to trouble me. Lord, make my spirit a kinsman of Thine! Let the intimacy be ever deeper and dearer. "Draw me nearer, blessed Lord," until in nearness to Thee I find my peace, my joy, and my crown. JULY The Thirtieth _SIN AS POISON_ NUMBERS xxi. 4-9. And this is the familiar teaching, that sin is a serpent. It possesses a deadly poison. We may give it pleasant names, but we are only ornamenting death. A chemist might put a poison into a chaste and elegant flask, but he has in no wise changed its nature. And when we name sin by philosophic euphemisms, and by less exacting terminologies--such as "cleverness," "smartness," or "fault," or "misfortune," we are only changing the flask, and the diabolical essence remains the same. And, then, sin is a serpent because it is so subtle. It creeps into my presence almost before I know it. Its approaches are so insidious, its expedients so full of guile. "Therefore, I say unto all, Watch!" But in Christ the old serpent is dead! Christ "became sin," and in Him sin was crucified. The thing that bit is bitten, and its nefarious power destroyed. But out of Christ the serpent is still busy and malicious, claiming what he presumes to call his own. Let me, then, dwell in Christ, where sin "has no more dominion." "Whosoever believeth shall not perish but have life." JULY The Thirty-first _THE CLEAN FLAME OF LOVE_ 1 JOHN iv. 4-14. This aged apostle cannot get away from the counsels of love. All his mental movements circle about this "greatest thing in the world." Once he would "call down fire upon men"; now the only fire he knows is the pure and genial flame of love. Beautiful is it when our fires become cleaner as we get older, when temper changes to compassion, when malice becomes goodwill, when an ill-controlled conflagration becomes a homely fireside. And all the love we acquire we must get from the altars of God. "We love because He first loved us." We can find it nowhere else. "Love is of God." Why, then, not seek it in the right place? Why seek for palms in arctic regions, or for icebergs in the tropics? God is the country of love, and in His deep mines there are riches "unsearchable." And the gracious law of life is this, that every acquisition of love increases our powers of discernment. "He that loveth knoweth...!" It is as though every jewel we find gives us an extra lens for the discovery of finer jewels still. And thus the love-life is a continual surprise, and the surprise will be eternal, for the object of the wonder is the infinite love of God. AUGUST The First _GOD AS OUR ALLY!_ ROMANS viii. 31-39. "If God is for us!" But we must make sure of that. Is God on the field, taking sides with us? Have we been so busy with our preparations, so concerned with many things, and everybody, that we have forgotten our greatest possible Ally? Is He on the field, and on which side! My soul, go on thy knees, and settle this in secret. That purpose of thine! That choice of thine! That work of thine! Is it hallowed with thy Lord's approval and seal? And "if God is for us, who can be against us?" Nothing else counts. It is ever a foolish and futile thing to count the heads in the opposing ranks. "God is always on the side of the big battalions!" It is a black lie of the devil! We need not fear the big battalions if only we are securely in the right. We are not to count heads, but to weigh and estimate causes. Which of the causes provides a tent for the Lord of Hosts? Where has the truth its waving flag? Stand near that flag, my soul, and thou wilt be near thy Lord! And nothing shall separate thee from His love, and leave thee weak and isolated on the field. Thou shalt be "more than conqueror" in Him who loves thee, and will love thee for evermore. AUGUST The Second _BY JACOB'S WELL_ JOHN iv. 1-15. A weary woman and a weary Lord! But the Lord was only weary in body; the woman was dry and exhausted in soul. Her heart was like some charred chamber after a destructive fire. All its furniture was injured, and some of it was almost burnt away. For sin had been blazing in the secret place, and had scorched the delicacies of the spirit, and the inward satisfaction was gone. And now she was very weary, and her daily walk had become a most tiresome march. And the Lord, with sympathetic insight, discerned the inward dryness. There was no sound of holy contentment, no melody of joyful, spiritual desire. There was only the cold, clammy silence of death. "He knew what was in man." And there was no "river of water of life" making glad the streets of this woman's soul. And so He would bring to her the waters of spiritual satisfaction, the holy well of eternal life. "In the wilderness shall waters break out, and springs in the desert." The Lord is about to work a miracle of grace, changing dull pang into healing peace, and suffocated desire into soaring fellowship with God. He is about to transform an outlawed woman into one of the "elect saints." How will He do it? Let us watch Him. AUGUST The Third _CHANGING ASKING INTO THIRSTING_ "_Go, call thy husband!_" --JOHN iv. 16-30. I never supposed that the transformation would begin here. I thought that there were some words which would remain unspoken. But here our Master speaks a word which only deepens the weariness of the woman, and irritates the sore of her galling yoke. What is He doing? He is seeking to change the sense of wretchedness into the sense of sin! He is seeking to change weariness into desire! _He wants to make the woman thirst!_ And so He puts His finger upon her sin. He cannot give the heavenly water to lips that merely ask for it. "Sir, give me this water!" No, it cannot be had for the asking, only for the thirsting! And so the gracious Lord turns the woman's eyes upon her own sinful life, in order that in the heat of a fierce shame she might cry out, "I thirst for God, for the living God!" And sure I am that, before the Lord had done with her, this quiet, lone cry leapt from her lips, and in immediate response to the cry she was given a deep draught from the eternal well. And, good Lord, arouse my sense of my sin that I, too, may thirst for Thy water! Now, make me thirst for it, and in the thirst receive it! AUGUST The Fourth _HIDDEN MANNA_ "_I have meat to eat that ye know not of._" --JOHN iv. 31-42. And what sort of meat is this? The Lord found secret refreshment in feeding other people. In vitalizing the woman of Samaria He restored His own soul. The disciples were amazed when they returned to find that the weariness had gone out of His face, and that He looked like one who had been at a feast! And that is the law of life. "_My meat is to do the will._" There is a secret nutriment in the bread we give away. The Lord gives us to eat of the "hidden manna" whenever we are seeking the refreshment of our fellows. Distributed bread has a sacramental efficacy for our own souls. The man who feeds the hungry shall himself be "satisfied as with marrow." And these ways of service are open on every side. There are millions of weary people waiting, like the woman at the well. "_Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields: for they are white already to harvest!_" Be it mine to be a minister in the mighty service, and in the ways of obedience let me find delights and delicacies for my own soul. "Bread of Heaven, Feed me till I want no more!" AUGUST The Fifth _BROOKS BY THE WAY_ ISAIAH xii. The wells of the Lord are to be found where most I need them. The Lord of the way knows the pilgrim life, and the wells have been unsealed just where the soul is prone to become dry and faint. At the foot of the hill Difficulty was found a spring! Yes, these health-springs are lifting their crystal flood in the cheerless wastes of evil antagonisms and exhausting grief. Sometimes I am foolish, and in my need I assume that the well is far away. I knew a farmer who for a generation had carried every pail of water from a distant well to meet the needs of his homestead. And one day he sunk a shaft by his own house door, and to his great joy he found that the water was waiting at his own gate! My soul, thy well is near, even here! Go not in search of Him! Thy pilgrimage is ended, the waters are at thy feet! But I must "_draw_ the water out of the wells of salvation." The hand of faith must lift the gracious gift to the parched lips, and so refresh the panting soul. "I will _take_ the cup of salvation." Stretch out thy "lame hand of faith," and take the holy, hallowing energy offered by the Lord. AUGUST The Sixth _WATERS OF CONTENTMENT_ ISAIAH lv. 1-7. The refreshing waters are offered to "everyone" that is thirsty. The evangel is like some clear bugle peal, sounded on some commanding upland, and which is heard alike in palace and cottage, in school and at the mill, by the child of plenty and by the child of want. "Ho, everyone!" The appeal is to the common heart, whether the setting be squalor or splendour, whether the soul faints in the glare of the prosperous noon, or under the chill of the burdensome night. "Ho, everyone that thirsteth!" And the waters may be ours "without money and without price." We have not to earn them by the sweat of body, mind, or soul. We have not to make a toilsome pilgrimage, on bleeding feet, to some distant Lourdes, where the sacred healer abides. No, we are asked to pay nothing, and for the simple reason that we "have nothing wherewith to pay." The reviving grace is given to us "freely," and all that we have to present is our thirst. And yet we spend and spend, we labour and labour, but we buy no bread of contentment, and the waters of satisfaction are far away. The satisfying bread cannot be bought; it can only be begged. The water of life cannot be taken from a cistern; it must be drunk at the spring. AUGUST The Seventh _RIVERS FROM THE SNOW_ REVELATION xxii. 1-7, 17-21. The water of life flows out of the throne. Grace has its rise in sovereign holiness. This river is born amid the virgin snow. All true love springs out of spotless purity. "Love" from any other source is illegitimately wearing a stolen name. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord!" That is the first note in the song of redemption. In that burning whiteness I discern the possibility of my own sanctification. For the grace which flows out of sovereign holiness is a minister of the holy Lord to make me holy. If it were not perfectly pure it would itself be an agent of defilement. But it is "clear as crystal," and therefore it purifies and fertilizes wherever it flows. Rare trees grow upon its banks, and grace-fruits make every season beautiful. "Everything shall live whither the river cometh." But without the river my soul shall be "as an unwatered garden." My life shall be a realm of perpetual drought. Things may begin to grow, but they shall speedily droop and die. The heavenly Husbandman shall find no fruit when He walks amid the garden in the cool of the day. And therefore, my soul, look to the river which flows from the throne! "There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God," and that river is for thee! AUGUST The Eighth _THE SCARLET SIN_ ISAIAH i. 10-20. How can we deal with glaring sin, with sin that is "scarlet," that is "red like crimson"? And when the red stain has soaked into the very texture of the character, and every fibre is stupefied, what can we do then? Let me listen. "_Wash you._" But ordinary washings will not suffice. The ministry of education will fail. Art, and literature, and music will leave the internal stain undisturbed. They may impart a polish, but the polish shall be like the gloss on badly-washed linen. And the ministry of work will fail. Work never yet made a foul soul clean. There is "a fountain opened for all uncleanness." I must wash "in the blood of the Lamb." That red sacrifice can wash out the deep red stain. "_Cease to do evil._" Yes, I must turn my back on the roads of defilement. There must be a sharp decision, and an immediate reversal of my ways. "Halt!" "Right about turn!" "Quick march!" "_Learn to do well!_" Yes, let me diligently learn, like a child at school, until the deliberative becomes the instructive, and "practice makes perfect." AUGUST The Ninth _GOD'S REQUIREMENTS_ "_What doth the Lord require of thee?_" --MICAH vi. 1-8. "To do justly." Then I must not be so eager about my rights as to forget my duties. For my duties are just the observance of my neighbour's rights. And to see my neighbour's rights I must cultivate his "point of view." I must look out of his windows! "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." "_And to love mercy._" And mercy is justice _plus_! And it is the "plus" which makes the Christian. His cup "runneth over." He gives, like his Lord, "good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over." There is always "a little extra" for Christ's sake! And "blessed are the merciful." "_And to walk humbly with thy God._" And there I am at the root of the two graces which have been enjoined upon me. The lowly friend of the Lord will most surely be both just and merciful. He cannot help it. The fragrance will cling to him as the fragrance of the orange clings to him who labours in the fruitful groves of Spain. AUGUST The Tenth _GOOD FRUIT_ LUKE vi. 43-49. My Lord seeks "good fruit." It must be sound. No disease must lurk within it. My virtues are so often touched with defilement. There is a little untruth even in my truth. There is a little jealousy even in my praise. There is a little superciliousness even in my forbearance. There is a little pride even in my piety. It is not "whole," not holy. God demands sound fruit. And "good fruit" demands "a good tree." We must not look for truth from an untrue soul. If the bullet-mould is deformed, all the bullets will share its deformity. First get the mould right, and every bullet will share its rectitude. When the soul is "true," all our words, and deeds, and gestures will be "of the truth," and will be true indeed. "Make the tree good." And that is just what our Lord proclaims His willingness to do. He does not begin with effects, but with causes; not with fruit, but with trees. He does not begin with our speech, but with the speaker; not with conduct, but with character. And, blessed be His name, He can transform "corrupt trees" into "good trees," until it shall be said: "He that hath turned the world upside down has come hither also." AUGUST The Eleventh _THE CONSECRATION OF THE WILL_ JOHN v. 1-18. My Lord demands my will in the ministry of healing. "_Art thou willing_ to be made whole?" He will not carry me as a log. When my schoolmaster put a belt around me, and held me over the water with a rope, and taught me to swim, I had to use my arms. The condition of help was endeavour. And so in my salvation. I have always will-power sufficient to pray and to try. In the effort of faith I open the door to the energies of God. Grace flows in the channels of the determined will. "O, God, my heart is set!" And my Lord demands my will in the living of the consecrated life. "Sin no more!" I must "will" to be whole, and I must will to remain holy. And here is the gracious law of the kingdom, that every time I exercise my will I add to its power. Every difficulty overcome adds its strength to my resources. Every enemy conquered marches henceforth in my own ranks. I go "from strength to strength." "God worketh in me to will!" The gracious Lord ever strengthens the will that is willing. He transforms the frail reed into an iron pillar, and makes trembling timidity bold as a lion. "Mighty Spirit, dwell with me, I myself would mighty be." AUGUST The Twelfth _MY LIFE AND HOPE_ JOHN v. 19-30. Here is my reservoir. "_The Son hath life in Himself._" All vitality has its source in Him. He is the enemy of death and the deadly. I can paint the dead to look like life; I can use rouge for blood, and make the white lips red, but it all remains clammy and cold. I can galvanize, but I cannot vitalize. I can "break the ball of nard," and make perfume, "but still the sleeper sleeps." "In Him is life." "In Christ shall all be made alive!" And here is my hope. "_The Son also quickeneth._" He is not only a reservoir, He is a river. He is "the river of water of life." And His blessed purpose is to flow into desolate places, converting deserts into gardens, and making wildernesses to blossom as the rose. And He will come my way if only I will "hear" and "believe." There is a flippant hearing which, while it listens, laughs Him to scorn. There is a cheap hearing which will venture nothing on His counsel. And there is the hearing of faith, which simply "takes Him at His word," and in the glorious venture experiences the unsealing of the fountain of eternal life. "Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." AUGUST The Thirteenth _THE INNER ROOMS_ JOHN v. 31-47. What should I think of a man who was contented to remain in the outer halls and passages of Windsor Castle, when he was invited into the royal precincts to have gracious communion with the King? And what shall I think of men who are contented to "search the Scriptures" and "will not come" to the Lord? They spend their life exploring the lobbies, when the Host and the feast are waiting in the upper room! And some men spend their days in criticism and they never advance to worship. They are like unto one who should give his strength to the deciphering of some time-worn inscription on the outer wall of some grand cathedral, and who never treads the sacred floor in fruitful and enriching awe. And some men live in the senses, and not in the conscience, in the awful presence of the great white throne. They are for ever seeking sensations, and avoid the fellowship of duty. They ride about in the channel, and they never come to the harbour. They have no settled moral home. My Lord, help me to regard all good things as merely passages leading to Thee! Let all good things bring me into intimate fellowship with Thee. AUGUST The Fourteenth _THE PARALYSIS OF THE SOUL_ LUKE v. 17-26. The miracle done in the body is purposed to be a symbol of a grander miracle to be wrought in the soul. "_That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, then saith He...!_" He heals the paralyzed body that we may know what He can do with a paralyzed soul. He liberates the man who is bound by palsy that we may know what He can do for a man who is bound by guilt. We are to reason from the less to the greater, from the material type to the spiritual reality. And so it is with all my Lord's doings in nature. They are a glorious symbolism of what He will do in the spirit. "That ye may know how beautiful the Son of Man can make the heart of man, then saith He to the seeds of the spring-time, Come forth!" And so nature becomes a literature, in which we see our possible inheritance in the Spirit. But on our side it is all conditioned by faith. "There He could do no mighty works because of their unbelief." Even in the miracles of the Spirit our faith must co-operate. Divine grace and human faith can transfigure the race. "Lord, increase our faith!" And everywhere, let palsied souls be delivered, and attain to glorious freedom! AUGUST The Fifteenth _WITHERED LIMBS_ MARK iii. 1-8. There are withered limbs of the spirit as well as of the body. There are faculties and powers which are wasting away, sacred endowments which have lost their vital circulation. In some lives the will is a withered limb. In others it is the conscience. In others, again, it is the affections. These splendid moral and spiritual powers are being dried up, and they hang comparatively limp and useless in the life. They have been withered by sin and sinful negligence. And the Lord is the healer of withered limbs. He can deal with imprisoned affections as the warm spring deals with the river which has been locked in ice. He can minister to a stricken will, and make it as a benumbed hand when the circulation has been restored. He can give it grip and tenacity. And so with all our powers. He, who is the Life, can vitalize all! But here again the remnant of our withered endowment must be used in the healing. We must surrender to the Healer. We must obey. If the Lord says: "Stretch forth thy hand," we must attempt the impossible! In this region the impossible becomes possible in sanctified endeavour. AUGUST The Sixteenth _THE CHURCH AS AN INFIRMARY_ LUKE xiii. 10-17. What infirmities gather together in the synagogue! What moral and spiritual ailments are congregated in every place of worship! If the veil of the flesh could be removed, and the inward life revealed, how we should pity one another, and how we should pray! In how many lives should we behold a spirit "bound together," who "could in no wise lift herself up!" Wills like crushed reeds, consciences like broken vocal chords, hopes like birds with injured wings, and hearts like ruined homes! But the blessed Lord still goes into the synagogue; nay, He anticipates our coming. And He is present "to heal the broken in heart," and to "bind up his wounds." His touch "has still its ancient power." Still does the gracious Master speak with authority. "Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity!" And immediately she is "made straight." Then why do so many spiritual cripples leave the synagogue cripples still? Because they do not give the Healer a chance. No one can remain crooked and broken in conscience and will who grips the hand of the Lord of Life. AUGUST The Seventeenth _THE PSALM OF PRAISE_ PSALM cvii. 1-15. The miracle of deliverance must be followed by the psalm of praise. There are multitudes who cry, "God be merciful!" who never cry, "God be praised!" "There were none that returned to give thanks save this Samaritan." Ten cleansed, and only one grateful! "Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness!" Many a blessing becomes stale because it is not renewed by thanksgiving. Graces that are received ungratefully droop like flowers deprived of rain. Yes, gratitude gives sustenance to blessings already received. Therefore "in everything give thanks." But emancipated lives are not only to break into praise before God, they must exercise in confession before men. "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!" Unconfessed blessings become like the Dead Sea; refused an outlet they lose their freshness and vitality. I am found by the Lord in order that I, too, may be a seeker. I receive His peace in order that I may be a peacemaker. I am comforted in order that I "may comfort others with the comfort wherewith I am comforted of God." Have you ever received a blessing; "pass it on!" Tell the story of thy deliverance to the enslaved, that he, too, may find "the iron gate" swing open, and so attain his freedom. AUGUST The Eighteenth _THE CHURCH OF THE FIRSTBORN_ "_Pray for the peace of Jerusalem._" --PSALM cxxii. And my Jerusalem is "the church of the living God." Do I carry her on my heart? Do I praise God for her heritage, and for her endowment of spiritual glory? And do I remember her perils, especially those parts of her walls where the defences are very thin, and can be easily broken through? Yes, has my Church any place in my prayer, or am I robbing her of part of her intended possessions? And is the _entire_ Jerusalem the subject of my supplication? Or do I only think of a corner of it, just that part where my own little synagogue is placed? I am a Congregationalist; do I remember the Anglican? I am an Anglican; do I remember the Quaker? Am I thus concerned only with a small section of Jerusalem, or does my intercession sweep the entire city? "_They shall prosper that love thee._" I cannot be healthy if I am bereft of fellowship. If I ignore the house of prayer I impoverish my home. The peaceful glow of the fireside is not unrelated to the coals upon the common altar. The sacrament is connected with my ordinary meal. To love the Church of Christ is to become enriched with "the fulness of Christ." AUGUST The Nineteenth _IN GREEN PASTURES_ PSALM xxiii. This little psalm has been called the nightingale of the psalms. It sings "in the shade when all things rest." It makes music in the darkness; it gives me "songs in the night." And what does it sing about? It sings of God's bounty in food and rest. "_Green pastures_"; "_still waters_." My Lord knows when my heart is faint, when it needs His reviving food. He knows when my heart is tired and needs His sweet rest. "_He restoreth my soul._" And it sings of the God-appointed way across the hill. "_He leadeth me in paths of righteousness._" He makes the right way clear. He walks the path of duty with me. "_Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me._" And it sings of the feast which the Lord serves in the very midst of my foes. "_He spreadeth a table before me in the midst of mine enemies._" He gives me the fat things of grace in the very presence of frowning circumstances. And it sings of the providence _which guards the rear_. "Goodness and mercy shall follow me!" God's grace comes between me and my yesterdays. It cuts off the heredity from the old Adam, and no far-off plague comes nigh my dwelling. AUGUST The Twentieth _FEEDING THE FLOCK_ ISAIAH xl. 1-11. Here is the gracious promise of provision. "_He shall feed His flock like a Shepherd._" He knows the fields where my soul will be best nourished in holiness. I am sometimes amazed at His choice. He takes me into an apparent wilderness, but I find rich herbage on the unpromising plain. And so I would rest in His choice even when it seems adverse to my good. And here is the gracious promise of gentle discrimination. "_He shall gather the lambs in His arm, and carry them in His bosom._" Says old Trapp, "He hath a great care of His little ones, like as He had of the weaker tribes. In their march through the Wilderness He put a strong tribe to two weak tribes, lest they should faint or fail." Yes, "He knoweth our frame." He will not lay upon us more than we can bear. At the back of every commandment there is a promise of adequate resource. His askings are also His enablings. The big duty means that we shall have a big lift. And when we are tired He will lead on gently. Such is the grace and tenderness of the Lord. AUGUST The Twenty-first _SATISFACTION_ "_My people shall be satisfied with My goodness._" --JEREMIAH xxxi. 10-14. And how unlike is all this to the feasts of the world! There is a great show, but no satisfaction. There is much decorative china, but no nutritious food or drink. "Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again." We rise from the table, and our deepest cravings are unappeased. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" We know. We have had a condiment, but no meat; a showy menu-card, but no reviving feast. Nothing but the goodness of the Lord can satisfy the soul. Whatever else may be on the table of life, if this be absent we shall go away unfed. We may have money, and pleasure, and success, and fame, but they are all delusive husks if the grace of the Lord be absent. This is the real furnishing of the feast. There are vast multitudes of things I can do without if only I have the holy bread of life in the gracious Presence of my Lord. In this sphere it is the Guest who makes the table! "Thou, O Christ, art all I want!" "Having Him we have all things." A glorious satisfaction possesses the soul, and though we may not increase our worldly possessions, we do something better, we "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." AUGUST The Twenty-second _THE SICK AND THE LOST_ EZEKIEL xxxiv. 11-16. Surely everybody is included in this redemptive purpose of the Lord! He is looking for everybody, for everybody finds a place in His holy quest. He is seeking the "_lost_" sheep. The one that has wandered far away, and now no longer hears the sound of the Shepherd's voice! The one that is carelessly nibbling the herbage on the very edge of perdition! He is looking for this one. Is He therefore looking for thee and me? He is seeking "_that which was driven away_." Some hireling, some enemy of the shepherd, drove it far away from the fold. "A thief and a robber," for his own purposes, hath done this. And the Lord's sheep are driven away by "principalities and powers," and by the violence of wicked men. Some impure and unworthy professor of religion can drive a whole household from the fellowship of the Church. And the Good Shepherd is seeking these. Is He therefore looking for thee or me? And He is seeking "_that which was sick_." And some of the Lord's sheep are sickly. The chill of disappointment, or failure, or bereavement has blown upon them, and they are "down." Or they have been feeding on illicit pleasure. And the Lord is seeking such. Is He therefore seeking thee or me? AUGUST The Twenty-third _NOT LOST IN THE FLOCK_ "_I know My sheep, and am known of mine._" --JOHN x. 7-16. There is mutual recognition, and in that recognition there is confidence and peace. "_I know my sheep._" He knows us one by one. My knowledge of the individual wanes in proportion as the multitude is increased. The teacher with the smaller class has the deepest intimacy with her scholars. The individual is lost in the crowd. But not so with our Lord. There are no "masses" in His sight. However big the crowd, even though it be "a multitude which no man can number," we still remain individuals, known to the Lord by name, and face, and personal need. If thou art away from the fold, thy face is missed, and the Shepherd is away in search of thee! "_And I am known of mine._" And the knowledge deepens with every day's experience. There are false shepherds who can subtly mimic the Good Shepherd, and in my early discipleship I am liable to be deceived. The devil himself can array himself like a shepherd, and imitate the very tones of the Lord. Therefore must I watch, and ever watch. But here is my hope and inspiration. Every day I spend with my Good Shepherd sharpens my discernments, enables me to see through the outer show of things, and to discriminate between the false and the true. AUGUST The Twenty-fourth _THE LORD'S BODY_ "_I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do._" --JOHN xvii. 1-11. This quiet confession is in itself a token of our Lord's divinity. The serenity in which He makes His claims is as stupendous as the claims themselves. "Finished," perfected in the utmost refinement, to the last, remotest detail! Nothing scamped, nothing overlooked, nothing forgotten! Everything which concerns thy redemption and my redemption has been accomplished. "It is finished!" "_And now ... I come to Thee._" The visible Presence is withdrawn. There is no longer in our midst a Jesus whose body we can bruise and crucify. "_But these are in the world._" Yes, and His disciples are now His body. He becomes reincarnated in them. If they refuse Him a body, He has none! He looks through their eyes, listens through their ears, speaks through their lips, ministers through their hands, goes on sacred pilgrimages with their feet! "Know ye not that ye are the body?" Does my discipleship offer my Lord a limb? Can He communicate with the world through me? Does my discipleship multiply His powers of expression? Has He more eyes, more ears, more hands because I am a member of His Church? Or----? AUGUST The Twenty-fifth _IMPOTENT ENEMIES_ "_Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?_" --ROMANS viii. 31-39. Who can get between the love of Christ and me? What sharp dividing minister can cleave the two in twain, and leave me like a dismembered and dying branch? Terrible experiences cannot do it. "_Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword!_" All these may come about my house, but they cannot reach the inner sanctuary where my Lord and I are closeted in loving communion and peace. They may bruise my skin, nay, they may give my body to be burned, but no flame can destroy the love of Jesus which enswathes my soul with invisible defence. And terrible ministers cannot do it. "_Angels, nor principalities, nor powers._" These mysterious agents of darkness, for they must be the legions of the evil one, are unable to quench the light and fire of my Saviour's love. The devil can never blow out the lamp of grace. And terrible death itself cannot do it. Death does not separate me from Jesus; death is the Lord's minister to lead me into deeper privilege and ripe experiences of grace and love. Therefore, "I will lay me down in peace, and take my rest." AUGUST The Twenty-sixth _MISSING THE LORD_ "_Thou knowest not the time of thy visitation._" --LUKE xix. 37-44. Yes, that has been my sad experience. I have wasted some of my wealthiest seasons. I have treated the hour as common and worthless, and the priceless opportunity has passed. There have been times when my Lord has come to me, and I have turned Him away from my door. He so often journeys "incognito," and if I am thoughtless I dismiss Him, and so lose the privilege of heavenly communion and benediction. He knocks at my door as a Carpenter, and the humble attire deceives me, and I treat Him with scant courtesy, and sometimes with contempt. I know not the time of my visitation. He comes to me in the guise of needy people--as sick, or hungry, or a stranger, and I cannot be troubled with His presence. I dismissed Him as a pauper, little knowing that I was turning away a millionaire! I knew not the time of my visitation! "I was an hungered, and ye gave Me no meat," and so we missed the bread of life. And so there is nothing for it, but to be always "on the watch." I must treat everybody as though everybody was the Christ. And I must treat every commonplace moment as though it were the home of the eternal. AUGUST The Twenty-seventh _WHAT ABOUT TO-MORROW?_ JOSHUA xxiv. 1-15. It is not mine to worry about the coming day, but to fill the immediate moment with radiant duty. My Lord is the Pioneer, the great Maker of roads, and He will see to the appointments and provisions of the way. He has His scouts, His advance guard, His miners and sappers opening the highway across the waste! "I will send mine angel before thee!" "I will send hornets before you!" Yes, the Lord will look after the road. What, then, am I called to do? Let me find the answer in the 14th verse. "_Fear the Lord!_" The Lord must be the sovereign thought in my life. All true and well-proportioned living must begin in well-proportioned thought. God must be my biggest thought, and from that thought all others must take their colour and their range. "_Put away the gods._" My supreme homage must not be shared among many, it must be given to One. When the Lord is enthroned as King all usurpers must be banished. When He comes to His own the others go into exile. "_Serve ye the Lord._" My strength must be enlisted with my loyalty. I must not merely shout; I must work. I must not merely clap my hands when the King goes by, I must consecrate those hands in sacrificial service. AUGUST The Twenty-eighth _WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING_ "_The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom._" --JOB xxviii. 12-28. Mere learning will not make me wise. The path to wisdom is not necessarily through the schools. The brilliant scholar may be an arrant fool. True wisdom is found, not in mental acquisitions, but in a certain spiritual relation. The wise man is known by the pose of his soul. He is "_inclined toward the Lord_!" He has returned unto his rest, and he finds light and vision in the fellowship of his Lord. "_To depart from evil is understanding._" Yes, I need the lens of purity if I am to see the secrets of things. A dirty lens is the explanation of much ignorance and obscurity. I do not think I can ever see a flower if my lens is defiled. Much less can I see "the things of others." And still less again can I enjoy "the secret of the Lord." What we want is not so much a theological training as a right spirit, not so much to go to school as to "_depart from evil_." When I leave an evil habit worlds unseen begin to show their glory. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." AUGUST The Twenty-ninth _THE RICHES OF SPIRITUALITY_ PROVERBS iv. 1-13. Let me review some of these riches which are conferred upon the man who has made his soul the guest-room of spiritual religion. "_Love her, and she shall keep thee._" Spirituality is to be my true defence. All other ramparts are vulnerable. They are the happy hunting-ground of the ravages of time; they fail in the crisis; they are the sure victims of moth and rust. But spirituality keeps me from childhood to age, and its shields are invincible, even in the hour of death. "There shall no evil befall thee." "_Exalt her, and she shall promote thee._" She will lead me in the paths of progress. Every day she will lead me to new conquests, and in constantly enriching character I shall move towards life's appointed goal. Holiness is the only success worth having. Other successes are like lamps whose trembling flames are blown out in the first gusty, stormy night. "But the path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more even unto perfect day." "_She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace._" Yes, and her adornments are always beautiful. No beauty ever steals into the human face comparable with the delicate presence of spirituality. It makes plain features lovely, and transfigures them with "the glory of the Lord." AUGUST The Thirtieth _HOW TO DELIGHT IN THE WORD_ PSALM cxix. 97-104. A man may measure his growth in grace by his growing delight in the speech of the Lord. When His words are unwelcome in my ears, when they are an intrusion which mars my pleasures, it is clear I am still in the far country of revolt. But if His words make "music in my ears," if the Lord's conversation is the very marrow of the feast, then I have entered into the circle of His intimate friends. When His words taste sweet, even with a bare board, I am "in heavenly places with Christ." And how can I attain unto this spiritual delight? Well, first of all I must make "_His testimonies my meditations._" Our doctors tell us that the only way to taste the real savour of food is to masticate it well. Bolted food never unlocks its essences. And meditation is just mental mastication. To "turn the word over" in my mind will help to disburden its treasure. And then I must diligently put the word into practice. "_I have not departed from Thy judgments._" There is nothing like obedience for setting free a spiritual essence. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him." AUGUST The Thirty-first _THE REAL GAINS AND LOSSES_ "_Godliness with contentment is great gain._" --1 TIMOTHY vi. 6-16. And so I must go into my heart if I would make a true estimate of my gains and losses. The calculation is not to be made in my bank-books, or as I stride over my broad acres, or inspect my well-filled barns. These are the mere outsides of things, and do not enter into the real balance-sheet of my life. We can no more estimate the success of a life by methods like these than we can adjudge an oil-painting by the sense of smell. What is my stock of godliness? That is one of the test questions. What are my treasures of contentment? What about peace and joy, and hallowed and blessed carelessness? How much pure laughter rings in my life? How much bird-music is heard in the chambers of my heart? Is the note of praise to be found in the streets of my soul? Am I rich in these things or pathetically poor? "By these things men live," and therefore of these things will I make my balance-sheet and reckon up my gains. SEPTEMBER The First _THE VIRTUE OF PROPORTION_ MATTHEW vi. 25-34. I must put first things first. The radical fault in much of my living is want of proportion. I think more of pretty window curtains than of fresh air, more of "nice" wallpaper than of the moving pageant of the skies. I magnify the immediate desire and minimize the ultimate goal. And so "things do not come right!" How can they when the apportionment is so perverse, when everything is topsy-turvy? If I want things to be firm and durable I must revere the Divine order, and must put first things first. "_Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness._" And, therefore, I must seek holiness before success. I am to esteem holiness with apparent failure as infinitely better than success with stain and shame. I must seek character before reputation. The applause of the world must be as nothing compared with the approbation of God. The favouring "voice from heaven" must be sweeter to my ears than the noisy cheers of the crowd. And I must seek righteousness before quietness. The way of disturbance is sometimes the way to peace. I must not be so concerned for a quiet life as for a life that is "right with God." SEPTEMBER The Second _PRAYER AND REVOLUTION_ JOHN iv. 43-54. This miracle began in a prayer. The nobleman went unto Jesus "_and besought Him_." In such apparently fragile things can mighty revolutions be born! "Prayer," said Tennyson, "opens the sluice-gates between us and the Infinite." It brings the frail wire into contact with the battery. It links together man and God. Prayer was corroborated by belief. "_The man believed the word that Jesus spake unto him._" By our faith we cut the channels along which the healing energy will flow. Faith "prepares the way of the Lord." Our faith is purposed to be a fellow-laborer with grace, and, if faith be absent, grace "can do no mighty works." The healing begins with the faith. "_It was at the same hour in which ... he himself believed._" These "coincidences" are inevitable happenings in the realm of the Spirit. When we offer the believing prayer, God's mighty energies begin to besiege the life for which the prayer is made. Mr. Cornaby, the Methodist missionary, declares how conscious he is in far-away China when someone is interceding for him in the home-land! The power possesses him in vitalizing flood! Hudson Taylor's mother shuts herself in a little room to pray, and eighty miles away her son is converted. SEPTEMBER The Third _MY SHARE IN THE MIRACLE_ JOHN ii. 1-11. Our Lord always demands our best. He will not work with our second-best. His gracious "extra" is given when our own resources are exhausted. We must do our best before our Master will do His miracle. We must "fill the water-pots with water"! We must bring "the five loaves and two fishes"! We must "let down the net"! We must be willing "to be made whole," and we must make the effort to rise! Yes, the Lord will have my best. Our Lord transforms our best into His better. He changes water into wine. He turns the handful of seed into a harvest. Our aspirations become inspirations. Our willings become magnetic with the mystic power of grace. Our bread becomes sacramental, and He Himself is revealed to us at the feast. Our ordinary converse becomes a Divine fellowship, and "our hearts burn within us" as He talks to us by the way. And our Lord ever keeps His best wine until the last. "Greater things than these shall ye do!" "I will see you again," and there shall be grander transformations still! "The best is yet to be." "Dreams cannot picture a world so fair." "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." SEPTEMBER The Fourth _A PORTRAIT OF A GREAT SUPPLIANT_ MATTHEW viii. 5-13. Here we have _the grace of sympathy_; one man troubled about the sickness of another. We are drawing very near to the Lord when our soul vibrates responsively to another man's need. We can measure our likeness to the Lord by the range of our sensitiveness to the world's sorrow and pain. Our God is the "Father of _pities_"; He is sensitive in every direction, no side is numb, and we are putting on His likeness in proportion as we attain an all-round responsiveness to the cries of human need. And here we have _the grace of humility_. "I am not worthy!" Our pride always blocks "the way of the Lord." Our humility makes us porous to the Divine. The "poor in spirit" are already in the kingdom, and the gracious powers of the kingdom are commanded to attend their bidding. And here we have _the grace of faith_. "Only say the word!" The centurion conceives the Lord's words as soldiers attending on the Lord's will. Let one be spoken, and at once the mission is executed. And so it is. "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." His words are vehicles of power, and when they are spoken, miracles are always wrought. "The entrance of Thy word giveth light." SEPTEMBER The Fifth _FAITH AND RIDICULE_ MATTHEW ix. 18-26. And, so one man's faith is more than a match for many people's scorn. The steady trust of the ruler was not shaken by the rude flippancy of the artificial mourners, and his daughter was brought from the dead. "This is the victory that overcometh, even our faith." Everything bows, like fragile reeds, before the march of a victorious faith. Scorn, and hatred, and all manner of devilry, and death itself, all lose their power in the presence of a belief which remains steady and steadfast. "Said I not unto thee that, if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God?" And what an infinite reservoir of power is waiting to be tapped by the hand of faith! A ruler believes and his daughter is vitalized. A poor woman, bent and broken, reaches out her thin, frail hand, and lo! she is erect and graceful as the pine! And "my sufficiency is of God!" All that I may need is in the same wonderful reservoir of grace. That healing flood is like the ocean fulness, and it will fill every bay, and cove, and creek in the wide-stretching shore of human need. "The healing of His seamless dress Is by our beds of pain, We touch Him in life's throng and press, And we are whole again." SEPTEMBER The Sixth _CONTEMPTUOUS WORDS_ MATTHEW xv. 21-28. I wonder if this word "dogs" was my Saviour's word, or had He picked it up from the disciples that He might cast it away again for ever? Did He use it that He might reveal its ugliness, and so banish it from human speech? As Jesus and His disciples came along the road the Master walked before them. "And behold, a Canaanitish woman came out from those borders!" And the disciples whispered to one another, "Here comes one of the dogs!" And the Master overheard it, and His tender spirit grieved. And there and then He resolved to help the woman and at the same time cleanse the men. Is there not therefore something half-ironical in our Saviour's use of the word? When He spake of the woman as a "dog," and of the disciples as "the children," would there not be something significant in His very looks and tones? These cold, unfeeling men "the children," and this tender yearning woman the "dog"! When the Lord used the disciples' word they began to be ashamed, and in the fire of their shame their self-conceit was consumed. He turned with impatient longing to the woman, "O, woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt." SEPTEMBER The Seventh _EXPERIMENT AND EXPERIENCE_ HEBREWS xi. 1-6. I like the marginal rendering of the introductory sentence of this great chapter. "_Faith is the giving substance to things hoped for._" Faith converts cloudy castles into substantial homes. Faith substantiates the unseen. Faith sucks the energy out of splendid ideals, and incorporates it in present and immediate life. Faith unfolds the eternal in the moment, the infinite in the trifle, the divine in the commonplace. Faith incorporates God and man. Yes, faith gives substance to "things hoped for," it brings them out of the air, and gives them reality and movement in the hard and common ways of earth and time. And faith is also "_the test of things not seen_." By a test faith gains a conquest. By an experiment faith acquires an experience. By a great speculation faith makes a great discovery. "Try me now herewith, and prove Me!" It is an invitation to humble and sincere assumption. Try if it works! Make a hallowed experiment with the powers of grace. Lord, incline me to make the gracious test! Let me stake my all upon the venture! Let me dare all in order that I may gain all! Let me sow bountifully, and so reap a bountiful harvest. SEPTEMBER The Eighth _THE BRACING AIR OF PUBLICITY_ ROMANS x. 1-13. There is a belief which never registers itself in confession. It never exercises itself in the strong, bracing air of publicity. It is a cloistered belief, and suffers from want of ventilation. Such Christians are always anæmic; indeed, they are always puny, and never get beyond the stage of spiritual babyhood. "Ye are yet babes!" Belief which is never oxygenated by open confession can never nourish the soul into vigorous and exhilarant health. But there is a belief which expresses and confirms itself in confession. "_With the mouth confession is made unto salvation._" Such confession is a means of moral and spiritual health. And confession in the early days meant risk, venture which exposed the life to the shedding of blood. It meant a frank defiance of the world, and an eager challenge of the devil. And it is on such fields of open encounter for the Lord that muscle is made, and the soul goes "from strength to strength," and "from glory to glory." My soul, art thou secretly ashamed of thy Lord? Art thou afraid to "lift high His royal banner"? Then thou wilt always be as a feather-bed soldier, and the trophies of the honourable war are not for thee. Stand out in the open, and boldly testify, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!" SEPTEMBER The Ninth _DEALING WITH SIN_ PSALM xxxii. Here is the burden of unconfessed sin. "_When I kept silence my bones waxed old._" There is nothing brings on premature age like secret sin. It keeps the mind in perpetual unrest, and a troubled mind soon makes the body old. The real nourisher of the body is a quiet and radiant soul. But let the soul be in chaos, and the body will soon be a ruin. And here, too, is the healthy act of confession. "_I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid._" He retained no single germ of the whole unclean brood. He brought them out into the light one by one, as though he were emptying a noisome kennel. He brought them out, and named them, in the awful Presence of the Lord. And here is the ministry of forgiveness, and therefore the miracle of restored health. Let me mark the rich variety of the descriptive words. "_Forgiven!_" "_Covered!_" "_Imputed not!_" It is all removed and obliterated, and the place of defilement and profanity becomes the holy temple of the Lord. SEPTEMBER The Tenth _CRITICISM AND PIETY_ "_Thinkest thou, that judgest them that do such things, that thou shalt escape?_" --ROMANS ii. 1-11. That is always my peril, to assume that by being severe with others I exculpate myself. I go on to the bench, and deliver sentence upon my brother, when my proper place is in the dock. And this is the subtlety of the snare, that I regard my criticisms and condemnations of other people as signs of my own innocence. This is the last refinement in temptation, and multitudes fall before its power. The way to moral and spiritual health is to direct my criticisms upon myself. I must stand in the dock, and hear the grave indictment of my own soul. Unless I pass through the second chapter of Romans I can never enter the fifth and sixth, and still less the glorious forgiveness of the eighth. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." I pass into that warm, cheery light through the cold road of acknowledged guilt and sin. "If we confess our sins He is just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." SEPTEMBER The Eleventh _A FATAL DIVORCE_ "_They feared the Lord, and served their own gods._" --2 KINGS xvii. 24-34. And that is an old-world record, but it is quite a modern experience. The kinsmen of these ancient people are found in our own time. Men still fear one God and serve another. But something is vitally wrong when men can divorce their fear from their obedience. And the beginning of the wrong is in the fear itself. "Fear," as used in this passage, is a counterfeit coin, which does not ring true to the truth. It means only the payment of outward respect, a formal recognition, a passing nod which we give on the way to something better. It is a mere skin courtesy behind which there is no beating heart; a hollow convention in which there is no deep and sacred awe. But the real "fear of God" is a spiritual mood in which virtue thrives, an atmosphere in which holy living is quite inevitable. "The fear of the Lord is _clean_." It is not lip-worship, but heart-homage, a reverence in which the soul is always found upon its knees. And so "the fear of the Lord is to hate evil"; it is an indignant repulsion from all that is hateful to God. It is the sharing of the Spirit of the Lord. There cannot be any true fear where the soul does not worship "in spirit and in truth." SEPTEMBER The Twelfth _THE GARMENTS OF THE SOUL_ JOEL ii. 12-19. I am so apt to think that the rending of an outer garment is a token of true penitence and amendment of life. But it is the inner garments I must deal with, the raiments and habits of the soul. Some of these robes--such as vanity and pride--are as gay and showy as a peacock; others are dirty and leprous, and we should not dare to bring them to the door, and display them in the light. But all need severe treatment; they must be torn, fibre from fibre, and reduced to rags. But "rending" must be accompanied by "turning." "_Turn unto the Lord your God._" For the Lord our God is gracious, and His love will not only provide a new wardrobe, but a swift furnace in which to burn the remnants of the old. Yes, His "great kindness" will burn away the filth of my alienation, and will "bring forth the best robe" and put it on me. The good Lord will give me new habits. He will "cover me with the robe of righteousness, and the garment of salvation." SEPTEMBER The Thirteenth _THE CLEAN HEART_ PSALM li. What will the Lord do with my sin, if in true humility I come into His Presence? Let me hear the music of the evangel. He will "_blot out my transgression_." He will so erase it that even His own holy eyes can see no stain or shame. He will blot it out, as I have seen a gloomy cloudlet blotted out, and there has been nothing left but radiant sky. And He will "_wash me throughly from mine iniquity_." Yes, and that not like the washing of the hands, but like the washing of clothes, not like the washing of a surface, but the removal of uncleanness from a fabric, the ousting of every germ lurking in the innermost cells of the stuff. When the Lord washes a soul it is "throughly" done, and every strand is white in holiness. So will He give me "_a clean heart_"; so will He "_renew a right spirit within me_." The very atmosphere of my life shall be as the air after deluges of cleansing rain. It shall be sweet, and clean, and clear! I shall walk in a new inspiration, and I shall "behold the land that is very far off." SEPTEMBER The Fourteenth _THE SENSE OF WANT_ "_This man went down to his house justified rather than the other._" --LUKE xviii. 9-14. The Master sets the Pharisee and publican in contrast, and His judgment goes against the man who has made some progress in moral attainments, and favours the man who has no victories to show, but only a hunger for victory. The dissatisfied sinner is preferred to the self-satisfied saint. The Pharisee had gained an inch, but had lost his sense of the continent. The publican had not pegged out an inch of moral claim, but he had an overwhelming sense of the untrodden universe. So this, I think, is the teaching for me. We are justified by the penitent sense of want and not by the boastful sense of possession. Our sense of lack is the measure of our hope, and our measure of hope determines the poverty or fulness of our communion with the Lord. The Pharisee had no "beyond," no realm of admiration, no hope! Aspiration was dead, and therefore inspiration had ceased. Our possibilities nestle in our cravings. SEPTEMBER The Fifteenth _RESTORING A RUINED LIFE_ PSALM ciii. 1-18. Could there be a sweeter chime than the opening music of this psalm? "_Who forgiveth all thine iniquities._" He receives me back home again, interrupts the broken story of my sin, and drowns my sobbings in His rejoicings. "_Who healeth all thy diseases._" He takes in hand the foul complaints which I acquired in "the far country," and with His powerful medicines, and His wonderful "bread of life," He drives the foul things from my soul. "_Who redeemeth thy life from destruction._" Yes, with His own blood He buys me back from a midnight servitude, strikes every chain and shackle from my limbs, and makes me dance in "the glorious liberty of the children of God." "_Who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercy._" He encircles me with the invulnerable army of His own love. Henceforth if the devil would get at me he must deal with God. "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people." "_Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things._" He sets before me a glorious table, and enlivens my spirits with glorious fellowship. That so I can be no other than "satisfied," and my heart is at rest in the Lord. "Thou, O Christ, art all I want!" SEPTEMBER The Sixteenth _THE STEADFASTNESS OF THE LORD_ "_My covenant shall stand fast._" --PSALM lxxxix. 19-29. Such a divine assurance ought to make me perfectly quiet in spirit. Restlessness in a Christian always spells disloyalty. The uncertainty is born of suspicion. There is a rift in the faith, and the disturbing breath of the devil blows through, and destroys my peace. If I am sure of my great Ally, my heart will not be troubled, neither will it be afraid. And such a divine assurance ought to make me bold in will and majestic in labour. I ought to be inventive in chivalrous enterprise, and I ought to covet the hardest parts of the field. If the mighty Ally will never fail, I should never be afraid of the marshalled hosts of wickedness. "One with God is in a majority." "He always wins who sides with God." "The Lord is on my side, whom shall I fear?" And such a divine assurance ought to give me a kingly demeanour. The members of the Court acquire a certain stateliness by their lofty fellowship. And, surely, one who walks with God should be characterized by something of the Divine glory, and men should know that his acquaintances are found in the courts of heaven. SEPTEMBER The Seventeenth _THE NEVER-WITHERING LEAF_ JEREMIAH xvii. 5-11. Let me look at "the blessed man" in the interpreting symbol of this healthy and graceful tree. The blessed life is a life of vast resource. "_As a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river._" It is not watered by an occasional shower, it is unceasingly bathed by the vitalizing flood. Its rootlets are always drinking the nutritious waters of grace. The blessed life is planted on the banks of that wonderful river which takes its rise in the great white throne. And just because of these boundless supplies, the blessed life is undisturbed in times of grave crisis and emergency. "_He shall not see when heat cometh._" He shall be cool when the unblessed are hot and fever-stricken. He shall "keep his head" in times of general panic. His powers of endurance shall make the world wonder! He shall "hold out" when everybody else is faint. So shall there be nothing "sere and yellow" about him. "_His leaf shall be green._" His faith, and hope, and love shall remain fresh and beautiful even in "the dark and cloudy day." SEPTEMBER The Eighteenth _THE ALL-ROUND DEFENCE_ "_Thou hast beset me behind._" --PSALM cxxxix. 1-12. And that is a defence against the enemies which would attack me in the rear. There is yesterday's sin, and the guilt which is the companion of yesterday's sin. They pursue my soul like fierce hounds, but my gracious Lord will come between my pursuers and me. His mighty grace intervenes, and my security is complete. "Thou hast beset me ... _before_." And that is a defence against the enemies which would impede my advance and frighten me out of the heavenly way. There is fear--fear of the morrow, fear of consequences, fear of death! And my Lord will come between me and them, and their menace shall be destroyed. The fiery darts shall be quenched before they reach my soul. "_And laid Thine hand upon me._" And that is a defence against the enemies which may lie in ambush in present and immediate circumstances: the sudden temptation to passion, or the temptation to panic, or the temptation which would snare me to criminal ease. But my Lord's hand is all-sufficient! And so on every side my defence standeth; "the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him." SEPTEMBER The Nineteenth _THE NEEDS OF THE BODY_ JOHN vi. 1-21. The Lord who came to save His people was sensitive to His people's hunger. In the presence of the supreme need the smaller need was not forgotten. He honoured the body as well as the soul. He ministered to the transient as well as the eternal. And that is ever the characteristic of true kingliness; it has a kingly way of doing the smaller things. I can measure my own progress toward the throne by my sovereign attention to scruples. "He that is faithful in that which is least, the same also is great." The Lord is not oppressed by the multitude of His guests. "He Himself knew what He would do." We need not jostle one another for His bounty. We shall not crowd one another out. "There is bread enough and to spare." Even in the material realm this is true, and everybody would have his daily bread if the will of the Lord were done. There is no straitness in the gracious Host! It is the greed of the guests which mars the satisfaction of the feast. And how careful the Lord of Glory was to "gather up the fragments"! Our infinitely wealthy Lord is not wealthy enough to "throw things away." He cannot afford to waste bread. Can He afford to lose a soul? "He goeth out after that which is lost until He find it"! SEPTEMBER The Twentieth _THE PATHETIC MULTITUDE_ MARK viii. 1-9. My Lord has "_compassion upon the multitude_." And (shall I reverently say it?) His compassion was part of His passion. His pity was always costly. It culminated upon Calvary, but it was bleeding all along the road! It was a fellow-feeling with all the pangs and sorrows of the race. And a pity that bleeds is a pity that heals. "In His love and in His pity He redeemed us." And the multitude is round about us still, and the people are in peril of fainting by the way. There is the multitude of misfortune, the children of disadvantage, who never seem to have come to their own. And there is the multitude of outcasts, the vast army of publicans and sinners. And there are the bewildering multitudes of Africa, and India, and China, and they have "nothing to eat"! How do I regard them? Do I share the compassion of the Lord? Do I exercise a sensitive and sanctified imagination, and enter somewhat into the pangs of their cravings? My Lord calls for my help. "How many loaves have ye?" "Bring out all you have! Consecrate your entire resources! Put your all upon the altar of sacrifice!" And in reply to the call can I humbly and trustfully say, "O, Lamb of God, I come!" SEPTEMBER The Twenty-first _LIFE AS BREAD_ MARK viii. 10-21. It is gracious to know that my Lord is "the Bread of Life," and that I can feed on Him. It is fearful to know that I, too, am bread, and that others are feeding on me. Am I the nutriment of vice or the sustenance of virtue? Am I an evil leaven, like the Pharisees, or a holy leaven like the Lord? When little children feed on my presence do they grow in strength and beauty? Or do they become relaxed and demoralized? Who will feed upon me to-day, and what will be the end of it? If I would have my life to be as hallowed and hallowing leaven I must regularly feed upon the Bread of Life. If I am sustained by the Lord, I too shall be a sustainer of all who aspire after a true and holy life. My very character will itself become heavenly bread, and men will be nourished by it even when I am unconscious of the ministry. When they have spent a brief hour in my company they will go away refreshed. "Lord, evermore give us this bread!" So feed us with Thyself that we may share Thy nature. Let "virtue" go forth from us, and let it be as holy bread to all who are heavy-laden, and ready to faint. SEPTEMBER The Twenty-second _THE HANDFUL OF MEAL_ 1 KINGS xvii. 8-16. What marvellous "coincidences" are prepared by Providential grace! The poor widow is unconsciously ordained to entertain the prophet! The ravens will be guided to the brook Cherith! "I have commanded them to feed thee there." Our road is full of surprises. We see the frowning, precipitous hill, and we fear it, but when we arrive at its base we find a refreshing spring! The Lord of the way had gone before the pilgrim. "I go to prepare ... for you." But how strange that a widow with only "a handful of meal" should be "commanded" to offer hospitality! It is once again "the impossible" which is set before us. It would have been a dull commonplace to have fed the prophet from the overflowing larder of the rich man's palace. But to work from an almost empty cupboard! That is the surprising way of the Lord. He delights to hang great weights on apparently slender wires, to have great events turn on seeming trifles, and to make poverty the minister of "the indescribable riches of Christ." The poor widow sacrificed her "handful of meal," and received an unfailing supply. And this, too, is the way of the Lord. "Whatever, Lord, we lend to Thee, Repaid a thousand fold will be." SEPTEMBER The Twenty-third _THE DEDICATION OF SUBSTANCE_ 2 KINGS iv. 38-44. Here is a man recognizing the sacredness of his substance. He saw the seal of the Lord upon his harvest, and he offered the first-fruits in token of its rightful Owner. Men go wrong when the only name upon their field is their own. "_My_ power, and the strength of _my_ hand hath gotten me this wealth." It matters nothing what the wealth may be--material substance, mental skill, or business sagacity. It becomes unhallowed power when we attach our own label to it, and erase the name of God. This man dedicated his substance, and the hunger of his fellows was appeased. That is a great principle in human life. One man's satisfaction is dependent on another man's fidelity. His want is to be filled with my fulness. If I am selfish he remains hungry. If I acknowledge "the rights of God," and therefore "the rights of man," he has "enough and to spare." If I hoard my treasure I rob both God and man. My gracious Lord, remove the scales from my eyes. Help me to be sensitive to the obligations of all wealth. Let my plenty call me to the children of need. Let me acknowledge my stewardship, and be Thy fellow minister in the service of man. SEPTEMBER The Twenty-fourth _AFTER THE TRIUMPH!_ MATTHEW xiv. 23-33. After the great miracle of feeding the multitude our Lord "_went up into a mountain to pray_." May we reverently wonder if it was a season of temptation? Did they want to make Him a King? Was our human Lord assailed by "the destruction that wasteth at noonday"? And did He shut Himself up with the Father? I am so disposed to pray _up_ to my successes, and to cease to pray _in_ them! I remember God in my struggles, I forget Him in my attainments. I hold fellowship with Him on the road, I part company with Him when I arrive. I become a practical atheist in the midst of my successes. My only security is to go up into a mountain apart and pray. Unless I become closeted with God, and see all things in their true colours and proportion, I shall be lifted up in most unholy and destructive pride. And let me notice that our Lord returned from His privacy with the Father to do even greater miracles still. He had appeased the pangs of hunger; now He appeases the passion of the sea. And so in my degree shall it be with me. If in all my triumphs I remain the humble companion of the Lord, my triumphs shall be repeated and enriched. "Greater works than these shall ye do." SEPTEMBER The Twenty-fifth _THE SENSE OF GRACE_ PSALM cvii. 21-32. A vital part of all devotion is the remembrance of the goodness of God. Such a remembrance keeps my soul in the realm of grace. I am so inclined to proclaim my personal rights rather than glorify the favour of God, so inclined to exhibit my own prowess rather than God's most gracious bounty. And whenever I lose the sense of grace I become a usurper and take the throne. Our salvation is "not of works, lest any man should boast." And such a remembrance would keep my soul in the mood of humility. "Nothing in my hands I bring." I can no more claim the glory of salvation than a child, who has cut a shallow trench on the sands, can claim the glory of initiating the roll of the ocean-tide. I owe all my desires and all my hopes and all my present attainments to the boundless goodness of God. And such a remembrance would keep my soul in the dispensation of love. I cannot quietly and steadily contemplate the goodness of the Lord without my soul being kindled into loving response. Without high contemplations love smoulders, and will eventually die out. But God's goodness inflames the soul, and communicates its own most gracious heat. "We love because He first loved us!" SEPTEMBER The Twenty-sixth _MY LORD AS MY BREAD_ JOHN vi. 26-35. Our life's bread is a Person. We may have much to do with Christianity and nothing to do with Christ. The other day I was in a great and wonderful bakery, but I never ate nor touched a morsel of bread. I touched the machinery. I was absorbingly interested in the processes, but I ate no bread! And I may be deeply interested in the means of grace, I may be familiar with all "the ins and outs" of ecclesiastical machinery, and I may never handle nor taste "the bread of God." Our religion is dead and burdensome until it becomes a personal relation, and we have vital communion with Christ. "Thou, O Christ, art all I want." We find everything in Him. Everything else is preliminary, preparatory, subordinate, and to be in the long run dropped and forgotten. A ritual is only a way to "the bread," and by no means essential, and very often undesirable. The heart can find the Lord with a look, with a cry, and needs no obtrusion of ritual or priest. But how pathetic! To be contented to potter about among the ritual and never to find the Bread! To be in the house and never to see the Host! "Ye search the Scriptures ... and ye will not come to Me." SEPTEMBER The Twenty-seventh _TAKE AND EAT_ JOHN vi. 52-63. There is, first of all, _appropriation_. I must "stretch out" "lame hands of faith"; and "take" before I "eat." In the lives of many Christians there is too much asking and too little taking. If it were only rightly regarded, prayer is companionship as well as petition, and companionship is literally significant of the sharing of bread. In every season of communion a part must be assigned to the taking of the things for which we have prayed. "_Receive ye_ the Holy Ghost." And there is _assimilation_. We must "eat" as well as "take." It is in the exercises of obedience that we digest and incorporate the bread of life. Without our obedience the living Lord never becomes "part of ourselves." We never "become one in the bundle of life" with the Lord our God. And truth which is not assimilated becomes a drug. Instead of being a "savour of life unto life," it becomes a "savour of death unto death." And there is _vitalization_. The assimilated bread of life makes everything alive. Every faculty in my being feels the touch of divine inspiration. It is native bread for native power, and everything is renewed. SEPTEMBER The Twenty-eighth _THE DAILY MANNA_ "_I will rain bread from heaven for you._" --EXODUS xvi. 11-18. And this gracious provision is made for people who are complaining, and who are sighing for the flesh-pots of Egypt! Our Lord can be patient with the impatient: He can be "kind to the unthankful." If it were easy to drive the Lord away I should have succeeded long ago. I have murmured, I have sulked, I have turned Him out of my thoughts, and "He stands at the door and knocks!" I yearn for "the flesh-pots," "He sends me manna," "Was there ever kindest shepherd half so gentle, half so sweet?" "_And they gathered it every morning._" And that I think is the best time to gather the heavenly food. At night I am weary, my body is craving sleep, and I am not vitalized in the fields of grace. But in the morning I am refreshed, and I can go to the heavenly fields and gather "the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." I can be fed as the day begins, and I can set out to my daily work with the taste of God in my mouth, and His mighty grace in my heart, and I shall delight to "walk in the paths of His commandments." SEPTEMBER The Twenty-ninth _THE FOUNTAIN_ 1 JOHN v. 9-21. My Lord is "the fountain of life." "This life is in His Son." The springs are nowhere else--not in elaborate theologies, or in ethical ideals, or in literary masterpieces, or in music or art. "In Him was life." It is so easy to forget the medicinal spring amid the distractions of the fashionable spa. There are some healing waters at Scarborough, but they have been almost "crowded out" by bands and entertainments. It is possible that the secondary ministries of the Church may crowd out the Church's Lord. I do not object to the entertainment if only it opens out on to the Spring! To have the Son is to have life. Nothing else is needed. "Thou, O Christ, art all I want." Ritualisms, and ecclesiasticisms, and formal theologies are not requisite. We can be saved without an academic knowledge of "the plan of salvation." Many a gamekeeper's little child knows all the roads on the estate, although she would be quite "at sea" in explaining "the plan of the estate" which hangs in the house of the steward. "This is life eternal, to know Thee and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." SEPTEMBER The Thirtieth _WHITE ROBES IN THE STREETS_ JOHN xvii. 11-28. The man who has been fed with the "bread of life" must remain "in the world." The Lord gives no countenance to the life of the ascetic. Our sanctification is not to be gained by withdrawal and retreat. At the best, that would be a holiness sickly and anæmic, a coddled virtue devoid of firm muscle and iron nerve. Our Lord purposes a holiness which shall wear white robes in the streets, and shine like virgin snow in the market, and keep itself chivalrous and stately in the common fellowships of men. "In the world," but "_not of the world_." The man who is fed on "the bread of life" is endowed with powers of resistance against "the noisome pestilence." The germs of worldly epidemics find no nutriment in him. "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me." When an evil microbe finds no foothold it withers away. If I am not "of the world" I shall quite naturally and instinctively be able to resist "all the wiles of the devil." And my Lord purposes me to have this positive, masculine holiness in order "_that the world may believe_." He wants disciples who will arrest the world by their glorious health, and by their invincible moral defences. He wants my purity to advertise His grace; He wants my faith to increase "the household of the faith." OCTOBER The First _A WONDERFUL UNBELIEF_ PSALM lxxviii. 15-25. "They believed not in God ... though He had----" Let everyone finish that sentence out of his own experience. How much grace can our unbelief withstand? The Lord had made the rock like unto a spring of water, and yet these people believed not! What has He done for thee and me? Let us retrace the pilgrimage of our own years. Let us recall the blessings by the way--the streams in the desert, the pillar of fire that led us in the night. And yet what is the quality of our faith? It is often weak and reluctant, riddled with timidities, or moth-eaten with worldly ease. It is not mighty and daring, riding forth every morning like a chivalrous knight to inevitable conquest. It creeps along, like Mr. Halting, and Miss Much-Afraid, and Mr. Little-Faith. "He marvelled at their unbelief." The Lord Jesus wondered that men and women, seeing what they had seen, did not immediately spring to the life and service of faith. Perhaps we do not give time for faith to be born! Perhaps we do not see because we do not look. Perhaps we are blind to His mercies and are therefore dead to the faith. And therefore, perhaps, our first prayer should be, "Lord, that I might receive my sight," and then the prayer, "Lord, increase my faith." OCTOBER The Second _HUMBLING OUR PRIDE_ JOB xxxviii. 1-15. "I will demand of thee, and answer thou Me." When our God begins to ask questions our pride is soon humbled, for the limits of our knowledge and power are speedily reached. The mist is very close to our doors, and in a very few steps we are lost on a trackless moor. Who can trace the real springs of a tear and lay his hand on the emotion that gave it birth? Who can lead us into the bright realm where smiles are born? Who knoweth the way of a frown, or who can uncover the secrets of fear? No living man can explain his own breathing, or can unravel the mysterious decree which moves his own finger! And as there is so much mystery, it must be surely true that mystery is a very gracious thing. Uncertainty is the divine ministry of blessedness. If it were not so, He would have told us! "I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." If it were best for us that the mist should be removed, He would roll it up like a garment and give us the light of unclouded day. But the mist remains, the home of blessing. "He cometh in a thick cloud." "The clouds drop fatness." OCTOBER The Third _WATCHING THE CREATOR_ JEREMIAH x. 10-16. "He hath made the earth by His power." And He is making it still. Even in the material world "His mercies are new every morning." James Smetham used to speak of going into his garden "to see what the Lord is doing." He would stand on the top of Highgate Hill on a blustering night "to watch the goings of the Lord in the storm." And all this means that to James Smetham creation was not merely a single event, but a _process_ whose countless events are still going on. He watched his Lord at work! Every sunset was a new creation from the Almighty Maker's hands. To many of us the Creator is remote from His works. He is not immediately near. And so He no longer "walks in the garden in the cool of the day." The garden is no longer a holy place. Let us recover the sacredness of things. Let us "practise the presence of God." Let us link His love and power to every flower that blows. And so shall we be able to say, as we move amid the glories of the natural world, "The Lord is in His holy temple." OCTOBER The Fourth _CREATOR AND CREATURE_ ISAIAH xl. 9-28. Let me mark the range of this teaching. "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand.... He shall feed His flock like a shepherd." And let me mark it again. "The Creator of the ends of the earth ... giveth power unto the faint." Almightiness offers itself to carry my burden! The Creator offers Himself to re-create me! I can engage the forces of the universe to help me on my journey. Emerson counselled us to hitch our wagon to a star. We can do better than that. We can hitch it to the Maker of the star! We have something better than an ideal; we have the Light of the world. We are not left to a radiant abstraction; we have a gracious God. The water flows from the Welsh hills to every house in Birmingham. Rich and poor alike share the bounty of the mountains. The wealth of the mountains comes to the common thirst. And everybody, too, may have the water from the everlasting hills. "The water that I shall give him shall be in him." The river of life will flow to every soul of man. OCTOBER The Fifth _THE SOUL AND NATURE_ PSALM cxlviii. "Praise ye the Lord." And the Psalmist calls upon the creation to join in the anthem. And that is the gracious purpose of our God, that the world should be filled with harmonious praise. It is His will that the character of man should harmonize with the flowers of the field, that the beauty of his habits should blend with the glories of the sunrise, and that his speech and laughter should mingle with the songs of birds and with the melody of flowing streams. But man is too often a discord in creation. The flowers put him to shame. The birds make him sound harsh and jarring. He is "out of tune." What then? "Tune my heart to sing Thy praise." We must bring the broken strings, the rusted strings, the jarring strings to the Repairer and Tuner of the soul. It is the glad ministry of His grace to re-awaken silent chords, to restore broken harps, to "put new songs" in our mouths. He will make us the kinsfolk of all things bright and beautiful. We shall "go forth with joy," and "all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." OCTOBER The Sixth _HE KNOWETH OUR FRAME_ PSALM ciii. 13-22. "He knoweth our frame." The Bible abounds in such gracious and tender words. "He remembereth us in our low estate." "I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." "He will not permit you to be tempted above that ye are able." The burden is suited to our strength. The revelation is determined by our experience. The pace is regulated by our years. "He carrieth the lambs in His arms." He "leads on softly." Nothing is done in ignorance. "The Lord is mindful of His own. He remembereth His children." And so I must practise the belief in God's compassionate nearness. In my childhood I used to sing "There's a Friend for little children, Above the bright blue sky." I know better now. He is nearer to me than I can dream. I used to sing "There is a happy land, Far, far away." Now I sing, "There is a happy land, _Not_ far away." The good Father and His home are not in some remote realm. They are very, very near to me, and He knows all about me. "He knoweth our frame." OCTOBER The Seventh _NEEDING AND WANTING_ ACTS xvii. 22-31. "As though He needed anything." "He may not need us; but does He want us?" Such is the question I heard Dr. Parker ask as he preached upon these words. And he took up a handful of flowers which he had upon the pulpit, and said: "These flowers were gathered for me by little hands in a Devonshire lane. Did I need them? No. Did I want them?... Your little girl kissed you before you left for business this morning. Did you need it?... Did you want it?" And so Almightiness may not need our weakness, but the loving Father wants His children. "We are His offspring." Our Father delights in the love of His children. The Saviour said to a Samaritan woman, "Give Me to drink." And perhaps it is within the scope of our holy privilege to refresh the heart of our Lord. Perhaps we can give Him to drink of the well of our affections, and He will see of "the travail of His soul and be satisfied." OCTOBER The Eighth _GOD'S GLORIOUS PURPOSE_ "_I have created him for My glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him._" --ISAIAH xliii. 1-7. That is surely a superlative honour! "I have created him for My glory." I stood before one of Turner's paintings, and a man of fine judgment said to me, "That is Turner's glory!" He meant that in that picture the genius and the power and the grace of Turner were most abundantly expressed. And it is the will of God that man should express His glory, and by his righteousness and goodness witness to the great Creator's power and love. Amid all the wonders and sublimities of earth, and sky, and sea, man is to be the Almighty's "glory." The contrast is pathetic when we turn from the Creator's purpose to our immediate life. There is so much that is shameful, crooked, and perverse. There is little or nothing of "glory." But, blessed be God! the purpose abides, and the Creator's work goes on. In His redemptive grace He has made provision for marred work, for spoilt and perverted life. "The crooked shall be made straight." "I will bring again that which is out of the way." "Where sin abounds grace doth much more abound." OCTOBER The Ninth _THE LARGER WATERS_ 1 THESSALONIANS iv. 13-18. Death is not an end; it is only a new beginning. Death is not the master of the house; he is only the porter at the King's lodge, appointed to open the gate, and let in the King's guests into the realms of eternal day. "And so shall we be ever with the Lord." And so the range of three score years and ten is not the limit of our life. Our life is not a land-locked lake enclosed within the shore-lines of seventy years. It is an arm of the sea, and where the shore-lines seem to meet in old age they open out into the infinite. And so we must build for those larger waters. We must lay our life plans on the scale of the infinite, not as though we were only pilgrims of time, but as children of eternity! We are immortal! How, then, shall we live to-day in prospect of the eternal morrow? OCTOBER The Tenth _OUR REFUGE AND STRENGTH_ PSALM xlvi. "God is our refuge and strength." And in the varied conflicts and perils of life we need both these resources. We need the "refuge." There are times when our mightiest warfare is to lie passive, to shelter quietly in the strong defences of our God. Our finest strategy is sometimes to "rest in the Lord and wait." We can slay some of our enemies by leaving them alone. We can "starve them out." They can be weakened and beaten by sheer neglect. We feed their strength, and give them favoured chances, if we go out and face them actively, "marching as to war." The best way is to hide, and keep quiet; and "God is our refuge." But we also need the "strength." This is positive equipment for active service. The defensive is changed to the offensive, and in the "strength" of the Lord we advance against the foe. We "ride abroad, redressing human wrongs." We "tread upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and the dragon we trample under foot." We meet our enemy on the open field, and we slay him in his pride! And so our God is our resource in the double warfare of active and passive crusade. In Him we can take refuge, and the enemy withers. In Him we can find fighting strength, and the enemy is overthrown. OCTOBER The Eleventh _THE OLD COMPANION ON THE NEW ROAD_ "_Get thee out ... and I will show thee." "So Abram departed ... and the Lord appeared._" --GENESIS xii. 1-9. We must bring these separated passages together if we would appreciate the graciousness of the Lord's call. They are like the two sides of the same shield. They answer each other as voice and echo. When I move in obedience the Lord moves in inspiration. He never lets me go on my own charges. "All things are now ready." Before He makes me hunger the bread is prepared. Before I thirst the water is at hand. Before He calls me He has opened springs in difficult places and arbours of rest along the road. When Abram set out from his own country the Lord went before him. And so I need not fear the arduous call. The very measure of its difficulty is also the measure of the riches of the divine provisions. "As thy day so shall thy strength be." At every turning of the winding way the Lord will appear unto us. At every new demand we shall discover new bounty, and everywhere in the unfamiliar road we shall gaze upon the familiar and friendly face of the Lord. OCTOBER The Twelfth _ROUND-ABOUT WAYS_ ACTS vii. 1-7. "Unto a land that I will show thee." But what mysterious windings there often are before that land is reached! But God's windings are never wasteful and purposeless. The apparent deviations are always gracious preparations. We are taken out of the way in order that we may the more richly reach our end. George Pilkington yearned to go to the foreign field, and God sent him to a dairy farm in Ireland. But the Irish dairy farm proved to be on the way to Uganda; and all the experience and knowledge which Pilkington picked up in this strange business proved invaluable when he reached his appointed field. "He bringeth the blind by a way that they know not." So I will remember that the "short cut" is not always the finest road. God's round-about ways are filled with heavenly treasure. Every winding is purposed for the discovery of new wealth. What riches we gather on the way to God's goal! "The hill of Zion yields A thousand sacred sweets Before we reach the heavenly fields Or walk the golden streets." OCTOBER The Thirteenth _THE ROYAL AIR_ GALATIANS iii. 6-14. Emerson says somewhere that he has noticed that men whose duties are performed beneath great domes acquire a stately and appropriate manner. The vergers in our great cathedrals have a dignified stride. It is not otherwise with men who consciously live under the power of vast relationships. Princes of royal blood have a certain great "air" about them. The consciousness of noble kinships has an expansive influence upon the soul. The Jews felt its influence when they called to mind "our Father Abraham." So is it with men and women of glorious kinships in the realm of faith. Their souls expand in the vast and exalted relations. "The children of faith" have vital communion with all the spiritual princes and princesses of countless years. They have blood-relationship with the patriarchs, and psalmists, and prophets, and they dwell "in heavenly places" with Paul, and Augustine, and Luther, and Wesley. Surely, such exalted kinship should influence our very stride, and set its mark upon our "daily walk and conversation." It ought to make us so big that we can never speak a mean word, or do a petty and peevish thing. OCTOBER The Fourteenth _COMMONPLACE PEOPLE_ JOHN i. 35-47. Our Lord delights to glorify the commonplace. He loves to fill the common water-pots with His mysterious wine. He chooses the earthen vessels into which to put His treasure. He calls obscure fishermen to be the ambassadors of His grace. He proclaims His great Gospel through provincial dialects, and He fills uncultured mouths with mighty arguments. He turns common meals into sacraments, and while He breaks ordinary bread He relates it to the blessing of heaven. And "this same Jesus" is among us to-day, with the same choices and delights. He will make a humdrum duty shine like the wayside bush that burned with fire and was not consumed. He will make our daily business the channel of His grace. He will take our disappointments, and, just as we sometimes put banknotes into black-edged envelopes, He will fill them with treasures of unspeakable consolation. He will use our poor, broken, stammering speech to convey the wonders of His grace to the weary sinful souls of men. OCTOBER The Fifteenth _THE CALL AND THE EQUIPMENT_ LUKE v. 27-32. Matthew was very weary, and the all-seeing Lord read the signs of his spiritual dissatisfaction and unrest. As Jesus "passed by" nothing escaped His watchful eye. He saw a look in Matthew's eye as of some caged creature longing for freedom. Matthew's office, the contempt of his fellows, and perhaps his own self-contempt held him in imprisoning disquietude. The Lord knew it all, and one word from Him and the iron gate was open, and the prisoner was free! "Follow Me! And he left all, rose up, and followed Him." With the Lord's command was conveyed the ability to obey, and Matthew stepped into "the glorious liberty of the children of God." And this is the Master's way. His calls are always equipments. Every received commandment is also the vehicle of requisite grace. God's decrees are also promises, nay, they are immediate endowments. If we reverently open one of His callings we shall find it a store-house of needed strength. And therefore we need not fear the calls of the Lord. They are not the harsh commandments of a tyrant, they are the loving invitations of a friend. If we obey them we shall taste the grace of them, and "His statutes will become our songs." OCTOBER The Sixteenth _THE INSPIRATIONS OF THE PAST_ ISAIAH li. 1-6. Here is a sentence from Lord Morley: "If a man is despondent about his work the best remedy I can prescribe for him is to turn to a good biography." He counsels him to go into the yesterdays to find inspiration for the life of to-day. Other men's attainments are bugle-calls to me. "Look unto Abraham, your father." Look unto the blessings which waited upon his obedience! See how springs of refreshment broke out in the troubled way! God "called him and blessed him." Rekindle your hope at his radiant triumph. Strengthen your will in his glorious persistence. Here do I see God's mercy in the gift of memory and in the witness of history. I can turn to the yesterdays for light and quickening. "Do ye not remember the miracle of the loaves?" Yes, I can recall the grace that met me in my need, the power that made the crooked straight and the rough places plain. And I am privileged to turn the pages of other men's testimonies and read the record of the Lord's dealings with them. And so do memory and history come as helpful angel-presences to my soul. "His love in time past Forbids me to think He'll leave me at last In trouble to sink." OCTOBER The Seventeenth _NO QUEST OF GOD_ "_He inquired not of the Lord._" --1 CHRONICLES x. 6-14. That was where Saul began to go wrong. When quest ceases, conquests cease. "He inquired not"; and this meant loss of light. God will be inquired after. He insists that we draw up the blinds if we would receive the light. If we board up our windows He will not drive the gentle rays through our hindrance. We must ask if we would have. The discipline of inquiry fits us for the counsel of the Lord. "He inquired not"; and this meant loss of sight. When light fails, sight fails. The ponies in our pits become blind. When a spiritual power is not exercised in the heavenly, it is deprived of its appointed functions. And the tragedy is this, that the blind are deceived into thinking that they still retain their sight. "Ye say, we see!" "He inquired not"; and this meant loss of might. For "the light of life" is not only illumination; it is inspiration too. It is both light and heat; it confers guidance and dynamic. When a man, therefore, refuses the light he becomes a weakling, and he will meet with disaster in the first tempestuous day. OCTOBER The Eighteenth _UNANIMITY IN THE SOUL_ "_A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways._" --JAMES i. 1-8. If two men are at the wheel with opposing notions of direction and destiny, how will it fare with the boat? If an orchestra have two conductors both wielding their batons at the same time and with conflicting conceptions of the score, what will become of the band? And a man whose mind is like that of two men flirting with contrary ideals at the same time will live a life "all sixes and sevens," and nothing will move to purposeful and definite issues. If the mind flirt with Satan and Christ, life will be filled with disastrous instability and confusion. The first thing we need, therefore, for influential and impressive living is unanimity. Unanimity in the mind is the primary factor in a forceful life. To bring "all that is within me" into concord, to make every instrument of the soul bow to one conductor, to lead all the powers into homage to the Lord--this is the unanimity which assures the perfection of holiness. "Unite my heart to fear Thy name." That is the mood which wins life's prize, "the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." OCTOBER The Nineteenth _READY!_ "_Let your loins be girded about._" --LUKE xii. 35-40. Loose garments can be very troublesome. An Oriental robe, if left ungirdled, entangles the feet, or is caught by the wind and hinders one's goings. And therefore the wearer binds the loose attire together with a girdle, and makes it firm and compact about his body. And loose principles can be more dangerous than loose garments. Indefinite opinions, caught by the passing wind of popular caprice, are both a peril and a burden. Many people go through life with loose beliefs and purposes, and they never arrive at any glorious goal. "Let your loins be girded about." Bind your loose thinkings together with the girdle of truth into firm and saving conviction. "_And your lights burning._" Be ready for the emergency. When the darkness falls, don't have to hasten away to buy oil. Look after your resources, and be competent to meet the crisis when it comes. Let the light of conscience be burning with clear flame, like a brilliant lighthouse on a dangerous shore. Let the light of love be burning, like a lamp which sends its friendly, cheery beams to the pilgrims of the night. "Our sufficiency is of God," and the oil of grace will keep the lights burning through the longest night. OCTOBER The Twentieth _THE LORD AS THE SERVANT_ "_Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He came forth from God, and goeth to God_...." --JOHN xiii. 1-20. And how shall we expect the sentence to finish? What shall be the issue of so vast a consciousness? "_He took a towel, and girded Himself ... and began to wash the disciples' feet._" So a mighty consciousness expresses itself in lowly service. In our ignorance we should have assumed that divinity would have moved only in planetary orbits, and would have overlooked the petty streets and ways of men. But here the Lord of Glory girds Himself with the apron of the slave, and almightiness addresses itself to menial service. And that is the test of an expanding consciousness. We may be sure that we are growing smaller when we begin to disparage humble services. We may be sure we are growing larger when we love the ministries that never cry or lift their voices in the streets. When a man begins to despise the "towel," he is losing his kingly dignity, and is resigning his place on the throne. "I have given you an example that ye also should do as I have done to you." OCTOBER The Twenty-first _THE CONTRITE HEART_ ISAIAH lvii. 13-21. Let us look at this description of the dwelling-place of the Eternal God. "_I dwell with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit._" And who are the contrite? In the original word there is the significance of pieces of rock or lumps of soil having been crumbled into the finest powder. Have I not sometimes heard the phrase--"He's just a lump of pride"? Well, that pride has to be broken down into the finest powder, until not a bit of stubborn self-conceit remains. And then the contrite become the humble! Our gracious Lord has sometimes to use heavy hammers in the destruction of this hard and stony pride: the shock of calamity, the battering of disappointment and defeat! Our pride _must_ be ground to powder. Then He will come in and dwell with us! And what then? He will "_revive the spirit of the humble, and revive the heart of the contrite ones_." Our broken pride shall be as broken soil in which our Lord will grow the flowers and fruits of the Spirit. The death of pride shall be followed by a revival of all things sweet and beautiful. When pride is laid low, it is a "day of resurrection." The wilderness shall "blossom as the rose." October The Twenty-second _THE TRUE STANDARD OF GREATNESS_ MATTHEW xviii. 1-7. Here is our Lord's estimate of true greatness. How infinite is the contrast between His standard and the standards of the world! The world measures greatness by money, or eloquence, or intellectual skill, or even by prowess on the field of battle. But here is the Lord's standard--"_Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven._" Those people are greatest who are most like God. We become partakers of the Divine nature through a child-like relationship to God. The grace and power of God pour into our souls when we wait upon Him like a little child. Child-likeness opens the doors and windows to the incoming of the Almighty. The child-like is the trustful, and no barriers of cynical suspicion block the channels of spiritual communion. And the child-like is the docile, and no boulders of arrogance or self-conceit block the channel of the invigorating waters of life. And so the child-like become the God-like, and, of course, they are the greatest among the sons of men. The little child enshrines the secret of the God-man, and we should be infinitely wise if we had the little child always in our midst. OCTOBER The Twenty-third _MASTERS AND SERVANTS_ MATTHEW xx. 20-28. It is always our peril that we hunger for place more than for character, for position more than for disposition, for a temporal sceptre more than for a majestic self-control. These disciples coveted places on the right and left of the Lord, and they had little or no concern about their worthiness for the posts. Temporalities eclipsed spiritualities, fleeting fireworks hid the quiet stars. They wanted to be great and prominent, the Lord wanted them to be pure and good. They longed to be Prime Ministers, the Lord purposed that they should be glad to be ministers, working contentedly in an obscure place. Now mark our Lord's response. "_Are ye able to drink of the cup that I drink of?_" They wanted to be the King's cup-bearers; He offers them to drink of His cup. They call for sovereignty: He asks for sacrifice. They crave sweetness: He offers them bitterness. They seek a life of "getting": He demands a life of "giving." Who has a cup of bitterness to drink? Go and share it with him! Where are the morally and spiritually anæmic? Go and give them thy blood! "Whoever shall lose his life shall find it." Through self-sacrifice we pass to our throne. OCTOBER The Twenty-fourth "_PUSH_" _AND_ "_PULL_" LUKE xiv. 1-11. The world canonizes "push." It eulogizes the "man of push." It loves to see a man elbowing his way through the jostling crowd, and gaining for himself a "chief seat" at life's feast. He is proclaimed a "successful" man, and he rises in "the chief seat," and amid loud hurrahs he responds to the toast of his health. Yes, "push" is the word of the world, but "pull" is the word of the Lord, and between the two there is the difference of darkness and light. "Push" is selfish and exclusive: "pull" is inclusive and neighbourly. "Push" takes as its motto, "The weakest to the wall!" "Pull" takes as its motto, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." The final verdict upon life will be founded, not upon our own success in gaining a chief seat, but upon our success in encouraging the faint and the weakling, and in "helping lame dogs over stiles." My gracious Lord, help me to put on "a heart of compassion" that by neighbourly feeling and ministry I may lead my fellows to the choice places of life's feast. OCTOBER The Twenty-fifth _THE ROBE OF HUMILITY_ 1 PETER v. 1-11. Let me, therefore, learn this lesson, that if my Lord should give me prominence in His church it is not to feed my lust of dominion, but in order to strengthen and extend the influence of the church's life. "_Neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock._" The only truly imperial purple is the robe of humility. Any other sort of attire may appear to be kingly, but it has none of the glorious significance which belongs to our sovereign Lord. When a man puts on the robe of pride, he immediately belittles his manhood. When a man puts on the robe of humility, he becomes a greater man. But humility is more than an imperial robe, it is a complete armour. It is fine for defence! The devil cannot get at the man who is "clothed in humility." There is no chink or crevice through which his deadly rapier can pierce. And it is equally fine for offence! Wearing this armour we can go out "redressing human wrongs." The stroke of pride is ever futile. When the humble man deals a blow, the power of the Almighty is in his right hand. "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God." OCTOBER The Twenty-sixth _THE LUST OF THE EXTERNAL_ MATTHEW xxiii. 1-12. Pharisaism is the lust of externalities, and the utter negligence of the inward sanctities of the spirit. It thinks more of decorum than of holiness, more of etiquette than of equity, more of ritualism than of "the robe of righteousness and the garment of salvation." Pharisaism lives in the streets: it does not dwell in the inner chambers of our mystic life. Pharisaism thirsts for the homage of men and not for the approbation of God. It is far more alert to the "Rabbi! Rabbi!" of the crowd than it is to the secret callings of the Lord. The path between itself and the highest is unfrequented and grass-grown; the path between itself and the multitude is a well-trodden and barren road. My Lord, let me be warned! Let me not pervert the ministries of religion to the aggrandizement of self. Let me not, in appearing to worship Thee, be seeking the worship of men. Give me singleness of mind. Give me purity of heart. And may I discover true greatness in seeking greatness for others. OCTOBER The Twenty-seventh _PAYING HOMAGE TO THE KING_ PROVERBS iii. 1-12. "Acknowledge Him." But not with a passing nod of recognition. I must not merely glance at Him now and again, admitting His existence on the field. To acknowledge Him is to acknowledge Him as King, with the right to control, and as predominant partner in all the affairs of my life, even the right to give the determining voice in all my decisions. No, it is not the recognition paid to an acquaintance, it is the homage paid to a King. And if I thus acknowledge Him, He will direct my paths. Life shall always be moving on to its purposed end and glory. The path chosen will not always be the most alluring one, but it will be the right one, and therefore the safe one, and there will be wonderful discoveries on the uninviting track. How will He let me know which path to take? I cannot say. We can never anticipate God's ways of dealing with us. But if my life is bent to the loving acknowledgment of His will, He will assuredly find a way to make His will known. The light will always reach the willing mind. OCTOBER The Twenty-eighth _PLEASANTNESS AND PEACE_ "_Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace._" --PROVERBS iii. 13-26. In the ways of the Lord I shall have feasts of "pleasantness." But not always at the beginning of the ways. Sometimes my faith is called upon to take a very unattractive road, and nothing welcomes me of fascination and delight. But here is a law of the spiritual life. The exercised faith intensifies my spiritual senses, and hidden things become manifest to my soul--hidden beauties, hidden sounds, hidden scents! Faith adds a mysterious "plus" to my powers, and "all things become new." And in the ways of the Lord I shall also find the gracious gift of peace. Not that the road will be always smooth, but that I may be always calm. I can be unperturbed when "all around tumultuous seems." I can journey in holy serenity, because the Lord of the road is with me. For peace consists, not in friendliness of circumstances, but in friendship with the Lord. OCTOBER The Twenty-ninth _THE STORY OF THE PAST_ DEUTERONOMY xxxi. 7-13. And no ears are more receptive to spiritual story than the ears of a little child. It is not needful to open the gate of interest; it is wide ajar already. And imagination also is there, ready to busy itself about the story. And so, too, is the spirit of homage and adoration. The children are ready for the King! "Suffer little children to come unto Me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." And, therefore, we have need of wise tellers of the story, who know the story themselves. And in these delicate regions I must ever remember how much my spirit shares in the story I tell. My spirit is a friend or a foe to my power. My words may be well chosen, but they may all be light as empty shells, devoid of all vitality. My words have just the power of their spiritual contents. "You cannot fight the French with 200,000 red uniforms," said Carlyle; "there must be men inside them." And we cannot engage in the evangelization with mere uniforms of words. There must be spirit inside them, even the spirit of pure and consecrated lives. OCTOBER The Thirtieth _A TESTIMONY MEETING_ PSALM xxxiv. 1-11. This is a little testimony meeting, in which each of the witnesses tells the story of the Lord's gracious dealings with him. Let me listen to them. "_He delivered me from all my fears._" His fears held him in dungeons. Even the noontide was as darkness round about him, and there was no song in his soul. And the Lord broke open the prison-gate and let him out to light, and joy, and belief. "_They looked to Him and were lightened._" They looked upon the grace of the Lord, and were lit up, just as I have seen humble cottage windows ablaze with the glory of the rising sun. I must "set my face" towards the Lord, and I, too, shall catch the radiance of His glory. "This poor man cried ... _and the Lord saved him out of all his troubles_." And these troubles were what I should call "tight corners," when the life is hemmed in by unfortunate circumstances, and there seems no way of escape. Disappointment shuts us in. Sorrow shuts us in. Lack of money shuts us in. Let me cry unto the Lord. He is a wonderful Friend in the tight corner, and He will bring my feet into "a large place." OCTOBER The Thirty-first _TWO GREAT MYSTERIES_ PSALM lxxxi. This is an unutterable mystery, that a man can close his life against God. "_Israel would have none of Me._" We can shut out God as we can shut out the pure air. We can bar His entrance just as we can exclude the light from the chamber. And then the pity is, we can deceive ourselves into believing that the air is perfectly fresh and that the room is flooded with light. We lose our fine discernment, and we call evil good, and the darkness we call day. If we "refuse to have God" in our thoughts God gives us over to a "reprobate mind." And it is an equally unutterable mystery that a man can open his life to the entertainment of Almighty God. "I will dwell with them!" That is my supreme honour, that the Lord will be my guest. I can "hearken" to Him, and "talk" to Him, and "walk" with Him. And He offers me protection. He will "subdue my enemies." And He offers me unfailing provision. The Guest becomes the Host! I put my little upon the table, and lo! I find that "the cruse of oil fails not, and the meal in the barrel is not consumed!" NOVEMBER The First _IN THE DAYS OF YOUTH_ ECCLESIASTES xii. 1-7. In my university days at Edinburgh there was a young medical student named Macfarlane. He was one of our finest athletes, and everybody liked him. One day he was stricken with typhoid, which proved fatal. Macfarlane in his days of boisterous health had neglected his Lord, and when one of his friends, visiting him in his sickness, led his thoughts to the Saviour, he turned and said, "But wouldn't it be a shabby thing to turn to Christ now?" "Yes," replied his friend, "it will be a shabby thing, but it will be shabbier not to turn to Him at all!" And I believe that poor Macfarlane turned his shame-filled soul to the Lord. But it is shabby to offer our Lord the mere dregs in life's cup. It is shabby to offer Him the mere hull of the boat when the storms of passion have carried its serviceableness away. Let me offer Him my best, my finest equipment, my youth! Let me offer Him the best, and give Him the helm when I am just setting sail and life abounds in golden promise! "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth." NOVEMBER The Second _LEADING TO CHRIST_ "_Suffer little children to come unto Me._" --MARK x. 13-22. "Unto _Me_!" We must not keep them at any half-way house. We are so prone to be satisfied if only we bring them a little way along the road. If we get them to pray! If we get them to attend the Lord's house! If we get them to be truthful and gentle! All of which is unspeakably good. It is a blessed thing to be in "the ways of Zion"; it is a far more blessed thing to be in the palace with Zion's King and Lord. When we are dealing with little children, every road must lead to Jesus, and not until the road is trodden and we arrive at Him must we think our ministry accomplished. And, therefore, if I am talking to the little ones about Samuel, or David, or Paul, I must always see the short lane which leads to the Lord. "Suffer the little children to come unto _Me_!" And once they really own Him, we may trust their instincts for the rest. The heart in the child will leap to the love of the Lord, "for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." When a little one sees the Saviour, it is "love at first sight"! NOVEMBER The Third _THE LORD'S OWN_ JOHN xv. 11-25. The "Lord's own" possess the Lord's love. "_I have loved you._" And love is not a beautiful sentiment, a passive rainbow stretched over the realm of human life. It is a glorious, active energy, infinitely more powerful than electricity, and always besieging the gates of the soul, or ministering to its manifold needs. Love is the greatest force in the world. And the "Lord's own" are taken into the inner circle of intimacy, where the deepest secrets dwell. We are not kept on the door-step, or left standing in the hall, or limited to one or two "public rooms"; we are privileged to enter the King's privacy, and be nourished at the King's table, and listen to the King's table-talk concerning "all things" which He has heard of the Father. We have "the glorious liberty of _the children_ of God." And the "Lord's own" will experience the world's hatred. "_Therefore the world hateth you._" Our very friendship with the Lord pronounces judgment on the world, and its hostility is aroused. If we are "partakers of the glory" we shall most assuredly be "partakers of the sufferings of Christ." NOVEMBER The Fourth _THE HOLY SPIRIT AS WITNESS_ JOHN xv. 26--xvi. 11. The Holy Spirit is to be a witness of Jesus. "_He shall testify of Me._" He shall be "the Friend of the Bridegroom," and He shall sing the Bridegroom's grace, and goodness, and prowess, in the eager ear of the bride. And the early love of the bride shall become deeper and richer as more and more she enters into "the unsearchable riches of Christ." And the Holy Spirit is thus to be a strengthener of the friends of the Lord. He will be my "_Comforter_." By His gracious advocacy He will make my faith and hope invincible. The best service which can be rendered me is not to change my circumstances, but to make me superior to them; not to make a smooth road, but to enable me to "leap like an hart" over any road; not to remove the darkness, but to make me "sing songs in the night." And so I will not pray for less burdens, but for more strength! And this is the gracious ministry of "The Comforter." Holy Spirit, strengthen me! Transform my frail opinions into firm convictions, and change my fleeting, dissolving views into abiding visions! NOVEMBER The Fifth _THE TEMPLE OF THE BODY_ ROMANS xii. 1-9. The Lord wants my body. He needs its members as ministers of righteousness. He would work in the world through my brain, and eyes, and ears, and lips, and hands, and feet. And the Lord wants my body as "_a living_ sacrifice." He asks for it when it is thoroughly alive! We so often deny the Lord our bodies until they are infirm and sickly, and sometimes we do not offer them to Him until they are quite "worn out." It is infinitely better to offer them even then than never to offer them at all. But it is best of all to offer our bodies to our Lord when they are strong, and vigorous, and serviceable, and when they can be used in the strenuous places of the field. And so let me appoint a daily consecration service, and let me every morning present my body "a living sacrifice" unto God. Let me regard it as a most holy possession, and let me keep it clean. Let me recoil from all abuse of it--from all gluttony, and intemperance, and "riotous living." Let me look upon my body as a church, and let the service of consecration continue all day long. "Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit?" NOVEMBER The Sixth _PEACE IN TRIBULATION_ JOHN xvi. 25-33. Here is a strange medley of experiences! I am to enjoy the gift of peace, and yet I am to be smarting under tribulation! When the Holy Spirit is my guest I am to enjoy the gift of peace. "_These things I said unto you that ye might have peace._" The life of the soul is to move without jar or discord. It shall be like a quiet engine-house, in which every wheel co-operates with every other wheel, and there is no waste or friction in the holy place. "All that is within me" blesses God's holy name. And yet, while peace reigns within, there may be tribulation without! "_In the world ye shall have tribulation._" Here is a peace which is not broken by the noise and assault of brutal circumstance. The most tempestuous wind cannot disturb the quiet serenity of the stars. When the world stones me, not one grain of its gritty dust need enter the delicate workings of my soul. That was the peace of my Lord, and it is my Lord who says to me: "My peace I give unto you!" So "_be of good cheer_," my soul! Thy Lord has "_overcome the world_," and thou shalt share His victory. NOVEMBER The Seventh _REJECTED LOVE_ ISAIAH lxiii. 7-14. If I refuse the friendship of the Holy One I inevitably invite His hostility. "_But they rebelled, and vexed His holy Spirit: therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them._" And so, if I reject the forces of grace I do not turn them from my gate, I convert them into foes. Malachi teaches me that rejected sunshine becomes like a burning oven. The Epistle to the Hebrews teaches me that rejected love becomes "a consuming fire." Holiness nourishes virtue, it withers vice. If I offer my Lord a tender aspiration, His breath wooes it like the balmy air of the spring; if I come before Him with the weeds of ignoble dispositions, He blights them as with the nipping of the frost. And is it not well, for thee and me, that our Lord is thus fiercely hostile to our sins? Is not this "consuming fire" the friend of my soul? May I not pray: Burn on, burn on, pure flame, until all the refuse and rubbish of my life are utterly consumed; burn on, burn on, until fierce flame becomes mild light, flinging its genial radiance over a transfigured desert? NOVEMBER The Eighth _THE ORGAN OF SPIRITUAL VISION_ 1 CORINTHIANS ii. 9-16. Our finest human instruments fail to obtain for us "_the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him_." Art fails! "_Eye hath not seen._" The merely artistic vision is blind to the hidden glories of grace. Philosophy fails! "_Neither hath ear heard._" We may listen to the philosopher as he spins his subtle theories and weaves his systematic webs, but the meshes he has woven are not fine enough to catch "the deep things of God." Poetry fails! "_Neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive._" Poetic imagination may stretch her wings, and soar, but she fails to enter the guest-chamber of the Lord, and take an inventory of "the things prepared." All these gracious ministries fail to reach life's glorious and purposed end. "_But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit._" When art, and poetry, and philosophy all pitiably fail, the Spirit unveils to us the bewildering feast. And so the unlearned has the same ultimate advantage as the learned, and the cottager has equal privilege with the monarch. The greatest things are not the perquisites of culture, but the endowments of humility and holy faith. The poor man has access to the "many mansions," and finds a place at the King's feast. NOVEMBER The Ninth _THE HOLY SPIRIT AS EMANCIPATOR_ 2 CORINTHIANS iii. 4-18. In the Holy Spirit I experience a large emancipation. "_Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty._" I am delivered from all enslaving bondage--from the bondage of literalism, and legalism, and ritualism. I am not hampered by excessive harness, by multitudinous rules. The harness is fitting and congenial, and I have freedom of movement, and "my yoke is easy and my burden is light." And I am to use my emancipation of spirit in the ministry of contemplation. I am to "_behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord_." My thought has been set free from the cramping distractions devised by men, and I am now to feast my gaze upon the holy splendours of my Lord. It is like coming out of a little and belittling tent, to feast upon the sunny amplitude of the open sky! I can "cease from man," and commune with God. And the contemplation will effect a transformation. "_We are changed into the same image from glory to glory._" The serene brightness of the sky gets into our faces. The Lord becomes "_the health of our countenance_," and we shine with borrowed glory. NOVEMBER The Tenth _NEVERTHELESS!_ LUKE v. 1-11. Here is obedience in spite of the night of failure. "_Nevertheless, at Thy word I will let down the net._" That word "nevertheless" has always made history. It has been spoken after scourgings, after "bonds and imprisonments." Ten thousand times has it been heard in the chamber of bereavement, the first sound to break the awful silence. "At evening my wife died.... In the morning I did as God commanded me." And may it be true of me! May my "nevertheless" of willing obedience rise like a lark above the storm. And because there was obedience there came vision. In the wonderful answer to his faith Peter beheld the glory of his Lord. And so I never know where the unenticing road of obedience will lead me. At the end of the dull road there will be some gracious surprise! It is the rugged path which leads to the summit! The panorama comes as the reward of the toilsome climb! Always, in the realm of the Spirit, the dogged "nevertheless" will lead to the "shining tableland to which our God Himself is moon and sun." NOVEMBER The Eleventh _FOILING THE ENEMY'S PLOTS_ LUKE xxii. 24-34. I do not meet my tempter alone. The engagement has been foreseen by my Lord. "_Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you!_" The tempter's plots, and wiles, and ambuscades are all clearly perceived. My Lord has got the enemy's maps, and his plan of campaign, for all things are open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. I do not fight a lonely warfare on a dark and unknown field. My Lord Himself both scouts and fights for those who are His own. And one great means of His co-operation is the mighty ministry of intercession. "_But I have prayed for thee._" That "but" is the massing of the forces of heaven against the black and subtle hordes of hell. Let me ever remember that the Lord's prayers are always the conveyers of holy power to those for whom He prays. It is as when Christian met Apollyon in the Valley of Humiliation: there comes a sudden accession of strength to the bleeding warrior, and Apollyon retires wounded and beaten from the field. And the only way to preserve the fruits of a triumph is by helping other warriors to gain a similar conquest. "_When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren._" I shall retain the hard, muscular limbs of a soldier if I am willing to share my blood with the entire army. NOVEMBER The Twelfth _THE FASHIONING OF A DENIAL_ LUKE xxii. 54-62. From Peter's denial I would learn the peril of the first cowardly surrender to sin. Surely Peter must have "trimmed" many times in the days which preceded his actual discipleship. Great crises do not make men, they reveal them. The men have been made in the smaller issues which go before. We march to our crises by a gradient, every step of which is a moral decision. The interior of the tree is secretly eaten away by white ants; the tempest reveals and completes the destruction. And I would learn from Peter's denial the cumulative power of sins. One sin widens the road for a bigger one to follow. The second denial will be more vehement than the first. The third will add the element of blasphemy. Yes, every sin is a miner and sapper for a larger army in the rear. It not only does its own work, it prepares the way for its successor. But I will connect this "dark betrayal night" with that sweet after-morning when the Lord and His denier met face to face by the lake. And that sweet morning of reconciliation is a possible experience for all the deniers of the Lord, and it is therefore possible for thee and me. NOVEMBER The Thirteenth _A TRANSFORMED FISHERMAN_ "_Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing._" --JOHN xxi. 1-14. Simon Peter had often gone a fishing, but never had he gone as he went in the twilight of that most wonderful evening. He handled the ropes in a new style, with a new dignity born of the bigger capacity of his own soul. He turned to the familiar task, but with a quite unfamiliar spirit. He went a fishing, but the power of the resurrection went with him. This action of Simon Peter's is the only true test of the reality of any spiritual experience. How does it fit me for ordinary affairs? A spiritual festival should do for the soul what a day on the hills does for the body--equip it for the better doing of the duties in the vale. This action is also a preparative to a renewal of the gracious experience. The road of common duty was just the way appointed for another meeting with his Lord, for in the morning-light there came a voice across the waters: "Children, have ye any meat?" "And that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter: 'It is the Lord.'" NOVEMBER The Fourteenth _THE PURIFICATION OF LOVE_ JOHN xxi. 15-25. "Lovest thou Me?" There was a day, only a little while back, when Simon Peter's love was not yet purified, and it indulged itself in loud and empty boasts. True love never blusters and brawls. It is like a stream of water flowing silently underground, and secretly bathing the roots of things, and keeping their heads fresh, and cool, and sweet. The boast has now dropped out of the love! It is now ashamed of words! "Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee!" Yes, true love expresses itself, not in clamorous boastfulness, but in quiet services. It ministers to the Lord's sheep and the Lord's lambs. It spends its strength on the mountains, "seeking that which is lost," and it does this in the darkness, where there is no applauding crowd. The true lover does not ask for some dramatic scene where he can die for the beloved; he delights in obscure services, the feeding and tending of the sheep of the flock. But the love that does the humbler thing will be ready for the greater sacrifice whenever the day shall demand it. Some day the once boastful denier shall lay down his life for his Saviour, and through martyrdom he shall pass to his crown. NOVEMBER The Fifteenth _THE MUSIC OF RECONCILIATION_ PSALM lxxxv. Let me listen to this psalm of reconciliation, as it makes music for my soul to-day. It tells me of the Divine favour. "_Lord, Thou hast been favourable to Thy land._" As I write these words, the sun has just slipped out from behind the cloud. It has been there all the time, but the ministry of the cloud was needed, and so it appeared as though there would be sun and spring no more. "Behind a frowning Providence He hides a smiling face." And it tells me of the Divine forgiveness. "_Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of Thy people._" Yes, when the sun appears, He loosens the frozen earth and streams, and turns the bondage into liberty. The soul that was imprisoned in freezing guilt attains a joyous freedom. And it tells me of revival. "_Wilt Thou not revive us again?_" It is the next step in the returning spring. The sleeping, benumbed things will all awake! "The flowers appear on the earth." Where grace reigns, graces spring! Forgiveness is attended by renewal, and the wilderness begins to "blossom like the rose." NOVEMBER The Sixteenth _THE MAKING OF A BRAVE MAN_ ACTS iv. 13-22. Here is a marvellous transformation! I have been wondering at the littleness of the denier, and now this same denier is making the world wonder by his majestic boldness! His one resource is now the risen Christ, and his one moral standard is "whether it be right!" Once he quailed before an accusing maid; now he stands undaunted before the rulers of the earth. How has it all come about? He has been to the empty tomb. The awe of the resurrection is upon his spirit. Through the once blind cul-de-sac of the grave he has seen the King and the great white throne. And he has been by the lake on the morning of reconciliation. The live coal from the altar of his Lord's love has touched him and has purged away the uncleanness of his denial. And he has been in the upper room at Pentecost, and the mighty Spirit has come upon him like wind and flame, endowing him with forceful and enthusiastic character. Now he can dare for God, now he can work for God, now he can burn for God! And this is how he has been transformed. NOVEMBER The Seventeenth _IF GOD BE FOR US----!_ ROMANS viii. 31-39. Who else is worth naming? How much does anybody count? If the sun be on my side, why should I be dismayed at any icy obstacle that may rear itself in my way? Sun _versus_ ice! God _versus_ my impediments! Why should I fear? If the atmosphere is on my side, then even the opposing strength of iron will rust away into powder. "The breath of the Lord bloweth upon it," and if the holy breath, God's Holy Spirit, is for us, then the apparently invincible obstacle will crumble away into dust. But we are deceived by mass, and we are forgetful of spirit. Mere size affrights us. We are dismayed by numbers. We forget the quiet, pervasive, all-powerful ministry of the Spirit of God. We are overwhelmed by the phenomena of tempest and earthquake and fire, and we forget that almightiness hides in the "still, small voice," in "the sound of a gentle stillness." God's breath is more than the fierce threatenings of embattled hosts. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" I will hide myself in His holy fellowship, and "none shall make me afraid." NOVEMBER The Eighteenth _EXHILARANT SPIRITS_ "_He maketh my feet like hinds' feet._" --PSALM xviii. 31-39. I think of Wordsworth's lines, in which he describes a natural lady, made by Nature herself: "She shall be sportive as the fawn That wild with glee across the lawn Or up the mountain springs." And it is this buoyancy, this elasticity, this springiness that the Lord is waiting to impart to the souls of His children, so that they may move along the ways of life with the light steps of the fawn. Some of us move with very heavy feet. There is little of the fawn about us as we go along the road. There is reluctance in our obedience. There is a frown in our homage. Our benevolence is graceless, and there is no charm in our piety, and no rapture in our praise. We are the victims of "the spirit of heaviness." And yet here is the word which tells us that God will make our feet "like hinds' feet." He will give us exhilaration and spring, enabling us to leap over difficulties, and to have strength and buoyancy for the steepest hills. Let us seek the inspiration of the Lord. "It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect." NOVEMBER The Nineteenth _THE ARMOUR OF GOD_ EPHESIANS vi. 10-18. The Word describes the armour, and it directs us to the armoury. The description would oppress me if the directions were absent. If I have to forge the armour for myself I should be in despair. But I can go to the armoury of grace, where there is an ever-open door and abundant welcome for every person who fain would be a knight-errant of the Lord. The Lord will provide me with perfect equipment suitable for every kind of contest which may meet me along the road. There are no favourites among the pilgrims except, perhaps, the neediest, and to them is given "more abundant honour." Sometimes one of the Lord's knights loses one piece of armour, and he must at once repair to the armoury. Perhaps he has lost his helmet, or his shield, or even his breastplate, and the enemy has discovered his vulnerable place. We must never continue our journey imperfectly armed. The evil one will ignore the pieces we have, and he will direct all his attack where there is no defence. Back to the armoury! Back to the armoury, that we may "put on the _whole_ armour of God." The Lord is waiting; let us humbly and penitently ask for the missing piece. NOVEMBER The Twentieth _THE REAL ARISTOCRACY_ "_Abraham, my friend._" --ISAIAH xli. 8-16. I think that is the noblest title ever given to mortal man. It is the speech of the Lord God concerning one of His children. It is something to be coveted even to enjoy the friendship of a noble man; but to have the friendship of God, and to have the holy God name us as His friends, is surely the brightest jewel that can ever shine in a mortal's crown. And such recognition and such glory may be the wonderful lot of thee and me. "Abraham, my friend." The Lord of hosts found delight in human friendships. He comes in to sup with us. He drinks of the cup of our delights. For, surely, it is one of the supreme characteristics of true friendship that it rejoices at the other's joy. And my heavenly Friend is glad in my gladness as well as sympathetic in the day of sadness and tears. Yes, He comes in to sup with me, and I may sup with Him. "Abraham, my friend." And He shares His sweets with His friend, in inward counsels, and in tender revelations of His purposes and in the gifts of joy and peace. There is perfect openness between these friends; nothing is hid. They have the run of each other's hearts. "I tell Him all my joys and fears, And He reveals His love to me." NOVEMBER The Twenty-first _THE EARLY BUILDERS_ 1 KINGS viii. 1-21. It is always a healthy means of grace to link my own accomplishments with the fidelity and achievements of the past. Solomon traced his finished Temple to the holy purpose in the heart of David his father. I lay the coping-stone, but who turned the first sod? I lead the water into new ministries, but who first dug the well? There is the temple of liberty. In our own day we are enriching it with most benignant legislation, but we must not forget our dauntless fathers, in whose blood the foundations were laid. When I am walking about in the finished structure, let me remember the daring architects who "did well" to have it in their hearts. Such retrospect will make me humble. It will save me from the isolation and impotence of foolish pride. It will confirm me in human fellowship by showing me how many springs I have in my fellow-men. And such retrospect will make me grateful to my God. Noble outlooks always engender the spirit of praise. The fine air of wide spaces quickens the soul to a song. NOVEMBER The Twenty-second _RECOVERING LOST STRENGTH_ 1 KINGS viii. 22-36. In this portion of this great prayer I discern the unalterable mode in which nations and individuals recover their moral health and strength. How do they lose it? Two words tell the story. They "_sin_" and are "_smitten_." It is an inevitable sequence. Every sin is the minister of disease. Sometimes we can see it, when the disease flaunts its flags in the flesh; lust and drunkenness have glaring placards, and we know what is going on within. But even when sin makes no visible mark the wasting process is at work. It is as true of falsehood as of drunkenness, of treachery as of lust. "Evil shall slay the wicked." And how do we recover our lost estate? There are three words which tell the story. "_Turn!_" "_Confess!_" "_Make supplication!_" The words need no exposition. I must turn my face to my despised and neglected Lord; I must tell them all about my miserable revolt, and I must humbly crave for His restoring grace. And the answer is sure. Such humble exercise sets the joy-bells ringing, and the rich forgiveness of the Lord fills the soul with peace. "O taste and see how gracious the Lord is." NOVEMBER The Twenty-third _THE STRANGER_ 1 KINGS viii. 37-53. Yes, indeed, what space has "the stranger" in my supplications? Has he any place at all? Are my intercessions private enclosures, intended only for the select among my friends? Do I ever open the door to anyone outside my family circle? Are my ecclesiastical sympathies large enough to include "outsiders" from afar? What do I do with "the stranger"? There is nothing which keeps prayer sweet and fresh and wholesome like the letting in of "the stranger"! To let a new guest sit down at the feast of my intercession is to give my own soul a most nutritious surprise. It is a most healthy spiritual habit to see to it that we bring in a new "stranger" every time we pray. Let me be continually enlarging the circle of hospitality! Let some new and weary bird find a resting-place in the branches of my supplications every time I hold communication with God. A prayer which has no room for "the stranger" can have little or no room for God. NOVEMBER The Twenty-fourth _THE PRAYER WHICH ENDS IN SACRIFICE_ 1 KINGS viii. 54-66. And that is the healthy order of all true worship. It begins in spacious supplication in which "the stranger" finds a place. Then there is a lavish consecration of self and substance. And then the wedding-bells begin to ring, and "the joy of the Lord is our strength!" "_They went unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had done._" But so many suppliants miss the middle term, and therefore the gladness is wanting. Supplication is not followed by consecration, and therefore there is no exultation. It is a fatal omission. When we are asking for "the gift of God" our request must be accompanied by the gift of ourselves to God. If we want the water we must offer the vessel. No gift of self, no bounty of God! No losing, no finding! "When the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began." "Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee." NOVEMBER The Twenty-fifth _AFTER THE PRAYER THE FIRE!_ "_When Solomon had made an end of praying the fire came down from heaven._" --2 CHRONICLES vii. 1-11. And the fire is the symbol of the Holy God. Pure flame is our imperfect mode of expressing the Incorruptible. This burning flame is heat and light in one. And when Solomon had prayed, the holy Flame was in their midst. But not only is the flame the symbol of the Holy; it also typifies the power which can make me holy. We have no cleansing minister to compare with fire. Where water fails fire succeeds. After an epidemic water is comparatively impotent. We commit the infested garments to the flames. It was the great fire of London which delivered London from the tyranny of the plague. And so it is with my soul. God, who is holy flame, will burn out the germs of my sin. He will "purify Jerusalem with the spirit of burning." "Our God is a consuming fire." Come to my soul, O holy Flame! Place Thy "burning bliss" against my wickedness, and consume it utterly away! NOVEMBER The Twenty-sixth _UNCONSECRATED SOULS_ "_This house which I have sanctified will I cast out of my sight, and will make it a proverb and a by-word among all nations._" --2 CHRONICLES vii. 12-22. And thus am I taught that consecrated houses are nothing without consecrated souls. It is not the mode of worship, but the spirit of the worshipper which forms the test of a consecrated people. If the worshipper is defiled his temple becomes an offence. When the kernel is rotten, and I offer the husk to God, the offering is a double insult to His most holy name. And yet, how tempted I am to assume that God will be pleased with the mere outsides of things, with words instead of aspiration, with postures instead of dispositions, with the letter instead of the spirit, with an ornate and costly temple instead of a sweet and lowly life! Day by day I am tempted to treat the Almighty as though He were a child! Nay, the Bible uses a more awful word; it says men treat the Lord as though He were a fool! From all such irreverence and frivolity, good Lord, deliver me! Let me ever remember that Thou "desirest truth in the _inward_ man." "In the hidden parts" help me "to know wisdom." NOVEMBER The Twenty-seventh _THE VALUE OF REVERENCE_ ROMANS xiii. 1-7. When I pay honour to honourable ministers I not only honour my God, but I enrich and refine my own soul. One of the great secrets of spiritual culture is to know how to revere. There is an uncouth spirit of self-aggression which, while it wounds and impoverishes others, destroys its finest spiritual furniture in its own ungodly heat. The man who never bows will never soar. To pay homage where homage is due is one of the exercises which will help to keep us near "the great white throne." I know my peril, for I recognize one of the prevalent perils of our time. Some of the old courtesies are being discarded as though they belonged to a younger day. Some of the old tokens of respect have been banished to the limbo of rejected ritual. Dignitaries are jostled in the common crowd. "One man is as good as another!" And so there is a tendency to strip life of all its reverences, and venerable fanes become stables for unclean things. My soul, come thou not into this shame! Move in the ways of life with softened tread, and pay thy respect at every shrine where dwells the grace and power of God. NOVEMBER The Twenty-eighth _HOW TO FIGHT EVIL_ "_Overcome evil with good._" --ROMANS xii. 9-21. For how else can we cast out evil? Satan cannot cast out Satan. No one can clean a room with a filthy duster. The surgeon cannot cut out the disease if his instruments are defiled. While he removed one ill-growth he would sow the seed of another. It must be health which fights disease. It will demand a good temper to overcome the bad temper in my brother. And therefore I must cultivate a virtue if I would eradicate a vice. That applies to the state of my own soul. If there be some immoral habit in my life, the best way to destroy it is by cultivating a good one. Take the mind away from the evil one. Deprive it of thought-food. Give the thought to the nobler mood, and the ignoble mood will die. And this also applies to the faults and vices of my brother. I must fight them with their opposites. If he is harsh and cruel, I must be considerate and gentle. If he is grasping, I must be generous. If he is loud and presumptuous, I must be soft-mannered and self-restrained. If he is devilish, I must be a Christian. This is the warfare which tells upon the empire of sin. I can overcome evil with good. NOVEMBER The Twenty-ninth _TRANSFORMING OUR FOES_ MATTHEW v. 38-48. "Love your enemies." It must be the aim of a Christian to make his enemy lovely. It is not my supreme business to secure my safety, but to remove his ugliness. He may only annoy me, but he is destroying himself. He may injure my reputation; but far worse, he is blighting his own character. Therefore must I seek to remove the greater thing, the corrosive malady in his own soul. I must make it my purpose to recover his loveliness, and restore the lost likeness of the Lord. And only love can make things lovely. Revenge can never do it. Even duty will fail in the gracious work. There is a final touch, a consummate bloom, to which duty can never attain, and which is only attainable by love. All love's ministries are creative of loveliness. Wherever her finger rests, something exquisite is born. Love is a great magician: she transforms the desert into a garden, and she makes the wilderness blossom like the rose. But where shall we get the love wherewith to make our enemy lovely? From the great Lover Himself. "We love, because He first loved us." The great Lover will love love into us! And we, too, shall become fountains of love, for our Lord will open "rivers in the high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys." NOVEMBER The Thirtieth _THE SPRING AND THE RIVER_ "_With the Lord there is mercy._" --PSALM cxxx. That is the ultimate spring. All the pilgrims of the night may meet at that fountain. We have no other common meeting-place. If we make any other appointment we shall lose one another on the way. But we can meet one another at the fountain, men of all colours, and of all denominations, and of all creeds. "By Thy mercy, O deliver us, good Lord!" "_There is forgiveness with Thee._" That is the quickening river. Sin and guilt scorch the fair garden of the soul as the lightning withers and destroys the strong and beautiful things in woodland and field. The graces are stricken, holy qualities are smitten, and the soul languishes like a blasted heath. But from the fountain of God's mercy there flows the vitalizing stream of His forgiveness. "There is a river the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God." It is the mystic "river of life, clear as crystal." "Everything shall live whither the river cometh." "_With Him is plenteous redemption._" Salvation is not merely a recovered flower, it is a recovered garden. It is not the restoring merely of a withered hand; "He restoreth my soul." God does not make an oasis in a surrounding desert; He makes the entire wilderness to "rejoice and blossom as the rose." DECEMBER The First _A FAITHFUL FRIEND_ PROVERBS xxvii. 1-10. "_A faithful friend is a strong defence._" He is a gift of God, and therefore a "means of grace." The Lord's seal is upon his ministry. How we impoverish ourselves by separating these precious gifts from their Giver? We desecrate many a fair shrine by emptying it of God. We turn many a temple into just a common house. When we think of our friend let us link him to our Father, and fall upon our knees in grateful praise. He is God's minister in his encouragements. When he cheers me, it is "the Sun of righteousness who rises with healing in His wings." All radiant words are just lamps for "the light of life." All genial speech carries flame from the altar fire of heaven. And he is God's minister in his reproofs. He uses a clean knife: there is no poison on the blade. And when he does surgeon's work upon me, it is clean work, healthy work, the relentless enemy of disease. Some men cut me, and the wound festers. There is malice in the deed. My friend wounds me in order that he may give me a larger, sweeter life. DECEMBER The Second _THE LORD AS A FRIEND_ JOHN xv. 8-17. "Ye are my friends!" In my Lord's friendship there is _the ministry of sacrifice_. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." This great Friend is always giving His blood. It is a lasting shame when professed Christians are afflicted with spiritual anæmia. And yet we are often so fearful, so white-faced, so chicken-hearted, so averse from battle, that no one would think us to be "the soldiers of the Lord." We need blood. "Except ye drink my blood ye have no life." And in my Lord's friendship there is the _privilege of most intimate communion_. "All things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." He takes us into His confidence, and tells us His secrets. It is His delight to lift the veil, and give us constant surprises of love and grace. He discovers flowers in desert places, and in the gloom He unbosoms "the treasures of darkness." He is a Friend of inexhaustible resource, and His companionship makes the pilgrim's way teem with interest, and abound in the wonders of redeeming grace. DECEMBER The Third _ARMS AND THE MAN!_ 1 THESSALONIANS v. 4-10. What wonderful armour is offered to me in which to meet the insidious assaults of the devil! There is "_the armour of light_." Sunlight is the most sanative energy we know. It is the foe of many a deadly microbe which seeks a lodging in our bodies. Light is a splendid armour, even in the realm of the flesh. And so it is in the soul. If the soul is a home of light, the eternal light, evil germs will die as soon as they approach us. They will find nothing to breed on. "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." And there is the armour of "_faith and love_." The opposite to faith is uncertainty, and the opposite to love is cynicism, and who does not know that uncertainty and cynicism are the very hotbeds for the machinations of the evil one? When faith is enthroned the soul is open to the reception of grace, and when love shares the throne the sovereignty is invincible. And there is the armour of "_hope_." Even in a physical ailment a man has a mighty ally who wrestles in hope. And when a man's hope is in the Lord his God all the powers in the heavenly places are his allies, and by his hope he shall be saved. DECEMBER The Fourth _CHILDREN OF LIGHT_ 1 THESSALONIANS v. 5-11. Can we think of a more beautiful figure than this--"_children of light_"? As I write these words I look out upon a building every window of which is ablaze with light, every room the home of attractive brightness. And my life is to be like that! And I look again and I see a lighthouse sending out its strong, pure, friendly beams to guide the mariner as he seeks his "desired haven." And my life is to be like that! And I look once more, and I see a common road lamp, sending its useful light upon the busy street, helping the wayfarer as he goes from place to place. And my life is to be like that! And if my soul is all lit up in friendly radiance for others, the light will be my own defence. Light always scares away the vermin. Lift up a stone in the meadow, let in the light, and see how a hundred secret things will scurry away. And light in the soul scares away "the unfruitful works of darkness"; they cannot dwell with the light. Light repels the evil one; it acts upon him like burning flame. Yes, we are well protected when we are clothed in "the armour of light." But how can we become "children of light," holy homes of protective and saving radiance? Happily, it is not our lot to provide the light, it is ours to provide the lamp. If we offer the lamp the Lord will give the flame. DECEMBER The Fifth _THE SECOND-BEST FOR GOD_ 1 CHRONICLES xvii. 1-15. So the best was for man, and the second-best for God! The cedar for self-indulgence, and the curtains for the home of worship! It is a marked sign of spiritual awakening when a man begins to contrast his own indulgences with the rights of God. There are so many of us who are lavish in our home and miserly in the sanctuary. We multiply treasures which bring us little profit, and we are niggardly where treasure would be of most gracious service. "I dwell in a house of cedar," and yet I am thoughtless about God's poor! For I must remember that the poor are the arks of the Lord. "I was naked, and ye clothed Me not." "I dwell in a house of cedar"; my liberties are many and spacious; and yet there are tribes of God's people held in the tyranny of dark and hopeless servitude. I dwell in England, but what about the folk on the Congo? I dwell in a land of ample religious freedom, but what about Armenia? Do my sympathies remain confined within my cedar walls, or do they go out to God's neglected ones in every land and clime? DECEMBER The Sixth _THE GRACE OF LOWLINESS_ 1 CHRONICLES xvii. 16-27. It is by such lowliness that we arrive at our true sovereignty. All spiritual treasures are hidden along the ways of humility, and it is meekness which discovers them. The uplifted head of pride overlooks them, and its "finds" are only pleasure of the passing day. Lowliness is the secret of spiritual perceptiveness. I find my sight in lowly places. The Sacred Word speaks of "the _valley_ of vision." I usually associate vision and outlook with mountain summits, but in spiritual realms the very capacity to use the heights is acquired in the vale. Lowliness is the secret of spiritual roominess. It is only the humble man who has any room for the Lord. All the chambers in the proud man's soul are thronged with self-conceits, and God is crowded out. Our Lord always finds ample room for Himself wherever the heart bows in humility and says: "I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof." DECEMBER The Seventh _CHOSEN AS BUILDERS_ "_Take heed now, for the Lord hath chosen thee to build._" --1 CHRONICLES xxviii. 1-10. And how must he take heed? For it may be that the Lord hath also chosen me to build, and the counsel given to Solomon may serve me in this later day. Let me listen. "_Serve Him with a perfect heart._" God's chosen builders must be characterized by singleness and simplicity. He can do nothing with "double" men, who do things only "by half," giving one part to Him and the other part to Mammon. It is like offering the stock of a gun to one man and the barrel to another; and the effect is nil. No, the entire gun! The "perfect heart"! "_And with a willing mind._" For the willing mind is the ready mind, and God can do nothing with the unready. I never know just when He will call me to add another stone to the rising walls of the New Jerusalem, and if I am "otherwise engaged" I am a grievous hindrance to His gracious plans. He must be willing and ready who would be a builder of the walls of Zion. And to that man the Lord will entrust the privilege of responsibility. DECEMBER The Eighth _JUDGED BY OUR ASPIRATIONS_ "_Thou didst well, it was in thine heart._" --2 CHRONICLES vi. 1-15. And this was a purpose which the man was not permitted to realize. It was a temple built in the substance of dreams, but never established in wood and stone. And God took the shadowy structure and esteemed it as a perfected pile. The sacred intention was regarded as a finished work. The will to build a temple was regarded as a temple built. And hence I discern the preciousness of all hallowed purpose and desire, even though it never receive actual accomplishment. "Thou didst well, it was in thine heart." And so the will to be, and the will to do, is acceptable sacrifice unto the Lord! "I wish I could be a missionary to the foreign field," but the duties of home forbid. But as a missionary she is accepted of our God, even though she never land on distant shore. Our purposes work, as well as the work itself. Desire is full of holy energy as well as fruition. The wish to do good is good itself; the very longing is a minister in the kingdom of our God. If, therefore, we are to be judged by our aspirations, there are multitudes of apparent failures who will one day be revealed as clothed in the radiance of spiritual victory. DECEMBER The Ninth _NATIONAL BLESSEDNESS_ "_Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound._" --PSALM lxxxix. 1-18. Blessed is the people who love the sound of the silver trumpet which calls to holy convocation! Blessed is the people who are sacredly impatient for the hour of holy communion! Blessed is the people "in whose heart are the highways to Zion." And in what shall their blessedness consist? In illumination. "_They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance._" The favour of the Lord shall shine upon them when they walk through rough and troublous places. There shall always be a sunny patch where the soul is in communion with its Lord. In exultation. "_In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day._" There is nothing like sunshine for making the spirits dance! Light is a great emancipator, a great breaker-up of frozen bondages. It thaws "the genial currents of the soul," and the stream of life sings in its progress. In exaltation. "_In Thy righteousness shall they be exalted._" They will be lifted up above their enemies. In elevation they will find their safety. God lifts us above our passions, above our cares, above our little fears and tempers, and we find our peace upon the heights. DECEMBER The Tenth _THE ONLY WISE BEGINNING_ "_The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom._" --PSALM cxi. If I want to do anything wisely I must begin with God. That is the very alphabet of the matter. Every other beginning is a perverse beginning, and it will end in sure disaster. "I am Alpha." Everything must take its rise in Him, or it will plunge from folly into folly, and culminate in confusion. If I would be wise in my daily business I must begin all my affairs in God. My career itself must be chosen in His presence, and in the illumination of His most holy Spirit. And in the subsequent days nothing must be done that is not rooted and grounded in Him. If I would be wise as a teacher I must begin with God. I must not merely call Him in to bless my lesson when my labour is done. The very beginnings of my thinkings must be in Him. Our Lord will not write an appendix to a volume about which He has never been consulted. "They who seek Me _early_ shall find Me." And so it is with the varied activities of our multitudinous life. If we would have them shine with quiet wisdom we must light them at the Sun of glory. DECEMBER The Eleventh _THE SPEECH OF THE INCARNATION_ "_He hath spoken to us in His Son._" --HEBREWS i. And that blessed Son spake my language. He came into my troubled conditions and expressed Himself out of my humble lot. My surroundings afforded Him a language in which He made known His good news. The carpenter's shop, the shepherd on the hill, the ladened vine, a wayside well, common bread, a friend's sickness, the desolation of a garden, the darkness of "the last things"--these all offered Him a mode of speech in which He unveiled to me the heart of God. He came as the Son to make me a son. For I had made myself a slave, and called my bondage freedom. I wore my badge of servitude with unholy pride. But when He came and spake to me, my lost inheritance dawned upon my wondering eyes, and I knew myself to be enslaved. But His was the glorious mission not only to awake but to emancipate, not only to unveil lost splendour but to recover it. He came to set us free, "and if the Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed." "This my son was lost and is found." Has that great word been spoken concerning me in the Father's home of light? "Lord, I would serve, and be a son. Dismiss me not, I pray." DECEMBER The Twelfth _RELATING EVERYTHING TO GOD_ "_Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God._" --1 CORINTHIANS x. 23-33. And so all my days would constitute a vast temple, and life would be a constant worship. This is surely the science and art of holy living--to relate everything to the Infinite. When I take my common meal and relate it to "the glory of God," the common meal becomes a sacramental feast. When my labour is joined "unto the Lord," the sacred wedding turns my workshop into a church. When I link the country lane to the Saviour, I am walking in the Garden of Eden, and paradise is restored. The fact of the matter is, we never see anything truly until we see it in the light of the glory of God. Set a dull duty in that light and it shines like a diamond. Set a bit of drudgery in that light and it becomes transfigured like the wing of a starling when the sunshine falls upon it. Everything is seen amiss until we see it in the glory! And, therefore, it is my wisdom to set everything in that light, and to do all to the glory of God. DECEMBER The Thirteenth _THE HOLY AND THE PROFANE_ "_Put difference between the holy and the unholy._" --LEVITICUS x. 1-10. The peril of our day is that so many of these differences are growing faint. The holy merges into the unholy, and we can scarcely see the dividing line. Black merges into white through manifold shades of grey. Falsehood slopes into truth through cunning expediences and white lies. Lust merges into purity through conviviality and geniality and good-fellowship. So is one thing losing itself in another, and vivid moral distinctions are being obscured and effaced. There is only one way to keep these native contrasts in vivid relief, and that is by living in the unsullied light of God's holy presence. "In Thy light shall we see light." Things are seen in their true colours only when we bring them before the great white throne. Fabrics seen in the gas-light reveal quite other shades when we bring them into the light of day. We must not make our distinctions in the gas-light of worldly standard and expediency; we must take them into His presence before whose radiance even the angels veil their faces, and we shall see things as they are, and we shall know "the difference between the holy and the profane." DECEMBER The Fourteenth _THE SACRED USE OF LIBERTY_ "_Take heed lest this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling-block._" --1 CORINTHIANS viii. 8-13. That is a very solemn warning. My liberty may trip someone into bondage. If life were an affair of one my liberty might be wholesome; but it is an affair of many, and my liberty may be destructive to my fellows. I am not only responsible for my life, but for its influence. When a thing has been lived there is still the example to deal with. If orange peel be thrown upon the pavement, that is not the end of the feast. The man who slips over the peel is a factor in the incident, and my responsibility covers him. I am, therefore, to consider both my deeds and their influence. How does my life trend when it touches my brother? In what way does he move because of the impact of my example? Towards liberty or towards license? To the swamps of transgression or to the fields of holiness? These are determining questions, and I must not seek to escape or ignore them. My brother is a vital part of my life. I must never shut him out of my sight. How is he influenced by my example? "If meat make my brother to stumble, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth." DECEMBER The Fifteenth _WHAT IS MY TENDENCY?_ "_Whether we live, we live unto_...." --ROMANS xiv. 7-21. Unto what? In what direction are we living? Whither are we going? How do we complete the sentence? "We live unto _money_!" That is how many would be compelled to finish the record. Money is their goal, and their goal determines their tendency. "We live unto _pleasure_!" Such would be another popular company. "We live unto _fame_!" That would be the banner of another regiment. "We live unto _ease_!" Thus would men and women describe their quests. "Unto" what? That is the searching question which probes life to its innermost desire. "For whether we live, we live _unto the Lord_." That was the apostle's unfailing tendency, increasing in its momentum every day. He crashed through obstacles in his glorious quest. He sought the Lord through everything and in everything. When new circumstances confronted him, his first question was this--"Where is Christ in all this?" He found the right way across every trackless moor by simply seeking Christ. DECEMBER The Sixteenth _THE GREATEST WONDERS_ HEBREWS xi. 30-40. The greatest wonders are not in Nature but in grace. A regenerated soul is a greater marvel than the marvel of the spring-time. A transfigured face is a deeper mystery than a sun-lit garden. To rear graces in a life once scorched and blasted by sin is more wonderful than to grow flowers on a cinder-heap. If we want to see the realm of surpassing wonders we must look into a soul that has been born again and is now in vital union with the living Christ. Even the angels watch the sight with ever-deepening awe and praise. As the spiritual is the home of wonders, so also is it the field of brightest exploits. It is not what men have done by the sword that counts in the esteem of heaven--such deeds mean little or nothing; it is what they have done "by faith." Weak, frail men and women have put their faith in God, and have done the impossible! Faith unites the weakling with almightiness! Faith makes a lonely soul one with "the spirits of just men made perfect," and with them he shares "the power and the glory" of the eternal God. DECEMBER The Seventeenth _GOD'S PRESENCE OUR DEFENCE_ EXODUS xv. 11-18. When we invent little devices to protect us against the evil one, he laughs at our petty presumption. It is like unto a child erecting sand ramparts against an incoming sea. The only thing that makes the devil fear is the presence of God. Our money can do nothing. Our culture can do nothing. Our social status can do nothing. Only God can deal with devils. "By the greatness of Thine arm they shall be still as a stone." When Thou art with me "I will fear no evil"; the fear shall be with my foes. It is, therefore, the divine in anything which endows it with a strong defence. If the holy God dwells in our culture, then our culture becomes like an invulnerable fort. If God abides in our recreations, then our very sports are armed against our foes. If "the joy of the Lord" is in our festivity, then our very merriment is proof against the invasion of the world. When the Lord is in us, fear dwells in the opposite camp. "Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be shaken in the heart of the seas." DECEMBER The Eighteenth _THE SINNER'S GUEST_ "_He is gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner._" --LUKE xix. 1-10. It was hurled as an accusation; it has been treasured as a garland. It was first said in contempt; it is repeated in adoration. It was thought to reveal His earthliness; it is now seen to unveil His glory. Our Saviour seeks the home of the sinner. The Best desires to be the guest of the worst. He spreads His kindnesses for the outcasts, and He offers His friendship to the exile on the loneliest road. He waits to befriend the defeated, the poor folk with aching consciences and broken wills. He loves to go to souls that have lost their power of flight, like birds with broken wings, which can only flutter in the unclean road. He went to Zacchæus. Yes, the Lord went to be "guest with a man that is a sinner," and He changed the sinner into a saint. The worldling found wings. The stone became flesh. Gentle emotions began to stir in a heart hardened by heedlessness and sin. Restitution took the place of greed. The home of the sinner became the temple of the Lord. "To-day is salvation come to this house forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham." DECEMBER The Nineteenth _THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS_ "_A light to lighten the Gentiles._" --LUKE ii. 25-40. That was the wonder of wonders. Hitherto the light had been supposed to be for Israel alone; and now a heavenly splendour was to fall upon the Gentiles. Hitherto the light had been thought of as a lamp, illuming a single place; now it was to be a sun, shedding its glory upon a world. The "people that sat in darkness" are now to see "a great light." New regions are to be occupied; there is to be daybreak everywhere! "The Sun of Righteousness is arisen, with healing in His wings." "To lighten the Gentiles!" And thus the heavenly beams have come to thee and me, to Europe and America, and to all the nations of the earth. The amazing privilege is our personal inheritance. We are born to glorious rights in Christ Jesus. But a wealthy heir may neglect this inheritance. We may have the light and neglect our garden. We may have all the favours of a blessed clime, and yet our life may be like a wilderness. The Gentiles may have the light, and may yet be children of the darkness. It is ours to believe in the light that our lives may become "light in the Lord." DECEMBER The Twentieth _THE COMING OF THE LORD_ JOHN i. 1-14. My Lord came as "_the word_." He came as the expression of the mind of the eternal God. Ordinary words could not have carried the "good news." Ordinary language was an altogether inadequate vessel for this new wine. And so the mighty news was spoken in the incarnation of the Lord. My Lord came as "life." "_In Him was life._" But not a mere cupful of life, or even a cup running over. He came as "the fountain of life." Nay, if I had the requisite word I must get even behind and beyond this. For He was the Creator of fountains. "The water that I shall give him shall be _in him a well_." Yes, He was the fountain of fountains! The Lord came as "light." "_The life was the light._" True light is always the child of life. Our clearest light comes not from speech or doctrine, still less does it emerge from controversy. It is the fine, subtle issue of fine living. And my light is to "shine before men" by reason of the indwelling life of the Christ. And my Lord came as "power." "_To them gave He power._" All the power I need for a full, holy, healthy life I can find in Him. Every obligation has its corresponding inspiration, and I am competent to do His will. DECEMBER The Twenty-first _THE LORD OF WORKING MEN_ LUKE ii. 8-20. And so the good news was told to shepherds, to working men who were toiling in the fields. The coming King would hallow the common work of man, and in His love and grace all the problems of labour would find a solution. The Lord of the Christmas-tide throws a halo over common toil. Even Christian people have not all learnt the significance of the angels' visit to the lonely shepherds. Some of us can see the light resting upon a bishop's crosier, but we cannot see the radiance on the ordinary shepherd's staff. We can discern the hallowedness of a priest's vocation, but we see no sanctity in the calling of the grocer, or of the scavenger in the street. We can see the nimbus on the few, but not on the crowd; on the unusual, but not upon the commonplace. But the very birth-hour of Christianity irradiated the humble doings of humble people. When the angels went to the shepherds, common work was encircled with an immortal crown. And it is in the Lord Jesus that all labour troubles are to be put to rest. If we work from any other centre we shall arrive at confusion confounded. "I have the keys." DECEMBER The Twenty-second _THE LORD OF THE WORSHIPPER_ LUKE ii. 25-35. And so the good news was taken to the worshipper bowing within the gates of the Temple. The soul of old Simeon was filled with holy satisfaction and peace. The cravings of the heart were quieted, and its desires found the coveted feast in the holy Child of God. And thus the Lord Jesus was not only to dignify the body but to gratify the soul. He was to be most efficient where He was most needed. And this has been the unfailing experience of the years. There is a hunger in my soul for which I can find no satisfying bread. I have tried many breads; I have tried nature, and art, and music, and literature, and I have tried human fellowship and social service. But my soul is hungry still! And the Lord Jesus comes to me, as I reverently grope in the vast temple, and He "satisfies the hungry soul" with good things. His "bread of life" is very wonderful; it lifts the soul into the restfulness of strength, and gives me a strange buoyancy, and "the glorious liberty of the children of God." "My soul, wait thou only on Him!" He is thy hope, thy strength, and thy salvation! He is "the desire of all the nations." DECEMBER The Twenty-third _THE LORD OF THE STUDENTS_ MATTHEW ii. 1-12. And so the good news came to "wise men," shall we say to students, busying themselves with the vast and intricate problems of the mind. And the evangel offered the students mental satisfaction, bringing the interpreting clue, beaming upon them with the guiding ray which would lead them into perfect noon. Yes, our wise men must find the key of wisdom in the Lord. In a wider sense than the meaning of the original word it is true that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." To seek mental satisfactions and leave out Jesus is like trying to make a garden and leave out the sun. "Without Me ye can do nothing," not even in the unravelling of the problems which beset and besiege the mind. If my mental pilgrimage is to be as "a shining light shining more and more even unto perfect day," I must begin with Jesus, and pay homage to His Kingly and incomparable glory. I must lay my treasures at His feet, "gold, and frankincense, and myrrh." Then will He lead me "into all truth," and "the truth shall make me free." DECEMBER The Twenty-fourth _ENTERING IN AT LOWLY DOORS_ "_Unto us a Child is born._" --ISAIAH ix. 1-7. How gentle the coming! Who would have had sufficient daring of imagination to conceive that God Almighty would have appeared among men as a little child? We should have conceived something sensational, phenomenal, catastrophic, appalling! The most awful of the natural elements would have formed His retinue, and men would be chilled and frozen with fear. But He came as a little child. The great God "emptied Himself"; He let in the light as our eyes were able to bear it. "_Unto us a Son is given._" And that is the superlative gift! The love that bestows such gift is all-complete and gracious. And the Son is given in order that we may all be born into sonship. It is the Son's ministry to make sons. "Now are we the sons of God," and we are of His creation. "Lord, I would serve, and be a son; Dismiss me not, I pray." DECEMBER The Twenty-fifth _CHRISTMAS CHEER_ "_Good will toward men!_" --LUKE ii. 8-20. The heavens are not filled with hostility. The sky does not express a frown. When I look up I do not contemplate a face of brass, but the face of infinite good will. Yet when I was a child, many a picture has made me think of God as suspicious, inhumanly watchful, always looking round the corner to catch me at the fall. That "eye," placed in the sky of many a picture, and placed there to represent God, filled my heart with a chilling fear. That God was to me a magnified policeman, watching for wrong-doers, and ever ready for the infliction of punishment. It was all a frightful perversion of the gracious teaching of Jesus. Heaven overflows with good will toward men! Our God not only wishes good, He wills it! "He gave His only begotten Son," as the sacred expression of His infinite good will. He has good will toward thee and me, and mine and thine. Let that holy thought make our Christmas cheer. DECEMBER The Twenty-sixth _DAYBREAK IN THE SOUL_ ISAIAH ix. 1-7. It is a lonely and a chilling experience to sit in the darkness. And the gloom and the cold are all the more intense when there is death in the house. In such conditions we are in great need of light and fire. And that is how the children of men were feeling before the Saviour came. They "_sat in darkness_" and in "_the shadow of death_." The world was cold, and sin and death were in it, and they longed for light and cheer. And "the great Light came," and His wonderful Presence not only illumines the house but banishes the fear of sin and death. "_They that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined._" Where can we get this living light except in the Lord Jesus Christ? Everything else is candle-light! It fails us in the midnight. It flickers amid conflicting currents. It goes out in the rough blast. The light of art and of literature fails me when I need them most. When I sit in the darkness, with death in the house, these kindly ministers have no effective beams. I turn to the Master, and He shines upon me, and it is daybreak in the soul! DECEMBER The Twenty-seventh _THE SUNNY SIDE OF THINGS_ 1 JOHN i. 1-7. I have just come out of a gloomy room into a sunny room to write these words. I had my choice. I could have stayed in the sombre room, but I choose to come into the sun-lit room and the warm, cheering beams are even now falling upon my page. "Walk in the light!" And I make my choice, and how often I choose to walk without Christ in the unfertilizing and unfruitful gloom of self-will! In the light of the Lord I could have a garden of Eden; how often I choose the dingy wilderness where I can grow neither flowers nor fruits. "Walk in the light." The Lord's companionship always makes the sunny side of the street. It may be that the way is rough and stony and difficult, but in His company there is light that never fails, compared with which the world's noontide is only as the gloomiest night. And the souls that "walk in the light" gather "sacred sweets" all along the way. Heavenly fruits grow for the children of light, fruits of love and joy and peace, and the favoured pilgrim plucks them as he goes along. "All I find in Jesus." The way of light is the way of delight, and "the joy of the Lord is our strength." DECEMBER The Twenty-eighth _IN HIM WAS LIFE_ JOHN i. 1-18. I have heard men speak of "wanting to see a bit of life," and I found that what they meant was to see a bit of death. It is as if a man should go to the hospital to see a bit of health, or as if he should go to a gory battlefield to see the human frame. It is like going to a refuse-heap to see a bit of garden. Life is not found in fields of license; it is not found among the wild oats of a dissipated youth. Life is found only in Christ, and if we want to see a bit of life we must go to Him. "In Him was life"; and that not merely to be looked at but to be shared. He is the well to which everybody can bring his pitcher, and take it away filled. And my pitcher is just my need. "All the fitness He requires is to feel our need of Him." The Life is all-sufficient for the needs of the race. This Life can vitalize all that is withered and dead; it can make decrepit wills muscular and mighty, and it can transfigure the leper with the glow and purity of perfect health. "Thou of life the Fountain art, Freely let me take of Thee." DECEMBER The Twenty-ninth _THE LOVE OF GOD_ 1 JOHN iv. 7-14. Let me more assiduously think of God's love. Let me sit down to it. In the National Gallery can be seen two sorts of people. There are the mere vagrants, who are always "on the move," passing from picture to picture, without seeing any. And there are the students, who sit down, and contemplate, and meditate, and appropriate, and saturate. And there are vagrants in respect to the love of the Lord. They have a passing glimpse, but the impression is not vital and vitalizing, and there are the students, who are always gazing, and who are continually crying, "O the depth of the riches of the love of God in Christ!" "His riches are unsearchable!" And God's love is the creator of my love. "While I muse the fire burns." I am kindled into the same holy passion. That is to say, contemplation determines character. We acquire the hues of the things to which we cling. To hold fellowship with love is to become loveful and lovely. "We love because He first loved us." And then, in the third place, it is through my love that I know my Lord. "_Everyone that loveth knoweth God._" Love is the lens through which I discern the secret things of God. DECEMBER The Thirtieth _THE BLESSEDNESS OF FORGIVENESS_ "_Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven._" --PSALM xxxii. It is the blessedness of emancipation. The boat which has been tethered to the weird, baleful shore is set free, and sails toward the glories of the morning. The man, long cramped in the dark, imprisoning pit, is brought out, and stretches his limbs in the sweet light and air of God's free world. Black servitude is ended; glorious liberty begins. It is the blessedness of education. For when we are freed we are by no means perfected. We are liberated babes; and our Emancipator does not desert us in our spiritual infancy. The foundling is not abandoned. "Having loved His own He loved them unto the end." He begins with us in the spiritual nursery, and He will train and lead and feed us until we are "perfect in Christ Jesus." Therefore is it the blessedness of exultation. The babe is resting on the bosom of the Lord, and "the joy of the Lord is his strength." It is not my emancipation that ensures my joy; it is the abiding Presence of the Emancipator. DECEMBER The Thirty-first _THE REAR-GUARD_ "_Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life._" --PSALM xxiii. But why "_follow_" me? Why not "go before"? Because some of my enemies are in the rear; they attack me from behind. There are foes in my yesterdays which can give me fatal wounds. They can stab me in the back! If I could only get away from the past! Its guilt dogs my steps. Its sins are ever at my heels. I have turned my face toward the Lord, but my yesterdays pursue me like a relentless hound! So I have an enemy in the rear. But, blessed be His name, my mighty God is in the rear as well as my foe. "Goodness and mercy shall follow me!" No hound can break through that defence. Between me and my guilt there is the infinite love of the Lord. The loving Lord will not permit my past to destroy my soul. I may sorrow for my past, but my very sorrow shall be a minister of moral and spiritual health. My Lord is Lord of the past as well as of the morrow, and so to-day "I will trust and not be afraid." * * * * * DEVOTIONAL ================================================================== _ROBERT F. HORTON_ The Triumphant Life: Life, Warfare and Victory through the Cross 16mo, Cloth, net 50c. The author, one of the most influential preachers and devotional writers, presents an attractive volume of brief counsels on Faith and Duty. _CHARLES BROWN_ Lessons from the Cross 16mo, Cloth, net 50c. A volume of remarkable spiritual power which will also prove an incentive to further study of this great subject. _MILFORD HALL LYON_ For the Life That Now Is 16mo, Cloth, net 75c. "Emphasizes the power and presence of a life hid with Christ in God. 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8534	----	DAILY STRENGTH FOR DAILY NEEDS By Mary Wilder Tileston _Selected by the Editor of_ "Joy and Strength for the Pilgrim's Day," "Quiet Hours," etc. "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" PREFACE This little book of brief selections in prose and verse, with accompanying texts of Scripture, is intended for a daily companion and counsellor. These words of the goodly fellowship of wise and holy men of many times, it is hoped may help to strengthen the reader to perform the duties and to bear the burdens of each day with cheerfulness and courage. MARY WILDER TILESTON. January 1 _They go from strength to strength_.--PS. lxxxiv. 7. _First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear_.--MARK. iv. 28. Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea! O. W. HOLMES. High hearts are never long without hearing some new call, some distant clarion of God, even in their dreams; and soon they are observed to break up the camp of ease, and start on some fresh march of faithful service. And, looking higher still, we find those who never wait till their moral work accumulates, and who reward resolution with no rest; with whom, therefore, the alternation is instantaneous and constant; who do the good only to see the better, and see the better only to achieve it; who are too meek for transport, too faithful for remorse, too earnest for repose; whose worship is action, and whose action ceaseless aspiration. J. MARTINEAU. January 2 _The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore_.--PS. cxxi. 8. _Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations_.--PS. xc. 1. With grateful hearts the past we own; The future, all to us unknown, We to Thy guardian care commit, And peaceful leave before Thy feet. P. DODDRIDGE. We are like to Him with whom there is no past or future, with whom a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, when we do our work in the great present, leaving both past and future to Him to whom they are ever present, and fearing nothing, because He is in our future as much as He is in our past, as much as, and far more than we can feel Him to be, in our present. Partakers thus of the divine nature, resting in that perfect All-in-all in whom our nature is eternal too, we walk without fear, full of hope and courage and strength to do His will, waiting for the endless good which He is always giving as fast as He can get us able to take it in. G. MACDONALD. January 3 _As thy days, so shall thy strength be_.--DEUT. xxxiii. 25. _Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof_.--MATT. vi. 34. Oh, ask not thou, How shall I bear The burden of to-morrow? Sufficient for to-day, its care, Its evil and its sorrow; God imparteth by the way Strength sufficient for the day. J. E. SAXBY. He that hath so many causes of joy, and so great, is very much in love with sorrow and peevishness, who loses all these pleasures, and chooses to sit down upon his little handful of thorns. Enjoy the blessings of this day, if God sends them; and the evils of it bear patiently and sweetly: for this day only is ours, we are dead to yesterday, and we are not yet born to the morrow. But if we look abroad, and bring into one day's thoughts the evil of many, certain and uncertain, what will be and what will never be, our load will be as intolerable as it is unreasonable. JEREMY TAYLOR. January 4 _If we sin, we are Thine, knowing Thy power: but--we will not sin, knowing that we are counted Thine. For to know Thee is perfect righteousness: yea, to know Thy power is the root of immortality_.--WISDOM OF SOLOMON xv. 2, 3. Oh, empty us of self, the world, and sin, And then in all Thy fulness enter in; Take full possession, Lord, and let each thought Into obedience unto Thee be brought; Thine is the power, and Thine the will, that we Be wholly sanctified, O Lord, to Thee. C. E. J. Take steadily some one sin, which seems to stand out before thee, to root it out, by God's grace, and every fibre of it. Purpose strongly, by the grace and strength of God, wholly to sacrifice this sin or sinful inclination to the love of God, to spare it not, until thou leave of it none remaining, neither root nor branch. Fix, by God's help, not only to root out this sin, but to set thyself to gain, by that same help, the opposite grace. If thou art tempted to be angry, try hard, by God's grace, to be _very_ meek; if to be proud, seek to be _very_ humble. E. B. PUSEY. January 5 _That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish_.--EPH. v. 27. Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house.--I PETER ii. 5. One holy Church of God appears Through every age and race, Unwasted by the lapse of years, Unchanged by changing place. S. LONGFELLOW. A temple there has been upon earth, a spiritual Temple, made up of living stones; a Temple, as I may say, composed of souls; a Temple with God for its light, and Christ for the high priest; with wings of angels for its arches, with saints and teachers for its pillars, and with worshippers for its pavement. Wherever there is faith and love, this Temple is. J. H. NEWMAN. To whatever worlds He carries our souls when they shall pass out of these imprisoning bodies, in those worlds these souls of ours shall find themselves part of the same great Temple; for it belongs not to this earth alone. There can be no end of the universe where God is, to which that growing Temple does not reach,--the Temple of a creation to be wrought at last into a perfect utterance of God by a perfect obedience to God. PHILLIPS BROOKS. January 6 _In all ages entering into holy souls, she [Wisdom] maketh them friends of God, and prophets_.--WISDOM OF SOLOMON vii. 27. Meanwhile with every son and saint of Thine Along the glorious line, Sitting by turns beneath Thy sacred feet We 'll hold communion sweet, Know them by look and voice, and thank them all For helping us in thrall, For words of hope, and bright examples given To shew through moonless skies that there is light in heaven. J. KEBLE. If we cannot live at once and alone with Him, we may at least live with those who have lived with Him; and find, in our admiring love for their purity, their truth, their goodness, an intercession with His pity on our behalf. To study the lives, to meditate the sorrows, to commune with the thoughts, of the great and holy men and women of this rich world, is a sacred discipline, which deserves at least to rank as the forecourt of the temple of true worship, and may train the tastes, ere we pass the very gate, of heaven. We forfeit the chief source of dignity and sweetness in life, next to the direct communion with God, if we do not seek converse with the greater minds that have left their vestiges on the world. J. MARTINEAU. Do not think it wasted time to submit yourself to any influence which may bring upon you any noble feeling. J. RUSKIN. January 7 _The exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power_.--EPH. i. 19. The lives which seem so poor, so low, The hearts which are so cramped and dull, The baffled hopes, the impulse slow, Thou takest, touchest all, and lo! They blossom to the beautiful. SUSAN COOLIDGE. A root set in the finest soil, in the best climate, and blessed with all that sun and air and rain can do for it, is not in so sure a way of its growth to perfection, as every man may be, whose spirit aspires after all that which God is ready and infinitely desirous to give him. For the sun meets not the springing bud that stretches towards him with half that certainty, as God, the source of all good, communicates Himself to the soul that longs to partake of Him. WM. LAW. If we stand in the openings of the present moment, with all the length and breadth of our faculties unselfishly adjusted to what it reveals, we are in the best condition to receive what God is always ready to communicate. T. C. UPHAM. January 8 _As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men_.--GAL. vi. 10. _Let brotherly love continue_.--HEB. xiii. 1. I Ask Thee for a thoughtful love, Through constant watching wise, To meet the glad with joyful smiles, And to wipe the weeping eyes, And a heart at leisure from itself, To soothe and sympathize. A. L. WARING. Surely none are so full of cares, or so poor in gifts, that to them also, waiting patiently and trustfully on God for His daily commands, He will not give direct ministry for Him, increasing according to their strength and their desire. There is so much to be set right in the world, there are so many to be led and helped and comforted, that we must continually come in contact with such in our daily life. Let us only take care, that, by the glance being turned inward, or strained onward, or lost in vacant reverie, we do not miss our turn of service, and pass by those to whom we might have been sent on an errand straight from God. ELIZABETH CHARLES. Look up and not down; look forward and not back; look out and not in; and lend a hand. EDWARD E. HALE. January 9 _And in every work that be began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered_.--2 CHRON. xxxi. 21. _What, shall we do, that we might work the works of God_?--JOHN vi. 28. Give me within the work which calls to-day, To see Thy finger gently beckoning on; So struggle grows to freedom, work to play, And toils begun from Thee to Thee are done. J. F. CLARKE. God is a kind Father. He sets us all in the places where He wishes us to be employed; and that employment is truly "our Father's business." He chooses work for every creature which will be delightful to them, if they do it simply and humbly. He gives us always strength enough, and sense enough, for what He wants us to do; if we either tire ourselves or puzzle ourselves, it is our own fault. And we may always be sure, whatever we are doing, that we cannot be pleasing Him, if we are not happy ourselves. J. RUSKIN. January 10 _Because Thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee_.--PS. lxiii. 3. _Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it_.--LUKE xvii. 33. O Lord! my best desires fulfil, And help me to resign Life, health, and comfort, to Thy will, And make Thy pleasure mine. WM. COWPER. What do our heavy hearts prove but that other things are sweeter to us than His will, that we have not attained to the full mastery of our true freedom, the full perception of its power, that our sonship is yet but faintly realized, and its blessedness not yet proved and known? Our consent would turn all our trials into obedience. By consenting we make them our own, and offer them with ourselves again to Him. H. E. MANNING. Nothing is intolerable that is necessary. Now God hath bound thy trouble upon thee, with a design to try thee, and with purposes to reward and crown thee. These cords thou canst not break; and therefore lie thou down gently, and suffer the hand of God to do what He please. JEREMY TAYLOR. January 11 _I will be glad, and rejoice in Thy mercy: for Thou hast considered my trouble; Thou hast known my soul in adversities_.--PS. xxxi. 7. Nay, all by Thee is ordered, chosen, planned; Each drop that fills my daily cup Thy hand Prescribes, for ills none else can understand: All, all is known to Thee. A. L. NEWTON. God knows us through and through. Not the most secret thought, which we most hide from ourselves, is hidden from Him. As then we come to know ourselves through and through, we come to see ourselves more as God sees us, and then we catch some little glimpse of His designs with us, how each ordering of His Providence, each check to our desires, each failure of our hopes, is just fitted for us, and for something in our own spiritual state, which others know not of, and which, till then, we knew not. Until we come to this knowledge, we must take all in faith, believing, though we know not, the goodness of God towards us. As we know ourselves, we, thus far, know God. E. B. PUSEY. January 12 _Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer_.--PS. xix. 14. The thoughts that in our hearts keep place, Lord, make a holy, heavenly throng, And steep in innocence and grace The issue of each guarded tongue. T. H. GILL. There is another kind of silence to be cultivated, besides that of the tongue as regards others. I mean silence as regards one's self,--restraining the imagination, not permitting it to dwell overmuch on what we have heard or said, not indulging in the phantasmagoria of picture-thoughts, whether of the past or future. Be sure that you have made no small progress in the spiritual life, when you can control your imagination, so as to fix it on the duty and occupation actually existing, to the exclusion of the crowd of thoughts which are perpetually sweeping across the mind. No doubt, you cannot prevent those thoughts from arising, but you can prevent yourself from dwelling on them; you can put them aside, you can check the self-complacency, or irritation, or earthly longings which feed them, and by the practice of such control of your thoughts you will attain that spirit of inward silence which draws the soul into a close intercourse with God. JEAN N. GROU. January 13 _Speak not evil one of another, brethren_.--JAMES iv. 11. _Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice_.--EPH. iv. 31. If aught good thou canst not say Of thy brother, foe, or friend, Take thou, then, the silent way, Lest in word thou shouldst offend. ANON. If there is any person to whom you feel dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak. R. CECIL. To recognize with delight all high and generous and beautiful actions; to find a joy even in seeing the good qualities of your bitterest opponents, and to admire those qualities even in those with whom you have least sympathy, this is the only spirit which can heal the love of slander and of calumny. F. W. ROBERTSON. January 14 _Thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint_.--2 SAM. xv. 15. I love to think that God appoints My portion day by day; Events of life are in His hand, And I would only say, Appoint them in Thine own good time, And in Thine own best way. A. L. WARING. If we are really, and always, and equally ready to do whatsoever the King appoints, all the trials and vexations arising from any change in His appointments, great or small, simply do not exist. If He appoints me to work there, shall I lament that I am not to work here? If He appoints me to wait in-doors to-day, am I to be annoyed because I am not to work out-of-doors? If I meant to write His messages this morning, shall I grumble because He sends interrupting visitors, rich or poor, to whom I am to speak them, or "show kindness" for His sake, or at least obey His command, "Be courteous?" If all my members are really at His disposal, why should I be put out if to-day's appointment is some simple work for my hands or errands for my feet, instead of some seemingly more important doing of head or tongue? F. R. HAVERGAL. January 15 _For this is the will of God, even your sanctification_.--I THESS. iv. 3. Between us and Thyself remove Whatever hindrances may be, That so our inmost heart may prove A holy temple, meet for Thee. LATIN MSS. OF 15TH CENTURY. Bear, in the presence of God, to know thyself. Then seek to know for what God sent thee into the world; how thou hast fulfilled it; art thou yet what God willed thee to be; what yet lacketh unto thee; what is God's will for thee _now_; what thing thou mayest _now_ do, by His grace, to obtain His favor, and approve thyself unto Him. Say to Him, "Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God," and He will say unto thy soul, "Fear not; I am thy salvation." He will speak peace unto thy soul; He will set thee in the way; He will bear thee above things of sense, and praise of man, and things which perish in thy grasp, and give thee, if but afar off, some glimpse of His own, unfading, unsetting, unperishing brightness and bliss and love. E. B. PUSEY. January 16 _Now our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work_.--2 THESS. ii. 16, 17. When sorrow all our heart would ask, We need not shun our daily task, And hide ourselves for calm; The herbs we seek to heal our woe Familiar by our pathway grow, Our common air is balm. J. KEBLE. Oh, when we turn away from some duty or some fellow-creature, saying that our hearts are too sick and sore with some great yearning of our own, we may often sever the line on which a divine message was coming to us. We shut out the man, and we shut out the angel who had sent him on to open the door. There is a plan working in our lives; and if we keep our hearts quiet and our eyes open, it all works together; and, if we don't, it all rights together, and goes on fighting till it comes right, somehow, somewhere. ANNIE KEARY. January 17 _Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings_.--I PETER iv. 12, 13. We take with solemn thankfulness Our burden up, nor ask it less, And count it joy that even we May suffer, serve, or wait for Thee, Whose will be done! J. G. WHITTIER. Receive every inward and outward trouble, every disappointment, pain, uneasiness, temptation, darkness, and desolation, with both thy hands, as a true opportunity and blessed occasion of dying to self, and entering into a fuller fellowship with thy self-denying, suffering Saviour. Look at no inward or outward trouble in any other view; reject every other thought about it; and then every kind of trial and distress will become the blessed day of thy prosperity. That state is best, which exerciseth the highest faith in, and fullest resignation to God. WM. LAW. January 18 _Thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee_.--DEUT. XXVI. 11. _Rejoice evermore. In everything give thanks_.--I THESS. v. 16, 18. Grave on thy heart each past "red-letter day"! Forget not all the sunshine of the way By which the Lord hath led thee; answered prayers, And joys unasked, strange blessings, lifted cares, Grand promise-echoes! Thus thy life shall be One record of His love and faithfulness to thee. F. R. HAVERGAL. Gratitude consists in a watchful, minute attention to the particulars of our state, and to the multitude of God's gifts, taken one by one. It fills us with a consciousness that God loves and cares for us, even to the least event and smallest need of life. It is a blessed thought, that from our childhood God has been laying His fatherly hands upon us, and always in benediction; that even the strokes of His hands are blessings, and among the chiefest we have ever received. When this feeling is awakened, the heart beats with a pulse of thankfulness. Every gift has its return of praise. It awakens an unceasing daily converse with our Father,--He speaking to us by the descent of blessings, we to Him by the ascent of thanksgiving. And all our whole life is thereby drawn under the light of His countenance, and is filled with a gladness, serenity, and peace which only thankful hearts can know. H. E. MANNING. January 19 _Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord_.--PS. cv. 3. _The joy of the Lord is your strength_.--NEH. viii. 10. Be Thou my Sun, my selfishness destroy, Thy atmosphere of Love be all my joy; Thy Presence be my sunshine ever bright, My soul the little mote that lives but in Thy light. GERHARD TERSTEEGEN. I do not know when I have had happier times in my soul, than when I have been sitting at work, with nothing before me but a candle and a white cloth, and hearing no sound but that of my own breath, with God in my soul and heaven in my eye... I rejoice in being exactly what I am,--a creature capable of loving God, and who, as long as God lives, must be happy. I get up and look for a while out of the window, and gaze at the moon and stars, the work of an Almighty hand. I think of the grandeur of the universe, and then sit down, and think myself one of the happiest beings in it. A POOR METHODIST WOMAN, 18TH CENTURY. January 20 _The Lord taketh pleasure In His people: He will beautify the meek with salvation_.--PS. cxlix. 4. Long listening to Thy words, My voice shall catch Thy tone, And, locked in Thine, my hand shall grow All loving like Thy own. B. T. It is not in words explicable, with what divine lines and lights the exercise of godliness and charity will mould and gild the hardest and coldest countenance, neither to what darkness their departure will consign the loveliest. For there is not any virtue the exercise of which, even momentarily, will not impress a new fairness upon the features; neither on them only, but on the whole body the moral and intellectual faculties have operation, for all the movements and gestures, however slight, are different in their modes according to the mind that governs them--and on the gentleness and decision of right feeling follows grace of actions, and, through continuance of this, grace of form. J. RUSKIN. There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us. R. W. EMERSON. January 21 _Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint_.--ISA. xl. 30, 31. Lord, with what courage and delight I do each thing, When Thy least breath sustains my wing! I shine and move Like those above, And, with much gladness Quitting sadness, Make me fair days of every night. H. VAUGHAN. Man, by living wholly in submission to the Divine Influence, becomes surrounded with, and creates for himself, internal pleasures infinitely greater than any he can otherwise attain to--a state of heavenly Beatitude. J. P. GREAVES. By persisting in a habit of self-denial, we shall, beyond what I can express, increase the inward powers of the mind, and shall produce that cheerfulness and greatness of spirit as will fit us for all good purposes; and shall not have lost pleasure, but _changed_ it; the soul being then filled with its own intrinsic pleasures. HENRY MORE. January 22 _Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord_.--HOSEA vi. 3. And, as the path of duty is made plain, May grace be given that I may walk therein, Not like the hireling, for his selfish gain, With backward glances and reluctant tread, Making a merit of his coward dread,-- But, cheerful, in the light around me thrown, Walking as one to pleasant service led; Doing God's will as if it were my own, Yet trusting not in mine, but in His strength alone! J. G. WHITTIER. It is by doing our duty that we learn to do it. So long as men dispute whether or no a thing is their duty, they get never the nearer. Let them set ever so weakly about doing it, and the face of things alters. They find in themselves strength which they knew not of. Difficulties which it seemed to them they could not get over, disappear. For He accompanies it with the influences of His blessed Spirit, and each performance opens our minds for larger influxes of His grace, and places them in communion with Him. E. B. PUSEY. That which is called considering what is our duty in a particular case, is very often nothing but endeavoring to explain it away. JOSEPH BUTLER. January 23 _If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday; and the Lord shall guide thee continually_.--ISA. lviii. 10, 11. If thou hast Yesterday thy duty done, And thereby cleared firm footing for To-day, Whatever clouds make dark To-morrow's sun, Thou shall not miss thy solitary way. J. W. VON GOETHE. O Lord, who art our Guide even unto death, grant us, I pray Thee, grace to follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. In little daily duties to which Thou callest us, bow down our wills to simple obedience, patience under pain or provocation, strict truthfulness of word and manner, humility, kindness; in great acts of duty or perfection, if Thou shouldest call us to them, uplift us to self-sacrifice, heroic courage, laying down of life for Thy truth's sake, or for a brother. Amen. C. G. ROSSETTI. January 24 _I will bless the Lord, who bath given me counsel_.--PS. xvi. 7. _Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord_.--ROM. xii. 11. Mine be the reverent, listening love That waits all day on Thee, With the service of a watchful heart Which no one else can see. A. L. WARING. Nothing is small or great in God's sight; whatever He wills becomes great to us, however seemingly trifling, and if once the voice of conscience tells us that He requires anything of us, we have no right to measure its importance. On the other hand, whatever He would not have us do, however important we may think it, is as nought to us. How do you know what you may lose by neglecting this duty, which you think so trifling, or the blessing which its faithful performance may bring? Be sure that if you do your very best in that which is laid upon you daily, you will not be left without sufficient help when some weightier occasion arises. Give yourself to Him, trust Him, fix your eye upon Him, listen to His voice, and then go on bravely and cheerfully. JEAN NICOLAS GROU. January 25 _If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them_.--JOHN xiii. 17. _Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin_.--JAMES iv. 17. We cannot kindle when we will The fire that in the heart resides, The spirit bloweth and is still, In mystery our soul abides: But tasks in hours of insight willed Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled. MATTHEW ARNOLD. Hurt not your conscience with any known sin. S. RUTHERFORD. Deep-rooted customs, though wrong, are not easily altered; but it is the duty of all to be firm in that which they certainly know is right for them. JOHN WOOLMAN. He often acts unjustly who does not do a certain thing; not only he who does a certain thing. MARCUS ANTONINUS. Every duty we omit obscures some truth we should have known. JOHN RUSKIN. January 26 _O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His--ways past finding out_!--ROM. xi. 33. _It doth not yet appear what we shall be_.--I JOHN iii. 2. No star is ever lost we once have seen, We always may be what we might have been. Since Good, though only thought, has life and breath, God's life--can always be redeemed from death; And evil, in its nature, is decay, And any hour can blot it all away; The hopes that lost in some far distance seem, May be the truer life, and this the dream. A. A. PROCTER. St. Bernard has said: "Man, if thou desirest a noble and holy life, and unceasingly prayest to God for it, if thou continue constant in this thy desire, it will be granted unto thee without fail, even if only in the day or hour of thy death; and if God should not give it to thee then, thou shalt find it in Him in eternity: of this be assured." Therefore do not relinquish your desire, though it be not fulfilled immediately, or though ye may swerve from your aspirations, or even forget them for a time.... The love and aspiration which once really existed live forever before God, and in Him ye shall find the fruit thereof; that is, to all eternity it shall be better for you than if you had never felt them. J. TAULER. January 27 _For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones_.--ISA. lvii. 15. Without an end or bound Thy life lies all outspread in light; Our lives feel Thy life all around, Making our weakness strong, our darkness bright; Yet is it neither wilderness nor sea, But the calm gladness of a full eternity. F. W. FABER. O truth who art Eternity! And Love who art Truth! And Eternity who art Love! Thou art my God, to Thee do I sigh night and day. When I first knew Thee, Thou liftedst me up, that I might see there was somewhat for me to see, and that I was not yet such as to see. And Thou streaming forth Thy beams of light upon me most strongly, didst beat back the weakness of my sight, and I trembled with love and awe: and I perceived myself to be far off from Thee in the region of unlikeness. ST. AUGUSTINE. January 28 _O fear the Lord, ye His saints: for there is no want to them that fear Him_--PS. xxxiv. 9. _Thou openest Thine hand, and satisfies the desire of every living thing_.--PS. cxlv. 16. What Thou shalt to-day provide, Let me as a child receive; What to-morrow may betide, Calmly to Thy wisdom leave. 'Tis enough that Thou wilt care; Why should I the burden bear? J. NEWTON. Have we found that anxiety about possible consequences increased the clearness of our judgment, made us wiser and braver in meeting the present, and arming ourselves for the future? If we had prayed for this day's bread, and left the next to itself, if we had not huddled our days together, not allotting to each its appointed task, but ever deferring that to the future, and drawing upon the future for its own troubles, which must be met when they come whether we have anticipated them or not, we should have found a simplicity and honesty in our lives, a capacity for work, an enjoyment in it, to which we are now, for the most part, strangers. F. D. MAURICE. January 29 _I the Lord will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee_.--ISA. xli. 13. _Show Thy marvellous loving-kindness, O Thou that savest by Thy right hand them which put their trust in Thee_.--PS. xvii. 7. Take Thy hand, and fears grow still; Behold Thy face, and doubts remove; Who would not yield his wavering will To perfect Truth and boundless Love? S. JOHNSON. Do not look forward to the changes and chances of this life in fear; rather look to them with full hope that, as they arise, God, whose you are, will deliver you out of them. He has kept you hitherto,--do you but hold fast to His dear hand, and He will lead you safely through all things; and, when you cannot stand, He will bear you in His arms. Do not look forward to what may happen to-morrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you to-day, will take care of you to-morrow, and every day. Either he will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace then, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations. ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. January 30 _If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea: even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me_.--PS. cxxxix. 9, 10. I cannot lose Thee! Still in Thee abiding, The end is clear, how wide soe'er I roam; The Hand that holds the worlds my steps is guiding, And I must rest at last in Thee, my home. E. SCUDDER. How can we come to perceive this direct leading of God? By a careful looking at home, and abiding; within the gates of thy own soul. Therefore, let a man be at home in his own heart, and cease from his restless chase of and search after outward things. If he is thus at home while on earth, he will surely come to see what there is to do at home,--what God commands him inwardly without means, and also outwardly by the help of means; and then let him surrender himself, and follow God along whatever path his loving Lord thinks fit to lead him: whether it be to contemplation or action, to usefulness or enjoyment; whether in sorrow or in joy, let him follow on. And if God do not give him thus to feel His hand in all things, let him still simply yield himself up, and go without, for God's sake, out of love, and still press forward. J. TAULER. January 31 _In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths_.--PROV. iii. 6. _He leadeth me_.--PS. xxiii. 2. In "pastures green"? Not always; sometimes He Who knoweth best, in kindness leadeth me In weary ways, where heavy shadows be. So, whether on the hill-tops high and fair I dwell, or in the sunless valleys, where The shadows lie, what matter? He is there. HENRY H. BARRY. The Shepherd knows what pastures are best for his sheep, and they must not question nor doubt, but trustingly follow Him. Perhaps He sees that the best pastures for some of us are to be found in the midst of opposition or of earthly trials. If He leads you there, you may be sure they are green for you, and you will grow and be made strong by feeding there. Perhaps He sees that the best waters for you to walk beside will be raging waves of trouble and sorrow. If this should be the case, He will make them still waters for you, and you must go and lie down beside them, and let them have all their blessed influences upon you. H. W. SMITH. February 1 _Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus_.--ROM. xv. 5. _Let patience have her perfect work_.--JAMES i. 4. Make me patient, kind, and gentle, Day by day; Teach me how to live more nearly As I pray. SHARPE'S MAGAZINE. The exercise of patience involves a continual practice of the presence of God; for we may be come upon at any moment for an almost heroic display of good temper, and it is a short road to unselfishness, for nothing is left to self; all that seems to belong most intimately to self, to be self's private property, such as time, home, and rest, are invaded by these continual trials of patience. The family is full of such opportunities. F. W. FABER. Only as we know what it is to cherish love when sore at some unkindness, to overmaster ourselves when under provocation, to preserve gentleness during trial and unmerited wrong,--only then can we know in any degree the "manner of spirit" that was in Christ. T. T. CARTER. February 2 _Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men_.--I THESS. v. 14. The little worries which we meet each day May lie as stumbling-blocks across our way, Or we may make them stepping-stones to be Of grace, O Lord, to Thee. A. E. HAMILITON. We must be continually sacrificing our own wills, as opportunity serves, to the will of others; bearing, without notice, sights and sounds that annoy us; setting about this or that task, when we had far rather be doing something very different; persevering in it, often, when we are thoroughly tired of it; keeping company for duty's sake, when it would be a great joy to us to be by ourselves; besides all the trifling untoward accidents of life; bodily pain and weakness long continued, and perplexing us often when it does not amount to illness; losing what we value, missing what we desire; disappointment in other persons, wilfulness, unkindness, ingratitude, folly, in cases where we least expect it. J. KEBLE. February 3 _Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting_.--PS. cxxxix. 23, 24. Save us from the evil tongue, From the heart that thinketh wrong, From the sins, whate'er they be, That divide the soul from Thee. ANON. Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts. Dye it then with a continuous series of such thoughts as these: for instance, that where a man can live, there he can also live well. But he must live in a palace: well, then, he can also live well in a palace. MARCUS ANTONINUS. Who is there that sets himself to the task of steadily watching his thoughts for the space of one hour, with the view of preserving his mind in a simple, humble, healthful condition, but will speedily discern in the multiform, self-reflecting, self-admiring emotions, which, like locusts, are ready to "eat up every green thing in his land," a state as much opposed to simplicity and humility as night is to day? M. A. KELTY. February 4 _If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body_.--JAMES iii. 2 _Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips_.--PS. cxli. 3. What! never speak one evil word, Or rash, or idle, or unkind! Oh, how shall I, most gracious Lord, This mark of true perfection find? C. WESLEY. When we remember our temptations to give quick indulgence to disappointment or irritation or unsympathizing weariness, and how hard a thing it is from day to day to meet our fellow-men, our neighbors, or even our own households, in all moods, in all discordances between the world without us and the frames within, in all states of health, of solicitude, of preoccupation, and show no signs of impatience, ungentleness, or unobservant self-absorption,--with only kindly feeling finding expression, and ungenial feeling at least inwardly imprisoned;--we shall be ready to acknowledge that the man who has thus attained is master of himself, and in the graciousness of his power is fashioned upon the style of a Perfect Man. J. H. THOM. February 5 _Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times_.--PS. cvi. 3. _Thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear: because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away_.--JOB xi. 15, 16. In the bitter waves of woe, Beaten and tossed about By the sullen winds that blow From the desolate shores of doubt, Where the anchors that faith has cast Are dragging in the gale, I am quietly holding fast To the things that cannot fail. WASHINGTON GLADDEN. In the darkest hour through which a human soul can pass, whatever else is doubtful, this at least is certain. If there be no God and no future state, yet even then, it is better to be generous than selfish, better to be chaste than licentious, better to be true than false, better to be brave than to be a coward. Blessed beyond all earthly blessedness is the man who, in the tempestuous darkness of the soul, has dared to hold fast to these venerable landmarks. Thrice blessed is he, who, when all is drear and cheerless within and without, when his teachers terrify him, and his friends shrink from him, has obstinately clung to moral good. Thrice blessed, because _his_ night shall pass into clear, bright day. F. W. ROBERTSON. February 6 _Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe_.--PROV. xxix. 25. _I will cry unto God most high; unto God, that performeth all things for me_.--PS. lvii. 2. Only thy restless heart keep still, And wait in cheerful hope; content To take whate'er His gracious will, His all-discerning love hath sent; Nor doubt our inmost wants are known To Him who chose us for His own. G. NEUMARK. God has brought us into this time; He, and not ourselves or some dark demon. If we are not fit to cope with that which He has prepared for us, we should have been utterly unfit for any condition that we imagine for ourselves. In this time we are to live and wrestle, and in no other. Let us humbly, tremblingly, manfully look at it, and we shall not wish that the sun could go back its ten degrees, or that we could go back with it. If easy times are departed, it is that the difficult times may make us more in earnest; that they may teach us not to depend upon ourselves. If easy belief is impossible, it is that we may learn what belief is, and in whom it is to be placed. F. D. MAURICE. February 7 _Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you_.--JER. vii. 23. And oft, when in my heart was heard Thy timely mandate, I deferred The task, in smoother walks to stray; But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may. W. WORDSWORTH. Pray Him to give you what Scripture calls "an honest and good heart," or "a perfect heart;" and, without waiting, begin at once to obey Him with the best heart you have. Any obedience is better than none. You have to seek His face; obedience is the only way of seeing Him. All your duties are obediences. To do what He bids is to obey Him, and to obey Him is to approach Him. Every act of obedience is an approach--an approach to Him who is not far off, though He seems so, but close behind this visible screen of things which hides Him from us. J. H. NEWMAN. As soon as we lay ourselves entirely at His feet, we have enough light given us to guide our own steps; as the foot-soldier, who hears nothing of the councils that determine the course of the great battle he is in, hears plainly enough the word of command which he must himself obey. GEORGE ELIOT. February 8 _He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake_.--PS. xxiii. 2, 3. He leads me where the waters glide, The waters soft and still, And homeward He will gently guide My wandering heart and will. J. KEBLE. Out of obedience and devotion arises an habitual faith, which makes Him, though unseen, a part of all our life. He will guide us in a sure path, though it be a rough one: though shadows hang upon it, yet He will be with us. He will bring us home at last. Through much trial it may be, and weariness, in much fear and fainting of heart, in much sadness and loneliness, in griefs that the world never knows, and under burdens that the nearest never suspect. Yet He will suffice for all. By His eye or by His voice He will guide us, if we be docile and gentle; by His staff and by His rod, if we wander or are wilful: any how, and by all means, He will bring us to His rest. H. E. MANNING. February 9 _I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine_.--MATT. xxv. 25. Time was, I shrank from what was right, From fear of what was wrong; I would not brave the sacred fight, Because the foe was strong. But now I cast that finer sense And sorer shame aside; Such dread of sin was indolence, Such aim at heaven was pride. J. H. NEWMAN. If he falls into some error, he does not fret over it, but rising up with a humble spirit, he goes on his way anew rejoicing. Were he to fall a hundred times in the day, he would not despair,--he would rather cry out lovingly to God, appealing to His tender pity. The really devout man has a horror of evil, but he has a still greater love of that which is good; he is more set on doing what is right, than avoiding what is wrong. Generous, large-hearted, he is not afraid of danger in serving God, and would rather run the risk of doing His will imperfectly than not strive to serve Him lest he fail in the attempt. JEAN NICOLAS GROU. February 10 _We have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation_.--ISA. xxv. 9. Blest are the humble souls that wait With sweet submission to His will; Harmonious all their passions move, And in the midst of storms are still. P. DODDRIDGE. Do not be discouraged at your faults; bear with yourself in correcting them, as you would with your neighbor. Lay aside this ardor of mind, which exhausts your body, and leads you to commit errors. Accustom yourself gradually to carry prayer into all your daily occupations. Speak, move, work, in peace, as if you were in prayer, as indeed you ought to be. Do everything without excitement, by the spirit of grace. As soon as you perceive your natural impetuosity gliding in, retire quietly within, where is the kingdom of God. Listen to the leadings of grace, then say and do nothing but what the Holy Spirit shall put in your heart. You will find that you will become more tranquil, that your words will be fewer and more effectual, and that, with less effort, you will accomplish more good. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. February 11 _I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do_.--JOHN xvii. 4. _She hath done what she could_.--MARK xiv. 8. He who God's will has borne and done, And his own restless longings stilled, What else he does, or has foregone, His mission he has well fulfilled. FROM THE GERMAN. Cheered by the presence of God, I will do at each moment, without anxiety, according to the strength which He shall give me, the work that His Providence assigns me. I will leave the rest without concern; it is not my affair. I ought to consider the duty to which I am called each day, as the work that God has given me to do, and to apply myself to it in a manner worthy of His glory, that is to say, with exactness and in peace. I must neglect nothing; I must be violent about nothing. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. It is thy duty oftentimes to do what thou wouldst not; thy duty, too, to leave undone what thou wouldst do. THOMAS � KEMPIS. February 12 _Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits_.--PS. lxviii. 19. _Nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy_.--I TIM. vi. 17. Source of my life's refreshing springs, Whose presence in my heart sustains me, Thy love ordains me pleasant things, Thy mercy orders all that pains me. A. L. WARING. And to be true, and speak my soul, when I survey the occurrences of my life, and call into account the finger of God, I can perceive nothing but an abyss and mass of mercies, either in general to mankind, or in particular to myself; and whether out of the prejudice of my affection, or an inverting and partial conceit of His mercies, I know not; but those which others term crosses, afflictions, judgments, misfortunes, to me who inquire farther into them than their visible effects, they both appear, and in event have ever proved, the secret and dissembled favors of His affection. SIR T. BROWNE. February 13 _Let Him do to me as seemeth good unto Him_.--2 SAM. xv. 26. To have, each day, the thing I wish, Lord, that seems best to me; But not to have the thing I wish, Lord, that seems best to Thee. Most truly, then, Thy will is done, When mine, O Lord, is crossed; It is good to see my plans o'erthrown, My ways in Thine all lost. H. BONAR. O Lord, Thou knowest what is best for us; let this or that be done, as Thou shalt please. Give what Thou wilt, and how much Thou wilt, and when Thou wilt. Deal with me as Thou thinkest good. Set me where Thou wilt, and deal with me in all things just as Thou wilt. Behold, I am Thy servant, prepared for all things: for I desire not to live unto myself, but unto Thee; and oh, that I could do it worthily and perfectly! THOMAS � KEMPIS. Dare to look up to God, and say, "Make use of me for the future as Thou wilt. I am of the same mind; I am one with Thee. I refuse nothing which seems good to Thee. Lead me whither Thou wilt, clothe me in whatever dress Thou wilt. Is it Thy will that I should be in a public or a private condition, dwell here, or be banished, be poor or rich? Under all these circumstances, I will testify unto Thee before men." EPICTETUS. February 14 _I would have you without carefulness_.--I COR. vii. 32. O Lord, how happy should we be If we could cast our care on Thee, If we from self could rest; And feel at heart that One above, In perfect wisdom, perfect love, Is working for the best. J. ANSTICE. Cast all thy care on God. See that all thy cares be such as thou canst cast on God, and then hold none back. Never brood over thyself; never stop short in thyself; but cast thy whole self, even this very care which distresseth thee, upon God. Be not anxious about little things, if thou wouldst learn to trust God with thine all. Act upon faith in little things; commit thy daily cares and anxieties to Him; and He will strengthen thy faith for any greater trials. Rather, give thy whole self into God's hands, and so trust Him to take care of thee in all lesser things, as being His, for His own sake, whose thou art. E. B. PUSEY. February 15 _If ye fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well_.--JAMES ii. 8. Come, children, let us go! We travel hand in hand; Each in his brother finds his joy In this wild stranger land. The strong be quick to raise The weaker when they fall; Let love and peace and patience bloom In ready help for all. G. TERSTEEGEN. It is a sad weakness in us, after all, that the thought of a man's death hallows him anew to us; as if life were not sacred too,--as if it were comparatively a light thing to fail in love and reverence to the brother who has to climb the whole toilsome steep with us, and all our tears and tenderness were due to the one who is spared that hard journey. GEORGE ELIOT. Would we codify the laws that should reign in households, and whose daily transgression annoys and mortifies us, and degrades our household life,--we must learn to adorn every day with sacrifices. Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices. Temperance, courage, love, are made up of the same jewels. Listen to every prompting of honor. R. W. EMERSON. February 16 _Serve Him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind_.--I CHRON. xxviii. 9. And if some things I do not ask, In my cup of blessing be, I would have my spirit filled the more With grateful love to Thee,-- More careful,--not to serve Thee much, But to please Thee perfectly. A. L. WARING. Little things come daily, hourly, within our reach, and they are not less calculated to set forward our growth in holiness, than are the greater occasions which occur but rarely. Moreover, fidelity in trifles, and an earnest seeking to please God in little matters, is a test of real devotion and love. Let your aim be to please our dear Lord perfectly in little things, and to attain a spirit of childlike simplicity and dependence. In proportion as self-love and self-confidence are weakened, and our will bowed to that of God, so will hindrances disappear, the internal troubles and contests which harassed the soul vanish, and it will be filled with peace and tranquillity. JEAN NICOLAS GROU. February 17 _My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations [or "trials"], knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience_.--JAMES i. 2, 3. For patience, when the rough winds blow! For patience, when our hopes are fading,-- When visible things all backward go, And nowhere seems the power of aiding! God still enfolds thee with His viewless hand, And leads thee surely to the Fatherland. N. L. FROTHINGHAM, _from the German_. We have need of patience with ourselves and with others; with those below, and those above us, and with our own equals; with those who love us and those who love us not; for the greatest things and for the least; against sudden inroads of trouble, and under our daily burdens; disappointments as to the weather, or the breaking of the heart; in the weariness of the body, or the wearing of the soul; in our own failure of duty, or others' failure toward us; in every-day wants, or in the aching of sickness or the decay of age; in disappointment, bereavement, losses, injuries, reproaches; in heaviness of the heart; or its sickness amid delayed hopes. In all these things, from childhood's little troubles to the martyr's sufferings, patience is the grace of God, whereby we endure evil for the love of God. E. B. PUSEY. February 18 _It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes_.--PS. cxix. 71. _But though He cause grief yet will He have compassion, according to the multitude of His mercies_.--LAM. iii. 32. And yet these days of dreariness are sent us from above; They do not come in anger, but in faithfulness and love; They come to teach us lessons which bright ones could not yield, And to leave us blest and thankful when their purpose is fulfilled. ANON. Heed not distressing thoughts when they rise ever so strongly in thee; nay, though they have entered thee, fear them not, but be still awhile, not believing in the power which thou feelest they have over thee, and it will fall on a sudden. It is good for thy spirit, and greatly to thy advantage, to be much and variously exercised by the Lord. Thou dost not know what the Lord hath already done, and what He is yet doing for thee therein. I. PENINGTON. Why should I start at the plough of my Lord, that maketh deep furrows on my soul? I know He is no idle husbandman, He purposeth a crop. S. RUTHERFORD. February 19 _My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work_.--JOHN iv. 34. I am glad to think I am not bound to make the world go right; But only to discover and to do, With cheerful heart, the work that God appoints. I will trust in Him, That He can hold His own; and I will take His will, above the work He sendeth me, To be my chiefest good. J. INGELOW. Don't object that your duties are so insignificant; they are to be reckoned of infinite significance, and alone important to you. Were it but the more perfect regulation of your apartments, the sorting-away of your clothes and trinkets, the arranging of your papers,--"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, _do it_ with all thy might," and all thy worth and constancy. Much more, if your duties are of evidently higher, wider scope; if you have brothers, sisters, a father, a mother, weigh earnestly what claim does lie upon you, on behalf of each, and consider it as the one thing needful, to pay _them_ more and more honestly and nobly what you owe. What matter how miserable one is, if one can do that? That is the sure and steady disconnection and extinction of whatsoever miseries one has in this world. T. CARLYLE. February 20 _Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling-block, or an occasion to fall, in his brother's way_.--ROM. xiv. 13. _Them that were entering in, ye hindered_.--LUKE xi. 52. My mind was ruffled with small cares to-day, And I said pettish words, and did not keep Long-suffering patience well, and now how deep My trouble for this sin! in vain I weep For foolish words I never can unsay. H. S. SUTTON. A vexation arises, and our expressions of impatience hinder others from taking it patiently. Disappointment, ailment, or even weather depresses us; and our look or tone of depression hinders others from maintaining a cheerful and thankful spirit. We say an unkind thing, and another is hindered in learning the holy lesson of charity that thinketh no evil. We say a provoking thing, and our sister or brother is hindered in that day's effort to be meek. How sadly, too, we may hinder without word or act! For wrong feeling is more infectious than wrong doing; especially the various phases of ill temper,--gloominess, touchiness, discontent, irritability,--do we not know how catching these are? F. R. HAVERGAL. February 21 _If ye then, being evil, know bow to give good gifts unto your children, bow much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good gifts to them that ask Him_?--MATT. vii. 11. For His great love has compassed Our nature, and our need We know not; but He knoweth, And He will bless indeed. Therefore, O heavenly Father, Give what is best to me; And take the wants unanswered, As offerings made to Thee. ANON. Whatsoever we ask which is not for our good, He will keep it back from us. And surely in this there is no less of love than in the granting what we desire as we ought. Will not the same love which prompts you to give a good, prompt you to keep back an evil, thing? If, in our blindness, not knowing what to ask, we pray for things which would turn in our hands to sorrow and death, will not our Father, out of His very love, deny us? How awful would be our lot, if our wishes should straightway pass into realities; if we were endowed with a power to bring about all that we desire; if the inclinations of our will were followed by fulfilment of our hasty wishes, and sudden longings were always granted. One day we shall bless Him, not more for what He has granted than for what He has denied. H. E. MANNING. February 22 _Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God_.--PHIL. iv. 6. We tell Thee of our care, Of the sore burden, pressing day by day, And in the light and pity of Thy face, The burden melts away. We breathe our secret wish, The importunate longing which no man may see; We ask it humbly, or, more restful still, We leave it all to Thee. SUSAN COOLIDGE. That prayer which does not succeed in moderating our wish, in changing the passionate desire into still submission, the anxious, tumultuous expectation into silent surrender, is no true prayer, and proves that we have not the spirit of true prayer. That life is most holy in which there is least of petition and desire, and most of waiting upon God; that in which petition most often passes into thanksgiving. Pray till prayer makes you forget your own wish, and leave it or merge it in God's will. The Divine wisdom has given us prayer, not as a means whereby to obtain the good things of earth, but as a means whereby we learn to do without them; not as a means whereby we escape evil, but as a means whereby we become strong to meet it. F. W. ROBERTSON. February 23 _Let the Lord do that which is good in His sight_.--I CHRON. xix. 13. _Let Thy mercy O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in Thee_.--PS. XXXIII. 22. I cannot feel That all is well, when darkening clouds conceal The shining sun; But then, I know He lives and loves; and say, since it is so, Thy will be done. S. G. BROWNING. No felt evil or defect becomes divine until it is inevitable; and only when resistence to it is exhausted and hope has fled, does surrender cease to be premature. The hardness of our task lies _here_; that we have to strive against the grievous things of life, while hope remains, as if they were evil; and then, when the stroke has fallen, to accept them from the hand of God, and doubt not they are good. But to the loving, trusting heart, all things are possible; and even this instant change, from overstrained will to sorrowful repose, from fullest resistance to complete surrender is realized without convulsion. J. MARTINEAU. February 24 _These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world_.--JOHN xvi. 33. O Thou, the primal fount of life and peace, Who shedd'st Thy breathing quiet all around, In me command that pain and conflict cease, And turn to music every jarring sound. J. STERLING. Accustom yourself to unreasonableness and injustice. Abide in peace in the presence of God, who sees all these evils more clearly than you do, and who permits them. Be content with doing with calmness the little which depends upon yourself, and let all else be to you as if it were not. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. It is rare when injustice, or slights patiently borne, do not leave the heart at the close of the day filled with marvellous joy and peace. GOLD DUST. February 25 _But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine_.--ISA. xliii. I. Thou art as much His care as if beside Nor man nor angel lived in heaven or earth; Thus sunbeams pour alike their glorious tide, To light up worlds, or wake an insect's mirth. J. KEBLE. God beholds thee individually, whoever thou art. "He calls thee by thy name." He sees thee, and understands thee. He knows what is in thee, all thy own peculiar feelings and thoughts, thy dispositions and likings, thy strength and thy weakness. He views thee in thy day of rejoicing and thy day of sorrow. He sympathizes in thy hopes and in thy temptations; He interests himself in all thy anxieties and thy remembrances, in all the risings and fallings of thy spirit. He compasses thee round, and bears thee in His arms; He takes thee up and sets thee down. Thou dost not love thyself better than He loves thee. Thou canst not shrink from pain more than He dislikes thy bearing it, and if He puts it on thee, it is as thou wilt put it on thyself, if thou art wise, for a greater good afterwards. J. H. NEWMAN. February 26 _The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth_.--PS. cxlv. 18. _I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears_.--PS. xxxiv. 4. Be Thou, O Rock of Ages, nigh! So shall each murmuring thought be gone; And grief and fear and care shall fly, As clouds before the mid-day sun. C. WESLEY. Take courage, and turn your troubles, which are without remedy, into material for spiritual progress. Often turn to our Lord, who is watching you, poor frail little being as you are, amid your labors and distractions. He sends you help, and blesses your affliction. This thought should enable you to bear your troubles patiently and gently, for love of Him who only allows you to be tried for your own good. Raise your heart continually to God, seek His aid, and let the foundation stone of your consolation be your happiness in being His. All vexations and annoyances will be comparatively unimportant while you know that you have such a Friend, such a Stay, such a Refuge. May God be ever in your heart. ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. February 27 _Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed_.--PS. xxxvii. 3. Build a little fence of trust Around to-day; Fill the space with loving work, And therein stay; Look not through the sheltering bars Upon to-morrow, God will help thee bear what comes, Of joy or sorrow. MARY FRANVES BUTTS. Let us bow our souls and say, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord!" Let us lift up our hearts and ask, "Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?" Then light from the opened heaven shall stream on our daily task, revealing the grains of gold, where yesterday all seemed dust; a hand shall sustain us and our daily burden, so that, smiling at yesterday's fears, we shall say, "_This is easy, this is light;_" every "lion in the way," as we come up to it, shall be seen chained, and leave open the gates of the Palace Beautiful; and to us, even to us, feeble and fluctuating as we are, ministries shall be assigned, and through our hands blessings shall be conveyed in which the spirits of just men made perfect might delight. ELIZABETH CHARLES. February 28 _Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God_.--I JOHN iv. 7. So to the calmly gathered thought The innermost of life is taught, The mystery dimly understood, That love of God is love of good; That to be saved is only this,-- Salvation from our selfishness. J. G. Whittler. The Spirit of Love, wherever it is, is its own blessing and happiness, because it is the truth and reality of God in the soul; and therefore is in the same joy of life, and is the same good to itself everywhere and on every occasion. Would you know the blessing of all blessings? It is this God of Love dwelling in your soul, and killing every root of bitterness, which is the pain and torment of every earthly, selfish love. For all wants are satisfied, all disorders of nature are removed, no life is any longer a burden, every day is a day of peace, everything you meet becomes a help to you, because everything you see or do is all done in the sweet, gentle element of Love. WM. LAW. February 29 _Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings_.--MAL. iv. 2. _O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me_.--PS. xliii. 3. Open our eyes, thou Sun of life and gladness, That we may see that glorious world of Thine! It shines for us in vain, while drooping sadness Enfolds us here like mist; come, Power benign, Touch our chilled hearts with vernal smile, Our wintry course do Thou beguile, Nor by the wayside ruins let us mourn, Who have th' eternal towers for our appointed bourn. J. KEBLE. Because all those scattered rays of beauty and loveliness which we behold spread up and down over all the world, are only the emanations of that inexhausted light which is above; therefore should we love them all in that, and climb up always by those sunbeams unto the eternal Father of lights: we should look upon Him, and take from Him the pattern of our lives, and always eying Him, should, as Hierocles speaks, "polish and shape our souls into the clearest resemblance of Him;" and in all our behavior in this world (that great temple of His) deport ourselves decently and reverently, with that humility, meekness, and modesty that becomes His house. DR. JOHN SMITH. March 1 _Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on_.--MATT. vi. 25. One there lives whose guardian eye Guides our earthly destiny; One there lives, who, Lord of all, Keeps His children lest they fall; Pass we, then, in love and praise, Trusting Him through all our days, Free from doubt and faithless sorrow,-- God provideth for the morrow. R. HEBER. It has been well said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when to-morrow's burden is added to the burden of to-day that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never load yourselves so, my friends. If you find yourselves so loaded, at least remember this: it is your own doing, not God's. He begs you to leave the future to Him, and mind the present. G. MACDONALD. _Cast thy burdens upon the Lord_,--hand it over, heave it upon Him,--_and He shall sustain thee_; shall bear both, if thou trust Him with both, both thee and thy burden: _He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved_. ROBERT LEIGHTON. March 2 _But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased_.--HEB. xiii. 16. _For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another_.--I JOHN iii. 11. Be useful where thou livest, that they may Both want and wish thy pleasing presence still. ...Find out men's wants and will, And meet them there. All worldly joys go less To the one joy of doing kindnesses. G. HERBERT. Let the weakest, let the humblest remember, that in his daily course he can, if he will, shed around him almost a heaven. Kindly words, sympathizing attentions, watchfulness against wounding men's sensitiveness,--these cost very little, but they are priceless in their value. Are they not almost the staple of our daily happiness? From hour to hour, from moment to moment, we are supported, blest, by small kindnesses. F. W. ROBERTSON. Small kindnesses, small courtesies, small considerations, habitually practised in our social intercourse, give a greater charm to the character than the display of great talents and accomplishments. M. A. KELTY. March 3 _I made haste, and delayed not to keep Thy commandments_.--PS. cxix. 60. _Ye know not what shall be on the morrow_.--JAMES iv. 14. Never delay To do the duty which the hour brings, Whether it be in great or smaller things; For who doth know What he shall do the coming day? ANON. It is quite impossible that an idle, floating spirit can ever look up with clear eye to God; spreading its miserable anarchy before the symmetry of the creative Mind; in the midst of a disorderly being, that has neither centre nor circumference, kneeling beneath the glorious sky, that everywhere has both; and for a life that is _all_ failure, turning to the Lord of the silent stars, of whose punctual thought it is, that "not one faileth." The heavens, with their everlasting faithfulness, look down on no sadder contradiction, than the sluggard and the slattern in their prayers. J. MARTINEAU. March 4 _But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, and their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace_.--WISDOM OF SOLOMON iii. 1-3. But souls that of His own good life partake, He loves as His own self; dear as His eye They are to Him: He 'll never them forsake: When they shall die, then God Himself shall die; They live, they live in blest eternity. HENRY MORE. Though every good man is not so logically subtile as to be able by fit mediums to demonstrate his own immortality, yet he sees it in a higher light: his soul, being purged and enlightened by true sanctity, is more capable of those divine irradiations, whereby it feels itself in conjunction with God. It knows that God will never forsake His own life which He hath quickened in it; He will never deny those ardent desires of a blissful fruition of Himself, which the lively sense of His own goodness hath excited within it: those breathings and gaspings after an eternal participation of Him are but the energy of His own breath within us; if He had had any mind to destroy it, He would never have shown it such things as He hath done. DR. JOHN SMITH. March 5 _And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure_.--I JOHN iii. 3. Now, Lord, what wait I for? On Thee alone My hope is all rested,-- Lord, seal me Thine own! Only Thine own to be, Only to live to Thee. Thine, with each day begun, Thine, with each set of sun, Thine, till my work is done. ANNA WARNER. Now, believe me, God hides some ideal in every human soul. At some time in our life we feel a trembling, fearful longing to do some good thing. Life finds its noblest spring of excellence in this hidden impulse to do our best. There is a time when we are not content to be such merchants or doctors or lawyers as we see on the dead level or below it. The woman longs to glorify her womanhood as sister, wife, or mother. Here is God,--God standing silently at the door all day long,--God whispering to the soul, that to be pure and true is to succeed in life, and whatever we get short of that will burn up like stubble, though the whole world try to save it. ROBERT COLLYER. March 6 _The shadow of a great rock in a weary land_.--ISA. xxxii. 2. _In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength_.--ISA. xxx. 15. O Shadow in a sultry land! We gather to Thy breast, Whose love, enfolding like the night, Brings quietude and rest, Glimpse of the fairer life to be, In foretaste here possessed. C. M. PACKARD. Strive to see God in all things without exception, and-acquiesce in His will with absolute submission. Do everything for God, uniting yourself to Him by a mere upward glance, or by the overflowing of your heart towards Him. Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inward peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset. Commend all to God, and then lie still and be at rest in His bosom. Whatever happens, abide steadfast in a determination to cling simply to God, trusting to His eternal love for you; and if you find that you have wandered forth from this shelter, recall your heart quietly and simply. Maintain a holy simplicity of mind, and do not smother yourself with a host of cares, wishes, or longings, under any pretext. ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. March 7 _There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all_.--I COR. xii. 6. _I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things_.--ISA. xlv. 7. "All is of God that is, and is to be; And God is good." Let this suffice us still, Resting in childlike trust upon His will, Who moves to His great ends, unthwarted by the ill. J. G. WHITTIER. This, then, is of faith, that everything, the very least, or what seems to us great, every change of the seasons, everything which touches us in mind, body, or estate, whether brought about through this outward senseless nature, or by the will of man, good or bad, is overruled to each of us by the all-holy and all-loving will of God. Whatever befalls us, however it befalls us, we must receive as the will of God. If it befalls us through man's negligence, or ill-will, or anger, still it is, in every the least circumstance, to us the will of God. For if the least thing could happen to us without God's permission, it would be something out of God's control. God's providence or His love would not be what they are. Almighty God Himself would not be the same God; not the God whom we believe, adore, and love. E. B. PUSEY. March 8 _Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed_.--2 TIM. ii. 15. _And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap if we faint not_.--GAL. vi. 9. The task Thy wisdom hath assigned, Oh, let me cheerfully fulfil; In all my works Thy presence find, And prove Thine acceptable will. C. WESLEY. "What is my next duty? What is the thing that lies nearest to me?" "That belongs to your every-day history. No one can answer that question but yourself. Your next duty is just to determine what your next duty is. Is there nothing you neglect? Is there nothing you know you ought not to do? You would know your duty, if you thought in earnest about it, and were not ambitious of great things." "Ah, then," responded she, "I suppose it is something very commonplace, which will make life more dreary than ever. That cannot help me." "It will, if it be as dreary as reading the newspapers to an old deaf aunt. It will soon lead you to something more. Your duty will begin to comfort you at once, but will at length open the unknown fountain of life in your heart." G. MACDONALD. March 9 _Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto_.--DEUT. xii. 18. _Be ye thankful_.--COL. iii. 15. Thou that hast given so much to me, Give one thing more, a grateful heart. Not thankful when it pleaseth me, As if thy blessings had spare days; But such a heart, whose pulse may be Thy praise. G. HERBERT. If any one would tell you the shortest, surest way to all happiness and all perfection, he must tell you to make it a rule to yourself to thank and praise God for everything that happens to you. For it is certain that whatever seeming calamity happens to you, if you thank and praise God for it, you turn it into a blessing. Could you, therefore, work miracles, you could not do more for yourself than by this thankful spirit; for it heals with a word speaking, and turns all that it touches into happiness. WM. LAW. March 10 _When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee_.--ISA. xliii. 2. _I am with thee to deliver thee_.--JER. i. 8. When through the deep waters I call thee to go, The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow; For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless, And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. ANON. Turn it as thou wilt, thou must give thyself to suffer what is appointed thee. But if we did that, God would bear us up at all times in all our sorrows and troubles, and God would lay His shoulder under our burdens, and help us to bear them. For if, with a cheerful courage, we submitted ourselves to God, no suffering would be unbearable. J. TAULER. Learn to be as the angel, who could descend among the miseries of Bethesda without losing his heavenly purity or his perfect happiness. Gain healing from troubled waters. Make up your mind to the prospect of sustaining a certain measure of pain and trouble in your passage through life. By the blessing of God this will prepare you for it; it will make you thoughtful and resigned without interfering with your cheerfulness. J. H. NEWMAN. March 11 _Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved_.--PS. lv. 22. Now our wants and burdens leaving To His care who cares for all, Cease we fearing, cease we grieving, At His touch our burdens fall. S. LONGFELLOW. The circumstances of her life she could not alter, but she took them to the Lord, and handed them over into His management; and then she believed that He took it, and she left all the responsibility and the worry and anxiety with Him. As often as the anxieties returned she took them back; and the result was that, although the circumstances remained unchanged, her soul was kept in perfect peace in the midst of them. And the secret she found so effectual in her outward affairs, she found to be still more effectual in her inward ones, which were in truth even more utterly unmanageable. She abandoned her whole self to the Lord, with all that she was and all that she had; and, believing that He took that which she had committed to Him, she ceased to fret and worry, and her life became all sunshine in the gladness of belonging to Him. H. W. SMITH. March 12 _The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace_.--NUM. vi. 24-26. O Love, how cheering is Thy ray! All pain before Thy presence flies; Care, anguish, sorrow, melt away, Where'er Thy healing beams arise. O Father, nothing may I see, Nothing desire, or seek, but Thee. P. GERHARDT. There is a faith in God, and a clear perception of His will and designs, and providence, and glory, which gives to its possessor a confidence and patience and sweet composure, under every varied and troubling aspect of events, such as no man can realize who has not felt its influences in his own heart. There is a communion with God, in which the soul feels the presence of the unseen One, in the profound depths of its being, with a vivid distinctness and a holy reverence, such as no words can describe. There is a state of union with God, I do not say often reached, yet it has been attained in this world, in which all the past and present and future seem reconciled, and eternity is won and enjoyed; and God and man, earth and heaven, with all their mysteries, are apprehended in truth as they lie in the mind of the Infinite. SAMUEL D. ROBBINS. March 13 _He that abideth in me, and I in him, bringeth forth much fruit_.--JOHN xv. 5. _Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us_.--PS. xc. 17. As some rare perfume in a vase of clay Pervades it with a fragrance not its own, So, when Thou dwellest in a mortal soul, All Heaven's own sweetness seems around it thrown. H. B. STOWE. Some glances of real beauty may be seen in their faces, who dwell in true meekness. There is a harmony in the sound of that voice to which Divine love gives utterance, and some appearance of right order in their temper and conduct whose passions are regulated. JOHN WOOLMAN. I believe that no Divine truth can truly dwell in any heart, without an external testimony in manner, bearing, and appearance, that must reach the witness within the heart of the beholder, and bear an unmistakable, though silent, evidence to the eternal principle from which it emanates. M. A. SCHIMMELPENNINCK. March 14 _I have called upon Thee, for Thou wilt hear me, O God: incline Thine ear unto me, and hear my speech_.--PS. xvii. 6. _Ye people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us_.--PS. lxii. 8. Whate'er the care which breaks thy rest, Whate'er the wish that swells thy breast; Spread before God that wish, that care, And change anxiety to prayer. JANE CREWDSON. Trouble and perplexity drive us to prayer, and prayer driveth away trouble and perplexity. P. MELANCTHON. Whatsoever it is that presses thee, go tell thy Father; put over the matter into His hand, and so thou shalt be freed from that dividing, perplexing care that the world is full of. When thou art either to do or suffer anything, when thou art about any purpose or business, go tell God of it, and acquaint Him with it; yea, burden Him with it, and thou hast done for matter of caring; no more care, but quiet, sweet diligence in thy duty, and dependence on Him for the carriage of thy matters. Roll thy cares, and thyself with them, as one burden, all on thy God. R. LEIGHTON. March 15 _Hear me, O Lord. for Thy loving-kindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies_.--PS. lxix. 16. _Let, I pray Thee, Thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to Thy word unto Thy servant_.--PS. cxix. 76. Love divine has seen and counted Every tear it caused to fall; And the storm which Love appointed Was its choicest gift of all. ANON. O that thou couldst dwell in the knowledge and sense of this! even, that the Lord beholds thy sufferings with an eye of pity; and is able, not only to uphold thee under them, but also to do thee good by them. Therefore, grieve not at thy lot, be not discontented, look not out at the hardness of thy condition; but, when the storm and matters of vexation are sharp, look up to Him who can give meekness and patience, can lift up thy head over all, and cause thy life to grow, and be a gainer by all. If the Lord God help thee proportionably to thy condition of affliction and distress, thou wilt have no cause to complain, but to bless His name. I. PENINGTON. March 16 _Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God_.--I COR. x. 31. _With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not unto men_.--EPH. vi. 7. A Servant, with this clause, Makes drudgery divine: Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws, Makes that and th' action fine. G. HERBERT. Surely the truth must be, that whatsoever in our daily life is lawful and right for us to be engaged in, is in itself a part of our obedience to God; a part, that is, of our very religion. Whensoever we hear people complaining of obstructions and hindrances put by the duties of life in the way of devoting themselves to God, we may be sure they are under some false view or other. They do not look upon their daily work as the task God has set them, and as obedience due to Him. We may go farther; and say, not only that the duties of life, be they never so toilsome and distracting, are no obstructions to a life of any degree of inward holiness; but that they are even direct means, when rightly used, to promote our sanctification. H. E. MANNING. March 17 _Where hast thou gleaned to-day_?--RUTH ii. 19. What have I learnt where'er I've been, From all I've heard, from all I've seen? What know I more that's worth the knowing? What have I done that's worth the doing? What have I sought that I should shun? What duties have I left undone? PYTHAGORAS. All of this world will soon have passed away. But God will remain, and thou, whatever thou hast become, good or bad. Thy deeds now are the seed-corn of eternity. Each single act, in each several day, good or bad, is a portion of that seed. Each day adds some line, making thee more or less like Him, more or less capable of His love. E. B. PUSEY. There is something very solemn in the thought that that part of our work which we have left undone may first be revealed to us at the end of a life filled up, as we had fondly hoped, with useful and necessary employments. SARAH W. STEPHEN. March 18 _Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous_.--I PETER iii. 8. Make us of one heart and mind; Courteous, pitiful, and kind; Lowly, meek, in thought and word, Altogether like our Lord. C. WESLEY. A little thought will show you how vastly your own happiness depends on the way other people bear themselves toward you. The looks and tones at your breakfast-table, the conduct of your fellow-workers or employers, the faithful or unreliable men you deal with, what people say to you on the street, the way your cook and housemaid do their work, the letters you get, the friends or foes you meet,--these things make up very much of the pleasure or misery of your day. Turn the idea around, and remember that just so much are you adding to the pleasure or the misery of other people's days. And this is the half of the matter which you can control. Whether any particular day shall bring to you more of happiness or of suffering is largely beyond your power to determine. Whether each day of your life shall give happiness or suffering rests with yourself. GEORGE S. MERRIAM. March 19 _Showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things_.--TITUS ii. 10. If on our daily course our mind Be set to hallow all we find, New treasures still, of countless price, God will provide for sacrifice. J. KEBLE If content and thankfulness, if the patient bearing of evil, be duties to God, they are the duties of every day, and in every circumstance of our life. If we are to follow Christ, it must be in our common way of spending every day. WM. LAW. He who is faithful over a few things is a lord of cities. It does not matter whether you preach in Westminster Abbey, or teach a ragged class, so you be faithful. The faithfulness is all. G. MACDONALD. I would have you invoke God often through the day, asking Him to kindle a love for your vocation within you, and saying with St. Paul, "'Lord, what wouldst Thou have me to do?' Wouldst Thou have me serve Thee in the lowest ministries of Thy house? too happy if I may but serve Thee anyhow." And when any special thing is repugnant to you, ask "Wouldst Thou have me do it? Then, unworthy though I be, I will do it gladly." ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. March 20 _Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve_.--MATT. iv. 10. _Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and that seek Him with the whole heart_.--PS. cxix. 2. The comfort of a mind at rest From every care Thou hast not blest; A heart from all the world set free, To worship and to wait on Thee. A. L. WARING. Resign every forbidden joy; restrain every wish that is not referred to His will; banish all eager desires, all anxiety. Desire only the will of God; seek Him alone, and you will find peace. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. "I've been a great deal happier since I have given up thinking about what is easy and pleasant, and being discontented because I couldn't have my own will. Our life is determined for us; and it makes the mind very free when we give up wishing, and only think of bearing what is laid upon us, and doing what is given us to do." GEORGE ELIOT. March 21 _Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things_.--MATT. vi. 32. All as God wills, who wisely heeds To give or to withhold; And knoweth more of all my needs Than all my prayers have told. J. G. WHITTIER. Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of Thee; Thou only knowest what I need; Thou lovest me better than I know how to love myself. O Father! give to Thy child that which he himself knows not how to ask. I dare not ask either for crosses or consolations; I simply present myself before Thee; I open my heart to Thee. Behold my needs which I know not myself; see, and do according to Thy tender mercy. Smite, or heal; depress me, or raise me up; I adore all Thy purposes without knowing them; I am silent; I offer myself in sacrifice; I yield myself to Thee; I would have no other desire than to accomplish Thy will. Teach me to pray; pray Thyself in me. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. March 22 _He that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little_.--ECCLESIASTICUS xix. I. One finger's-breadth at hand will mar A world of light in heaven afar, A mote eclipse a glorious star, An eyelid hide the sky. J. KEBLE. A single sin, however apparently trifling, however hidden in some obscure corner of our consciousness,--a sin _which we do not intend to renounce_,--is enough to render real prayer impracticable. A course of action not wholly upright and honorable, feelings not entirely kind and loving, habits not spotlessly chaste and temperate,--any of these are impassable obstacles. If we know of a kind act which we might, but do not intend to, perform,--if we be aware that our moral health requires the abandonment of some pleasure which yet we do not intend to abandon, here is cause enough for the loss of all spiritual power. F. P. COBBE. It is astonishing how soon the whole conscience begins to unravel, if a single stitch drops; one little sin indulged makes a hole you could put your head through. CHARLES BUXTON. March 23 _Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest_.--3 JOHN 5. _And this also we wish, even your perfection_.--2 COR. xiii. 9. In all the little things of life, Thyself, Lord, may I see; In little and in great alike Reveal Thy love to me. So shall my undivided life To Thee, my God, be given; And all this earthly course below Be one dear path to heaven. H. BONAR. In order to mould thee into entire conformity to His will, He must have thee pliable in His hands, and this pliability is more quickly reached by yielding in the little things than even by the greater. Thy one great desire is to follow Him fully; canst thou not say then a continual "yes" to all His sweet commands, whether small or great, and trust Him to lead thee by the shortest road to thy fullest blessedness? H. W. SMITH. With meekness, humility, and diligence, apply yourself to the duties of your condition. They are the seemingly little things which make no noise that do the business. HENRY MORE. March 24 _I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety_.--PS. iv. 8. _He giveth His beloved sleep_.--PS. cxxvii. 2. He guides our feet, He guards our way, His morning smiles bless all the day; He spreads the evening veil, and keeps The silent hours while Israel sleeps. I. WATTS. We sleep in peace in the arms of God, when we yield ourselves up to His providence, in a delightful consciousness of His tender mercies; no more restless uncertainties, no more anxious desires, no more impatience at the place we are in; for it is God who has put us there, and who holds us in His arms. Can we be unsafe where He has placed us? FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. One evening when Luther saw a little bird perched on a tree, to roost there for the night, he said, "This little bird has had its supper, and now it is getting ready to go to sleep here, quite secure and content, never troubling itself what its food will be, or where its lodging on the morrow. Like David, it 'abides under the shadow of the Almighty.' It sits on its little twig content, and lets God take care." MARTIN LUTHER. March 25 _I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for He will speak peace unto His people_.--PS. lxxxv. 8. There is a voice, "a still, small voice" of love, Heard from above; But not amidst the din of earthly sounds, Which here confounds; By those withdrawn apart it best is heard, And peace, sweet peace, breathes in each gentle word. ANONYMOUS. He speaketh, but it is with us to hearken or no. It is much, yea, it is everything, not to turn away the ear, to be willing to hearken, not to drown His voice. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him." It is a secret, hushed voice, a gentle intercourse of heart to heart, a still, small voice, whispering to the inner ear. How should we hear it, if we fill our ears and our hearts with the din of this world, its empty tumult, its excitement, its fretting vanities, or cares, or passions, or anxieties, or show, or rivalries, and its whirl of emptinesses? E. B. PUSEY. March 26 _Are they not all ministering spirits_?--HEB. i. 14 May I reach That purest heaven, be to other souls The cup of strength in some great agony, Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love, Be the sweet presence of a good diffused, And in diffusion ever more intense! So shall I join the choir invisible Whose music is the gladness of the world. GEORGE ELIOT. Certainly, in our own little sphere it is not the most active people to whom we owe the most. Among the common people whom we know, it is not necessarily those who are busiest, not those who, meteor-like, are ever on the rush after some visible charge and work. It is the lives, like the stars, which simply pour down on us the calm light of their bright and faithful being, up to which we look and out of which we gather the deepest calm and courage. It seems to me that there is reassurance here for many of us who seem to have no chance for active usefulness. We can do nothing for our fellow-men. But still it is good to know that we can be something for them; to know (and this we may know surely) that no man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle, pure, and good, without the world being better for it, without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness. PHILLIPS BROOKS. March 27 _If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us_.--I JOHN iv. 12. _And he that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us_.--I JOHN iii. 24. Abide in me; o'ershadow by Thy love Each half-formed purpose and dark thought of sin; Quench, ere it rise, each selfish, low desire, And keep my soul as Thine, calm and divine. H. B. STOWE. The Spirit of Love must work the works, and speak the tones, of Love. It cannot exist and give no sign, or a false sign. It cannot be a spirit of Love, and mantle into irritable and selfish impatience. It cannot be a spirit of Love, and at the same time make self the prominent object. It cannot rejoice to lend itself to the happiness of others, and at the same time be seeking its own. It cannot be generous, and envious. It cannot be sympathizing, and unseemly; self-forgetful, and vain-glorious. It cannot delight in the rectitude and purity of other hearts, as the spiritual elements of their peace, and yet unnecessarily suspect them. J. H. THOM. March 28 _Giving thanks always for all things unto God_.--EPH. v. 20. For blessings of the fruitful season, For work and rest, for friends and home, For the great gifts of thought and reason,-- To praise and bless Thee, Lord, we come. Yes, and for weeping and for wailing, For bitter hail and blighting frost, For high hopes on the low earth trailing, For sweet joys missed, for pure aims crossed. E. SCUDDER. Notwithstanding all that I have suffered, notwithstanding all the pain and weariness and anxiety and sorrow that necessarily enter into life, and the inward errings that are worse than all, I would end my record with a devout thanksgiving to the great Author of my being. For more and more am I unwilling to make my gratitude to Him what is commonly called "a thanksgiving for mercies,"--for any benefits or blessings that are peculiar to myself, or my friends, or indeed to any man. Instead of this, I would have it to be gratitude for _all_ that belongs to my life and being,--for joy and sorrow, for health and sickness, for success and disappointment, for virtue and for temptation, for life and death; because I believe that all is meant for good. ORVILLE DEWEY. March 29 _There shall no evil befall thee_.--PS. xci. 10. _Whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil_.--PROV. i. 33. I ask not, "Take away this weight of care;" No, for that love I pray that all can bear, And for the faith that whatsoe'er befall Must needs be good, and for my profit prove, Since from my Father's heart most rich in love, And from His bounteous hands it cometh all. C. J. P. SPITTA. Be like the promontory, against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm, and tames the fury of the water around it. Unhappy am I, because this has happened to me? Not so, but happy am I, though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain, neither crushed by the present, nor fearing the future. Will then this which has happened prevent thee from being just, magnanimous, temperate, prudent, secure against inconsiderate opinions and falsehood? Remember, too, on every occasion which leads thee to vexation to apply this principle: that this is not a misfortune, but that to bear it nobly is good fortune. MARCUS ANTONINUS. March 30 _Thou shall guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory_.--PS. lxxiii. 24. _There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God_.--HEB. iv. 9. Guide us through life; and when at last We enter into rest, Thy tender arms around us cast, And fold us to Thy breast. H. F. LYTE. Go forth to meet the solemnities and to conquer the trials of existence, believing in a Shepherd of your souls. Then faith in Him will support you in duty, and duty firmly done will strengthen faith; till at last, when all is over here, and the noise and strife of the earthly battle fades upon your dying ear, and you hear, instead thereof, the deep and musical sound of the ocean of eternity, and see the lights of heaven shining on its waters still and fair in their radiant rest, your faith will raise the song of conquest, and in its retrospect of the life which has ended, and its forward glance upon the life to come, take up the poetic inspiration of the Hebrew king, "Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." STOPFORD A. BROOKE. March 31 _Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee. And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace_.--JOB v. 23, 24. Love had he found in huts where poor men lie; His daily teachers had been woods and rills, The silence that is in the starry sky, The sleep that is among the lonely hills. W. Wordsworth. That spirit which suffices quiet hearts, which seems to come forth to such from every dry knoll of sere grass, from every pine-stump, and half-embedded stone, on which the dull March sun shines, comes forth to the poor and hungry, and to such as are of simple taste. If thou fill thy brain with Boston and New York, with fashion and covetousness, and wilt stimulate thy jaded senses with wine and French coffee, thou shall find no radiance of wisdom in the lonely waste of the pine-woods. R. W. EMERSON. As a countenance is made beautiful by the soul's shining through it, so the world is beautiful by the shining through it of a God. FRIEDRICH HEINRICH JACOBI. April 1 _For Thou Invest all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing which Thou hast made: for never wouldest Thou have made any thing, if Thou hadst hated it. But Thou sparest all: for they are Thine, O Lord, Thou lover of souls_.--WISDOM OF SOLOMON xi. 24, 26. He prayeth well who loveth well Both man and bird and beast; He prayeth best who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all. S. T. COLERIDGE. To know that Love alone was the beginning of nature and creature, that nothing but Love encompasses the whole universe of things, that the governing Hand that overrules all, the watchful Eye that sees through all, is nothing but omnipotent and omniscient Love, using an infinity of wisdom, to save every misguided creature from the miserable works of its own hands, and make happiness and glory the perpetual inheritance of all the creation, is a reflection that must be quite ravishing to every intelligent creature that is sensible of it. WM. LAW. April 2 _Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you_?--I COR. iii. 16. Father! replenish with Thy grace This longing heart of mine; Make it Thy quiet dwelling-place, Thy sacred inmost shrine! JOHANN SCHEFFLER. Not man's manifold labors, but his manifold cares, hinder the presence of God. Whatsoever thou doest, hush thyself to thine own feverish vanities, and busy thoughts, and cares; in silence seek thy Father's face, and the light of His countenance will stream down upon thee. He will make a secret cell in thine heart, and when thou enterest there, there shalt thou find Him. And if thou hast found Him there, all around shall reflect Him, all shall speak to Him, and He will speak through all. Outwardly thou mayest be doing the work of thy calling; inwardly if thou commend thy work to God, thou mayest be with Him in the third Heaven. E. B. PUSEY. April 3 _As for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do_.--DEUT. xviii. 14. Lord, for the erring thought Not into evil wrought; Lord, for the wicked will Betrayed and baffled still; For the heart from itself kept, Our Thanksgiving accept. W. D. HOWELLS. What an amazing, what a blessed disproportion between the evil we do, and the evil we are capable of doing, and seem sometimes on the very verge of doing! If my soul has grown tares, when it was full of the seeds of nightshade, how happy ought I to be! And that the tares have not wholly strangled the wheat, what a wonder it is! We ought to thank God daily for the sins we have not committed. F. W. FABER. We give thanks often with a tearful, doubtful voice, for our spiritual mercies _positive_; but what an almost infinite field there is for mercies negative! We cannot even imagine all that God has suffered us _not_ to do, _not_ to be. F. R. HAVERGAL. You are surprised at your imperfections--why? I should infer from that, that your self-knowledge is small. Surely, you might rather be astonished that you do not fall into more frequent and more grievous faults, and thank God for His upholding grace. JEAN NICOLAS GROU. April 4 _Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord_.--MATT. xxv. 23. O father! help us to resign Our hearts, our strength, our wills to Thee; Then even lowliest work of Thine Most noble, blest, and sweet will be. H. M. KIMBALL. Nothing is too little to be ordered by our Father; nothing too little in which to see His hand; nothing, which touches our souls, too little to accept from Him; nothing too little to be done to Him. E. B. PUSEY. A soul occupied with great ideas best performs small duties; the divinest views of life penetrate most clearly into the meanest emergencies; so far from petty principles being best proportioned to petty trials, a heavenly spirit taking up its abode with us can alone sustain well the daily toils, and tranquilly pass the humiliations of our condition. J. MARTINEAU. Whoso neglects a thing which he suspects he ought to do, because it seems to him too small a thing, is deceiving himself; it is not too little, but too great for him, that he doeth it not. E. B. PUSEY. April 5 _Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him_.--I KINGS xix. 18. He went down to the great school with a glimmering of another lesson in his heart,--the lesson that he who has conquered his own coward spirit has conquered the whole outward world; and that other one which the old prophet learnt in the cave in Mount Horeb, when he hid his face, and the still small voice asked, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" that however we may fancy ourselves alone on the side of good, the King and Lord of men is nowhere without His witnesses; for in every society, however seemingly corrupt and godless, there are those who have not bowed the knee to Baal. THOMAS HUGHES. So, then, Elijah's life had been no failure, after all. Seven thousand at least in Israel had been braced and encouraged by his example, and silently blessed him, perhaps, for the courage which they felt. In God's world, for those who are in earnest there is no failure. No work truly done, no word earnestly spoken, no sacrifice freely made, was ever made in vain. F. W. ROBERTSON. April 6 _In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my soul_.--PS. xciv. 19. _Perplexed, but not in despair; cast down, but not destroyed_.--2 COR. iv. 8, 9. Discouraged in the work of life, Disheartened by its load, Shamed by its failures or its fears, I sink beside the road;-- But let me only think of Thee, And then new heart springs up in me. S. LONGFELLOW. Discouragement is an inclination to give up all attempts after the devout life, in consequence of the difficulties by which it is beset, and our already numerous failures in it. We lose heart; and partly in ill-temper, partly in real doubt of our own ability to persevere, we first grow querulous and peevish with God, and then relax in our efforts to mortify ourselves and to please Him. It is a sort of shadow of despair, and will lead us into numberless venial sins the first half-hour we give way to it. F. W. FABER. Never let us be discouraged with ourselves; it is not when we are conscious of our faults that we are the most wicked; on the contrary, we are less so. We see by a brighter light; and let us remember, for our consolation, that we never perceive our sins till we begin to cure them. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. April 7 _That ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God_.--ROM. xii. 2. Thou knowest what is best; And who but Thee, O God, hath power to know? In Thy great will my trusting heart shall rest; Beneath that will my humble head shall bow. T. C. UPHAM. To those who are His, all things are not only easy to be borne, but even to be gladly chosen. Their will is united to that will which moves heaven and earth, which gives laws to angels, and rules the courses of the world. It is a wonderful gift of God to man, of which we that know so little must needs speak little. To be at the centre of that motion, where is everlasting rest; to be sheltered in the peace of God; even now to dwell in heaven, where all hearts are stayed, and all hopes fulfilled. "Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee." H. E. MANNING. Study to follow His will in all, to have no will but His. This is thy duty, and thy wisdom. Nothing is gained by spurning and struggling but to hurt and vex thyself; but by complying all is gained--sweet peace. It is the very secret, the mystery of solid peace within, to resign all to His will, to be disposed of at His pleasure, without the least contrary thought. R. LEIGHTON. April 8 _The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want_.--PS. xxiii. 1. _They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing_.--PS. xxxiv. 10. God, who the universe doth hold In his fold, Is my shepherd kind and heedful, Is my shepherd, and doth keep Me, his sheep, Still supplied with all things needful. F. Davison. _Who_ is it that is your shepherd? The Lord! Oh, my friends, what a wonderful announcement! The Lord God of heaven and earth, the almighty Creator of all things, He who holds the universe in His hand as though it were a very little thing,--HE is your shepherd, and has charged Himself with the care and keeping of you, as a shepherd is charged with the care and keeping of his sheep. If your hearts could really take in this thought, you would never have a fear or a care again; for with such a shepherd, how could it be possible for you ever to want any good thing? H. W. Smith. April 9 _Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation_.--MATT. xxvi. 41. I want a sober mind, A self-renouncing will, That tramples down and casts behind The baits of pleasing ill; A spirit still prepared, And armed with jealous care, Forever standing on its guard, And watching unto prayer. C. WESLEY. When you say, "Lead us not into temptation," you must in good earnest mean to avoid in your daily conduct those temptations which you have already suffered from. When you say, "Deliver us from evil," you must mean to struggle against that evil in your hearts, which you are conscious of, and which you pray to be forgiven. To watch and pray are surely in our power, and by these means we are certain of getting strength. You feel your weakness; you fear to be overcome by temptation; then keep out of the way of it. This is watching. Avoid society which is likely to mislead you; flee from the very shadow of evil; you cannot be too careful; better be a little too strict than a little too easy,--it is the safer side. Abstain from reading books which are dangerous to you. Turn from bad thoughts when they arise. J. H. NEWMAN. April 10 _Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God. Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men_.--COL. iii. 22, 23. Teach me, my God and King, In all things Thee to see, And what I do in anything, To do it as for Thee. G. HERBERT. There is no action so slight nor so mean but it may be done to a great purpose, and ennobled thereby; nor is any purpose so great but that slight actions may help it, and may be so done as to help it much, most especially, that chief of all purposes--the pleasing of God. J. RUSKIN. Every duty, even the least duty, involves the whole principle of obedience. And little duties make the will _dutiful_, that is, supple and prompt to obey. Little obediences lead into great. The daily round of duty is full of probation and of discipline; it trains the will, heart, and conscience. We need not to be prophets or apostles. The commonest life may be full of perfection. The duties of home are a discipline for the ministries of heaven. H. E. MANNING. April 11 _Wherefore, beloved... be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless_,--2 PETER iii. 14. His conscience knows no secret stings, While grace and joy combine To form a life whose holy springs Are hidden and divine. I. WATTS Even the smallest discontent of conscience may render turbid the whole temper of the mind; but only produce the effort that restores its peace, and over the whole atmosphere a breath of unexpected purity is spread; doubt and irritability pass as clouds away; the withered sympathies of earth and home open their leaves and live; and through the clearest blue the deep is seen of the heaven where God resides. J. MARTINEAU. The state of mind which is described as meekness, or quietness of spirit, is characterized in a high degree by inward harmony. There is not, as formerly, that inward jarring of thought contending with thought, and conscience asserting rights which it could not maintain. T. C. UPHAM. April 12 _Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you_.--2 COR. xiii. 11. _He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen_?--I JOHN iv. 20. Lord! subdue our selfish will; Each to each our tempers suit, By Thy modulating skill, Heart to heart, as lute to lute. C. WESLEY. It requires far more of the constraining love of Christ to love our cousins and neighbors as members of the heavenly family, than to feel the heart warm to our suffering brethren in Tuscany or Madeira. To love the whole Church is one thing; to love--that is, to delight in the graces and veil the defects--of the person who misunderstood me and opposed my plans yesterday, whose peculiar infirmities grate on my most sensitive feelings, or whose natural faults are precisely those from which my natural character most revolts, is quite another. ELIZABETH CHARLES. April 13 _In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us_.--ROM. viii. 37. Thus my soul before her God Lieth still, nor speaketh more, Conqueror thus o'er pain and wrong, That once smote her to the core; Like a silent ocean, bright With her God's great praise and light. J. J. WINCKLER. My mind is forever closed against embarrassment and perplexity, against uncertainty, doubt, and anxiety; my heart against grief and desire. Calm and unmoved, I look down on all things, for I know that I cannot explain a single event, nor comprehend its connection with that which alone concerns me. In His world all things prosper; this satisfies me, and in this belief I stand fast as a rock. My breast is steeled against annoyance on account of personal offences and vexations, or exultation in personal merit; for my whole personality has disappeared in the contemplation of the purpose of my being. J. G. FICHTE. April 14 _All thing are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's_.--I COR. iii. 21, 22, 23. _As having nothing, and yet possessing all things_,--2 COR. vi. 10. Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be, As more of heaven in each we see: Some softening gleam of love and prayer Shall dawn on every cross and care. J. KEBLE. Out of love and hatred, out of earnings, and borrowings, and lendings, and losses; out of sickness and pain, out of wooing and worshipping; out of travelling, and voting, and watching, and caring; out of disgrace and contempt, comes our tuition in the serene and beautiful laws. Let him not slur his lesson; let him learn it by heart. Let him endeavor exactly, bravely, and cheerfully, to solve the problem of that life which is set before _him_. And this, by punctual action, and not by promises or dreams. Believing, as in God, in the presence and favor of the grandest influences, let him deserve that favor, and learn how to receive and use it, by fidelity also to the lower observances. R. W. EMERSON. April 15 _We know that all things work together for good to them that love God_.--ROM. viii. 28. _As for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good_.--GEN. 1. 20. Ill that He blesses is our good, And unblest good is ill; And all is right that seems most wrong, If it be His sweet Will. F. W. FABER. To those who know themselves, all things work together for good, and all things seem to be, as they are to them, good. The goods which God gives seem "very good," and God Himself in them, because they know that they deserve them not. The evils which God allows and overrules seem also "very good," because they see in them His loving hand, put forth to heal them of what shuts out God from the soul. They love God intensely, in that He is so good to them in each, and every, the least good, because it is more than they deserve: how much more in the greatest! They love God for every, and each, the very greatest of what seem evils, knowing them to be, from His love, real goods. For He by whom "all the hairs of our head are numbered," and who "knoweth whereof we are made," directs everything which befalls us in life, in perfect wisdom and love, to the well-being of our souls. E. B. PUSEY. April 16 _The very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it_.--I THESS. v. 23, 24. Be still, my soul!--the Lord is on thy side; Bear patiently the cross of grief and pain; Leave to thy God to order and provide,-- In every change He faithful will remain. HYMNS FROM THE LAND OF LUTHER. It was no relief from temporal evils that the Apostle promised. No; the mercy of God might send them to the stake, or the lions; it was still His mercy, if it but kept them "unspotted from the world." It might expose them to insult, calumny, and wrong; they received it still as mercy, if it "established them in every good word and work." O brethren! how many of _you_ are content with _such_ faithfulness as this on the part of your heavenly Father? Is this, indeed, the tone and tenor of your prayers? WM. ARCHER BUTLER. The highest pinnacle of the spiritual life is not happy joy in unbroken sunshine, but absolute and undoubting trust in the love of God. A. W. THOROLD. April 17 _Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust_.--PS. xl. 4. _That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life_.--I TIM. ii. 2. Just to let thy Father do What He will; Just to know that He is true, And be still; Just to trust Him, this is all! Then the day will surely be Peaceful, whatsoe'er befall, Bright and blessed, calm and free. F. R. HAVERGAL. Every morning compose your soul for a tranquil day, and all through it be careful often to recall your resolution, and bring yourself back to it, so to say. If something discomposes you, do not be upset, or troubled; but having discovered the fact, humble yourself gently before God, and try to bring your mind into a quiet attitude. Say to yourself, "Well, I have made a false step; now I must go more carefully and watchfully." Do this each time, however frequently you fall. When you are at peace use it profitably, making constant acts of meekness, and seeking to be calm even in the most trifling things. Above all, do not be discouraged; be patient; wait; strive to attain a calm, gentle spirit. ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. April 18 _What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul_?--DEUT. x. 12. What asks our Father of His children save Justice and mercy and humility, A reasonable service of good deeds, Pure living, tenderness to human needs, Reverence, and trust, and prayer for light to see The Master's footprints in our daily ways? No knotted scourge, nor sacrificial knife, But the calm beauty of an ordered life Whose every breathing is unworded praise. J. G. WHITTIER. Give up yourself to God without reserve; in singleness of heart meeting everything that every day brings forth, as something that comes from God, and is to be received and gone through by you, in such an heavenly use of it, as you would suppose the holy Jesus would have done in such occurrences. This is an attainable degree of perfection. WM. LAW. We ought to measure our actual lot, and to fulfil it; to be with all our strength that which our lot requires and allows. What is beyond it, is no calling of ours. How much peace, quiet, confidence, and strength, would people attain, if they would go by this plain rule. H. E. MANNING. April 19 _The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him_.--EZRA viii. 22. _Into Thy hand I commit my spirit_.--PS. xxxi. 5. Thou layest Thy hand on the fluttering heart, And sayest, "Be still!" The silence and shadow are only a part Of Thy sweet will; Thy presence is with me, and where Thou art I fear no ill. F. R. HAVERGAL. Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit from thy own thoughts, and then thou wilt feel the principle of God, to turn thy mind to the Lord God, from whom life comes; whereby thou mayest receive His strength, and power to allay all blustering storms and tempests. That is it which works up into patience, into innocency, into soberness, into stillness, into stayedness, into quietness, up to God with His power. Therefore be still awhile from thy own thoughts, searching, seeking, desires, and imaginations, and be stayed in the principle of God in thee, that it may raise thy mind up to God, and stay it upon God; and thou wilt find strength from Him, and find Him to be a God at hand, a present help in the time of trouble and need. GEORGE FOX. April 20 _I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry_.--PS. xl. 1. _Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope,_--ROM. v. 3, 4. Lord, we have wandered forth through doubt and sorrow, And Thou hast made each step an onward one; And we will ever trust each unknown morrow,-- Thou wilt sustain us till its work is done. S. JOHNSON. It is possible, when the future is dim, when our depressed faculties can form no bright ideas of the perfection and happiness of a better world,--it is possible still to cling to the conviction of God's merciful purpose towards His creatures, of His parental goodness even in suffering; still to feel that the path of duty, though trodden with a heavy heart, leads to peace; still to be true to conscience; still to do our work, to resist temptation, to be useful, though with diminished energy, to give up our wills when we cannot rejoice under God's mysterious providence. In this patient, though uncheered obedience, we become prepared for light. The soul gathers force. WM. E. CHANNING. April 21 _Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect_.--MATT. v. 48. _As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness_.--PS. xvii. 15. The righteousness he marks in Thee His will to right doth win; Delighting in Thy purity, He deeply drinks it in. T. H. GILL. To love God is to love His character. For instance, God is Purity. And to be pure in thought and look, to turn away from unhallowed books and conversation, to abhor the moments in which we have not been pure, is to love God. God is Love; and to love men till private attachments have expanded into a philanthropy which embraces all,--at last even the evil and enemies with compassion,--that is to love God. God is Truth. To be true, to hate every form of falsehood, to live a brave, true, real life,--that is to love God. God is Infinite; and to love the boundless, reaching on from grace to grace, adding charity to faith, and rising upwards ever to see the Ideal still above us, and to die with it unattained, aiming insatiably to be perfect even as the Father is perfect,--that is to love God. F. W. ROBERTSON. April 22 _Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory_.--I PETER i. 8. If our love were but more simple, We should take Him at His word; And our lives would be all sunshine In the sweetness of our Lord. F. W. FABER. What would it be to love absolutely a Being absolutely lovely,--to be able to give our whole existence, every thought, every act, every desire, to that adored One,--to know that He accepts it all, and loves us in return as God alone can love? This happiness grows forever. The larger our natures become, the wider our scope of thought, the stronger our will, the more fervent our affections, the deeper must be the rapture of such God-granted prayer. Every sacrifice _resolved on_ opens wide the gate; every sacrifice _accomplished_ is a step towards the paradise within. Soon it will be no transitory glimpse, no rapture of a day, to be followed by clouds and coldness. Let us but labor, and pray, and wait, and the intervals of human frailty shall grow shorter and less dark, the days of our delight in God longer and brighter, till at last life shall be nought but His love, our eyes shall never grow dim, His smile never turn away. F. B. COBBE. April 23 _These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work_.--I CHRON. iv. 23. A lowlier task on them is laid, With love to make the labor light; And there their beauty they must shed On quiet homes, and lost to sight. Changed are their visions high and fair, Yet, calm and still, they labor there. HYMNS OF THE AGES. Anywhere and everywhere we may dwell "with the King for His work." We may be in a very unlikely or unfavorable place for this; it may be in a literal country life, with little enough to be seen of the "goings" of the King around us; it may be among hedges of all sorts, hindrances in all directions; it may be, furthermore, with our hands full of all manner of pottery for our daily task. No matter! The King who placed us "there" will come and dwell there with us; the hedges are all right, or He would soon do away with them; and it does not follow that what seems to hinder our way may not be for its very protection; and as for the pottery, why, that is just exactly what He has seen fit to put into our hands, and therefore it is, for the present, "His work." F. R. HAVERGAL. April 24 _Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ_.--GAL. vi. 2. Is thy cruse of comfort wasting? Rise and share it with another, And through all the years of famine, It shall serve thee and thy brother. Is thy burden hard and heavy? Do thy steps drag heavily? Help to bear thy brother's burden; God will bear both it and thee. ELIZABETH CHARLES. However perplexed you may at any hour become about some question of truth, one refuge and resource is always at hand: you can do something for some one besides yourself. When your own burden is heaviest, you can always lighten a little some other burden. At the times when you cannot see God, there is still open to you this sacred possibility, to _show_ God; for it is the love and kindness of human hearts through which the divine reality comes home to men, whether they name it or not. Let this thought, then, stay with you: there may be times when you cannot find help, but there is no time when you cannot give help. GEORGE S. MERRIAM. April 25 _Surely, I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child_.--PS. cxxxi. 2. Quiet, Lord, my froward heart, Make me teachable and mild, Upright, simple, free from art, Make me as a weaned child; From distrust and envy free, Pleased with all that pleaseth Thee. J. NEWTON. Oh! look not after great things: small breathings, small desires after the Lord, if true and pure, are sweet beginnings of life. Take heed of despising "the day of small things," by looking after some great visitation, proportionable to thy distress, according to thy eye. Nay, thou must become a child; thou must lose thy own will quite by degrees. Thou must wait for life to be measured out by the Father, and be content with what proportion, and at what time, He shall please to measure. I. PENINGTON. "When Israel was a child, then I loved him" (Hosea xi. 1). Aim to be ever this little child, contented with what the Father gives of pleasure or of play; and when restrained from pleasure or from play, and led for a season into the chamber of sorrow, rest quiet on His bosom, and be patient, and smile, as one who is nestled in a sweet and secure asylum. ANON. April 26 _If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it_.--ROM. viii. 25. _One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day_.--2 PETER iii. 8. Lord! who Thy thousand years dost wait To work the thousandth part Of Thy vast plan, for us create With zeal a patient heart. J. H. NEWMAN. I believe that if we could only see beforehand what it is that our heavenly Father means us to be,--the _soul_ beauty and perfection and glory, the glorious and lovely spiritual body that this soul is to dwell in through all eternity,--if we could have a glimpse of _this_, we should not grudge all the trouble and pains He is taking with us now, to bring us up to that ideal, which is His thought of us. We know that it is God's way to work slowly, so we must not be surprised if He takes a great many years of discipline to turn a mortal being into an immortal, glorious angel. ANNIE KEARY. April 27 _Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor_,--ZECH. viii. 16. _For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity... we have had our conversation in the world_.--2 COR. i. 12. Appear I always what I am? And am I what I am pretending? Know I what way my course is bending? And sound my word and thought the same? ANON. Am I acting in simplicity, from a germ of the Divine life within, or am I shaping my path to obtain some immediate result of expediency? Am I endeavoring to compass effects, amidst a tangled web of foreign influences I cannot calculate; or am I seeking simply to do what is right, and leaving the consequences to the good providence of God? M. A. SCHIMMELPENNINCK. Let it not be in any man's power to say truly of thee that thou art not simple, or that thou art not good; but let him be a liar whoever shall think anything of this kind about thee; and this is altogether in thy power. For who is he that shall hinder thee from being good and simple? MARCUS ANTONINUS. April 28 _The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand_.--PS. cxxi. 5. _Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them_.--PS. cxix. 165. I rest beneath the Almighty's shade, My griefs expire, my troubles cease; Thou, Lord, on whom my soul is stayed, Wilt keep me still in perfect peace. C. WESLEY. One great sign of the practical recognition of the "divine moment," and of our finding God's habitation in it, is constant calmness and peace of mind. Events and things come with the moment; but God comes with them too. So that if He comes in the sunshine, we find rest and joy; and if He comes in the storm, we know He is King of the storms, and our hearts are not troubled. God Himself, though possessing a heart filled with the tenderest feelings, is, nevertheless, an everlasting tranquillity; and when we enter into His holy tabernacle, our souls necessarily enter into the tabernacle of rest. T. C. UPHAM. My soul was not only brought into harmony with itself and with God, but with God's providences. In the exercise of faith and love, I endured and performed whatever came in God's providence, in submission, in thankfulness, and silence. MADAME GUYON. April 29 _I will arise and go to my Father_.--LUKE xv. 18. O my God, my Father! hear, And help me to believe; Weak and weary I draw near; Thy child, O God, receive. I so oft have gone astray; To the perfect Guide I flee; Thou wilt turn me not away, Thy love is pledged to me. HYMNS OF THE SPIRIT. O child, hast thou fallen? arise, and go, with childlike trust, to thy Father, like the prodigal son, and humbly say, with heart and mouth, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son; make me as one of Thy hired servants." And what will thy heavenly Father do but what that father did in the parable? Assuredly He will not change His essence, which is love, for the sake of thy misdoings. Is it not His own precious treasure, and a small thing with Him to forgive thee thy trespasses, if thou believe in Him? for His hand is not shortened that it cannot make thee fit to be saved. JOHN TAULER. April 30 _Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward_.--EX. xiv. 15. _No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God_.--LUKE ix. 62. Be trustful, be steadfast, whatever betide thee, Only one thing do thou ask of the Lord,-- Grace to go forward wherever He guide thee, Simply believing the truth of His word. ANON. The soul ceases to weary itself with planning and foreseeing, giving itself up to God's Holy Spirit within, and to the teachings of His providence without. He is not forever fretting as to his progress, or looking back to see how far he is getting on; rather he goes steadily and quietly on, and makes all the more progress because it is unconscious. So he never gets troubled and discouraged; if he falls he humbles himself, but gets up at once, and goes on with renewed earnestness. JEAN NICOLAS GROU. May 1 _I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth_.--PS. xxxiv. I. _I will praise Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all Thy marvellous works_.--PS. ix. I. Thrice blest will all our blessings be, When we can look through them to Thee; When each glad heart its tribute pays Of love and gratitude and praise. JANE COTTERILL. That which befits us, embosomed in beauty and wonder as we are, is cheerfulness, and courage, and the endeavor to realize our aspirations. Shall not the heart which has received so much, trust the Power by which it lives? May it not quit other leadings, and listen to the Soul that has guided it so gently, and taught it so much, secure that the future will be worthy of the past? R. W. EMERSON. I have experienced that the habit of taking out of the hand of our Lord every little blessing and brightness on our path, confirms us, in an especial manner, in communion with His love. M. A. SCHIMMELPENNINCK. May 2 _The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price_.--I PETER iii. 4. _To present you holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in His sight_.--COL. i. 22. Thy sinless mind in us reveal, Thy spirit's plenitude impart! Till all my spotless life shall tell The abundance of a loving heart. C. WESLEY. Holiness appeared to me to be of a sweet, pleasant, charming, serene, calm nature. It seemed to me, it brought an inexpressible purity, brightness, peacefulness, and ravishment to the soul; and that it made the soul like a field or garden of God, with all manner of pleasant flowers, that is all pleasant, delightful, and undisturbed; enjoying a sweet calm, and the gently vivifying beams of the sun. The soul of a true Christian appeared like such a little white flower, as we see in the spring of the year, low and humble on the ground, opening its bosom to receive the pleasant beams of the sun's glory; rejoicing, as it were, in a calm rapture; diffusing around a sweet fragrancy; standing peacefully and lovingly in the midst of other flowers round about, all in like manner opening their bosoms to drink in the light of the sun. JONATHAN EDWARDS. May 3 _The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him_.--NAHUM i. 7. Leave God to order all thy ways, And hope in Him, whate'er betide; Thou 'It find Him in the evil days Thy all-sufficient strength and guide; Who trusts in God's unchanging love, Builds on the rock that nought can move. G. NEUMARK. Our whole trouble in our lot in this world rises from the disagreement of our mind therewith. Let the mind be brought to the lot, and the whole tumult is instantly hushed; let it be kept in that disposition, and the man shall stand at ease, in his affliction, like a rock unmoved with waters beating upon it. T. BOSTON. How does our will become sanctified? By conforming itself unreservedly to that of God. We will all that He wills, and will nothing that He does not will; we attach our feeble will to that all-powerful will which performs everything. Thus, nothing can ever come to pass against our will; for nothing can happen save that which God wills, and we find in His good pleasure an inexhaustible source of peace and consolation. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. May 4 _Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, out of weakness were made strong_.--HEB xi. 33, 34. She met the hosts of Sorrow with a look That altered not beneath the frown they wore, And soon the lowering brood were tamed, and took, Meekly, her gentle rule, and frowned no more. Her soft hand put aside the assaults of wrath, And calmly broke in twain The fiery shafts of pain, And rent the nets of passion from her path. By that victorious hand despair was slain; With love she vanquished hate, and overcame Evil with good, in her great Master's name. W. C. BRYANT. As to what may befall us outwardly, in this confused state of things, shall we not trust our tender Father, and rest satisfied in His will? Shall anything hurt us? Can tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword, come between the love of the Father to the child, or the child's rest, content, and delight in His love? And doth not the love, the rest, the peace, the joy felt, swallow up all the bitterness and sorrow of the outward condition? I. PENINGTON. May 5 _If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan_?--JER. xii. 5. How couldst thou hang upon the cross, To whom a weary hour is loss? Or how the thorns and scourging brook, Who shrinkest from a scornful look? J. KEBLE. A heart unloving among kindred has no love towards God's saints and angels. If we have a cold heart towards a servant or a friend, why should we wonder if we have no fervor towards God? If we are cold in our private prayers, we should be earthly and dull in the most devout religious order; if we cannot bear the vexations of a companion, how should we bear the contradiction of sinners? if a little pain overcomes us, how could we endure a cross? if we have no tender, cheerful, affectionate love to those with whom our daily hours are spent, how should we feel the pulse and ardor of love to the unknown and the evil, the ungrateful and repulsive? H. E. MANNING. May 6 _Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love_.--ROM. xii. 10. _In her tongue is the law of kindness_.--PROV. xxxi. 26. Since trifles make the sum of human things, And half our misery from our foibles springs; Since life's best joys consist in peace and ease, And though but few can serve, yet all can please; Oh, let the ungentle spirit learn from hence, A small unkindness is a great offence. HANNAH MORE. All usefulness and all comfort may be prevented by an unkind, a sour, crabbed temper of mind,--a mind that can bear with no difference of opinion or temperament. A spirit of fault-finding; an unsatisfied temper; a constant irritability; little inequalities in the look, the temper, or the manner; a brow cloudy and dissatisfied--your husband or your wife cannot tell why--will more than neutralize all the good you can do, and render life anything but a blessing. ALBERT BARNES. You have not fulfilled every duty, unless you have fulfilled that of being pleasant. CHARLES BUXTON. May 7 _He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names_.--PS. cxlvii. 3, 4. Teach me your mood, O patient stars! Who climb each night the ancient sky, Leaving on space no shade, no scars, No trace of age, no fear to die. R. W. EMERSON. I looked up to the heavens once more, and the quietness of the stars seemed to reproach me. "We are safe up here," they seemed to say; "we shine, fearless and confident, for the God who gave the primrose its rough leaves to hide it from the blast of uneven spring, hangs us in the awful hollows of space. We cannot fall out of His safety. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold! Who hath created these things--that bringeth out their host by number? He calleth them all by names. By the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power, not one faileth. Why sayest thou, O Jacob! and speakest, O Israel! my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?" G. MACDONALD. May 8 _This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it_.--PS. cxviii. 24. _Why stand ye here all the day idle_?--MATT. xx. 6. So here hath been dawning another blue day; Think, wilt thou let it slip useless away? Out of eternity this new day is born; Into eternity at night will return. T. CARLYLE. Small cares, some deficiencies in the mere arrangement and ordering of our lives, daily fret our hearts, and cross the clearness of our faculties; and these entanglements hang around us, and leave us no free soul able to give itself up, in power and gladness, to the true work of life. The severest training and self-denial,--a superiority to the servitude of indulgence,--are the indispensable conditions even of genial spirits, of unclouded energies, of tempers free from morbidness,--much more of the practised and vigorous mind, ready at every call, and thoroughly furnished unto all good works. J. H. THOM. True, we can never be at peace till we have performed the highest duty of all,--till we have arisen, and gone to our Father; but the performance of smaller duties, yes, even of the smallest, will do more to give us temporary repose, will act more as healthful anodynes, than the greatest joys that can come to us from any other quarter. G. MACDONALD. May 9 _The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord_.--JOB i. 21. What Thou hast given, Thou canst take, And when Thou wilt new gifts can make. All flows from Thee alone; When Thou didst give it, it was Thine; When Thou retook'st it, 't was not mine. Thy will in all be done. JOHN AUSTIN. We are ready to praise when all shines fair; but when life is overcast, when all things seem to be against us, when we are in fear for some cherished happiness, or in the depths of sorrow, or in the solitude of a life which has no visible support, or in a season of sickness, and with the shadow of death approaching,--then to praise God; then to say, This fear, loneliness, affliction, pain, and trembling awe are as sure tokens of love, as life, health, joy, and the gifts of home: "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away;" on either side it is He, and all is love alike; "blessed be the name of the Lord,"--this is the true sacrifice of praise. What can come amiss to a soul which is so in accord with God? What can make so much as one jarring tone in all its harmony? In all the changes of this fitful life, it ever dwells in praise. H. E. MANNING. May 10 _The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants; and none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate_.--PS. xxxiv. 22. _Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him_.--JOB xiii. 15. I praise Thee while my days go on; I love Thee while my days go on: Through dark and dearth, through fire and frost, With emptied arms and treasure lost, I thank Thee while my days go on. E. B. BROWNING. The sickness of the last week was fine medicine; pain disintegrated the spirit, or became spiritual. I rose,--I felt that I had given to God more perhaps than an angel could,--had promised Him in youth that to be a blot on this fair world, at His command, would be acceptable. Constantly offer myself to continue the obscurest 'and loneliest thing ever heard of, with one proviso,--His agency. Yes, love Thee, and all Thou dost, while Thou sheddest frost and darkness on every path of mine. MARY MOODY EMERSON. May 11 _Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil_?--JOB ii. 10. _Thou hast dealt well with Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word_.--PS. cxix. 65. Whatsoe'er our lot may be, Calmly in this thought we'll rest,-- Could we see as Thou dost see, We should choose it as the best. WM. GASKELL. It is a proverbial saying, that every one makes his own destiny; and this is usually interpreted, that every one, by his wise or unwise conduct, prepares good or evil for himself: but we may also understand it, that whatever it be that he receives from the hand of Providence, he may so accommodate himself to it, that he will find his lot good for him, however much may seem to others to be wanting. WM. VON HUMBOLDT. Evil, once manfully fronted, ceases to be evil; there is generous battle-hope in place of dead, passive misery; the evil itself has become a kind of good. T. CARLYLE. May 12 _Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer:... ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life_.--REV. ii. 10. Then, O my soul, be ne'er afraid, On Him who thee and all things made Do thou all calmly rest; Whate'er may come, where'er we go, Our Father in the heavens must know In all things what is best. PAUL FLEMMING. Guide me, O Lord, in all the changes and varieties of the world; that in all things that shall happen, I may have an evenness and tranquillity of spirit; that my soul may be wholly resigned to Thy divinest will and pleasure, never murmuring at Thy gentle chastisements and fatherly correction. Amen. JEREMY TAYLOR. Thou art never at any time nearer to God than when under tribulation; which He permits for the purification and beautifying of thy soul. M. DE MOLINOS. Prize inward exercises, griefs, and troubles; and let faith and patience have their perfect work in them. I. PENINGTON. May 13 _I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil_.--JOHN xvii. 15. In busy mart and crowded street, No less than in the still retreat, Thou, Lord, art near, our souls to bless, With all a Father's tenderness. I. WILLIAMS. Only the individual conscience, and He who is greater than the conscience, can tell where worldliness prevails. Each heart must answer for itself, and at its own risk. That our souls are committed to our own keeping, at our own peril, in a world so mixed as this, is the last reason we should slumber over the charge, or betray the trust. If only that outlet to the Infinite is kept open, the inner bond with eternal life preserved, while not one movement of this world's business is interfered with, nor one pulse-beat of its happiness repressed, with all natural associations dear and cherished, with all human sympathies fresh and warm, we shall yet be near to the kingdom of heaven, within the order of the Kosmos of God--in the world, but not of the world--not taken out of it, but kept from its evil. J. H. THOM. May 14 _And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God_?--MICAH vi. 8. _Put on therefore... kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering_.--COL. iii. 12. Plant in us an humble mind, Patient, pitiful, and kind; Meek and lowly let us be, Full of goodness, full of Thee. C. WESLEY. There is no true and constant gentleness without humility; while we are so fond of ourselves, we are easily offended with others. Let us be persuaded that nothing is due to us, and then nothing will disturb us. Let us often think of our own infirmities, and we shall become indulgent towards those of others. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. Endeavor to be patient in bearing with the defects and infirmities of others, of what sort soever they be; for that thyself also hast many failings which must be borne with by others. If thou canst not make thyself such an one as thou wouldest, how canst thou expect to have another in all things to thy liking? THOMAS � KEMPIS. May 15 _My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest_.--EX. xxxiii. 14. _Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore_.--PS. xvi. 11. Thy presence fills my mind with peace, Brightens the thoughts so dark erewhile, Bids cares and sad forebodings cease, Makes all things smile. CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT. How shall we rest in God? By giving ourselves wholly to Him. If you give yourself by halves, you cannot find full rest; there will ever be a lurking disquiet in that half which is withheld. Martyrs, confessors, and saints have tasted this rest, and "counted themselves happy in that they endured." A countless host of God's faithful servants have drunk deeply of it under the daily burden of a weary life,--dull, commonplace, painful, or desolate. All that God has been to them He is ready to be to you. The heart once fairly given to God, with a clear conscience, a fitting rule of life, and a steadfast purpose of obedience, you will find a wonderful sense of rest coming over you. JEAN NICOLAS GROU. May 16 _Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might_.--EPH. vi. 10. _No man can serve two masters_.--MATT. vi. 24. Oh, there are heavenly heights to reach In many a fearful place, Where the poor timid heir of God Lies blindly on his face; Lies languishing for grace divine That he shall never see Till he go forward at Thy sign, And trust himself to Thee. A. L. WARING. Reservations lie latent in the mind concerning some unhallowed sentiments or habits in the present, some possibly impending temptations in the future; and thus do we cheat ourselves of inward and outward joys together. We give up many an indulgence for conscience' sake, but stop short at that point of entire faithfulness wherein conscience could reward us. If we would but give ourselves wholly to God,--give up, for the present and the future, every act, and, above all, every thought and every feeling, to be all purified to the uttermost, and rendered the best, noblest, holiest we can conceive,--then would sacrifice bear with it a peace rendering itself, I truly believe, far easier than before. F. P. COBBE. May 17 _Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do_.--I THESS. v. 11. _Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself_.--MATT. xix. 19. So others shall Take patience, labor, to their heart and hand, From thy hand, and thy heart, and thy brave cheer, And God's grace fructify through thee to all. The least flower with a brimming cup may stand, And share its dewdrop with another near. E. B. BROWNING. What is meant by our neighbor we cannot doubt; it is every one with whom we are brought into contact. First of all, he is literally our neighbor who is next to us in our own family and household; husband to wife, wife to husband, parent to child, brother to sister, master to servant, servant to master. Then it is he who is close to us in our own neighborhood, in our own town, in our own parish, in our own street. With these all true charity begins. To love and be kind to these is the very beginning of all true religion. But, besides these, as our Lord teaches, it is every one who is thrown across our path by the changes and chances of life; he or she, whosoever it be, whom we have any means of helping,--the unfortunate stranger whom we may meet in travelling, the deserted friend whom no one else cares to look after. A. P. STANLEY. May 18 _We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren_.--I JOHN iii. 14. _He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love_.--I JOHN iv. 8. Mutual love the token be, Lord, that we belong to Thee; Love, Thine image, love impart; Stamp it on our face and heart; Only love to us be given; Lord, we ask no other heaven. C WESLEY. Oh, how many times we can most of us remember when we would gladly have made any compromise with our consciences, would gladly have made the most costly sacrifices to God, if He would only have excused us from this duty of loving, of which our nature seemed utterly incapable. It is far easier to feel kindly, to act kindly, toward those with whom we are seldom brought into contact, whose tempers and prejudices do not rub against ours, whose interests do not clash with ours, than to keep up an habitual, steady, self-sacrificing love towards those whose weaknesses and faults are always forcing themselves upon us, and are stirring up our own. A man may pass good muster as a philanthropist who makes but a poor master to his servants, or father to his children. F. D. MAURICE. May 19 _Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him_.--PS. xxxvii. 7. _Trust in Him at all times_.--PS. lxii. 8. Dost thou ask when comes His hour? Then, when it shall aid thee best. Trust His faithfulness and power, Trust in Him, and quiet rest. ANON. I had found [communion with God] to consist, not only in the silencing of the outward man, but in the silencing also of every thought, and in the concentration of the soul and all its powers into a simple, quiet watching and waiting for the food which its heavenly Father might see fit either to give or to withhold. In no case could it be sent empty away; for, if comfort, light, or joy were withheld, the act of humble waiting at the gate of heavenly wisdom could not but work patience in it, and thus render it, by humility and obedience, more "meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light," and also more blessed in itself. M. A. KELTY. "REST IN THE LORD; WAIT PATIENTLY FOR HIM." In Hebrew, "be silent to God, and let Him mould thee." Keep still, and He will mould thee to the right shape. MARTIN LUTHER. May 20 _To be spiritually minded is life and peace_.--ROM. viii. 6. Stilled now be every anxious care; See God's great goodness everywhere; Leave all to Him in perfect rest: He will do all things for the best. FROM THE GERMAN. We should all endeavor and labor for a calmer spirit, that we may the better serve God in praying to Him and praising Him; and serve one another in love, that we may be fitted to do and receive good; that we may make our passage to heaven more easy and cheerful, without drooping and hanging the wing. So much as we are quiet and cheerful upon good ground, so much we live, and are, as it were, in heaven. R. SIBBES. Possess yourself as much as you possibly can in peace; not by any effort, but by letting all things fall to the ground which trouble or excite you. This is no work, but is, as it were, a setting down a fluid to settle that has become turbid through agitation. MADAME GUYON. May 21 _The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long_.--DEUT. xxxiii. 12. Whate'er events betide, Thy will they all perform; Safe in Thy breast my head I hide, Nor fear the coming storm. H. F. LYTE. I have seemed to see a need of everything God gives me, and want nothing that He denies me. There is no dispensation, though afflictive, but either in it, or after it, I find that I could not be without it. Whether it be taken from or not given me, sooner or later God quiets me in Himself without it. I cast all my concerns on the Lord, and live securely on the care and wisdom of my heavenly Father. My ways, you know, are, in a sense, hedged up with thorns, and grow darker and darker daily; but yet I distrust not my good God in the least, and live more quietly in the absence of all by faith, than I should do, I am persuaded, if I possessed them. JOSEPH ELIOT, 1664. May 22 _He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty_.--PS. xci. I. They who on the Lord rely, Safely dwell though danger's nigh; Lo! His sheltering wings are spread O'er each faithful servant's head. When they wake, or when they sleep, Angel guards their vigils keep; Death and danger may be near, Faith and love have nought to fear. HARRIET AUBER. "There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling," is a promise to the fullest extent verified in the case of all "who dwell in the secret place of the Most High." To them sorrows are not "evils," sicknesses are not "plagues;" the shadow of the Almighty extending far around those who abide under it, alters the character of all things which come within its influence. ANON. It is faith's work to claim and challenge loving-kindness out of all the roughest strokes of God. S. RUTHERFORD. MAY 23 _Be content with such things as ye have_.--HEB. xiii. 5. _I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content_.--PHIL. iv. 11 ( R. V.). No longer forward nor behind I look in hope or fear; But, grateful, take the good I find, The best of now and here. J. G. WHITTIER. If we wished to gain contentment, we might try such rules as these:-- 1. Allow thyself to complain of nothing, not even of the weather. 2. Never picture thyself to thyself under any circumstances in which thou art not. 3. Never compare thine own lot with that of another. 4. Never allow thyself to dwell on the wish that this or that had been, or were, otherwise than it was, or is. God Almighty loves thee better and more wisely than thou dost thyself. 5. Never dwell on the morrow. Remember that it is God's, not thine. The heaviest part of sorrow often is to look forward to it. "The Lord will provide." E. B. PUSEY. May 24 _Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby_.--HEB. xii. I1. I cannot say, Beneath the pressure of life's cares to-day, I joy in these; But I can say That I had rather walk this rugged way, If Him it please. S. G. BROWNING. The particular annoyance which befell you this morning; the vexatious words which met your ear and "grieved" your spirit; the disappointment which was His appointment for to-day; the slight but hindering ailment; the presence of some one who is "a grief of mind" to you,--whatever this day seemeth not joyous, but grievous, is linked in "the good pleasure of His goodness" with a corresponding afterward of "peaceable fruit," the very seed from which, if you only do not choke it, this shall spring and ripen. F. R. HAVERGAL. May 25 _O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt_.--MATT. xxvi. 39. O Lord my God, do Thou Thy holy will,-- I will lie still. I will not stir, lest I forsake Thine arm, And break the charm Which lulls me, clinging to my Father's breast, In perfect rest. J. KEBLE. Resignation to the will of God is the whole of piety; it includes in it all that is good; and is a source of the most settled quiet and composure of mind. Our resignation to the will of God may be said to be perfect, when our will is lost and resolved up into His; when we rest in His will as our end, as being itself most just, and right, and good. And where is the impossibility of such an affection to what is just and right and good, such a loyalty of heart to the Governor of the universe, as shall prevail over all sinister indirect desires of our own? JOSEPH BUTLER. There are no disappointments to those whose wills are buried in the will of God. F. W. FABER. Lord, Thy will be done in father, mother, child, in everything and everywhere; without a reserve, without a BUT, an IF, or a limit. ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. May 26 _The Lord beareth your murmurings, which ye murmur against Him_.--EX. xvi. 8. Without murmur, uncomplaining In His hand, Leave whatever things thou canst not Understand. K. R. HAGENBACH. One great characteristic of holiness is never to be exacting--never to complain. Each complaint drags us down a degree, in our upward course. If you would discern in whom God's spirit dwells, watch that person, and notice whether you ever hear him murmur. GOLD DUST. When we wish things to be otherwise than they are, we lose sight of the great practical parts of the life of godliness. We wish, and wish--when, if we have done all that lies on us, we should fall quietly into the hands of God. Such wishing cuts the very sinews of our privileges and consolations. You are leaving me for a time; and you say that you wish you could leave me better, or leave me with some assistance: but, if it is right for you to go, it is right for me to meet what lies on me, without a wish that I had less to meet, or were better able to meet it. R. CECIL. May 27 _He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much_.--LUKE xvi, 10. _The Lord preserveth the faithful_.--PS. xxxi. 23 The trivial round, the common task, Would furnish all we ought to ask; Room to deny ourselves; a road To bring us, daily, nearer God. J. KEBLE. Exactness in little duties is a wonderful source of cheerfulness. F. W. FABER. The unremitting retention of simple and high sentiments in obscure duties is hardening the character to that temper which will work with honor, if need be, in the tumult or on the scaffold. R. W. EMERSON. We are too fond of our own will. We want to be doing what we fancy mighty things; but the great point is, to do small things, when called to them, in a right spirit. R. CECIL. It is not on great occasions only that we are required to be faithful to the will of God; occasions constantly occur, and we should be surprised to perceive how much our spiritual advancement depends on small obediences. MADAME SWETCHINE. May 28 _Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness_.--COL. I. 11. God doth not need Either man's works or His own gifts; who best Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best; His state Is kingly; thousands at His bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest; They also serve who only stand and wait. J. MILTON. We cannot always be doing a great work, but we can always be doing something that belongs to our condition. To be silent, to suffer, to pray when we cannot act, is acceptable to God. A disappointment, a contradiction, a harsh word, an annoyance, a wrong received and endured as in His presence, is worth more than a long prayer; and we do not lose time if we bear its loss with gentleness and patience, provided the loss was inevitable, and was not caused by our own fault. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. May 29 _Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises_.--HEB. vi. 12. Where now with pain thou treadest, trod The whitest of the saints of God! To show thee where their feet were set, The light which led them shineth yet. J. G. WHITTIER. LET us learn from this communion of saints to live in hope. Those who are now at rest were once like ourselves. They were once weak, faulty, sinful; they had their burdens and hindrances, their slumbering and weariness, their failures and their falls. But now they have overcome. Their life was once homely and common-place. Their day ran out as ours. Morning and noon and night came and went to them as to us. Their life, too, was as lonely and sad as yours. Little fretful circumstances and frequent disturbing changes wasted away their hours as yours. There is nothing in your life that was not in theirs; there was nothing in theirs but may be also in your own. They have overcome, each one, and one by one; each in his turn, when the day came, and God called him to the trial. And so shall you likewise. H. E. MANNING. May 30 _And thus this man died, leaving his death for an example of a noble courage, and a memorial of virtue, not only unto young men, but unto all his nation_.--2 MAC. vi. 31. _Zebulon and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field_.--JUDGES v. 18. Though Love repine, and Reason chafe, There came a voice without reply,-- 'Tis man's perdition to be safe, When for the truth he ought to die. R. W. EMERSON. Some say that the age of chivalry is past. The age of chivalry is never past, so long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth, or a man or woman left to say, "I will redress that wrong, or spend my life in the attempt." The age of chivalry is never past, so long as we have faith enough to say, "God will help me to redress that wrong; or, if not me, He will help those that come after me, for His eternal Will is to overcome evil with good." C. KINGSLEY. Thus man is made equal to every event. He can face danger for the right. A poor, tender, painful body, he can run into flame or bullets or pestilence, with duty for his guide. R. W. EMERSON. May 31 _Let all those that put their trust in Thee rejoice: ... let them also that love Thy name be joyful in Thee_.--PS. v. 11. _He maketh me to lie down in green pastures_.--PS. xxiii. 2. I can hear these violets chorus To the sky's benediction above; And we all are together lying On the bosom of Infinite Love. Oh, the peace at the heart of Nature! Oh, the light that is not of day! Why seek it afar forever, When it cannot be lifted away? W. C. GANNETT. What inexpressible joy for me, to look up through the apple-blossoms and the fluttering leaves, and to see God's love there; to listen to the thrush that has built his nest among them, and to feel God's love, who cares for the birds, in every note that swells his little throat; to look beyond to the bright blue depths of the sky, and feel they are a canopy of blessing,--the roof of the house of my Father; that if clouds pass over it, it is the unchangeable light they veil; that, even when the day itself passes, I shall see that the night itself only unveils new worlds of light; and to know that if I could unwrap fold after fold of God's universe, I should only unfold more and more blessing, and see deeper and deeper into the love which is at the heart of all. ELIZABETH CHARLES. June 1 _One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple_.--PS. xxvii. 4. Thy beauty, O my Father! All is Thine; But there is beauty in Thyself, from whence The beauty Thou hast made doth ever flow In streams of never-failing affluence. Thou art the Temple! and though I am lame,-- Lame from my birth, and shall be till I die,-- I enter through the Gate called Beautiful, And am alone with Thee, O Thou Most High! J. W. CHADWICK. Consider that all which appears beautiful outwardly, is solely derived from the invisible Spirit which is the source of that external beauty, and say joyfully, "Behold, these are streamlets from the uncreated Fountain; behold, these are drops from the infinite Ocean of all good! Oh! how does my inmost heart rejoice at the thought of that eternal, infinite Beauty, which is the source and origin of all created beauty!" L. SCUPOLI. June 2 _We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord_.--2 COR. iii. 18. Then every tempting form of sin, Shamed in Thy presence, disappears, And all the glowing, raptured soul The likeness it contemplates wears. P. DODDRIDGE. Then does a good man become the tabernacle of God, wherein the divine Shechinah does rest, and which the divine glory fills, when the frame of his mind and life is wholly according to that idea and pattern which he receives from the mount. We best glorify Him when we grow most like to Him: and we then act most for His glory, when a true spirit of sanctity, justice, and meekness, runs through all our actions; when we so live in the world as becomes those that converse with the great Mind and Wisdom of the whole world, with that Almighty Spirit that made, supports, and governs all things, with that Being from whence all good flows, and in which there is no spot, stain, or shadow of evil; and so being captivated and overcome by the sense of the Divine loveliness and goodness, endeavor to be like Him, and conform ourselves, as much as may be, to Him. DR. JOHN SMITH. June 3 _The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in Him_.--PS. lxiv. 10. _Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he_.--PROV. xvi. 20. The heart that trusts forever sings, And feels as light as it had wings, A well of peace within it springs,-- Come good or ill, Whatever to-day, to-morrow brings, It is His will. I. WILLIAMS. He will weave no longer a spotted life of shreds and patches, but he will live with a divine unity. He will cease from what is base and frivolous in his life, and be content with all places, and with any service he can render. He will calmly front the morrow, in the negligency of that trust which carries God with it, and so hath already the whole future in the bottom of the heart. R. W. EMERSON. He who believes in God is not careful for the morrow, but labors joyfully and with a great heart. "For He giveth His beloved, as in sleep." They must work and watch, yet never be careful or anxious, but commit all to Him, and live in serene tranquillity; with a quiet heart, as one who sleeps safely and quietly. MARTIN LUTHER. June 4 _Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord_.--I COR. xv. 58. Say not, 'Twas all in vain, The anguish and the darkness and the strife; Love thrown upon the waters comes again In quenchless yearnings for a nobler life. ANNA SHIPTON. Did you ever hear of a man who had striven all his life faithfully and singly toward an object and in no measure obtained it? If a man constantly aspires, is he not elevated? Did ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them,--that it was a vain endeavor? H. D. THOREAU. Do right, and God's recompense to you will be the power of doing more right. Give, and God's reward to you will be the spirit of giving more: a blessed spirit, for it is the Spirit of God himself, whose Life is the blessedness of giving. Love, and God will pay you with the capacity of more love; for love is Heaven--love is God within you. F. W. ROBERTSON. June 5 _Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth_.--I SAM. iii. 9. Though heralded with nought of fear, Or outward sign or show: Though only to the inward ear It whispers soft and low; Though dropping, as the manna fell, Unseen, yet from above, Noiseless as dew-fall, heed it well,-- Thy Father's call of love. J. G. WHITTIER. This is one result of the attitude into which we are put by humility, by disinterestedness, by purity, by calmness, that we have the opportunity, the disengagement, the silence, in which we may watch what is the will of God concerning us. If we think no more of ourselves than we ought to think, if we seek not our own but others' welfare, if we are prepared to take all things as God's dealings with us, then we may have a chance of catching from time to time what God has to tell us. In the Mussulman devotions, one constant gesture is to put the hands to the ears, as if to listen for the messages from the other world. This is the attitude, the posture which our minds assume, if we have a standing-place above and beyond the stir and confusion and dissipation of this mortal world. A. P. STANLEY. June 6 _Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God_.--REV. iii. 12. _In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit_.--EPH. ii. 22. None the place ordained refuseth, They are one, and they are all, Living stones, the Builder chooseth For the courses of His wall. JEAN INGELOW. Slowly, through all the universe, that temple of God is being built. Wherever, in any world, a soul, by free-willed obedience, catches the fire of God's likeness, it is set into the growing walls, a living stone. When, in your hard fight, in your tiresome drudgery, or in your terrible temptation, you catch the purpose of your being, and give yourself to God, and so give Him the chance to give Himself to you, your life, a living stone, is taken up and set into that growing wall. Wherever souls are being tried and ripened, in whatever commonplace and homely ways;--there God is hewing out the pillars for His temple. Oh, if the stone can only have some vision of the temple of which it is to be a part forever, what patience must fill it as it feels the blows of the hammer, and knows that success for it is simply to let itself be wrought into what shape the Master wills. PHILLIPS BROOKS. June 7 _Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day_.--I THESS. v. 5. _Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart_.--PS. xcvii. 11. Serene will be our days and bright, And happy will our nature be, When love is an unerring light, And joy its own security. W. WORDSWORTH. Nothing can produce so great a serenity of life, as a mind free from guilt, and kept untainted, not only from actions, but purposes that are wicked. By this means the soul will be not only unpolluted, but not disturbed; the fountain will run clear and unsullied, and the streams that flow from it will be just and honest deeds, ecstasies of satisfaction, a brisk energy of spirit, which makes a man an enthusiast in his joy, and a tenacious memory, sweeter than hope. For as shrubs which are cut down with the morning dew upon them do for a long time after retain their fragrancy, so the good actions of a wise man perfume his mind, and leave a rich scent behind them. So that joy is, as it were, watered with these essences, and owes its flourishing to them. PLUTARCH. June 8 _Who hath despised the day of small things_? ZECH. iv. 10. Little things On little wings Bear little souls to heaven. ANON. An occasional effort even of an ordinary holiness may accomplish great acts of sacrifice, or bear severe pressure of unwonted trial, specially if it be the subject of observation. But constant discipline in unnoticed ways, and the spirit's silent unselfishness, becoming the hidden habit of the life, give to it its true saintly beauty, and this is the result of care and lowly love in little things. Perfection is attained most readily by this constancy of religious faithfulness in all minor details of life, consecrating the daily efforts of self-forgetting love. T. T. CARTER. Love's secret is to be always doing things for God, and not to mind because they are such very little ones. F. W. FABER. There may be living and habitual conversation in heaven, under the aspect of the most simple, ordinary life. Let us always remember that holiness does not consist in doing uncommon things, but in doing everything with purity of heart. H. E. MANNING. June 9 _He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city_.--PROV. xvi. 32. Purge from our hearts the stains so deep and foul, Of wrath and pride and care; Send Thine own holy calm upon the soul, And bid it settle there! ANON. Let this truth be present to thee in the excitement of anger,--that to be moved by passion is not manly, but that mildness and gentleness, as they are more agreeable to human nature, so also are they more manly. For in the same degree in which a man's mind is nearer to freedom from all passion, in the same degree also is it nearer to strength. MARCUS ANTONINUS. It is no great matter to associate with the good and gentle, for this is naturally pleasing to all, and every one willingly enjoyeth peace, and loveth those best that agree with him. But to be able to live peaceably with hard and perverse persons, or with the disorderly, or with such as go contrary to us, is a great grace, and a most commendable and manly thing. THOMAS � KEMPIS. June 10 _Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God_.--ISA. I. 10. _The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness_.--PS. xviii. 28. When we in darkness walk, Nor feel the heavenly flame, Then is the time to trust our God, And rest upon His name. A. M. TOPLADY. He has an especial tenderness of love towards thee for that thou art in the dark and hast no light, and His heart is glad when thou dost arise and say, "I will go to my Father." For He sees thee through all the gloom through which thou canst not see Him. Say to Him, "My God, I am very dull and low and hard; but Thou art wise and high and tender, and Thou art my God. I am Thy child. Forsake me not." Then fold the arms of thy faith, and wait in quietness until light goes up in the darkness. Fold the arms of thy Faith, I say, but not of thy Action: bethink thee of something that thou oughtest to do, and go and do it, if it be but the sweeping of a room, or the preparing of a meal, or a visit to a friend; heed not thy feelings: do thy work. G. MACDONALD. June 11 _In the day when I cried Thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul_.--PS. cxxxviii. 3. It is not that I feel less weak, but Thou Wilt be my strength; it is not that I see Less sin; but more of pardoning love with Thee, And all-sufficient grace. Enough! And now All fluttering thought is stilled; I only rest, And feel that Thou art near, and know that I am blest. F. R. HAVERGAL. Yea, though thou canst not believe, yet be not dismayed thereat; only do thou sink into, or at least pant after the hidden measure of life, which is not in that which distresseth, disturbeth, and filleth thee with thoughts, fears, troubles, anguish, darknesses, terrors, and the like; no, no! but in that which inclines to the patience, to the stillness, to the hope, to the waiting, to the silence before the Father. I. PENINGTON. We have only to be patient, to pray, and to do His will, according to our present light and strength, and the growth of the soul will go on. The plant grows in the mist and under clouds as truly as under sunshine. So does the heavenly principle within. W. E. CHANNING. June 12 _Then answered he me, and said, This is the condition of the battle which man that is born upon the earth shall fight; that, if he be overcome, he shall suffer as thou hast said: but if he get the victory, he shall receive the thing that I say_.--2 ESDRAS vii. 57, 58. One holy Church, one army strong, One steadfast high intent, One working band, one harvest-song, One King omnipotent. S. JOHNSON. We listened to a man whom we felt to be, with all his heart and soul and strength, striving against whatever was mean and unmanly and unrighteous in our little world. It was not the cold clear voice of one giving advice and warning from serene heights to those who were struggling and sinning below, but the warm living voice of one who was fighting for us and by our sides, and calling on us to help him and ourselves and one another. And so, wearily and little by little, but surely and steadily on the whole, was brought home to the young boy, for the first time, the meaning of his life; that it was no fool's or sluggard's paradise into which he had wandered by chance, but a battle-field ordained from of old, where there are no spectators, but the youngest must take his side, and the stakes are life and death. THOMAS HUGHES. June 13 _If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another_.--I JOHN i. 7. _God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister_.--HEB. vi. 10. Wherever in the world I am, In whatsoe'er estate, I have a fellowship with hearts, To keep and cultivate, And a work of lowly love to do For the Lord on whom I wait. A. L. WARING. We do not always perceive that even the writing of a note of congratulation, the fabrication of something intended as an offering of affection, our necessary intercourse with characters which have no congeniality with our own, or hours apparently trifled away in the domestic circle, may be made by us the performance of a most sacred and blessed work; even the carrying out, after our feeble measure, of the design of God for-the increase of happiness. SARAH W. STEPHEN. Definite work is not always that which is cut and squared for us, but that which comes as a claim upon the conscience, whether it's nursing in a hospital, or hemming a handkerchief. ELIZABETH M. SEWELL. June 14 _The Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve_.--ISA. xiv. 3. To-day, beneath Thy chastening eye, I crave alone for peace and rest; Submissive in Thy hand to lie, And feel that it is best. J. G. WHITTIER. O Lord, who art as the Shadow of a great Rock in a weary land, who beholdest Thy weak creatures weary of labor, weary of pleasure, weary of hope deferred, weary of self; in Thine abundant compassion, and unutterable tenderness, bring us, I pray Thee, unto Thy rest. Amen. CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI. Grant to me above all things that can be desired, to rest in Thee, and in Thee to have my heart at peace. Thou art the true peace of the heart, Thou its only rest; out of Thee all things are hard and restless. In this very peace, that is, in Thee, the One Chiefest Eternal Good, I will sleep and rest. Amen. THOMAS � KEMPIS. Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord; and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee. ST. AUGUSTINE. June 15 _God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea_.--PS. xlvi. 1,2. Though waves and storms go o'er my head, Though strength and health and friends be gone, Though joys be withered all, and dead, Though every comfort be withdrawn, On this my steadfast soul relies,-- Father! Thy mercy never dies. JOHANN A. ROTHE. Your external circumstances may change, toil may take the place of rest, sickness of health, trials may thicken within and without. Externally, you are the prey of such circumstances; but if your heart is stayed on God, no changes or chances can touch it, and all that may befall you will but draw you closer to Him. Whatever the present moment may bring, your knowledge that it is His will, and that your future heavenly life will be influenced by it, will make all not only tolerable, but welcome to you, while no vicissitudes can affect you greatly, knowing that He who holds you in His powerful hand cannot change, but abideth forever. JEAN NICOLAS GROU. June 16 _Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen_.--EPH. iii. 20, 21. We would not meagre gifts down-call When Thou dost yearn to yield us all; But for this life, this little hour, Ask all Thy love and care and power. J. INGELOW. God so loveth us that He would make all things channels to us and messengers of His love. Do for His sake deeds of love, and He will give thee His love. Still thyself, thy own cares, thy own thoughts for Him, and He will speak to thy heart. Ask for Himself, and He will give thee Himself. Truly, a secret hidden thing is the love of God, known only to them who seek it, and to them also secret, for what man can have of it here is how slight a foretaste of that endless ocean of His love! E. B. PUSEY. June 17 _Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow_.--MATT. vi. 28. They do not toil: Content with their allotted task They do but grow; they do not ask A richer lot, a higher sphere, But in their loveliness appear, And grow, and smile, and do their best, And unto God they leave the rest. MARIANNE FARNINGHAM. Interpose no barrier to His mighty life-giving power, working in you all the good pleasure of His will. Yield yourself up utterly to His sweet control. Put your growing into His hands as completely as you have put all your other affairs. Suffer Him to manage it as He will. Do not concern yourself about it, nor even think of it. Trust Him absolutely and always. Accept each moment's dispensation as it comes to you from His dear hands, as being the needed sunshine or dew for that moment's growth. Say a continual "yes" to your Father's will. H. W. SMITH. Thine own self-will and anxiety, thy hurry and labor, disturb thy peace, and prevent Me from working in thee. Look at the little flowers, in the serene summer days; they quietly open their petals, and the sun shines into them with his gentle influences. So will I do for thee, if thou wilt yield thyself to Me. G. TERSTEEGEN, June 18 _Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith_?--MATT. vi. 30. _I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever_--PS. lii. 8. Calmly we look behind us, on joys and sorrows past, We know that all is mercy now, and shall be well at last; Calmly we look before us,--we fear no future ill, Enough for safety and for peace, if Thou art with us still. JANE BORTHWICK. Neither go back in fear and misgiving to the past, nor in anxiety and forecasting to the future; but lie quiet under His hand, having no will but His. H. E. MANNING. I saw a delicate flower had grown up two feet high, between the horses' path and the wheel-track. An inch more to right or left had sealed its fate, or an inch higher; and yet it lived to flourish as much as if it had a thousand acres of untrodden space around it, and never knew the danger it incurred. It did not borrow trouble, nor invite an evil fate by apprehending it. HENRY D. THOREAU. June 19 _The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul_.--PS. cxxi. 7. Under Thy wings, my God, I rest, Under Thy shadow safely lie; By Thy own strength in peace possessed, While dreaded evils pass me by. A. L. WARING. A heart rejoicing in God delights in all His will, and is surely provided with the most firm joy in all estates; for if nothing can come to pass beside or against His will, then cannot that soul be vexed which delights in Him and hath no will but His, but follows Him in all times, in all estates; not only when He shines bright on them, but when they are clouded. That flower which follows the sun doth so even in dark and cloudy days: when it doth not shine forth, yet it follows the hidden course and motion of it. So the soul that moves after God keeps that course when He hides His face; is content, yea, even glad at His will in all estates or conditions or events. R. LEIGHTON. Let God do with me what He will, anything He will; whatever it be, it will be either heaven itself or some beginning of it. WM. MOUNTFORD. June 20 _Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me; for my soul trusteth in Thee: yea, in the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast_.--PS. lvii. I. My God! in whom are all the springs Of boundless love and grace unknown, Hide me beneath Thy spreading wings, Till the dark cloud is overblown. I. WATTS. In time of trouble go not out of yourself to seek for aid; for the whole benefit of trial consists in silence, patience, rest, and resignation. In this condition divine strength is found for the hard warfare, because God Himself fights for the soul. M. DE MOLINOS. In vain will you let your mind run out after help in times of trouble; it is like putting to sea in a storm. Sit still, and feel after your principles; and, if you find none that furnish you with somewhat of a stay and prop, and which point you to quietness and silent submission, depend upon it you have never yet learned Truth from the Spirit of Truth, whatever notions thereof you may have picked up from this and the other description of it. M. A. KELTY. June 21 _Thou calledst in trouble, and. I delivered thee_.--PS. lxxxi. 7. _Be strong, and of good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed_.--I CHRON. xxii. 13. Thou canst calm the troubled mind, Thou its dread canst still; Teach me to be all resigned To my Father's will. HEINRICH PUCHTA. Though this patient, meek resignation is to be exercised with regard to all outward things and occurrences of life, yet it chiefly respects our own inward state, the troubles, perplexities, weaknesses, and disorders of our own souls. And to stand turned to a patient, meek, humble resignation to God, when your own impatience, wrath, pride, and irresignation attack yourself, is a higher and more beneficial performance of this duty, than when you stand turned to meekness and patience, when attacked by the pride, or wrath, or disorderly passions of other people. WM. LAW. June 22 _There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it_.--I COR. x. 13, 14. Not so, not so, no load of woe Need bring despairing frown; For while we bear it, we can bear, Past that, we lay it down. SARAH WILLIAMS. Everything which happens, either happens in such wise that them art formed by nature to bear it, or that thou art not formed by nature to bear it. If then, it happens to thee in such way that thou art formed by nature to bear it, do not complain, but bear it as thou art formed by nature to bear it. But, if it happens in such wise that thou art not able to bear it, do not complain; for it will perish after it has consumed thee. Remember, however, that thou art formed by nature to bear everything, with respect to which it depends on thy own opinion to make it endurable and tolerable, by thinking that it is either thy interest or thy duty to do this. MARCUS ANTONINUS. June 23 _Why art than cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God_.--PS. xlii. 11. Ah! why by passing clouds oppressed, Should vexing thoughts distract thy breast? Turn thou to Him in every pain, Whom never suppliant sought in vain; Thy strength in joy's ecstatic day, Thy hope, when joy has passed away. H. F. LYTE. Beware of letting your care degenerate into anxiety and unrest; tossed as you are amid the winds and waves of sundry troubles, keep your eyes fixed on the Lord, and say, "Oh, my God, I look to Thee alone; be Thou my guide, my pilot;" and then be comforted. When the shore is gained, who will heed the toil and the storm? And we shall steer safely through every storm, so long as our heart is right, our intention fervent, our courage steadfast, and our trust fixed on God. If at times we are somewhat stunned by the tempest, never fear; let us take breath, and go on afresh. Do not be disconcerted by the fits of vexation and uneasiness which are sometimes produced by the multiplicity of your domestic worries. No indeed, dearest child, all these are but opportunities of strengthening yourself in the loving, forbearing graces which our dear Lord sets before us. ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. June 24 _Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight_.--MATT. xi. 26. Let nothing make thee sad or fretful, Or too regretful; Be still; What God hath ordered must be right, Then find in it thine own delight, My will. P. FLEMMING. If we listen to our self-love, we shall estimate our lot less by what it is, than by what it is not; shall dwell on its hindrances, and be blind to its possibilities; and, comparing it only with imaginary lives, shall indulge in flattering dreams of what we should do, if we had but power; and give, if we had but wealth; and be, if we had no temptations. We shall be forever querulously pleading our difficulties and privations as excuses for our unloving temper and unfruitful life; and fancying ourselves injured beings, virtually frowning at the dear Providence that loves us, and chafing with a self-torture which invites no pity. If we yield ourselves unto God, and sincerely accept our lot as assigned by Him, we shall count up its contents, and disregard its omissions; and be it as feeble as a cripple's, and as narrow as a child's, shall find in it resources of good surpassing our best economy, and sacred claims that may keep awake our highest will. J. MARTINEAU. June 25 _My times are in Thy hand_.--PS. xxxi. 15. _Every purpose of the Lord shall be performed_.--JER. li. 29. I am so glad! It is such rest to know That Thou hast ordered and appointed all, And wilt yet order and appoint my lot. For though so much I cannot understand, And would not choose, has been, and yet may be, Thou choosest, Thou performest, THOU, my Lord. This is enough for me. F. R. HAVERGAL. "We mustn't be in a hurry to fix and choose our own lot; we must wait to be guided. We are led on, like the little children, by a way that we know not. It is a vain thought to flee from the work that God appoints us, for the sake of finding a greater blessing to our own souls; as if we could choose for ourselves where we shall find the fulness of the Divine Presence, instead of seeking it where alone it is to be found, in loving obedience." GEORGE ELIOT. Everywhere and at all times it is in thy power piously to acquiesce in thy present condition, and to behave justly to those who are about thee. MARCUS ANTONINUS. June 26 _And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses_.--MARK xi. 25, 26. 'Tis not enough to weep my sins, 'Tis but one step to heaven:-- When I am kind to others,--then I know myself forgiven. F. W. FABER. Every relation to mankind, of hate or scorn or neglect, is full of vexation and torment. There is nothing to do with men but to love them; to contemplate their virtues with admiration, their faults with pity and forbearance, and their injuries with forgiveness. Task all the ingenuity of your mind to devise some other thing, but you never can find it. To hate your adversary will not help you; to kill him will not help you; nothing within the compass of the universe can help you, but to love him. But let that love flow out upon all around you, and what could harm you? How many a knot of mystery and misunderstanding would be untied by one word spoken in simple and confiding truth of heart! How many a solitary place would be made glad if love were there; and how many a dark dwelling would be filled with light! ORVILLE DEWEY. June 27 _The kingdom of God is within you_.--LUKE xvii. 21. Oh, take this heart that I would give Forever to be all Thine own; I to myself no more would live,-- Come, Lord, be Thou my King alone. G. TERSTEEGEN. Herein is the work assigned to the individual soul, to have life in itself, to make our sphere, whatever it is, sufficient for a reign of God within ourselves, for a true and full reign of our Father's abounding spirit,--thankful, unutterably thankful, if with the place and the companionship assigned to us we are permitted to build an earthly tabernacle of grace and goodness and holy love, a home like a temple; but, should this be denied us, resolved for our own souls that God shall reign there, for ourselves at least that we will not, by sin or disobedience or impious distrust, break with our own wills, our filial connection with our Father,--that whether joyful or sorrowing, struggling with the perplexity and foulness of circumstance, or in an atmosphere of peace, whether in dear fellowship or alone, our desire and prayer shall be that God may have in us a realm where His will is law, and where obedience and submission spring, not from calculating prudence or ungodly fear, but from communion of spirit, ever humble aspiration, and ever loving trust. J. H. THOM. June 28 _The Lord preserveth the simple_.--PS. cxvi. 6. Thy home is with the humble, Lord! The simple are Thy rest; Thy lodging is in childlike hearts; Thou makest there Thy nest. F. W. FABER. This deliverance of the soul from all useless and selfish and unquiet cares, brings to it an unspeakable peace and freedom; this is true simplicity. This state of entire resignation and perpetual acquiescence produces true liberty; and this liberty brings perfect simplicity. The soul which knows no self-seeking, no interested ends, is thoroughly candid; it goes straight forward without hindrance; its path opens daily more and more to "perfect day," in proportion as its self-renunciation and its self-forgetfulness increase; and its peace, amid whatever troubles beset it, will be as boundless as the depths of the sea. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. June 29 _Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off_.--I KINGS xx. 11. _Put on the whole armor of God_.--EPH. vi. 11. Was I not girded for the battle-field? Bore I not helm of pride and glittering sword? Behold the fragments of my broken shield, And lend to me Thy heavenly armor, Lord! ANON. Oh, be at least able to say in that day,--Lord, I am no hero. I have been careless, cowardly, sometimes all but mutinous. Punishment I have deserved, I deny it not. But a traitor I have never been; a deserter I have never been. I have tried to fight on Thy side in Thy battle against evil. I have tried to do the duty which lay nearest me; and to leave whatever Thou didst commit to my charge a little better than I found it. I have not been good, but I have at least tried to be good. Take the will for the deed, good Lord. Strike not my unworthy name off the roll-call of the noble and victorious army, which is the blessed company of all faithful people; and let me, too, be found written in the Book of Life; even though I stand the lowest and last upon its list. Amen. C. KINGSLEY. June 30 _And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever_.--ISA. xxxii. 17. The heart that ministers for Thee In Thy own work will rest; And the subject spirit of a child Can serve Thy children best. A. L. WARING. It matters not where or what we are, so we be His servants. They are happy who have a wide field and great strength to fulfil His missions of compassion; and they, too, are blessed who, in sheltered homes and narrow ways of duty, wait upon Him in lowly services of love. Wise or simple, gifted or slender in knowledge, in the world's gaze or in hidden paths, high or low, encompassed by affections and joys of home, or lonely and content in God alone, what matters, so that they bear the seal of the living God? Blessed company, unknown to each other, unknowing even themselves! H. E. MANNING. July 1 _In the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord_.--EX. xvi. 7. _Serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope_.--ROM. xii. 11, 12. Every day is a fresh beginning, Every morn is the world made new. You who are weary of sorrow and sinning, Here is a beautiful hope for you; A hope for me and a hope for you. SUSAN COOLIDGE. Be patient with every one, but above all with yourself. I mean, do not be disturbed because of your imperfections, and always rise up bravely from a fall. I am glad that you make a daily new beginning; there is no better means of progress in the spiritual life than to be continually beginning afresh, and never to think that we have done enough. ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. Because perseverance is so difficult, even when supported by the grace of God, thence is the value of new beginnings. For new beginnings are the life of perseverance. E. B. PUSEY. July 2 _Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men_.--ACTS xxiv. 16. _I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye_.--PS. xxxii. 8. Oh, keep thy conscience sensitive; No inward token miss; And go where grace entices thee;-- Perfection lies in this. F. W. FABER. We need only obey. There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening we shall hear the right word. R. W. EMERSON. The heights of Christian perfection can only be reached by faithfully each moment following the Guide who is to lead you there, and He reveals your way to you one step at a time, in the little things of your daily lives, asking only on your part that you yield yourselves up to His guidance. If then, in anything you feel doubtful or troubled, be sure that it is the voice of your Lord, and surrender it at once to His bidding, rejoicing with a great joy that He has begun thus to lead and guide you. H. W. SMITH. July 3 _He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities_.--PS. cxxx. 8. Be it according to Thy word; Redeem me from all sin; My heart would now receive Thee, Lord, Come in, my Lord, come in! C. WESLEY. When you wake, or as soon as you are dressed, offer up your whole self to God, soul and body, thoughts and purposes and desires, to be for that day what He wills. Think of the occasions of the sin likely to befall you, and go, as a child, to your Father which is in heaven, and tell Him in childlike, simple words, your trials--in some such simple words as these--"Thou knowest, good Lord, that I am tempted to--[_then name the temptations to it, and the ways in which you sin, as well as you know them_]. But, good Lord, for love of Thee, I would this day keep wholly from all [_naming the sin_] and be very [naming the opposite grace]. I will not, by Thy grace, do one [N.] act, or speak one [N.] word, or give one [N.] look, or harbor one [N.] thought in my soul. If Thou allow any of these temptations to come upon me this day, I desire to think, speak, and do only what Thou willest. Lord, without Thee I can do nothing; with Thee I can do all." E. B. PUSEY. July 4 _Look at the generations of old, and see; did ever any trust in the Lord, and was confounded? or did any abide in His fear, and was forsaken? or whom did He ever despise, that called upon Him_?--ECCLESIASTICUS ii. 10. _Remember, O Lord, Thy tender mercies, and Thy loving-kindnesses; for they have been ever of old_.--PS. xxv. 6. My Father! see I trust the faithfulness displayed of old, I trust the love that never can grow cold-- I trust in Thee. CHRISTIAN INTELLIGENCER. Be not so much discouraged in the sight of what is yet to be done, as comforted in His good-will towards thee. 'Tis true, He hath chastened thee with rods and sore afflictions; but did He ever take away His loving-kindness from thee? or did His faithfulness ever fail in the sorest, blackest, thickest, darkest night that ever befell thee? I. PENINGTON. WE call Him the "_God of our fathers_;" and we feel that there is some stability at centre, while we can tell our cares to One listening at our right hand, by whom theirs are remembered and removed. J. MARTINEAU. July 5 _He stayeth His rough wind in the day of the east wind_.--ISA. xxvii. 8. _A bruised reed shall He not break_.--ISA. xlii. 3. All my life I still have found, And I will forget it never; Every sorrow hath its bound, And no cross endures forever. All things else have but their day, God's love only lasts for aye. P. GERHARDT. We never have more than we can bear. The present hour we are always able to endure. As our day, so is our strength. If the trials of many years were gathered into one, they would overwhelm us; therefore, in pity to our little strength, He sends first one, then another, then removes both, and lays on a third, heavier, perhaps, than either; but all is so wisely measured to our strength that the bruised reed is never broken. We do not enough look at our trials in this continuous and successive view. Each one is sent to teach us something, and altogether they have a lesson which is beyond the power of any to teach alone. H. E. MANNING. July 6 _I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee_.--ISA. xlii. 6. _O keep my soul, and deliver me: for I put my trust in Thee_.--PS. xxv. 20. I do not ask my cross to understand, My way to see; Better in darkness just to feel Thy hand, And follow Thee. ADELAIDE A. PROCTER. O Lord, if only my will may remain right and firm towards Thee, do with me whatsoever it shall please Thee. For it cannot be anything but good, whatsoever Thou shalt do with me. If it be Thy will I should be in darkness, be Thou blessed; and, if it be Thy will I should be in light, be Thou again blessed. If Thou vouchsafe to comfort me, be Thou blessed; and, if Thou wilt have me afflicted, be Thou equally blessed. O Lord! for Thy sake I will cheerfully suffer whatever shall come on me with Thy permission. THOMAS � KEMPIS. My soul could not incline itself on the one side or the other, since another will had taken the place of its own; but only nourished itself with the daily providences of God. MADAME GUYON. July 7 _The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid_?--PS. xxvii. I. Thou hidden Source of calm repose, Thou all-sufficient Love divine, My Help and Refuge from my foes, Secure I am while Thou art mine: And lo! from sin, and grief, and shame, I hide me, Father, in Thy name. C. WESLEY. Whatever troubles come on you, of mind, body, or estate, from within or from without, from chance or from intent, from friends or foes--whatever your trouble be, though you be lonely, O children of a heavenly Father, be not afraid! J. H. NEWMAN. Whatsoever befalleth thee, receive it not from the hand of any creature, but from Him alone, and render back all to Him, seeking in all things His pleasure and honor, the purifying and subduing of thyself. What can harm thee, when all must first touch God, within whom thou hast enclosed thyself? R. LEIGHTON. How God rejoices over a soul, which, surrounded on all sides by suffering and misery, does that upon earth which the angels do in heaven; namely, loves, adores, and praises God! G. TERSTEEGEN. July 8 _Be ye kind one to another_.--EPH. iv. 32. She doeth little kindnesses Which most leave undone or despise; For nought which sets one heart at ease, And giveth happiness or peace, Is low-esteemed in her eyes. J. R. LOWELL. What was the secret of such a one's power? What had she done? Absolutely nothing; but radiant smiles, beaming good-humor, the tact of divining what every one felt and every one wanted, told that she had got out of self and learned to think of others; so that at one time it showed itself in deprecating the quarrel, which lowering brows and raised tones already showed to be impending, by sweet words; at another, by smoothing an invalid's pillow; at another, by soothing a sobbing child; at another, by humoring and softening a father who had returned weary and ill-tempered from the irritating cares of business. None but she saw those things. None but a loving heart _could_ see them. That was the secret of her heavenly power. The one who will be found in trial capable of great acts of love, is ever the one who is always doing considerate small ones. F. W. ROBERTSON. July 9 _Love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God_.--I JOHN iv. 7. _Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel (or "complaint") against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye_.--COL. iii. 13. Oh, might we all our lineage prove, Give and forgive, do good and love; By soft endearments, in kind strife, Lightening the load of daily life. J. KEBLE. We may, if we choose, make the worst of one another. Every one has his weak points; every one has his faults: we may make the worst of these; we may fix our attention constantly upon these. But we may also make the best of one another. We may forgive, even as we hope to be forgiven. We may put ourselves in the place of others, and ask what we should wish to be done to us, and thought of us, were we in their place. By loving whatever is lovable in those around us, love will flow back from them to us, and life will become a pleasure instead of a pain; and earth will become like heaven; and we shall become not unworthy followers of Him whose name is Love. A. P. STANLEY. July 10 _The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever: forsake not the--works of Thine own hands_.--PS. cxxxviii. 8. As God leads me, will I go,-- Nor choose my way; Let Him choose the joy or woe Of every day: They cannot hurt my soul, Because in His control: I leave to Him the whole,-- His children may. L. GEDICKE. Why is it that we are so busy with the future? It is not _our_ province; and is there not a criminal interference with Him to whom it belongs, in our feverish, anxious attempts to dispose of it, and in filling it up with shadows of good and evil shaped by our own wild imaginations? To do God's will as fast as it is made known to us, to inquire hourly--I had almost said each moment--what He requires of us, and to leave ourselves, our friends, and every interest at His control, with a cheerful trust that the path which He marks out leads to our perfection and to Himself,--this is at once our duty and happiness; and why will we not walk in the plain, simple way? WILLIAM E. CHANNING. July 11 _When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble_?--JOB xxxiv. 29. _None of these things move me_.--ACTS xx. 24. I've many a cross to take up now, And many left behind; But present troubles move me not, Nor shake my quiet mind. And what may be to-morrow's cross I never seek to find; My Father says, "Leave that to me, And keep a quiet mind." ANON. Let us then think only of the present, and not even permit our minds to wander with curiosity into the future. This future is not yet ours; perhaps it never will be. It is exposing ourselves to temptation to wish to anticipate God, and to prepare ourselves for things which He may not destine for us. If such things should come to pass, He will give us light and strength according to the need. Why should we desire to meet difficulties prematurely, when we have neither strength nor light as yet provided for them? Let us give heed to the present, whose duties are pressing; it is fidelity to the present which prepares us for fidelity in the future. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. Every hour comes with some little fagot of God's will fastened upon its back. F. W. FABER. July 12 _Be strong, and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid ... for the Lord thy God, He it is that doth go with thee; He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee_.--DEUT. xxxi. 6. The timid it concerns to ask their way, And fear what foe in caves and swamps can stray, To make no step until the event is known, And ills to come as evils past bemoan. Not so the wise; no coward watch he keeps To spy what danger on his pathway creeps; Go where he will, the wise man is at home, His hearth the earth,--his hall the azure dome; Where his clear spirit leads him, there's his road, By God's own light illumined and foreshowed. R. W. EMERSON. Though I sympathize, I do not share in the least the feeling of being disheartened and cast down. It is not things of this sort that depress me, or ever will. The contrary things, praise, openings, the feeling of the greatness of my work, and my inability in relation to it, these things oppress and cast me down; but little hindrances, and closing up of accustomed or expected avenues, and the presence of difficulties to be overcome,--I'm not going to be cast down by trifles such as these. JAMES HINTON. July 13 _And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought_.--ISA. lviii. 11. Wherever He may guide me, No want shall turn me back; My Shepherd is beside me, And nothing can I lack. His wisdom ever waketh, His sight is never dim,-- He knows the way He taketh, And I will walk with Him. A. L. WARING. Abandon yourself to His care and guidance, as a sheep in the care of a shepherd, and trust Him utterly. No matter though you may seem to yourself to be in the very midst of a desert, with nothing green about you, inwardly or outwardly, and may think you will have to make a long journey before you can get into the green pastures. Our Shepherd will turn that very place where you are into green pastures, for He has power to make the desert rejoice and blossom as a rose. H. W. SMITH. July 14 _Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind_.--ROM. xii. 2. Father, let our faithful mind Rest, on Thee alone inclined; Every anxious thought repress, Keep our souls in perfect peace. C. WESLEY. Retirement from anxieties of every kind; entering into no disputes; avoiding all frivolous talk; and simplifying everything we engage in, whether in a way of doing or suffering; denying the, imagination its false activities, and the intellect its false searchings after what it cannot obtain,--these seem to be some of the steps that lead to obedience to the holy precept in our text. JAMES P. GREAVES. Retire inwardly; wait to feel somewhat of God's Spirit, discovering and drawing away from that which is contrary to His holy nature, and leading into that which is acceptable to Him. As the mind is joined to this, some true light and life is received. I. PENINGTON. Act up faithfully to your convictions; and when you have been unfaithful, bear with yourself, and resume always with calm simplicity your little task. Suppress, as much as you possibly can, all recurrence to yourself, and you will suppress much vanity. Accustom yourself to much calmness and an indifference to events. MADAME GUYON. July 15 _Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in_.--PS. xxiv. 9. _Ye are the temple of the living God_.--2 COR. vi. 16. Fling wide the portals of your heart, Make it a temple set apart From earthly use for Heaven's employ, Adorned with prayer, and love, and joy. So shall your Sovereign enter in, And new and nobler life begin. G. WEISSEL. Thou art to know that thy soul is the centre, habitation, and kingdom of God. That, therefore, to the end the sovereign King may rest on that throne of thy soul, thou oughtest to take pains to keep it clean, quiet, and peaceable,--clean from guilt and defects; quiet from fears; and peaceable in temptations and tribulations. Thou oughtest always, then, to keep thine heart in peace, that thou mayest keep pure that temple of God; and with a right and pure intention thou art to work, pray, obey, and suffer (without being in the least moved), whatever it pleases the Lord to send unto thee. M. DE MOLINOS July 16 _Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee; which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee_.--PS. xxxi. 19. _I will sing unto the Lord, because He hath dealt bountifully with me_.--PS. xiii. 6. Thy calmness bends serene above My restlessness to still; Around me flows Thy quickening life, To nerve my faltering will; Thy presence fills my solitude; Thy providence turns all to good. S. LONGFELLOW. With a heart devoted to God and full of God, no longer seek Him in the heavens above or the earth beneath, or in the things under the earth, but recognize Him as the great fact of the universe, separate from no place or part, but revealed in all places and in all things and events, _moment by moment_. And as eternity alone will exhaust this momentary revelation, which has sometimes been called the ETERNAL Now, thou shalt thus find God ever present and ever new; and thy soul shall adore Him and feed upon Him in the things and events which each new moment brings; and thou shalt never be absent from Him, and He shall never be absent from thee. T. C. UPHAM. July 17 _For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us_.--ROM. viii. 18. _The power of an endless life_.--HEB. vii. 16. Believ'st thou in eternal things? Thou knowest, in thy inmost heart, Thou art not clay; thy soul hath wings, And what thou seest is but part. Make this thy med'cine for the smart Of every day's distress; be dumb, In each new loss thou truly art Tasting the power of things that come. T. W. Parsons. Every contradiction of our will, every little ailment, every petty disappointment, will, if we take it patiently, become a blessing. So, walking on earth, we may be in heaven; the ill-tempers of others, the slights and rudenesses of the world, ill-health, the daily accidents with which God has mercifully strewed our paths, instead of ruffling or disturbing our peace, may cause His peace to be shed abroad in our hearts abundantly. E. B. PUSEY. July 18 _A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another_.--JOHN xiii. 34. _And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love, one toward another, and toward all men_.--I THESS. iii. 12. Let love through all my conduct shine, An image fair, though faint, of Thine; Thus let me His disciple prove, Who came to manifest Thy love. Simon Browne. We should arrive at a fulness of love extending to the whole creation, a desire to impart, to pour out in full and copious streams the love and goodness we bear to all around us. J. P. GREAVES. Goodness and love mould the form into their own image, and cause the joy and beauty of love to shine forth from every part of the face. When this form of love is seen, it appears ineffably beautiful, and affects with delight the inmost life of the soul. E. SWEDENBORG. The soul within had so often lighted up her countenance with its own full happiness and joy, that something of a permanent radiance remained upon it. SARAH W. STEPHEN. July 19 _The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works_.--PS. cxlv. 9. _For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills_.--PS. 1. 10. Maker of earth and sea and sky, Creation's sovereign Lord and King, Who hung the starry worlds on high, And formed alike the sparrow's wing; Bless the dumb creatures of Thy care, And listen to their voiceless prayer. ANON. I believe where the love of God is verily perfected, and the true spirit of government watchfully attended to, a tenderness towards all creatures made subject to us will be experienced; and a care felt in us, that we do not lessen that sweetness of life in the animal creation, which the great Creator intends for them under our government. To say we love God as unseen, and at the same time exercise cruelty toward the least creature moving by His life, or by life derived from Him, was a contradiction in itself. JOHN WOOLMAN. I would give nothing for that man's religion whose very dog and cat are not the better for it. ROWLAND HILL. July 20 _Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught, and in vain_.--ISA. xlix. 4. Because I spent the strength Thou gavest me In struggle which Thou never didst ordain, And have but dregs of life to offer Thee-- O Lord, I do repent. SARAH WILLIAMS. Mind, it is our best work that He wants, not the dregs of our exhaustion. I think He must prefer quality to quantity. GEORGE MACDONALD. If the people about you are carrying on their business or their benevolence at a pace which drains the life out of you, resolutely take a slower pace; be called a laggard, make less money, accomplish less work than they, but be what you were meant to be and can be. You have your natural limit of power as much as an engine,--ten-horse power, or twenty, or a hundred. You are fit to do certain kinds of work, and you need a certain kind and amount of fuel, and a certain kind of handling. GEORGE S. MERRIAM. In your occupations, try to possess your soul in peace. It is not a good plan to be in haste to perform any action that it may be the sooner over. On the contrary, you should accustom yourself to do whatever you have to do with tranquillity, in order that you may retain the possession of yourself and of settled peace. MADAME GUYON. July 21 _For which cause we faint not; but, though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day_.--2 COR. iv. 16. Let my soul beneath her load Faint not through the o'erwearied flesh; Let me hourly drink afresh Love and peace from Thee, my God! C. F. RICHTER. In my attempts to promote the comfort of my family, the quiet of my spirit has been disturbed. Some of this is doubtless owing to physical weakness; but, with every temptation, there is a way of escape; there is _never_ any _need_ to sin. Another thing I have suffered loss from,--entering into the business of the day without seeking to have my spirit quieted and directed. So many things press upon me, this is sometimes neglected; shame to me that it should be so. This is of great importance, to watch carefully,--now I am so weak--not to over-fatigue myself, because then I cannot contribute to the pleasure of others; and a placid face and a gentle tone will make my family more happy than anything else I can do for them. Our own will gets sadly into the performance of our duties sometimes. ELIZABETH T. KING. July 22 _Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord_.--PS. cvii. 43. What channel needs our faith, except the eyes? God leaves no spot of earth unglorified; Profuse and wasteful, lovelinesses rise; New beauties dawn before the old have died. Trust thou thy joys in keeping of the Power Who holds these changing shadows in His hand; Believe and live, and know that hour by hour Will ripple newer beauty to thy strand. T. W. HIGGINSON. I wondered over again for the hundredth time what could be the principle which, in the wildest, most lawless, fantastically chaotic, apparently capricious work of nature, always kept it beautiful. The beauty of holiness must be at the heart of it somehow, I thought. Because our God is so free from stain, so loving, so unselfish, so good, so altogether what He wants us to be, so holy, therefore all His works declare Him in beauty; His fingers can touch nothing but to mould it into loveliness; and even the play of His elements is in grace and tenderness of form. G. MACDONALD. July 23 _Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind_.--LUKE x. 27. O God, what offering shall I give To Thee, the Lord of earth and skies? My spirit, soul, and flesh receive, A holy, living sacrifice. J. LANGE. To love God "with all our heart," is to know the spiritual passion of measureless gratitude for loving-kindness, and self-devotedness to goodness; to love Him "with all our mind," is to know the passion for Truth that is the enthusiasm of Science, the passion for Beauty that inspires the poet and the artist, when all truth and beauty are regarded as the self-revealings of God; to love Him "with all our soul," is to know the saint's rapture of devotion and gaze of penitential awe into the face of the All-holy, the saint's abhorrence of sin, and agony of desire to save a sinner's soul; and to love Him "with all our strength," is the supreme spiritual passion that tests the rest; the passion for reality, for worship in spirit and in truth, for being what we adore, for doing what we know to be God's word; the loyalty that exacts the living sacrifice, the whole burnt-offering that is our reasonable service, and in our coldest hours keeps steadfast to what seemed good when we were aglow. J. H. THOM. July 24 _Walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto His kingdom and glory_.--I THESS. ii. 12. _Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not_.--GEN. xxviii. 16. Thou earnest not to thy place by accident, It is the very place God meant for thee; And shouldst thou there small scope for action see, Do not for this give room to discontent. R. C. TRENCH. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. R. W. EMERSON. Adapt thyself to the things with which thy lot has been cast; and love the men with whom it is thy portion to live, and that with a sincere affection. No longer be either dissatisfied with thy present lot, or shrink from the future. MARCUS ANTONINUS. I love best to have each thing in its season, doing without it at all other times. I have never got over my surprise that I should have been born into the most estimable place in all the world, and in the very nick of time too. H. D. THOREAU. July 25 _He knoweth the way that I take_.--JOB xxiii. 10. _Man's goings are of the Lord; how can a man then understand his own way_?--PROV. xx. 24. Be quiet, why this anxious heed About thy tangled ways? God knows them all, He giveth speed, And He allows delays. E. W. We complain of the slow, dull life we are forced to lead, of our humble sphere of action, of our low position in the scale of society, of our having no room to make ourselves known, of our wasted energies, of our years of patience. So do we say that we have no Father who is directing our life; so do we say that God has forgotten us; so do we boldly judge what life is best for us, and so by our complaining do we lose the use and profit of the quiet years. O men of little faith! Because you are not sent out yet into your labor, do you think God has ceased to remember you? Because you are forced to be outwardly inactive, do you think you, also, may not be, in your years of quiet, "about your Father's business"? It is a period given to us in which to mature ourselves for the work which God will give us to do. STOPFORD A. BROOKE. July 26 _They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even for ever_.--PS. cxxv. I, 2. How on a rock they stand, Who watch His eye, and hold His guiding hand! Not half so fixed amid her vassal hills, Rises the holy pile that Kedron's valley fills. J. KEBLE. That is the way to be immovable in the midst of troubles, as a rock amidst the waves. When God is in the midst of a kingdom or city, He makes it firm as Mount Sion, that cannot be removed. When He is in the midst of a soul, though calamities throng about it on all hands, and roar like the billows of the sea, yet there is a constant calm within, such a peace as the world can neither give nor take away. What is it but want of lodging God in the soul, and that in His stead the world is in men's hearts, that makes them shake like leaves at every blast of danger? R. LEIGHTON. July 27 _He that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty_.--MATT. xiii. 23. Then bless thy secret growth, nor catch At noise, but thrive unseen and dumb; Keep clean, bear fruit, earn life, and watch Till the white-winged reapers come. H. VAUGHAN. He does not need to transplant us into a different field, but right where we are, with just the circumstances that surround us, He makes His sun to shine and His dew to fall upon us, and transforms the very things that were before our greatest hindrances, into the chiefest and most blessed means of our growth. No difficulties in your case can baffle Him. No dwarfing of your growth in years that are past, no apparent dryness of your inward springs of life, no crookedness or deformity in any of your past development, can in the least mar the perfect work that He will accomplish, if you will only put yourselves absolutely into His hands, and let Him have His own way with you. H. W. SMITH. July 28 _But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope_.--I THESS. iv. 13. Yet Love will dream, and Faith will trust (Since He who knows our need is just), That somehow, somewhere, meet we must. Alas for him who never sees The stars shine through his cypress trees; Who hath not learned in hours of faith, The truth to flesh and sense unknown, That life is ever Lord of Death, And Love can never lose its own. J. G. WHITTIER. While we poor wayfarers still toil, with hot and bleeding feet, along the highway and the dust of life, our companions have but mounted the divergent path, to explore the more sacred streams, and visit the diviner vales, and wander amid the everlasting Alps, of God's upper province of creation. And so we keep up the courage of our hearts, and refresh ourselves with the memories of love, and travel forward in the ways of duty, with less weary step, feeling ever for the hand of God, and listening for the domestic voices of the immortals whose happy welcome waits us. Death, in short, under the Christian aspect, is but God's method of colonization; the transition from this mother-country of our race to the fairer and newer world of our emigration. J. MARTINEAU. July 29 _But this I say, brethren, the time is short_.--I COR. vii. 29. I sometimes feel the thread of life is slender, And soon with me the labor will be wrought; Then grows my heart to other hearts more tender. The time is short. D. M. CRAIK. Oh, my dear friends, you who are letting miserable misunderstandings run on from year to year, meaning to clear them up some day; you who are keeping wretched quarrels alive because you cannot quite make up your mind that now is the day to sacrifice your pride and kill them; you who are passing men sullenly upon the street, not speaking to them out of some silly spite, and yet knowing that it would fill you with shame and remorse if you heard that one of those men were dead tomorrow morning; you who are letting your neighbor starve, till you hear that he is dying of starvation; or letting your friend's heart ache for a word of appreciation or sympathy, which you mean to give him some day,--if you only could know and see and feel, all of a sudden, that "the time is short," how it would break the spell! How you would go instantly and do the thing which you might never have another chance to do. PHILLIPS BROOKS. July 30 _Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to Thy mercy remember Thou me for Thy goodness' sake, O Lord_.--PS. XXV. 7. When on my aching, burdened heart My sins lie heavily, My pardon speak, new peace impart, In love remember me. T. HAWEIS. We need to know that our sins are forgiven. And how shall we know this? By feeling that we have peace with God,--by feeling that we are able so to trust in the divine compassion and infinite tenderness of our Father, as to arise and go to Him, whenever we commit sin, and say at once to Him, "Father, I have sinned; forgive me." To know that we are forgiven, it is only necessary to look at our Father's love till it sinks into our heart, to open our soul to Him till He shall pour His love into it; to wait on Him till we find peace, till our conscience no longer torments us, till the weight of responsibility ceases to be an oppressive burden to us, till we can feel that our sins, great as they are, cannot keep us away from our Heavenly Father. J. F. CLARKE. July 31 _I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee_.--ISA. xliv. 22. _He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea_.--MICAH vii. 19. If my shut eyes should dare their lids to part, I know how they must quail beneath the blaze Of Thy Love's greatness. No; I dare not raise One prayer, to look aloft, lest it should gaze On such forgiveness as would break my heart. H. S. SUTTON. O Lord God gracious and merciful, give us, I entreat Thee, a humble trust in Thy mercy, and suffer not our heart to fail us. Though our sins be seven, though our sins be seventy times seven, though our sins be more in number than the hairs of our head, yet give us grace in loving penitence to cast ourselves down into the depth of Thy compassion. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord. Amen. C. G. ROSSETTI. August 1 _Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools_.--ECCLES. vii. 9. _Let not the sun go down upon your wrath_--EPH. iv. 26. Quench thou the fires of hate and strife, The wasting fever of the heart; From perils guard our feeble life, And to our souls Thy peace impart. J. H. NEWMAN, _Tr. from Latin_. When thou art offended or annoyed by others, suffer not thy thoughts to dwell thereon, or on anything relating to them. For example, "that they ought not so to have treated thee; who they are, or whom they think themselves to be;" or the like; for all this is fuel and kindling of wrath, anger, and hatred. L. SCUPOLI. Struggle diligently against your impatience, and strive to be amiable and gentle, in season and out of season, towards every one, however much they may vex and annoy you, and be sure God will bless your efforts. ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. August 2 _Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation_.--ISA. xii. 2. _Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith_?--MARK. iv. 40. Still heavy is thy heart? Still sink thy spirits down? Cast off the weight, let fear depart, And every care be gone. P. GERHARDT. Go on in all simplicity; do not be so anxious to win a quiet mind, and it will be all the quieter. Do not examine so closely into the progress of your soul. Do not crave so much to be perfect, but let your spiritual life be formed by your duties, and by the actions which are called forth by circumstances. Do not take overmuch thought for to-morrow. God, who has led you safely on so far, will lead you on to the end. Be altogether at rest in the loving holy confidence which you ought to have in His heavenly Providence. ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. August 3 _Thou hast made him exceeding glad with Thy countenance_.--PS. xxi. 6. MY heart for gladness springs, It cannot more be sad, For very joy it laughs and sings, Sees nought but sunshine glad. P. GERHARDT. A new day rose upon me. It was as if another sun had risen into the sky; the heavens were indescribably brighter, and the earth fairer; and that day has gone on brightening to the present hour. I have known the other joys of life, I suppose, as much as most men; I have known art and beauty, music and gladness; I have known friendship and love and family ties; but it is certain that till we see GOD in the world--GOD in the bright and boundless universe--we never know the highest joy. It is far more than if one were translated to a world a thousand times fairer than this; for that supreme and central Light of Infinite Love and Wisdom, shining over this world and all worlds, alone can show us how noble and beautiful, how fair and glorious they are. ORVILLE DEWEY. When I look like this into the blue sky, it seems so deep, so peaceful, so full of a mysterious tenderness, that I could lie for centuries and wait for the dawning of the face of God out of the awful loving-kindness. G. MACDONALD. August 4 _He satisfieth the longing soul, and the hungry soul He filleth with good_.--PS. cvii. 9 (R. V.). _That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God_.--EPH. iii. 19. Enough that He who made can fill the soul Here and hereafter till its deeps o'erflow; Enough that love and tenderness control Our fate where'er in joy or doubt we go. ANON. O God, the Life of the Faithful, the Bliss of the righteous, mercifully receive the prayers of Thy suppliants, that the souls which thirst for Thy promises may evermore be filled from Thy abundance. Amen. GELASIAN SACRAMENTARY, A. D. 490. God makes every common thing serve, if thou wilt, to enlarge that capacity of bliss in His love. Not a prayer, not an act of faithfulness in your calling, not a self-denying or kind word or deed, done out of love for Himself; not a weariness or painfulness endured patiently; not a duty performed; not a temptation resisted; but it enlarges the whole soul for the endless capacity of the love of God. E. B. PUSEY. August 5 _O receive the gift that is given you, and be glad, giving thanks unto Him that hath called you to the heavenly kingdom_.--2 ESDRAS ii. 37. _Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift_.--2 COR. ix. 15. O Giver of each perfect gift! This day our daily bread supply; While from the Spirit's tranquil depths We drink unfailing draughts of joy. LYRA CATHOLICA. The best way for a man rightly to enjoy himself, is to maintain a universal, ready, and cheerful compliance with the divine and uncreated Will in all things; as knowing that nothing can issue and flow forth from the fountain of goodness but that which is good; and therefore a good man is never offended with any piece of divine dispensation, nor hath he any reluctancy against that Will that dictates and determines all things by an eternal rule of goodness; as knowing that there is an unbounded and almighty Love that, without any disdain or envy, freely communicates itself to everything He made; that always enfolds those in His everlasting arms who are made partakers of His own image, perpetually nourishing and cherishing them with the fresh and vital influences of His grace. DR. JOHN SMITH. August 6 _Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits_.--PS. ciii. 2. Wiser it were to welcome and make ours Whate'er of good, though small, the Present brings,-- Kind greetings, sunshine, song of birds, and flowers, With a child's pure delight in little things. R. C. TRENCH. Into all our lives, in many simple, familiar, homely ways, God infuses this element of joy from the surprises of life, which unexpectedly brighten our days, and fill our eyes with light. He drops this added sweetness into His children's cup, and makes it to run over. The success we were not counting on, the blessing we were not trying after, the strain of music, in the midst of drudgery, the beautiful morning picture or sunset glory thrown in as we pass to or from our daily business, the unsought word of encouragement or expression of sympathy, the sentence that meant for us more than the writer or speaker thought,--these and a hundred others that every one's experience can supply are instances of what I mean. You may call it accident or chance--it often is; you may call it human goodness--it often is; but always, always call it God's love, for that is always in it. These are the overflowing riches of His grace, these are His free gifts. S. LONGFELLOW. August 7 _If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth_.--MARK ix. 23. _Nothing shall be impossible unto you_.--MATT. xvii. 20. So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low, _Thou must_, The youth replies, _I can_. R. W. EMERSON. Know that "impossible," where truth and mercy and the everlasting voice of nature order, has no place in the brave man's dictionary. That when all men have said "Impossible," and tumbled noisily elsewhither, and thou alone art left, then first thy time and possibility have come. It is for thee now: do thou that, and ask no man's counsel, but thy own only and God's. Brother, thou hast possibility in thee for much: the possibility of writing on the eternal skies the record of a heroic life. T. CARLYLE. In the moral world there is nothing impossible, if we bring a thorough will to it. Man can do everything with himself; but he must not attempt to do too much with others. WM. VON HUMBOLDT. August 8 _Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage_.--GAL. v. i. _I believed, and therefore have I spoken_.--2 COR. iv. 13. They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak; They are slaves who will not choose Hatred, scoffing, and abuse, Rather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think; They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three. J. R. LOWELL. The real corrupters of society may be, not the corrupt, but those who have held back the righteous leaven, the salt that has lost its savor, the innocent who have not even the moral courage to show what they think of the effrontery of impurity,--the serious, who yet timidly succumb before some loud-voiced scoffer,--the heart trembling all over with religious sensibilities that yet suffers itself through false shame to be beaten down into outward and practical acquiescence by some rude and worldly nature. J. H. THOM. August 9 _The things which are impossible with men are possible with God_.--LUKE xviii. 27. _Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence_.--PS. xciv. 17. When obstacles and trials seem Like prison-walls to be, I do the little I can do, And leave the rest to Thee. F. W. FABER. The mind never puts forth greater power over itself than when, in great trials, it yields up calmly its desires, affections, interests to God. There are seasons when to be _still_ demands immeasurably higher strength than to act. Composure is often the highest result of power. Think you it demands no power to calm the stormy elements of passion, to moderate the vehemence of desire, to throw off the load of dejection, to suppress every repining thought, when the dearest hopes are withered, and to turn the wounded spirit from dangerous reveries and wasting grief, to the quiet discharge of ordinary duties? Is there no power put forth, when a man, stripped of his property, of the fruits of a life's labors, quells discontent and gloomy forebodings, and serenely and patiently returns to the tasks which Providence assigns? WM. E. CHANNING. August 10 _The cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it_?--JOHN xviii. 11. _Whatsoever is brought upon thee, take cheerfully_.--ECCLESIASTICUS ii. 4. Every sorrow, every smart, That the Eternal Father's heart Hath appointed me of yore, Or hath yet for me in store, As my life flows on, I 'll take Calmly, gladly, for His sake, No more faithless murmurs make P. GERHARDT. The very least and the very greatest sorrows that God ever suffers to befall thee, proceed from the depths of His unspeakable love; and such great love were better for thee than the highest and best gifts besides that He has given thee, or ever could give thee, if thou couldst but see it in this light. So that if your little finger only aches, if you are cold, if you are hungry or thirsty, if others vex you by their words or deeds, or whatever happens to you that causes you distress or pain, it will all help to fit you for a noble and blessed state. J. TAULER. AUGUST 11 _The Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto_.--DEUT. xv. 10. My place of lowly service, too, Beneath Thy sheltering wings I see; For all the work I have to do Is done through strengthening rest in Thee. A. L. WARING. I think I find most help in trying to look on all interruptions and hindrances to work that one has planned out for oneself as discipline, trials sent by God to help one against getting selfish over one's work. Then one can feel that perhaps one's true work--one's work for God--consists in doing some trifling haphazard thing that has been thrown into one's day. It is not waste of time, as one is tempted to think, it is the most important part of the work of the day,--the part one can best offer to God. After such a hindrance, do not rush after the planned work; trust that the time to finish it will be given sometime, and keep a quiet heart about it. ANNIE KEARY. August 12 _Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life_?--LUKE x. 25. _Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might_.--ECCLES. ix. 10. "What shall I do to gain eternal life?" "Discharge aright The simple dues with which each day is rife, Yea, with thy might." F. VON SCHILLER. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work, and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. R. W. EMERSON. Be diligent, after thy power, to do deeds of love. Think nothing too little, nothing too low, to do lovingly for the sake of God. Bear with infirmities, ungentle tempers, contradictions; visit, if thou mayest, the sick; relieve the poor; forego thyself and thine own ways for love; and He whom in them thou lovest, to whom in them thou ministerest, will own thy love, and will pour His own love into thee. E. B. PUSEY. August 13 _In your patience possess ye your souls_.--LUKE xxi. 19. What though thy way be dark, and earth With ceaseless care do cark, till mirth To thee no sweet strain singeth; Still hide thy life above, and still Believe that God is love; fulfil Whatever lot He bringeth. ALBERT E. EVANS. The soul loses command of itself when it is impatient. Whereas, when it submits without a murmur it possesses itself in peace, and possesses God. To be impatient, is to desire what we have not, or not to desire what we have. When we acquiesce in an evil, it is no longer such. Why make a real calamity of it by resistance? Peace does not dwell in outward things, but within the soul. We may preserve it in the midst of the bitterest pain, if our will remains firm and submissive. Peace in this life springs from acquiescence even in disagreeable things, not in an exemption from bearing them. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. The chief pang of most trials is not so much the actual suffering itself, as our own spirit of resistance to it. JEAN NICOLAS GROU. August 14 _I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help_.--PS. cxxi. 1. _My grace is sufficient for thee_.--2 COR. xii. 9. I look to Thee in every need, And never look in vain; I feel Thy touch, Eternal Love, And all is well again: The thought of Thee is mightier far Than sin and pain and sorrow are. S. LONGFELLOW. How can you live sweetly amid the vexatious things, the irritating things, the multitude of little worries and frets, which lie all along your way, and which you cannot evade? You cannot at present change your surroundings. Whatever kind of life you are to live, must be lived amid precisely the experiences in which you are now moving. Here you must win your victories or suffer your defeats. No restlessness or discontent can change your lot. Others may have other circumstances surrounding them, but here are yours. You had better make up your mind to accept what you cannot alter. You can live a beautiful life in the midst of your present circumstances. J. R. MILLER. Strive to realize a state of inward happiness, independent of circumstances. J. P. GREAVES. August 15 _God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind_.--2 TIM. i. 7. We cast behind fear, sin, and death; With Thee we seek the things above; Our inmost souls Thy spirit breathe, Of power, of calmness, and of love. HYMNS OF THE SPIRIT. I must conclude with a more delightful subject,--my most dear and blessed sister. I never saw a more perfect instance of the spirit of power and of love, and of a sound mind; intense love, almost to the annihilation of selfishness--a daily martyrdom for twenty years, during which she adhered to her early-formed resolution of never talking about herself; thoughtful about the very pins and ribands of my wife's dress, about the making of a doll's cap for a child,--but of herself, save only as regarded her ripening in all goodness, wholly thoughtless; enjoying everything lovely, graceful, beautiful, high-minded, whether in God's works or man's, with the keenest relish; inheriting the earth to the very fulness of the promise, though never leaving her crib, nor changing her posture; and preserved through the very valley of the shadow of death, from all fear or impatience, or from every cloud of impaired reason, which might mar the beauty of Christ's spirit's glorious work. THOMAS ARNOLD. August 16 _Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap_.--GAL. vi. 7. The life above, when this is past, Is the ripe fruit of life below. Sow love, and taste its fruitage pure; Sow peace, and reap its harvest bright; Sow sunbeams on the rock and moor, And find a harvest-home of light. H. BONAR. The dispositions, affections, inclinations of soul, which shall issue hereafter in perfection, must be trained and nurtured in us throughout the whole course of this earthly life. When shall we bear in mind this plain truth, that the future perfection of the saints is not a translation from one state or disposition of soul into another, diverse from the former; but the carrying out, and, as it were, the blossom and the fruitage of one and the same principle of spiritual life, which, through their whole career on earth, has been growing with an even strength, putting itself forth in the beginnings and promise of perfection, reaching upward with steadfast aspirations after perfect holiness? H. E. MANNING. August 17 _O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give Thy strength unto Thy servant, and save the son of Thy handmaid_.--PS. lxxxvi. 16. Thou art my King-- My King henceforth alone; And I, Thy servant, Lord, am all Thine own. Give me Thy strength; oh! let Thy dwelling be In this poor heart that pants, my Lord, for Thee! G. TERSTEEGEN. When it is the one ruling, never-ceasing desire of our hearts, that God may be the beginning and end, the reason and motive, the rule and measure, of our doing or not doing, from morning to night; then everywhere, whether speaking or silent, whether inwardly or outwardly employed, we are equally offered up to the eternal Spirit, have our life in Him and from Him, and are united to Him by that Spirit of Prayer which is the comfort, the support, the strength and security of the soul, travelling, by the help of God, through the vanity of time into the riches of eternity. Let us have no thought or care, but how to be wholly His devoted instruments; everywhere, and in everything, His adoring, joyful, and thankful servants. WM. LAW. August 18 _Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God_--I JOHN iii. 21. O Lord, how happy is the time When in Thy love I rest: When from my weariness I climb E'en to Thy tender breast. The night of sorrow endeth there, Thy rays outshine the sun; And in Thy pardon and Thy care The heaven of heavens is won. W. C. DESSLER. Nothing doth so much establish the mind amidst the rollings and turbulency of present things, as both a look above them, and a look beyond them; above them to the good and steady Hand by which they are ruled, and beyond them to the sweet and beautiful end to which, by that Hand, they shall be brought. Study pure and holy walking, if you would have your confidence firm, and have boldness and joy in God. You will find that a little sin will shake your trust and disturb your peace more than the greatest sufferings: yea, in those sufferings, your assurance and joy in God will grow and abound most if sin be kept out. So much sin as gets in, so much peace will go out. R. LEIGHTON. August 19 _Teach me Thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path_.--PS. xxvii. 11. Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, Lead Thou me on; The night is dark, and I am far from home, Lead Thou me on. Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see The distant scene; one step enough for me. J. H. NEWMAN. God only is holy; He alone knows how to lead His children in the paths of holiness. He knows every aspect of your soul, every thought of your heart, every secret of your character, its difficulties and hindrances; He knows how to mould you to His will, and lead you onwards to perfect sanctification; He knows exactly how each event, each trial, each temptation, will tell upon you, and He disposes all things accordingly. The consequences of this belief, if fully grasped, will influence your whole life. You will seek to give yourself up to God more and more unreservedly, asking nothing, refusing nothing, wishing nothing, but what He wills; not seeking to bring things about for yourself, taking all He sends joyfully, and believing the "one step" set before you to be enough for you. You will be satisfied that even though there are clouds around, and your way seems dark, He is directing all, and that what seems a hindrance will prove a blessing, since He wills it. JEAN NICOLAS GROU. August 20 _Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord_.--PS. xxvii. 14. _He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength_.--ISA. xl. 29. Leaning on Him, make with reverent meekness His own thy will, And with strength from Him shall thy utter weakness Life's task fulfil. J. G. WHITTIER. Should we feel at times disheartened and discouraged, a confiding thought, a simple movement of heart towards God will renew our powers. Whatever He may demand of us, He will give us at the moment the strength and the courage that we need. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. We require a certain firmness in all circumstances of life, even the happiest, and perhaps contradictions come in order to prove and exercise this; and, if we can only determine so to use them, the very effort brings back tranquillity to the soul, which always enjoys having exercised its strength in conformity to duty. WM. VON HUMBOLDT. August 21 _We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves_.--ROM. xv. 1. _The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary_. If there be some weaker one, Give me strength to help him on; If a blinder soul there be, Let me guide him nearer Thee. J. G. WHITTIER. Ask Him to increase your powers of sympathy: to give you more quickness and depth of sympathy, in little things as well as great. Opportunities of doing a kindness are often lost from mere want of thought. Half a dozen lines of kindness may bring sunshine into the whole day of some sick person. Think of the pleasure you might give to some one who is much shut up, and who has fewer pleasures than you have, by sharing with her some little comfort or enjoyment that you have learnt to look upon as a necessary of life,--the pleasant drive, the new book, flowers from the country, etc. Try to put yourself in another's place. Ask "What should I like myself, if I were hard-worked, or sick, or lonely?" Cultivate the _habit_ of sympathy. G. H. WILKINSON. August 22 _I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service_.--ROM. xii. 1. Thou hast my flesh, Thy hallowed shrine, Devoted solely to Thy will; Here let Thy light forever shine, This house still let Thy presence fill; O Source of Life, live, dwell, and move In me, till all my life be love! JOACHIM LANCE. May it not be a comfort to those of us who feel we have not the mental or spiritual power that others have, to notice that the living sacrifice mentioned in Rom. xii. 1, is our "bodies"? Of course, that includes the mental power, but does it not also include the loving, sympathizing glance, the kind, encouraging word, _the ready errand for another_, the work of our hands, opportunities for all of which come oftener in the day than for the mental power we are often tempted to envy? May we be enabled to offer willingly that which we have. ANON. August 23 _Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not_.--JER. xlv. 5. I would not have the restless will That hurries to and fro, Seeking for some great thing to do, Or secret thing to know; I would be treated as a child, And guided where I go. A. L. WARING. Oh! be little, be little; and then thou wilt be content with little; and if thou feel, now and then, a check or a secret smiting,--in _that_ is the Father's love; be not over-wise, nor over-eager, in thy own willing, running, and desiring, and thou mayest feel it so; and by degrees come to the knowledge of thy Guide, who will lead thee, step by step, in the path of life, and teach thee to follow. Be still, and wait for light and strength. I. PENINGTON. Sink into the sweet and blessed littleness, where thou livest by grace alone. Contemplate with delight the holiness and goodness in God, which thou dost not find in thyself. How lovely it is to be nothing when God is all! G. TERSTEEGEN. August 24 _And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares, and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection_.--LUKE viii. 14. Preserve me from my calling's snare, And hide my simple heart above, Above the thorns of choking care, The gilded baits of worldly love. C. WESLEY. Anything allowed in the heart which is contrary to the will of God, let it seem ever so insignificant, or be ever so deeply hidden, will cause us to fall before our enemies. Any root of bitterness cherished towards another, any self-seeking, any harsh judgments indulged in, any slackness in obeying the voice of the Lord, any doubtful habits or surroundings, any one of these things will effectually cripple and paralyze our spiritual life. I believe our blessed Guide, the indwelling Holy Spirit, is always secretly discovering these things to us by continual little twinges and pangs of conscience, so that we are left without excuse, H. W. SMITH. August 25 _See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh_.--HEB. xii. 25. From the world of sin and noise And hurry I withdraw; For the small and inward voice I wait with humble awe; Silent am I now and still, Dare not in Thy presence move; To my waiting soul reveal The secret of Thy love. C. WESLEY. When therefore the smallest instinct or desire of thy heart calleth thee towards God, and a newness of life, give it time and leave to speak; and take care thou refuse not Him that speaketh. Be retired, silent, passive, and humbly attentive to this new risen light within thee. WM. LAW. It is hardly to be wondered at that he should lose the finer consciousness of higher powers and deeper feelings, not from any behavior in itself wrong, but from the hurry, noise, and tumult in the streets of life, that, penetrating too deep into the house of life, dazed and stupefied the silent and lonely watcher in the chamber of conscience, far apart. He had no time to think or feel. G. MACDONALD. August 26 _Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord_.--ZECH. ii. 13. Be earth, with all her scenes, withdrawn; Let noise and vanity be gone: In secret silence of the mind, My heaven, and there my God, I find. I. WATTS. It is only with the pious affection of the will that we can be spiritually attentive to God. As long as the noisy restlessness of the thoughts goes on, the gentle and holy desires of the new nature are overpowered and inactive. J. P. GREAVES. There is hardly ever a complete silence in our soul. God is whispering to us wellnigh incessantly. Whenever the sounds of the world die out in the soul, or sink low, then we hear these whisperings of God. He is always whispering to us, only we do not always hear, because of the noise, hurry, and distraction which life causes as it rushes on. F. W. FABER. The prayer of faith is a sincere, sweet, and quiet view of divine, eternal truth. The soul rests quiet, perceiving and loving God; sweetly rejecting all the imaginations that present themselves, calming the mind in the Divine presence, and fixing it only on God. M. DE MOLINOS. August 27 _Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it_.--PHIL. i. 6. _He that endureth to the end shall be saved_.--MATT. x. 22. Fill with inviolable peace; Stablish and keep my settled heart; In Thee may all my wanderings cease, From Thee no more may I depart: Thy utmost goodness called to prove, Loved with an everlasting love! C. WESLEY. If any sincere Christian cast himself with his whole will upon the Divine Presence which dwells within him, he shall be kept safe unto the end. What is it that makes us unable to persevere? Is it want of strength? By no means. We have with us the strength of the Holy Spirit. When did we ever set ourselves sincerely to any work according to the will of God, and fail for want of strength? It was not that strength failed the will, but that the will failed first. If we could but embrace the Divine will with the whole love of ours; cleaving to it, and holding fast by it, we should be borne along as upon "the river of the water of life." We open only certain chambers of our will to the influence of the Divine will. We are afraid of being wholly absorbed into it. And yet, if we would have peace, we must be altogether united to Him. H. E. MANNING. August 28 _They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee: for Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee_.--PS. ix. 10. _Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good_.--PS. lxxxv. 12. In Thee I place my trust, On Thee I calmly rest; I know Thee good, I know Thee just, And count Thy choice the best. H. F. LYTE. The souls that would really be richer in duty in some new position, are precisely those who borrow no excuses from the old one; who even esteem it full of privileges, plenteous in occasions of good, frequent in divine appeals, which they chide their graceless and unloving temper for not heeding more. Wretched and barren is the discontent that quarrels with its tools instead of with its skill; and, by criticising Providence, manages to keep up complacency with self. How gentle should we be, if we were not provoked; how pious, if we were not busy; the sick would be patient, only he is not in health; the obscure would do great things, only he is not conspicuous! J. MARTINEAU. August 29 _Am I my brother's keeper_?--GEN. iv. 9. Because I held upon my selfish, road, And left my brother wounded by the way, And called ambition duty, and pressed on-- O Lord, I do repent. SARAH WILLIAMS. How many are the sufferers who have fallen amongst misfortunes along the wayside of life! "By _chance_" we come that way; chance, accident, Providence, has thrown them in our way; we see them from a distance, like the Priest, or we come upon them suddenly, like the Levite; our business, our pleasure, is interrupted by the sight, is troubled by the delay; what are our feelings, what our actions towards them? "Who is thy neighbor?" It is the sufferer, wherever, whoever, whatsoever he be. Wherever thou hearest the cry of distress, wherever thou seest any one brought across thy path by the chances and changes of life (that is, by the Providence of God), whom it is in thy power to help,--he, stranger or enemy though he be,--_he_ is thy neighbor. A. P. STANLEY. August 30 _Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love_.--EPH. iv. 1, 2. Help us, O Lord, with patient love to bear Each other's faults, to suffer with true meekness; Help us each other's joys and griefs to share, But let us turn to Thee alone in weakness. ANON. You should make a special point of asking God every morning to give you, before all else, that true spirit of meekness which He would have His children possess. You must also make a firm resolution to practise yourself in this virtue, especially in your intercourse with those persons to whom you chiefly owe it. You must make it your main object to conquer yourself in this matter; call it to mind a hundred times during the day, commending your efforts to God. It seems to me that no more than this is needed in order to subject your soul entirely to His will, and then you will become more gentle day by day, trusting wholly in His goodness. You will be very happy, my dearest child, if you can do this, for God will dwell in your heart; and where He reigns all is peace. But if you should fail, and commit some of your old faults, do not be disheartened, but rise up and go on again, as though you had not fallen. ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. August 31 _Now therefore keep thy sorrow to thyself, and bear with a good courage that which hath befallen thee_.--2 ESDRAS x. 15. Go, bury thy sorrow, The world hath its share; Go, bury it deeply, Go, hide it with care. Go, bury thy sorrow, Let others be blest; Go, give them the sunshine, And tell God the rest. ANON. Our veiled and terrible guest [Trouble] brings for us, if we will accept it, the boon of fortitude, patience, self-control, wisdom, sympathy, faith. If we reject that, then we find in our hands the other gift,--cowardice, weakness, isolation, despair. If your trouble seems to have in it no other possibility of good, at least set yourself to bear it like a man. Let none of its weight come on other shoulders. Try to carry it so that no one shall even see it. Though your heart be sad within, let cheer go out from you to others. Meet them with a kindly presence, considerate words, helpful acts. G. S. MERRIAM. September 1 _Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in welldoing, as unto a faithful Creator_.--I PETER iv. 19. _The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy_.--JAMES v. 11. On Thy compassion I repose In weakness and distress: I will not ask for greater ease, Lest I should love Thee less; Oh, 'tis a blessed thing for me To need Thy tenderness. A. L. WARING. Oh, look not at thy pain or sorrow, how great soever; but look from them, look off them, look beyond them, to the Deliverer! whose power is over them, and whose loving, wise, and tender spirit is able to do thee good by them. The Lord lead thee, day by day, in the right way, and keep thy mind stayed upon Him, in whatever befalls thee; that the belief of His love and hope in His mercy, when thou art at the lowest ebb, may keep up thy head above the billows. ISAAC PENINGTON September 2 _Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God_.--MATT. v. 6. Grant us Thy peace, down from Thy presence falling, As on the thirsty earth cool night-dews sweet; Grant us Thy peace, to Thy pure paths recalling, From devious ways, our worn and wandering feet. E. SCUDDER. O God, who art Peace everlasting, whose chosen reward is the gift of peace, and who hast taught us that the peacemakers are Thy children, pour Thy sweet peace into our souls, that everything discordant may utterly vanish, and all that makes for peace be sweet to us forever. Amen. GELASIAN SACRAMENTARY, A. D. 492. Have you ever thought seriously of the meaning of that blessing given to the peacemakers? People are always expecting to get peace in heaven; but you know whatever peace they get there will be ready-made. Whatever making of peace _they_ can be blest for, must be on the earth here: not the taking of arms against, but the building of nests amidst, its "sea of troubles" [like the halcyons]. Difficult enough, you think? Perhaps so, but I do not see that any of us try. We complain of the want of many things--we want votes, we want liberty, we want amusement, we want money. Which of us feels or knows that he wants peace? J. RUSKIN. September 3 _The eyes of all wait upon Thee; and Thou givest them their meat in due season_.--PS. cxlv. 15. _What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee_.--PS. lvi. 3. Late on me, weeping, did this whisper fall: "Dear child, there is no need to weep at all! Why go about to grieve and to despair? Why weep now through thy Future's eyes, and bear In vain to-day to-morrow's load of care?" H. S. SUTTON. The crosses of the present moment always bring their own special grace and consequent comfort with them; we see the hand of God in them when it is laid upon us. But the crosses of anxious foreboding are seen out of the dispensation of God; we see them without grace to bear them; we see them indeed through a faithless spirit which banishes grace. So, everything in them is bitter and unendurable; all seems dark and helpless. Let us throw self aside; no more self-interest, and then God's will, unfolding every moment in everything, will console us also every moment for all that He shall do around us, or within us, for our discipline. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. September 4 _His delight is in the law of the Lord. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper_.--PS. i. 2, 3. The wind that blows can never kill The tree God plants; It bloweth east; it bloweth west; The tender leaves have little rest, But any wind that blows is best. The tree God plants Strikes deeper root, grows higher still, Spreads wider boughs, for God's good-will Meets all its wants. LILLIE E. BARR. It is a fatal mistake to suppose that we cannot be holy except on the condition of a situation and circumstances in life such as shall suit ourselves. It is one of the first principles of holiness to leave our times and our places, our going out and our coming; in, our wasted and our goodly heritage entirely with the Lord. Here, O Lord, hast Thou placed us, and we will glorify Thee here! T. C. UPHAM. It is not by change of circumstances, but by fitting our spirits to the circumstances in which God has placed us, that we can be reconciled to life and duty. F. W. ROBERTSON. September 5 _O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me_.--ISA. xxxviii. 14. Being perplexed, I say, Lord, make it right! Night is as day to Thee, Darkness is light. I am afraid to touch Things that involve so much;-- My trembling hand may shake, My skill-less hand may break: Thine can make no mistake. ANNA B. WARNER. The many troubles in your household will tend to your edification, if you strive to bear them all in gentleness, patience, and kindness. Keep this ever before you, and remember constantly that God's loving eyes are upon you amid all these little worries and vexations, watching whether you take them as He would desire. Offer up all such occasions to Him, and if sometimes you are put out, and give way to impatience, do not be discouraged, but make haste to regain your lost composure. ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. September 6 _If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me_.--LUKE ix. 23. There lies thy cross; beneath it meekly bow; It fits thy stature now; Who scornful pass it with averted eye, 'Twill crush them by and by. J. KEBLE. To take up the cross of Christ is no great action done once for all; it consists in the continual practice of small duties which are distasteful to us. J. H. NEWMAN. On one occasion an intimate friend of his was fretting somewhat at not being able to put a cross on the grave of a relation, because the rest of the family disliked it. "Don't you see," he said to her, "that by giving up your own way, you will be virtually putting a cross on the grave? You 'll have it in its effect. The one is but a stone cross, the other is a true spiritual cross." LIFE OF JAMES HINTON. I would have you, one by one, ask yourselves, Wherein do I take up the cross daily? E. B. PUSEY. Every morning, receive thine own special cross from the hands of thy heavenly Father. L. SCUPOLI. September 7 _Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world_.--JAMES i. 27. Not to ease and aimless quiet Doth that inward answer tend, But to works of love and duty As our being's end. J. G. WHITTIER. It is surprising how practical duty enriches the fancy and the heart, and action clears and deepens the affections. Indeed, no one can have a true idea of right, until he does it; any genuine reverence for it, till he has done it often and with cost; any peace ineffable in it, till he does it always and with alacrity. Does any one complain, that the best affections are transient visitors with him, and the heavenly spirit a stranger to his heart? Oh, let him not go forth, on any strained wing of thought, in distant quest of them; but rather stay at home, and set his house in the true order of conscience; and of their own accord the divinest guests will enter. J. MARTINEAU. September 8 _Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving_.--COL. iv. 2. _Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong_.--I COR. xvi. 13. We kneel how weak, we rise how full of power. Why therefore should we do ourselves this wrong, Or others--that we are not always strong, That we are ever overborne with care, That we should ever weak or heartless be, Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer, And joy and strength and courage are with Thee? R. C. TRENCH. It is impossible for us to make the duties of our lot minister to our sanctification without a habit of devout fellowship with God. This is the spring of all our life, and the strength of it. It is prayer, meditation, and converse with God, that refreshes, restores, and renews the temper of our minds, at all times, under all trials, after all conflicts with the world. By this contact with the world unseen we receive continual accesses of strength. As our day, so is our strength. Without this healing and refreshing of spirit, duties grow to be burdens, the events of life chafe our temper, employments lower the tone of our minds, and we become fretful, irritable, and impatient. H. E. MANNING. September 9 _This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works_.--TITUS iii. 8. Faith's meanest deed more favor bears Where hearts and wills are weighed, Than brightest transports, choicest prayers, Which bloom their hour and fade. J. H. NEWMAN. One secret act of self-denial, one sacrifice of inclination to duty, is worth all the mere good thoughts, warm feelings, passionate prayers, in which idle people indulge themselves. J. H. NEWMAN. It is impossible for us to live in fellowship with God without holiness in all the duties of life. These things act and react on each other. Without a diligent and faithful obedience to the calls and claims of others upon us, our religious profession is simply dead. To disobey conscience when it points to relative duties irritates the whole temper, and quenches the first beginnings of devotion. We cannot go from strife, breaches, and angry words, to God. Selfishness, an imperious will, want of sympathy with the sufferings and sorrows of other men, neglect of charitable offices, suspicions, hard censures of those with whom our lot is cast, will miserably darken our own hearts, and hide the face of God from us. H. E. MANNING. September 10 _Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head_.--JOHN xiii. 9. Take my hands, and let them move At the impulse of Thy love. Take my feet, and let them be Swift and "beautiful" for Thee. Take my intellect, and use Every power as Thou shall choose. F. R. HAVERGAL. If a man may attain thereunto, to be unto God as his hand is to a man, let him be therewith content, and not seek further. That is to say, let him strive and wrestle with all his might to obey God and His commandments so thoroughly at all times, and in all things, that in him there be nothing, spiritual or natural, which opposeth God; and that his whole soul and body, with all their members, may stand ready and willing for that to which God hath created them; as ready and willing as his hand is to a man, which is so wholly in his power, that in the twinkling of an eye, he moveth and turneth it whither he will. And when we find it otherwise with us, we must give our whole diligence to amend our state. THEOLOGIA GERMANICA. When the mind thinks nothing, when the soul covets nothing, and the body acteth nothing that is contrary to the will of God, this is perfect sanctification. ANONYMOUS, _in an old Bible_, 1599. September 11 _Thy kingdom come_.--MATT. vi. 10. The kingdom of established peace, Which can no more remove; The perfect powers of godliness, The omnipotence of love. C. WESLEY. My child, thou mayest not measure out thine offering unto me by what others have done or left undone; but be it thine to seek out, even to the last moment of thine earthly life, what is the utmost height of pure devotion to which I have called _thine own self_. Remember that, if thou fall short of this, each time thou utterest in prayer the words, "Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come," thou dost most fearfully condemn thyself, for is it not a mockery to ask for that thou wilt not seek to promote even unto the uttermost, within the narrow compass of thine own heart and spirit? THE DIVINE MASTER. If you do not wish for His kingdom, don't pray for it. But if you do, you must do more than pray for it; you must work for it. J. RUSKIN. September 12 _She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not In the Lord; she drew not near to her God_.--ZEPH. iii. 2. Oh! let us not this thought allow; The heat, the dust upon our brow, Signs of the contest, we may wear; Yet thus we shall appear more fair In our Almighty Master's eye, Than if in fear to lose the bloom, Or ruffle the soul's lightest plume, We from the strife should fly. R. C. TRENCH. If God requires anything of us, we have no right to draw back under the pretext that we are liable to commit some fault in obeying. It is better to obey imperfectly than not at all. Perhaps you ought to rebuke some one dependent on you, but you are silent for fear of giving way to vehemence;--or you avoid the society of certain persons, because they make you cross and impatient. How are you to attain self-control, if you shun all occasions of practising it? Is not such self-choosing a greater fault than those into which you fear to fall? Aim at a steady mind to do right, go wherever duty calls you, and believe firmly that God will forgive the faults that take our weakness by surprise in spite of our sincere desire to please Him. JEAN NICOLAS GROU. September 13 _It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord_.--LAM. iii. 26. _Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from Him cometh my salvation_.--PS. lxii. I. Not so in haste, my heart; Have faith in God, and wait; Although He linger long, He never comes too late. ANON. The true use to be made of all the imperfections of which you are conscious is neither to justify, nor to condemn them, but to present them before God, conforming your will to His, and remaining in peace; for peace is the divine order, in whatever state we may be. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. You will find it less easy to uproot faults, than to choke them by gaining virtues. Do not think of your faults; still less of others' faults; in every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong: honor that; rejoice in it; and, as you can, try to imitate it; and your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes. J. RUSKIN. September 14 _Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not_.--JER. xxxiii. 3. _And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked_.--I KINGS iii. 13. No voice of prayer to Thee can rise, But swift as light Thy Love replies; Not always what we ask, indeed, But, O most Kind! what most we need. H. M. KIMBALL. If you have any trial which seems intolerable, pray,--pray that it be relieved or changed. There is no harm in that. We may pray for anything, not wrong in itself, with perfect freedom, if we do not pray selfishly. One disabled from duty by sickness may pray for health, that he may do his work; or one hemmed in by internal impediments may pray for utterance, that he may serve better the truth and the right. Or, if we have a besetting sin, we may pray to be delivered from it, in order to serve God and man, and not be ourselves Satans to mislead and destroy. But the answer to the prayer may be, as it was to Paul, not the removal of the thorn, but, instead, a growing insight into its meaning and value. The voice of God in our soul may show us, as we look up to Him, that His strength is enough to enable us to bear it. J. F. CLARKE. September 15 _Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with_?--MARK. x. 38. Whate'er my God ordains is right; Though I the cup must drink That bitter seems to my faint heart, I will not fear nor shrink. S. RODIGAST. The worst part of martyrdom is not the last agonizing moment; it is the wearing, daily steadfastness. Men who can make up their minds to hold out against the torture of an hour have sunk under the weariness and the harass of small prolonged vexations. And there are many Christians who have the weight of some deep, incommunicable grief pressing, cold as ice, upon their hearts. To bear that cheerfully and manfully is to be a martyr. There is many a Christian bereaved and stricken in the best hopes of life. For such a one to say quietly, "Father, not as I will, but as Thou wilt," is to be a martyr. There is many a Christian who feels the irksomeness of the duties of life, and feels his spirit revolting from them. To get up every morning with the firm resolve to find pleasure in those duties, and do them well, and finish the work which God has given us to do, that is to drink Christ's cup. The humblest occupation has in it materials of discipline for the highest heaven. F. W. ROBERTSON. September 16 _For the whole world before thee is as a little grain of the balance, yea, as a drop of the morning dew that falleth down upon the earth. But Thou hast mercy upon all. For Thou lovest all the things that are_.--WISDOM OF SOLOMON xi. 22-24. Oh! Source divine, and Life of all, The Fount of Being's fearful sea, Thy depth would every heart appal, That saw not love supreme in Thee. J. STERLING. He showed a little thing, the quantity of a hazel-nut, lying in the palm of my hand, as meseemed, and it was as round as a ball. I looked thereon with the eye of my understanding, and thought, "What may this be?" and it was answered generally thus, "It is all that is made." I marvelled how it might last; for methought it might suddenly have fallen to naught for littleness. And I was answered in my understanding, "It lasteth, and ever shall: For God loveth it. And so hath all thing being by the Love of God." In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is, that God made it. The second is, that God loveth it. The third is, that God keepeth it. For this is the cause which we be not all in ease of heart and soul: for we seek here rest in this thing which is so little, where no rest is in: and we know not our God that is all Mighty, all Wise, and all Good, for He is very rest. MOTHER JULIANA, 1373. September 17 _Whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many_.--MARK x. 43-45. A child's kiss Set on thy sighing lips, shall make thee glad; A poor man served by thee, shall make thee rich; A sick man helped by thee, shall make thee strong; Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense Of service which thou renderest. E. B. BROWNING. Let every man lovingly cast all his thoughts and cares, and his sins too, as it were, on the Will of God. Moreover, if a man, while busy in this lofty inward work, were called by some duty in the Providence of God to cease therefrom, and cook a broth for some sick person, or any other such service, he should do so willingly and with great joy. If I had to forsake such work, and go out to preach or aught else, I should go cheerfully, believing not only that God would be with me, but that he would vouchsafe me it may be even greater grace and blessing in that external work undertaken out of true love in the service of my neighbor, than I should perhaps receive in my season of loftiest contemplation. JOHN TAULER. September 18 _All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies_.--PS. xxv. 10. Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth, Speak peace to my anxious soul, And help me to feel that all my ways Are under Thy wise control; That He who cares for the lily, And heeds the sparrows' fall, Shall tenderly lead His loving child: For He made and loveth all. ANON. It is not by seeking more fertile regions where toil is lighter--happier circumstances free from difficult complications and troublesome people--but by bringing the high courage of a devout soul, clear in principle and aim, to bear upon what is given to us, that we brighten our inward light, lead something of a true life, and introduce the kingdom of heaven into the midst of our earthly day. If we cannot work out the will of God where God has placed us, then why has He placed us there? J. H. THOM. September 19 _Pray for us unto the Lord thy God... that the Lord thy God may show us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do_.--JER. xlii. 2, 3. _That which I see not, teach Thou me_.--JOB xxxiv. 32. O father, hear! The way is dark, and I would fain discern What steps to take, into which path to turn; Oh! make it clear. CHRISTIAN INTELLIGENCER. "We can't choose happiness either for ourselves or for another; we can't tell where that will lie. We can only choose whether we will indulge ourselves in the present moment, or whether we will renounce that, for the sake of obeying the Divine voice within us,--for the sake of being true to all the motives that sanctify our lives. I know this belief is hard; it has slipped away from me again and again; but I have felt that if I let it go forever, I should have no light through the darkness of this life." GEORGE ELIOT. There was a care on my mind so to pass my time, that nothing might hinder me from the most steady attention to the voice of the true Shepherd. JOHN WOOLMAN. September 20 _Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy presence from the pride of man: Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues_.--PS. xxxi. 20. The praying spirit breathe, The watching power impart, From all entanglements beneath Call off my anxious heart. My feeble mind sustain, By worldly thoughts oppressed; Appear, and bid me turn again To my eternal rest. C. WESLEY. As soon as we are with God in faith and in love, we are in prayer. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. If you could once make up your mind in the fear of God never to undertake more work of any sort than you can carry on calmly, quietly, without hurry or flurry, and the instant you feel yourself growing nervous and like one out of breath, would stop and take breath, you would find this simple common-sense rule doing for you what no prayers or tears could ever accomplish. ELIZABETH PRENTISS. September 21 _How excellent is Thy loving-kindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings_.--PS. xxxvi. 7. _The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms_.--DEUT. xxxiii. 27. Within Thy circling arms we lie, O God! in Thy infinity: Our souls in quiet shall abide, Beset with love on every side. ANON. "The Everlasting Arms." I think of that whenever rest is sweet. How the whole earth and the strength of it, that is almightiness, is beneath every tired creature to give it rest; _holding_ us, always! No thought of God is closer than that. No human tenderness of patience is greater than that which gathers in its arms a little child, and holds it, heedless of weariness. And He fills the great earth, and all upon it, with this unseen force of His love, that never forgets or exhausts itself, so that everywhere we may lie down in His bosom, and be comforted. A. D. T. WHITNEY. September 22 _The word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it_.--DEUT. xxx. 14. But, above all, the victory is most sure For him, who, seeking faith by virtue, strives To yield entire obedience to the Law Of Conscience; Conscience reverenced and obeyed, As God's most intimate presence in the soul, And His most perfect image in the world. W. WORDSWORTH. What we call Conscience is the voice of Divine love in the deep of our being, desiring union with our will; and which, by attracting the affections inward, invites them to enter into the harmonious contentment, and "fulness of joy" which attends the being joined by "one spirit to the Lord." J. P. GREAVES. I rejoice that God has bestowed upon you a relish and inclination for the inner life. To be called to this precious and lofty life is a great and undeserved grace of God, to which we ought to respond with great faithfulness. God invites us to His fellowship of love, and wishes to prepare our spirit to be His own abode and temple. GERHARD TERSTEEGEN. September 23 _Show me Thy ways, O Lord; teach me Thy paths_--PS. xxv. 4. When we cannot see our way, Let us trust and still obey; He who bids us forward go, Cannot fail the way to show. Though the sea be deep and wide, Though a passage seem denied; Fearless let us still proceed, Since the Lord vouchsafes to lead. ANON. That which is often asked of God, is not so much His will and way, as His approval of our way. S. F. SMILEY. There is nothing like the first glance we get at duty, before there has been any special pleading of our affections or inclinations. Duty is never uncertain at first. It is only after we have got involved in the mazes and sophistries of wishing that things were otherwise than they are, that it seems indistinct. Considering a duty is often only explaining it away. Deliberation is often only dishonesty. God's guidance is plain, when we are true. F. W, ROBERTSON. September 24 _When I awake, I am still with Thee_.--PS. cxxxix. 18. Let the glow of love destroy Cold obedience faintly given; Wake our hearts to strength and joy With the flushing eastern heaven. C. K. VON ROSENROTH. With his first waking consciousness, he can set himself to take a serious, manly view of the day before him. He ought to know pretty well on what lines his difficulty is likely to come, whether in being irritable, or domineering, or sharp in his bargains, or self-absorbed, or whatever it be; and now, in this quiet hour, he can take a good, full look at his enemy, and make up his mind to beat him. It is a good time, too, for giving his thoughts a range quite beyond himself,--beyond even his own moral struggles,--a good time, there in the stillness, for going into the realm of other lives. His wife,--what needs has she for help, for sympathy, that he can meet? His children,--how can he make the day sweeter to them? This acquaintance, who is having a hard time; this friend, who dropped a word to you yesterday that you hardly noticed in your hurry, but that comes up to you now, revealing in him some finer trait, some deeper hunger, than you had guessed before,--now you can think these things over. G. S. MERRIAM. September 25 _Ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee_.--DEUT. xii. 7. Sweet is the smile of home; the mutual look When hearts are of each other sure; Sweet all the joys that crowd the household nook, The haunt of all affections pure. J. KEBLE. Is there any tie which absence has loosened, or which the wear and tear of every-day intercourse, little uncongenialities, unconfessed misunderstandings, have fretted into the heart, until it bears something of the nature of a fetter? Any cup at our home-table whose sweetness we have not fully tasted, although it might yet make of our daily bread a continual feast? Let us reckon up these treasures while they are still ours, in thankfulness to God. ELIZABETH CHARLES. We ought daily or weekly to dedicate a little time to the reckoning up of the virtues of our belongings,--wife, children, friends,--contemplating them then in a beautiful collection. And we should do so now, that we may not pardon and love in vain and too late, after the beloved one has been taken away from us to a better world. JEAN PAUL RICHTER. September 26 _Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me_.--PS. xxiii. 4. O will, that wiliest good alone, Lead Thou the way, Thou guides! best; A silent child, I follow on, And trusting lean upon Thy breast. And if in gloom I see Thee not, I lean upon Thy love unknown; In me Thy blessed will is wrought, If I will nothing of my own. GERHARD TERSTEEGEN. The devout soul is always safe in every state, if it makes everything an occasion either of rising up, or falling down into the hands of God, and exercising faith, and trust, and resignation to Him. The pious soul, that eyes only God, that means nothing but being His alone, can have no stop put to its progress; light and darkness equally assist him: in the light he looks up to God, in the darkness he lays hold on God, and so they both do him the same good. WM. LAW. September 27 _When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me_.--MICAH vii. 8. _There be many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us_.--PS. iv. 6. How oft a gleam of glory sent Straight through the deepest, darkest night, Has filled the soul with heavenly light, With holy peace and sweet content. ANON. Suppose you are bewildered and know not what is right nor what is true. Can you not cease to regard whether you do or not, whether you be bewildered, whether you be happy? Cannot you utterly and perfectly love, and rejoice to be in the dark, and gloom-beset, because that very thing is the fact of God's Infinite Being as it is to you? Cannot you take this trial also into your own heart, and be ignorant, not because you are obliged, but because that being God's will, it is yours also? Do you not see that a person who truly loves is one with the Infinite Being--cannot be uncomfortable or unhappy? It is that which is that he wills and desires and holds best of all to be. To know God is utterly to sacrifice self. JAMES HINTON. September 28 _My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed, and in truth_.--I JOHN iii. 18. _But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves_.--JAMES i. 22. Thrice blest whose lives are faithful prayers, Whose loves in higher love endure; What souls possess themselves so pure, Or is there blessedness like theirs? A. TENNYSON. Let every creature have your love. Love, with its fruits of meekness, patience, and humility, is all that we can wish for to ourselves, and our fellow-creatures; for this is to live in God, united to Him, both for time and eternity. To desire to communicate good to every creature, in the degree we can, and it is capable of receiving from us, is a divine temper; for thus God stands unchangeably disposed towards the whole creation. WM. LAW. What shall be our reward for loving our neighbor as ourselves in this life? That, when we become angels, we shall be enabled to love him better than ourselves. E. SWEDENBORG. September 29 _Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God_.--MATT. v. 8. _Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord_.--HEB. xii. 14. Since Thou Thyself dost still display Unto the pure in heart, Oh, make us children of the day To know Thee as Thou art. For Thou art light and life and love; And Thy redeemed below May see Thee as Thy saints above, And know Thee as they know. J. MONTGOMERY. Doubt, gloom, impatience, have been expelled; joy has taken their place, the hope of heaven and the harmony of a pure heart, the triumph of self-mastery, sober thoughts, and a contented mind. How can charity towards all men fail to follow, being the mere affectionateness of innocence and peace? Thus the Spirit of God creates in us the simplicity and warmth of heart which children have, nay, rather the perfections of His heavenly hosts, high and low being joined together in His mysterious work; for what are implicit trust, ardent love, abiding purity, but the mind both of little children and of the adoring seraphim! J. H. NEWMAN. September 30 _Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in Thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart_.--PS. xv. 1, 2. How happy is he born or taught, That serveth not another's will, Whose armor is his honest thought, And simple truth his utmost skill. H. WOTTON. If thou workest at that which is before thee, following right reason, seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else to distract thee, but keeping thy divine part pure as if thou shouldest be bound to give it back immediately,--if thou boldest to this, expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with thy present activity according to nature, and with heroic truth in every word and sound which thou utterest, thou wilt live happy. And there is no man who is able to prevent this. MARCUS ANTONINUS. October 1 _Be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts_.--HAGGAI ii. 4, Yet the world is Thy field, Thy garden; On earth art Thou still at home. When Thou bendest hither Thy hallowing eye, My narrow work-room seems vast and high, Its dingy ceiling a rainbow-dome,-- Stand ever thus at my wide-swung door, And toil will be toil no more. L. LARCOM. The situation that has not its duty, its ideal, was never yet occupied by man. Yes, here, in this poor, miserable, hampered, despicable Actual, wherein thou even now standest, here or nowhere is thy Ideal: work it out therefrom; and working, believe, live, be free. Fool! the Ideal is in thyself, the impediment too is in thyself: thy condition is but the stuff thou art to shape that same Ideal out of: what matters whether such stuff be of this sort or that, so the form thou givest it be heroic, be poetic. O thou that pinest in the imprisonment of the Actual, and criest bitterly to the gods for a kingdom wherein to rule and create, know this of a truth: the thing thou seekest is already with thee, "here or nowhere," couldst thou only see! T. CARLYLE. October 2 _I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress_.--PS. xvii. 3. _In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise_.--PROV. x. 19. Prune thou thy words; the thoughts control That o'er thee swell and throng; They will condense within thy soul, And change to purpose strong. J. H. NEWMAN. Few men suspect how much mere talk fritters away spiritual energy,--that which should be spent in action, spends itself in words. Hence he who restrains that love of talk, lays up a fund of spiritual strength. F. W. ROBERTSON. Do not flatter yourself that your thoughts are under due control, your desires properly regulated, or your dispositions subject as they should be to Christian principle, if your intercourse with others consists mainly of frivolous gossip, impertinent anecdotes, speculations on the character and affairs of your neighbors, the repetition of former conversations, or a discussion of the current petty scandal of society; much less, if you allow yourself in careless exaggeration on all these points, and that grievous inattention to exact truth, which is apt to attend the statements of those whose conversation is made up of these materials. H. WARE, JR. October 3 _Judge not, that ye be not judged_.--MATT. vii. 1. _Why beboldest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye_?--LUKE vi. 41. Judge not; the workings of his brain And of his heart thou canst not see; What looks to thy dim eyes a stain, In God's pure light may only be A scar, brought from some well-won field, Where thou wouldst only faint and yield. ADELAIDE A. PROCTER. When you behold an aspect for whose constant gloom and frown you cannot account, whose unvarying cloud exasperates you by its apparent causelessness, be sure that there is a canker somewhere, and a canker not the less deeply corroding because concealed. CHARLOTTE BRONTE. While we are coldly discussing a man's career, sneering at his mistakes, blaming his rashness, and labelling his opinions--"Evangelical and narrow," or "Latitudinarian and Pantheistic," or "Anglican and supercilious"--that man, in his solitude, is perhaps shedding hot tears because his sacrifice is a hard one, because strength and patience are failing him to speak the difficult word, and do the difficult deed. GEORGE ELIOT. October 4 _Be strong, and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest_.--JOSH. i. 9. By Thine unerring Spirit led, We shall not in the desert stray; We shall not full direction need, Nor miss our providential way; As far from danger as from fear, While love, almighty love, is near. CHARLES WESLEY. Watch your way then, as a cautious traveller; and don't be gazing at that mountain or river in the distance, and saying, "How shall I ever get over them?" but keep to the present _little inch_ that is before you, and accomplish _that_ in the little moment that belongs to it. The mountain and the river can only be passed in the same way; and, when you come to them, you will come to the light and strength that belong to them. M. A. KELTY. Let not future things disturb thee, for thou wilt come to them, if it shall be necessary, having with thee the same reason which thou now usest for present things. MARCUS ANTONINUS. October 5 _Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not_.--ISA. xxxv. 4. Why shouldst them fill to-day with sorrow About to-morrow, My heart? One watches all with care most true, Doubt not that He will give thee too Thy part. PAUL FLEMMING. The crosses which we make for ourselves by a restless anxiety as to the future, are not crosses which come from God. We show want of faith in Him by our false wisdom, wishing to forestall His arrangements, and struggling to supplement His Providence by our own providence. The future is not yet ours; perhaps it never will be. If it comes, it may come wholly different from what we have foreseen. Let us shut our eyes, then, to that which God hides from us, and keeps in reserve in the treasures of His deep counsels. Let us worship without seeing; let us be silent; let us abide in peace. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. October 6 _I had fainted, unless I bad believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living_--PS. xxvii. 13. _I will surely do thee good_.--GEN. xxxii. 12. Thou know'st not what is good for thee, But God doth know,-- Let Him thy strong reliance be, And rest thee so. C. F. GELLERT. Let us be very careful of thinking, on the one hand, that we have no work assigned us to do, or, on the other hand, that what we have assigned to us is not the right thing for us. If ever we can say in our hearts to God, in reference to any daily duty, "This is not my place; I would choose something dearer; I am capable of something higher;" we are guilty not only of rebellion, but of blasphemy. It is equivalent to saying, not only, "My heart revolts against Thy commands," but "Thy commands are unwise; Thine Almighty guidance is unskilful; Thine omniscient eye has mistaken the capacities of Thy creature; Thine infinite love is indifferent to the welfare of Thy child." ELIZABETH CHARLES. October 7 _And because ye are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father_.--GAL. iv. 6. O Lord, forgive my sin, And deign to put within A calm, obedient heart, a patient mind; That I may murmur not, Though bitter seem my lot; For hearts unthankful can no blessing find. M. RUTILIUS, 1604. Resignation to the Divine Will signifies a cheerful approbation and thankful acceptance of everything that comes from God. It is not enough patiently to submit, but we must thankfully receive and fully approve of everything that, by the order of God's providence, happens to us. For there is no reason why we should be patient, but what is as good and as strong a reason why we should be thankful. Whenever, therefore, you find yourself disposed to uneasiness or murmuring at any thing that is the effect of God's providence over you, you must look upon yourself as denying either the wisdom or goodness of God. WM. LAW. October 8 _Ye shall not go out in haste, for the Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearward_.--ISA. lii. 12. (R. V.). _He that believeth shall not make haste_.--ISA. xxviii. 16. Holy Spirit, Peace divine! Still this restless heart of mine; Speak to calm this tossing sea, Stayed in Thy tranquillity. S. LONGFELLOW. In whatever you are called upon to do, endeavor to maintain a calm, collected, and prayerful state of mind. Self-recollection is of great importance. "It is good for a man to quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord." He who is in what may be called a spiritual hurry, or rather who runs without having evidence of being spiritually sent, makes haste to no purpose. T. C. UPHAM. There is great fret and worry in always running after work; it is not good intellectually or spiritually. ANNIE KEARY. Whenever we are outwardly excited we should cease to act; but whenever we have a message from the spirit within, we should execute it with calmness. A fine day may excite one to act, but it is much better that we act from the calm spirit in any day, be the outward what it may. J. P. GREAVES. October 9 _As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord_.--JOSH. xxiv. 15. O happy house I and happy servitude! Where all alike one Master own; Where daily duty, in Thy strength pursued, Is never hard or toilsome known; Where each one serves Thee, meek and lowly, Whatever Thine appointment be, Till common tasks seem great and holy, When they are done as unto Thee. C. J. P. SPITTA. At Dudson there was no rushing after anything, either worldly or intellectual. It was a home of constant activity, issuing from, and retiring to, a centre of deep repose. There was an earnest application of excellent sense to the daily duties of life, to the minutest courtesy and kindness, as well as to the real interests of others. Everything great and everything little seemed done in the same spirit, and with the same degree of fidelity, because it was the will of God; and that which could not be traced to His will was not undertaken at all. Nothing at Dudson was esteemed too little to be cared for, and nothing too great to be undertaken at the command of God; and for this they daily exercised their mental and bodily powers on the things around them; knowing that our Lord thoroughly furnishes each of His soldiers for his work, and places before each the task he has to do. M. A. SCHIMMELPENNINCK. October 10 _Now the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always by all means_.--2 THESS. iii. 16. _The Lord will give strength unto His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace_.--PS. xxix. 11. In the heart's depths a peace serene and holy Abides, and when pain seems to have its will, Or we despair,--oh, may that peace rise slowly, Stronger than agony, and we be still. S. JOHNSON. But if a man ought and is willing to lie still under God's hand, he must and ought also to lie still under all things, whether they come from God, himself, or the creatures, nothing excepted. And he who would be obedient, resigned, and submissive to God, must and ought to be also resigned, obedient, and submissive to all things, in a spirit of yielding, and not of resistance; and take them in silence, resting on the hidden foundations of his soul, and having a secret inward patience, that enableth him to take all chances or crosses willingly; and, whatever befalleth, neither to call for nor desire any redress, or deliverance, or resistance, or revenge, but always in a loving, sincere humility to cry, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" THEOLOGIA GERMANICA. October 11 _And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord_.--NUM. xi. 1. When thou hast thanked thy God For every blessing sent, What time will then remain For murmurs or lament? R. C. TRENCH. Let him, with a cheerful and thankful spirit, yield himself up to suffer whatever God shall appoint unto him, and to fulfil, according to his power, by the grace of God, all His holy will to the utmost that he can discern it, and never complain of his distresses but to God alone, with entire and humble resignation, praying that he may be strong to endure all his sufferings according to the will of God. JOHN TAULER. He who complains, or thinks he has a right to complain, because he is called in God's Providence to suffer, has something within him which needs to be taken away. A soul whose will is lost in God's will, can never do this. Sorrow may exist; but complaint never. CATHERINE ADORNA. October 12 _Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord_.--EPH. v. 19. _Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts_.--I PETER iii. 15. There are in this loud stunning tide Of human care and crime, With whom the melodies abide Of th' everlasting chime; Who carry music in their heart Through dusky lane and wrangling mart, Plying their daily task with busier feet, Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat. J. KEBLE. Strive to carry thyself with a total resignation to the Divine Will, that God may do with thee and all thine according to His heavenly pleasure, relying on Him as on a kind and loving Father. Never recall that intention, and though thou be taken up about the affairs of the condition wherein God hath placed thee, yet thou wilt still be in prayer, in the presence of God, and in perpetual acts of resignation. "A just man leaves not off to pray unless he leaves off to be just." He always prays who always does well. The good desire is prayer, and if the desire be continued so also is the prayer. M. DE MOLINOS. October 13 _We desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end_.--HEB. vi. 11. _The Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil_.--2 THESS. iii. 3. Long though my task may be, Cometh the end. God't is that helpeth me, His is the work, and He New strength will lend. ANON. Set yourself steadfastly to those duties which have the least attractive exterior; it matters not whether God's holy will be fulfilled in great or small matters. Be patient with yourself and your own failings; never be in a hurry, and do not yield to longings after that which is impossible to you. My dear sister, go on steadily and quietly; if our dear Lord means you to run, He will "strengthen your heart." ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. Always begin by doing that which costs me most, unless the easier duty is a pressing one. Examine, classify, and determine at night the work of the morrow; arrange things in the order of their importance, and act accordingly. Dread, above all things, bitterness and irritation. Never say, or indirectly recall anything to my advantage. MADAME SWET CHINE, October 14 _He that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate Me love death_.--PROV. viii. 36. _But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord_.--ROM. vi. 22, 23. O Sovereign Love, to Thee I cry! Give me Thyself, or else I die! Save me from death; from hell set free! Death, hell, are but the want of Thee. Quickened by Thy imparted flame, Saved when possessed of Thee, I am: My life, my only heaven Thou art; O might I feel Thee in my heart! C. WESLEY. Sin itself is hell, and death, and misery to the soul, as being a departure from goodness and holiness itself; I mean from God, in conjunction with whom the happiness, and blessedness, and heaven of a soul doth consist. Avoid it, therefore, as you would avoid being miserable. SAMUEL SHAW. "I could n't live in peace if I put the shadow of a wilful sin between myself and God." GEORGE ELIOT. Unholy tempers are always unhappy tempers. JOHN WESLEY. October 15 _Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me_.--PS. xl. 12, 13. _Sin shall not have dominion over you_.--ROM. vi. 14. O Thou, to whose all-searching sight The darkness shineth as the light! Search, prove my heart; it pants for Thee; Oh, burst these bonds, and set it free! G. TERSTEEGEN. Yes, this sin which has sent me weary-hearted to bed and desperate in heart to morning work, that has made my plans miscarry until I am a coward, that cuts me off from prayer, that robs the sky of blueness and the earth of springtime, and the air of freshness, and human faces of friendliness,--this blasting sin which perhaps has made my bed in hell for me so long,--this can be conquered. I do not say annihilated, but, better than that, conquered, captured and transfigured into a friend: so that I at last shall say, "My temptation has become my strength! for to the very fight with it I owe my force." W. C. GANNETT. October 16 _I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast showed unto Thy servant_.--GEN. xxxii. 10. Some murmur if their sky is clear, And wholly bright to view, If one small speck of dark appear In their great heaven of blue: And some with thankful love are filled, If but one streak of light, One ray of God's good mercy, gild The darkness of their night. R. C. TRENCH. Habitual sufferers are precisely those who least frequently doubt the Divine benevolence, and whose faith and love rise to the serenest cheerfulness. Possessed by no idea of a prescriptive right to be happy, their blessings are not benumbed by anticipation, but come to them fresh and brilliant as the first day's morning and evening light to the dwellers in Paradise. With the happy it is their constant peace that seems to come by nature, and to be blunted by its commonness,--and their griefs to come from God, sharpened by their sacred origin; with the sufferer, it is his pain that appears to be a thing of course, and to require no explanation, while his relief is reverently welcomed as a divine interposition, and, as a breath of Heaven, caresses the heart into melodies of praise. J. MARTINEAU. October 17 _Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice_.--I SAM. XV. 22. _Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show to you to-day_--EX. xiv. 13. The folded hands seem idle: If folded at His word, 'Tis a holy service, trust me, In obedience to the Lord. ANNA SHIPTON. It is not the multitude of hard duties, it is not constraint and contention that advance us in our Christian course. On the contrary, it is the yielding of our wills without restriction and without choice, to tread cheerfully every day in the path in which Providence leads us, to seek nothing, to be discouraged by nothing, to see our duty in the present moment, to trust all else without reserve to the will and power of God. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. Godliness is the devotion of the soul to God, as to a living person whose will is to be its law, whose love is to be its life. It is the habit of living before the face of God, and not the simply doing certain things. J. B. BROWN. October 18 _Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven_.--MATT. v. 20. The freedom from all wilful sin, The Christian's daily task,-- Oh these are graces far below What longing love would ask! Dole not thy duties out to God. F. W. FABER. You perhaps will say that all people fall short of the perfection of the Gospel, and therefore you are content with your failings. But this is saying nothing to the purpose: for the question is not whether Gospel perfection can be fully attained, but whether you come as near it as a sincere intention and careful diligence can carry you. Whether you are not in a much lower state than you might be if you sincerely intended and carefully labored to advance yourself in all Christian virtues. WM. LAW. We know not exactly how low the least degree of obedience is, which will bring a man to heaven; but this we are quite sure of, that he who aims no higher will be sure to fall short even of that, and that he who goes farthest beyond it will be most blessed. JOHN KEBLE. October 19 _Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go_.--ISA. xlviii. 17. I seek Thy aid, I ask direction, Teach me to do what pleaseth Thee; I can bear toil, endure affliction, Only Thy leadings let me see. ANON. Of all paths a man could strike into, there is, at any given moment, a _best path_ for every man; a thing which, here and now, it were of all things _wisest_ for him to do; which could he but be led or driven to do, he were then doing "like a man," as we phrase it. His success, in such case, were complete, his felicity a maximum. This path, to find this path, and walk in it, is the one thing needful for him. T. CARLYLE. Every man has his own vocation. There is one direction in which all space is open to him. He has faculties silently inviting him thither to endless exertion. He is like a ship in a river; he runs against obstructions on every side but one; on that side all obstruction is taken away, and he sweeps serenely over a deepening channel into an infinite sea. R. W. EMERSON. October 20 _Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good_.--ROM. xii. 21. Come, in this accepted hour; Bring Thy heavenly kingdom in; Fill us with Thy glorious power, Rooting out the seeds of sin. C. WESLEY. If we wish to overcome evil, we must overcome it by good. There are doubtless many ways of overcoming the evil in our own hearts, but the simplest, easiest, most universal, is to overcome it by active occupation in some good word or work. The best antidote against evil of all kinds, against the evil thoughts which haunt the soul, against the needless perplexities which distract the conscience, is to keep hold of the good we have. Impure thoughts will not stand against pure words, and prayers, and deeds. Little doubts will not avail against great certainties. Fix your affections on things above, and then you will be less and less troubled by the cares, the temptations, the troubles of things on earth. A. P. STANLEY. October 21 _I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect_.--GEN. xvii. I. _Consecrate yourselves to-day to the Lord_.--EX. xxxii. 29. Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my moments and my days; Let them flow in ceaseless praise. F. R. HAVERGAL. I have noticed that wherever there has been a faithful following of the Lord in a consecrated soul, several things have inevitably followed, sooner or later. Meekness and quietness of spirit become in time the characteristics of the daily life. A submissive acceptance of the will of God as it comes in the hourly events of each day; pliability in the hands of God to do or to suffer all the good pleasure of His will; sweetness under provocation; calmness in the midst of turmoil and bustle; yieldingness to the wishes of others, and an insensibility to slights and affronts; absence of worry or anxiety; deliverance from care and fear;--all these, and many similar graces, are invariably found to be the natural outward development of that inward life which is hid with Christ in God. H. W. SMITH. October 22 _Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but Thine, be done_.--LUKE xxii. 42. Just as Thou wilt is just what I would will; Give me but this, the heart to be content, And, if my wish is thwarted, to lie still, Waiting till puzzle and till pain are spent, And the sweet thing made plain which the Lord meant. SUSAN COOLIDGE. Let your will be one with His will, and be glad to be disposed of by Him. He will order all things for you. What can cross your will, when it is one with His will, on which all creation hangs, round which all things revolve? Keep your hearts clear of evil thoughts; for as evil choices estrange the will from His will, so evil thoughts cloud the soul, and hide Him from us. Whatever sets us in opposition to Him makes our will an intolerable torment. So long as we will one thing and He another, we go on piercing ourselves through and through with a perpetual wound; and His will advances moving on in sanctity and majesty, crushing ours into the dust. H. E. MANNING. October 23 _Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God: Thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness_.--PS. cxliii. 10. The battle of our life is won, And heaven begun, When we can say, "Thy will be done!" But, Lord, until These restless hearts in Thy deep love are still, We pray Thee, "Teach us how to do Thy will!" LUCY LARCOM. "You are seeking your own will, my daughter. You are seeking some good other than the law you are bound to obey. But how will you find good? It is not a thing of choice; it is a river that flows from the foot of the Invisible Throne, and flows by the path of obedience. I say again, man cannot choose his duties. You may choose to forsake your duties, and choose not to have the sorrow they bring. But you will go forth, and what will you find, my daughter? Sorrow without duty--bitter herbs, and no bread with them." GEORGE ELIOT. However dark and profitless, however painful and weary, existence may have become, life is not done, and our Christian character is not won, so long as God has anything left for us to suffer, or anything left for us to do. F. W. ROBERTSON. October 24 _The Lord is my strength, and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise Him_.--PS. xxviii. 7. Well may Thy happy children cease From restless wishes, prone to sin, And, in Thy own exceeding peace, Yield to Thy daily discipline. A. L. WARING. Talk of hair-cloth shirts, and scourgings, and sleeping on ashes, as means of saintship! There is no need of them in our country. Let a woman once look at her domestic trials as her hair-cloth, her ashes, her scourges,--accept them,--rejoice in them,--smile and be quiet, silent, patient, and loving under them,--and the convent can teach her no more; she is a victorious saint. H. B. STOWE. Perhaps it is a greater energy of Divine Providence, which keeps the Christian from day to day, from year to year--praying, hoping, running, believing--against all hindrances--which maintains him as a _living martyr_, than that which bears him up for an hour in sacrificing himself at the stake. R. CECIL. October 25 _For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord_.--ROM. viii. 38, 39. I know not what the future hath Of marvel or surprise, Assured alone that life and death His mercy underlies. J. G. WHITTIER. Be of good faith, my dear Friends, look not out at any thing; fear none of those things ye may be exposed to suffer, either outwardly or inwardly; but trust the Lord over all, and your life will spring, and grow, and refresh you, and ye will learn obedience and faithfulness daily more and more, even by your exercises and sufferings; yea, the Lord will teach you the very mystery of faith and obedience; the wisdom, power, love, and goodness of the Lord ordering _every_ thing for you, and ordering _your_ hearts in every thing. I. PENINGTON. October 26 _Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope_.--ZECH. ix. 12. O power to do; O baffled will! O prayer and action! ye are one. Who may not strive, may yet fulfil The harder task of standing still, And good but wished with God is done. J. G. WHITTIER. That God has circumscribed our life may add a peculiar element of trial, but often it defines our way and cuts off many tempting possibilities that perplex the free and the strong; whilst it leaves intact the whole body of spiritual reality, with the Beatitude thereon, "that if we know these things, happy are we if we do them." We know that God orders the lot; and to meet it with the energies it requires and permits, neither more nor less,--to fill it at every available point with the light and action of an earnest and spiritually inventive mind, though its scene be no wider than a sick chamber, and its action narrowed to patient suffering, and gentle, cheerful words, and all the light it can emit the thankful quiet of a trustful eye,--without chafing as though God had misjudged our sphere, and placed us wrong, and did not know where we could best serve Him,--this is what, in that condition, we _have to do_. J. H. THOM. October 27 _Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong_.--2 COR. xii. 10. Whatever God does is well! In patience let us wait; He doth Himself our burdens bear, He doth for us take care, And He, our God, knows all our weary days. Come, give Him praise. B. SCHMOLCK. Nothing else but this seeing God in everything will make us loving and patient with those who annoy and trouble us. They will be to us then only the instruments for accomplishing His tender and wise purposes towards us, and we shall even find ourselves at last inwardly thanking them for the blessings they bring us. Nothing else will completely put an end to all murmuring or rebelling thoughts. H. W. SMITH. The subjection of the will is accomplished by calmly resigning thyself in everything that internally or externally vexes thee; for it is thus only that the soul is prepared for the reception of divine influences. Prepare the, heart like clean paper, and the Divine Wisdom will imprint on it characters to His own liking. M. DE MOLINOS. October 28 _I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end_.--JER. xxix. 11. Thy thoughts are good, and Thou art kind, E'en when we think it not; How many an anxious, faithless mind Sits grieving o'er its lot, And frets, and pines by day and night, As God had lost it out of sight, And all its wants forgot. P. GERHARDT. You are never to complain of your birth, your training, your employments, your hardships; never to fancy that you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned you. God understands His own plan, and He knows what you want a great deal better than you do. The very things that you most deprecate, as fatal limitations or obstructions, are probably what you most want. What you call hindrances, obstacles, discouragements, are probably God's opportunities. Bring down your soul, or, rather, bring it up to receive God's will and do His work, in your lot, in your sphere, under your cloud of obscurity, against your temptations, and then you shall find that your condition is never opposed to your good, but really consistent with it. H. BUSHNELL. October 29 _Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction_--ISA. xlviii. 10. Be patient, suffering soul! I hear thy cry. The trial fires may glow, but I am nigh. I see the silver, and I will refine Until My image shall upon it shine. Fear not, for I am near, thy help to be; Greater than all thy pain, My love for thee. H. W. C. God takes a thousand times more pains with us than the artist with his picture, by many touches of sorrow, and by many colors of circumstance, to bring man into the form which is the highest and noblest in His sight, if only we received His gifts and myrrh in the right spirit. But when the cup is put away, and these feelings are stifled or unheeded, a greater injury is done to the soul than can ever be amended. For no heart can conceive in what surpassing love God giveth us this myrrh; yet this which we ought to receive to our soul's good, we suffer to pass by us in our sleepy indifference, and nothing comes, of it. Then we come and complain: "Alas, Lord! I am so dry, and it is so dark within me!" I tell thee, dear child, open thy heart to the pain, and it will do thee more good than if thou wert full of feeling and devoutness. J. TAULER. October 30 _That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us_.--2 TIM. i. 14. Oh that the Comforter would come! Nor visit as a transient guest, But fix in me His constant home, And keep possession of my breast: And make my soul His loved abode, The temple of indwelling God! C. WESLEY. Thy spirit should become, while yet on earth, the peaceful throne of the Divine Being; think, then, how quiet, how gentle and pure, how reverent, thou shouldst be. GERHARD TERSTEEGEN. I cannot tell you how much I love you. But that which of all things I have most at heart, with regard to you, is the real progress of your soul in the divine life. Heaven seems to be awakened in you. It is a tender plant. It requires stillness, meekness, and the unity of the heart, totally given up to the unknown workings of the Spirit of God, which will do all its work in the calm soul, that has no hunger or desire but to escape out of the mire of its earthly life into its lost union and life in God. I mention this, out of a fear of your giving in to an eagerness about many things, which, though seemingly innocent, yet divide and weaken the workings of the divine life within you. WM. LAW. October 31 _And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him_.--GEN. v. 24. Oh for a closer walk with God, A calm and heavenly frame; A light to shine upon the road That leads me to the Lamb! W. COWPER. Is it possible for any of us in these modern days to so live that we may walk with God? Can we walk with God in the shop, in the office, in the household, and on the street? When men exasperate us, and work wearies us, and the children fret, and the servants annoy, and our best-laid plans fall to pieces, and our castles in the air are dissipated like bubbles that break at a breath, then can we walk with God? That religion which fails us in the every-day trials and experiences of life has somewhere in it a flaw. It should be more than a plank to sustain us in the rushing tide, and land us exhausted and dripping on the other side. It ought, if it come from above, to be always, day by day, to our souls as the wings of a bird, bearing us away from and beyond the impediments which seek to hold us down. If the Divine Love be a conscious presence, an indwelling force with us, it will do this. CHRISTIAN UNION. November 1 _Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named_.--EPH. iii. 15. One family, we dwell in Him; One church above, beneath; Though now divided by the stream,-- The narrow stream of death. One army of the living God, To His command we bow: Part of His host has crossed the flood, And part is crossing now. C. WESLEY. Let us, then, learn that we can never be lonely or forsaken in this life. Shall they forget us because they are "made perfect"? Shall they love us the less because they now have power to love us more? If we forget them not, shall they not remember us with God? No trial, then, can isolate us, no sorrow can cut us off from the Communion of Saints. Kneel down, and you are with them; lift up your eyes, and the heavenly world, high above all perturbation, hangs serenely overhead; only a thin veil, it may be, floats between. All whom we loved, and all who loved us, whom we still love no less, while they love us yet more, are ever near, because ever in His presence in whom we live and dwell. H. E. MANNING. November 2 _Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us_.--HEB. xii. i. When the powers of hell prevail O'er our weakness and unfitness, Could we lift the fleshly veil, Could we for a moment witness Those unnumbered hosts that stand Calm and bright on either hand; Oh, what joyful hope would cheer, Oh, what faith serene would guide us! Great may be the danger near, Greater are the friends beside us. ANON. We are compassed about by a cloud of witnesses, whose hearts throb in sympathy with every effort and struggle, and who thrill with joy at every success. How should this thought check and rebuke every worldly feeling and unworthy purpose, and enshrine us, in the midst of a forgetful and un-spiritual world, with an atmosphere of heavenly peace! They have overcome--have risen--are crowned, glorified; but still they remain to us, our assistants, our comforters, and in every hour of darkness their voice speaks to us: "So we grieved, so we struggled, so we fainted, so we doubted; but we have overcome, we have obtained, we have seen, we have found,--and in our victory behold the certainty of thy own." H. B. STOWE. November 3 _Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another_.--EPH. iv. 25. In conversation be sincere; Keep conscience as the noontide clear; Think how All-seeing God thy ways And all thy secret thoughts surveys. THOMAS KEN. The essence of lying is in deception, not in words; a lie may be told by silence, by equivocation, by the accent on a syllable, by a glance of the eye attaching a peculiar significance to a sentence; and all these kinds of lies are worse and baser by many degrees than a lie plainly worded; so that no form of blinded conscience is so far sunk as that which comforts itself for having deceived because the deception was by gesture or silence, instead of utterance. J. RUSKIN. He that is habituated to deceptions and artificialities in trifles, will try in vain to be true in matters of importance; for truth is a thing of habit rather than of will. You cannot in any given case by any sudden and single effort will to be true, if the habit of your life has been insincerity. F. W. ROBERTSON. November 4 _A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger_.--PROV. xv. i, _Doest thou well to be angry_?--JONAH iv. 4. Renew Thine image, Lord, in me, Lowly and gentle may I be; No charms but these to Thee are dear; No anger mayst Thou ever find, No pride in my unruffled mind, But faith, and heaven-born peace be there. P. GERHARDT. Neither say nor do aught displeasing to thy neighbor; and if thou hast been wanting in charity, seek his forgiveness, or speak to him with gentleness. Speak always with mildness and in a low tone of voice. L. SCUPOLI. Injuries hurt not more in the receiving than in the remembrance. A small injury shall go as it comes; a great injury may dine or sup with me; but none at all shall lodge with me. Why should I vex myself because another hath vexed me? Grief for things past that cannot be remedied, and care for things to come that cannot be prevented, may easily hurt, can never benefit me. I will therefore commit myself to God in both, and enjoy the present. JOSEPH HALL. November 5 _The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are_.--I COR. iii. 17. Now shed Thy mighty influence abroad On souls that would their Father's image bear; Make us as holy temples of our God, Where dwells forever calm, adoring prayer. C. J. P. SPITTA. This pearl of eternity is the church or temple of God within thee, the consecrated place of divine worship, where alone thou canst worship God in spirit and in truth. When once thou art well grounded in this inward worship, thou wilt have learned to live unto God above time and place. For every day will be Sunday to thee, and, wherever thou goest, thou wilt have a priest, a church, and an altar along with thee. For when God has all that He should have of thy heart, when thou art wholly given up to the obedience of the light and spirit of God within thee, to will only in His will, to love only in His love, to be wise only in His wisdom, then it is that everything thou dost is as a song of praise, and the common business of thy life is a conforming to God's will on earth as angels do in heaven. WM. LAW. November 6 _He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him: He also will hear their cry, and will save them_;--PS. cxlv. 19. _Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart_.--PS. xxxvii. 4. Though to-day may not fulfil All thy hopes, have patience still; For perchance to-morrow's sun Sees thy happier days begun. P. GERHARDT. His great desire and delight is God; and by desiring and delighting, he hath Him. _Delight thou in the Lord, and He shall give thee thy heart's desire,_--HIMSELF; and then surely thou shall have all. Any other thing _commit it to Him_, and He shall bring it to pass. R. LEIGHTON. All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired, although not in the hour or in the measure, or the very thing which they ask; yet they will obtain something greater and more glorious than they had dared to ask. MARTIN LUTHER. November 7 _I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision_.--ACTS xxvi. 19. _The Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey_.--JOSH. xxiv. 24. I will shun no toil or woe, Where Thou leadest I will go, Be my pathway plain or rough; If but every hour may be Spent in work that pleases Thee, Ah, dear Lord, it is enough! G. TERSTEEGEN. All these longings and doubts, and this inward distress, are the voice of the Good Shepherd in your heart, seeking to call you out of all that is contrary to His will. Oh, let me entreat of you not to turn away from His gentle pleadings. H. W. SMITH. The fear of man brings a snare. By halting in our duty and giving back in the time of trial, our hands grow weaker, our ears grow dull as to hearing the language of the true Shepherd; so that when we look at the way of the righteous, it seems as though it was not for us to follow them. J. WOOLMAN. November 8 _Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God_.--HEB. x. 9. _Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God_.--PS. cxliii. 10. Lo! I come with joy to do The Father's blessed will; Him in outward works pursue, And serve His pleasure still. Faithful to my Lord's commands, I still would choose the better part; Serve with careful Martha's hands, And loving Mary's heart. C. WESLEY. A soul cannot be regarded as truly subdued and consecrated in its will, and as having passed into union with the Divine will, until it has a disposition to do promptly and faithfully all that God requires, as well as to endure patiently and thankfully all that He imposes. T. C. UPHAM. When we have learned to offer up every duty connected with our situation in life as a sacrifice to God, a settled employment becomes just a settled habit of prayer. THOMAS ERSKINE. "_Do the duty which lies nearest thee_," which thou knowest to be a duty. Thy second duty will already have become clearer. T. CARLYLE. November 9 _Say not thou, I will hide myself from the Lord: shall any remember me from above? I shall not be remembered among so many people: for what is my soul among such an infinite number of creatures_?--ECCLESIASTICUS xvi. 17. Among so many, can He care? Can special love be everywhere? A myriad homes,--a myriad ways,-- And God's eye over every place? I asked: my soul bethought of this;-- In just that very place of His Where He hath put and keepeth you, God hath no other thing to do! A. D. T. WHITNEY. Give free and bold play to those instincts of the heart which believe that the Creator must care for the creatures He has made, and that the only real effective care for them must be that which takes each of them into His love, and knowing it separately surrounds it with His separate sympathy. There is not one life which the Life-giver ever loses out of His sight; not one which sins so that He casts it away; not one which is not so near to Him that whatever touches it touches Him with sorrow or with joy. PHILLIPS BROOKS. November 10 _In Him we live, and move, and have our being_.--ACTS xvii. 28. _Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence_?--PS. cxxxix. 7. Yea! In Thy life our little lives are ended, Into Thy depths our trembling spirits fall; In Thee enfolded, gathered, comprehended, As holds the sea her waves--Thou hold'st us all. E. SCUDDER. Where then is _our_ God? You say, He is _everywhere:_ then show me _anywhere_ that you have met Him. You declare Him _everlasting:_ then tell me _any moment_ that He has been with you. You believe Him ready to succor them that are tempted, and to lift those that are bowed down: then in what passionate hour did you subside into His calm grace? in what sorrow lose yourself in His "more exceeding" joy? These are the testing questions by which we may learn whether we too have raised our altar to an "unknown God" and pay the worship of the blind; or whether we commune with Him "in whom we live, and move, and have our being." J. MARTINEAU. November 11 _Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness_.--COL. i. 10, ii. To be the thing we seem, To do the thing we deem Enjoined by duty; To walk in faith, nor dream Of questioning God's scheme Of truth and beauty. ANON. To shape the whole Future is not our problem; but only to shape faithfully a small part of it, according to rules already known. It is perhaps possible for each of us, who will with due earnestness inquire, to ascertain clearly what he, for his own part, ought to do; this let him, with true heart, do, and continue doing. The general issue will, as it has always done, rest well with a Higher Intelligence than ours. This day thou knowest ten commanded duties, seest in thy mind ten things which should be done for one that thou doest! _Do_ one of them; this of itself will show thee ten others which can and shall be done. T. CARLYLE. November 12 _I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work_.--JOHN ix. 4. _Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task_?--EX. v. 14. He who intermits The appointed task and duties of the day Untunes full oft the pleasures of the day; Checking the finer spirits that refuse To flow, when purposes are lightly changed. W. WORDSWORTH. By putting off things beyond their proper times, one duty treads upon the heels of another, and all duties are felt as irksome obligations,--a yoke beneath which we fret and lose our peace. In most cases the consequence of this is, that we have no time to do the work as it ought to be done. It is therefore done precipitately, with eagerness, with a greater desire simply to get it done, than to do it well, and with very little thought of God throughout. F. W. FABER. Sufficient for each day is the _good_ thereof, equally as the evil. We must do at once, and with our might, the merciful deed that our hand findeth to do,--else it will never be done, for the hand will find other tasks, and the arrears fall through. And every unconsummated good feeling, every unfulfilled purpose that His spirit has prompted, shall one day charge us as faithless and recreant before God. J. H. THOM. November 13 _Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of Thy law_.--PS. xciv _Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it_.--JER. x. 19. Hold in thy murmurs, heaven arraigning! The patient see God's loving face; Who bear their burdens uncomplaining, 'Tis they that win the Father's grace. ANON. Do not run to this and that for comfort when you are in trouble, but bear it. Be uncomfortably quiet--be uneasily silent--be patiently unhappy. J.P. GREAVES. Hard words _will_ vex, unkindness _will_ pierce; neglect _will_ wound; threatened evils _will_ make the soul quiver; sharp pain or weariness _will_ rack the body, or make it restless. But what says the Psalmist? "When my heart is vexed, I will complain." To whom? Not _of_ God, but _to_ God. E.B. PUSEY. Surely, I have thought, I do not want to have a grief which would not be a grief. I feel that I shall be able to take up my cross in a religious spirit soon, and then it will be all right. JAMES HINTON. November 14 _Thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me_.--ISA. xliv. 21. Oh, give Thy servant patience to be still, And bear Thy will; Courage to venture wholly on the arm That will not harm; The wisdom that will never let me stray Out of my way; The love, that, now afflicting, knoweth best When I should rest. J. M. NEALE. Supposing that you were never to be set free from such trials, what would you do? You would say to God, "I am Thine--if my trials are acceptable to Thee, give me more and more." I have full confidence that this is what you would say, and then you would not think more of it--at any rate, you would not be anxious. Well, do the same now. Make friends with your trials, as though you were always to live together; and you will see that when you cease to take thought for your own deliverance, God will take thought for you; and when you cease to help yourself eagerly, He will help you. ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. Ah, if you knew what peace there is in an accepted sorrow! MADAME GUYON. November 15 _Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness_.--ISA. xli. 10. Lord, be Thou near and cheer my lonely way; With Thy sweet peace my aching bosom fill; Scatter my cares and fears; my griefs allay, And be it mine each day To love and please Thee still. P. CORNEILLE. What if the wicked nature, which is as a sea casting out mire and dirt, rage against thee? There is a river, a sweet, still, flowing river, the streams whereof will make glad thy heart. And, learn but in quietness and stillness to retire to the Lord, and wait upon Him; in whom thou shall feel peace and joy, in the midst of thy trouble from the cruel and vexatious spirit of this world. So, wait to know thy work and service to the Lord every day, in thy place and station; and the Lord make thee faithful therein, and thou wilt want neither help, support, nor comfort. I. PENINGTON. November 16 _Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee_.--ISA. xxvi. 3. What comforts, Lord, to those are given, Who seek in Thee their home and rest! They find on earth an opening heaven, And in Thy peace are amply blest. W. C. DESSLER. God is a tranquil Being, and abides in a tranquil eternity. So must thy spirit become a tranquil and clear little pool, wherein the serene light of God can be mirrored. Therefore shun all that is disquieting and distracting, both within and without. Nothing in the whole world is worth the loss of thy peace; even the faults which thou hast committed should only humble, but not disquiet thee. God is full of joy, peace, and happiness. Endeavor then to obtain a continually joyful and peaceful spirit. Avoid all anxious care, vexation, murmuring, and melancholy, which darken thy soul, and render thee unfit for the friendship of God. If thou dost perceive such feelings arising, turn gently away from them. G. TERSTEEGEN. November 17 _Every day will I bless Thee; and I will praise Thy name for ever and ever_.--PS. cxlv. 2. _Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established_.--PROV. xvi. 3. Lord, I my vows to Thee renew; Disperse my sins as morning dew; Guard my first springs of thought and will, And with Thyself my spirit fill. THOMAS KEN. Morning by morning think, for a few moments, of the chief employments of the day, any one thing of greater moment than others, thine own especial trial, any occasions of it which are likely to come that day, and by one short strong act commend thyself beforehand in all to God; offer all thy thoughts, words, and deeds to Him--to be governed, guided, accepted by Him. Choose some great occasions of the day, such as bring with them most trial to thee, on which, above others, to commend thyself to God. E. B. PUSEY. Will you not, before venturing away from your early quiet hour, "commit thy works" to Him definitely, the special things you have to do to-day, and the unforeseen work which He may add in the course of it? F. R. HAVERGAL. November 18 _Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He bath given us of His Spirit_.--I JOHN iv. 13. Within! within, oh turn Thy spirit's eyes, and learn Thy wandering senses gently to control; Thy dearest Friend dwells deep within thy soul, And asks thyself of thee, That heart, and mind, and sense, He may make whole In perfect harmony. G. TERSTEEGEN. Wait patiently, trust humbly, depend only upon, seek solely to a God of Light and Love, of Mercy and Goodness, of Glory and Majesty, ever dwelling in the inmost depth and spirit of your soul. There you have all the secret, hidden, invisible Upholder of all the creation, whose blessed operation will always be found by a humble, faithful, loving, calm, patient introversion of your heart to Him, who has His hidden heaven within you, and which will open itself to you, as soon as your heart is left wholly to His eternal, ever-speaking Word, and ever-sanctifying Spirit within you. Beware of all eagerness and activity of your own natural spirit and temper. Run not in any hasty ways of your own. Be patient under the sense of your own vanity and weakness; and patiently wait for God to do His own work, and in His own way. WM. LAW. November 19 _If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain_.--JAMES i. 26. _I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue_.--PS. xxxix. I. No sinful word, nor deed of wrong, Nor thoughts that idly rove; But simple truth be on our tongue, And in our hearts be love. ST. AMBROSE. Let us all resolve,--First, to attain the grace of SILENCE; Second, to deem all FAULT-FINDING that does no good a SIN, and to resolve, when we are happy ourselves, not to poison the atmosphere for our neighbors by calling on them to remark every painful and disagreeable feature of their daily life; Third, to practise the grace and virtue of PRAISE. HARRIET B. STOWE. Surrounded by those who constantly exhibit defects of character and conduct, if we yield to a complaining and impatient spirit, we shall mar our own peace without having the satisfaction of benefiting others. T. C. UPHAM. November 20 _Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the--will of God, ye might receive the promise_.--HEB. x. 36. Sweet Patience, come: Not from a low and earthly source,-- Waiting, till things shall have their course,-- Not as accepting present pain In hope of some hereafter gain,-- Not in a dull and sullen calm,-- But as a breath of heavenly balm, Bidding my weary heart submit To bear whatever God sees fit: Sweet Patience, come! HYMNS OF THE CHURCH MILITANT. Patience endues her scholars with content of mind, and evenness of temper, preventing all repining grumbling, and impatient desires, and inordinate affections; disappointments here are no crosses, and all anxious thoughts are disarmed of their sting; in her habitations dwell quietness, submission, and long-suffering, all fierce turbulent inclinations are hereby allayed. The eyes of the patient fixedly wait the inward power of God's providence, and they are thereby mightily enabled towards their salvation and preservation. THOMAS TRYON. November 21 _Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God_.--MATT. iv. 4. _A man's life conisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth_.--LUKE xii. 15. Whate'er God does is well, Whether He gives or takes! And what we from His hand receive Suffices us to live. He takes and gives, while yet He loves us still; Then love His will. B. SCHMOLCK. Is that beast better, that hath two or three mountains to graze on, than a little bee, that feeds on dew or manna, and lives upon what falls every morning from the storehouse of heaven, clouds, and providence? JEREMY TAYLOR. For myself I am certain that the good of human life cannot lie in the possession of things which for one man to possess is for the rest to lose, but rather in things which all can possess alike, and where one man's wealth promotes his neighbor's. B. SPINOZA. Every lot is happy to a person who bears it with tranquillity. BOETHIUS. November 22 _Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of_.--MATT. vi. 8. _Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you_.--MATT. vi. 33. Thy kingdom come, with power and grace, To every heart of man; Thy peace, and joy, and righteousness In all our bosoms reign. C. WESLEY. God bids us, then, by past mercies, by present grace, by fears of coming ill, by hopes in His goodness, earnestly, with our whole hearts, seek Him and His righteousness, and all these things, all ye need for soul and body, peace, comfort, joy, the overflowing of His consolations, shall be added over and above to you. E. B. PUSEY. Grant us, O Lord, we beseech Thee, always to seek Thy kingdom and righteousness, and of whatsoever Thou seest us to stand in need, mercifully grant us an abundant portion. Amen. Be content to be a child, and let the Father proportion out daily to thee what light, what power, what exercises, what straits, what fears, what troubles He sees fit for thee. I. PENINGTON. November 23 _I have taught thee In the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths_.--PROV. iv. 11. We know not what the path may be As yet by us untrod; But we can trust our all to Thee, Our Father and our God. WM. J. IRONS. We have very little command over the circumstances in which we may be called by God to bear our part--unlimited command over the temper of our souls, but next to no command over the outward forms of trial. The most energetic will cannot order the events by which our spirits are to be perilled and tested. Powers quite beyond our reach--death, accident, fortune, another's sin--may change in a moment all the conditions of our life. With to-morrow's sun existence may have new and awful aspects for any of us. J. H. THOM. Oh, my friend, look not _out_ at what stands in the way; what if it look dreadfully as a lion, is not the Lord stronger than the mountains of prey? but look _in_, where the law of life is written, and the will of the Lord revealed, that thou mayest know what is the Lord's will concerning thee. I. PENINGTON. November 24 _Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord_.--PS. xxxi. 24. _Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid_.--JOHN xiv. 27. In heavenly love abiding, No change my heart shall fear; And safe is such confiding, For nothing changes here. A. L. WARING. A true Christian, that hath power over his own will, may live nobly and happily, and enjoy a clear heaven within the serenity of his own mind perpetually. When the sea of this world is most rough and tempestuous about him, then can he ride safely at anchor within the haven, by a sweet compliance of his will with God's will. He can look about him, and with an even and indifferent mind behold the world either to smile or frown upon him; neither will he abate of the least of his contentment for all the ill and unkind usage he meets withal in this life. He that hath got the mastery over his own will feels no violence from without, finds no contests within; and when God calls for him out of this state of mortality, he finds in himself a power to lay down his own life; neither is it so much taken from him, as quietly and freely surrendered up by him. DR. JOHN SMITH. November 25 _And the Lord, He it is that doth go before thee; He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed_.--DEUT. xxxi. 8. Know well, my soul, God's hand controls Whatever thou fearest; Round Him in calmest music rolls Whate'er thou hearest. J. G. WHITTIER. The lessons of the moral sentiment are, once for all, an emancipation from that anxiety which takes the joy out of all life. It teaches a great peace. It comes itself from the highest place. It is that, which being in all sound natures, and strongest in the best and most gifted men, we know to be implanted by the Creator of men. It is a commandment at every moment, and in every condition of life, to do the duty of that moment, and to abstain from doing the wrong. R. W. EMERSON. Go face the fire at sea, or the cholera in your friend's house, or the burglar in your own, or what danger lies in the way of duty, knowing you are guarded by the cherubim of Destiny. R. W. EMERSON. November 26 _Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou guest_.--GEN. xxviii. 15. Be quiet, soul: Why shouldst thou care and sadness borrow, Why sit in nameless fear and sorrow, The livelong day? God will mark out thy path to-morrow In His best way. ANON. I had hoped, Madame, to find you here, and was rejoicing in that hope; but God has sent you elsewhere. The best place is wherever He puts us, and any other would be undesirable, all the worse because it would please our fancy, and would be of our own choice. Do not think about distant events. This uneasiness about the future is unwholesome for you. We must leave to God all that depends on Him, and think only of being faithful in all that depends upon ourselves. When God takes away that which He has given you, He knows well how to replace it, either through other means or by Himself. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. November 27 _The Lord hath been mindful of us: He will bless us_.--PS. cxv. 12. My Father! what am I, that all Thy mercies sweet like sunlight fall So constant o'er my way? That Thy great love should shelter me, And guide my steps so tenderly Through every changing day? ANON. What a strength and spring of life, what hope and trust, what glad, unresting energy, is in this one thought,--to serve Him who is "my Lord," ever near me, ever looking on; seeing my intentions before He beholds my failures; knowing my desires before He sees my faults; cheering me to endeavor greater things, and yet accepting the least; inviting my poor service, and yet, above all, content with my poorer love. Let us try to realize this, whatsoever, wheresoever we be. The humblest and the simplest, the weakest and the most encumbered, may love Him not less than the busiest and strongest, the most gifted and laborious. If our heart be clear before Him; if He be to us our chief and sovereign choice, dear above all, and beyond all desired; then all else matters little. That which concerneth us He will perfect in stillness and in power. H. E. MANNING. November 28 _Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee_.--JER. xxxi. 3. On the great love of God I lean, Love of the Infinite, Unseen, With nought of heaven or earth between. This God is mine, and I am His; His love is all I need of bliss. H. BONAR. If ever human love was tender, and self-sacrificing, and devoted; if ever it could bear and forbear; if ever it could suffer gladly for its loved ones; if ever it was willing to pour itself out in a lavish abandonment for the comfort or pleasure of its objects; then infinitely more is Divine love tender, and self-sacrificing, and devoted, and glad to bear and forbear, and to suffer, and to lavish its best of gifts and blessings upon the objects of its love. Put together all the tenderest love you know of, the deepest you have ever felt, and the strongest that has ever been poured out upon you, and heap upon it all the love of all the loving human hearts in the world, and then multiply it by infinity, and you will begin, perhaps, to have some faint glimpse of what the love of God is. H. W. SMITH. November 29 _My sons, be not now negligent: for the Lord hath chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him_.--2 CHRON. xxix. 11. Bright be my prospect as I pass along;-- An ardent service at the cost of all,-- Love by untiring ministry made strong, And ready for the first, the softest call. A. L. WARING. There are many things that appear trifles, which greatly tend to enervate the soul, and hinder its progress in the path to virtue and glory. The habit of indulging in things which our judgment cannot thoroughly approve, grows stronger and stronger by every act of self-gratification, and we are led on by degrees to an excess of luxury which must greatly weaken our hands in the spiritual warfare. If we do not endeavor to do that which is right in every particular circumstance, though trifling, we shall be in great danger of letting the same negligence take place in matters more essential. MARGARET WOODS. The will can only be made submissive by frequent self-denials, which must keep in subjection its sallies and inclinations. Great weakness is often produced by indulgences which seem of no importance. M. DE MOLINOS. November 30 _Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance_.--PS. xlii. 5. _We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed_.--2 COR. iv. 8. Oh, my soul, why art thou vexed? Let things go e'en as they will; Though to thee they seem perplexed, Yet His order they fulfil. A. H. FRANCKE. The vexation, restlessness, and impatience which small trials cause, arise wholly from our ignorance and want of self-control. We may be thwarted and troubled, it is true, but these things put us into a condition for exercising patience and meek submission, and the self-abnegation wherein alone the fulness of God is to be found. DE RENTY. Every day deny yourself some satisfaction;--bearing all the inconveniences of life (for the love of God), cold, hunger, restless nights, ill health, unwelcome news, the faults of servants, contempt, ingratitude of friends, malice of enemies, calumnies, our own failings, lowness of spirits, the struggle in overcoming our corruptions;--bearing all these with patience and resignation to the will of God. Do all this as unto God, with the greatest privacy. THOMAS WILSON. December 1 _Charity envieth not, ... thinketh no evil_--I COR. xiii. 4, 5. _Why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother_?--ROM. xiv. 10. _He that despiseth his neighbor sinneth_.--PROV. xiv. 21. Look thou with pity on a brother's fall, But dwell not with stern anger on his fault; The grace of God alone holds thee, holds all; Were that withdrawn, thou too wouldst swerve and halt. J. EDMESTON. If, on hearing of the fall of a brother, however differing or severed from us, we feel the least inclination to linger over it, instead of hiding it in grief and shame, or veiling it in the love which covereth a multitude of sins; if, in seeing a joy or a grace or an effective service given to others, we do not rejoice, but feel depressed, let us be very watchful; the most diabolical of passions may mask itself as humility, or zeal for the glory of God. ELIZABETH CHARLES. Love taketh up no malign elements; its spirit prompteth it to cover in mercy all things that ought not to be exposed, to believe all of good that can be believed, to hope all things that a good God makes possible, and to endure all things that the hope may be made good. J. H. THOM. December 2 _Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things_.--ROM. ii. I. Search thine own heart. What paineth thee In others, in thyself may be; All dust is frail, all flesh is weak; Be thou the true man thou dost seek. J. G. WHITTIER. A saint's life in one man may be less than common honesty in another. From us, whose consciences He has reached and enlightened, God may look for a martyr's truth, a Christian's unworldly simplicity, before He will place us on a level even with the average of the exposed classes. We perhaps think our lives at least harmless. We do not consider what He may think of them, when compared with the invitations of His that we have slighted, with the aims of His Providence we are leaving without our help, with the glory for ourselves we are refusing and casting away, with the vast sum of blessed work that daily faithfulness in time can rear without overwork on any single day. J. H. THOM. December 3 _Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost_.--ROM. xv. 13. To heaven I lift my waiting eyes; There all my hopes are laid; The Lord that built the earth and skies Is my perpetual aid. I. WATTS. Grovel not in things below, among earthly cares, pleasures, anxieties, toils, if thou wouldst have a good strong hope on high. Lift up thy cares with thy heart to God, if thou wouldst hope in Him. Then see what in thee is most displeasing to God. This it is which holdeth thy hope down. Strike firmly, repeatedly, in the might of God, until it give way. Thy hope will soar at once with thy thanks to God who delivered thee. E. B. PUSEY. The snares of the enemy will be so known to thee and discerned, the way of help so manifest and easy, that their strength will be broken, and the poor entangled bird will fly away singing, from the nets and entanglements of the fowler; and praises will spring up, and great love in thy heart to the Forgiver and Redeemer. I. PENINGTON. December 4 _Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called_.--I TIM. vi. 12. Oh, dream no more of quiet life; Care finds the careless out; more wise to vow Thy heart entire to faith's pure strife; So peace will come, thou knowest not when or how. LYRA APOSTOLICA. Who art thou that complainest of thy life of toil? Complain not. Look up, my wearied brother; see thy fellow-workmen there, in God's Eternity; surviving there, they alone surviving; sacred band of the Immortals, celestial body-guard of the empire of mankind. To thee Heaven, though severe, is _not_ unkind; Heaven is kind,--as a noble mother; as that Spartan mother, saying while she gave her son his shield, "With it, my son, or upon it." Thou too shall return _home_ in honor; to thy far-distant Home, in honor; doubt it not,--if in the battle thou keep thy shield! Thou, in the Eternities and deepest death-kingdoms art not an alien; thou everywhere art a denizen. Complain not. T. CARLYLE. December 5 _The God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you_.--I PET. v. 10. _Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint-hearted_.--ISA. vii. 4. How shall thou bear the cross that now So dread a weight appears? Keep quietly to God, and think Upon the Eternal Years. F. W. FABER. God forgive them that raise an ill report upon the sweet cross of Christ; it is but our weak and dim eyes, that look but to the black side, that makes us mistake; those that can take that crabbed tree handsomely upon their backs, and fasten it on cannily, shall find it such a burden as wings unto a bird, or sails to a ship. S. RUTHERFORD. Blessed is any weight, however overwhelming, which God has been so good as to fasten with His own hand upon our shoulders. F. W. FABER. We cannot say this or that trouble shall not befall, yet we may, by help of the Spirit, say, nothing that doth befall shall make me do that which is unworthy of a Christian. R. SIBBES. December 6 _This God is our God for ever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death_.--PS. xlviii. 14. _For the Lord shall be thy confidence_.--PROV. iii. 26. Be still, my soul! Thy God doth undertake To guide the future, as He has the past: Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake, All now mysterious shall be bright at last. J. BORTHWJCK. He has kept and folded us from ten thousand ills when we did not know it: in the midst of our security we should have perished every hour, but that He sheltered us "from the terror by night and from the arrow that flieth by day"--from the powers of evil that walk in darkness, from snares of our own evil will. He has kept us even against ourselves, and saved us even from our own undoing. Let us read the traces of His hand in all our ways, in all the events, the chances, the changes of this troubled state. It is He that folds and feeds us, that makes us to go in and out,--to be faint, or to find pasture,--to lie down by the still waters, or to walk by the way that is parched and desert. H. E. MANNING. We are never without help. We have no right to say of any good work, it is too hard for me to do, or of any sorrow, it is too hard for me to bear; or of any sinful habit, it is too hard for me to overcome. ELIZABETH CHARLES. December 7 _Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace_.--JOB xxii. 21. _All thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children_.--ISA. liv. 13. Unite, my roving thoughts, unite In silence soft and sweet; And thou, my soul, sit gently down At thy great Sovereign's feet. P. DODDRIDGE. Yes! blessed are those holy hours in which the soul retires from the world to be alone with God. God's voice, as Himself, is everywhere. Within and without, He speaks to our souls, if we would hear. Only the din of the world, or the tumult of our own hearts, deafens our inward ear to it. Learn to commune with Him in stillness, and He, whom thou hast sought in stillness, will be with thee when thou goest abroad. E. B. PUSEY. The great step and direct path to the fear and awful reverence of God, is to meditate, and with a sedate and silent hush to turn the eyes of the mind inwards; there to seek, and with a submissive spirit wait at the gates of Wisdom's temple; and then the Divine Voice and Distinguishing Power will arise in the light and centre of a man's self. THOMAS TRYON. December 8 _Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings_.--EPH. i. 3. _As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing_.--2 COR. vi. 10. It is not happiness I seek, Its name I hardly dare to speak; It is not made for man or earth, And Heaven alone can give it birth. There is a something sweet and pure, Through life, through death it may endure; With steady foot I onward press, And long to win that Blessedness. LOUISA J. HALL. The elements of _happiness_ in this present life no man can command, even if he could command himself, for they depend on the action of many wills, on the purity of many hearts, and by the highest law of God the holiest must ever bear the sins and sorrows of the rest; but over the _blessedness_ of his own spirit circumstance need have no control; God has therein given an unlimited power to the means of preservation, of grace and growth, at every man's command. J. H. THOM. There is in man a higher than love of happiness: he can do without happiness, and instead thereof find blessedness! T. CARLYLE. December 9 _For this shall every one that is godly pray unto Thee in a time when Thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him_.--PS. xxxii. 6. Be not o'ermastered by thy pain, But cling to God, thou shall not fall; The floods sweep over thee in vain, Thou yet shall rise above them all; For when thy trial seems too hard to bear, Lo! God, thy King, hath granted all thy prayer: Be thou content. P. GERHARDT. It is the Lord's mercy, to give thee breathings after life, and cries unto Him against that which oppresseth thee; and happy wilt thou be, when He shall fill thy soul with that which He hath given thee to breathe after. Be not troubled; for if troubles abound, and there be tossing, and storms, and tempests, and no peace, nor anything visible left to support; yet, lie still, and sink beneath, till a secret hope stir, which will stay the heart in the midst of all these; until the Lord administer comfort, who knows how and what relief to give to the weary traveller, that knows not where it is, nor which way to look, nor where to expect a path. I. PENINGTON. December 10 _Behold, we count them happy which endure_.--JAMES v. 11. _If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons_.--HEB. xii. 7. Trials must and will befall; But with humble faith to see Love inscribed upon them all, This is happiness to me. W. COWPER. Be not afraid of those trials which God may see fit to send upon thee. It is with the wind and storm of tribulation that God separates the true wheat from the chaff. Always remember, therefore, that God comes to thee in thy sorrows, as really as in thy joys. He lays low, and He builds up. Thou wilt find thyself far from perfection, if thou dost not find God in everything. M. DE MOLINOS. God hath provided a sweet and quiet life for His children, could they improve and use it; a calm and firm conviction in all the storms and troubles that are about them, however things go, to find content, and be careful for nothing. R. LEIGHTON. December 11 _Oh, that Thou wouldest bless me indeed, and that Thine hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me_!--I CHRON. iv. 10. _Ye shall serve the Lord your God, and He shall bless thy bread and thy water_.--EX. xxiii. 25. What I possess, or what I crave, Brings no content, great God, to me, If what I would, or what I have, Be not possest, and blest, in Thee; What I enjoy, O make it mine, In making me that have it, Thine. J. QUARLES. Offer up to God all pure affections, desires, regrets, and all the bonds which link us to home, kindred, and friends, together with all our works, purposes, and labors. These things, which are not only lawful, but sacred, become then the matter of thanksgiving and oblation. Memories, plans for the future, wishes, intentions; works just begun, half done, all but completed; emotions, sympathies, affections,--all these things throng tumultuously and dangerously in the heart and will. The only way to master them is to offer them up to Him, as once ours, under Him, always His by right. H. E. MANNING. December 12 _I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart_.--PS. xl. 8. A patient, a victorious mind, That life and all things casts behind, Springs forth obedient to Thy call; A heart that no desire can move, But still to adore, believe, and love, Give me, my Lord, my Life, my All. P. GERHARDT. That piety which sanctifies us, and which is a true devotion to God, consists in doing all His will precisely at the time, in the situation, and under the circumstances, in which He has placed us. Perfect devotedness requires, not only that we do the will of God, but that we do it with love. God would have us serve Him with delight; it is our hearts that He asks of us. FRAN�OIS DE LA MOTHE F�NELON. Devotion is really neither more nor less than a general inclination and readiness to do that which we know to be acceptable to God. It is that "free spirit," of which David spoke when he said, "I will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou hast set my heart at liberty." People of ordinary goodness walk in God's way, but the devout run in it, and at length they almost fly therein. To be truly devout, we must not only do God's will, but we must do it cheerfully. ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. December 13 _So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom_.--PS. xc. 12. _Seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind_.--LUKE xii. 29. Our days are numbered: let us spare Our anxious hearts a needless care: 'T is Thine to number out our days; 'T is ours to give them to Thy praise. MADAME GUYON. Every day let us renew the consecration to God's service; every day let us, in His strength, pledge ourselves afresh to do His will, even in the veriest trifle, and to turn aside from anything that may displease Him. He does not bid us bear the burdens of tomorrow, next week, or next year. Every day we are to come to Him in simple obedience and faith, asking help to keep us, and aid us through that day's work; and to-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, through years of long to-morrows, it will be but the same thing to do; leaving the future always in God's hands, sure that He can care for it better than we. Blessed trust! that can thus confidingly say, "This hour is mine with its present duty; the next is God's, and when it comes, His presence will come with it." W. R. HUNTINCTON. December 14 _And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God_.--GAL. vi. 16. Lord, I have given my life to Thee, And every day and hour is Thine,-- What Thou appointest let them be; Thy will is better, Lord, than mine. A. WARNER. Begin at once; before you venture away from this quiet moment, ask your King to take you wholly into His service, and place all the hours of this day quite simply at His disposal, and ask Him to make and keep you _ready_ to do just exactly what He appoints. Never mind about to-morrow; one day at a time is enough. Try it to-day, and see if it is not a day of strange, almost curious peace, so sweet that you will be only too thankful, when to-morrow comes, to ask Him to take it also,--till it will become a blessed habit to hold yourself simply and "wholly at Thy commandment for _any_ manner of service." The "whatsoever" is not necessarily active work. It may be waiting (whether half an hour or half a life-time), learning, suffering, sitting still. But shall we be less ready for these, if any of them are His appointments for to-day? Let us ask Him to prepare us for all that He is preparing for us. F. R. HAVERGAL. December 15 _Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee_.--PS. cxvi. 7. _We which have believed do enter into rest_.--HEB. iv. 3. Rest is not quitting The busy career; Rest is the fitting Of self to its sphere. 'T is loving and serving The highest and best! 'T is onwards, unswerving,-- And that is true rest. J. S. DWIGHT. As a result of this strong faith, the inner life of Catherine of Genoa was characterized, in a remarkable degree, by what may be termed rest, or quietude; which is only another form of expression for true interior peace. It was not, however, the quietude of a lazy inaction, but the quietude of an inward acquiescence; not a quietude which feels nothing and does nothing, but that higher and divine quietude which exists by feeling and acting in the time and degree of God's appointment and God's will. It was a principle in her conduct, to give herself to God in the discharge of duty; and to leave all results without solicitude in His hands. T. C. UPHAM. December 16 _Thou understandest my thought afar off_.--PS. cxxxix. 2. _Who can understand his errors? cleanse Thou me from secret faults_.--PS. xix. 12. My newest griefs to Thee are old; My last transgression of Thy law, Though wrapped in thought's most secret fold, Thine eyes with pitying sadness saw. H. M. KIMBALL. Lord our God, great, eternal, wonderful in glory, who keepest covenant and promises for those that love Thee with their whole heart, who art the Life of all, the Help of those that flee unto Thee, the Hope of those who cry unto Thee, cleanse us from our sins, secret and open, and from every thought displeasing to Thy goodness,--cleanse our bodies and souls, our hearts and consciences, that with a pure heart, and a clear soul, with perfect love and calm hope, we may venture confidently and fearlessly to pray unto Thee. Amen. COPTIC LITURGY OF ST. BASIL. The dominion of any sinful habit will fearfully estrange us from His presence. A single consenting act of inward disobedience in thought or will is enough to let fall a cloud between Him and us, and to leave our hearts cheerless and dark. H. E. MANNING. December 17 _The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance_.--GAL. v. 22, 23. _Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples_.--JOHN xv. 8. O Breath from out the Eternal Silence! blow Softly upon our spirits' barren ground; The precious fulness of our God bestow, That fruits of faith, love, reverence may abound. G. TERSTEEGEN. Is it possible we should be ignorant whether we feel tempers contrary to love or no?--whether we rejoice always, or are burdened and bowed down with sorrow?--whether we have a praying, or a dead, lifeless spirit?--whether we can praise God, and be resigned in all trials, or feel murmurings, fretfulness, and impatience under them?--is it not easy to know if we feel anger at provocations, or whether we feel our tempers mild, gentle, peaceable, and easy to be entreated, or feel stubbornness, self-will, and pride? whether we have slavish fears, or are possessed of that perfect love which casteth out all fear that hath torment? HESTER ANN ROGERS. December 18 _We trust in the living God_.--I TIM. iv. 10. Thy secret judgment's depths profound Still sings the silent night; The day, upon his golden round, Thy pity infinite. I. WILLIAMS. _Tr. from Latin_. Now that I have no longer any sense for the transitory and perishable, the universe appears before my eyes under a transformed aspect. The dead, heavy mass which did but stop up space has vanished, and in its place there flows onward, with the rushing music of mighty waves, an eternal stream of life, and power, and action, which issues from the original source of all life,--from Thy life, O Infinite One! for all life is Thy life, and only the religious eye penetrates to the realm of true Beauty. J. G. FICHTE. What is Nature? Art thou not the "Living Garment" of God? O Heavens, is it, in very deed, He then that ever speaks through thee; that lives and loves in thee, that lives and loves in me? Sweeter than dayspring to the shipwrecked in Nova Zembla; ah! like the mother's voice to her little child that strays bewildered, weeping, in unknown tumults; like soft streamings of celestial music to my too exasperated heart, came that Evangel. The Universe is not dead and demoniacal, a charnel-house with spectres; but godlike, and my Father's. T. CARLYLE. December 19 _And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in Thee_.--PS. xxxix. 7. _O Lord, be gracious unto us; we have waited for Thee_.--ISA. xxxiii. 2. He never comes too late; He knoweth what is best; Vex not thyself in vain; Until He cometh, rest. B. T. We make mistakes, or what we call such. The nature that could fall into such mistake exactly needs, and in the goodness of the dear God is given, the living of it out, And beyond this, I believe more. That in the pure and patient living of it out we come to find that we have fallen, not into hopeless confusion of our own wild, ignorant making; but that the finger of God has been at work among our lines, and that the emerging is into His blessed order; that He is forever making up for us our own undoings; that He makes them up beforehand; that He evermore restoreth our souls. A. D. T. WHITNEY. THE Lord knows how to make stepping-stones for us of our defects, even; it is what He lets them be for. He remembereth--He remembered in the making--that we are but dust; the dust of earth, that He _chose_ to make something little lower than the angels out of. A. D. T. WHITNEY. December 20 _Take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak_.--MATT. x. 19. Just to follow hour by hour As He leadeth; Just to draw the moment's power As it needeth. F. R. HAVERGAL. You have a disagreeable duty to do at twelve o'clock. Do not blacken nine, and ten, and eleven, and all between, with the color of twelve. Do the work of each, and reap your reward in peace. So when the dreaded moment in the future becomes the present, you shall meet it walking in the light, and that light will overcome its darkness. The best preparation is the present well seen to, the last duty done. For this will keep the eye so clear and the body so full of light that the right action will be perceived at once, the right words will rush from the heart to the lips, and the man, full of the Spirit of God because he cares for nothing but the will of God, will trample on the evil thing in love, and be sent, it may be, in a chariot of fire to the presence of his Father, or stand unmoved amid the cruel mockings of the men he loves. G. MACDONALD. December 21 _Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength_.--ISA. xl. 28, 29. Workman of God! oh, lose not heart, But learn what God is like; And in the darkest battle-field Thou shall know where to strike. F. W. FABER. For the rest, let that vain struggle to read the mystery of the Infinite cease to harass us. It is a mystery which, through all ages, we shall only read here a line of, there another line of. Do we not already know that the name of the Infinite is GOOD, is GOD? Here on earth we are as soldiers, fighting in a foreign land, that understand not the plan of the campaign, and have no need to understand it; seeing well what is at our hand to be done. Let us do it like soldiers, with submission, with courage, with a heroic joy. Behind us, behind each one of us, lie six thousand years of human, effort, human conquest: before us is the boundless Time, with its as yet uncreated and unconquered continents and Eldorados, which we, even we, have to conquer, to create; and from the bosom of Eternity there shine for us celestial guiding stars. T. CARLYLE. December 22 _I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him_.--ISA. viii. 17. What heart can comprehend Thy name, Or, searching, find Thee out? Who art within, a quickening flame, A presence round about. Yet though I know Thee but in part, I ask not, Lord, for more: Enough for me to know Thou art, To love Thee and adore. F. L. HOSMER. Stand up, O heart! and yield not one inch of thy rightful territory to the usurping intellect. Hold fast to God in spite of logic, and yet not quite blindly. Be not torn from thy grasp upon the skirts of His garments by any wrench of atheistic hypothesis that seeks only to hurl thee into utter darkness; but refuse not to let thy hands be gently unclasped by that loving and pious philosophy that seeks to draw thee from the feet of God only to place thee in His bosom. Trustfully, though tremblingly, let go the robe, and thou shalt rest upon the heart and clasp the very living soul of God. JAMES HINTON. December 23 _Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ_.--2 TIM. ii. 3. Where our Captain bids us go, 'T is not ours to murmur, "No," He that gives the sword and shield, Chooses too the battle-field On which we are to fight the foe. ANON. Of nothing may we be more sure than this; that, if we cannot sanctify our present lot, we could sanctify no other. Our heaven and our Almighty Father are there or nowhere. The obstructions of that lot are given for us to heave away by the concurrent touch of a holy spirit, and labor of strenuous will; its gloom, for us to tint with some celestial light; its mysteries are for our worship; its sorrows for our trust; its perils for our courage; its temptations for our faith. Soldiers of the cross, it is not for us, but for our Leader and our Lord, to choose the field; it is ours, taking the station which He assigns, to make it the field of truth and honor, though it be the field of death. J. MARTINEAU. December 24 _Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light_.--COL. i. 12. The souls most precious to us here May from this home have fled; But still we make one household dear; One Lord is still our head. Midst cherubim and seraphim They mind their Lord's affairs; Oh! if we bring our work to Him Our work is one with theirs. T. H. GILL. We are apt to feel as if nothing we could do on earth bears a relation to what the good are doing in a higher world; but it is not so. Heaven and earth are not so far apart. Every disinterested act, every sacrifice to duty, every exertion for the good of "one of the least of Christ's brethren," every new insight into God's works, every new impulse given to the love of truth and goodness, associates us with the departed, brings us nearer to them, and is as truly heavenly as if we were acting, not on earth, but in heaven. The spiritual tie between us and the departed is not felt as it should be. Our union with them daily grows stronger, if we daily make progress in what they are growing in. WM. E. CHANNING. December 25 _That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God_.--EPH. iii. 17-19. O love that passeth knowledge, thee I need; Pour in the heavenly sunshine; fill my heart; Scatter the cloud, the doubting, and the dread,-- The joy unspeakable to me impart. H. BONAR. To examine its evidence is not to try Christianity; to admire its martyrs is not to try Christianity; to compare and estimate its teachers is not to try Christianity; to attend its rites and services with more than Mahometan punctuality is not to try or know Christianity. But for one week, for one day, to have lived in the pure atmosphere of faith and love to God, of tenderness to man; to have beheld earth annihilated, and heaven opened to the prophetic gaze of hope; to have seen evermore revealed behind the complicated troubles of this strange, mysterious life, the unchanged smile of an eternal Friend, and everything that is difficult to reason solved by that reposing trust which is higher and better than reason,--to have known and felt this, I will not say for a _life_, but for a single blessed hour, _that_, indeed, is to have made experiment of Christianity. WM. ARCHER BUTLER. December 26 _The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus_.--PHIL. iv. 7. _Let the peace of God rule in your hearts_.--COL. iii. 15. Drop Thy still dews of quietness, Till all our strivings cease; Take from our souls the strain and stress, And let our ordered lives confess The beauty of Thy peace. J. G. WHITTIER. "These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." What is fulness of joy but _peace_? Joy is tumultuous only when it is not full; but peace is the privilege of those who are "filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee." It is peace, springing from trust and innocence, and then overflowing in love towards all around him. J. H. NEWMAN. THROUGH the spirit of Divine Love let the violent, obstinate powers of thy nature be quieted, the hardness of thy affections softened, and thine intractable self-will subdued; and as often as anything contrary stirs within thee, immediately sink into the blessed Ocean of meekness and love. G. TERSTEEGEN. December 27 _Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ_.--GAL. iv. 7. Not by the terrors of a slave God's sons perform His will, But with the noblest powers they have His sweet commands fulfil. ISAAC WATTS. Our thoughts, good or bad, are not in our command, but every one of us has at all hours duties to _do_, and these he can do negligently, like a slave, or faithfully, like a true servant. "_Do_ the duty that is nearest thee"--that first, and that well; all the rest will disclose themselves with increasing clearness, and make their successive demand. Were your duties never so small, I advise you, set yourself with double and treble energy and punctuality, to do them, hour after hour, day after day. T. CARLYLE. Whatever we are, high or lowly, learned or unlearned, married or single, in a full house or alone, charged with many affairs or dwelling in quietness, we have our daily round of work, our duties of affection, obedience, love, mercy, industry, and the like; and that which makes one man to differ from another is not so much what things he does, as his manner of doing them. H. E. MANNING. December 28 _Now the God of peace make you perfect in every good work, to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ_.--HEB. xiii. 20, 21. _Be ready to every good work_.--TITUS iii. I. So, firm in steadfast hope, in thought secure, In full accord to all Thy world of joy, May I be nerved to labors high and pure, And Thou Thy child to do Thy work employ. J. STERLING. Be with God in thy outward works, refer them to Him, offer them to Him, seek to do them in Him and for Him, and He will be with thee in them, and they shall not hinder, but rather invite His presence in thy soul. Seek to see Him in all things, and in all things He will come nigh to thee. E. B. PUSEY. Nothing less than the majesty of God, and the powers of the world to come, can maintain the peace and sanctity of our homes, the order and serenity of our minds, the spirit of patience and tender mercy in our hearts. Then will even the merest drudgery of duty cease to humble us, when we transfigure it by the glory of our own spirit. J. MARTINEAU. December 29 _Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report,--think on these things_.--PHIL. iv. 8. _As he thinketh in his heart, so is he_.--PROV. xxiii. 7. Still may Thy sweet mercy spread A shady arm above my head, About my paths; so shall I find The fair centre of my mind Thy temple, and those lovely walls Bright ever with a beam that falls Fresh from the pure glance of Thine eye, Lighting to eternity. R. CRASHAW. Make yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts. None of us yet know, for none of us have been taught in early youth, what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thought--proof against all adversity. Bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure--houses of precious and restful thoughts, which care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty take away from us,--houses built without hands, for our souls to live in. J. RUSKIN. December 30 _O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps_.--JER. x. 23. _I will direct all his ways_.--ISA. xlv. 13. Come, Light serene and still! Our darkened spirits fill With thy clear day: Guide of the feeble sight, Star of grief's darkest night, Reveal the path of right, Show us Thy way. ROBERT II. OF FRANCE. There had been solemn appointed seasons in Anna's life, when she was accustomed to enter upon a full and deliberate survey of her business in this world. The claims of each relationship, and the results of each occupation, were then examined in the light of eternity. It was then, too, her fervent prayer to be enabled to discern the will of God far more perfectly, not only in the indications given of it for her guidance through each day's occupations, but as it might concern duties not yet brought home to her conscience, and therefore unprovided for in her life. SARAH W. STEPHEN. December 31 _Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus_.--PHIL. iii. 13, 14. Yet I argue not Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer Right onward. J. MILTON. It is not by regretting what is irreparable that true work is to be done, but by making the best of what we are. It is not by complaining that we have not the right tools, but by using well the tools we have. What we are, and where we are, is God's providential arrangement,--God's doing, though it may be man's misdoing; and the manly and the wise way is to look your disadvantages in the face, and see what can be made out of them. Life, like war, is a series of mistakes, and he is not the best Christian nor the best general who makes the fewest false steps. He is the best who wins the most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes. Forget mistakes; organize victory out of mistakes. F. W. ROBERTSON. 
40482	----	Transcriber's Note: Italics are indicated by _underscores_. Daily quotations from published prayers, which are italicised here and in the original, have been indented. Bolding is indicated by =equal signs=. Daily quotations from Scripture, which are bolded here and in the original, have also been indented. Small capitals have been rendered in upper case. Inconsistencies in spelling (e.g. "Savior" and "Saviour") and in hyphenation have been retained. In the two chemical formulae in Chapter 4 "^" is followed by a superscript and "_" by a subscript. Minor changes have been made to the format of biblical references; and corrections made to apparent punctuation errors elsewhere in the text. The Meaning of Faith HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK AUTHOR OF "THE MANHOOD OF THE MASTER," "THE MEANING OF PRAYER," "THE CHALLENGE OF THE PRESENT CRISIS," ETC. ASSOCIATION PRESS NEW YORK: 347 MADISON AVENUE 1922 COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS Printed in the United States of America The Bible Text used in this volume is taken from the American Standard Edition of the Revised Bible, copyright 1901, by Thomas Nelson & Sons, and is used by permission. TO MY MOTHER IN MEMORIAM "_'Tis human fortune's happiest height to be A spirit melodious, lucid, poised, and whole; Second in order of felicity To walk with such a soul._" PREFACE A book on faith has been for years my hope and intention. And now it comes to final form during the most terrific war men ever waged, when faith is sorely tried and deeply needed. Direct discussion of the war has been purposely avoided; the issues here presented are not confined to those which the war suggests; but many streams of thought within the book flow in channels that the war has worn. Since the conflict had to come, I am glad for this book's sake that it was not written until it had Europe's holocaust for a background. Against one misunderstanding the reader should be guarded. If anyone approaches these studies, expecting to find detailed and special views of Christian doctrine, he will be disappointed. The perplexities of mind and life and the affirmations of religious faith, with which these studies deal, lie far beneath sectarian doctrinal controversy. I have tried to make clear a foundation on which faith might build its thoughts of Christian truth. And while I have spoken freely of God and Christ and the Spirit, of the Cross and life eternal, I have not intended or endeavored a complete theology. I have had in mind that elemental matter of which Carlyle was thinking when he wrote: "The thing a man does practically lay to heart, and know for certain concerning his vital relations to the mysterious Universe, and his duty and destiny there, _that_ is in all cases the primary thing for him, and creatively determines all the rest. _That_ is his religion." As in "The Meaning of Prayer," the Scripture has been used for the basis and interpretation of the daily thought. The Bible is our supreme record of man's experience with faith; it recounts in terms of life faith's sources and results, its successes and failures, its servants and its foes. And because faith is not a _tour de force_ of intellect alone, but is an act of life, prayers have been used for the expression of aroused desire and resolution. My indebtedness to many helpers is very great. But to my friend and colleague, Professor George Albert Coe, my gratitude is so definitely due for his careful reading of the manuscript, that the book should not go out lacking an acknowledgment. H. E. F. December 15, 1917. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Special acknowledgment is gladly made to the following: to E. P. Dutton & Company for permission to use prayers from "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages" and from "The Temple," by W. E. Orchard, D.D.; to the Rev. Samuel McComb and the publishers for permission to quote from "A Book of Prayers," Copyright, 1912, Dodd, Mead & Company; to the American Unitarian Association for permission to draw upon "Prayers," by Theodore Parker; to the Pilgrim Press and the author for permission to use selections from "Prayers of the Social Awakening," by Dr. Rauschenbusch; to the Missionary Education Movement for permission to make quotations from "Thy Kingdom Come," by Ralph E. Diffendorfer; to Fleming H. Revell Co., for permission to make use of "A Book of Public Prayer," by Henry Ward Beecher; and to the publishers of James Martineau's "Prayers in the Congregation and in College," Longmans, Green & Co. None of the above material should be reprinted without securing permission. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PREFACE vii I. FAITH AND LIFE'S ADVENTURE 1 II. FAITH A ROAD TO TRUTH 26 III. FAITH IN THE PERSONAL GOD 51 IV. BELIEF AND TRUST 77 V. FAITH'S INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES 103 VI. FAITH'S GREATEST OBSTACLE 129 VII. FAITH AND SCIENCE 158 VIII. FAITH AND MOODS 184 IX. FAITH IN THE EARNEST GOD 210 X. FAITH IN CHRIST THE SAVIOR: FORGIVENESS 237 XI. FAITH IN CHRIST THE SAVIOR: POWER 263 XII. THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAITH 289 SCRIPTURE PASSAGES USED IN THE DAILY READINGS 316 SOURCES OF PRAYERS USED IN THE DAILY READINGS 317 PUBLISHERS' NOTE The complex subject of Faith has required an extended treatment, which has made the present volume much longer than the author's previous works. Every item of expense connected with publishing has greatly increased even within the past few months, and, to the regret, alike of publisher and author, it has been found necessary to charge more for this volume than for "The Meaning of Prayer" and "The Manhood of the Master." CHAPTER I Faith and Life's Adventure DAILY READINGS Discussion about faith generally starts with faith's _reasonableness_; let us begin with faith's _inevitableness_. If it were possible somehow to live without faith, the whole subject might be treated merely as an affair of curious interest. But if faith is an unescapable necessity in every human life, then we must come to terms with it, understand it, and use it as intelligently as we can. _There are certain basic elements in man which make it impossible to live without faith._ Let us consider these, as they are suggested in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which, better than any other book in the Bible, presents faith as an unavoidable human attitude. First Week, First Day =Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.--Heb. 11:1.= As Moffatt translates: "Now faith means we are confident of what we hope for, convinced of what we do not see." When faith is described in such general terms, its necessity in human life is evident. Man cannot live without faith, because he deals not only with a past which he may know and with a present which he can see, but with a _future in whose possibilities he must believe_. A man can no more avoid looking ahead when he lives his life than he can when he sails his boat, and in one case as in the other, his direction is determined by his thought about what lies before him, his "assurance of things hoped for." Now, this future into which continually we press our way can never be a matter of demonstrable knowledge. We know only when we arrive, but meanwhile we believe; and our knowledge of what is and has been is not more necessary to our quest than our faith concerning what is yet to come. As Tennyson sings of faith in "The Ancient Sage": "She sees the Best that glimmers thro' the Worst, She feels the sun is hid but for a night, She spies the summer thro' the winter bud, She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls, She hears the lark within the songless egg, She finds the fountain where they wail'd 'Mirage'!" However much a man may plan, therefore, to live without faith, he cannot do it. When one strips himself of all convictions about the future he stops living altogether, and active, eager, vigorous manhood is always proportionate to the scope and power of reasonable faith. The great spirits of the race have had the aspiring, progressive quality which the Scripture celebrates: =These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own. And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city.--Heb. 11:13-16.= _Almighty God, let Thy Spirit breathe upon us to quicken in us all humility, all holy desire, all living faith in Thee. When we meditate on the Eternal, we dare not think any manner of similitude; yet Thou art most real to us in the worship of the heart. When in the strife against sin we receive grace to help us in our time of need, then art Thou the Eternal Rock of our salvation. When amid our perplexities and searchings, the way of duty is made clear, then art Thou our Everlasting Light. When amid the storms of life we find peace and rest through submission, then art Thou the assured Refuge of our souls. So do Thou manifest Thyself unto us, O God!_ _Our Heavenly Father, we give Thee humble and hearty thanks for all the sacred traditions which have come down to us from the past--for the glorious memories of ancient days, concerning that Divine light in which men have been conscious of Thy presence and assured of Thy grace. But we would not content ourselves with memories. O Thou who art not the God of the dead, but the God of the living, manifest Thyself unto us in a present communion. Reveal Thyself unto us in the tokens of this passing time. Give us for ourselves to feel the authority of Thy law: give us for ourselves to realize the exceeding sinfulness of sin: give us for ourselves to understand the way of salvation through sacrifice. Teach us, by the Spirit of Christ, the sacredness of common duties, the holiness of the ties that bind us to our kind, the divinity of the still small voice within that doth ever urge us in the way of righteousness. So shall our hearts be renewed by faith; so shall we ever live in God. Amen._--John Hunter. First Week, Second Day =By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.--Heb. 11:8-10.= =By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.--Heb. 11:24-27.= Man cannot live without faith because his relationship with the future is an affair not alone of thought but also of action; _life is a continuous adventure into the unknown_. Abraham and Moses pushing out into experiences whose issue they could not foresee are typical of all great lives that have adventured for God. "By faith" is the first word necessary in every life like Luther's and Wesley's and Carey's. By faith John Bright, when his reforms were hard bestead, said: "If we can't win as fast as we wish, we know that our opponents can't in the long run win at all." By faith Gladstone, when the Liberal cause was defeated, rose undaunted in Parliament, and said, "I appeal to time!" and by faith every one of us must undertake each plain day's work, if we are to do it well. Robert Louis Stevenson said that life is "an affair of cavalry," "a thing to be dashingly used and cheerfully hazarded." But so to deal with life demands faith. The more one sees what venturesome risks he takes every day, what labor and sacrifice he invests in hope of a worthy outcome, with what great causes he falls in love until at his best he is willing for their sakes to hazard fortune and happiness and life itself, the more he sees that the soul of robust and serviceable character is faith. _O God, who hast encompassed us with so much that is dark and perplexing, and yet hast set within us light enough to walk by; enable us to trust what Thou hast given as sufficient for us, and steadfastly refuse to follow aught else; lest the light that is in us become as darkness and we wander from the way. May we be loyal to all the truth we know, and seek to discharge those duties which lay their commission on our conscience; so that we may come at length to perfect light in Thee, and find our wills in harmony with Thine._ _Since Thou hast planted our feet in a world so full of chance and change that we know not what a day may bring forth, and hast curtained every day with night and rounded our little lives with sleep; grant that we may use with diligence our appointed span of time, working while it is called today, since the night cometh when no man can work; having our loins girt and our lamps alight, lest the cry at midnight find us sleeping and the door fast shut._ _Since we are so feeble, faint, and foolish, leave us not to our own devices, not even when we pray Thee to; nor suffer us for any care to Thee or for any pain to us to walk our own unheeding way. Plant thorns about our feet, touch our hearts with fear, give us no rest apart from Thee, lest we lose our way and miss the happy gate. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. First Week, Third Day Man cannot live without faith because the prime requisite in life's adventure is _courage_, and the sustenance of courage is faith. =And what shall I more say? for the time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah; of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of aliens. Women received their dead by a resurrection: and others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword: they went about in sheep-skins, in goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth. And these all, having had witness borne to them through their faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.--Heb. 11:32-40.= When in comparison with men and women of such admirable spirit, one thinks of weak personalities, that ravel out at the first strain, he sees that the difference lies in courage. _When a man loses heart he loses everything._ Now to keep one's heart in the midst of life's stress and to maintain an undiscourageable front in the face of its difficulties is not an achievement which springs from anything that a laboratory can demonstrate or that logic can confirm. It is an achievement of faith, "The virtue to exist by faith As soldiers live by courage." Consider this account of Havelock, the great English general: "As he sat at dinner with his son on the evening of the 17th, his mind appeared for the first and last time to be affected with gloomy forebodings, as it dwelt on the probable annihilation of his brave men in a fruitless attempt to accomplish what was beyond their strength. After musing long in deep thought, his strong sense of duty and his confidence in the justice of his cause restored the buoyancy of his spirit; and he exclaimed, 'If the worst comes to the worst, we can but die with our swords in our hands!'" No man altogether escapes the need for such a spirit, and, as with Havelock and the Hebrew heroes, confidence in someone, faith in something, is that spirit's source. _O God, who hast sent us to school in this strange life of ours, and hast set us tasks which test all our courage, trust, and fidelity; may we not spend our days complaining at circumstance or fretting at discipline, but give ourselves to learn of life and to profit by every experience. Make us strong to endure._ _We pray that when trials come upon us we may not shirk the issue or lose our faith in Thy goodness, but committing our souls unto Thee who knowest the way that we take, come forth as gold tried in the fire._ _Grant by Thy grace that we may not be found wanting in the hour of crisis. When the battle is set, may we know on which side we ought to be, and when the day goes hard, cowards steal from the field, and heroes fall around the standard, may our place be found where the fight is fiercest. If we faint, may we not be faithless; if we fall, may it be while facing the foe. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. First Week, Fourth Day Man cannot live without faith, because the adventure of life demands not only courage to achieve but _patience to endure and wait_, and all untroubled patience is founded on faith. When the writer to the Hebrews speaks of those who "through faith and patience inherit the promises" (Heb. 6:12), he joins two things that in experience no man successfully can separate. By as much as we need patience, we need faith. =But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were enlightened, ye endured a great conflict of sufferings; partly, being made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, becoming partakers with them that were so used. For ye both had compassion on them that were in bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one. Cast not away therefore your boldness, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise.--Heb. 10:32-36.= The most difficult business in the world is _waiting_. There are times in every life when action, however laborious and sacrificial, would be an unspeakable relief; but to sit still because necessity constrains us, endeavoring to live out the admonition of the psalmist, "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him," is prodigiously difficult. _No one can do it without some kind of faith._ "In your patience," said Jesus, "ye shall win your souls" (Luke 21:19), but such an achievement is no affair of logic or scientific demonstration; it is a venture of triumphant faith. The great believers have been the unwearied waiters; faith meant to them not controversial opinion, but sustaining power. As another has phrased it, "Our faculties of belief were not primarily given to us to make orthodoxies and heresies withal; they were given us to _live_ by." _We beseech of Thee, O Lord our God, that Thou wilt grant to every one of us in Thy presence, this morning, the special mercies which he needs--strength where weakness prevails, and patience where courage has failed. Grant, we pray Thee, that those who need long-suffering may find themselves strangely upborne and sustained. Grant that those who wander in doubt and darkness may feel distilling upon their soul the sweet influence of faith. Grant that those who are heart-weary, and sick from hope deferred, may find the God of all salvation. Confirm goodness in those that are seeking it. Restore, we pray Thee, those who have wandered from the path of rectitude. Give every one honesty. May all transgressors of Thy law return to the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls with confession of sin, and earnest and sincere repentance. Amen._--Henry Ward Beecher. First Week, Fifth Day Man cannot live without faith because he exists in a universe, the complete explanation of which is forever beyond his grasp, so that _whatever he thinks about the total meaning of creation is fundamentally faith_. =By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear.--Heb. 11:3.= Not only is this true, but if we think that there is _no_ God, that also is faith; and if we hold that the basic reality is physical atoms, that is faith; and whatever anybody believes about the origin and destiny of life is faith. When Haeckel says that the creator is "Cosmic Ether," and when John says that "God is love," they both are making a leap of faith. This does not mean that faith can dispense with reason. In these studies we shall set ourselves to marshal the ample arguments that support man's faith in God. But when the utmost that argument can do has been achieved, the finite mind, dealing with the infinite reality, is forced to a sally of faith, a venture of confidence in Goodness at the heart of the world, not opposed to reason but surpassing reason. _Faith always sees more with her eye than logic can reach with her hand._ And especially when men come to the highest thought of life's meaning and believe in the Christian God, they face the fact which the writer to the Hebrews presents: =And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him.--Heb. 11:6.= Indeed, in all stout conviction about the meaning of life there is a certain defiant note, refusing to surrender to small objections. Cried Stevenson, "I believe in an ultimate decency of things; ay, and if I woke in hell, should still believe it!" _O Thou Infinite Spirit, who needest no words for man to hold his converse with Thee, we would enter into Thy presence, we would reverence Thy power, we would worship Thy wisdom, we would adore Thy justice, we would be gladdened by Thy love, and blessed by our communion with Thee. We know that Thou needest no sacrifice at our hands, nor any offering at our lips; yet we live in Thy world, we taste Thy bounty, we breathe Thine air, and Thy power sustains us, Thy justice guides, Thy goodness preserves, and Thy love blesses us forever and ever. O Lord, we cannot fail to praise Thee, though we cannot praise Thee as we would. We bow our faces down before Thee with humble hearts, and in Thy presence would warm our spirits for a while, that the better we may be prepared for the duties of life, to endure its trials, to bear its crosses, and to triumph in its lasting joys...._ _In times of darkness, when men fail before Thee, in days when men of high degree are a lie, and those of low degree are a vanity, teach us, O Lord, to be true before Thee, not a vanity, but soberness and manliness; and may we keep still our faith shining in the midst of darkness, the beacon-light to guide us over stormy seas to a home and haven at last. Father, give us strength for our daily duty, patience for our constant or unaccustomed cross, and in every time of trial give us the hope that sustains, the faith that wins the victory and obtains satisfaction and fulness of joy. Amen._--Theodore Parker. First Week, Sixth Day Man cannot live, lacking faith, because _without it life's richest experiences go unappropriated_. Opportunities for friendship lie all about us, but only by trustful self-giving can they be enjoyed; chances to serve good causes continually beckon us, but one must have faith to try; superior minds offer us their treasures, but to avail oneself of instruction from another involves teachable humility. A man without capacity to let himself go out to other men in friendly trust or to welcome new illumination on his thought with grateful faith would be shut out from the priceless treasures of humanity. A certain trustful openheartedness, a willingness to venture in personal relationship and in attempts at service is essential to a rich and fruitful life. And what is true of man's relationship with man is true of man's relationship with God. So Prof. William James, of Harvard, states the case: "Just as a man who in a company of gentlemen made no advances, asked a warrant for every concession, and believed no one's word without proof, would cut himself off by such churlishness from all the social rewards that a more trusting spirit would earn--so here, one who should shut himself up in snarling logicality and try to make the gods extort his recognition willy-nilly, or not get it at all, might cut himself off forever from his only opportunity of making the gods' acquaintance." _Wherever in life great spiritual values await man's appropriation, only faith can appropriate them._ =Let us fear therefore, lest haply, a promise being left of entering into his rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard!--Heb. 4:1, 2.= _O Infinite Source of life and health and joy! the very thought of Thee is so wonderful that in this thought we would rest and be still. Thou art Beauty and Grace and Truth and Power. Thou art the light of every heart that sees Thee, the life of every soul that loves Thee, the strength of every mind that seeks Thee. From our narrow and bounded world we would pass into Thy greater world. From our petty and miserable selves we would escape to Thee, to find in Thee the power and the freedom of a larger life.... We recognize Thee in all the deeper experiences of the soul. When the conscience utters its warning voice, when the heart is tender and we forgive those who have wronged us in word or deed, when we feel ourselves upborne above time and place, and know ourselves citizens of Thy everlasting Kingdom, we realize, O Lord, that these things, while they are in us, are not of us. They are Thine, the work of Thy Spirit brooding upon our souls._ _Spirit of Holiness and Peace! Search all our motives; try the secret places of our souls; set in the light any evil that may lurk within, and lead us in the way everlasting. Amen._--Samuel McComb. First Week, Seventh Day Man cannot live without faith, because in life's adventure the central problem is _building character_. Now, character is not a product of logic, but of faith in ideals and of sacrificial devotion to them. What is becomes only the starting point of a campaign for what _ought to be_, and in the prosecution of that campaign what ought to be must be believed in with passionate intensity. Faith of some sort, therefore, is necessarily the dynamic of character; only limp and ragged living is possible without faith; and the greatest characters are girded by the most ample faith in God and goodness. The writer to the Hebrews saw this intimate relationship between quality of faith and quality of life, and challenged his readers to judge the Christian faith by its consequence in character. =Remember them that had the rule over you, men that spake unto you the word of God; and considering the issue of their life, imitate their faith.--Heb. 13:7.= Such are the basic elements in human experience that make faith necessary: we deal with a future, about which we must think, with reference to which we must act, and adventuring into which we need courage and patience; this venture of life takes place in a world the meaning of which can be grasped only by a leap of faith; and in this venture the best treasures of the spirit are obtainable only through openheartedness, and character is possible only to men of resolute conviction. Plainly the subject to whose study we are setting ourselves is no affair of theoretical interest alone; it affects the deepest issues of life. No words could better summarize this vital idea of faith which the Epistle to the Hebrews presents than Hartley Coleridge's: "Think not the faith by which the just shall live Is a dead creed, a map correct of heaven, Far less a feeling, fond and fugitive, A thoughtless gift, withdrawn as soon as given. It is an affirmation and an act That bids eternal truth be present fact." _How great are the mercies, O Lord our God, which Thou hast prepared for all that put their trust in Thee!... Thou hast comfort for those that are in affliction; Thou hast strength for those that are weak; ... Thou hast all blessings that are needed, and standest ready to be all things to all, and in all. And yet, with bread enough and to spare, with raiment abundant, and with all medicine, how many are there that go hungry, and naked, and sick, and destitute of all things! We desire, O Lord, that Thou wilt, to all Thine other mercies, add that gift by which we shall trust in Thee--faith that works by love; faith that abides with us; faith that transforms material things, and gives them to us in their spiritual meanings; faith that illumines the world by a light that never sets, that shines brighter than the day, and that clears the night quite out of our experience. This is the portion that Thou hast provided for thy people. We beseech of Thee, grant us this faith, that shall give us victory over the world and over ourselves; that shall make us valiant in all temptation and bring us off conquerors and more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Amen._--Henry Ward Beecher. COMMENT FOR THE WEEK I When Donald Hankey, who died in the trenches in the Great War, said that "True religion is betting one's life that there is a God," he not only gave expression to his own virile Christianity, but he gave a good description of all effective faith whatsoever. Faith is holding reasonable convictions, in realms beyond the reach of final demonstration, and, as well, it is thrusting out one's life upon those convictions as though they were surely true. _Faith is vision plus valor._ Our study may well begin by recognizing that, as it is exercised in the religious life, such faith is the supreme use of an attitude which we are employing in every other realm. No man can live without vision to see as true what as yet he cannot prove, or without valor to act on the basis of his insight. Our vocabulary in ordinary relationships, quite as much as in religion, is full of words involving faith. I believe, I feel sure, I am confident, I venture--such phrases express our common attitudes in work and thought. Each day we act on reasonable probabilities, hold convictions not yet verified, take risks whose outcome we cannot know, and trust people whom we have barely met. We may pride ourselves that our twentieth century's life is being built on scientifically demonstrable knowledge, but a swift review of any day's experience shows how indispensable is another attitude, without which our verifiable knowledge would be an unused instrument. In order to _live_ we must have insight and daring. It is not alone the just who live by faith; lacking it, there is no real life anywhere. To be sure, we may not leap from this general necessity of faith to the conclusion that therefore our religious beliefs are justified. Many men use faith in business and in social life who cannot find their way to convictions about God. But our desire to understand faith's meaning is quickened when we see how indispensable a place it holds, how tremendous an influence it wields, whether it be religiously applied or not. All sorts of human enterprise bear witness to its unescapable necessity. Haeckel, the biologist, describing science's method, says: "Scientific faith fills the gaps in our knowledge of natural laws with temporary hypotheses." Lincoln, the statesman, entreating the people, cries: "Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty." Stevenson, the invalid, trying with fortitude to bear his trial, writes: "Whether on the first of January or the thirty-first of December, faith is a good word to end on." And the Master states the substance of religion in a single phrase: "Have faith in God" (Mark 11:22). Scientific procedure, social welfare, personal quality, religion--the applications of our subject are as wide as life. Vision and valor are the dynamic forces in all achievement, intellectual as well as moral, and as for man's spiritual values and satisfactions, "It is faith in something," as Oliver Wendell Holmes put it, "which makes life worth living." II One major reason for this necessary place of faith in our experience is clear. _Life is an adventure and adventure always demands insight and daring._ That "Chinese" Gordon, on his hazardous expedition into the Soudan, should be thrown back on undiscourageable faith in himself, in the justice of his cause, in the bravery of his men, and in God; that he should even speak of praying his boats up the Nile, seems to us natural; for some kind of faith is obviously necessary to any great adventure. But men often forget that all ordinary living is essentially adventurous and that by this fact the need of faith is woven into the texture of every human life. It is an amazing adventure to be born upon this wandering island in the sky and it is an adventure to leave it when death calls. To go to school, to make friends, to marry, to rear children, to face through life the swift changes of circumstance that no man can certainly predict an hour ahead, these are all adventures. Each new day is an hitherto unvisited country, which we enter, like Abraham leaving Ur for a strange land, "not knowing whither he went" (Heb. 11:8), and every New Year we begin a tour of exploration into a twelvemonth where no man's foot has ever walked before. If we all love tales of pioneers, it is because from the time we are weaned to the time we die, life is pioneering. Of course we cannot live by verifiable knowledge only. Imagine men, equipped with nothing but powers of logical demonstration, starting on such an enterprise as the title of Sebastian Cabot's joint stock company suggests: "Merchants Adventurers of England for the discovery of lands, territories, isles and seignories, unknown." Indeed no knowledge of the sort that our scientific inductions can achieve ever will take from life this adventurous element. Scientific knowledge in these latter decades has grown incalculably; yet for all that, every child's life is a hazardous experiment, every boy choosing a calling takes his chances, every friendship is a risky exploration in the province of personality, and all devotion to moral causes is just as much a venturesome staking of life on insight and hope as it was when Garrison attacked slavery or Livingstone landed in Africa. To one who had acquired not only all extant but all possible knowledge, as truly as to any man who ever lived, life would be full of hazard still. He could not certainly know in advance the outcome of a single important decision of his life. He could not at any moment tell in what new, strange, challenging, or terrific situation the next hour might find him. With all his science, he must face each day, as Paul faced his journey to Rome, "not knowing the things that shall befall me there" (Acts 20:22). The reason for this is obvious. Our systematized knowledge is the arrangement under laws of the experiences which we have already had. It furnishes invaluable aid in guiding the experiments and explorations which life continuously forces on us. In every enterprise, however, we must use not only legs to stand on, but tentacles as well with which to feel our way forward--intuitions, insights, hopes, unverified convictions, faith. We project our life forward as we build a cantilever bridge. Part of the structure is solidly bolted and thoroughly articulated in a system; but ever beyond this established portion we audaciously thrust out new beginnings in eager expectation that from the other side something will come to meet them. Without this no progress ever would be possible. Every province of life illustrates this necessity of adventure. In _science_, the established body of facts and laws is only the civilized community of knowledge from whose frontiers new guesses and intuitions start. Says Sir Oliver Lodge about the great Newton: "He had an extraordinary faculty for guessing correctly, sometimes with no apparent data--as for instance, his intuition that the mean density of the earth was probably between five and six times that of water, while we now know it is really about five and one half." In _personal character_, our habits are basic, but our ideals in which, despite ourselves, we must believe, are pioneers that push out into new territory and call our habits after them to conquer the promised land. In _social advance_, some Edmund Burke, statesman of the first magnitude, basing his judgment on the established experience of the race, can call slavery an incurable evil and say that there is not the slightest hope that trade in slaves can be stopped; and yet within eighty-two years the race can feel its way forward to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. As for _daily business_, adventurous daring is there the very nerve of enterprise. Says a modern newspaper man: "There are plenty of people to do the possible; you can hire them at forty dollars a month. The prizes are for those who perform the impossible. If a thing can be done, experience and skill can do it; if a thing cannot be done, only faith can do it." Great in human life is this adventurous element, and, therefore, great in human life is the necessity of faith. To chasten and discipline, to make reasonable and stable the faiths by which we live is a problem unsurpassed in importance for every man. III One result of special interest follows from this truth. It is commonly suspected that as mankind advances, the function of faith proportionately shrinks. It is even supposed that the place of faith in human life has sensibly diminished with our growing knowledge, and that Matthew Arnold told the truth: "The sea of faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world." Accordingly by custom we call the mediæval centuries the "Age of Faith." But even a cursory comparison between the mediæval people and ourselves reveals that among the many differences that distinguish us from them, none is more marked than the diversity and range of our faiths. One considers in surprise the things which they did not believe. That the world would ever grow much better, that social abuses like political tyranny and slavery could be radically changed, that man could ever master nature by his inventions until her mighty forces were his servants, that the whole race could be reached for Christ, that war could be abolished and human brotherhood in some fair degree established, that common men could be trusted with responsibility for their own government or with freedom to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences--none of these things did the mediæval folk believe. One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the so-called "Age of Faith" was its lack of faith. It lived in a static world; it was poor in possibilities except in heaven; it pitiably lacked those most certain signs of vital faith, the open mind eager for new truth and the ardent, vigorous life seeking new conquests. In comparison with such an age our generation's faiths are rich and manifold. To call our time an "Age of Doubt" because of its free spirit of critical inquiry, is seriously to misunderstand its major drift. Bunyan's Pilgrim found Doubting Castle kept by Giant Despair and his wife Diffidence and in any Doubting Castle these two always dwell. But who, considering our generation's life as a whole, would call it diffident or desperate? It is rather robust and confident; its social faiths, at least, are unprecedented in their sweep and certainty. Even the Great War is the occasion of such organized faith in a federated and fraternal world as mankind has never entertained before. The truth is that with the progress of the race the adventure of life is elevated and enlarged, and in consequence faith grows not less but more necessary. _The faiths of a savage are meager compared with a modern man's._ The Australian bushman never dreams of laboring for social ideals even a few years ahead. What can he know of those superb faiths in economic justice and international brotherhood, which even in the face of overwhelming difficulty, master the best of modern men? The primitive mind was not curious enough to wonder whether the sun that rises in the morning was the same that set the night before. What could such a mind understand of modern science's faith in the universal regularity of law? Put a Moro head hunter beside Mr. Edison, and see how incalculable the difference between them, not simply in their knowledge, but in their faith as to what it is possible for humanity to do with nature! Or put a fetish worshipper from Africa beside Phillips Brooks and compare the faith of the one in his idol with the faith of the other in God. Faith does not dwindle as wisdom grows; vision and valor are not less important. _The difference between the twentieth century man and the savage is quite as much in the scope and quality of their faith as in the range and certainty of their knowledge._ Faith, therefore is not a transient element in human life, to be evicted by growing science. For whatever life may _know_, life _is_ adventure; and as the adventure widens its horizons, the demand for faith is correspondingly increased. If one tries to imagine the world with all faith gone--knowledge supposedly having usurped its place--he must conceive a world where no conscious life and effort remain at all. Take trust in testimony away from courts of law, and unsure experiments from the physician's practice; refuse the teacher his confidence in growing minds and the business man his right to ventures that involve uncertainty; abstract from civic reforms all faith in a better future, from science all unproved postulates, from society all mutual trust and from religion all belief in the Unseen, and life would become an "inane sand heap." A man who tries to live without faith will die of inertia. A society that makes the attempt will be paralyzed within an hour. The question is not whether or no we shall live by faith. The question is rather--By what faiths shall we live? What range and depth and quality shall they have? How reasonable and how assured shall they be? IV Among all the faiths which mankind has cherished and by which it has been helped in life's adventure, none have been more universally and more passionately held than those associated with religion. In the daring experiment of living, men naturally have sought by faith interpretation not only of life's details but of life itself--its origin, its meaning, and its destiny. Australian bushmen, unable to count above four on their fingers, have been heard discussing in their huts at night whence they came, whither they go, and who the gods are anyway. And when one turns to modern manhood in its finest exhibitions of intelligence and character, he sees that Professor Ladd, of Yale, speaks truly: "The call of the world of men today, which is most insistent and most intense, if not most loud and clamorous, is the call for a rehabilitation of religious faith." For it does make a prodigious difference to the spirit of our adventure in this world, whether we think that God is good or on the other hand see the universe as Carlyle's terrific figure pictures it--"one huge, dead, immeasurable Steam-engine, rolling on, in its dead indifference, to grind me limb from limb." It does make a difference of quite incalculable magnitude whether we think that our minds and characters are an evanescent product of finely wrought matter which alone is real and permanent, or on the contrary with John believe that "Now are we children of God and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be" (I John 3:2). How great a difference in life's adventure religious faith does make is better set forth by concrete example than by abstract argument. On the one side, how radiant the spirit of the venture as the New Testament depicts it! The stern, appealing love of God behind life, his good purpose through it, his victory ahead of it, and man a fellow worker, called into an unfinished world to bear a hand with God in its completion--here is a game that indeed is worth the candle. On the other side is Bertrand Russell's candid disclosure of the consequences of his own scepticism: "Brief and powerless is man's life; on him and all his race the slow sure doom falls pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way; for Man condemned today to lose his dearest, tomorrow himself to pass through the gate of darkness, it remains only to cherish, ere yet the blow falls, the lofty thoughts that ennoble his little day--proudly defiant of the irresistible forces that tolerate for a moment his knowledge and his condemnation, to sustain alone, a weary but unyielding Atlas, the world that his own ideals have fashioned despite the trampling march of unconscious power." Man's life, interpreted and motived by religious faith, is glorious, but shorn of faith's interpretations life loses its highest meaning and its noblest hopes. Let us make this statement's truth convincing in detail. _When faith in God goes, man the thinker loses his greatest thought._ Man's mind has ranged the universe, has woven atoms and stars into a texture of law; his conquering thoughts ride out into every unknown province of which they hear. But among all the ideas on which the mind of man has taken hold, incomparably the greatest is the idea of God. In sheer weight and range no other thought of man compares with that. Amid the crash of stars, the reign of law, the vicissitudes of human history, and the griefs that drive their ploughshares into human hearts, to gather up all existence into spiritual unity and to believe in God, is the sublimest venture of the human mind. _When faith in God goes, man the worker loses his greatest motive._ Man masters nature until the forces that used to scare him now obey; in society he labors tirelessly that his children may have a better world. Wars come, destroying the achievements of ages; yet when war is over, man rebuilds his cities, recreates his commerce, dreams again his human brotherhoods, and toils on. Many motives, deep and shallow, fine and coarse, have sustained him in this tireless work, but when one seeks the fountain of profoundest hope in mankind's toil he finds it in religious faith. To believe that we do not stand alone, hopelessly pitted against the dead apathy of cosmic forces which in the end will crush us in some solar wreck and bring our work to naught; to believe that we are fellow-laborers with God, our human purposes comprehended in a Purpose, God behind us, within us, ahead of us--this incomparably has been the master-faith in man's greatest work. _When faith in God goes, man the sinner loses his strongest help._ For man is a sinner. He tears his spiritual heritage to shreds in licentiousness and drink. He wallows in vice, wins by cruelty, violates love, is treacherous to trust. His sins clothe the world in lamentation. Yet in him is a protest that he cannot stifle. He is the only creature whom we know whose nature is divided against itself. He hates his sin even while he commits it. He repents, tries again, falls, rises, stumbles on--and in all his best hours cries out for saviorhood. No message short of religion has ever met man's need in this estate. That God himself is pledged to the victory of righteousness in men and in the world, that he cares, forgives, enters into man's struggle with transforming power, and crowns the long endeavor with triumphant character--such faith alone has been great enough to meet the needs of man the sinner. _When faith in God goes, man the sufferer loses his securest refuge._ One who has walked with families through long illnesses where desperate prayers rise like a fountain day and night, who has seen strong men break down in health or lose the fortune of a lifetime, who has stood at children's graves and heard mothers cry, "How empty are my arms!" does not need long explication of life's tragic suffering. The staggering blows shatter the hopes of good and bad alike. Whether one's house be built on rock or sand, on both, as Jesus said, the rains descend and the floods come and the winds blow. In this experience of crushing trouble nothing but religious faith has been able to save men from despair or from stoical endurance of their fate. To face the loom of life and hopefully to lay oneself upon it, as though the dark threads were as necessary in the pattern as the light ones are, we must believe that there is a purpose running through the stern, forbidding process. What men have needed most of all in suffering, is not to know the explanation, but _to know that there is an explanation_. And religious faith alone gives confidence that human tragedy is not the meaningless sport of physical forces, making our life what Voltaire called it, "a bad joke," but is rather a school of discipline, the explanation of whose mysteries is in the heart of God. No one who has lived deeply can ever call such faith a "matter of words and names." To multitudes it is a matter of life and death. _When faith in God goes, man the lover loses his fairest vision._ When we say our worst about mankind, this redeeming truth remains, that each of us has some one for whose sake he willingly would die. The very love lyrics of the race are proof of this human quality, from homely folk songs like "John Anderson, My Jo, John" to great poetry like Mrs. Browning's sonnets. We call them secular, but they are ineffably sacred. And when one seeks the faith that has made these loves of men radiant with an illumination which man alone cannot create, he finds it in religion. Love is not a transient fragrance from matter finely organized--so men have dared believe; love is of kin with the Eternal, has there its source and ground and destiny; love is the very substance of reality. "God is love, and he that abideth in love, abideth in God, and God abideth in him" (I John 4:16). Man the lover is bereft of his finest insight and love's inner glory has departed, when that faith has gone. _When faith in God goes, man the mortal loses his only hope._ Man's nature, like a lighthouse, combines two elements. At the foundation of the beacon all is stone; as one lifts his eyes, all is stone still; but at the top is something new and wonderful. It is the thing for which the rock was piled. Its laws are not the laws of stone nor are its ways the same. For while the stolid rock stands fast, this miracle of light with speed incredible hurls itself out across the sea. Two worlds are here, the one cold and stationary, the other full of the marvel and mystery of fire. So man has in him a miracle which he cannot explain; he "feels that he is greater than he knows"; and he never has been able to believe that the mystery of spirit was given him in vain, had no reality from which it came, and no future beyond death. The finest thing ever said of Columbus is a remark of his own countryman, "The instinct of an unknown continent burned in him." That is the secret of Columbus' greatness. All the arguments by which he attempted to convince the doubters were but afterthoughts of this; all the labors by which he endeavored to make good his hopes were but its consequence. And if we ask of man why so universally he has believed in life to come, the answer leaps not superficially from the mind, but out of the basic intuitions of man's life. We know that something is now ours which ought not to die; the instinct of an unknown continent burns in us. But all the hopes, the motives, the horizons that immortality has given man must go, if faith in God departs. In a godless world man dies forever. One, therefore, who is facing loss of faith may not regard it as a light affair. To be sure, some denials of religion, even a Christian must respect. Huxley, for example, at the death of his little boy, wanting to believe in immortality as only a father can whose son lies dead, yet, for all that, disbelieving, wrote to Charles Kingsley, "I have searched over the grounds of my belief, and if wife and child and name and fame were all to be lost to me one after another as the penalty, still I will not lie." One respects _that_. When George John Romanes turned his back for a while on the Christian faith, he wrote out of his agnosticism, "When at times I think, as think at times I must, of the appalling contrast between the hallowed glory of that creed which once was mine, and the lonely mystery of existence as now I find it--at such times I shall ever feel it impossible to avoid the sharpest pang of which my nature is susceptible." One respects _that_. But some discard religion from their life's adventure with no such serious understanding of the import of their denial. They are pert disbelievers. They toss faith facilely aside in a light mood. Such frivolous sceptics indict their own intelligence. Whoever discards religious faith should appoint a day of mourning for his soul, and put on sackcloth and ashes. He must take from his life the greatest thought that man the thinker ever had, the finest faith that man the worker ever leaned upon, the surest help that man the sinner ever found, the strongest reliance that man the sufferer ever trusted in, the loftiest vision that man the lover ever saw, and the only hope that man the mortal ever had. So he must deny his faith in God. Before one thus leaves himself bereft of the faith that makes life's adventure most worth while he well may do what Carlyle, under the figure of Teufelsdröckh, says that he did in his time of doubt: "In the silent night-watches, still darker in his heart than over sky and earth, he has cast himself before the All-seeing, and with audible prayers cried vehemently for Light." V If minimizing the importance of religious faith is unintelligent, so is avoiding some sort of decision about religious faith impossible. Most of those into whose hands these studies fall will grant readily faith's incalculable importance. Some, however, will be not helped but plunged into deeper trouble by their consent. For they feel themselves unable to decide about a matter which they acknowledge to be the most important in the world. Asked whether they believe in God, they would reply with one of Victor Hugo's characters, "Yes--No--Sometimes." They grant that to be steadily assured of God would be an invaluable boon, but for themselves, how can they balance the opposing arguments and find their way to confidence? All our studies are intended for the help of such, but at the beginning one urgent truth may well be plainly put. However undecided they may appear, men cannot altogether avoid decision on the main matters of religion. Life will not let them. For while the mind may hold itself suspended between alternatives, the adventure of life goes on, and men inevitably tend to live either as though the Christian God were real or as though he were not. Some questions allow a complete postponement of decision. As to which of several theories about the Northern Lights may be true, a man can hold his judgment in entire suspense. Life does not require from him any action that depends on what he thinks of the Aurora Borealis; and whether a man think one thing or another, no conceivable change would be the consequence in anything he said or did. But there is another kind of question, where, however much the mind may waver between opinions and may resolve on indecision, life itself compels decision. A man cannot really be agnostic and neutral on a question like the moral law of sexual purity, for, by an irrevocable necessity, he has to act one way or another. He may stop thinking, but he cannot stop living. With tremendous urgency the adventure of life insistently goes on, and it never pauses for any man to make up his mind on any question. Therefore while a man may theoretically suspend his judgment as to the requirements of the moral law, his life will be a loud, convincing advertisement to all who know him that he has vitally decided. _A man can avoid making up his mind, but he cannot avoid making up his life._ Quite as truly, though, it may be, not quite as obviously, religious questions belong to this second class. Not all questions that are called religious belong there. With fatal pettiness religious men have reduced the great faiths to technicalities and some beliefs called religious a man may hold or not, with utter indifference to anything he is or does. But on the basic attitudes of religion such as we have just rehearsed, a man cannot be completely neutral, no matter how he tries. Bernard Shaw's remark, "What a man believes may be ascertained not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually acts," should be taken to heart by any one trying to remain religiously neutral. For one cannot by any possibility avoid "assumptions on which he habitually acts." He tends to undertake social service either as confident cooperation with God's purpose or as an endeavor to make one corner of an unpurposed world as decent as possible. He tends to follow his ideals, either as the voice of God calling him upward, or as the work of natural selection, adjusting him to a temporary environment. He tends to face suffering either hopefully as a school of moral discipline, in a world presided over by a Father, or grimly as a hardship in which there is no meaning. He tends to face death either as the supreme adventure, full of boundless hope, or as a final exit that leads nowhere. He may never consciously formulate his ideas on any of these matters, he may maintain an intellectual agnosticism, genuine and complete, but his living subtly involves the confession of some faith. "A man's action," said Emerson, "is only the picture-book of his creed." And the more thoughtful he is, the more he will be aware of that unescapable tendency to confess in his living an inward faith about life. One practical result of this urgent truth is too frequently seen to be doubtful. _Those who in religion do not decide, thereby decide against religion._ Religious faith is a positive achievement, and he who does not deliberately choose it, loses it. A man who, rowing down Niagara River, debates within himself whether or not he will stop at Buffalo, and who cannot decide, thereby has decided. His irresolution has not for a moment interfered with the steady flow of the river, and if he but debate long enough concerning his stop at Buffalo, he will awake to discover that he has finally decided not to stop there. As much beyond the control of man's volition is the steady flow of life. It pauses for no man's indecision, and if one is irresolute about any positive, aspiring faith in any realm, his indecisiveness is decision of a most final sort. This, then, is the summary of the matter. Life is a great adventure in which faith is indispensable; in this adventure faith in God presents the issues of transcendent import; and on these issues life itself continuously compels decision. Our obligation is obvious--since willy-nilly the decision must be made--to make it consciously, to reach it by reason, not by chance, by thinking, not by drifting. If a man is to be irreligious, let him at least know why, and not slip into this estate, as most irreligious men do, by careless living and frivolous thought. If a man is to be religious, let him have reason for his choice; let his faith be founded not on credulity and chance, but on real experience and reasonable thought. So his faith shall be good not only for domestic consumption, but for export too--clear in his own mind and convincing to his friends. The forms of thought shift with the centuries and old situations cannot be repeated in detail, but one crisis in its essential meaning is perennial: "Elijah came near unto all the people, and said, How long go ye limping between the two sides? if Jehovah be God follow him; but if Baal then follow him" (I Kings 18:21). CHAPTER II Faith a Road to Truth DAILY READINGS Many minds are prevented from even a fair consideration of religious faith by prejudices which spring, not from reasoned argument, but from practical experience. They are biased before argument has begun; they _feel_ that faith means credulity, and that religious faith in particular is a surrender of reason. Before we positively present faith as an indispensable means of dealing with reality in any realm, let us, in the daily readings, consider some of the practical experiences and attitudes that thus prejudice men against religion. Second Week, First Day Many men are biased in advance by the _unwise treatment to which in their childhood they were subjected_. Paul pictures the home life of Timothy as ideal: =I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure conscience, how unceasing is my remembrance of thee in my supplications, night and day longing to see thee, remembering thy tears, that I may be filled with joy; having been reminded of the unfeigned faith that is in thee; which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and, I am persuaded, in thee also.--II Tim. 1:3-5.= "Unfeigned faith" is often thus a family heritage, handed down by vital contagion. But in many homes religion is not thus beautifully presented to the children; it is a hard and rigorous affair of dogma and restraint. "Oh, why," said a young professional man, whom Professor Coe quotes, "why did my parents try to equip me with a doctrinal system in childhood? I supposed that the whole system must be believed on pain of losing my religion altogether. And so, when I began to doubt some points, I felt obliged to throw all overboard. I have found my way back to positive religion, but by what a long and bitter struggle!" If, however, one has been so unfortunate as to be hardened in youth by unwise training, is it reasonable on that account forever to shut himself out from the most glorious experience of man? This complaint about mistreatment in youth is often an excuse, not a reason for irreligion. Says Phillips Brooks: "I have grown familiar to weariness with the self-excuse of men who say, 'Oh, if I had not had the terrors of the law so preached to me when I was a boy, if I had not been so confronted with the woes of hell and the awfulness of the judgment day, I should have been religious long ago.' My friends, I think I never hear a meaner or a falser speech than that. Men may believe it when they say it--I suppose they do--but it is not true. It is unmanly, I think. It is throwing on their teaching and their teachers, or their fathers and their mothers, the fault which belongs to their own neglect, because they have never taken up the earnest fight with sin and sought through every obstacle for truth and God. It has the essential vice of dogmatism about it, for it claims that a different _view_ of God would have done for them that which no view of God can do, that which must be done, _under any system, any teaching_, by humility and penitence and struggle and self-sacrifice. Without these no teaching saves the soul. With these, under any teaching, the soul must find its Father." _O Thou, who didst lay the foundations of the earth amid the singing of the morning stars and the joyful shouts of the sons of God, lift up our little life into Thy gladness. Out of Thee, as out of an overflowing fountain of Love, wells forth eternally a stream of blessing upon every creature Thou hast made. If we have thought that Thou didst call into being this universe in order to win praise and honor for Thyself, rebuke the vain fancies of our foolish minds and show us that Thy glory is the joy of giving. We can give Thee nothing of our own. All that we have is Thine. Oh, then, help us to glorify Thee by striving to be like Thee. Make us just and pure and good as Thou art. May we be partakers of the Divine Nature, so that all that is truly human in us may be deepened, purified, and strengthened. And so may we be witnesses for Thee, lights of the world, reflecting Thy light._ _Help us to make religion a thing so beautiful that all men may be won to surrender to its power. Let us manifest in our lives its sweetness and excellency, its free and ennobling spirit. Forbid that we should go up and down the world with melancholy looks and dejected visage, lest we should repel men from entering Thy Kingdom. Rather, may we walk in the freedom and joy of faith, and with Thy new song in our mouths, so that men looking on us may learn to trust and to love Thee. Amen._--Samuel McComb. Second Week, Second Day Many men are prejudiced against religion during their youthful _period of revolt against authority_. Listen to an ancient father talking with his sons: =Hear, my sons, the instruction of a father, And attend to know understanding: For I give you good doctrine; Forsake ye not my law. For I was a son unto my father, Tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. And he taught me, and said unto me: Let thy heart retain my words; Keep my commandments, and live; Get wisdom, get understanding; Forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth; Forsake her not, and she will preserve thee; Love her, and she will keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; Yea, with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote thee; She will bring thee to honor, when thou dost embrace her. She will give to thy head a chaplet of grace; A crown of beauty will she deliver to thee.= =--Prov. 4:1-9.= No father can read this urgent, anxious plea without understanding the reason for its solicitude. Every boy comes to the time when he breaks away from parental authority and begins to take his life into his own hands. It is one of youth's great crises, and the spirit of it is sometimes harsh and rebellious. So Carlyle describes his own experience: "Such transitions are ever full of pain: thus the Eagle when he moults is sickly; and, to attain his new beak, must harshly dash-off the old one upon rocks." For religious faith this period of life is always critical. Stevenson in his revolt, when he called respectability "the deadliest gag and wet-blanket that can be laid on man," also became, as he said, "a youthful atheist." How many have traveled that road and stopped in the negation! Stevenson did not stop, and years afterward wrote of his progress: "Because I have reached Paris, I am not ashamed of having passed through Newhaven and Dieppe." Surely if anyone has been "a youthful atheist," it was an experience to be "passed through." _O God, we turn to Thee in the faith that Thou dost understand and art very merciful. Some of us are not sure concerning Thee; not sure what Thou art; not sure that Thou art at all. Yet there is something at work behind our minds, in times of stillness we hear it, like a distant song; there is something in the sky at evening-time; something in the face of man. We feel that round our incompleteness flows Thy greatness, round our restlessness Thy rest. Yet this is not enough._ _We want a heart to speak to, a heart that understands; a friend to whom we can turn, a breast on which we may lean. O that we could find Thee! Yet could we ever think these things unless Thou hadst inspired us, could we ever want these things unless Thou Thyself wert very near?_ _Some of us know full well; but we are sore afraid. We dare not yield ourselves to Thee, for we fear what that might mean. Our foolish freedom, our feeble pleasures, our fatal self-indulgence suffice to hold us back from Thee, though Thou art our very life, and we so sick and needing Thee. Our freedom has proved false, our pleasures have long since lost their zest, our sins, oh how we hate them!_ _Come and deliver us, for we have lost all hope in ourselves. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. Second Week, Third Day Some men--often the precocious, clever ones--are biased against religion because _in youth they accepted an immature philosophy of life and have never changed it_. The crust forms too soon on some minds, and if it forms during the period of youthful revolt, they are definitely prejudiced against religious truth. The difference between such folk and the great believers is not that the believers had no doubts, but that they did not fix their final thought of life until more mature experience had come. They fulfilled the admonition of a wise father to keep up a tireless search for truth: =My son, if thou wilt receive my words, And lay up my commandments with thee; So as to incline thine ear unto wisdom, And apply thy heart to understanding; Yea, if thou cry after discernment, And lift up thy voice for understanding; If thou seek her as silver, And search for her as for hid treasures: Then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah, And find the knowledge of God.= =--Prov. 2:1-5.= Mrs. Charles Kingsley, for example, says of her husband that at twenty "He was full of religious doubts; and his face, with its unsatisfied, hungering, and at times defiant look, bore witness to the state of his mind." At twenty-one Kingsley himself wrote: "You believe that you have a sustaining Hand to guide you along that path, an Invisible Protection and an unerring Guide. I, alas! have no stay for my weary steps, but that same abused and stupefied reason which has stumbled and wandered, and betrayed me a thousand times ere now, and is every moment ready to faint and to give up the unequal struggle." If Kingsley had framed his final philosophy then, what a loss to the world of an inspiring life transfigured by Christian faith! He cried after discernment, lifted up his voice for understanding, and he found the knowledge of God. Many a man ought to revise in the light of mature experience and thought a hasty irreligious guess at life's meaning which he made in youth. _O Father, we turn to Thee because we are sore vexed with our own thoughts. Our minds plague us with questionings we cannot answer; we are driven to voyage on strange seas of thought alone. Dost Thou disturb our minds with endless questioning, yet keep the answers hidden in Thy heart, so that away from Thee we should always be perplexed, and by thoughts derived from Thee be ever drawn to Thee? Surely, our God, it must be so._ _But still more bitter and humbling, O Father, is our experience of failure, so frequent, tragic, and unpardonable. We have struggled on in vain, resolves are broken ere they pass our lips; we can see no hope of better things, we can never forgive ourselves; and after all our prayers our need remains and our sense of coming short but deepens. Yet, at least we know that we have failed, and how, if something higher than ourselves were not at work within?_ _Our desperate desires have driven us at last to Thee, conscious now, after all vain effort, that it is Thyself alone can satisfy, and now at peace to know that Thou it is who art desired, because Thou it is who dost desire within us. Beyond our need reveal Thyself, its cause and cure; in all desire teach us to discern Thy drawing near. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. Second Week, Fourth Day Men are often prejudiced against religion because _the churches which they happened to attend in youth urged on them an irrational faith_. Some men never recover from the idea that all religion everywhere must always be the same kind of religion against which in youth their good sense rose in revolt; they are in perpetual rebellion against religion as it was when they broke with it a generation ago. But if one thing more than another grows, expands, becomes in the intelligent and pure increasingly pure and intelligent, it is religion. Consider an early Hebrew idea of God: =And it came to pass on the way at the lodging-place, that Jehovah met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, Surely a bridegroom of blood art thou to me. So he let him alone. Then she said, A bridegroom of blood art thou, because of the circumcision.--Exodus 4:24-26.= Over against so abhorrent a picture of a deity who would have committed murder, had not a mother swiftly circumcised her son, consider a later thought of God: =How think ye? if any man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and go unto the mountains, and seek that which goeth astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth over it more than over the ninety and nine which have not gone astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.--Matt. 18:12-14.= So religion grows with man's capacity to receive higher, finer revelations of the divine. And in no age of the world has so great a change passed over the intellectual framework of faith as in the generation just gone. To live in protest against forms of belief a generation old is fighting men of straw; the vanguard of religious thought and life has pushed ahead many a mile beyond the point of such attack. Men who threw away the living water of the Gospel because they disliked the water-buckets in which their boyhood churches presented it, are living spiritually thirsty lives when there is no reasonable need of their doing so. There is many an unbeliever with a "God-shaped blank" in his heart, who could be a confident and joyful believer if he only knew what religion means to men of faith today. _O God, who hast formed all hearts to love Thee, made all ways to lead to Thy face, created all desire to be unsatisfied save in Thee; with great compassion look upon us gathered here. Our presence is our prayer, our need the only plea we dare to claim, Thy purposes the one assurance we possess._ _Some of us are very confused; we do not know why we were ever born, for what end we should live, which way we should take. But we are willing to be guided. Take our trembling hands in Thine, and lead us on._ _Some of us are sore within. We long for love and friendship, but we care for no one and we feel that no one cares for us. We are misunderstood, we are lonely, we have been disappointed, we have lost our faith in man and our faith in life. Wilt Thou not let us love Thee who first loved us?_ _Some of us are vexed with passions that affright us; to yield to them would mean disaster, to restrain them is beyond our power, and nothing earth contains exhausts their vehemence or satisfies their fierce desire._ _And so because there is no answer, no end or satisfaction in ourselves; and because we are what we are, and yet long to be so different; we believe Thou art, and that Thou dost understand us. By faith we feel after Thee, through love we find the way, in hope we bring ourselves to Thee. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. Second Week, Fifth Day Many minds are prejudiced against religion because, having gone so far as to feel the credulity of religious belief, they have never gone further and _seen the credulity of religious unbelief_. Irreligion implies a creed just as surely as religion does; and many a man's return to faith has begun when his faculties of doubt, which hitherto had been used only against belief in God, became active against belief in no-God. Mr. Gilbert Chesterton, with his characteristic vividness and exaggeration, narrates such an experience: "I never read a line of Christian apologetics. I read as little as I can of them now. It was Huxley and Herbert Spencer and Bradlaugh who brought me back to orthodox theology. They sowed in my mind my first wild doubts of doubt. Our grandmothers were quite right when they said that Tom Paine and the free-thinkers unsettled the mind. They do. They unsettled mine horribly. The rationalist made me question whether reason was of any use whatever; and when I had finished Herbert Spencer I had got as far as doubting (for the first time) whether evolution had occurred at all. As I laid down the last of Colonel Ingersoll's atheistic lectures the dreadful thought broke across my mind, 'Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.' I was in a desperate way." Lest Mr. Chesterton's whimsicality may hide the seriousness of such an experience, we may add that Robert Louis Stevenson's first break with his "youthful atheism" came when, under the influence of Professor Fleeming Jenkin, he too began to have his "first wild doubts of doubt." He began thinking, as he says, that "certainly the church was not right, but certainly not the anti-church either." Many a man has played unfairly with his doubts; he has used them against religion, but not against irreligion. When he is thorough with his doubts he may join the many who understand what the apostle meant when he wrote to Timothy: =O Timothy, guard that which is committed unto thee, turning away from the profane babblings and oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called; which some professing have erred concerning the faith.= =Grace be with you.--1 Tim. 6:20, 21.= _O God, too near to be found, too simple to be conceived, too good to be believed; help us to trust, not in our knowledge of Thee, but in Thy knowledge of us; to be certain of Thee, not because we feel our thoughts of Thee are true, but because we know how far Thou dost transcend them. May we not be anxious to discern Thy will, but content only with desire to do it; may we not strain our minds to understand Thy nature, but yield ourselves and live our lives only to express Thee._ _Shew us how foolish it is to doubt Thee, since Thou Thyself dost set the questions which disturb us; reveal our unbelief to be faith fretting at its outworn form. Be gracious when we are tempted to cease from moral strife: reveal what it is that struggles in us. Before we tire of mental search enable us to see that it was not ourselves but Thy call which stirred our souls._ _Turn us back from our voyages of thought to that which sent us forth. Teach us to trust not to cleverness or learning, but to that inward faith which can never be denied. Lead us out of confusion to simplicity. Call us back from wandering without to find Thee at home within. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. Second Week, Sixth Day Many men are biased in favor of their habitual doubt because they do not see that _positive faith is the only normal estate of man_. We live not by the things of which we are uncertain, but by the things which we verily believe. Columbus doubted many of the old views in geography, but these negations did not make him great; his greatness sprang from the positive beliefs which he confidently held and on which he launched his splendid adventure. Goethe is right when he makes Mephistopheles, his devil, say, "I am the spirit of negation," for negation, save as it paves the way for positive conviction, always bedevils life. The psalmist reveals the ideal experience for every doubter. First, _uncertainty_: =But as for me, my feet were almost gone; My steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the arrogant, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.= =--Psalm 73:2, 3.= Then _vision_: =When I thought how I might know this, It was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God, And considered their latter end.= =--Psalm 73:16, 17.= Then, _positive assurance_: =Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, And afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart faileth; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.= =--Psalm 73:24-26.= Doubt, therefore, does have real value in life; it clears away rubbish and stimulates search for truth; but it has no value unless it is finally swallowed up in positive assurance. So Tennyson pictures the experience of his friend, Arthur Hallam: "One indeed I knew In many a subtle question versed, Who touch'd a jarring lyre at first, But ever strove to make it true: Perplext in faith, but pure in deeds, At last he beat his music out. There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds. He fought his doubts and gather'd strength, He would not make his judgment blind, He faced the spectres of the mind And laid them: thus he came at length To find a stronger faith his own." _O Most Merciful, whose love to us is mighty, long-suffering, and infinitely tender; lead us beyond all idols and imaginations of our minds to contact with Thee the real and abiding; past all barriers of fear and beyond all paralysis of failure to that furnace of flaming purity where falsehood, sin, and cowardice are all consumed away. It may be that we know not what we ask; yet we dare not ask for less._ _Our aspirations are hindered because we do not know ourselves. We have tried to slake our burning thirst at broken cisterns, to comfort the crying of our spirits with baubles and trinkets, to assuage the pain of our deep unrest by drugging an accusing conscience, believing a lie, and veiling the naked flame that burns within. But now we know Thou makest us never to be content with aught save Thyself, in earth, or heaven, or hell._ _Sometimes we have sought Thee in agony and tears, scanned the clouds and watched the ways of men, considered the stars and studied the moral law; and returned from all our search no surer and no nearer. Yet now we know that the impulse to seek Thee came from Thyself alone, and what we sought for was the image Thou hadst first planted in our hearts._ _We may not yet hold Thee fast or feel Thee near, but we know Thou holdest us. All is well. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. Second Week, Seventh Day Men are often prejudiced against religion or any serious consideration of it, because they _never have felt any vital need of God_. To study wireless telegraphy in the safe seclusion of a college laboratory is one thing; to hear the wireless apparatus on a floundering ship send out its call for help across a stormy sea is quite a different matter. Many folk have never thought of faith in God save with a mild, intellectual curiosity; they do not know those deep experiences of serious souls with sin and sorrow and anxiety, with burden for great causes and desire for triumphant righteousness in men and nations--experiences that throw men back on God as their only sufficient refuge and hope. _Men never really find God until they need him_; and some men never feel the need of him until life plunges them into a shattering experience. Even in scientific research new discoveries are made because men _want_ them, and Mayer, lighting on a theory that proved to be of great value, says, "Engaged during a sea voyage almost exclusively with the study of physiology, I discovered the new theory, for the sufficient reason that I _vividly felt the need of it_." How much more must the vital discovery of God depend on life's conscious demand for him! And how certainly a shallow, frivolous nature, unstirred by the deep concerns of life, is biased against any serious interest in religious faith! Great believers have first of all _thirsted_ for God. =Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.... Seek ye Jehovah while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.--Isa. 55:1-3, 6, 7.= _Grant unto us, we pray Thee, the lost hunger and thirst after righteousness--the longing for God. Grant unto us that drawing power by which everything that is in us shall call out for Thee. Become necessary unto us. With the morning and evening light, at noon and at midnight, may we feel the need of Thy companionship.... Though Thou dost not speak as man speaks, yet Thou canst call out to us; and the soul shall know Thy presence, and shall understand by its own self what Thou meanest. Grant unto us this witness of the Spirit, this communion of the soul with Thee--and not only once or twice: may we abide in the light._ _Thou hast come unto Thine own; and even as of old, Thine own know Thee not, and believe Thee not. How many are there that have learned Thy name upon their mother's knee, but have forgotten it! How many are there that grew up into the happiness of a childhood in which piety presided, but have gone away, and have not come back again to their first love and to their early faith! How many are there marching on now in the Sahara of indifference and in the wilderness of unbelief!... Lord, look upon them; have merciful thoughts toward them, and issue those gracious influences of power by which what is best in them shall lift itself up and bear witness against that which is worst. Amen._--Henry Ward Beecher. COMMENT FOR THE WEEK I We are to deal in this chapter with one of the most common experiences of doubt and are to attempt the statement of a truth useful in meeting it. Many minds are undone at the first symptoms of religious uncertainty, because they suppose that their doubt is philosophical, and they feel a paralyzing inability to deal with philosophy at all. As men have been known to take to their beds at hearing the scientific names of illnesses which hitherto they had patiently endured, so minds are sometimes overwhelmed by an unsettlement of faith that takes the name of philosophic doubt. It is well, then, early in our study, to note the homely, familiar experience, which in most cases underlies and helps to explain the problem of theological unrest. We all began, as children, with an unlimited ability to believe what we were told. We were credulous long before we became critical. God and Santa Claus, fairy stories and life after death--in what beautiful, unquestioning confusion we received them all! Our thinking was altogether imitative, as our talking was. From the existence of Kamchatka to the opinion that it was wrong to lie, we had no independent knowledge of our own. Reliance on authority was our only road to truth. One prescription was adequate for every need of information: ask our parents and be told. This situation was the occasion of our first unsettlement of faith: we discovered the fallibility of our parents. They failed to tell us what we asked, or we found to be untrue what they had said, or they themselves confessed how much they did not know. To some this was a shock, the memory of which has never been forgotten. Edmund Gosse, the literary critic, tells us that up to his sixth year he thought that his father knew everything. Then came the fateful crisis when his father wrongly reported an incident which Edmund himself had witnessed. "Nothing could possibly have been more trifling to my parents," he writes, "but to me it meant an epoch. Here was the appalling discovery never suspected before that my father was not as God and did not know everything. The shock was not caused by any suspicion that he was not telling the truth, as it appeared to him, but by the awful proof that he was not, as I had supposed, omniscient." By most of us, however, the transfer of our faith from our parents' authority to some other basis of belief was easily accomplished. We found ourselves resting back on the priest or the church or the creed or the Bible. Still our convictions were not independently our own; we had never fought for them or thought them through; they were founded on the say-so of authority. What we wished to know we asked another, and what was told us we implicitly believed. The time inevitably comes, however, to a normally developing mind, when such an attitude of unquestioning credulity becomes impossible. The curious "Why?" of the growing child, that began in early years to besiege all statements of fact, now ranges out to call in question the propositions of religious faith. For long-accepted truths, from the rotundity of the earth to the existence of God, the enlarging intellect wants reasons rather than dogmas. So normal is this period of interrogation that it is regularly slated on the timetables of psychological development. Starbuck fixes the average age of the doubt period at about eighteen years for boys and about fifteen for girls. At whatever time and in whatever special form this period of doubt arises, the characteristic quality of its outcome is easily described. In the end the fully awakened mind is ill content to accept any authoritative statements that he dare not question or deny. He resents having a quotation from any source waved like a revolver in his face with the demand that he throw up his intellectual hands. No more in religion than in politics does he incline to stand before infallibility, like the French peasants before Louis XI, saying, "Sire, what are our opinions?" He claims his right to question everything, to make every truth advance and give the countersign of reasonableness, to weigh all propositions in the scales of his own thinking, and if he is to love the Lord his God at all, to do it, not with all his credulity, but, as Jesus said, with all his mind. Biography reveals how many of the great believers have passed through this youthful period of rebellion against accepted tradition and have suffered serious religious unsettlement in the process. Robert Browning tells us that as a boy he was "passionately religious." When his period of questioning and revolt arrived, however, it carried him so far that he was publicly rebuked in church for intentional misbehavior, and in his sixteenth year, under the influence of Shelley's "Queen Mab," he declared himself an atheist. But in his "Pauline," written when he was twenty-one, the direction in which his quest was leading him was plain: "I have always had one lode-star; now As I look back, I see that I have halted Or hastened as I looked towards that star-- A need, a trust, a yearning after God." And when he grew to his maturity, had left his early credulousness with the revolt that followed it far behind and had used his independent thinking to productive purpose, from what a height of splendid faith did he look back upon that youthful period of storm and stress which he called "the passionate, impatient struggles of a boy toward truth and love"! Henry Ward Beecher's intellectual revolution was postponed until he had entered the theological seminary. "I was then twenty years old," he writes, "and there came a great revulsion in me from all this inchoate, unregulated, undirected experience. My mind took one tremendous spring over into scepticism, and I said: 'I have been a fool long enough--I will not stir one step further than I can see my way, and I will not stand a moment where I cannot see the truth. I will have something that is sure and steadfast.' Having taken that ground, I was in that state of mind for the larger part of two years." A wholesome restraint upon the wild perversions, the anarchic denials, the abysmal despairs of this period of life is the clear recognition that in some form it is one of the commonest experiences of man. II The treatment accorded to a youth who is passing through this difficult adjustment often determines, in a fine or lamentable way, his subsequent attitude towards religion. _Negative repression of real questions is of all methods the most fatal, whether it be practiced on the youth by others or by the youth upon himself._ "I have not been in church for twenty years," said a college graduate. "Why?" was the inquiry. "Because in college I learned from geology through how many ages this earth was slowly being built. Troubled by the conflict between this new knowledge and my early training, I went to my minister. He said that the Bible told us the earth was made in six days and that I must accept that on faith. That's why." Thousands of men are religious wrecks today because, when the issue was raised in their thinking between their desire for a reason and their traditional beliefs, they were told that to ask a reason is sin. George Eliot's experience unhappily is not unique. Just when in girlhood her mind was waking to independent thought, a book now long unread, Hennell's "Inquiry Concerning the Origin of Christianity," convinced her immature judgment that her early credulity had been blind. No one was at hand to state the faith in a reasonable way or to meet, not by denying but by using her right to think, the attacks of Hennell, which now are forgotten in their futility. She never came through her youthful unsettlement. Years after, F. W. H. Myers wrote: "I remember how at Cambridge I walked with her once in the Fellows' Garden of Trinity, on an evening of rainy May, and she, stirred somewhat beyond her wont, and taking as her text the three words which have been used so often as the inspiring trumpet calls of men--the words God, Immortality, Duty--pronounced with terrible earnestness, how inconceivable was the first, how unbelievable was the second, and how peremptory and absolute the third. Never, perhaps, had sterner accents affirmed the sovereignty of impersonal and unrecompensing law. I listened and night fell; her grave, majestic countenance turned toward me like a Sibyl's in the gloom; it was as though she withdrew from my grasp one by one the two scrolls of promise, and left me the third scroll only, awful with inevitable fate." In this period of readjustment, whether one is the youth in the midst of the struggle or the solicitous friend endeavoring to help, one most needs a clear perception of the ideal outcome of such intellectual unrest. Let us attempt a picture of that ideal. The youth who long has taken on his parents' say-so the most important convictions that the soul can hold, or who, with no care to think or question for himself, has looked to Book or Church for all that he believed about God, now feels within him that intellectual awakening that cannot be quieted by mere authority. He long has taken his truth preserved by others' hands; now he desires to pick it for himself, fresh from the living tree of knowledge. His declaration of independence from subjection to his parents or his Church is not at first irreverent desire to disbelieve; it is rather desire to enter into the Samaritans' experience when they said to the woman who first had told them about Jesus: "Now we believe, not because of _thy_ speaking; for we have _heard for ourselves_, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world" (John 4:41). The youth turns from second-hand rehearsal of the truth to seek a first-hand, original acquaintance with it. As he began in utter financial dependence on his father, then made a bit of spending money of his own, and at last moved out to make his living, ashamed to be a pensioner and parasite when he should be carrying himself, so from his old, intellectual dependence the youth passes to a fine responsibility for his own thinking and belief. He knows that such transitions, whether financial or intellectual, generally mean stress and perplexity, but if he is to be a man the youth must venture. In this transition beliefs will certainly be modified. Not only do forms of religious thinking shift and change with the passing generations, but individuals differ in their powers to see and understand. Religious faith, like water, takes shape from the receptacles into whose unique nooks and crannies it is poured. If the truth which the youth possesses is to be indeed his own, it will surely differ from the truth which once he learned, by as much as his mind and his experience differ from his father's. Even in the New Testament one can easily distinguish James' thought from Paul's and John's from Peter's. But change of form need not mean loss of value. To pass by fine gradations from unquestioning credulity to thoughtful faith is not impossible. Thus a boy learns to swim with his father's hands beneath him and passes so gradually from reliance upon another to independent power to swim alone that he cannot tell when first the old support was quietly withdrawn. Thus ideally pictured, this transition is nothing to be feared; it is one of life's steps to spiritual power. This period of questioning and venture we have called the passage from credulity to independence, but its significance is deeper than those words imply. _It is the passage from hearsay to reality._ Of all inward intimate experiences, religion reaches deepest and is least transferable. It is as incommunicable as friendship. A father may commend a comrade to his son and lay bare his own deep friendship with the man, but if the son himself does not see the value there nor for himself in loyalty and love make self surrender, the father can do nothing more. Friendship cannot be carried on by proxy. One can as easily breathe for another as in another's place be loyal to a friend or trust in God. When, therefore, the youth moves out from mere dependence on his father, his Bible, or his Church to see and know God in his own right, he is fulfilling the end of all religion. _For this his father taught him, for this the Book was written and the Church was founded._ As George Macdonald put it, "Each generation must do its own seeking and finding. The father's having found is only the warrant for the children's search." Said Goethe: "What you have inherited from your fathers you must earn for yourself before you can call it yours." This individual experience makes religion real, and the "awkward age" of the spirit when the old security of credulous belief has gone and the new assurance of personal conviction has not yet fully come, is a small price to pay for the sense of reality that enters into religion when a man for himself knows God. Such is the ideal transition from credulity to independence, from hearsay to reality. III One fallacy which disastrously affects many endeavors after this ideal transition is the prejudice that, since faith has hitherto in the youth's experience meant credulous acceptance of another's say-so, faith always must mean that. Faith and credulity appear to him identical. In "Alice through the Looking Glass" the Queen asserts that she is a hundred and one years, five months, and one day old. "I can't believe that," said Alice. "Can't you?" said the Queen. "Try again, draw a long breath and shut your eyes." So blind, irrational, and wilful does faith seem to many! So far from being an essential part of all real knowledge, therefore, faith seems to stand in direct contrast with knowledge, and this impression is deepened by our common phraseology. Tennyson, for example, sings: "We have but faith: we cannot know; For knowledge is of things we see." Before there can be any profitable discussion of religious belief, therefore, we need to see that faith is one of the chief ways in which continually we deal with reality; it is a road to truth, without which some truth never can be reached at all. The reason for its inevitableness in life is not our lack of knowledge, but rather that faith is as indispensable as logical demonstration in any real knowing of the world. Behind all other words to be said about our subject lies this fundamental matter: _faith is not a substitute for truth, but a pathway to truth; there are realities which without it never can be known_. For one thing, no one can know _persons_ without faith. The world of people, without whom if a man could live, he would be, as Aristotle said, either a brute or a god, is closed in its inner meaning to a faithless mind. Entrance into another life with insight and understanding is always a venture of trust. We cry vainly like Cassim before the magic cave, "Open, Barley," if we try to penetrate the secrets of a human personality without sympathy, loyalty, faith. These alone cry "Open, Sesame." Surely this knowledge of persons, impossible without faith, is as important as any which we possess. While the physical universe furnishes the general background of our existence, the immediate world in which we really live is personal, made up of people whom we fear or love, by whom we are cheered, admonished, hurt, and comforted. "The world is so waste and empty," cried Goethe, "when we figure but towns and hills and rivers in it, but to know that someone is living on it with us, even in silence--this makes our earthly ball a peopled garden." A solitary Robinson Crusoe would give up any other knowledge, if in return he could know even a benighted savage like Friday. But even a savage cannot be known by logical demonstration. Crusoe could so have learned some things, but when he wanted to know Friday, he came by way of adventures in confidence, personal trust and self-commitment, growing reliance and appreciative insight, assured loyalty and faith. He _knew_ whom he had _believed_. Moreover, such knowledge of persons is as solid as it is important. That two plus two make four cannot be gainsaid, and doubtless no other kinds of information can be quite so absolute as mathematical theorems. But when one thinks of a comrade, long loved and trusted until he is known through and through, for practical purposes one can think of nothing more stable than his knowledge of his friend. The plain fact is that we _do_ know people, know them well, and that this knowledge never has been or can be a matter of logical demonstration. By taking Arthur Hallam to pieces and analyzing him, the inductive mind might work out all the laws that are involved in Arthur Hallam's constitution; but that mind with all its knowledge would not know Arthur Hallam. Tennyson's "In Memoriam," however, makes clear that knowledge of a friend is not interdicted because scientific demonstration cannot supply it. Tennyson knew Hallam well, and this knowledge, far more solid and significant than most other information he possessed, was not achieved by grinding laws out of facts; it came, as all such knowledge comes, by faith. As one considers what this understanding of the personal world, seen with the open eyes of trust and loyalty, means to us, how assured it is, how it enriches and deepens life, he perceives that here at least faith is something far more than a stop-gap for ignorance, a dream, a fantasy. It is positively a pathway to truth. There is another realm where faith is our only way of dealing with reality; by it alone can we know _the possibilities of individuals and of society_. We are well assured now in the United States that the nation can be economically prosperous without slavery. But sixty years ago plenty of people were assured of the contrary, were convinced that if the abolitionists succeeded we could not economically endure. How did we come by this significant knowledge that the immoral system was dispensable? Not by logical demonstration. The economists of most of our universities logically demonstrated that slavery was essential. _Faith was the pathway to the truth._ Faith that a new order minus slavery was possible gained adherents, grew in certainty with access of new believers, fed its followers on hopes unrealized but passionately believed in, until _faith became experiment, and experiment became experience, and experience brought forth knowledge_. The nation trusted and tried. This is the only way to truth in the realm of moral possibilities. If the world were finished, its _i's_ all dotted and its _t's_ all crossed, we might exist on that sort of descriptive science that finds the facts and plots their laws. But the world is in the making; what is _actual_ is not quite so important to us as what is _possible_; we live, as Wordsworth sings, in "Hope that can never die, Effort and expectation and desire, And something evermore about to be." To endeavor to satisfy man, therefore, with descriptions of the actual is preposterous. The innermost meaning of personal and social life lies in the contrast between what we are and what we may become. Beyond the achieved present and the demonstrable future, stands the ideal, whose possibility we can never know as a truth without faith enough to try. When, therefore, one hears disparagement of faith as a poor makeshift for knowledge, he may be pardoned a sharp rejoinder. When has man ever found solid knowledge in this most important realm of human possibilities, without faith as the pioneer? We do not know first and then supply by belief what knowledge lacks. _We believe first, as Columbus did, and then find new continents because what faith first suggested a great venture has confirmed._ When Stephenson proposed to run a steam car forty miles an hour, a host of wise-acres proved the feat impossible on the ground that no one could move through the air so rapidly and still survive. If now we know that one easily survives a speed of over a hundred miles an hour in an aeroplane, it is because a faith that _saw_ and _dared_ introduced us to the information. We know now that democracy is not a futile dream, nor the conquest of the air by wireless and of the land by electricity a madman's frenzy; we know truths of highest import and certainty from the usefulness of radium to the wisdom of religious liberty, and all this knowledge existed as belief in possibility before it became truth in fact. Faith was "assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is no makeshift. Its power is nowhere felt more effectively than in the achievement of knowledge. IV So far is faith, then, from being blind credulity, that it alone deserves to be called the Great Discoverer. Everywhere faith goes before as a pioneer and the more prosaic faculties of the mind come after to civilize the newly opened territory. In the evolution of the senses touch developed first. All the knowledge that any creature had, concerned the tangible. But in time other senses came. Dimly and uncertainly creatures discerned by hearing and seeing the existence of distant objects. They became aware of presences which as yet they could not touch; they were furnished with clues, in following which they found as real what at first had been intangible. Such a relation faith bears to knowledge. Faith, said Clement of Alexandria, is the "ear of the soul." Said Ruskin, faith is "veracity of insight." By it we hear what as yet we cannot touch and see what the arms of our logic are not long enough to reach. All the elemental, primary facts of life are faith's discoveries; we have no other means of finding them. By faith we discover our _selves_. We do not hold back from living until we can prove that we exist. We never can strictly prove that we exist. The very self that we are trying to demonstrate would have to be used in the demonstration. We have no other way of getting at ourselves except to take ourselves for granted--accepting "This main miracle that you are you, With power on your own act and on the world." As Mr. Chesterton remarked, "You cannot call up any wilder vision than a city in which men ask themselves if they have any selves." By faith all men go out to live as though their selves were real. By faith we accept the existence of the _outer world_. We do not restrain ourselves from acting as though the physical world were really there, until we can prove it. We never can strictly prove it; perhaps it is not there at all. When through a microscope an Indian was shown germs in the Ganges' water, to convince him of the peril of its use, he broke the instrument with his cane, as though when the microscope was gone, the facts had vanished too. In his philosophy all that we see is illusion. Perhaps this is true--the world a phantasm and our minds fooling us. But none of us believes it. And we do not believe it because we live by faith--the elemental faith on which all common sense and science rest and without which man's thought and work would halt--that our senses and our minds tell us the truth. "It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. _Reason itself is a matter of faith._ It is an act of faith to assert that one's thoughts have any relation to reality at all." By faith we even discover the _universe_. We cannot think of the world as a multiverse; we always think of it as having unity, and we do so whether as scientists we talk about the uniformity of nature, or as Christians we speak of one Creator. Not only, however, can no one demonstrate that this is a universe; _it positively does not look as though it were_. Opposing powers snarl at each other and clash in a disorder that gives to the casual observer not the slightest intimation that any unity is there. Thunder storms and little babies, volcanoes and Easter lilies, immeasurable nebulæ in the heavens and people getting married on the earth--what indescribable contrasts and confusions! Still we insist on thinking unity into this seeming anomaly, and out of it we wrest scientific doctrines about the uniformity of law. As Professor James, of Harvard, put it, "The principle of uniformity in nature has to be _sought_ under and in spite of the most rebellious appearances; and our conviction of its truth is far more like religious faith than like assent to a demonstration." One might suppose that beliefs so assumed and so incapable of adequate demonstration would make the knowledge based upon them insecure. _But the fact is that all our surest knowledge is thus based on assumptions that we cannot prove._ "As for the strong conviction," Huxley says, "that the cosmic order is rational, and the faith that throughout all duration, unbroken order has reigned in the universe, I not only accept it, but I am disposed to think it the most important of all truths." Faith then, in Huxley's thought, is not a makeshift when knowledge fails. Rather by faith we continually are getting at the most important realities with which we deal. As Prof. Ladd, of Yale, impatiently exclaims: "The rankest agnostic is shot through and through with all the same fundamental intellectual beliefs, all the same unescapable rational faiths, about the reality of the self and about the validity of its knowledge. You cannot save science and destroy all faith. You cannot sit on the limb of the tree while you tear it up by the roots." V If faith is thus the pioneer that leads us to knowledge of persons and of moral possibilities; if by faith we discover our selves, the outer world's existence and its unity, why should we be surprised that faith is our road to God? Superficial deniers of religion not infrequently seek the discredit of a Christian's trust by saying that God is only a matter of faith. To which the Christian confidently may answer: Of course God is a matter of faith. Faith is always the Great Discoverer. A man finds God as he finds an earthly friend. He does not go apart in academic solitude to consider the logical rationality of friendship, until, intellectually convinced, he coolly arms himself with a Q. E. D. and goes out to hunt a comrade. Friendship is never an adventure of logic; it is an adventure of life. It is arrived at by what Emerson called the "untaught sallies of the spirit." We fall in love, it may be with precipitant emotion; our instincts and our wills are first engaged; the whole personality rises up in hunger to claim the affection that it needs and without which life seems unsupportable; faith, hope, and love engage in a glorious venture, where logic plays a minor part. But to make friendship rational, to give it poise, to trace its origins and laws, to clarify, chasten, and direct--this is the necessary work of thought. Faith discovers and reveals; reason furnishes criticism, confirmation, and discipline. So men find God. They are hungry for him not in intellect alone, but with all their powers. They feel with Tolstoi: "I remembered that I only _lived_ at those times when I believed in God." They need him to put sense and worth and hope into life. As with the reality of persons, the validity of knowledge, the unity of the world, so in religion the whole man rises up to claim the truth without which life is barren, meaningless. His best convictions at the first are all of them insights of the spirit, affirmations of the _man_. But behind, around and through them all play clarifying thoughts, and reasons come to discipline and to confirm. But the reasons by themselves could not have found God. Faith is the Great Discoverer. "Oh! world, thou choosest not the better part, It is not wisdom to be only wise, And on the inward vision close the eyes; But it is wisdom to believe the heart. Columbus found a world and had no chart Save one that Faith deciphered in the skies; To trust the soul's invincible surmise Was all his science and his only art. Our knowledge is a torch of smoky pine That lights the pathway but one step ahead Across the void of mystery and dread. Bid then the tender light of Faith to shine By which alone the mortal heart is led Into the thinking of the thought Divine."[1] [1] Professor Santayana, of Harvard. CHAPTER III Faith in the Personal God DAILY READINGS We are to consider this week the Christian faith that God is personal. Before, however, we deal with the arguments which may confirm our confidence in such a faith, or even with the explanations that may clarify our conception of its meaning, let us, in the daily readings, consider _some of the familiar attitudes in every normal human life, that require God's personality for their fulfilment_. Men have believed in a personal God because their own nature demanded it. Third Week, First Day Men have believed in a personal God because of a _deep desire to think of creation as friendly_. F. W. Myers, when asked what question he would put to the Sphinx, if he were given only one chance, replied that he would ask, "Is the universe friendly?" Some have tried to think of creation as an enemy which we must fight, as though in Greenland we strove to make verdure grow, although the soil and climate were antagonistic. Some have tried to think creation neutral, an impersonal system of laws and forces, which we must impose our will upon as best we can, although in the end the system is sure to outlast all our efforts and to bring our gains to naught. But at the heart of man is an irresistible desire to think creation a friend, with whose good purposes our wills can be aligned, and whose power can carry our efforts to victorious ends. Says Gilbert Murray, of Oxford University, "As I see philosophy after philosophy falling into this unproven belief in the Friend behind phenomena, as I find that I myself cannot, except for a moment and by an effort, refrain from making the same assumption, it seems to me that perhaps here too we are under the spell of a very old ineradicable instinct." _But friends are always persons, and if creation is friendly then God is in some sense personal._ This faith is the radiant center of the Gospel. =But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee. And in praying use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.--Matt. 6:6-14.= _O Lord, we would rest in Thee, for in Thee alone is true rest to be found. We would forget our disappointed hopes, our fruitless efforts, our trivial aims, and lean on Thee, our Comfort and our Strength. When the order of this world bears cruelly upon us; when Nature seems to us an awful machine, grinding out life and death, without a reason or a purpose; when our hopes perish in the grave where we lay to rest our loved dead: O what can we do but turn to Thee, whose law underlieth all, and whose love, we trust, is the end of all? Thou fillest all things with Thy presence, and dost press close to our souls. Still every passion, rebuke every doubt, strengthen every element of good within us, that nothing may hinder the outflow of Thy life and power. In Thee, let the weak be full of might, and let the strong renew their strength. In Thee, let the tempted find succor, the sorrowing consolation, and the lonely and the neglected their Supreme Friend, their faithful Companion._ _O Lord, we are weary of our old, barren selves. Separate us from our spiritual past, and quicken within us the seeds of a new future. Transform us by the breath of Thy regenerating power, that life may seem supremely beautiful and duty our highest privilege, and the only real evil a guilty conscience. Let us be no longer sad, or downcast, or miserable, or despairing, vexed by remorse, or depressed by our failures. Take from us the old self. Give us a new self, beautiful, vigorous, and joyous. Let old things pass away and let all things become new. Kindle within us a flame of heavenly devotion, so that to us work for Thee shall become a happiness, and rest in Thee shall become an energy, unchecked by fears within and foes without. Give us love, and then we shall have more than all we need, for Thou art Love, Thyself the Giver and the Gift. Amen._--Samuel McComb. Third Week, Second Day =Bless Jehovah, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless Jehovah, O my soul, And forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy desire with good things, So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle.= =--Psalm 103:1-5.= Such an attitude of thankfulness as this psalm represents is native to man's heart. When he is glad he feels grateful: he has an irrepressible impulse to thank somebody. As between a boastful Nebuchadnezzar--"This great Babylon which I have built ... by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty" (Dan. 4:30)--and the Master, grateful for the dawning success of his cause--"I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth" (Matt. 11:25)--we can have no doubt which is the nobler attitude. Man at his best always looks upon his blessings as gifts, his powers as entrustments, his service as a debt which he owes, and his success as an occasion of gratitude rather than pride. _But we cannot be really thankful to impersonal power._ Little children blame chairs for their falls and thank apple trees for their apples, but maturity outgrows the folly of accusing or blessing impersonal things. Thankfulness, in any worthy interpretation of the term, can never be felt except toward friendly persons who _intended the blessing_ for which we are glad. A thoughtful man, therefore, cannot be grateful to a godless world-machine, even though it has treated him well, for the world-machine never purposed to treat him well and his happiness is a lucky accident, with no good will to thank for it. Haeckel says that there is no God--only "mobile, cosmic ether." Imagine a congregation of people, under Haeckel's leadership, rising to pray, "O Mobile Cosmic Ether, blessed be thy name!" It is absurd. _Unless God is personal, the deepest meanings of gratitude in human hearts for life and its benedictions have no proper place in the universe._ _O God above all, yet in all; holy beyond all imagination, yet friend of sinners; who inhabitest the realms of unfading light, yet leadest us through the shadows of mortal life; how solemn and uplifting it is even to think upon Thee! Like sight of sea to wearied eyes, like a walled-in garden to the troubled mind, like home to wanderer, like a strong tower to a soul pursued; so to us is the sound of Thy name._ _But greater still to feel Thee in our heart; like a river glorious, cleansing, healing, bringing life; like a song victorious, comforting our sadness, banishing our care; like a voice calling us to battle, urging us beyond ourselves._ _But greater far to know Thee as our Father, as dear as Thou art near; and ourselves begotten of Thy love, made in Thy image, cared for through all our days, never beyond Thy sight, never out of Thy thought._ _To think of Thee is rest; to know Thee is eternal life; to see Thee is the end of all desire; to serve Thee is perfect freedom and everlasting joy. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. Third Week, Third Day =Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions; And my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, And done that which is evil in thy sight.= =--Psalm 51:1-4.= Penitence is one of the profoundest impulses in man's heart. And man at his deepest always feels about his sin as the Psalmist did: he has wronged not only this individual or that, but he has sinned against the whole structure of life, against whatever Power and Purpose may be behind life, and his penitence is not complete until he cries to the Highest, "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned." While men, therefore, have always asked each other for forgiveness, they have as well asked God for it. _But such an attitude is utterly irrational if God is not personal._ Persons alone care what we do, have purposes that our sins thwart, have love that our evil grieves, have compassion to forgive the penitent; and to confess sin to a world-machine--careless, purposeless, loveless, and without compassion--is folly. Yesterday we saw how impossible it was really to feel grateful to a materialist's god; today imagine congregations of people addressing to the Cosmic Ether any such penitent confessions as Christians by multitudes continually address to their Father: "We have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep." _Plainly in a world where creative power is impersonal the deepest meanings of penitence have no place._ Read over the prayer that follows, considering the futility of addressing such a penitent aspiration to anything impersonal; and then really pray it to the God whom Christ revealed: _We beseech Thee, Lord, to behold us with favor, folk of many families and nations gathered together in the peace of this roof, weak men and women subsisting under the covert of thy patience. Be patient still; suffer us yet awhile longer--with our broken purposes of good, with our idle endeavors against evil, suffer us awhile longer to endure and (if it may be) help us to do better. Bless to us our extraordinary mercies; if the day come when these must be taken, brace us to play the man under affliction. Be with our friends, be with ourselves. Go with each of us to rest; if any awake, temper to them the dark hours of watching; and when the day returns, return to us, our sun and comforter, and call us up with morning faces and with morning hearts--eager to labor--eager to be happy, if happiness shall be our portion--and if the day be marked for sorrow, strong to endure it._ _We thank Thee and praise Thee; and in the words of him to whom this day is sacred, close our oblation. Amen._--Robert Louis Stevenson.[2] Third Week, Fourth Day =Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.--Rom. 15:13.= =For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.--Rom. 8:24, 25.= Hope is no fringe on the garment of human life; it is part of the solid texture of our experience; without it men may exist, but they cannot live. Now some minds live by hope about tomorrow, or at the most, the day after tomorrow, and do not take long looks ahead. But as men grow mature in thoughtfulness, such small horizons no longer can content their minds; they seek a basis for hope about the far issue of man's struggle and aspiration. They cannot bear to think that creation lacks a "far-off divine event"; they cannot tolerate a universe that in the end turns out to be "An eddy of purposeless dust, Effort unmeaning and vain." _But it is obvious that if God is not in control of creation, with personal purpose of good will, directing its course, there is no solid basis for hope._ If the universe is in the hands of physical forces, then a long look ahead reveals a world collapsing about a cold sun, and humanity annihilated in the wreck. Some such finale is the inevitable end of a godless world. As another pictures it, mankind, like a polar bear on an ice floe that is drifting into warmer zones, will watch in growling impotence the steady dwindling of his home, until he sinks in the abyss. All optimistic philosophies of life have been founded on faith in a personal God, who purposes good to his children, and without such faith no hope, with large horizons, is reasonable. Paul is fair to the facts when he says, "Having no hope and without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12). When one asks why men have believed in a personal God, this clearly is part of the answer: only a personal God can be "the God of hope." _O God of heaven above and earth beneath! Thou art the constant hope of every age--the reliance of them that seek Thee with thoughtfulness and love. We own Thee as the guardian of our pilgrimage; and when our steps are weary we turn to Thee, the mystic companion of our way, whose mercy will uphold us lest we fall. Thou layest on us the burden of labor throughout our days; but in this sacred hour Thou dost lift off our load, and make us partakers of Thy rest. Thou ever faithful God, our guide by cloud and fire! without this blest repose our life were but a desert path; here we abide by the refreshing spring, and pitch our tents with joy around Thy holy hill. Yet when we seek to draw nigh to Thee, Thou art still above us, like the heavens. O Thou that remainest in the height, and coverest Thyself with the cloud thereof! behold, we stand around the mountain where Thou art; and if Thou wilt commune with us, the thunder from Thy voice of love shall not make us afraid. Call up a spirit from our midst to serve Thy will; and take away the veil from all our hearts, that with the eye of purity we may look on the bright and holy countenance of life. And when we go hence to resume our way, may it be with nobler spirits, with more faithful courage, and more generous will. For life and death we trust ourselves to Thee as disciples of Jesus Christ. Amen._--James Martineau. Third Week, Fifth Day =Jehovah is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: Thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; Yea, I have a goodly heritage. I will bless Jehovah, who hath given me counsel; Yea, my heart instructeth me in the night seasons. I have set Jehovah always before me: Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: My flesh also shall dwell in safety. For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol; Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life: In thy presence is fulness of joy; In thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.= =--Psalm 16:5-11.= Many things in human life bring joy. From the sense of a healthy body and the exhilaration of a sunshiny day to the deep satisfactions of home and friends--there are numberless sources of happiness. But man has always been athirst to find joy in thinking about the total meaning of life. Lacking that, the details of life lose radiance, for, in spite of himself, man "Hath among least things An undersense of greatest; sees the parts As parts, but with a feeling of the whole." If when he thinks about God, he can, like this psalmist, rejoice in the love behind life, the good purpose through it, the glorious future ahead of it, then all his other blessings are illumined. Not only are there happy things _in life_, but _life itself_ is fundamentally blessed. But if when he raises his thought to the Eternal, he has no joyful thoughts about it, sees no love or purpose there, then a pall falls on even his ordinary happiness. Alas for that man who does not like to think about life's origin and destiny and meaning, because he has no joyful faith about God! Some men have what Epictetus called "paralysis of the soul" every time they think of creation, for to them it is a huge physical machine crashing on without reason or good will. But some men have such a joyful faith in the divine that their gladness about the whole of life redeems their sorrow about its details. So Samuel Rutherford in prison said, "Jesus Christ came into my room last night and every stone flashed like a ruby." For the thought of God in terms of friendly personality is the most joyful idea of him that man has ever had. Man's thirst for joy is one of the sources of his faith in a personal God. He has wanted what Paul called "joy and peace in believing" (Rom. 15:13). _We rejoice, O Lord our God, not in ourselves nor in the firm earth on which we tread, nor in the household, nor in the church, nor in all the procession of things where mankind moves with power and glory. We rejoice in the Lord. We rejoice in Thy strength. A strange joy it is. Day by day we find ourselves breaking out into gladness through the ministration of the senses, and by the play of inward thought; but Thou art never beheld by us.... Thou never speakest to us, nor do we feel Thy hand, nor do we discern Thy face of love and glory and power. We break away from all other experiences, and look up into the emptiness, as it seems to us, which yet is full of life; into that which seems cold and void, but wherein moves eternal power; into the voiceless and inscrutable realm where Thou dwellest, God over all, blessed forever.... O Lord our God, how near Thou art to us! and we do not know it. How near is the other life! and we do not feel it. It clothes us as with a garment. It feeds us. It shines down upon us. It rejoices over us.... Thither, out of narrow and anguishful ways, out of sorrows, out of regrets, out of bereavements, we look; and already we are rested before we reach it._ _Grant unto us, today, we beseech Thee, this beatific vision. Amen._--Henry Ward Beecher. Third Week, Sixth Day =For when one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not men? What then is Apollos? and what is Paul? Ministers through whom ye believed; and each as the Lord gave to him. I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: but each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow-workers: ye are God's husbandry, God's building.--I Cor. 3:4-9.= One of the profoundest motives that can grip man's heart is the conviction that he is a fellow-worker with the Divine. To feel that there is a great Cause, on behalf of which God himself is concerned, and in the furtherance of which we can be God's instruments and confederates, is the most exhilarating outlook on life conceivable. Even people who deny God try to get this motive for themselves. One such man hopes for the success of his favorite causes in "the tendency of the universe"; another talks about "the nature of things taking sides." _But nothing save personality has moral tendencies, and only persons take sides in moral issues._ If the guidance of the world is personal, then, and then only, can we rejoice with confidence in a great Ally, who has moral purposes and who has committed to us part of his work. This was the Master's motive when he said, "My Father worketh even until now, and I work" (John 5:17). But one clearly sees that such an inspiring consciousness of cooperation with the Eternal depended on the certainty with which the Master called the Eternal by a personal name--Father. When men like Livingstone have gone out in sacrificial adventure for the saving of men they have not banked on the "tendency of the universe," nor trusted in any abstract "nature of things taking sides"; they have been servants of a personal God, under orders from him, and they have counted on personal guidance in the service of a cause whose issue was safe in God's hands. _O God, we pray Thee for those who come after us, for our children, and the children of our friends, and for all the young lives that are marching up from the gates of birth, pure and eager, with the morning sunshine on their faces. We remember with a pang that these will live in the world we are making for them. We are wasting the resources of the earth in our headlong greed, and they will suffer want. We are building sunless houses and joyless cities for our profit, and they must dwell therein. We are making the burden heavy and the pace of work pitiless, and they will fall wan and sobbing by the wayside. We are poisoning the air of our land by our lies and our uncleanness, and they will breathe it._ _O God, Thou knowest how we have cried out in agony when the sins of our fathers have been visited upon us, and how we have struggled vainly against the inexorable fate that coursed in our blood or bound us in a prison-house of life. Save us from maiming the innocent ones who come after us by the added cruelty of our sins. Help us to break the ancient force of evil by a holy and steadfast will and to endow our children with purer blood and nobler thoughts. Grant us grace to leave the earth fairer than we found it; to build upon it cities of God in which the cry of needless pain shall cease; and to put the yoke of Christ upon our business life that it may serve and not destroy. Lift the veil of the future and show us the generation to come as it will be if blighted by our guilt, that our lust may be cooled and we may walk in the fear of the Eternal. Grant us a vision of the far-off years as they may be if redeemed by the sons of God, that we may take heart and do battle for Thy children and ours. Amen._--Walter Rauschenbusch. Third Week, Seventh Day =I will extol thee, my God, O King; And I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee; And I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised; And his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall laud thy works to another, And shall declare thy mighty acts. Of the glorious majesty of thine honor, And of thy wondrous works, will I meditate. And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts; And I will declare thy greatness. They shall utter the memory of thy great goodness, And shall sing of thy righteousness. Jehovah is gracious, and merciful; Slow to anger, and of great lovingkindness. Jehovah is good to all; And his tender mercies are over all his works. All thy works shall give thanks unto thee, O Jehovah; And thy saints shall bless thee.= =--Psalm 145:1-10.= Adoration springs from the deeps of man's spirit. We never can be content with looking down on things beneath us, nor with looking out on things that find our level. We always must look up to things above us. As a mediæval saint said, "_The soul can never rest in things that are beneath itself._" Worship, therefore, is an undeniable impulse in man's heart. Poets worship Beauty; scientists worship Truth; every man of honor worships Right. That is, the good, true, and beautiful stand above us calling out our adoration, and all the best in us springs from our worshipful response to their appeal. But this impulse to adore is never fulfilled until we gather up all life into spiritual unity and bow down in awe and joy before God. That is adoration glorified, worship crowned and consummated. And the only God whom man can adore with awe and joy is personal. No impersonal thing is worshipful; however great a _thing_ may be it still lies beneath our soul. No abstract Idea is worshipful; we still are greater than any _idea_ that we can hold. Only God, thought of in personal terms but known to be greater than any terms which human life can use, is adorable. _Men have believed in Him because worship is man's holiest impulse._ Such are the experiences of man, with which faith in a personal God is inseparably interwoven. Our demand for a friendly creation, our deepest impulses to thanksgiving, penitence, hope, joy, cooperation with the Eternal, and adoration of the highest--all require personality in God. As Professor William James said, "The universe is no longer a mere _It_ to us, but a _Thou_ if we are religious." _O Lord our God, Thy greatness is unsearchable, and the glory of Thy presence has overwhelmed us. Thou art hidden in excess of light; and if we were to behold Thee in the great sphere in which Thou art living, none of us would dare to draw near to Thee. Our imperfections, our transgressions, our secret thoughts, our wild impulses, that at times come surging in upon us, are such that we should be ashamed to stand before the All-searching Eye. Our lives are before Thee, open as a book, and Thou readest every word and every letter thereof. Blessed be Thy name, Thou hast taught us to come to Thee through the Lord Jesus Christ as through a friend, and thou hast taught us to draw near to Thee in person through the familiar way of Fatherhood; from our childhood we have said, Our Father, and in this way we are not afraid; in this way we come familiarly and boldly: not irreverently, but with the familiarity which love gives. Thou hast poured the light of Thy love upon the path which we tread, and Thou hast taught us to come rejoicing before Thee.... Open Thy hand and Thy heart, and say to every one of us, Peace be unto you! Amen._--Henry Ward Beecher. COMMENT FOR THE WEEK I We have been using freely the most momentous word in human speech as though we clearly understood its meaning. We have been speaking of God as though the import of the term were plain. But most of us, asked to state precisely what we mean by "God," would welcome such a refuge from our confusion as Joubert sought. "It is not hard to know God," said he, "provided one will not force oneself to define him." Many people who stoutly claim to believe in God live in perpetual vacillation as to what they mean by him. Writes one: "God to my mind is an impersonal being, but whether for convenience or through sheer impotence I pray to him as a personal being.... I know I talk on both sides of the fence, but that is just where I am." At times, indeed, some question whether there is any need to think or say what "God" may signify. They call him by vague names--the All, the Infinite. In moods of exalted feeling, impatient of definition, they wish to be left alone with their experience of the Eternal; they resent the intrusion of theology, as a poet, lost in wonder at a landscape, might resent the coming of surveyors with their clanking chains. So Walt Whitman wanted to see the stars rather than hear the astronomer, and after listening to the learned lecture, with its charts and diagrams, he says, "I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wandered off by myself, In the mystical moist night air, and from time to time Looked up in perfect silence at the stars." But, for all that, we well may be thankful for astronomers. At times the "mystical, moist night air" is absent; we do not wish to "look up in perfect silence at the stars"; and, even though we know in advance that they are bound to be inadequate, we do want as clear and worthy ideas as possible about the universe. Moreover, when such ideas are ours, looking up in perfect silence at the stars is more impressive than it ever was before. No more can men content themselves with a vague consciousness of God. Spirits like Wordsworth have raptures of which they sing, "In such access of mind, in such high hour Of visitation from the living God, Thought was not--in enjoyment it expired." In communion with nature, in love for family, in fellowship with God, such hours may come, but nature, family, and God must also be the objects of understanding thought. Days of vital need, if not of mental doubt, inevitably come when it is impossible any longer to use a term like "God" without knowing what we mean. The special urgency of this is felt by most of us because as children we were taught to picture the Divine in terms of personality. The God of the Bible is personal. Little that persons do, save sinning, is omitted from the catalogue of God's activities as he is pictured for us in the Scripture. He knows, loves, purposes, warns, rebukes, allures, rewards, and punishes, as only persons can. And all our relationships with him are clearly personal. When we pray we say "Our Father"; when we seek our duty we ask, "What wilt thou have me to do?" God is _He_ and _Thou_, not _It_, and friendship is the ideal relation of all souls with him. Moreover, in our maturity we are not likely to be interested in a God who is not personal. Whoever curiously asks why he believes in God, will find not simply _reasons_ but _causes_ for his faith, and will perceive that the causes of faith lie back of the reasons for it. Vital need always precedes the arguments by which we justify its satisfaction. A man eats one thing and shuns another on principles of dietetics that can be defended before his intelligence; but behind all such sophisticated reasons stands the vital cause of eating--hunger. So back of intellectual arguments for belief in God lies the initial cause of faith: _men are hungry_. Men believe in God because they hunger for a world that is not chance and chaos, but that is guided by a Purpose. They believe in God, because in their struggles after righteousness they hunger for a Divine Ally in whom righteousness has its origin, its ground and destiny. They believe in God because they hunger for confidence that Someone cares about our race in its conflicts and defeats and because in their individual experience they want a friend. Without such faith man feels himself to be, in Goethe's phrase, "a troubled wanderer upon a darkened earth." Plainly this elemental human hunger for purpose, righteousness, and friendship calls for something akin to personality in God. _Only persons have purpose, character, and friendliness._ The vital motives which lead men to seek God's comfort, forgiveness, guidance, and cooperation plainly imply his personality. Things do not forgive us, love us, nor purpose good concerning us, nor can any thing be imagined so subtle and so powerful as to satisfy the needs on account of which men come to God. If God is not personal, he can feel no concern for human life and a God of no concern is of no consequence. The philosophers of India, with a well-reasoned pantheistic system and centuries to make their philosophy effective, have failed to quell this deathless thirst for a God who counts. Every wayside shrine of Hinduism incarnates the old faith in gods conceived as friends, not things; and Buddha, who taught impersonal deity, is now himself adored as the Personal Lord of Love and Blessedness. Wherever one finds vital religion one finds that God is no dry impersonal abstraction, but man's friend. Boscamen, speaking of the Egyptian Book of the Dead and of the Chaldean Tablets, says: "Six thousand years ago in Egypt and Chaldea--it is not dread, but the grateful love of a child to his father, of friend to friend, that meets us in the oldest books of the world." And when one turns from the oldest to the newest books this inner demand of man's religious life has not ceased; it has been refined and confirmed. "The All would not be the All unless it contained a Personality," said Victor Hugo. "That Personality is God." Biography is lavish in illustrations of this need in man's religious life. The biographer of Theodore Parker, the freelance preacher of Boston, remarks: "In his _theology_ God was neither personal nor impersonal, but a reality transcending these distinctions. In his _devotions_ God was as personal as his own father or mother, and he prayed to him as such, daringly indifferent to the anthropomorphisms of his unfettered speech." When one passes from speculation to religion, he always comes into a realm where only a personal God will do. On this point even confessed unbelievers furnish confirmation. One who calls himself an agnostic writes: "At times in the silence of the night and in rare lonely moments, I experience a sort of communion of myself with Something Great that is not myself. Then the Universal Scheme of things has on me the effect of a sympathetic Person, and my communion therewith takes on a quality of fearless worship. These moments happen, and they are to me the supreme fact in my religious life." Always for the purposes of vital religion, God must have on us the "effect of a sympathetic Person." II When one, however, subjects this need of his religious life to searching thought, what difficulty he encounters! Multitudes, if they were candid, would confess what a college senior wrote: "When I am just thinking about God in a speculative or philosophical way, I generally think of him as impersonal, but for practical purposes I think of him as personal." Many folks feel thus distraught; at the heart of their religious life is the paralyzing doubt, that in a universe like this to think of God as personal is absurd. If a train moving a mile a minute should leave the earth, it must travel 40,000,000 years before it would reach the nearest star. The Creator of such a world is not readily reduced to the similitude of human life. Once men lived on a flat earth, small in compass and cosily tucked beneath the sky's coverlet, but now the world's vastness beggars imagination. As an astronomer remarked, coming from a session with his telescope, "This does away with a six-foot god; you cannot shake hands with the Creator of _this_." Men used to suppose that Arcturus was a single star, but now new telescopes reveal Arcturus as a galaxy of stars, thousands in number, with interstellar spaces so immense that thought breaks down in spanning them and imagination even cannot make the leap. Is the God of such a universe to be conceived in terms of a magnified man? So to picture deity seems at first sight a survival of mere childishness. Professor John Fiske, of Harvard, has told us that when he was a boy God always conjured up in his imagination the figure of a venerable bookkeeper, with white flowing beard, standing behind a high desk and writing down the bad deeds of John Fiske. How many of us can recall such early crude and childish thoughts of God! A mother asked her young daughter what she was drawing. "A picture of God," was the answer. "But no one knows what God looks like," the mother said. "They will," came the rejoinder, "when I get through." We all began with some such primitive idea of deity. Indeed, these early conceptions long persist in many minds, as the following statements, written by college students, indicate: "I think of God as real, actual skin and blood and bones, something we shall see with our eyes some day, no matter what lives we lead on earth." "It may be a remnant of youth, but anyhow, every time I think of God there appears a vague image of a man, with all members of the body, just enormously large." "I have always pictured him according to a description in _Paradise Lost_ as seated upon a throne, while around are angels playing on harps and singing hymns." "I think of God as having bodily form and being much larger than the average man. He has a radiant countenance beaming with love and compassion. He is erect and upright, fearless and brave."[3] No one of us may be contemptuous of such crude ideas; we all possessed them once. Indeed the loss of them, with their picture of deity, clear in feature and distinct in outline, has been to some a shock from which faith has not recovered. When increasing knowledge discredited our immature theology, and our world immeasurably widened, the very human God of our first imaginations was lost among the stars. We learned that this is a universe where the light that falls upon our eyes tonight left the far heavens when Abraham was shepherding on Syrian hills. The Christian Gospel of the personal Father which once was good news became a serious problem. We still may cling to the old meanings of our religious faith; still we may pray in hours of need as though our childhood's God were really there; but at times we suspect that we are clinging to the beauty of an early memory while reluctantly we lose conviction of its truth. Many modern men and women can understand the plight of the famous Dr. Jowett of Oxford, who, so runs the tradition, inserted "used to" in a muffled voice, when he recited the creed: "I _used to_ believe in God the Father Almighty." With such misgivings, whether as habitual disturbers of our faith or as occasional moods of unbelief that come and go, most of us must be familiar. What Charles Darwin is reported to have said about himself, many if they spoke frankly would say too: "Sometimes I feel a warm sense of a personal God, and then"--with a shake of his head--"it goes away." III Whatever may be our theology, the fact is plain that the denial of a personal God solves no problem. For if we may not think of God in terms of personality, the query still remains, which was there before--_in what terms shall we conceive of the Eternal_? In a discussion on the nature of the sky, one boy, denying the idea of a solid canopy, exclaimed, "There ain't any sky." Said the other, seeing how little this negation solved the problem, "Well, what _is_ it that ain't?" Some such inquiry one must put to his doubts about God's personality. Though we may deny a personal God, nevertheless in the place where he once stood, creator and sustainer of all existence, is Something that we do think of somehow. We may have but little of Carlyle's sublime imagination; may not easily transport ourselves to stand with him on the far northern cliff, "behind him all Europe and Africa fast asleep, except the watchmen, and before him the silent Immensity and Palace of the Eternal, whereof our sun is but the porch-lamp." Yet who of us, regarding the illimitable universe, on the far outskirts of which our little earth is whirling, so minute that through the strongest telescope from the nearest star its conflagration would be quite invisible, has escaped the sense of a Universal Power? And the human mind cannot so keep itself at home in little tasks and pleasures as to evade the question: How shall we think of the Power that made the universe? In what terms? By what analogies? Hours of revelation come in every serious life when no desire compares in urgency with the desire to know the character of the Eternal. It does make a prodigious difference what hands hold the leash of the universe. This second fact is also clear, that if we are to think of the Eternal at all, we must think in terms of something drawn from our experience. When we sing of Paradise we speak of golden streets and gates of pearl, and Thoreau remarks that, arriving in heaven, he expects to find pine trees there. Such words we do not take literally, but such words we cannot utterly avoid, for if we are to speak at all of the unknown glory, we must use pictures from the known. So we think of God in human symbols. We cannot catch him in an abstract definition as though a boy with a butterfly net should capture the sun at noon. Our minds are not fitted for such enterprise. Of necessity we take something homely, familiar, close at hand, and lifting it up as far as we can reach, say _God is most like that_. No one who thinks at all of the Eternal escapes this necessity. By this method the _materialist_ reaches his philosophy. Haeckel laughs to scorn the opening clause of the "Apostles' Creed." "I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth"--for such faith no words are contemptuous enough. This denial does not mean however that Haeckel has no faith; he deliberately offers a creedal substitute which runs in part: I believe in a "chemical substance of a viscous character, having albuminous matter and water as its chief constituents." In such terms does Haeckel think of the Eternal. A professor of medicine has remarked that such a theory reduces all reality to "phosphorus and glue." When some Psalmist cries, "Bless the Lord, O my soul," nothing substantial is speaking or is being spoken to save phosphorus and glue! When an Italian patriot cries, "The time for dying comes to all, but the time for dishonoring oneself ought never to come," nothing is real and causal save phosphorus and glue! And every gracious and redeeming deed in history from the love of mothers to the cross of Christ has been a complicated working out of phosphorus and glue! In whatever labored phrases he may state his case, the materialist's method there is obvious; he has taken physical energy, of whose presence in his own body he is first assured, and whose reality he has then read out into the world, and this homely and familiar experience he has lifted up as far as he can reach to say, the Eternal is most like that. So far as method is concerned, the _theist_ of necessity travels the same road; only he insists on a nobler symbol than physical energy in terms of which to think of God. He takes _mind_. He says in effect: There may be wide stretches of the universe where our intellects meet no answer and find no meaning. But in much of the universe we do see meaning; and how can intelligence find sense where intelligence has not put sense? A few scratches on a cliff's face in Assyria, after centuries of neglect, rendered up their meaning to the mind of Rawlinson. They were themselves the work of intelligence, and intelligence could read them. So, the theist continues, the universe is in part at least intelligible. Our minds fit into it and are answered by it. We can trace its laws and predict its movements. Man first worked out the nature of the ellipse in theoretical geometry, and then telescopes later showed the gigantic ellipses of planetary orbits in the heavens. Can it be that this intelligible world, readable by mind, is itself essentially mindless? As easily believe that the notes of Wagner's operas were accidentally blown together by a whirlwind and yet are playable by man! Therefore the theist believes the universe to be rational; he takes mind as he has known it in himself, and lifting it as high as he can reach, cries, God is most like that. So far as the general method of approach is concerned, the Christian travels the same road to his idea of God. Only he cannot believe that the best he knows is too good or too great to be a symbol in terms of which to think of the Eternal. Therefore he will not take a byproduct of experience such as physical energy, nor a section of personality such as mind; he takes the full orb of personality, _self-conscious being that knows and purposes and loves_, and he affirms that God is most like this. Such in its simplest form is the Christian assertion of God's personality. In one of his noblest passages Martineau has put into classic form this necessity, which we have been discussing, of thinking about God in terms of human experience: "God, being infinite, can never be fully comprehended by our minds; whatever thought of him be there, his real nature must still transcend: there will yet be deep after deep beyond, within that light ineffable; and what we see, compared with what we do not see, will be as the raindrop to the firmament. Our conception of him can never _correspond with the reality_, so as to be without omission, disproportion, or aberration; but can only _represent the reality_, and _stand for God_ within our souls, till nobler thoughts arise and reveal themselves as his interpreters. And this is precisely what we mean by a symbolical idea. The devotee who prostrates himself before a black stone,--the Egyptian who in his prayers was haunted by the ideal form of the graceful ibis or the monstrous sphinx--the Theist who bends beneath the starry porch that midnight opens to the temple of the universe--the Christian who sees in heaven a spirit akin to that which divinely lived in Galilee, and with glorious pity died on Calvary--all alike assume a representation of him whose immeasurable nature they can neither compass nor escape. And the only question is, whether the conception they portray upon the wall of their ideal temple is an abominable idol, or a true and sanctifying mediatorial thought." IV In their endeavor thus to think of God in terms of personality, some are perplexed because in their imagination a person is inseparable from flesh. "I think of God as a personal being," writes a college student. "A personal being would have a form that you could see or touch." But this would be true only if the grossest materialism were accepted, and the spiritual life declared to be the product of brain as digestive fluids are of salivary glands. On any other basis, personality is not indissolubly bound to body nor by it necessarily delimited. A man cannot hear without his ear, but he is not his ear; he cannot hear without the auditory nerve, but he is not the auditory nerve; he cannot hear without the temporal lobe of the brain, but he is not the brain nor any portion of it. These may be the instruments which he uses; he is free when they are well, hampered when they are broken, and at last he is separable from them all. John Quincy Adams at the age of eighty met a friend upon a Boston street. "Good morning," said the friend, "and how is John Quincy Adams today?" "Thank you," was the ex-president's reply, "John Quincy Adams himself is well, quite well, I thank you. But the house in which he lives at present is becoming dilapidated. It is tottering upon its foundation. Time and the seasons have nearly destroyed it. Its roof is pretty well worn out. Its walls are much shattered and it trembles with every wind. The old tenement is becoming almost uninhabitable and I think John Quincy Adams will have to move out of it soon. But he himself is quite well, quite well." Such a conception of man as _being_ a permanent personality and _having_ a temporary body is essential to any worthy meaning when we use personal terms about God. With such an elevated thought, however, of what personality does mean, it soon is evident that no other reality with which we deal is so worthy to be the symbol of an Eternal Spirit. Is one perplexed that God, who is invisible, should be pictured in the similitude of human persons? But _we_ are invisible. The outward husks and fleshly garment of our friends we indeed have seen, but upon the friend himself--consciousness, love, purpose, ideal, and character--no eye has looked. No mirror ever has been strong enough to show us to ourselves. In every homely conversation this ineffable miracle is wrought: out of the unseen where I dwell, I signal by word and gesture to you back in the unseen where you dwell. We are inhabitants now of the intangible and unseen world; we are as invisible as God. Indeed, personality is essentially the most unlimited reality with which we deal; in comparison a solar system is a little thing. Consider _memory_, by which we can retrace our youthful days, build our shanties once again at brooksides, replay our games, and recapitulate the struggles and the joys of the first days at school. Nothing in all the universe can remember except persons. Were we not so familiar with this element in human greatness, we would more often pause to exclaim, as did Augustine, fifteen centuries ago, "Great is the power of memory. Amazement overcomes me when I think of it. And yet men go abroad to gaze upon the mountains, the broad rivers, the wide ocean, the courses of the stars, and pass themselves, the crowning wonder, by!" Consider _imagination_, by which, sitting still in body we can project ourselves around the world, can walk down Princes Street in Edinburgh, or stand in mingled awe and condemnation before the tomb of Napoleon in Paris, or rise uncovered before the majesty of the Matterhorn. Nothing in all the universe can do that except persons. Were full power to act wherever we can _think_ added to our gifts, we should come so near to incipient omnipresence as to be in dread of our responsibility. Consider _love_, by which we live not so much where our bodies are as where our friends and family may be. Love expands the individual until his real life is independent of geography. Says one lover to another: "The widest land Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine With pulses that beat double." Many a mother in America has _lived_ in the trenches of France; many a man has found that what might happen to him where his body was could not be compared with what might happen to him where his friendships were; and as we grow in love and loyalty we find ourselves scattered all over creation. How far such an expansion of life may go our Lord revealed when he said, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these, my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me." (Matt. 25:40.) Nothing in heaven above or on the earth beneath can so extend itself in love save persons. Finally, consider _creative power_ by which human beings project themselves into the future, and, with masterful ideals in mind, lay hold on circumstance and bend it to their will. As if he shared creative power with the Eternal, an engineer summons nature's forces to his bidding and lays his will upon them, until where nothing was a structure stands that mankind may use for centuries. Nothing in all the universe can so create except persons. In that essentially creative act where deathless ideas and harmonies are given being by poets and musicians, so that something out of nothing is brought to pass by personality, man faces a mystery as abysmal as God's making of the world. "Paradise Lost" is wonderful; but not half as wonderful as the creative personality itself who years before projected it. "An inward prompting," Milton says, "which now grew daily upon me, that by labor and intense study, joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to after times as they should not willingly let it die." Nothing can so create save personality. Personality is not so limited that we should be ashamed to think of God in terms of it. Rather, of all realities with which we deal, personality alone, invisible, reaching back in memory, reaching out in imagination, expanding itself in love, and laying hold upon the future with creative power, is a worthy symbol of the Eternal Spirit. Even when the meaning of personality has been so enlarged and elevated, we should not leave our statement of belief in God as though our experience of personality were a mould into which our thought of him is poured and so delimited. We are not presumptuous Lilliputians, running out with verbal stakes and threads, to pin down the tall, majestic Gulliver of the Eternal and dance in theological exultation round our capture. We know better than that. We understand how insufficient is every human name for God. We know that when we have said our best--"How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past tracing out!" (Rom. 11:33). Nothing more has marred the Christian message and discredited the Christian faith than the unwise presumption that has forced its definitions into the secrets of the Infinite. "It is enough to say," exclaims Leslie Stephen, "that they defined the nature of God Almighty with an accuracy from which modest naturalists would shrink in describing the genesis of a black beetle." The antidote to such vain pride of theology is found in the wholesome modesty of the Bible. There man enquires, "Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is high as heaven; what canst thou do? Deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know?" (Job 11:7). There God replies: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isa. 55:9). Scripture bears abundant testimony to the symbolic nature of our human terms for God. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so Jehovah pitieth them that fear him" (Psalm 103:13). "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you" (Isa. 66:13). "I will betroth thee unto me" (Hos. 2:20). "Return, ... saith Jehovah, for I am a husband unto you" (Jer. 3:14). "The Lord spake unto Moses ... as a man speaketh unto his friend" (Ex. 33:11). Father, Mother, Bridegroom, Husband, Friend--these are symbols of God. Men, endeavoring to frame some worthy thought of the Eternal, lift up their best in phrases such as these, and in them enshrine their noblest concepts of the divine. They have no better, truer thing to say of God, no wiser way in which to say it. But when they think of the Eternal as he must be, and of their human words, infinitesimal in comparison, they know that all their best names for God are like small measures of water dipped from an immeasurable sea. For all that, so much of God as they can grasp and understand is the most important truth that mankind knows. Let even a tea-cup of water be taken to a laboratory and it will tell the truth about the sea; _that one tea-cup will reveal the quality of the whole ocean_. Yet it will not reveal all the truth about the ocean. When one considers the reach of the sea over the rim of the world; thinks of the depths that no eye can pierce, the distances that no mind can imagine; remembers the currents that sweep through the sea, the tides that rise there, and the storms that beat it to its nether wells, he dare not try to put _these_ into a tea-cup. So God sweeps out beyond the reach of human symbols. At once so true and so inadequate are all our words for him. So we might speak to one who incredulously looks upon our faith, but for one who whole-heartedly approaches God as Christianity suggests, no negative and cautionary word is adequate. The Christian method of conceiving God brings the most exhilarating thought of him that man has ever had. It says in brief: Take your _best_ and think of God as most truly symbolized in that. As to what our best is, not even the agnostics doubt. The physical universe belittles us on one side only; it makes a pigmy of the body. In our spirits we still tower above the physical; we are greater than the world we know. Our supreme good, the divinest reality with which we deal, is personality. Then lift that up, says Christianity; it is your best, and you dare not think of God in terms of less; you have Christ's example in arguing from the human best to the divine: "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, _how much more_ ... your Father." (Matt. 7:11.) The Christian faith asserts that when a man thus thinks of God in terms of the best he knows he is on the road toward truth. How many billion spiritual miles he may have to travel to the end, no man can tell. Only he will never need to stop, retrace his steps, and start upon a lower path than personality, a road that lies beneath righteousness and love. The road leads on and up beyond our imagination, but it is the same road and not another. _God is personality plus, or else he alone is completely personal and we are but in embryo._ If God so is personal, then all the deep meanings of religious life and faith that the saints, our spiritual sires, have known are open to us modern men and women. Forms of thought indeed have changed, but if God is thus our Father and our Friend, the essentials of Christian experience are waiting for us all. Life then is not purposeless; all creation is bound into spiritual unity by personal Will; and in sacrificial labor we are serving one who is able to guard that which we "have committed unto him against that day" (II Tim. 1:12). Old hymns of confidence in time of trial, we too can sing: "Still will we trust, though earth seem dark and dreary, And the heart faint beneath His chastening rod; Though steep and hard our pathway, worn and weary, Still will we trust in God." And we can pray, not indeed with clamorous beggary as though the grace of God were a wayside stall where every greedy hand can pluck what passing whim may wish, but we can commune with God as the real saints have always prayed with humility and gratitude and confident desire for good. Most of all, that priceless privilege is open to us which is the center and sun of Christian thought and life. For if among all realities in our experience, we have dared take the best, personality, as a symbol in terms of which to think of God, how should we not, among all personalities, take the best we know as the highroad of approach to him. Therefore our real symbol of God shall be no man among us, frail and sinful, but our Lord himself "fairest among ten thousand"--"the one altogether beautiful." We shall think of God in terms of him. We shall see "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Cor. 4:6.) [2] Copyright, 1914, Charles Scribner's Sons. Used by permission. [3] From a questionnaire, "Belief in God and Immortality," by Prof. James H. Leuba. CHAPTER IV Belief and Trust DAILY READINGS We have tried to explain our faith in the personal God, and to see the transfiguring influence of that faith on life. But is belief in God always such a blessing as we have pictured? Rather faith, like every other experience of man, has its caricatures and burlesques. Many men are prevented from appreciation of faith in God, with its inestimable blessings, because they have so continually seen faith's perversions. The fact is that belief in God may be an utterly negligible matter in a man's experience or may even become a positively pernicious influence. Let us, in the daily readings, consider some of the _familiar travesties on faith_. Fourth Week, First Day =Praise ye Jehovah. Praise Jehovah, O my soul. While I live will I praise Jehovah: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being, Put not your trust in princes, Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; In that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in Jehovah his God.= =--Psalm 146:1-5.= No one can mistake the note of reality in this psalmist's experience of God. But every one of us knows people who, if asked whether they believed in God, would readily assent, yet to whom faith makes no such difference in life as this psalm expresses. Their faith is nothing but an opinion about God, lightly held, a formal consent that what church or family tradition says must be correct. They have what Luther used to call "the charcoal burner's faith." A man of that occupation, when asked what he believed, said, "What Holy Church believes"; but, questioned further, he could not tell what it was that Holy Church did believe. So formal, vitally unpossessed, and practically unreal is much of our religious opinion that passes for faith. Dean Swift was a churchman of high rank, and yet his biographer is compelled to say of him: "He clung to the doctrines of his church, not because he could give abstract reasons for his belief, but simply because the church happened to be his." Vital religious faith is a very different thing from such dry conventionality. A man may assent to the contents of a college catalogue and yet never have experience of college life; he may agree that a menu is dietetically correct and yet never grow strong from the food; and he may believe in every creed in Christendom and not know what faith in God really means. Opinions about God are a roadway to God, but the end of the journey is a personal fellowship that transfigures life; and to seize opinions as though they were the object of faith is, to use Tagore's figure, "like a man who tries to reach his destination by firmly clutching the dust of the road." _O Thou great Father of us all, we rejoice that at last we know Thee. All our soul within us is glad because we need no longer cringe before Thee as slaves of holy fear, seeking to appease Thine anger by sacrifice and self-inflicted pain, but may come like little children, trustful and happy, to the God of love. Thou art the only true Father, and all the tender beauty of our human loves is the reflected radiance of Thy loving kindness, like the moonlight from the sunlight, and testifies to the eternal passion that kindled it._ _Grant us growth of spiritual vision, that with the passing years we may enter into the fulness of this our faith. Since Thou art our Father, may we not hide our sins from Thee, but overcome them by the stern comfort of Thy presence. By this knowledge uphold us in our sorrows and make us patient even amid the unsolved mysteries of the years. Reveal to us the larger goodness and love that speak through the unbending laws of Thy world. Through this faith make us the willing equals of all Thy other children._ _As Thou art ever pouring out Thy life in sacrificial father-love, may we accept the eternal law of the cross and give ourselves to Thee and to all men. We praise Thee for Jesus Christ, whose life has revealed to us this faith and law, and we rejoice that he has become the first-born among many brethren. Grant that in us, too, the faith in Thy fatherhood may shine through all our life with such persuasive beauty that some who still creep in the dusk of fear may stand erect as free sons of God, and that others who now through unbelief are living as orphans in an empty world may stretch out their hands to the great Father of their spirits and find Thee near. Amen._--Walter Rauschenbusch. Fourth Week, Second Day Faith is travestied in many lives not so much by the substitution of opinion for experience, as by making religion consist in certain devout practices, such as church-going. Ceremonialism, instead of being an aid in making God real, takes the place of fellowship with God. How scathing were the attacks of the prophets on this distortion of religion! =Hear the word of Jehovah, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah: I have had enough of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to trample my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies--I cannot away with iniquity and the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary of bearing them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.--Isa. 1:10-17.= Many young people, watching conventional observances in religious worship and perceiving no real life active there, come to the conclusion that religious faith is a decent and negligible formality. So William Scott Palmer, tracing his progress from agnosticism to Christianity, describes the religion of his boyhood: "Religion as a personal matter, religion as a life, did not exist for me or for my family. The border-land of my native village went to church at eleven o'clock on fine Sundays, and I went in and with it. There were unlucky Sundays when the Litany was said, and the service prolonged by its unmeaning length; the lucky Sundays were wet ones that cleared up later.... I did not know that there was any vital meaning in religion." And even Sir Wilfred Grenfell, whose work in Labrador is one of this generation's outstanding triumphs of Christian faith, says of his young manhood: "The ordinary exponents of the Christian faith had never succeeded in interesting me in any way, or even in making me believe that they were more than professionally concerned themselves. Religion appeared to be a profession, exceedingly conventional, and most unattractive in my estimation--the very last I should have thought of selecting." No travesty on faith is more deadly in its effects than this substitution of conventional observance for life. _O Jesus, we thy ministers bow before Thee to confess the common sins of our calling. Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that we love Thee and that our hearts' desire is to serve Thee in faithfulness; and yet, like Peter, we have so often failed Thee in the hour of Thy need. If ever we have loved our own leadership and power when we sought to lead our people to Thee, we pray Thee to forgive. If we have been engrossed in narrow duties and little questions, when the vast needs of humanity called aloud for prophetic vision and apostolic sympathy, we pray Thee to forgive. If in our loyalty to the Church of the past we have distrusted Thy living voice and have suffered Thee to pass from our door unheard, we pray Thee to forgive. If ever we have been more concerned for the strong and the rich than for the shepherdless throngs of the people for whom Thy soul grieved, we pray Thee to forgive._ _O Master, amidst our failures we cast ourselves upon Thee in humility and contrition. We need new light and a new message. We need the ancient spirit of prophecy and the leaping fire and joy of a new conviction, and Thou alone canst give it. Inspire the ministry of Thy Church with dauntless courage to face the vast needs of the future. Free us from all entanglements that have hushed our voice and bound our action. Grant us grace to look upon the veiled sins of the rich and the coarse vices of the poor through Thine eyes. Give us Thine inflexible sternness against sin, and Thine inexhaustible compassion for the frailty and tragedy of those who do the sin. Make us faithful shepherds of Thy flock, true seers of God, and true followers of Jesus. Amen._--Walter Rauschenbusch. Fourth Week, Third Day =And he spake also this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and set all others at nought: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I get. But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote his breast, saying, God, be thou merciful to me a sinner. I say unto you, This man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.--Luke 18:9-14.= The men against whom the Master directed this parable were bigots. Self-opinionated, self-conceited, dogmatic, and contemptuous--they wore all the attributes of bigotry. _And bigotry is a very familiar perversion of faith._ Vital fellowship with God ought to make men gracious, magnanimous, generous; it ought to make life with God seem so incomparably important that when anyone has that, his opinions about God will be tolerantly regarded, however mistaken they may appear to be. Dr. Pritchett, when President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, passed through a classroom where a young instructor was conducting a chemical experiment. "The reaction itself," says Dr. Pritchett, "was going on in a retort on the table, while on a blackboard was written the conventional formula, which in the science of chemistry is used to describe the reaction. It so happened that the instructor had made a mistake in writing the formula; instead of CO^2 he had written CO_3. But this made not the slightest difference in the reaction which was going on in the flask." So, a man may live his life with an admirably Christian spirit, although he describes it with a mistaken formula. His error is theoretical, not vital. But a bigot is so sure that he alone knows the true formula, that a man without that formula is altogether wrong, and that he must either set him right or condemn him utterly, that he grows bitter, hard, unlovely. His opinions may be right, but his spirit is wrong. The faith that should make his life radiant is perverted to make it narrow, harsh, contemptuous. He renders hateful the very faith he seeks to commend and ruins the reputation of the God whom he is zealous to exalt. So the Pharisee of the parable missed all the beauty of the Publican's life because he thought the Publican's formula was wrong. No one can estimate the irreparable damage which zealous bigots have done to true faith. _O Thou who art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, canst Thou bear to look on us conscious of our great transgression? Yet hide not Thy face from us, for in Thy light alone shall we see light._ _Forgive us for the sins which crowd into the mind as we realise Thy presence; our ungovernable tempers, our shuffling insincerities, the craven fear of our hearts, the pettiness of our spirits, the foul lusts and fatal leanings of our souls. Not for pardon only, but for cleansing, Lord, we pray._ _Forgive us, we beseech Thee, our unconscious sins; things which must be awful to Thy sight, of which we yet know nothing. Forgive by giving us in fuller measure the awakening of Thy presence, that we may know ourselves, and lose all love of sin in the knowledge of what Thou art._ _Forgive us for the things for which we can never forgive ourselves; those sad turned pages of our life which some chance wind of memory blows back again with shame; for the moment of cruel passion, the hour beyond recall, the word that went forth to poison and defame, the carelessness that lost our opportunity, the unheeded fading of bright ideals._ _Forgive us for the things that others can never forgive; the idle tale, the cruel wrong, the uncharitable condemnation, the unfair judgment, the careless criticism, the irresponsible conduct._ _Forgive us for the sins of our holy things; that we have turned the sacred page without a sigh, read the confessions of holy men and women and never joined therein, lived in Thy light and never prayed to be forgiven or rendered Thee thanksgiving; professed to believe in Thee and love Thee, yet dared to injure and hate._ _Naught save being born again, nothing but a miracle of grace, can ever be to us forgiveness. Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from us. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. Fourth Week, Fourth Day Of all perversions of faith none is more fatal than the substitution of opinions about God for integrity of character and usefulness of life. With what scathing vehemence does James, as Dr. Moffatt renders him, attack this travesty on faith. ="My brothers, what is the use of anyone declaring he has faith, if he has no deeds to show? Can his faith save him? Suppose some brother or sister is ill-clad and short of daily food; if any of you says to them, 'Depart in peace! Get warm, get food,' without supplying their bodily needs, what use is that? So faith, unless it has deeds, is dead in itself. Someone will object, 'And you claim to have faith!' Yes, and I claim to have deeds as well; you show me your faith without any deeds, and I will show you by my deeds what faith is! You believe in one God? Well and good. So do the devils, and they shudder. But will you understand, you senseless fellow, that faith without deeds is dead? When our father Abraham offered his son Isaac on the altar, was he not justified by what he did?"--James 2:14-21.= An American business man not long dead, who hated any word from the pulpit about social righteousness, used to complain: "Preachers are talking so everlastingly about this earth. I've done my best to get them to stick to the Gospel, and not allow 'worldliness' to get into the teachings of the Church; but the good old preachers have gone to glory." Yet this pious zealot helped wreck the finances of a great railroad system, and with part of the proceeds built a theological seminary. _There was no vital, intelligent connection between his faith in God and his ideals of character and service._ One verse should be made to flame in Christian pulpits: "If any provideth not for his own, and specially his own household, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever" (I Tim. 5:8). Domestic fidelity is here only typical of all basic moral obligations. What this verse says in principle is clear: theoretical unbelief is not the worst sin in God's sight; any man who fails in the fundamental duties of rectitude and service has thereby denied the faith and is worse than an atheist. _O thou holy One and just! if alone the pure in heart can see thee, truly we must stand afar off, and not so much as lift up our eyes unto heaven. Were it not that thou hast help and pity for the contrite spirit, we could only cry, "Depart from us, we are sinful men, O Lord!" For idle words, for proud thoughts and unloving deeds; for wasted moments and reluctant duties, and too eager rest; for the wandering desire, the vain fancy, the scornful doubt, the untrustful care; for impatient murmurs, and unruly passions, and the hardness of a worldly heart; thou, Lord, canst call us unto judgment, and we have naught to answer thee. But, O thou Judge of men, thou art witness that we do not love our guilty ways; make our conscience true and tender that we may duly hate them, and refuse them any peace as enemies to thee. Stir up within us a great and effectual repentance that we may redeem the time which we have lost, and in the hours that remain may do the work of many days. Thou knowest all our secret snares; drive from us every root of bitterness: with thy severity pluck out, O Lord, the thorns of sin from our entangled souls, and bind them as a crown of contrition around our bleeding brows; and having made our peace with thee may we henceforth watch and pray that we enter not again into temptation, but bear our cross with patience to the close. Amen._--James Martineau. Fourth Week, Fifth Day Some of the most lamentable perversions of religious faith arise from inadequate ideas of God. Consider, for example, the way Manasseh thought that the Divine ought to be worshiped. =For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. And he built altars in the house of Jehovah, whereof Jehovah said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Jehovah. And he made his son to pass through the fire, and practised augury, and used enchantments, and dealt with them that had familiar spirits, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger.--II Kings 21:3-6.= Then compare the thought of the Master on the same subject. =But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.--John 4:23, 24.= There is no reason to suppose that Manasseh was insincere; he is one of an innumerable company in whom the religious motive has been harnessed to warped and ignorant ideas of God. Religious faith, like any other tremendous power, is terrific in evil consequences when it goes wrong. Men, under its subtle and prevailing influence, have waged bloody wars, worshiped with licentious rituals, carried on pitiless persecutions, and in bigotry, cruelty, and deceit have grown worse than they would have been with no religion whatsoever. And men, in its inspiring light, have launched missionary movements, founded great philanthropies, built schools, hospitals, orphanages, and in sacrifice, courageous service, and hope of human brotherhood have made man's history glorious. Religion needs intelligence to save it from becoming a ruinous curse; like all power of the first magnitude it is a disaster if ignorantly used. Since religious faith will always be a major human motive, under what obligations are we to save it from perversion and to keep it clean and right! _Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we are most unworthy to be called Thy children; for when light and darkness have been set before us, we have often chosen darkness rather than light. Conscious that within us are the elements of a nobler and a meaner life, we have yet given way to the meaner appetites, and have not obeyed the inspiration Thou hast kindled within us. We entreat Thee now of Thy grace to call us back from the ways of temptation and sin into that higher life which Thou dost breathe upon us, and which is manifested in Jesus Christ our Lord. Give us the self-knowledge, the humility, the repentance, the aspiration which draw us to the Cross of Christ, that worshiping there in lowliness, we may see the weakness of falsehood and the strength of truth, the exceeding sinfulness of selfishness, and the beauty of love and sacrifice._ _O Thou whose secret is with them that fear Thee, inspire us with that loyalty of soul, that willingness to do Thy will to which all things are clear. Darkness, we know, cometh upon the proud and disobedient; confusion is ever attendant upon self-will; while to the humble, the earnest, and the pure-minded, the way of duty and spiritual health is made clear. O Spirit of the Eternal, subdue within us all pride, all vainglory, all self-seeking, and bring every thought and every desire into obedience to the law of Christ our Lord._ _Almighty Father, to Thee would we consecrate these earthly days from infancy to age. Thee would we remember in childhood and youth. Thee would we serve in all the relations and activities of middle age. Thee would we teach our children to love and serve. Be Thou our stay and hope when health and strength shall fail. And when we are summoned hence, do Thou, O Life of our life, illumine the mystery of the invisible world with Thy presence and love. We ask these blessings in the spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen._--John Hunter. Fourth Week, Sixth Day The perversions of religious faith, working pitiable instead of benevolent consequences, are often seen on mission fields. Consider Paul's address in Athens: =And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus, and said,= =Ye men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. What therefore ye worship in ignorance, this I set forth unto you. The God that made the world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is he served by men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and he made of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain even of your own poets have said,= =For we are also his offspring.= =--Acts 17:22-28.= Paul did not need to plead for religion with the Athenians; they were already "very religious." Only religion was not doing for them what it ought; it was a power used "in ignorance"; and Paul, valuing all that was good there, quoting their own poets with appreciation, nevertheless longed to take their strong religious motives and so clarify and direct them that faith might mean unqualified benediction. Is not this always the right missionary method? The people of India are intensely religious; no tribe in Africa lacks its gods; and everywhere the faith-motive is immensely powerful. But often it makes mothers drown their babies in sacred rivers, it consecrates caste systems as holy things, it centers man's adoration around unworthy objects, its powers, gone wrong, are a curse and not a blessing. If in Jesus Christ religious faith has come to us, through no merit of our own, as an unspeakable benediction, ought we not, humbly, without dogmatism or intolerance, and yet with passionate earnestness, to share our best with all the world? Religious faith may either depress or lift a people's life; it is forever doing one or the other in every nation under heaven; and _there is no hope for the world until this master-motive is lifting everywhere_. _Almighty God, our Father in heaven, who hast so greatly loved the world that Thou hast given Thine only-begotten Son, the Redeemer, communicate Thy love to the hearts of all believers, and revive Thy Church to preach the Gospel to every creature._ _O Thou who rulest by Thy providence over land and sea, defend and guide and bless the messengers of Christ; in danger be their shield, in darkness be their hope; enrich their word and work with wisdom, joy, and power, and let them gather souls for Thee in far fields white unto the harvest._ _O Thou who by Thy Holy Spirit workest wonders in secret, open the eyes that dimly look for light to see the day-star in Christ; open the minds that seek the unknown God to know their Heavenly Father in Christ; open the hearts that hunger for righteousness to find eternal peace in Christ. Deliver the poor prisoners of ignorance and captives of idolatry, break down the bars of error, and dispel the shadows of the ancient night; lift up the gates, and let the King of glory and the Prince of Peace come in._ _Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom! Strengthen Thy servants to pray and labor and wait for its appearing; forgive our little faith and the weakness of our endeavor; hasten the day when all nations shall be at peace in Thee, and every land and every heart throughout the world shall bless the name of the Lord Jesus, to the glory of God the Father. Amen._--Henry van Dyke. Fourth Week, Seventh Day The sad perversions of religious faith are not a matter for foreign missions only. At home, too, we find people who seem to be rather worse than better because they are religious. Just as power in any other form may be abused, so may religious faith. Some in the name of religion become censorious and intolerant, some superstitious, some slaves to morbid fears; and ignorance, self-conceit, pride, and worldly ambition when driven and enforced by a religious motive are infinitely worse than they would have been without it. Toward this fact two attitudes are possible. One is to throw over religion on account of its abuses; which is as reasonable as to deny all the blessings of electricity because in ignorant hands it is a dangerous power. The other is to take religious faith more seriously than ever, to see how great a force for weal or woe it always is in human life, and to strive in ourselves and in others for a high, intelligent, and worthy understanding and use of it. For religion can mean what Amiel said of it: "There is but one thing needful--to possess God. Religion is not a method: it is a life--a higher and supernatural life, mystical in its root and practical in its fruits; a communion with God, a calm and deep enthusiasm, a love which radiates, a force which acts, a happiness which overflows." From our study of the perversions and travesties of faith, we turn therefore in the weekly comment to consider faith's vital meanings. So Paul, writing to the Galatians, rejoices in religion as a gloriously transforming power in life. =But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would. But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I forewarn you even as I did forewarn you, that they who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such there is no law. And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof.--Gal. 5:16-23.= _Thou, O God, hast exalted us so that no longer we walk with prone head among the animals that perish. Thou hast ordained us as Thine own children, and hast planted within us that spiritual life which ever seeks, as the flame, to rise upward and mingle with Thee. Every exaltation, every pure sentiment, all urgency of true affection, and all yearning after things higher and nobler, are testimonies of the divinity that is in us. These are the threads by which Thou art drawing us away from sense, away from the earth, away from things coarse and unspiritual, and toward the ineffable. We rejoice that we have in us the witness of the Spirit, the indwelling of God. For, although we are temples defiled, though we are unworthy of such a Guest, and though we perpetually grieve Thee, and drive Thee from us, so that Thou canst not do the mighty work that Thou wouldst within us, yet we rejoice to believe that Thou dost linger near us. Even upon the outside, Thou standest knocking at the door until Thy locks are wet with the night dews, and dost persuade us with the everlasting importunity of love, and draw us upward, whether with or without our own knowledge. Thou art evermore striving to imbue us with Thyself, and to give us that divine nature which shall triumph over time and sense and matter; and we pray that we may have an enlightened understanding of this Thy work in us and upon us, and work together with Thee. Amen._--Henry Ward Beecher. COMMENT FOR THE WEEK One might be tempted by the last chapter to suppose that, if he could accept the proposition that God is personal, he would be well upon his way toward Christianity. But in theory at least Plato accepted this proposition four hundred years before Christ, when he said: "God is never in any way unrighteous--He is perfect righteousness; and he of us who is most righteous is most like Him." He, too, used personality as a symbol of God. When, however, one compares Plato with Jesus, how incalculably greater is the religious meaning of our Lord! There is something more in the Master's experience and thought than the belief that God is personal. Evidently our quest must be followed further than the last chapter carried us. In Scripture two kinds of faith in the personal God are clearly indicated. On the one side stand verses such as this: "Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well; the demons also believe and shudder" (James 2:19). On the other, one finds through both the Testaments witness and appeal for a kind of faith that plainly differs from the first: "O my God, in thee have I trusted" (Psalm 25:2). It is not difficult to guess the terms in which many would describe this difference. In the first, so the familiar explanation runs, we are dealing with the _mind's_ faith in God; the man's intellect assents to the belief that God is and that He is one. In the second we are dealing with the _heart's_ faith in God; the whole man is here involved in an adoring trust that finds in reliance upon God life's stimulus and joy. This distinction between the faith of the intellect and of the heart is valid, but it does not go to the pith of the truth. When a professor in the class-room, discussing conflicting theories of life's origin, concludes that theism is the reasonable interpretation of the universe, the listener understands that the lecturer believes in God's existence. But if the professor could be followed home and overheard in a private prayer, like Fénelon's: "Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of Thee; Thou only knowest what I need; Thou lovest me better than I know how to love myself. O Father! give to Thy child that which he himself knows not how to ask," something incalculably more than the classroom talk disclosed would be revealed about the meaning of the teacher's faith. And as the classroom lecture and the private prayer stand so contrasted, the gist of the difference is plain. In the one, faith was directed toward a _theory_; in the other faith laid hold upon a _Person_. That the intellect was more involved in the first and the emotions in the second is incidental to the main matter, that _two differing objects were in view_. Toward these two objects we continually are exercising faith--_ideas and people, propositions and persons_. Now faith in a proposition we conveniently may call belief; and faith in a person, trust. We believe that gravitation and the conservation of energy universally apply, that democracy will prove better than absolutism, and that prison systems can be radically reformed; these and innumerable other propositions that cannot be demonstrated we confidently believe. But in quite another way we daily are exercising faith; _we have faith in our friends_. How profound a change comes over the quality and value of faith when it thus finds its objective in a person! Our beliefs in propositions are of basic import and without them we could not well exist, but it is by trust in persons that we live indeed. Belief in monogamy, for all its importance, is a cold abstraction, and few could be found to die for it. Men do not lay down their lives for abstract theories, any more than they would suffer martyrdom, as Chesterton remarked, for the Meridian of Greenwich. But when monogamy is translated from theory into personal experience, when belief in the idea becomes trust in a life-long comrade of whom one may sing: "What I do And what I dream include thee, as the wine Must taste of its own grapes," faith has taken a form for which men do live and die in glad surrender. Although the same word, faith, be applied to both, trust in persons reaches deeper than belief in propositions and supplies a warmth and power that belief cannot attain. In religion these two aspects of faith continually are found and both are indispensable. Trust in a person, for example, presupposes belief in his existence and fidelity. "He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him" (Heb. 11:6). Trust cannot exist without belief, but when one seeks the inner glory of the religious life that has overflowed in prayer and hymn, supplied motive for service and power for character, he finds it not in belief, but in the vital relationships involved in trusting a Person. Men often have discussed their particular beliefs with cool deliberation, have stated them in formal creeds, have changed them with access of new knowledge and experience. But _trust_, the inner reliance of the soul on God and glad self-surrender to his will, has persisted through many changes, clothing itself with beliefs like garments and casting them aside when old. Trust has made rituals and churches and unmade them when they were ineffectual, it has been the life behind the theory, the experience behind the explanation; and its proper voice has been not creed and controversy, but psalm and song and sacrifice. Men have felt in describing this inward friendship that their best words were but the "vocal gestures of the dumb," able to indicate but unable to express their thoughts. _For while belief is theology, trust is religion._ II This central position of trust in the Christian life is evident when one considers that in its presence or absence lies the chief point of difference between a religious and an irreligious man. The peculiarity of religion is not that it has beliefs; everybody has them. As we have seen, Huxley, who called himself an agnostic, said that he thoroughly believed the universe to be rational, than which only a few greater ventures of faith can be imagined. A man may not want to have beliefs. He may say that knowledge is wool, warm to clothe oneself withal, that belief is cotton, and that he will not mingle them. But for all that he still does have beliefs and he cannot help it. When, therefore, a Christian and an atheist converse they can match belief with belief. "I believe," says one, "in God the Father"; and "I believe," says the other, "in the eternal physical universe, without spiritual origin or moral purpose." Says the Christian, "I believe in the immortality of persons," and the atheist replies, "I believe that the spirit dies with the body as sound ceases when the bell's swinging iron grows still." Says the Christian, "I believe in the ultimate triumph of righteousness"; and the atheist replies, "I believe that all man's aspiration after good is but the endless sailing of a ship that never shall arrive." So the two may play battledore and shuttlecock, but if, so having paired beliefs, they part with no more said, they have missed the real point of their difference. The irreligious man can match the Christian's belief with his own, but one thing he cannot match--the Christian's trust. _He has nothing that remotely corresponds with that._ The Christian always has this case to plead with an unbelieving man: Do not suppose that the difference between us is exhausted in a conflict of contrasting propositions. Great indeed is the divergence there! But the issue of all such difference lies in another realm. When you face life's abysmal mysteries that your eyes can no more pierce than mine, you have no one to trust. When misfortunes fall that send men to their graves, as Sydney Smith said, with souls scarred like a soldier's body, you have no one to trust. When you face the last mystery of all and whether going say farewell to those who stay, or staying bid farewell to those who go, you have no one to trust. You can match my belief with your belief, but for one thing you have no counterpart. "Jehovah is my shepherd, I shall not want" (Psalm 23:1). You cannot match that! "My heart hath trusted in him, and I am helped" (Psalm 28:7). You cannot match that! "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18:25); "We have our hope set on the living God" (I Tim. 4:10); "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46). That trust you cannot match! III In the light of this distinction between belief and trust some mistaken types of faith can be easily described. There, for example, is the _faith of formal creedalism_. We cannot have trust without some belief, but we may unhappily have belief without any trust. Now a man who believes the doctrines that underly the Christian life but who does not vitally trust the Person whom those doctrines present, has missed the heart out of faith's meaning. He is like one who cherishes a letter of introduction to a great personality, but has never used it; he has the formal credentials, but not the transforming experience. It follows that we cannot estimate a man merely by knowing his beliefs. I believe in all the Christian truths, says one; and the curious question rises, how did these beliefs of his come into his possession? They may have been handed to him by his forbears like a set of family jewels, a static and external heritage, which now he keeps in some ecclesiastical safe-deposit vault and on state days, at Christmas or at Easter, goes to see. Still he may claim that they are his beliefs; he may even quarrel about their genuineness, not because he ever uses them but because they are his. He may repeat the creed with the same unquestioning assent that he gives to the conventional cut of his clothes. His beliefs are not the natural utterance and explanation of his inner life with God and man, but are put on as they were handed to him, like the fashions of his coats. So easy is it to be formally orthodox! Over against such conventional believers one thinks of other folk whom he has known. They have no such stereotyped, clear-cut beliefs. They are very puzzled about life. It seems to them abysmally mysterious. And when they speak they talk with a modesty the formal creedalist has never felt: My beliefs are most uncertain. Confused by many voices shouting conflicting opinions about truths which I once accepted without thinking, I cannot easily define my thoughts. But I do trust God. That assent of the mind which I cannot give to propositions, I can give to him. Life is full of mystery, but I do not really think that the mystery is darkness at its heart. My faith has yet its standing ground in this, that the world's activities are not like the convulsions of an epileptic, unconscious and purposeless. There is a Mind behind the universe, and a good purpose in it. "Yet in the maddening maze of things, And tossed by storm and flood, To one fixed trust my spirit clings; I know that God is good." Say as one may that such an attitude is far from adequate, yet as compared with the merely formal acceptance of inherited opinions how incomparably superior its religious value is! The people of placid, stiff beliefs are not the successors of the real saints. When one reads George Matheson's books of devotion, for example, or sings his hymn "O Love, that wilt not let me go," or learns of his great work in his church in Edinburgh, one might suppose that he never had a doubt. Yet listen to his own confession: "At one time with a great thrill of horror, I found myself an absolute atheist. After being ordained at Innellan, I believed nothing; neither God nor immortality. I tendered my resignation to the Presbytery, but to their honor they would not accept it, even though an Highland Presbytery. They said I was a young man and would change. I have changed." One need only read such books of his as "Can the Old Faith Live with the New?" to see through what a searching discipline of strenuous thought he passed in the regaining of his faith. But if one would know what held his religious life secure while he was working out his beliefs from confusion to clarity, one must turn to Matheson's poem: "Couldst thou love _Me_ When creeds are breaking-- Old landmarks shaking With wind and sea? Couldst thou refrain the earth from quaking And rest thy heart on _Me_?" Many a man has been held fast by his trust in God while in perplexity he thought out his beliefs about God. Indeed, within the Scripture, whatever word is used to describe the attitude of faith, this vital personal alliance with God is everywhere intended. For convenience we have called faith in propositions belief, but that does not mean that when the Scriptures use "believe" they are urging the acceptance of propositions. Not often in the Bible are we invited merely to agree with an opinion; we are everywhere called to trust a Person. "Trust in the Lord" in the Old Testament, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ" in the New, are neither of them the proclamation of a theory, but the exaltation of a personality. Wherever in Scripture doctrines are insisted on--the unity of God, the deathlessness of the spirit, the divinity of Christ--they are never doctrines for their own sakes; _they are either commendatory truths about a Friend, that we may not fail to trust him, or they are ideas about life that have come to men because they did trust him_. _Trust in a Person is either the source or the goal of every Christian doctrine._ The Gospel at its center is not a series of propositions, but a concrete, personal relationship opened between the soul and the Divine, out of which new powers, joys, possibilities flow gloriously into human life. When out of this experience of divine fellowship Paul, for example, speaks of faith he means by it the alliance that binds him to his friend. He fairly sings of the peace that comes from such believing (Rom. 15:13), of the love that is its motive power and chief expression (Gal. 5:6), and of "the sacrifice and service" which are its issue (Phil. 2:17). He enthusiastically commends to everyone this divine alliance through which moral defeat is changed to victory in the "righteousness which is of God by faith" (Phil. 3:9); and his prose slips over into poetry when he describes his new transfigured life as "access by faith into that grace wherein we stand" (Rom. 5:2). Plainly he is not talking here about a set of propositions; he is rejoicing in a transforming personal relationship. Some faith is nothing but an inherited set of opinions and it gives a cold light like an incandescent bulb; some faith, like sunshine, is brighter for seeing than any incandescence can ever be, but warm too, so that under its persuasive touch new worlds of life spring into being. The faith of the New Testament and of the real saints is not the cold brilliance of a creed in whose presence one can freeze even while he sees; it is the warm, life-giving sunshine of a trust in God that makes all gracious things grow, and puts peace and joy, hope and love into life. Belief in propositions is there, but the crown and glory of it are trust in a Person. IV In the light of this distinction between belief and trust, the inadequacy of another type of faith can easily be understood. Many would protest that they have not accepted their beliefs as an external heritage from the past, but rather have thought them through, and hold them now as _reasonable theories to explain the facts of the spiritual life_. They would say that as a geologist observes the rocks and constructs an hypothesis to account for their origin and nature, so the mind, observing man's contacts with invisible powers, constructs religious beliefs as explanations of experience. They would insist that their theology is not merely traditional, but in large degree is independently appropriated and original. They hold it as an hypothesis to make intelligible man's experiences of the spiritual world. There is significant truth in this view of faith. Man's ideals, his loves, hopes, aspirations, his unescapable sense of moral obligation, his consciousness of Someone other than himself, are facts, as solidly present in experience as stars and mountains. To explain these facts by theology is as rational as to explain the stars by astronomy. Every believer in religious truth should welcome this confirming word from Dr. Pritchett, written when he was President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: "Science is grounded in faith just as is religion, and scientific truth, like religious truth, consists of hypotheses, never wholly verified, that fit the facts more or less closely." But when one turns from such a statement to inquire what faith has actually meant to religious men, he does not find that their experience could easily be defined as belief in an hypothesis. The prophets, standing their ground through national disaster, undiscourageable in their conviction of God's good purpose for His people, would have been surprised to hear their faith so described. When the Sons of Thunder were swept out into a new life by the influence of Jesus, or the seer of Patmos was ravished with visions of eternal victory, or Paul was made conqueror in a fight for character that had been his despair, they would hardly have spoken of their experiences as belief in an hypothesis. Real religion has always meant something more vital than holding a theory about life. When Robert Louis Stevenson says of his transformation of character, "I came about like a well-handled ship. There stood at the wheel that unknown steersman whom we call God"; when Tolstoi cries: "To know God and to live are one and the same thing"; when Professor William James, of Harvard, writes of his consciousness of God, "It is most indefinite to be sure and rather faint, and yet I know that if it should cease, there would be a great hush, a great void in my life"; one sees what conversion of character, what increase of life's value, what spiritual reenforcement religion has meant even to such unconventional believers. When they speak of it, they are evidently thinking of a vital power and not a theory. The most obscure Christian to whom religion has become a necessity in living, knows how far short the plummet of hypothetical belief comes from reaching bottom. In sin, burdened by a sense of guilt that he could not shake off and unable to forgive himself, he has cried to be forgiven, and the Gospel that has been his hope was no injunction to hold hard by his hypothesis! In sorrow, when the blows have fallen that either hallow or embitter life, he has sought for necessary fortitude, and the Gospel which established him certainly was not, Cast thy care on thine hypothesis! And when, more than conqueror, he faces death, his confidence and hope will rest on no such prayer as this, O Hypothesis, guide me! The word of religion is of another sort, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for _Thou_ art with me." Not belief in propositions, but trust in a Person has been the heart of the Gospel, and to make any hypothesis, however true, do duty as religion is to give the soul a stone when it asks for bread. The futility of seeking contentment in faith as an hypothesis alone is especially manifest in our time. This is an age of swiftly changing ideas in every realm. As in science, so in religion, today one theory holds the field to be displaced tomorrow by another. A man in theology, as much as in politics or psychology, goes to bed supposing he has settled his opinions, and wakes up to find a new array of evidence that disturbs his confidence. When, therefore, religious faith has meant no more to its possessor than theory, there is no security or rest. Each day the winds of opinion shift and veer, and minds at the beginning obstinate in their beliefs, at last, dismayed by the reiterated uncertainties of thought, give up their faith. Where, then, have the men of faith found the immovable center of their confidence? Paul revealed the secret. On the side of his particular opinions he frankly confessed his limited and uncertain knowledge. "Now we know in fragments," he wrote, "now we see through a glass darkly." "How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past tracing out!" But on the side of his trust he is adamant: "I know _him_ whom I have believed." The certainty of his life was his relationship with a person, and his beliefs were the best he yet had thought in the explication and establishment of that trust. The great believers of the Church continually have exhibited this dual aspect of their faith. Even St. Augustine, facing the profound mysteries involved in his trinitarian belief, complains that human speech is pitiably futile in trying to explain what "Three persons" means, and that if he uses the familiar phrase, he does so not because he likes it, but because he may not be silent and knows no better thing to say. But when Augustine prays to the God whose nature is so unfathomable that no man can see it fully or express it adequately, he reveals no such uncertain thought: "Grant me, even me, my dearest Lord, to know Thee and love Thee and rejoice in Thee.... Let the love of Thee grow every day more and more here, that it may be perfect hereafter; that my joy may be great in itself and full in Thee. I know, O God, that thou art a God of truth; O make good Thy gracious promises to me!" So children do not fully understand an earthly father and often hold conceptions grotesquely insufficient to do justice to his life and work. But they may have for him well-founded trust. Even in the years of infancy an ennobling personal relationship begins, despite the inadequacy of their beliefs, and that trust yearly deepens while mental concepts shift and change with access of new knowledge. _The abiding core of a child's life with his father is not belief but trust._ Such has always been the secret of faith's stability in men who have entered into personal fellowship with God. Even of the first disciples it has been said--"They would have had difficulty sometimes to tell you _what_ they believed, but they could always have told you in _whom_ they believed." V The truth of which we have been speaking has pertinent bearing on the main object of our studies. We shall be considering the difficulties which Christians have with their beliefs, and the arguments which may clarify and establish our minds' confidence in God. But many problems in the realm of intellectual belief cannot be solved by any arguments which the mind devises. The trouble often lies not in our theories about the religious life, but in our religious life itself. _The deeper difficulty is not that our thinking is unreasonable, but that our experience is unreal._ To a man who never had seen the stars or felt the wonder of their distances, astronomy would be a lifeless topic and his endeavors to think about it a blundering and futile operation. Our theories about anything depend for their interest and worth upon the vividness with which we experience the thing itself and care to understand its meaning. This is true about matters like the stars; how much more true about the intimate affairs of man's own life! Democracy vs. autocracy is a crucial problem. But plenty of men are so careless about human weal, think so little of their country and the world as objects of solicitude and devotion, that to discuss in their presence democratic and autocratic theories of state is a waste of time. The trouble is not with their minds; they may be very clever and acute. The trouble is with their lives. They need to experience patriotism as a vital motive; they need to care immensely what happens to mankind. Only then will the problems of government grow vivid, and the need of a solution become so critical that thinking will be urgent and productive. We never think well about anything for which we do not care. Plenty of people today discuss theology as an academic pastime. It is a speculative game at which they play, as they do at golf, for its fun and lure. They do not really care about God; they feel no crucial need of him. Of little use is all their ingenuity in argument, clever and astute though it may be. Blind men might so discuss the color scheme of an Italian landscape and deaf men debate the harmonies of Handel's oratorios. What is lacking is experience. For our theories are only the explanations of experience, and an emptier game cannot be played than debating explanations of experiences which we have not had. Everyone in difficulty with his faith should give due weight to this important truth. Our intellectual troubles are not all caused by the bankruptcy of our spiritual lives, but many of them are. Men live with drained and unreplenished spirits, from which communion with God and service of high causes have been crowded out. God grows unreal. The self-evidencing experiences that maintain vital confidence in the spiritual life grow dim and unimperative. Men pass years without habitually thinking as though God really were, without making any great decisions as though God's will were King, without engaging in any sacrificial work that makes the thought of God a need and a delight, without the companionship of great ideas or the sustenance of prayer. Then, when experience is denuded of any sense of God's reality, some intellectual doubt is suggested by books or friends, or fearful trouble shatters happiness. What recourse is there in such a case? The arguments of faith have no experience to get their grip upon; they can appeal to no solid and sustained fact of living. Religious confidence goes to pieces and men tell their friends that modern philosophy has been too much for faith. But the underlying difficulty was not philosophical; it was vital. The insolvency of "belief" was due to the bankruptcy of "trust." Personal fellowship with God failed first; the theory about him lapsed afterward. Throughout our endeavor to deal with intellectual perplexity, this fundamental truth should not be forgotten. _The peril of religion is that vital experience shall be resolved into a formula of explanation, and that men, grasping the formula, shall suppose themselves thereby to possess the experience._ If one inquires what air is, the answer will probably be a formula stating that oxygen and nitrogen mixed in proportions of twenty-one to seventy-nine make air. But air in experience is not a formula. Air is the elixir we breathe and live thereby. Air is the magician who takes the words that our lips frame and bears them from friend to friend in daily converse. Air is the messenger who carries music to our ears and fragrance to our nostrils; it is the whisperer among the trees in June, and in March the wild dancer who shakes the bare branches for his castanets. Air is the giant who piles the surf against the rocky shore, and the nurse who fans the faces of the sick. One cannot put that into a formula. No more can God be put into a theology, however true. They who define him best may understand him least. God is the Unseen Friend, the Spiritual Presence, who calls us in ideals, warns us in remorse, renews us with his pardon, and comforts us with power. God is the Spirit of Righteousness in human life, whose victories we see in every moral gain, and allied with whom we have solid hopes of moral victory. God is the One who holds indeed the far stars in his hand, and yet in fellowship with whom each humblest son of man may find strength to do and to endure with constancy and fortitude and deathless hope. And when one lives close to him, so that the inner doors swing easily on quiet hinges to let him in, he is the One who illumines life with a radiance that human wills alone cannot attain. That is God--"Blessed is the man that taketh refuge in him" (Psalm 34:8). CHAPTER V Faith's Intellectual Difficulties DAILY READINGS Most people will readily grant that such a sense of personal fellowship with God as the last week's study presented is obviously desirable. Every one who has experienced such filial life with God will bear witness to its incomparable blessing. Said Tennyson, "I should be sorely afraid to live my life without God's presence, but to feel he is by my side just now as much as you are, that is the very joy of my heart." But many who would admit the desirability of the experience are troubled about the reasonableness of the beliefs that underly it. They want intellectual assurance about their faith. Let us in the daily readings present certain considerations which a mind so perplexed should take into account. Fifth Week, First Day We should let no one deny our right to bring religious belief to the test of reasonableness. Glanvill was right when in the seventeenth century he said, "There is not anything I know which hath done more mischief to Religion than the disparaging of Reason." In the New Testament Paul says: =Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.--I Thess. 5:21.= Peter says: =Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge.--II Pet. 1:5.= This might be paraphrased to read, Faith should be _worked out_ into character and _thought through_ into knowledge. As for Jesus: =One of the scribes came, and heard them questioning together, and knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, What commandment is the first of all? Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.--Mark 12:28-30.= In many a life which has neglected these admonitions Lowell's words have proved true: "Nothing that keeps thought out is safe from thought." In our resolute endeavor to think through the mystery of life, however, and to find a reasonable basis for faith, we need to remember that _the very desire to know is an indication of the reality which we seek_. The dim intuition that the world with all its diverse powers was in some sense a unity, preceded by ages the statement of nature's uniformity which modern science knows; and man's tireless desire to reach a reasonable statement of the unity was an intimation in advance that unity was there. So men do not believe in God because they have proved him; they rather strive endlessly to prove him because they cannot help being sure that he must be there. This in itself is an intimation about reality which no thoughtful man will lightly set aside. Tennyson rightly describes the reason for man's quest after proof about God: "If e'er when faith had fall'n asleep, I heard a voice 'believe no more' And heard an ever-breaking shore That tumbled in the Godless deep; A warmth within the breast would melt The freezing reason's colder part, And like a man in wrath the heart Stood up and answer'd 'I have felt.'" _Eternal Father, Quest of ages, long sought, oft doubted or forsook; can it be that Thou art known to us, the Law within our minds, the Life of every breath we draw, the Love that yearneth in our hearts? Art Thou the Spirit who oft hast striven with us, and whom we greatly feared, lest yielding to His strong embrace we should become more than we dared to be?_ _An impulse toward forgiveness has sometimes stirred within us, we have felt moved to show mercy, the sacrificial life has touched our aspiration; but we were unprepared to pay the price. Was this Thyself, and have we turned from Thee? Something like this we must have done, so barren, joyless and so dead has life become. Canst Thou not visit us again?_ _We hush our thoughts to silence, we school our spirits in sincerity, and here we wait. O may we not feel once more the light upon our straining eyes, the tides of life rise again within our waiting hearts?_ _We never looked to meet Thee in the stress of thought, the toil of life, or in the call of duty; we only knew that somehow life had lost for us all meaning, dignity, and beauty. How then shall we turn back again and see with eyes that fear has filmed? How can we be born again, now grown so old in fatal habit?_ _If we could see this life of ours lived out in Thee, its common days exalted, its circumstances made a throne, its bitterness, disappointment, and failure all redeemed, then our hearts might stir again, and these trembling hands lay hold on life for evermore. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. Fifth Week, Second Day Not only is man's tireless quest for assurance about God an intimation that God must be here to be sought after; but _the spiritual nature of man which insists on the quest is itself a revelation that God actually is here_. Some men say that our spiritual life is the result of evolution, and they suppose that by this magic word they have explained it. But what comes out of a process of growth was somehow latent in the Original Beginning from which the growth started. Palm-trees do not grow from acorns; only oaks evolve from acorns and for the sufficient reason that oaks are somehow _involved in acorns_ to start with. So a universe with spiritual life in it naturally presupposes an Original with spiritual life in It. Whatever evolves must first of all have been involved. The very fact that the seeker after God has a spiritual life, which is restless and unsatisfied without faith in the Eternal Spirit, is one of the clearest indications that, whatever else may be said about the source of life, it must be spiritual. The Nile for ages was a mystery; it flowed through Egypt--a blessed necessity to the land, enriching the soil, and sustaining the people--but nobody knew its source. Long before Victoria Nyanza was discovered, however, thinkers were sure that a great lake must be the explanation of the stream; and when at last they found the sources of the Nile, the lake was even greater than anyone had dreamed. So is man's spirit a revelation of a spiritual origin even before that origin is clearly known. As the Bible puts it: =Now he that wrought us for this very thing is God, who gave unto us the earnest of the Spirit.--II Cor. 5:5.= _O God! mysterious and Infinite, Thou art the first and Thou the last: as our weeks pass away and our age rises or declines, we still return to Thee who ever art the same. We seek Thee as the sole abiding light amid the shadows of perishable things. O Thou most ancient God! to whom the heavens are but of yesterday, and the life of worlds but as the shooting star, there is no number of Thy days and mercies; and what can we do, O Lord, but throw ourselves on Thee who failest not, and from whom our pathway is not hid? With solemn and open heart we would meet Thee here. Cover not Thyself with a cloud, most High, but may our prayer pass through._ _O Thou our constant Witness and our awful Judge! When we remember our thoughtless lives, our low desires, our impatient temper, our ungoverned wills, we know that Thou hast left us without excuse. For Thou hast not made us blind, O Lord, as the creatures that have no sin; nor hast Thou spared the light of holy guidance. Thy still small voice of warning whispers through our deepest conscience; and Thine open Word hath dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, and called us to the feet of Christ to choose the better part. We are not our own, and are ashamed to have lived unto ourselves. Thou hast formed us for Thy service, and we must hide our face that we have shrunk from the glorious hardships of our task, and slumbered on our holy watch. Our daily work has not been wrought as in Thy sight; and we have not made the outgoings of the morning and the evening to praise Thee. The trials of our patience we have received as earthly pains of nature, not as the heavenly discipline of faith; and the fulness of Thy bounties has come to us as dead comfort, not as the quickening touch of Thy everlasting love. O our true and only God! we have lived in a bondage of the world that bringeth no content; and the passions we serve are as strange idols that cannot deliver. Awake, awake, O Arm of the Lord! and burst our bonds in sunder; and help the spirit that struggles within us to turn unto Thee with a pure heart, and serve Thee in newness of spirit. Amen._--James Martineau. Fifth Week, Third Day Many stumble at the very beginning of their quest for God, because they are sure that finite mind can never know the Infinite. The Bible itself asserts that God is in one sense unknowable. =Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out.--Job 37:23.= =Man cannot find out the work that God hath done from the beginning even to the end.--Eccl. 3:11.= =O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?--Rom. 11:33, 34.= But in the same sense in which God is unknowable, all the most important realities with which we deal are also beyond our comprehension. We do not know what electricity is, what matter is, what life is. Ether is utterly beyond the reach of our definitions, and an English scientist calls it "unknown, impalpable, the necessary condition of scientific thought." As for the constituent elements of the material world, we are told that atoms are so infinitesimally minute as to be indivisible, and yet that an "electron ranges about in the atom as a mouse might in a cathedral." The plain fact is that in any realm, human knowledge soon runs off into an unknown region where it deals with invisible realities, which it cannot define, but on which life is based. While therefore we do not know what electricity, ether, electrons, and life itself are, we do know them well _in their relationship with our needs_. So we may know God. Deep beyond deep in him will be past our fathoming, but what God means in his relationships with our lives we may know gloriously. _O Thou who transcendest all thought of Thee as the heavens are higher than the earth; we acknowledge that we cannot search Thee out to perfection, but we thank Thee that Thou, the Invisible, comest to us in the things that are seen; that Thy exceeding glory is shadowed in the flower that blooms for a day, in the light that fades; that Thine infinite love has been incarnate in lowly human life; and that Thy presence surrounds all our ignorance, Thy holiness our sin, Thy peace our unrest._ _Give us that lowly heart which is the only temple that can contain the infinite. Save us from the presumption that prides itself on a knowledge which is not ours, and from the hypocrisy and carelessness which professes an ignorance which Thy manifestation has made for ever impossible. Save us from calling ourselves by a name that Thou alone canst wear, and from despising the image of Thyself Thou hast formed us to bear, and grant that knowledge of Thee revealed in Jesus Christ which is our eternal life. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. Fifth Week, Fourth Day The assurance of God may come in part from looking outward at his creation. This universe seems superficially to be material, but really it is _saturated with the presence of mind_. So a city's streets, buildings, bridges, subways, and railroads might appear to careless thought grossly material; but the fact is that in their origin they all are _mental_. They are not simply iron and steel and stone; they are thought, plan, purpose materialized and made visible. The basic fact about them is that mind shaped them and permeates every use to which they are put. The most important and decisive force in their origination was not anything that can be seen, but the invisible thought that dreamed them and moulded them. So when one looks at creation he finds something more than matter; he finds order, law, uniformity; his mind is at home in tracing regularities, discovering laws, and perceiving purposes. Creation is not grossly material; it is saturated with the evidence of mind. Lord Kelvin, the chemist, walking in the country with Liebig, his fellow-scientist, asked his companion if he believed that the grass and flowers grew by mere chemical forces; and Liebig answered, "No, no more than I could believe that the books of botany describing them could grow by mere chemical forces." =Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these, that bringeth out their host by number; he calleth them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and for that he is strong in power, not one is lacking.= =Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from Jehovah, and the justice due to me is passed away from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? The everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait for Jehovah shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.--Isa. 40:26-31.= _O Thou Infinite Perfection, who art the soul of all things that are ... we thank Thee for the world of matter whereon we live, wherewith our hands are occupied, and whereby our bodies are builded up and filled with food and furnished with all things needful to enjoy. We thank Thee for the calmness of Night, which folds Thy children in her arms, and rockest them into peaceful sleep, and when we wake we thank Thee that we are still with Thee. We bless Thee for the heavens over our head, arched with loveliness, and starred with beauty, speaking in the poetry of nature the psalm of life which the spheres chant before Thee to every listening soul._ _We thank Thee for this greater and nobler world of spirit wherein we live, whereof we are, whereby we are strengthened, upheld, and blessed. We thank Thee for the wondrous powers which Thou hast given to man, that Thou hast created him for so great an estate, that thou hast enriched him with such noble faculties of mind and conscience and heart and soul, capable of such continual increase of growth and income of inspiration from Thyself. We thank Thee for the wise mind, for the just conscience, for the loving heart, and the soul which knows Thee as Thou art, and enters into communion with Thy spirit, rejoicing in its blessing from day to day. Amen._--Theodore Parker. Fifth Week, Fifth Day The vital assurance of faith always comes, not so much from observing the outer world, as from appreciating the meaning of man's inner life. Man knows that he is something more than a physical machine. Theorists may say that our minds are only a series of molecular changes in the brain; but man turns to ask: _Who is it that is watching these molecular changes? The very fact that we can discuss them, is proof that we are something more than they are and of another order._ Leslie Stephen was an agnostic, but at the thought of man as merely a physical machine he grew impatient. "I knock down a man and an image," he said, "and both fall down because both are material. But when the man gets up and knocks me down, the result is not explicable by any merely mechanical action." Man denies his own inward consciousness of self when he refuses to acknowledge the mental and spiritual part of him as the thing he really is. Man may have a body, but he surely is a soul. And when man lets this highest part of him speak its own characteristic word, he always hears a message like this: I am spirit; to grow into great character is the one worthy end of my existence; but how came I to be spirit with spiritual purpose unless my Creator is of like quality? and how can I believe that my existence and my purpose are not a cruel joke unless I am begotten by a Spiritual Life that will sustain my strength and crown my effort? To believe that man's soul is a foundling, laid on the doorstep of a merely physical universe, crying in vain for any father who begot him or any mother who conceived him, is to make our highest life a liar. Therefore man at his best has always believed in God. =For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God.--Rom. 8:14-16.= _O Thou whom no name can tell, whom all our thoughts cannot fully comprehend, we rejoice in all Thy goodness.... We thank Thee for our body, this handful of dust so curiously and wonderfully framed together. We bless Thee for this sparkle of Thy fire that we call our soul, which enchants the dust into thoughtful human life, and blesses us with so rich a gift. We thank Thee for the varied powers Thou hast given us here on earth. We bless Thee for the far-reaching mind, which puts all things underneath our feet, rides on the winds and the waters, and tames the lightning into useful service.... We thank Thee for this conscience, whereby face to face we commune with Thine everlasting justice. We thank Thee for the strength of will which can overpower the weakness of mortal flesh, face danger and endure hardship, and in all things acquit us like men...._ _We thank Thee for this religious sense, whereby we know Thee, and, amid a world of things that perish, lay fast hold on Thyself, who alone art steadfast, without beginning of days or end of years, forever and forever still the same. We thank Thee that amid all the darkness of time, amid joys that deceive us and pleasures that cheat, amid the transgressions we commit, we can still lift up our hands to Thee, and draw near Thee with our heart, and Thou blessest us still with more than a father's or a mother's never-ending love. Amen._--Theodore Parker. Fifth Week, Sixth Day One ground of assurance concerning faith is the way a sincere fellowship with God affects life. In a delicious passage of his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin says, "I was scarce fifteen, when, after doubting by turns of several points, as I found them disputed in the different books I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself. Some books against Deism fell into my hands; they were said to be the substance of sermons preached at Boyle's Lectures. It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short I soon became a thorough Deist. My arguments perverted some others, particularly Collins and Ralph; but, each of them having afterwards wrong'd me greatly without the least compunction, and recollecting Keith's conduct towards me (who was another free thinker), and my own towards Vernon and Miss Read, which at times gave me great trouble, I began to suspect that this doctrine, tho' it might be true, was not very useful." Many men, not yet able to see clearly the issue of conflicting arguments, are practically convinced in favor of faith by the relative effects on life of faith and unbelief. When one carries this thought out until he imagines a world where no one any more believes in God, he feels even more emphatically the negative results of unbelief. As Sir James Stephen said, "We cannot judge of the effects of Atheism from the conduct of persons who have been educated as believers in God, and in the midst of a nation which believes in God. If we should ever see a generation of men to whom the word God has no meaning at all, we should get a light on the subject which might be lurid enough." A practical working conviction is often gained in religion, as in every other realm, not by argument, but by acting on a principle until it verifies itself by its results, or, as in Benjamin Franklin's case, by trying a negation until one is driven from it by its consequences. =Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them.--Matt. 7:15-20.= _O God, who remainest the same though all else fades, who changest not with our changing moods, who leavest us not when we leave Thee; we thank Thee that when we lose faith in Thee, soon or late we come to faith in something that leads us back again with firmer trust and more sincerity. Even if we wander into the far country we take ourselves with us; ourselves who are set towards Thee as rivers to the sea. If we turn to foolishness, our hearts grow faint and weary, our path is set with thorns, the night overtakes us, and we find we have strayed from light and life._ _Grant to us clearer vision of the light which knows no shade of turning, that we stray not in folly away; incline our hearts to love the truth alone, so that we miss Thee not at last; give us to realise of what spirit we are, so that we cleave ever to Thee, who alone can give us rest and joy. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. Fifth Week, Seventh Day When all is said and done in the matter of intellectual assurance, many are confused by the seeming lack of finality in the result. After all these ages of debate, they say, see all the innumerable opinions of jarring sects about religious truth! Evidently there is no satisfying conclusion obtainable at all! But look at the innumerable schools of medicine--shall one on their account decide that health is a fruitless study? Consider the infinite variety of taste in food--shall we say that therefore hunger and its satisfaction is a futile question to discuss? Rather, the very variety of the answers in man's quest reveals the importance of the quest itself. Of course proof of God lacks the finality of a scientific demonstration, and this is true _because it moves in a realm so much more important than anything that science touches_. Exactness and finality are possible only in the least important realms. One can measure and analyze and describe to a minute nicety a table which a carpenter has made, but when one turns to the carpenter himself and endeavors to analyze his motives, weigh his thoughts, estimate his quality, and prove his purposes, one drops minute nicety at once. The carpenter is not to be put into a column of figures and added with mathematical precision as his table is. The farther up one moves in the scale the less precise and undeniable do his conclusions become. So science is exact just because it deals with measurable things; but religion, by as much as its realm is more important, can less easily pack its conclusions into neat parcels finally tied up and sealed. A man who will not believe anything which is not precisely demonstrable must eliminate from his life everything except what yardsticks can measure and scales can weigh. Let no man ever give up the fight for faith because he does not seem at once to be reaching an answer which he can neatly formulate. Let him remember Tolstoi, writing on his birthday: "I am twenty-four, and I have not done a thing yet. But I feel that not in vain have I been struggling for nearly eight years against doubt and temptation. For what am I destined? This only the future will disclose." =Hear, O Jehovah, when I cry with my voice: Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Jehovah, will I seek. Hide not thy face from me; Put not thy servant away in anger: Thou hast been my help; Cast me not off, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, Then Jehovah will take me up. Teach me thy way, O Jehovah; And lead me in a plain path, Because of mine enemies. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine adversaries: For false witnesses are risen up against me, And such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of Jehovah In the land of the living. Wait for Jehovah: Be strong, and let thy heart take courage; Yea, wait thou for Jehovah.= =--Psalm 27:7-14.= _Deliver us, our Father, from all those mists which do arise from the low places where we dwell, which rise up and hide the sun, and the stars even, and Thee. Deliver us from the narrowness and the poverty of our conceptions. Deliver us from the despotism of our senses. And grant unto us this morning, the effusion of Thy Spirit, which shall bring us into the realm of spiritual things, so that we may, by the use of all that which is divine in us, rise into the sphere of Thy thought, into the realm where Thou dwellest, and whither have trooped from the ages the spirits of just men now made perfect. Grant, we pray Thee, that we may not look with time-eyes upon eternal things, measuring and dwarfing with our imperfectness the fitness and beauty of things heavenly. So teach us to come into Thy presence and to rise by sympathy into Thy way of thinking and feeling, that so much as we can discern of the invisible may come to us aright. Amen._--Henry Ward Beecher. COMMENT FOR THE WEEK I While it is true that in many cases the apparent unreasonableness of Christian faith springs from the underlying unreality of Christian life, this is not always a sufficient diagnosis of doubt. Horace G. Hutchinson, the English golfer, who spent much of his life in agnosticism and has now come over into Christian faith, thus interprets the spirit of his long unbelief: "All the while I had the keenest consciousness of the comfort that one would gain could he but believe in the truth of the Christian promises. Surely that must always be the agnostic's mood.... It is not that they wilfully reject the appeal to the heart; their will is eager to respond to it. But man has his gift of reason; it cannot be that he is not intended to use it. Least of all can it be part of the great design that he should suspend its use in regard to the most important subject to which his thought can be directed." Such sincere intellectual difficulties with faith must be met with intellectual arguments and not with moral accusations. Plenty of folk of elevated character and admirable lives grant, sometimes impatiently, that the Christian faith is beautiful--but is it _so_? Is not its solacing power a deceptive sleight of hand, by which our pleasing fancies and desires are made to look like truth? So a mirage is beautiful to weary travelers, but their temporary comfort rests on fallacy. McTaggart summed up one of the most wide-spread and masterful desires of this generation when he said, "What people want is a religion they can believe to be true." As one sets himself to meet faith's intellectual difficulties, the attitude in which he is to approach the problem is all-important. Samuel M. Crothers tells us that a young man once left with him a manuscript for criticism, and remarked in passing, "It is only a little bit of my work, and it will not take you long to look it over. In fact it is only the first chapter in which I explain the Universe." When one outgrows this cocksure presumption of youth and gains a graver and more seasoned mind, he leaves behind the attempt to pierce to creation's last secret. He sees that we can no more neatly and finally demonstrate God than we can demonstrate any of life's important faiths. Moreover proof of God, as a theorem in philosophy, is not a deep human need. Men often have supposed that they had such demonstration, but human experience was little affected by the fact. The exhaustless source of mankind's desire for assurance about God is not theoretical curiosity but vital need, and until a man feels the need, sees how urgently man's highest life reaches out toward God, he never will make much of any arguments. Browning's bishop asks his friend: "Like you this Christianity or not? It may be false, but will you wish it true? Has it your vote to be so if it can?" Until a man gives an affirmative answer to that inquiry, until he possesses a life that itself suggests God and wants him, he is not likely to arrive anywhere by argument alone. This is not the case with Christianity only. We cannot prove with theoretical finality that monogamy is the form of family life to which the universe is best adapted. But mankind, trying many experiments with family life, has found in the monogamous family values unique and indispensable. It is because men feel the value of such a love-bond, that they begin to argue for it. And their argument, when one sees deeply into it, is framed after this fashion: We know the _worth_ of this family-life of faithful lovers. We want monogamy and we propose to have it. We do not pretend that our faith in monogamy, as the form of marriage best fitted to this universe, is capable of exact demonstration; but we do see arguments of great weight in favor of it and we do not see any convincing arguments against it. We are persuaded that our faith has reasonable right of way; and we propose to go on believing in monogamy and practicing it and combating its enemies, until we prove our case in the only way such cases ever can be finally proved, by the issue of the matter in the end. So men come into the sort of personal and social life that Jesus represents. Apart from any theories, they value the life itself--its ideals of character, friendship, service, trust. If honesty allows, they propose to live that life. When a man has gone far enough in Christian experience, so that he comes up to his intellectual difficulties by such a road, he is likely to profit by a consideration of the reasons in favor of faith. He is in the attitude of saying: I have found great living in Christ. No argument for the Christian experience can be quite so convincing as the Christian experience itself. I am bound to have that life if I honestly can, and I will search to see whether there is any insuperable intellectual difficulty in the way of it. II One of the initial perplexities of faith concerns the sort of intellectual assurance which we have a right to expect. In a laboratory of physics, the investigator gathers facts, makes inductions as to their laws, and then verifies his findings. He uses a simplicity of procedure and gains a finality of result that makes all other knowledge seem relatively insecure. To be sure, the scientist may seek long for his truth and make many ineffectual guesses that prove false, but, in the end, he reaches a conclusion so demonstrable that every man of wit enough to investigate the subject must agree that it is so. How the Christian wishes for such certainty concerning God! Before, however, any one surrenders confidence in God, because confessedly the affirmations of religious faith cannot be established by such methods as a physicist employs, there is ample reason for delay. We are certain that heat expands and cold contracts, and we can prove the fact and state its laws. But are we not also sure that it is wrong to lie and right to tell the truth? This conviction about truthfulness at least equals in theoretical certainty and in practical right to determine conduct, our confidence in heat's expanding power. This conviction about truthfulness does actually sway life more than does any single scientific truth that one can name. Let us then set ourselves to prove our moral confidence by such methods as the physical laboratory can supply--with yard sticks, and Troy weight scales, and test tubes, and meters! At once it is evident that if we are to hold only such truth as is amenable to the demonstration of a laboratory, we must bid farewell to every _moral conviction_ that hitherto has influenced our lives. God, banished because the physicist cannot prove him, will have good company in exile! Moreover, all our _esthetic convictions_ will have to share that banishment. We know that some things are beautiful. The consensus of the race's judgment has not so much agreed to accept the new astronomy as it has agreed to think sunrise glorious and snow-capped mountains wonderful. Take from our lives our judgments on beauty, so that we may call no music marvelous, no poetry inspiring, no scenery sublime, and some of the most intimate and assured convictions we possess will have to go. A man who has seen the Matterhorn at dawn, when the first shaft of light reaches its rocky pinnacle and streams down in glory over the glaciers that cape its shoulders, will not disbelieve the splendor of the scene, though all the world beside unanimously should cry that it is not beautiful. But prove it by the methods of a laboratory? When the geologist has analyzed all the mountain's rocks, the chemist all its minerals; when the astronomer has traced the earth's orbit that brings on the dawn, and the physicist has counted and tabulated the rays of light that make the colors, our conviction of the scene's beauty will be as little explained or proved as is our confidence in God. It becomes clear that some convictions which we both do and must hold are not amenable to the sort of proof which a scientific laboratory furnishes. Moreover, if we will have no truth beyond the reach of a physicist's demonstration, all our _convictions in the realm of personal relationship_ will have to go. We _know_ that friendship-love is the crown of every human fellowship. Father and son, mother and daughter, brother and sister, wife and husband--these relationships are in themselves bare branches wanting the foliage and fruit of friendship. Of no truth is man at his best more sure than he is that "Life is just our chance o' the price of learning love." But no laboratory ever can deal with such a truth, much less establish it. For this is the neglected insight, for the want of which our religious confidence is needlessly unstable: _Every realm of reality has its own appropriate kind of proof, and a method of proof available in one realm is seldom, if ever, usable in another._ That truthfulness is right is in a way provable, but methods proper to the moral realm must be allowed; that the Matterhorn is sublime is in a sense provable, but by methods which the esthetic realm permits; that love is the crown of life can be soundly established, but one must employ a method appropriate to personal relationships. If, obsessed by the procedure of a laboratory as the solitary path to knowledge, one will have no convictions which cannot meet its tests, then in good logic there must be a great emigration from his soul. All his convictions about morals and beauty, all his convictions about personal friendships and about God must leave together. He will have a depopulated spirit. No man could live on such terms for a single hour. The most essential and valuable equipment of our souls is in convictions which the demonstrations of a physicist can as little reach as an inch worm, clambering up the Himalayas, can measure the distance to the sun. III A man to whom the Christian life has come to be preeminently valuable, and who is asking whether it is intellectually justifiable, is set free, by such considerations as we just have noted, to seek assurance where religious assurance may properly be found. For one thing, he may find help by _trying out the creed of no-God_. Many a man is a wavering believer, makes little excursions into doubt and returns hesitant and unhappy, because he never has dared to see his doubts through to their logical conclusion and to face the world with God eliminated. One may sense the general atmosphere of the world, under the no-God hypothesis, by saying, _In all this universe there is no mind essentially greater than mine._ The import of such a statement grows weightier the more one ponders it. All human minds are infinitesimal in knowledge; endless realities must lie beyond our reach; "our science is a drop, our ignorance a sea." Yet human knowledge is all that anywhere exists, if the no-God hypothesis is true. There is no knower who knows more, and the infinite reality beyond our grasp is not known by any mind at all. No one ever thought it or will think it through eternity. Then, let a man add, _In all this universe there is no goodness essentially greater than mine._ Human goodness is pitiably partial; it is but prophecy of what goodness ought to mean; "Man is a dwarf of himself," as Emerson said. But human goodness is all that anywhere exists, if the no-God hypothesis is true. There never will be any better goodness anywhere, and when the earth comes to its end in a solar catastrophe, there will be no goodness left at all. Certainly the hypothesis of no-God raises more questions than it easily can quell. Indeed the Christian, long accused by unbelieving friends of gross credulity because he holds his creed, may well leave his defense and "go over the top" in an offensive charge. If it is a question of holding creeds, unbelief is a creed as certainly as belief is; it says, I believe that there is no God or that God cannot be known. If it is a question of credulity, the Christian suspects that of all the different kinds of credulousness which the world has seen, nothing ever has surpassed the capacity of modern sceptics to accept impossible beliefs. He who says, I believe that there is no God, nor anything which that name might reasonably connote, is saying, I believe that the fundamental reality everywhere is physical. Long ages ago atoms, electrons, "mobile cosmic ethers" began their mysterious organization, whose present issue is planetary orbits, rocks, organic life, and, highest point of all, the brain of man. Man's mind is but the moving shadow cast by the activity of brain. Man's character is the subtle fragrance of his nerves. Everywhere, if the no-God hypothesis be true, spirit is a _result_, physical energy the _cause_. Some startling corollaries follow such a view. _No man can be blamed for anything._ Molecular action in the brain is responsible alike for saints and sinners, and we are as powerless to change our quality of character or action as a planet is to change its course. Judas and Jesus, Festus and Paul, the Belgian lads and the Prussian officers who mutilated them, the raper and the raped--why blame the one or praise the other when all characters alike are ground from a physical machine, whose action is predetermined by the push of universal energy behind? One man even says that to condemn an immoral deed is like Xerxes whipping the Hellespont--punishment visited on physical necessity which is not to blame. The second corollary is not less startling: _every man thinks as he does because of molecular action in the brain_. A Christian believes in God because his molecules maneuver so, and his opponent is an atheist because his molecules maneuver otherwise, and all convictions of truth, however well debated and reasoned out, are fundamentally the work of atoms, not of mind. What we call intellect as little causes anything as steam from a kettle causes the boiling out of which it comes. Some brains boil Socialism, some do not; some brains boil Episcopalianism and some Christian Science. A determinist and a believer in freewill differ as do oaks and elm trees, for physical reasons only, and folk are Catholic in southern Europe--so we are informed--because their skulls are narrow, and in northern Europe Protestants because their skulls are broad. Truth is a nickname for a neurosis. The standing marvel is that on some matters like the multiplication table our brains boil so unanimously. A third corollary still remains: _we have no creative power of mind and will_. All that is and is to be was wound up in primeval matter, and now in our thoughts and actions is ticking like a clock. "All of our philosophy," says Huxley, "all our poetry, all our science, and all our art--Plato, Shakespeare, Newton, and Raphael--are potential in the fires of the sun." That is to say, Plato had nothing to do with _creating_ his philosophy, nor Shakespeare with writing plays--they were empty megaphones and the real voice is the physical machine from which all things come. Professor Bowne of Boston University, after the publication of his "Metaphysics," received from a physicist a protest against his emphasis on the reality of mind. The professor of physics insisted that the only fundamental reality was physical and that mind is always a result of brain's activity and never a cause of anything. To this Professor Bowne replied that according to the writer's own theory, as he understood it, the letter of protest was the result of certain physical forces issuing in nervous excitations that made scratches on paper, and that the writer's mind had nothing effectual to do with its composition. This, said Professor Bowne, might be a plausible explanation of the letter, but he was unwilling to apply it to the universe. What wonder that the physicist acknowledged to a friend that the retort nettled him, for he did not see just how to answer it? IV One's discontent with this reduction of our lives to physical causation is increased when he studies the _mental process by which men reach it_. It is as if a man should perceive in the works of Shakespeare insight and beauty, pathos and laughter, despair and hope, and should set himself to explain all these as the function of the type. How plausibly he could do it! If one takes Shakespeare's sentences full of spiritual meaning he can readily resolve them into twenty-six constituent letters of the alphabet, and these into certain hooks and dashes, and these into arithmetical points diffused in space. Starting with such abstract points, let one suppose that some fortunate day they arranged themselves into hooks and dashes, and these into letters of the alphabet, and these by fortuitous concourse came together into sentences. Reading them we think we see deep spiritual meaning, but they are all the work of type; the fundamental reality is arithmetical points diffused in space. Such is the process by which a man reduces the mental and moral life of man back to its physical basis; then breaks up the physical basis into atoms; then, starting with these abstractions, builds up again the whole world which he just has analyzed, and thinks he has explained the infinitely significant spiritual life of man. Not for a long time will we accept such a method of explaining the works of Shakespeare! Nor can man contentedly be made to follow so inconsequential a process of thought as that by which the mind and character of Jesus are reduced to a maneuver of molecules. The attractiveness of this explanation of the universe as a huge physical machine is easily understood. It presents a simple picture, readily grasped. It packs the whole explanation of the world into a neat parcel, portable by any mind. In the days of monarchy the government of the universe was pictured in terms of an absolute sovereign; in feudal times the divine economy was pictured as a gigantic feudalism; we always use a dominant factor in the life of man to help us picture the eternal. So in the age whose builder and maker is machinery we easily portray the universe as a huge machine. The process is simple and natural, but to suppose that it is adequate is preposterous. Lord Kelvin, the chemist, knew thoroughly the mechanistic idea of the world. He felt the fascination of it, for he said at Johns Hopkins University, "I never satisfy myself until I make a mechanical model of a thing. If I can make a mechanical model I can understand it. As long as I cannot make a mechanical model all the way through, I cannot understand." But Lord Kelvin knew better than to suppose that this figure comprehended all of reality. "The atheistic idea," said he, "is so nonsensical, that I do not know how to put it into words." The rejection of the no-God hypothesis does not necessarily imply that a man becomes fully Christian in his thought of deity. There are way-stations between no-God and Jesus' Father. _But it does mean that to him reality must be fundamentally spiritual, not physical._ What other hypothesis possibly can fit the facts? For consider the view of a growing universe which we see from the outlook that modern science furnishes. Out of a primeval chaos where physical forces snarled at each other in unrelieved antagonism, where no man had yet arisen to love truth and serve righteousness, something has brought us to a time, when for all our evil, there are mothers and music and the laughter of children at play, men who love honor and for service' sake lay down their lives, and homes in every obscure street where fortitude and sacrifice are splendidly exhibited. Out of a chaos, where a contemporary observer, could there have been one, would have seen no slightest promise of spirit, something has brought us to the Ten Commandments, and the Sermon on the Mount, to great character and growing achievements in social righteousness, to lofty thoughts of the Divine and hopes of life eternal. _Something has been at work here besides matter. No explanation of all this will do, without God._ V Another source of confirmation for the man who, valuing Christian experience, seeks assurance that it is intellectually justifiable, is to be found in the effect of Christian faith on life itself. The nautical tables can be proved by an astronomer in his observatory; but if they are given to a sailor and he beats about the seas with them in safety, finding that they make adventurous voyages practicable, that also would be important witness to their truth. So the Christian ideas of life have not been kept by studious recluses to ponder over and weave philosophies about; they have been down in the market place, men have been practically trying them for generations, and _they make great living_. The ultimate ground of practical assurance about anything is that we have tried it and that it works. A man may have experience that other persons exist, may draw the inference that friendly relations with them are not impossible, but only when he launches out and verifies his thought in an adventure will he really be convinced of friendship's glory. In no other way has final assurance about God come home to man. They who have lived as though God _were_ have been convinced that he _is_; they who have willed to do his will have known. That religious faith does justify itself in life is a fact to which mankind's experience amply testifies. Men have come to God, not as chemists to bread curious to analyze it; they have come as hungry men, needing to eat if they would live. And they have found life glorified by faith in him. The difference between religion and irreligion here is plain. _How seldom one finds enthusiastic unbelievers!_ When all that is fine spirited and resolute in agnostic literature is duly weighed and credited, the pessimistic undertone is always heard. Leslie Stephen thus summarizes life--"There is a deep sadness in the world. Turn and twist the thought as you may there is no escape. Optimism would be soothing if it were possible; in fact, it is impossible, and therefore a constant mockery." No gospel burns in the unbeliever's mind, urgent for utterance; he has no inspiring outlooks to offer, no glad tidings to declare. The more intelligent he is the more plainly he sees this. With Clifford he laments that "the spring sun shines out of an empty heaven to light up a soulless earth" and feels "with utter loneliness that the Great Companion is dead"; with Romanes he frankly states, "So far as the ruination of individual happiness is concerned, no one can have a more lively conception than myself of the possibly disastrous tendency of my work." An unbeliever whose admirable life raised the question as to the philosophy by which he guided it, gave this summary of his creed, "I am making the best of a bad mess." Unbelievers do not spontaneously utter in song the glory of a creed like this, and when they do write poetry, it is of a sort that music will not fit-- "The world rolls round forever like a mill, It grinds out death and life and good and ill, It has no purpose, heart, or mind or will." When from poetry one turns to philosophy, he can see good reasons why hymnals and unbelief should be uncongenial. There is little to make life worth while in a creed which holds as Haeckel does that morality in man, like the tail of a monkey or the shell of a tortoise, is purely a physiological effect, and that man himself is "an affair of chance; the froth and fume at the wave-top of a sterile ocean of matter." Shall the practical unserviceableness of such an idea for the purpose of life, awaken no suspicion as to its truth? Upon the other hand, suppose that by some strange chance the principles of Jesus should over night take possession of mankind. Even as it is, when one starts his thought with the Stone Age, the progress of mankind has obviously been immense. From universal cannibalism after a battle, to massacre without cannibalism marked one great advance; from massacre of all prisoners taken in war to enslavement of them marked another; and when slavery ceased being a philanthropic improvement, as it was at first, and became a sin and shame, humanity took another long step forward. With all our present barbarity, a far look backwards shows a clear ascent. As for the influence of Jesus, Lecky, the historian, tells us that "The simple record of three short years of Christ's active life has done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists." What if this process were brought to its fulfilment between sunset and dawn, and the new day came with every one sure of God's fatherhood and life eternal, of the law of love and the supremacy of character and with everyone living as though these were true? Whatever intellectual perplexities of belief a man may have, he knows that such a world would be divinely great. No war, no evil lust, no covetous selfishness, no drunkenness! Mankind, relieved of ancient burdens which have ruined character and crushed endeavor, confident of faiths that give life infinite horizons and deathless hopes, in cooperative international fraternity would be making the earth a decent home for God to rear his children in. One finds it hard to believe that ideas which, incarnate in life, would so redeem the world are false. As to the effect of the Christian affirmations on individual character, we do not need to picture an imagined future. A Character has been here who has lived them out. A jury of philosophers might analyze the wood-work and the metals of an organ, and guess from form and material what it is, but we still should need for our assurance a musician. When he sweeps the keys in harmony we _know_ that it is an organ. So when the philosophers have debated the pros and cons of argument concerning faith, Jesus _plays_ the Gospel. His life is the Christian affirmations done into character. When religious faith, at its best, is incarnate in a Man, this is the consequence. And multitudes of folk, living out the implications of the faith, have found the likeness of the Master growing in them. Weighty confirmation of the Gospel's _truth_ arrives when its meaning is translated into life; the world will not soon reject the New Testament in this edition--bound in a Man. To one in perplexity about belief, this proper question therefore rises: What do we think about the Christlike character? Is it not life at its sublimest elevation? But to acknowledge that and yet to deny the central faiths by which such life is lived is to say that those ideas which, incarnate, make living great are false, and those ideas which leave life meager of motive and bereft of hope are true. No one lives on such a basis in any other realm. We always mistrust the validity of any idea which works poorly or not at all. And so far from being a practical makeshift, this "negative pragmatism" is a true principle of knowledge. Says Professor Hocking, of Harvard, "If a theory has no consequences, or bad ones; if it makes no difference to men, or else undesirable differences; if it lowers the capacity of men to meet the stress of existence, or diminishes the worth to them of what existence they have; such a theory is somehow false, and we have no peace until it is remedied." The last word against irreligion is that it makes life unlivable; the last word for faith is that it makes life glorious. VI One who is facing intellectual difficulties in the way of faith may well consider that the very Christian life for whose possession he is seeking justification is itself an argument of the first importance. This life grew up in the universe; it is one expression of the universe; and it is hard to think that it does not reveal a nature kindred to itself in the source from which it came. Mankind has always experienced a relationship with the Unseen which has seemed like communion of soul with Soul. When a psychologist like Professor James, of Harvard, reduces to its most general terms this religious Fact which has been practically universal in the race, he puts it thus: "Man becomes conscious that this higher part (his spiritual life) is coterminous and continuous with a MORE of the same quality, which is operative in the universe outside of him, and which he can keep in working touch with, and in a fashion get on board of and save himself when all his lower being has gone to pieces in the wreck." No experience of man is more common in occurrence, more tremendous in result than this. From the mystics whose vivid sense of God canceled their consciousness that anything else was real, to plain folk who in the strength of the divine alliance have lived ordinary lives with extraordinary spirit, mankind as a whole has known that the best in man is in contact with a MORE. One does not need to be of a mystical temperament, given to raptures, to know what this means. Let him consider his own experience of love and duty, how he is bound by them to his ideals and woven into a community of personal life not only with his friends but with all humanity, until this spiritual life of his becomes the most august and commanding power he knows. When in our bodies we so discern a physical nature, whose laws and necessities we did not create, and whose power binds us into a community of need and labor with our fellows, our conclusion is confident. This experience is the basis of our assurance that a _physical universe is really here_. When, likewise in our inner selves we find a spiritual life, which man did not create, in obedience to which alone is safety, and peace, and power, what shall we conclude? That there is a _spiritual universe_ as plainly evidenced in man's soul as the physical universe is in the body! And when we note the attributes of this Spiritual Order, how it demands righteousness, rebukes sin, welcomes obedience and holds out ideals of endless possibility, it is plain that we are talking about something close of kin to God. As in summer we beat out through some familiar bay, naming the headlands as we sail, until if we go far enough, we cannot prevent our eyes from looking out across the unbounded sea, so if a man moves out through his own familiar spiritual life far enough, he comes to the Spiritual Order which is God. Man has not drifted into his religion by accident or fallen on it merely as superstition; he has moved out from his inner life to affirm a Spiritual Order as inevitably as he has moved out from his bodily experiences to affirm a physical universe. When from this general experience we turn to the specific experiences of religion, which prayer and worship represent, the testimony of the race is confident. Men have not all these ages been lifting up their souls to an unreality from which no response has come. The artesian well of transforming influence in human souls has not flowed from Nowhere. Some, indeed, hearing confidence in God founded on the individual experiences of man, derisively cry "Nonsense!" But if one were to prove that the Sistine Madonna is beautiful, he would have to offer his experience in evidence. "I went to Dresden," he might say, "up into the room where the Madonna hangs ... and it _is_ beautiful. I saw it." Met with derision by a doubter, as though his experience were no proof at all, how shall he proceed? "I am not the only one," he might continue, "who has perceived its beauty. All these centuries the folk best qualified to judge have gone up into that room and have come down again, sure that Raphael's work is beautiful." Is anyone in a position to deride that? So through all ages men and women, from lowest savages to the race's spiritual kings and queens, have gone up to the Divine, and, at their best, from experiences of prayer, worship, forgiven sins, transfigured lives, have come down sure that Reality is there. _One may not call nonsense the most universal and influential experience of the human race!_ The force of this fact is more clearly seen when one considers that man has grown up in this universe, gradually developing his powers and functions as responses to his environment. If he has eyes, so the biologists assure us, it is because the light waves played upon the skin and eyes came out in answer; if he has ears it is because the air waves were there first and ears came out to hear. Man never yet, according to the evolutionist, has developed any power save as a reality called it into being. There would be no fins if there were no water, no wings if there were no air, no legs if there were no land. Always the developing organism has been trying to "catch up with its environment." Yet some would tell us that man's noblest power of all has developed in a vacuum. They would say that his capacity to deal with a Spiritual World, to believe in God, and in prayer to experience fellowship with him, has all grown up with no Reality to call it into being. If so, it stands alone in man's experience, the only function of his life that grew without an originating Fact to call it forth. It does not seem reasonable to think that. The evidence of man's experience is overwhelmingly in favor of a Reality to which his spirit has been trying to answer. Said Max Müller, "To the philosopher the existence of God may seem to rest on a syllogism; in the eyes of the historian it rests on the whole evolution of human thought." CHAPTER VI Faith's Greatest Obstacle DAILY READINGS The speculative doubts leave many minds untouched, but one universal human experience sooner or later faces every serious life with questions about God's goodness. We all meet trouble, in ourselves or others, and oftentimes the wonder why in God's world such calamities should fall, such wretchedness should continually exist, plunges faith into perplexity. Few folk of mature years can fail to understand Edwin Booth when he wrote to a friend, "Life is a great big spelling book, and on every page we turn the words grow harder to understand the meaning of." Now, the basis of any intelligent explanation of faith's problem must rest in a _right practical attitude toward trouble_. To the consideration of that we turn in the daily readings. Sixth Week, First Day =Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial among you, which cometh upon you to prove you, as though a strange thing happened unto you: but insomuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, rejoice; that at the revelation of his glory also ye may rejoice with exceeding joy. If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are ye; because the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God resteth upon you. For let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil-doer, or as a meddler in other men's matters: but if a man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this name.... Wherefore let them also that suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful Creator.--I Pet. 4:12-16, 19.= Such an attitude toward trouble as Peter here recommends is the most wholesome and hopeful possible to man. And it is reasonable too, if only on the ground that trouble _develops in men the essential qualities of strong character_. Our highest admiration is always reserved for men who master difficult crises. If the story of Joseph, begun beside Bedouin camp fires centuries ago, can easily be naturalized beside modern radiators; if Robinson Crusoe, translated into every tongue is understood by all, the reason lies in the depth of man's heart, where to make the most out of untoward situations is a daily problem. Not every one can grasp the argument or perceive the beauty of "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained," but one thing about them every man appreciates--the blind Milton, sitting down to write them: "I argue not Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer Right onward." The full understanding of Ole Bull's playing on the violin was necessarily restricted to the musical, but no restriction bounds the admiration of men, learned or simple, when in a Munich concert, his A string snaps and he finishes the composition on three strings. That is the human problem in epitome. Getting music out of life's remainders after the break has come; winning the battle with what is left from a defeat; going blind, like Milton, and writing sublimest poetry, or deaf, like Beethoven, and composing superb sonatas; being reared in an almshouse and buried from Westminster Abbey, like Henry M. Stanley; or, like Kernahan, born without arms or legs and yet sitting at last in the British Parliament--all such hardihood and undiscourageable pluck reach back in a man's bosom beyond the strings that ease and luxury can touch, and strike there an iron, reverberating chord. Nothing in human life is so impressive as pluck, "fighting with the scabbard after the sword is gone." And no one who deeply considers life can fail to see that our best character comes when, as Peter says, we "suffer as a Christian." _O Lord our God, let our devout approach to Thee be that of the heart, not of the lips. Let it be in obedience to Thy spiritual law, not to any outward ritual. Thou desirest not temples nor offerings, but the sacrifice of a lowly and grateful heart Thou will not despise. Merciful Father, to all Thy dispensations we would submit ourselves, not grudgingly, not merely of necessity, but because we believe in Thy wisdom, Thy universal rule, and Thy goodness. In bereavement and in sorrow, in death as in life, in joys and in happiness, we would see Thy Hand. Teach us to see it; increase our faith where we cannot see; teach us also to love justice, and to do mercy, and to walk humbly with Thee our God. Make us at peace with all mankind, gentle to those who offend us, faithful in all duties, and sincere in sorrow when we fail in duty. Make us loving to one another, patient in distress, and ever thankful to Thy Divine power, which keeps, and guides, and blesses us every day. Lord, accept our humble prayer, accomplish in us Thy holy will. Let Thy peace reign in our hearts, and enable us to walk with Thee in love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen._--Francis W. Newman, 1805. Sixth Week, Second Day =Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and we toil, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things, even until now.--I Cor. 4:11-13.= If Paul could be questioned about the experience of trouble which these verses vividly express, would he not say that there had been qualities of character in him and resources in his relationship with God which he never would have known about had it not been for the test of adversity? Trouble not only develops but also _reveals_ character; we do not know ourselves until we have been tried out in calamity. The simplest demand of adversity on every man is that he be "game." Henry Newbolt is not indulging in rhetoric when he tells of a Soudan battle where a British square made up of Clifton graduates is hard beset by a charge of fierce enemies, and, in that crisis, makes the cry of a Clifton football captain, "Play up, boys, play the game!" rally the men and save the day. At school or in the Soudan the problem is the same; the sling with which David plays in his youth is his chief reliance when Goliath comes; a "game" spirit is essential to character from birth to death. We turn from the story of Nelson at Aboukir, nailing six flags to his mast so that if even five were shot away no one would dream that he had surrendered, to find that the spirit there exemplified is applicable to our most common day. The quality which made Nelson an Admiral of England, in spite of his lost arm, his lost eye, his small stature, and his feeble health is one of our elemental needs. And to a supreme degree this quality was in great Christians like Paul. Read his letter to the Philippians and see! Adversity brought his spirit to light, and made it an asset of the cause. In a real sense, trouble, however forbidding, was one of Paul's best friends, and there was a good reason why he should "rejoice in tribulations." _O Father of spirits! Thou lovest whom Thou chastenest! Correct us in our weakness as the children of men, that we may love Thee in our strength as the sons of God. May the same mind be in us which was also in Jesus Christ, that we may never shrink, when our hour comes, from drinking of the cup that he drank of. Wake in us a soul to obey Thee, not with the weariness of servile spirits, but with the alacrity of the holy angels. Fill us with a contempt of evil pleasures and unfaithful ease; sustain us in the strictness of a devout life. Daily may we crucify every selfish affection, and delight to bear one another's burdens, to uphold each other's faith and charity, being tender-hearted and forgiving as we hope to be forgiven. Hold us to the true humility of the soul that has not yet attained; and may we be modest in our desire, diligent in our trust, and content with the disposals of Thy Providence. O Lord of life and death! Thy counsels are secret; Thy wisdom is infinite: we know not what a day may bring forth. When our hour arrives, and the veil between the worlds begins to be lifted before us, may we freely trust ourselves to Thee, and say, "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." Amen._--James Martineau. Sixth Week, Third Day If adversity, rightly used, so develops and reveals character, we may expect to find trouble as a background to the most admirable men of the race. We read the luminous histories of Francis Parkman and do not perceive, behind the printed page, the original manuscript, covered with a screen of parallel wires, along which the blind author ran his pencil that he might write legibly. We think of James Watt as a genius at invention, and perhaps recall that Wordsworth said of him, "I look upon him, considering both the magnitude and the universality of his genius, as perhaps the most extraordinary man that this country ever produced." But Watt himself we forget--sickly of body, starving on eight shillings a week, and saying, "Of all things in life there is nothing more foolish than inventing." Kant's philosophy was a turning point in human thought, but lauding Kant, how few recall his struggle with a broken body! Said he, speaking of his incurable illness, "I have become master of its influence in my thoughts and actions by turning my attention away from this feeling altogether, just as if it did not at all concern me." Wilberforce, the liberator of British slaves, we know, and beside his grave in Westminster Abbey we recall the superb title that he earned, "the attorney general of the unprotected and of the friendless," but the Wilberforce who for twenty years was compelled to use opium to keep himself alive, and had the resolution never to increase the dose--who knows of him? One of the chief rewards of reading biography is this introduction that it gives to handicapped men; the knowledge it imparts of the world's great saints and scripture makers, conquerors and reformers, who, in the words of Thucydides, "dared beyond their strength, hazarded against their judgment, and in extremities were of excellent hope." And when one turns to the supreme Character, could the dark background be eliminated and still leave Him? =But now we see not yet all things subjected to him. But we behold him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.--Heb. 2:8-10.= _O God, who art unsearchable in Thy judgments, and in Thy ways past finding out, we bow before the mystery of Thy Being, and confess that we know nothing, and can say nothing worthy of Thee. We cannot understand Thy dealings with us. We have faith, not sight; when we cannot see, we may only believe. Sometimes Thou seemest to have no mercy upon us. Thou dost pierce us through our most tender affections, quenching the light of our eyes in dreadful darkness. Death tears from us all that we love, and Thou art seemingly deaf to all our cries. Our earthly circumstances are reversed and bitter poverty is appointed us, yet Thou takest no heed, and bringest no comfort to the sorrow and the barrenness of our life. Still would we trust in Thee and cling to that deepest of our instincts which tells us that we come from Thee and return to Thee. Be with us, Father of Mercies, in love and pity and tenderness unspeakable. Lift our souls into Thy perfect calm, where all our wills are in harmony with Thine. Amen._--Samuel McComb. Sixth Week, Fourth Day To one perplexed and disheartened by adversity, a theoretical explanation is generally not half as valuable as concrete instances of courage and fortitude, founded on faith. Whether we be theologians or scientists or as ignorant of both as Caliban, there is an immediate, personal call to arms in the brave fight of George Matheson, one of Scotland's great preachers for all his blindness, or in Louis Pasteur's indomitable will, making his discoveries despite the paralytic stroke that in his forty-sixth year crippled his strength. The qualities which we admire in them are a sort of apotheosis of the qualities which we need in ourselves. For we all are handicapped, some by ill-starred heredity, by unhappy environment, or by the consequences of our own neglect and sin; some by poverty, some by broken bodies, or by dissevered family ties--and all of us by unfortunate dispositions. It does us good then to know that Phillips Brooks failed as a teacher. His biographer tells us that so did his first ambition to be an educator cling to him, that in the prime of life, when he was the prince of preachers, he came from President Eliot's office, pale and trembling, because he had refused a professorship at Harvard. So Robertson, of Brighton, whose sermons began a new epoch in British Christianity, was prevented from being a soldier only by the feebleness of his body, and Sir Walter Scott, who wanted to be a poet, turned to novel writing, anonymously and tentatively trying a new role, because, as he frankly put it, "Because Byron beat me." He is an excellent cook who knows how to make a good dinner out of the left-overs, and hardly a more invigorating truth is taught by history than that most of the finest banquets spread for the delectation of the race have been prepared by men who made them out of the leavings of disappointed hopes. =Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against himself, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls.--Heb. 12:1-3.= _Our Father, we thank Thee that while we are sure of Thy protecting care, Thy causal providence, which foresees all things, we can bear the sorrows of this world, and do its duties, and endure its manifold and heavy cross. We thank Thee that when distress comes upon us, and our mortal schemes vanish into thin air, we know there is something solid which we can lay hold of, and not be frustrate in our hopes. Yea, we thank Thee that when death breaks asunder the slender thread of life whereon our family jewels are strung, and the precious stones of our affection fall from our arms or neck, we know Thou takest them and elsewhere givest them a heavenly setting, wherein they shine before the light of Thy presence as morning stars, brightening and brightening to more perfect glory, as they are transfigured by Thine own almighty power._ _We thank Thee for all the truth which the stream of time has brought to us from many a land and every age. We thank Thee for the noble examples of human nature which Thou hast raised up, that in times of darkness there are wise men, in times of doubt there are firm men, and in every peril there stand up heroes of the soul to teach us feebler men our duty, and to lead all of Thy children to trust in Thee. Father, we thank Thee that the seed of righteousness is never lost, but through many a deluge is carried safe, to make the wilderness to bloom and blossom with beauty ever fragrant and ever new, and the desert bear corn for men and sustain the souls of the feeble when they faint. Amen._--Theodore Parker. Sixth Week, Fifth Day One distinguishing mark of the men who have won their victories with the remnants of their defeat is that they refuse to describe their unideal conditions in negative terms. If they cannot live in southern California where they would choose to live, but must abide in New England instead, they do not describe New England in terms of its deficiencies--no orange groves, no acres of calla lilies, no palm trees. There are compensations even in New England, if one will carefully take account of stock and see what positively is there! Or if a man would choose to live in Boston and must live in Labrador, the case of Grenfell suggests that a positive attitude toward his necessity will discover worth, and material for splendid triumphs even on that inhospitable coast. The mark of the handicapped men who have made the race's history glorious has always been their patriotism for the country where they had to live. They do not stop long to pity themselves, or to envy another's opportunity, or to blame circumstances for their defeat, or to dream of what might have been, or to bewail their disappointed hopes. If the soil of their condition will not grow one crop, they discover what it will grow. They have insight, as did Moses, to see holy ground where an ordinary man would have seen only sand and sagebrush and sheep. =Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, unto Horeb. And the angel of Jehovah appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when Jehovah saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.--Exodus 3:1-5.= _Father of life, and God of the living, Fountain of our being and Light of all our day; we thank Thee for that knowledge of Thyself which lights our life with eternal splendor, for that giving of Thyself which has made us partakers of Thy divine nature. We bless Thee for everything around us which ministers Thee to our minds; for the greatness and glory of nature, for the history of our race, and the lives of noble men; for the thoughts of Thee expressed in human words, in the art of painters and musicians, in the work of builders and craftsmen. We bless Thee for the constant memories of what we are that rise within ourselves; for the pressure of duty, the hush of solemn thoughts, for moments of insight when the veil on the face of all things falls away, for hours of high resolve when life is quickened within, for seasons of communion when, earth and sense forgotten, heaven holds our silent spirits raptured and aflame._ _We have learned to praise Thee for the darker days when we had to walk by faith, for weary hours that strengthened patience and endeavor, for moments of gloom and times of depression which taught us to trust, not to changing tides of feeling, but to Thee who changest not. And now since Christ has won His throne by His cross of shame, risen from His tomb to reign forever in the hearts of men, we know that nothing can ever separate us from Thee; that in all conflicts we may be more than conquerors; that all dark and hostile things shall be transformed and work for good to those who know the secret of Thy love._ _Glory be to Thee, O Lord. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. Sixth Week, Sixth Day When folk have seen into human life deeply enough so that they perceive how adversity can be used to high issues, faith in God becomes not so much a speculative problem as a practical need. They want to deal with trouble nobly. They see that faith in God gives the outlook on life which makes the hopeful facing of adverse situations reasonable and which supplies power to make it possible. The result is that the _great sufferers have been the great believers_. The idea that fortunate circumstances make vital faith in God probable is utterly unsupported by history. Hardly an outstanding champion of faith who has left an indelible impress on man's spiritual life can anywhere be found, who has not won his faith and confirmed it in the face of trouble. What is true of individuals is true of generations. The days of Israel's triumphant faith did not come in Solomon's reign, when wealth was plentiful and national ambitions ran high. The great prophets and the great psalms stand out against the dark background of the Exile and its consequences. =Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Jehovah; awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Is it not thou that didst cut Rahab in pieces, that didst pierce the monster? Is it not thou that driedst up the sea, the waters of the great deep; that madest the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? And the ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.= =I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou art afraid of man that shall die, and of the son of man that shall be made as grass; and hast forgotten Jehovah thy Maker, that stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and fearest continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he maketh ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? The captive exile shall speedily be loosed; and he shall not die and go down into the pit, neither shall his bread fail. For I am Jehovah thy God, who stirreth up the sea, so that the waves thereof roar: Jehovah of hosts is his name. And I have put my words in thy mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.--Isa. 51:9-16.= That is a voice out of the Exile. Such great believers, whose faith shone brightest when the night was darkest, have not pretended to know the explanation of suffering in God's world. But they have had insight to see a little and trust for the rest. Stevenson has expressed their faith: "If I from my spy-hole, looking with purblind eyes upon a least part of a fraction of the universe, yet perceive in my own destiny some broken evidences of a plan, and some signals of an overruling goodness; shall I then be so mad as to complain that all cannot be deciphered? Shall I not rather wonder, with infinite and grateful surprise, that in so vast a scheme I seem to have been able to read, however little, and that little was encouraging to faith?" _We thank Thee, O God, that Thou dost ride upon the cloud, and govern the storm. All that to us is dark is light to Thee. The night shineth as the day. All that which seems to us irregular and ungoverned, is held in Thine hand, even as the steed by the rein. From age to age Thou dost control the long procession of events, discerning the end from the beginning; and all the wild mixture, all the confusion, all the sorrow and the suffering, is discerned of Thee. As is the palette to the color, as is violence to development in strength, as is the crushing of the grape to the wine, so in Thy sight all things are beneficent that to us are most confusing and seemingly conflicting and threatening. Sorrow and pain and disaster are woven in the loom of God; and in the end we, too, shall be permitted to discern the fair pattern, and understand how that which brought tears here shall bring righteousness there._ _O, how good it is to trust Thee, and to believe that Thou art wise, and that Thou art full of compassion, as Thou carriest on Thy great work of love and benevolence, sympathizing with all that suffer on the way, and gathering them at last with an exceeding great salvation! We trust Thee, not because we understand Thee, but because in many things Thou hast taught us where we should have been afraid to trust. We have crossed many a gulf and many a roaring stream upon the bridge of faith, and have exulted to find ourselves safe landed, and have learned to trust Thee, as a child a parent, as a passenger the master of a ship, not because we know, but because Thou knowest. Amen._--Henry Ward Beecher. Sixth Week, Seventh Day =Every one therefore that heareth these words of mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, who built his house upon the rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon the rock. And every one that heareth these words of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall thereof.--Matt. 7:24-27.= An important fact is here asserted by the Master, which is commonly obscured in the commentaries. He says that no matter whether a man's life be built on sand or on rock, he yet will experience the blasts of adversity; on both houses alike "the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew." The Master repeatedly affirmed that trouble comes without necessary reference to character, that while we may always argue that sin causes suffering, we never can confidently argue that suffering comes from sin (Luke 13:4; John 9:1-3). Folks needlessly and unscripturally harass their souls when they suppose that some special trouble must have befallen them because of some special sin. The book of Job was written to disprove that, and as for the Master, he distinctly says that the man of faith with his house on a rock faces the same storm that wrecks the faithless man. _The difference is not in the adversity, but in the adversity's effect._ No more important question faces any soul than this: seeing that trouble is an unevadable portion of every life, good or bad, what am I to do with it? Says Oliver Wendell Holmes, "Did you ever happen to see that most soft-spoken and velvet-handed steam-engine at the Mint? The smooth piston slides backward and forward as a lady might slip her delicate finger in and out of a ring. The engine lays one of its fingers calmly, but firmly, upon a bit of metal; it is a coin now, and will remember that touch, and tell a new race about it, when the date upon it is crusted over with twenty centuries. So it is that a great silent-moving misery puts a new stamp on us in an hour or a moment--as sharp an impression as if it had taken half a lifetime to engrave it." The only flaw in that simile is that the coin cannot decide what impression shall be made. But we can. Rebellion, despair, bitterness, or triumphant faith--we can say which impression adversity shall leave upon us. _O God of our life, whom we dimly apprehend and never can comprehend, to whom nevertheless we justly ascribe all goodness as well as all greatness; as a father teaches his children, so teach us, Lord, truer thoughts of Thee. Teach us to aspire, so far as man may lawfully aspire, to a knowledge of Thee. Thou art not only a God to be honored in times of rest and ease, Thou art also the Refuge of the distressed, the Comforter of the afflicted, the Healer of the contrite, and the Support of the unstable. As we sympathize with those who are sore smitten by calamity, wounded by sudden accident, wrecked in the midst of security, so must we believe that Thy mighty all-embracing heart sympathizes. Pitier of the orphan, God of the widow, cause us to share Thy pity and become Thy messengers of tenderness in our small measure. Be Thou the Stay of all in life and death. Teach all to know and trust Thee, give us a portion here and everywhere with Thy saints; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen._--Francis W. Newman, 1805. COMMENT FOR THE WEEK I Few who have sincerely tried to believe in God's goodness and who have lived long enough to face the harrowing facts of human wretchedness will doubt what obstacle most hampers faith. The major difficulty which perplexes many Christians, when they try to reconcile God's love with their experience, is not belief's irrationality but life's injustice. According to the Psalmist, "The fool hath said in his heart, 'There is no God'" (Psalm 14:1). But the fool is not the only one who has said that. He said it, jeering; he announced it in derision; he did not want God, and contemptuous denial was a joy. It was the temper of his negation that made him a fool. But many hearts, in tones far different from his, have said, "There is no God." Parents cry it brokenheartedly beside the graves of children; the diseased cry it, suffering from keener agony than they can bear; fathers cry it when their battle against poverty has failed and their children plead in vain for bread; and men who care about their kind say it as they watch the anguish with which war, drunkenness, lust, disease, and poverty afflict the race. No man of moral insight will call such folk fools. The wretchedness and squalor, the misery and sin which rest upon so much of humankind are a notorious difficulty in the way of faith. In dealing with this problem two short cuts are often tried, and by them some minds endeavor to evade the issue which faith ought to meet. Some _minimize the suffering_ which creation cost and which man and animals are now enduring. We must grant that when we read the experience of animals in terms of man's own life, we always exaggerate their pain. Animals never suffer as we do; their misery is not compounded by our mental agonies of regret and fear; and even their physical wretchedness is as much lower in intensity as their nerves are less exquisitely tuned. Darwin, who surely did not underestimate the struggle for existence, said in a letter, "According to my judgment, happiness decidedly prevails. All sentient beings have been formed so as to enjoy, as a general rule, happiness." We must grant also that man's practical attitude toward life gives the lie to pessimism. Only the suicides are the logical pessimists, and all the rest of men, most with good heart and multitudes with jubilant enthusiasm, do actually cling to life. Indeed, all normal men discover, that, within limits, their very hardships are a condition of their happiness and do not so much abate their love of life is they add zest and tang. We must grant further that suffering should be measured not by quantity, but by intensity. One sensitive man enduring bereavement, poverty, or disease represents _all_ the suffering that ever has been or ever can be felt. To speak of limitless suffering, therefore, is false. There is no more wretchedness anywhere nor in all the world together, than each one can know in his own person. When all this, however, has been granted, the facts of the world's misery are staggering. Modern science has given terrific sweep and harrowing detail to Paul's assertion, "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" (Rom. 8:22). Let one whose insight into misery's meanings is quickened by even a little imagination, try to sum up the agony of drunkards' homes, of bereaved families, of hospitals, insane asylums, jails, and prisons, of war with its unmentionable horrors--its blinded, deafened, maddened, raped--and no small palliatives can solve his problem. Rather he understands the picture which James Russell Lowell said he saw years ago in Belgium: an angel holding back the Creator and saying, "If about to make such a world, stay thine hand." Another short cut by which some endeavor to simplify the problem and content their thought is _to lift responsibility for life's wretchedness from God's shoulders and to put it upon man's_. Were man's sin no factor in the world, some say, life's miseries would cease; all the anguish of our earthly lot stands not to God's responsibility but to man's shame. But the sufferings of God's creatures did not begin with man's arrival, and the pain of creation before man sinned is a longer story than earth's misery since. Let Romanes picture the scene: "Some hundred of millions of years ago, some millions of millions of animals must be supposed to have become sentient. Since that time till the present, there must have been millions and millions of generations of millions and millions of individuals. And throughout all this period of incalculable duration, this inconceivable host of sentient organizations have been in a state of unceasing battle, dread, ravin, pain. Looking to the outcome, we find that more than one-half of the species which have survived the ceaseless struggle are parasitic in their habits, lower and insentient forms of life, feasting on higher and sentient forms, we find teeth and talons whetted for slaughter, hooks and suckers molded for torture--everywhere a reign of terror, hunger, sickness, with oozing blood and quivering limbs, with gasping breath and eyes of innocence that dimly close in deaths of cruel torture." Is man responsible for that? For cold that freezes God's living creatures, for lightning that kills them, for volcanoes that burn them, for typhoons that crush them--is man responsible? By no such easy evasion may we escape the problem which faith must meet. "In sober truth," as John Stuart Mill exclaimed, "nearly all the things which men are hanged or imprisoned for doing to one another, are Nature's everyday performances." Who can avoid seeing the patent contrast between the Father of Jesus and the Creator of such a world? "The power that launches earthquakes and arms cuttlefish," said one perplexed believer, "has but a meager relationship to the power that blesses infants and forgives enemies." II Could we hold this problem at arm's length, discussing it in speculative moods when we grow curious about the makeup of the universe, our case would be more simple. But of all life's problems, this most certainly--sometimes creeping, sometimes crashing--invades our private lives. Every man has a date with adversity which he must keep and which adversity does not forget. One notes the evidence of this in every normally maturing life. As children we wanted happiness and were impatient, lacking it. Our cups of pleasure easily brimmed and overflowed. A Christmas tree or a birthday party--and our hearts were like sun-parlors on cloudless days with all the windows open to the light! But the time comes to all when happiness like this is not our problem; we recognize that it is gone; our Edens are behind us with flaming angels at the gate. We have had friends and lost them and something has gone from our hearts that does not return; we have won successes which we do not estimate as highly in possession as we did in dreams, and it may be have lost what little we achieved; we have sinned, and though forgiven, the scars are still upon us; we have been weathered by the rains and floods and winds. Happiness in the old fashion we no longer seek. We want peace, the power to possess our souls in patience and to do our work. We want joy, which is a profound and spiritually begotten grace as happiness is not. This maturity which so has faced the tragic aspects of our human life is not less desirable than childhood; it may be richer, fuller, steadier. We may think of it as Wordsworth did about the English landscape--that not for all the sunny skies of Italy would he give up the mists that spiritualize the English hills. But when trouble comes, life faces a new set of problems that childhood little knew. We have joined the human procession that moves out into the inevitable need of comfort and fortitude. The decisive crisis in many lives concerns the attitude which this experience evokes. Some are led by it more deeply into the meanings of religion. The Bible grows in their apprehension with the enlarging of their life; new passages become radiant as, in a great landscape, hills and valleys lately unillumined catch the rays of the rising sun. At first the human friendliness of Jesus is most real, and the Bible's stories of adventure for God's cause; then knightly calls to character and service become luminous; but soon or late another kind of passage grows meaningful: "Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, our Father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them" (II Thess. 2:16). Others, so far from being led by adversity into the deeper meanings of faith, renounce faith altogether, and fling themselves into open rebellion against life and any God who may be responsible for its tragedy. They may not dare to say what James Thomson did, but they think it-- "Who is most wretched in this dolorous place? I think myself; yet I would rather be My miserable self than He, than He Who formed such creatures to his own disgrace. The vilest thing must be less vile than Thou From whom it had its being, God and Lord! Creator of all woe and sin! abhorred, Malignant and implacable! I vow That not for all Thy power furled and unfurled, For all the temples to Thy glory built, Would I assume the ignominious guilt Of having made such men in such a world!" Many, however, are not by adversity made more sure of God, nor are they driven into rebellion against him. They are perplexed. It had been so much easier, in the sheltered and innocent idealism of their youth, to believe in God than it is now. As children they looked on life as they might have listened to Mozart's music, ravished with unqualified delight; but now they know that Mozart died in abject poverty, that the coffin which his wife could not buy was donated by charity, that as the hearse went to the grave the driver loudly damned the dead because no drink money had been given him, and that to this day no one knows where Mozart's body lies. Maturity has to deal with so much more tragic facts than youth can ever know. With all the philosophy that man's wit can supply, the wisest find themselves saying what Emerson did, two years after his son's death: "I have had no experience, no progress to put me into better intelligence with my calamity than when it was new." And in this inevitable wrestling with adversity, the cry of men is not simply for more courage. They might easily steady their hearts to endure and overcome, were only one question's answer clear--is there any _sense_ in life's suffering? The one unsupportable thought is that all life's pain and hardship is meaningless and futile, that it has no worthy origin, serves no high purpose, that in misery we are the sport of forces that have no consciousness of what they do, no meaning in it and no care. Such folk want to believe in God, but--can they? III Two preliminary facts about Christianity's relationship with our problem may help to clarify our thought. The doubt sometimes obtrudes itself on minds perplexed about life's tragedies that the Christian's faith in a God of love is an idealistic dream. Such faiths as the Fatherhood of God have come to men, they think, in happy hours when calamity was absent or forgotten; they are the fruition of man's fortunate days. And born thus of a view of life from which the miseries of men had been shut out, this happy, ideal faith comes back to painful realities with a shock which it cannot sustain. But is Christian faith thus the child of man's happy days? Rather the very symbol of Christianity is the Cross. Our faith took its rise in one of history's most appalling tragedies, and the Gospel of a loving God, so far from being an ideal dream, conceived apart from life's forbidding facts, has all these centuries been intertwined with the public brutality of a crucifixion. Every emphasis of the Christian's faith has the mark of the Cross upon it. Jesus had said in words that God was love, but it was at Calvary that the words took fire: "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son" (John 3:16). Jesus had preached the divine forgiveness, but on Golgotha the message grew imperative: "God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). Jesus had put into parables the individual care of the Father for every child, but it was the Cross that drove the great faith home: Christ tasted "death for every man" (Heb. 2:9). Nothing in Christian faith has escaped the formative influence of the Tragedy. The last thing to be said about the Gospel is that it is a beautiful child-like dream which has not faced the facts of suffering. In the New Testament are all the miseries on which those who deny God's love count for support. We are at home there with suffering men: "they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword: they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth" (Heb. 11:37, 38). The men with whom Christianity began were not strangers to such trouble, so that some modern need remind their innocent and dreaming faith that life is filled with mysterious adversity. _Christianity was suckled on adversity; it was cradled in pain. At the heart of its Book and its Gospel is a Good Man crowned with thorns, nailed to a cross, with a spear wound in his side._ Nor have the great affirmations of faith in God's fatherhood ever been associated with men of ease in fortunate circumstance. The voice that cried "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" spoke in agonizing pain. And through history one finds those words best spoken with a cross for a background. Thomas á Becket said them, martyred in his own cathedral; John Huss said them, going to the stake at Constance; George Wishart said them, roasted at the foot of the sea-tower of St. Andrews. Christian faith is not a dream that came in hours when human trouble had been forgotten; it has furnished from the beginning an interpretation of human trouble and an attitude in meeting it that has made men "more than conquerors." The second preliminary fact is this: _Christianity has never pretended to supply a theoretical explanation of why suffering had to be_. This seeming lack has excellent reason, for such an explanation, if it be complete, is essentially beyond the reach of any finite mind. The most comprehensive question ever asked, some philosopher has said, was put by a child. "Why was there ever anything at all?" No finite mind can answer that. And next in comprehensiveness, and in penetration to the very pith of creation's meaning, is this query, "Why, if something had to be, was it made as it is?" One must be God himself fully to answer that, or to comprehend the answer, could it be written down. To expect therefore, from Christianity or from any other source a theoretical explanation that will plumb the depths of the mystery of suffering is to cry for the essentially impossible. So Carlyle says with typical vividness: "To the minnow every cranny and pebble, and quality and accident of its little native creek may have become familiar; but does the minnow understand the Ocean Tides and periodic Currents, the Trade-winds, and Monsoons, and Moon's Eclipses; by all which the condition of its little Creek is regulated, and may, from time to time (_un_-miraculously enough), be quite overset and reversed? Such a minnow is Man; his Creek this Planet Earth; his Ocean the immeasurable All; his Monsoons and periodic Currents the mysterious Course of Providence through Aeons of Aeons." So little is this inability of ours to know all that we wish about the world a cause for regret, that it ought to be an occasion of positive rejoicing. If _we_ could understand the universe through and through, how small and meager the universe would have to be! The fact is that we cannot understand anything through and through. If one is disheartened because he cannot pierce to the heart of Providence and know all its secrets, let him try his hand upon a pebble and see how much better he will fare. What is a pebble? If one define it roughly as granite he must ask what granite is; if that be defined in terms of chemical properties, he must ask what they are; if they be defined as ultimate forms of matter, he must inquire what matter is; and then he will be told that matter is a "mode of motion," or will be assured by a more candid scientist, like Professor Tait, that "we do not know and are probably incapable of discovering what matter _is_." No one ever solves the innermost problems of a stone, but what can be done with stones our engineering feats are evidence. If, therefore, we recognize at the beginning that the question why suffering had to be is an ultimate problem, essentially insoluble by finite minds, we need not be dismayed. Two opposing mysteries are in the world--goodness and evil. If we _deny_ God, then _goodness_ is a mystery, for no one has ever yet suggested how spiritual life could rise out of an unspiritual source, how souls could come from dust. If we _affirm_ God, then _evil_ is a mystery, for why, we ask, should love create a world with so much pain and sin? Our task is not to solve insoluble problems; it is to balance these alternatives--no God and the mystery of man's spiritual life, against God and the mystery of evil. Such a comparison is not altogether beyond our powers, nor are weighty considerations lacking to affect our choice. IV For one thing, we may well inquire, when we complain of this world's misery, what sort of world we are seeking in its place. Are we asking for a perfectly happy world? But happiness, at its deepest and its best, is not the portion of a cushioned life which never struggled, overpassed obstacles, bore hardship, or adventured in sacrifice for costly aims. A heart of joy is never found in luxuriously coddled lives, but in men and women who achieve and dare, who have tried their powers against antagonisms, who have met even sickness and bereavement and have tempered their souls in fire. Joy is begotten not chiefly from the impression of happy circumstance, but from the expression of overcoming power. Were we set upon making a happy world, therefore, we could not leave struggle out nor make adversity impossible. The unhappiest world conceivable by man would be a world with nothing hard to do, no conflicts to wage for ends worth while; a world where courage was not needed and sacrifice was a superfluity. Beside such an inane lotos-land of tranquil ease this present world with all its suffering is a paradise. Men in fact find joy where in philosophy we might not look for it. Said MacMillan, after a terrific twelve-month with Peary on the Arctic continent: "This has been the greatest year of my life." The impossibility of imagining a worth-while world from which adversity had all been banished is even more evident when one grows ill-content to think of happiness as the goal of life. That we should be merely happy is not an adequate end of the creative purpose for us, or of our purpose for ourselves. In our best hours we acknowledge this in the way we handle trouble. _However much in doubt a man may be about the theory of suffering, he knows infallibly how suffering practically should be met._ To be rebellious, cursing fate and hating life; to pity oneself, nursing one's hurts in morbid self-commiseration--the ignobility of such dealing with calamity we indubitably know. Even where we fall feebly short of the ideal, we have no question what the ideal is. When in biography or among our friends we see folk face crushing trouble, not embittered by it, made cynical, or thrust into despair, but hallowed, sweetened, illumined, and empowered, we are aware that noble characters do not alone _bear_ trouble; they _use_ it. As men at first faced electricity in dread, conceiving toward it no attitude beyond building lightning-rods to ward away its stroke, but now with greater understanding harness it to do their will, so men, as they grow wise and strong, deal with their suffering. They make it the minister of character; they set it to build in them what nothing save adversity can ever build--patience, courage, sympathy, and power. They even choose it in vicarious sacrifice for the good of others, and by it save the world from evils that nothing save some one's suffering could cure. They act as though _character_, not happiness, were the end of life. And when they are at their best they do this not with stoic intrepidity, as though trouble's usefulness were but their fancy, but joyfully, as though a good purpose in the world included trouble, even though not intending it. So Robert Louis Stevenson, facing death, writes to a friend about an old woman whose ventriloquism had frightened the natives of Vailima, "All the old women in the world might talk with their mouths shut and not frighten you or me, but there are plenty of other things that frighten us badly. And if we only knew about them, perhaps we should find them no more worthy to be feared than an old woman talking with her mouth shut. And the names of some of these things are Death and Pain and Sorrow." Whatever, then, may be our theoretical difficulty about suffering, this truth is clear: when we are at our best we practically deal with suffering as though moral quality were the goal of life. We _use_ adversity, as though discipline were its purpose and good its end. It is worth noting that the only theory which fully fits this noblest attitude toward trouble is Christianity. Men may think God a devil, as James Thomson sang, and yet may be practically brave and cheerful, but their theory does not fit their life. Men may believe in no God and no purpose in the world, and yet may face adversity with courage and hope, but their spirit belies their philosophy. When men are at their best in hardship _they act as though the Christian faith in God were true, as though moral quality were the purpose of creation_. If now, we really want a world in which character is the end and aim--and no other world is worth God's making--we obviously may not demand the abolition of adversity. If one imagines a life from its beginning lapped in ease and utterly ignorant what words like hardship, sorrow, and calamity imply, he must imagine a life lacking every virtue that makes human nature admirable. Character grows on struggle; without the overcoming of obstacles great quality in character is unthinkable. Whoever has handled well any calamitous event possesses resources, insights, wise attitudes, qualities of sympathy and power that by no other road could have come to him. For all our complaints against life's misery, therefore, and for all our inability to understand it in detail, who would not hesitate, foreseeing the consequence, to take adversity away from men? He who banishes hardship banishes hardihood; and out of the same door with Calamity walk Courage, Fortitude, Triumphant Faith, and Sacrificial Love. If we abolish the cross in the world, we make impossible the Christ in man. It becomes more clear the more one ponders it, that while this is often a hard world in which to be happy, to men of insight and faith it may be a great world in which to build character. V Before too confidently, however, we accept this conclusion, there is one objection to be heard. So far is the world from being absolved from cruelty, on the plea of moral purpose, one may say, that _its injustice is the very crux of its offense_. See how negligent of justice the process of creation is! Its volcanoes and typhoons slay good and bad alike, its plagues are utterly indifferent to character; and in the human world which it embosoms some drunken Caesar sits upon the throne while Christ hangs on the cross. Who for a single day can watch the gross inequities of life, where good men so often suffer and bad men go free, and still think that the world has moral purpose in it? The Bible itself is burdened with complaint against the seeming senselessness and injustice of God. Moses cries: "Lord, wherefore hast thou dealt ill with this people? Neither hast thou delivered thy people at all" (Exodus 5:22, 23); Elijah laments, "O Jehovah, my God, hast Thou also brought evil upon the widow, with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?" (I Kings 17:20); Habakkuk complains, "Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy peace, when the wicked swalloweth up the man that is more righteous than he?" (Hab. 1:13); and Job protests, "Although thou knowest that I am not wicked, ... yet thou dost destroy me" (Job 10:7, 8). Man's loss of faith springs often from this utter disparity between desert and fortune. The time comes to almost every man when he looks on, indignant, desperate, at some gross horror uninterrupted, some innocent victim entreated cruelly. He understands Carlyle's impatient cry, "God sits in heaven and does nothing!" Natural as is this attitude, and unjust as many of life's tragic troubles are, we should at least see this: _man must not demand that goodness straightway receive its pay and wrong its punishment_. He may not ask that every virtuous deed be at once rewarded by proportionate happiness and every sin be immediately punished by proportionate pain. That, some might suppose, would put justice into life. But whatever it might put into life, such an arrangement obviously would take out _character_. The men whose moral quality we most highly honor were not paid for their goodness on Saturday night and did not expect to be. They chose their course _for righteousness' sake alone_, although they knew what crowns of thorns, what scornful crowds about their cross might end the journey. They did not drive close bargains with their fate, demanding insurance against trouble as the price of goodness. They chose the honorable deed for honor's sake; they chose it the more scrupulously, the more pleasure was offered for dishonor; their tone in the face of threatened suffering was like Milne's, Scotland's last martyr: "I will not recant the truth, for I am corn and no chaff; and I will not be blown away with the wind nor burst with the flail, but I will abide both." Every man is instinctively aware and by his admiration makes it known, that the kind of character which chooses right, willing to suffer for it, is man's noblest quality. The words in which such character has found utterance are man's spiritual battle cries. Esther, going before the King, saying, "If I perish, I perish" (Esther 4:16); the three Hebrews, facing the fiery furnace saying, "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O king. But if _not_, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods" (Dan. 3:17, 18); Peter and the apostles, facing the angry Council, saying, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29); Anaxarchus, the martyr, crying, "Beat on at the case of Anaxarchus; Anaxarchus himself you cannot touch"; Luther, defying the Emperor, "Here stand I; I can do no other"--most words of men are easily dispensable, but no words like these can man afford to spare. They are his best. _And this sort of goodness has been possible, because God had not made the world as our complaints sometimes would have it._ For such character, a system where goodness costs is absolutely necessary. A world where goodness was paid cash in pleasant circumstance would have no such character to show. Right and wrong for their own sakes would be impossible; only prudence and imprudence for happiness' sake could there exist. Out of the same door with the seeming injustice of life goes the possibility of man's noblest quality--his goodness "in scorn of consequence." Many special calamities no one on earth can hope to understand. But when one has granted that fitness to grow character is the only worthy test of creation, it evidently is not so simple as at first it seemed to improve the fundamental structure of the world. VI Indeed, when one in imagination assumes the task of omnipotence and endeavors to construct a universe that shall be fitted for the growth of character, he cannot long hesitate concerning certain elements which must be there. _A system of regular law_ would have to be the basis of that world, for only in a law-abiding universe could obedience be taught. If the stars and planets behaved "like swarms of flies" and nothing could be relied upon to act twice in the same way, character and intelligence alike would be impossible. In this new world, remolded, "nearer to our heart's desire," _progress_ also would be a necessity. A stagnant world cannot grow character. There must be real work to do, aims to achieve; there must be imperfections to overpass and wrongs to right. Only in a system where the present situation is a point of departure and a better situation is a possibility, where ideal and hope, courage and sacrifice are indispensable can character grow. In this improved world of our dreams, _free-will_ in some measure must be granted man. If character is to be real, man must not in his choice between right and wrong be as Spinoza pictured him, a stone hurled through the air, which thinks that it is flying; he must have some control of conduct, some genuine, though limited, power of choice. And in this universe which we are planning for character's sake, individuals could not stand separate and unrelated; _they must be woven into a community_. Love which is the crown of character, lacking this, would be impossible. What happens to one must happen to all; good and ill alike must be contagious in a society where we are "members one of another." No one of these four elements could be omitted from a world whose test was its adaptability for character. Men with genuine power of choice, fused into a fellowship of social life, living in a law-abiding and progressive world--on no other terms imaginable to man could character be possible. _Yet these four things contain all the sources of our misery._ Physical law--what tragic issues its stern, unbending course brings with terrific incidence on man! Progress--how obviously it implies conditions imperfect, wrong, through which we have to struggle toward the best! Free-will--what a nightmare of horror man's misuse of it has caused since sin began! Social fellowship--how surely the innocent must suffer with the guilty, how impossible for any man to bear the consequence of his own sin alone! We may not see why these general conditions should involve the particular calamities which we bewail, but even our finite minds can see thus far into the mystery of suffering: _all our trouble springs from four basic factors in the universe, without any one of which, great character would be impossible_. While, therefore, if one _deny_ God, the mystery of goodness lacks both sense and solution; one may _affirm_ God and find the mystery of evil, mysterious still but suffused with light. God is working out a spiritual purpose here by means without which no spiritual purpose is conceivable. Fundamentally creation is good. We misuse it, we fail to understand its meaning and to appropriate its discipline, and impatient because the eternal purpose is not timed by our small clocks, we have to confess with Theodore Parker, "The trouble seems to be that God is not in a hurry and I am." In hours of insight, however, we perceive how little our complaints will stand the test of dispassionate thought. Our miseries are not God's inflictions on us as individuals, so that we may judge his character and his thought of us by this special favor or by that particular calamity. The most careless thinker feels the poor philosophy of Lord Londonderry's petulant entry in his journal: "Here I learned that Almighty God, for reasons best known to himself, had been pleased to burn down my house in the county of Durham." One must escape such narrow egoism if he is to understand the purposes of God; one must rise to look on a creation, with character at all costs for its aim, and countless æons for its settling. In the making of this world God has _limited himself_; he cannot lightly do what he will. He has limited himself in creating a law-abiding system where his children must learn obedience without special exemptions; in ordaining a progressive system where what _is_ is the frontier from which men seek what _ought to be_; in giving men the power to choose right, with its inevitable corollary, the power to choose wrong; in weaving men into a communal fellowship where none can escape the contagious life of all. What Martineau said of the first of these is true in spirit of them all: "The universality of law is God's eternal act of self limitation or abstinence from the movements of free affection, for the sake of a constancy that shall never falter or deceive." When once a man has risen to the vision of so splendid a purpose in so great a world, he rejoices in the outlook. Granted that now he sees in a mirror darkly, that many a cruel event in human life perplexes still--he has seen enough to give solid standing to his faith. What if an insect, someone has suggested, were born just after a thunderstorm began and died just before it stopped--how dark would be its picture of creation! But we who span a longer period of time, are not so obsessed by thunderstorms, although we may not like them. They have their place and serve their purpose; we see them in a broader perspective than an insect knows and on sultry days we even crave their coming. A broken doll is to a child a cruel tragedy, but to the father watching the child's struggle to accept the accident, to make the best of it and to come off conqueror, the event is not utterly undesirable. He is not glad at the child's suffering, but with his horizons he sees in it factors which she does not see. So God's horizons infinitely overpass our narrow outlooks. There is something more than whimsy in the theologian's saying, which President King reports, that an insect crawling up a column of the Parthenon, with difficulty and pain negotiating passage about a pore in the stone, is as well qualified to judge of the architecture of the Parthenon, as we of the infinitude of God's plans. Seeing as much as we have seen of sense and purpose in the structure of creation, we have seen all that our finite minds with small horizons could have hoped. We have gained ample justification for the attitude toward suffering which Dolly Winthrop in Silas Marner has immortalized: "Eh, there's trouble i' this world, and there's things as we can niver make out the rights on. And all as we've got to do is to trusten, Master Marner--to do the right thing as far as we know and to trusten. For if us, as knows so little, can see a bit o' good and rights, we may be sure as there's a good and a rights bigger nor what we can know--I feel it i' my own inside as it must be so." VII We may not truthfully leave our subject in such a case that faith's concern with human misery will seem to lie merely in giving adversity an explanation. Faith is concerned not alone to _explain_ misery but to _heal_ it. For while it is impossible without hardship to develop character, there are woeful calamities on earth that do not help man's moral quality; they crush and mutilate it; they are barbarous intruders on the plan of God and they have no business in his world. Some ills are such that no theory can reconcile them with the love of God and no man ought to desire such reconciliation; in the love of God they ought to be abolished. Slavery must be a possibility in a world where man is free; but God's goodness was not chiefly vindicated by such a theory of explanation. It was chiefly vindicated by slavery's abolishment. The liquor traffic and war, needless poverty in a world so rich, avoidable diseases that science can overcome--how long a list of woes there is that faith should not so much explain as banish! When some ills like drunkenness and war and economic injustice are thrust against our faith, and men ask that the goodness of God be reconciled with these, faith's first answer should be not speculation but action. Such woes, so far from being capable of reconciliation with God's goodness, are irreconcilable with a decent world. God does not want to be reconciled with them; he hates them "with a perfect hatred." We may not make ourselves patient with them by any theory of their necessity. They are not necessary; they are perversions of man's life; and _the best defense of faith is their annihilation_. Indeed, a man who, rebellious in complaint, has clamorously asked an explanation of life's ills as the price of faith in God, may well in shame consider God's real saints. When things were at their worst, when wrong was conqueror and evils that seemed blatantly to deny the love of God were in the saddle, these spiritual soldiers went out to fight. The winds of ill that blow out our flickering faith made their religion blaze--a pillar of fire in the night. The more evil they faced, the more religion they produced to answer it. They were the real believers, who "through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises." In comparison with such, it is obviously paltry business to drive a bargain with God that if all goes well we will believe in him, but if things look dark, then faith must go. Many a man, therefore, who is no philosopher can be a great defender of the faith. He may not weave arguments to prove that such a world as this in its fundamental structure is fitted to a moral purpose. But he can join the battle to banish from the world those ills that have no business here and that God hates. He can help produce that final defense of the Christian faith--a world where it is easier to believe in God. CHAPTER VII Faith and Science DAILY READINGS The intellectual difficulties which trouble many folk involve the relations of faith with science, but often they do not so much concern the abstract theories of science as they do the particular attitudes of scientists. We are continually faced with quotations from scientific specialists, in which religion is denied or doubted or treated contemptuously, and even while the merits of the case may be beyond the ordinary man's power of argument, he nevertheless is shaken by the general opinion that what ministers say in the pulpit on Sunday is denied by what scientists say all the rest of the week. In the daily readings, therefore, we shall deal with the scientists themselves, as a problem which faith must meet. Seventh Week, First Day No one can hope to deal fairly with the scientists, in their relationship with faith, unless he begins with a warm appreciation of the splendid integrity and self-denial which the scientific search for truth has revealed. =Canst thou bind the cluster of the Pleiades, Or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season? Or canst thou guide the Bear with her train? Knowest thou the ordinances of the heavens? Canst thou establish the dominion thereof in the earth? Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, That abundance of waters may cover thee? Canst thou send forth lightnings, that they may go, And say unto thee, Here we are? Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who hath given understanding to the mind? Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of heaven, When the dust runneth into a mass, And the clods cleave fast together?= =--Job 38:31-38.= Such is man's ancient wonder before the physical universe; and in the endeavor to discover the truth about it science has developed saints and martyrs whose selfless and sacrificial spirit is unsurpassed even in the annals of the Church. Men have spent lives of obscure and unrewarded toil to get at a few new facts; they have suffered persecution, and, even after torture, have reaffirmed the truth of their discoveries, as did Galileo, when he insisted, "The earth does move." They have surrendered place and wealth, friends and life itself in their passion for the sheer truth, and when human service was at stake have inoculated themselves with deadly diseases that they might be the means of discovering the cure, or have sacrificed everything that men hold most dear to destroy an ancient, popular, and hurtful fallacy. The phrase "pride of science" is often used in depreciation of the scientists. There is some excuse for the phrase, but in general, when one finds pride, dogmatism, intolerance, they are the work of ignorance and not of science. The scientific spirit has been characteristically humble. Says Huxley: "Science seems to me to teach in the highest and strongest manner the great truth which is embodied in the Christian conception of entire surrender to the will of God. Sit down before the fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever end nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.... I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do this." The Christian, above all others, is bound to approach the study of the controversy between science and theology with a high estimate of the integrity and disinterested unselfishness of the scientists. _O God, we thank Thee for the world in which Thou hast placed us, for the universe whose vastness is revealed in the blue depths of the sky, whose immensities are lit by shining stars beyond the strength of mind to follow. We thank Thee for every sacrament of beauty; for the sweetness of flowers, the solemnity of the stars, the sound of streams and swelling seas; for far-stretching lands and mighty mountains which rest and satisfy the soul, the purity of dawn which calls to holy dedication, the peace of evening which speaks of everlasting rest. May we not fear to make this world for a little while our home, since it is Thy creation and we ourselves are part of it. Help us humbly to learn its laws and trust its mighty powers._ _We thank Thee for the world within, deeper than we dare to look, higher than we care to climb; for the great kingdom of the mind and the silent spaces of the soul. Help us not to be afraid of ourselves, since we were made in Thy image, loved by Thee before the worlds began, and fashioned for Thy eternal habitation. May we be brave enough to bear the truth, strong enough to live in the light, glad to yield ourselves to Thee._ _We thank Thee for that world brighter and better than all, opened for us in the broken heart of the Saviour; for the universe of love and purity in Him, for the golden sunshine of His smile, the tender grace of His forgiveness, the red renewing rain and crimson flood of His great sacrifice. May we not shrink from its searching and surpassing glory, nor, when this world fades away, fear to commit ourselves to that world which shall be our everlasting home. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. Seventh Week, Second Day The Christian's appreciation of scientists should not stop short of profound gratitude for their service to religion. If one reads Burns's "Tam o' Shanter," with its "ghaists," "warlocks and witches," and "auld Nick," and remembers that these demonic powers were veritable facts of terror once, he will see in what a world of superstitious fear mankind has lived. Bells were first put into church steeples, not to call folk to worship, but to scare the devils out of thunder-clouds, and the old cathedral bells of Europe are inscribed with declarations of that purpose. The ancients hardly believed in God so vividly as they believed in malicious demons everywhere. Now the Gospel removed the _fear_ of these from the first Christians; it made men aware of a conquering alliance with God, so that believers no longer shared the popular dread of unknown demons. But so long as thunderstorms, pestilences, droughts, and every sort of evil were supposed to be the work of devils, even the Gospel could not dispel the general dread. Only new knowledge could do that. While Christianity therefore at its best has removed the _fear_ of evil spirits, science has removed the _fact_ of them as an oppressive weight on life. Today we not only do not dread them, but we do not think of them at all, and we have science to thank for our freedom. By its clear facing of facts and tracing of laws, science has lifted from man's soul an intolerable burden of misbeliefs and has cleansed religion of an oppressive mass of credulity. _True religion never had a deadlier foe than superstition and superstition has no deadlier foe than science._ Little children, brought up in our homes to trust the love of the Father, with no dark background of malignant devils to harass and frighten them, owe their liberty to the Gospel of Jesus indeed, but as well to the illumination of science that has banished the ancient dreads. =These things have I spoken unto you, while yet abiding with you. But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.--John 14:25-27.= _To God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, we pour forth most humble and hearty supplications, that He, remembering the calamities of mankind, and the pilgrimage of this our life in which we spend our days, would please to open to us new consolations out of the fountain of His goodness for the alleviating of our miseries. We humbly and earnestly ask that human things may not prejudice such as are Divine, so that from the opening of the gates of sense, and the kindling of a greater natural light, nothing of incredulity ... may arise in our minds towards Divine mysteries; but rather, O Lord, that our minds being thoroughly cleansed and purged from fancy, and yet subject to the Divine will, there may be given unto faith the things that are faith's, that so we may continually attain to a deeper knowledge and love of Thee, Who art the Fountain of Light, and dwellest in the Light which no man can approach unto; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen._--Francis Bacon, 1561. Seventh Week, Third Day If one approach the scientists, as we have suggested, with appreciation of their devoted spirit and of their beneficent service, he is likely to be fair and Christian in his judgment. For one thing, he will readily understand why some of them are not religious men. The laws of psychology are not suspended when religion is concerned; there as elsewhere persistent attention is the price of a vivid sense of reality. When, therefore, a man habitually thinks intensely of nothing but biological tissue, or chemical reactions, or the diseases of a special organ, the results are not difficult to forecast. Darwin's famous confession that in his exacting concentration on biology he utterly lost his power to appreciate music or poetry is a case in point. Said Darwin, "My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of a large collection of facts." It is needless to say that such a mind is not likely to be more vividly aware of God than it is to feel music's beauty or poetry's truth. The plain fact is that if any man should persistently restrict himself to a physical science, should never hear a symphony or an oratorio, should shut out from his experience any dealing with music or enjoyment of it, he would in the end lose all musical capacity, and would become a man whose appreciation of music was nil and whose opinion on music was worthless. _Just such an atrophy of life is characteristic of intense specialists._ When one understands this he becomes capable of intelligent sympathy with scientists, even when he does not at all agree with their religious opinions. Jude gives us a remarkable injunction, plainly applicable here. "On some have mercy who are in doubt." =But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have mercy, who are in doubt; and some save, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.= =Now unto him that is able to guard you from stumbling, and to set you before the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding joy, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and power, before all time, and now, and for evermore. Amen.--Jude 20-25.= _O God, who so fillest all things that they only thinly veil Thy presence; we adore Thee in the beauty of the world, in the goodness of human hearts and in Thy thought within the mind. We praise Thee for the channels through which Thy grace can come to us; sickness and health, joy and pain, freedom and necessity, sunshine and rain, life and death._ _We thank Thee for all the gentle and healing ministries of life; the gladness of the morning, the freedom of the wind, the music of the rain, the joy of the sunshine, and the deep calm of the night; for trees, and flowers, the clouds, and skies; for the tender ministries of human love, the unselfishness of parents, the love that binds man and woman, the confidence of little children; for the patience of teachers and the encouragement of friends._ _We bless Thee for the stirring ministry of the past, for the story of noble deeds, the memory of holy men, the printed book, the painter's art, the poet's craft; most of all for the ministry of the Son of Man, who taught us the eternal beauty of earthly things, who by His life set us free from fear, and by His death won us from our sins to Thee; for His cradle, His cross, and His crown._ _May His Spirit live within us, conquer all the selfishness of man, and take away the sin of the world. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. Seventh Week, Fourth Day The tendency of scientific specialization to shut out the appreciation of life's other values has one notable result: the opinions of scientific specialists in the physical realm on matters of religion are generally not of major importance. There is a popular fallacy that an expert in one realm must be listened to with reverence on all subjects. But the fact is that a great physicist is not by his scientific eminence thereby qualified to talk wisely on politics or literature or religion; rather, so far as _a priori_ considerations are concerned, he is thereby disqualified. Mr. Edison cannot say anything on electricity that is insignificant; but when he gave an interview on immortality he revealed to everyone who knew the history of thought on that subject and the issues involved in it, that on matters outside his specialty he could say things very insignificant. The more one personally knows great specialists, the more he sees how human they are, how interest in one thing shuts out interest in others, how the subject on which the mind centers grows real and all else unreal, how very valuable their judgment is on their specialties, and how much less valuable even than ordinary men's is their judgment on anything beside. This truth does not concern religion only; it concerns any subject which calls into play appreciative faculties that their science does not use. For a man, therefore, to surrender religious faith because a specialist in another realm disowns it is absurd. If one wishes, outside of those whose vital interest in religion makes them specialists there, to get confirmation from another class of men, let him look not to physicists but to judges. They are accustomed to weigh evidence covering the general field of human life; and among the great judicial minds of this generation, as of all others, one finds an overwhelming preponderance of religious men. =But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him? even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God. But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God; that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth; combining spiritual things with spiritual words. Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged.--I Cor. 2:10-14.= _O Eternal and glorious Lord God, since Thy glory and honor is the great end of all Thy works, we desire that it may be the beginning and end of all our prayers and services. Let Thy great Name be glorious, and glorified, and sanctified throughout the world. Let the knowledge of Thee fill all the earth as the waters cover the sea. Let that be done in the world that may most advance Thy glory. Let all Thy works praise Thee. Let Thy wisdom, power, justice, goodness, mercy, and truth be evident unto all mankind, that they may observe, acknowledge, and admire it, and magnify the Name of Thee, the Eternal God. In all the dispensation of Thy Providence, enable us to see Thee, and to sanctify Thy Name in our hearts with thankfulness, in our lips with thanksgiving, in our lives with dutifulness and obedience. Enable us to live to the honor of that great Name of Thine by which we are called, and that, as we profess ourselves to be Thy children, so we may study and sincerely endeavor to be like Thee in all goodness and righteousness, that we may thereby bring glory to Thee our Father which art in heaven; that we and all mankind may have high and honorable thoughts concerning Thee, in some measure suitable to Thy glory, majesty, goodness, wisdom, bounty, and purity, and may in all our words and actions manifest these inward thoughts touching Thee with suitable and becoming words and actions; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen._--Lord Chief Justice Sir Matthew Hale, 1609. Seventh Week, Fifth Day So far in our thought we have tacitly consented to the popular supposition, that the scientists are at odds with religion. Many of them unquestionably are. But in view of the obsessing nature of scientific specialties, the wonder is not that some scientists are non-religious; the wonder is that so many are profoundly men of faith in God. The idea that scientists as a whole are irreligious is untrue. Lists of testimonials from eminent specialists in favor of religion are not particularly useful, for, as we have said, the judgment of specialists outside their chosen realm is, at the most, no more valuable than that of ordinary men. But if anyone tries to rest his case against religion on the adverse opinions of great scientists, he easily can be driven from his position. Sir William Crookes, one of the world's greatest chemists, writes: "I cannot imagine the possibility of anyone with ordinary intelligence entertaining the least doubt as to the existence of a God--a Law-Giver and a Life-Giver." Lord Kelvin, called the "Napoleon of Science," said that he could think of nothing so absurd as atheism; Sir Oliver Lodge, perhaps the greatest living physicist and certainly an earnest believer, writes, "The tendency of science, whatever it is, is not in an irreligious direction at the present time"; Sir George Stokes, the great physicist (died 1903), affirmed his belief that disbelievers among men of science "form a very small minority"; and Sir James Geikie, Dean of the Faculty of Science at Edinburgh University, impatiently writes, "It is simply an impertinence to say that 'the leading scientists are irreligious or anti-Christian.' Such a statement could only be made by some scatter-brained chatterbox or zealous fanatic." The fact is that, in spite of the tendency of high specialization to crowd out religious interest and insight, our great scientists have never thrown the mass of their influence against religion, and today, in the opinion of one of their chief leaders, are growing to be increasingly men of religious spirit. Whatever argument is to be based on the testimony of the scientists is rather for religion than against it. =For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye show toward all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe.--Eph. 1:15-19.= _O Lord, who by Thy holy Apostle hast taught us to do all things in the Name of the Lord Jesus and to Thy glory; give Thy blessing, we pray Thee, to this our work, that we may do it in faith, and heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. All our powers of body and mind are Thine, and we would fain devote them to Thy service. Sanctify them and the work in which we are engaged; let us not be slothful, but fervent in spirit, and do Thou, O Lord, so bless our efforts that they may bring forth in us the fruit of true wisdom. Strengthen the faculties of our minds, and dispose us to exert them for Thy glory and for the furtherance of Thy Kingdom. Save us from all pride and vanity and reliance upon our own power or wisdom. Teach us to seek after truth, and enable us to gain it; while we know earthly things, may we know Thee, and be known by Thee through and in Thy Son Jesus Christ, that we may be Thine in body and spirit, in all our work and undertakings; through Jesus Christ. Amen._--Thomas Arnold, 1795. Seventh Week, Sixth Day Far more important than the opinions of individual scientists for religion or against it, is the fact that scientists are coming increasingly to recognize the limitations of their field. The field of science _is_ limited; its domain is the system of facts and their laws, which make the immediate environment of man's life; but with the Origin of all life, with the character of the Power that sustains us and with the Destiny that lies ahead of us science does not, cannot deal. The most superficial observance shows how little any great soul lives within the confines of science's discoveries. Carlyle, after his great bereavement, writes to his friend Erskine: "'Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy will be done'--what else can we say? The other night in my sleepless tossings about, which were growing more and more miserable, these words, that brief and grand Prayer, came strangely to my mind, with an altogether new emphasis; as if written and shining for me in mild pure splendor, on the black bosom of the Night there; when I, as it were, read them word by word--with a sudden check to my imperfect wanderings, with a sudden softness of composure which was much unexpected. Not for perhaps thirty or forty years had I once formally repeated that prayer--nay, I never felt before how intensely the voice of man's soul it is; the inmost aspiration of all that is high and pious in poor human nature." But supposing that the facts of science were all of reality and the laws of science all of truth, what sort of prayer could Carlyle have offered? Another has suggested the form which the Lord's Prayer would take in a world that lacked religious faith: "Our brethren who are upon the earth, hallowed be our name; our Kingdom come; our will be done on earth; for there is no heaven. We must get us this day our daily bread; we know we cannot be forgiven, for Law knows no forgiveness; we fear not temptation, for we deliver ourselves from evil; for ours is the Kingdom and ours is the power, and there is no glory and no forever. Amen." In such a barren prayer _the whole of man's life is not represented_. =Let no man deceive himself. If any man thinketh that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He that taketh the wise in their craftiness: and again, The Lord knoweth the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain. Wherefore let no one glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.--I Cor. 3:18-23.= _O Thou Infinite Spirit, who occupiest all space, who guidest all motion, thyself unchanged, and art the life of all that lives, we flee unto thee, in whom we also live and move and have our being, and would reverence Thee with what is highest and holiest in our soul. We know that Thou art not to be worshiped as though Thou needest aught, or askedst the psalm of praise from our lips, or our heart's poor prayer. O Lord, the ground under our feet, and the seas which whelm it round, the air which holds them both, and the heavens sparkling with many a fire--these are a whisper of the psalm of praise which creation sends forth to Thee, and we know that Thou askest no homage of bended knee, nor heart bowed down, nor heart uplifted unto Thee. But in our feebleness and our darkness, dependent on Thee for all things, we lift up our eyes unto Thee; as a little child to the father and mother who guide him by their hands, so do our eyes look up to Thy countenance, O Thou who art our Father and our Mother too, and bless Thee for all Thy gifts. We look to the infinity of Thy perfection with awe-touched heart, and we adore the sublimity which we cannot comprehend. We bow down before Thee, and would renew our sense of gratitude and quicken still more our certainty of trust, till we feel Thee a presence close to our heart, and are so strong in the heavenly confidence that nothing earthly can disturb us or make us fear. Amen._--Theodore Parker. Seventh Week, Seventh Day The difficulty which many Christians feel concerning science centers around their loyalty to the Bible. They still are under the domination of the thought that the Christian idea of the Bible is the same as the Mohammedan idea of the Koran or the Mormon idea of Joseph Smith's sacred plates. The Koran was all written in heaven, word for word, say orthodox Mohammedans, before ever it came to earth. As for the Mormon Bible, God buried the plates on which he wrote, said Smith, and then disclosed their hiding place, and his prophet translated them verbatim, so that the Mormon book is literally inerrant. But this is not the Christian idea of the Bible. Inspiration is never represented in Scripture as verbal dictation where human powers and limitations are suspended, so that like a phonographic plate the result is a mechanical reproduction of the words of God. Rather God spoke to men through their experience as they were able to understand him, and as a result the great Christian Book, like a true Christian man, represents alike the inbreathing of the Divine and the limitation of the human. So the Epistle to the Hebrews clearly states that God did what he could in revealing partially to partial men what they could understand: =God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.--Heb. 1:1, 2.= Of all limitations that are entirely obvious in the ancient Hebrew-Christian world, the current view of the physical universe is the most unescapable. To suppose that God never can reveal to men anything about the world, transcending what the ancient Hebrews could understand, is to deny the principle which Jesus applied even to the more important realm of spiritual truth: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now" (John 16:12). _O Thou who hast visited us with the Dayspring from on high, who hast made light to shine in the darkness, we praise Thy holy name and proclaim Thy wonderful goodness._ _We bless Thee for the dawning of the light in far-off ages as soon as human eyes could bear its rays. We remember those who bore aloft the torch of truth when all was false and full of shame; those far-sighted souls who from the mountain tops of vision heralded the coming day; those who labored in the darkened valleys to lift men's eyes to the hills._ _We thank Thee that in the fulness of the times Thou didst gather Thy light into life, so that even simple folk could see; for Jesus the Star of the morning and the Light of the world._ _We commemorate His holy nativity, His lowly toil, His lonely way; the gracious words of His lips, the deep compassion of His heart, His friendship for the fallen, His love for the outcast; the crown of thorns, the cruel cross, the open shame. And we rejoice to know as He was here on earth, so Thou art eternally. Thou dost not abhor our flesh, nor shrink from our earthly toil. Thou rememberest our frailty, bearest with our sin, and tastest even our bitter cup of death._ _And now we rejoice for the light that shines about our daily path from the cradle to the grave, and for the light that illumines its circuit beyond these spheres from our conception in Thy mind to the day when we wake in Thy image; for the breathing of Thy spirit into ours till we see Thee face to face: in God, from God; to God at last. Hallelujah. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. COMMENT FOR THE WEEK I The innermost questions which some minds raise about religion cannot be answered without candid discussion of the obvious contrasts between faith and science. The conflict between science and theology is one of the saddest stories ever written. It is a record of mutual misunderstanding, of bitterness, bigotry, and persecution, and to this day one is likely to find the devotees of religion suspicious of science and scientists impatient with the Church. If we are to understand the reason for this controversy between science and theology, we must take a far look back into man's history. Stephen Leacock remarks that whenever a professor discusses anything, he has to retreat at least 2,000 years to get a running start. Our retreat must be farther than that; it carries us to the earliest stage in which we are able to describe the thoughts of men. _At the beginning men attributed to superhuman spirits all activities in the world which they themselves did not perform._ If the wind blew, a spirit did it; if the sun rose, a spirit moved it; if a storm came, a spirit drove it. Natural law was non-existent to the primitive man; every movement in nature was the direct result of somebody's active will. From the mysterious whispering of a wind-swept field to the crashing thunder, what man did not cause the gods did. If, therefore, a primitive man were asked the cause of rain, he had but one answer: a god made it rain. That was his _scientific_ answer, for no other explanation of rain could he conceive. That was his _religious_ answer, for he worshiped the spirit on whom he must depend for showers. This significant fact, therefore, stands clear: _To primitive man a religious answer and a scientific answer were identical._ Sunrise was explained, not by planetary movements which were unknown, but by the direct activity of a god, and the Dawn then was worshipped in the same terms in which it was explained. The historic reason for the confusion between science and religion at once grows evident. _At the beginning they were fused and braided into one; the story of their relationship is the record of their gradual and difficult disentangling._ Wherever peace has come between science and religion, one finds a realm where the boundaries between the two are acknowledged and respected. Ask _now_ the question, What makes it rain? There is a scientific answer in terms of natural laws concerning atmospheric pressure and condensation. There is also a religious answer, since behind all laws and through them runs the will of God. These two replies are distinct, they move in different realms, and are held together without inconsistency. As Sabatier put it, "Since God is the final cause of all things, he is not the scientific explanation of any one thing." In how many realms where once confusion reigned between the believers in the gods and the seekers after natural laws, is peace now established! Rain and sunrise, the tides and the eclipses, the coming of the seasons and the growing of the crops--for all such events we have our scientific explanations, and at the same time through them all the man of religion feels the creative power of God. Peace reigns in these realms because here _no longer do we force religious answers on scientific questions or scientific answers on religious questions_. Evidently the old Deuteronomic law is the solution of the conflict between science and religion: "Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark" (Deut. 27:17). II Left thus in the negative, however, this might seem to mean that we are to divide our minds into air-tight compartments, and allow no influences from one to penetrate another. But science and religion do tremendously affect each other, and no honest dealing ever can endeavor to prevent their mutual reaction. Our position is not thus negative; it affirms a positive and most important truth. Life has many aspects; science, art, religion, approach it from different angles, with different interests and purposes; and while they do _influence_ each other, they are not _identical_ and each has solid standing in its own right. When science has grown domineering, as though her approach to reality were the only one and her conclusions all of truth, the poets have had as much distaste for her as have the theologians. Shelley, who called himself an atheist, had no interest in religion's conflict with the extreme claims of science; yet listen to his aroused and flaming language as he pleads the case for poetry against her: "Poetry is something divine.... It is the perfect and consummate surface and bloom of all things; it is as the odor and color of the rose to the texture of the elements which compose it, and the form and splendor of unfaded beauty to the secrets of anatomy and corruption. What were virtue, love, patriotism, friendship--what were the scenery of this beautiful universe which we inhabit; what were our consolations on this side of the grave--and what were our aspirations beyond it, if poetry did not ascend to bring light and fire from those eternal regions where the owl-winged faculty of calculation dare not even soar?" This involves no denial of science's absolute right to her own field--the "texture of the elements which compose" the rose, and the "secrets of anatomy." But it is a justified assertion that this field of science is not all of reality, and that what the "owl-winged faculty of calculation" can reach is not all of truth. What is a sunset? Science sets forth the answer in tables where the light waves that compose the colors are counted and the planetary movements that bring on the dusk are all explained. Poetry answers in a way how different! "I've dreamed of sunsets when the sun, supine, Lay rocking on the ocean like a god, And threw his weary arms far up the sky, And with vermilion-tinted fingers, Toyed with the long tresses of the evening star."[4] Is one of these answers more true than the other? Rather it is absurd to compare their truth; they are not contradictory; they approach the same fact with diverse interests, and seek in it different aspects of reality. Each has its rights in its own field. And so far is it from being true that science has a clear case in favor of its own superior importance, that Höffding, the philosopher, remarks, "It well may be that poetry gives more perfect expression to the highest Reality than any scientific concept can ever do." Any great fact is too manifold in its meanings to be exhausted by a single method of approach. If one would know the Bible thoroughly, he must understand the rules of grammar. Were one to make grammar his exclusive specialty, the Bible to him, so far as he held strictly to his science, would be nouns and verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and prepositions, and the law-abiding relationships between them. This mere grammarian would know by such a method one aspect of the Bible, but how little of the Book would that aspect be! No rules of grammar can interpret the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians or explain the story of the Cross. The facts and laws of the Book's language a grammarian could know, but the beauty and the soul of it, the innermost transforming truth of it, would be unperceived. So life is too rich and various to be exhausted by any one approach. Science seeks facts and arranges them in systems of cause and effect. Poetry sees these bare facts adorned with beauty, she suffuses them with her preferences and her appreciations. Religion sees the whole gathered up into spiritual unity, filled with moral purpose and good will, and in this faith finds peace and power. There need be no conflict between these various approaches; they are complementary, not antagonistic; and no man sees all the truth by any one of them alone. So a chemist might come to a spring to analyze it; a painter to rejoice in its beauties and reproduce them on his canvas; and a man athirst might come to drink and live. Shall they quarrel because they do not all come alike? Let them rather see how partial is the experience of each without the others! III In the mutual trespassing which has caused our problem, religion has had her guilty share, and the reason is not difficult to find. God did not have to give a modern scientific education to his ancient Hebrew saints before he could begin to reveal to them something of his will and character. And they, writing their experience and thought of him, could not avoid--as no generation's writers can avoid--indicating the view of the physical world which they and their contemporaries held. It is easy, therefore, from scores of Scripture passages to reconstruct the early Hebrew world. Their earth was flat and was founded on an underlying sea. (Psalm 136:6; Psalm 24:1, 2; Gen. 7:11); it was stationary (Psalm 93:1; Psalm 104:5); the heavens, like an upturned bowl, "strong as a molten mirror" (Job 37:18; Gen. 1:6-8; Isa. 40:22; Psalm 104:2), rested on the earth beneath (Amos 9:6; Job 26:11); the sun, moon, and stars moved within this firmament, of special purpose to illumine man (Gen. 1:14-19); there was a sea above the sky, "the waters which were above the firmament" (Gen. 1:7; Psalm 148:4), and through the "windows of heaven" the rain came down (Gen. 7:11; Psalm 78:23); beneath the earth was mysterious Sheol where dwelt the shadowy dead (Isa. 14:9-11); and all this had been made in six days, a short and measurable time before (Gen. 1). This was the world of the Hebrews. Because when the Hebrews wrote the Bible their thoughts of God, their deep experience of him, were interwoven with their early science, Christians, through the centuries, have thought that faith in God stood or fell with early Hebrew science and that the Hebrew view of the physical universe must last forever. In the seventeenth century, Dr. John Lightfoot, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said: "Heaven and earth, center and circumference, were created all together, in the same instant, and clouds full of water.... This work took place and man was created by the Trinity on October 23, 4004 B. C., at nine o'clock in the morning." Of what tragedy has this identification of science with religion been the cause! When _astronomy_ began to revolutionize man's idea of the solar universe, when for the first time in man's imagination the flat earth grew round and the stable earth began moving through space seventy-five times faster than a cannon-ball, Pope Paul V solemnly rendered a decree, that "the doctrine of the double motion of the earth about its axis and about the sun is false and entirely contrary to Holy Scripture." When _geology_ began to show from the rocks' unimpeachable testimony the long leisureliness of God, laying the foundations of the world, a Christian leader declared geology "not a subject of lawful inquiry," "a dark art," "dangerous and disreputable," "a forbidden province," "an awful evasion of the testimony of revelation." This tragic record of theology's vain conflict with science is the most pitiable part of the Church's story. How needless it was! For now when we face our universe of magnificent distances and regal laws has religion really suffered? Has a flat and stationary earth proved essential to Christianity, as Protestants and Catholics alike declared? Rather the Psalmist could not guess the sweep of our meaning when now we say, "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1). In the last generation the idea of _evolution_ was the occasion of a struggle like that which attended the introduction of the new astronomy. How was the world made? asked the ancient Hebrew, and he answered, By the word of God at a stroke. That was his scientific answer, and his religious answer too. When, therefore, the evolving universe was disclosed by modern science, when men read in fossil and in living biological structure the undeniable evidence of a long history of gradually changing forms of life, until the world was seen _not made like a box but growing like a tree_, many men of religion thought the faith destroyed. They identified the Christian Gospel with early Hebrew science! Today, however, when the general idea of evolution is taken for granted as gravitation is, how false this identification obviously appears! Says Professor Bowne, "An Eastern king was seated in a garden, and one of his counselors was speaking of the wonderful works of God. 'Show me a sign,' said the king, 'and I will believe.' 'Here are four acorns,' said the counselor; 'will your Majesty plant them in the ground, and then stoop down and look into this clear pool of water?' The king did so. 'Now,' said the other, 'Look up.' The king looked up and saw four oak trees where he had planted the acorns. 'Wonderful!' he exclaimed; 'this is indeed the work of God.' 'How long were you looking into the water?' asked the counselor. 'Only a second,' said the king. 'Eighty years have passed as a second,' said the other. The king looked at his garments; they were threadbare. He looked at his reflection in the water; he had become an old man. 'There is no miracle here, then,' he said angrily. 'Yes,' said the other; 'it is God's work whether he do it in one second or in eighty years.'" Such an attitude as this is now a commonplace with Christian folk. A vast and growing universe through which sweep the purposes of God is by far the most magnificent outlook for faith that man has ever had. The Gospel and Hebrew science are _not_ identical; the Gospel is not indissolubly bound to any science ancient or modern; for science and religion have separable domains. "A fire-mist and a planet, A crystal and a cell, A jelly-fish and a saurian, And caves where cave men dwell. Then a sense of Love and Duty And a face turned from the clod, Some call it Evolution And others--call it God." The same story of needless antagonism is now being written about religion and _natural law_. When science began plotting nature's laws, the control of the world seemed to be snatched from the hands of deity and given over to a system of impersonal rules. God, whose action had been defined in terms of miracle, was forced from one realm after another by the discovery of laws, until at last even comets were found to be not whimsical but as regular in their law-abiding courses as the planets, and God seemed to be escorted to the edge of the universe and bowed out. When Newton first formulated the law of gravitation, the artillery of many an earnest pulpit was let loose against him. One said that Newton took "from God that direct action on his works so constantly ascribed to him in Scripture and transferred it to material mechanism" and that he "substituted gravitation for Providence." But now, when science has so plainly won her case, in her own proper field; when we know to our glory and profit so many laws by which the world is governed, and use our knowledge as the most splendid engine of personal purpose and freedom which man ever had, we see how great our gain has been. _Nor is it more a practical than a religious gain._ God once was thought of chiefly in terms of miraculous action; he came into his world now and again, like the _deus-ex-machina_ of a Greek tragedy, to solve a critical dilemma in the plot. Now all the laws we know and many more are his regular ways of action, and through them all continuously his purpose is being wrought. As Henry Drummond exclaimed, "If God appears periodically, he disappears periodically. If he comes upon the scene at special crises, he is absent from the scene in the intervals. Whether is all-God or occasional God the nobler theory?" Nothing, therefore, can be more pathetic than the self-styled "defenders of the faith" who withstand the purpose of reverent students to give scientific answers to scientific questions. Such men are not really defending the faith. They are doing exactly what Father Inchofer did when he said, "The opinion that the earth moves is of all heresies the most abominable"; what Mr. Gosse did when he maintained, in explanation of geology's discoveries, that God by the use of stratified rock and fossils deliberately gave the earth the _appearance_ of development through long ages, while really he made it in six days; what Mr. Southall did when, in the face of established anthropology, he claimed that the "Egyptians had no Stone age and were born civilized"; what the Dean of Chichester did when he preached that "those who refuse to accept the history of the creation of our first parents according to its obvious literal intention, and are for substituting the modern dream of evolution in its place, cause the entire scheme of man's salvation to collapse." These were not defending the faith; they were making it ridiculous in the eyes of intelligent men and were embroiling religion in controversies where she did not belong and where, out of her proper realm, she was foredoomed to defeat. _For scientific problems are not a matter for faith; they are a matter for investigation._ No one can settle by faith the movements of the planets, the method of the earth's formation, the age of mankind, the explanation of comets. These lie in science's realm, not in religion's, and religious faith demeans herself when she tries to settle them. Let science be the grammarian of the world to observe its parts of speech and their relations! Religion deals with the soul of the world, its deepest source, its spiritual meaning, its divine purpose. IV Science, however, has not always been content with the grammarian's task. When we have frankly confessed religion's sins in trespassing on scientific territory, we must note that _science has her guilty share in the needless conflict_. Today one suspects that the Church's vain endeavor by ecclesiastical authority to force religious solutions on scientific problems is almost over. But the attempt of many scientists to claim the whole field of reality as theirs and to force their solutions on every sort of problem is not yet finished. This, too, is a vain endeavor. To suppose that the process of scientific observation and inference can exhaust the truth of life is like supposing that there is no more meaning in Westminster Abbey than is expressed in Baedeker. Scientists, for example, sometimes claim domains which are not theirs by _spelling abstract nouns with capitals, by positing Law or Evolution as the makers and builders of the world_. But law never did anything; law is only man's statement of the way, according to his observation, in which things are done. To explain the universe as the creation of Law is on a par with explaining homes as the creation of Matrimony. Abstract nouns do not create anything and the capitalizing of a process never can explain it. So, too, Evolution does nothing to the world; it is the way in which whoever makes the world is making it. As well explain the difference between an acorn and an oak by saying that Growth did it, as to explain the progress of creation from stardust to civilization by changing e to E. Science may describe the process as evolutionary, but its source, its moving power, and its destiny are utterly beyond her ken. For another thing, scientists often invade realms which are not theirs, _by stretching the working theories of some special science to the proportions of a complete philosophy of life_. A generation ago, when geology and biology were in their "green and salad days," the enthusiasm inspired by the splendid results of their hypotheses went to strange lengths. One professor of geology seriously explained the pyramids of Egypt to be the remains of volcanic eruption which had forced its way upwards by slow and stately motion. The hieroglyphs were crystalline formations and the shaft of the great pyramid was the airhole of a volcano. Scientists are human like all men; their specialties loom large; the ideas that work in their limited areas seem omnipotent. So a student of the influence of sunlight on life thinks reactions to the sun explain everything. "Heliotropism," he says, "doubtless wrote Hamlet." A specialist on the influence of geography on human nature interprets everything as the reaction of man to seas, mountains, plains, and deserts, and Lombroso even thinks the revolutionary temperament especially native to men who live on limestone formations! Specialists in economic history are sure that man is little more than an animated nucleus of hunger and that all life is explicable as a search for food. And psychologists, charmed by the neatness of description which causal connections introduce into our inner life, leap to the conclusion, which lies outside their realm, that personality is an illusion, freedom a myth and our mental life the rattling of a causal chain forged and set in motion when the universe began. _All this is not science; it is making hypotheses from a limited field of facts masquerade as a total philosophy of life._ The underlying reason why science, when she regards her province as covering everything, inevitably clashes with the interests of religion, is that _she starts her view of the world from the sub-human side_. The typical sciences are physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, biology, and the view of the universe which they present is the basis on which all other sciences proceed. But this foundation is sub-human; the master ideas involved in it are all obtained with the life of man left out of account. Such an approach presents a world-machine, immense and regular, and when, later, psychology and sociology arise, how easy it is to call the human life which they study a by-product of the sub-human world, an exudation arising from the activities of matter. Religion, on the contrary, _starts with human life_. Fall down in awe, Science cries, before this vast sub-human world! And the religious man answers: What world is this I am to bow before? Is it not the universe which my mind knows and whose laws my intellect has grasped? This universe, so far as it exists at all for me, is apprehended by my vision, penetrated by my thought, encompassed by my interpretations. _What is really great and wonderful here, is not the world which I understand, but the mind that understands it--not the sub-human but the human._ Man himself is the supreme Fact, and all the world that man could bow before, man's mind must first of all contain. The master truth is not that my mind exists within a physical universe, but that the physical universe is encompassed by my mind. Therefore, when I interpret life, I will start with man, and not with what lies below him. Romanes, the English scientist, illustrates in his experience the difference which these two approaches make. When, returning from agnosticism to Christianity, he explained his lapse, he said, "I did not sufficiently appreciate the immense importance of _human_ nature, as distinguished from physical nature, in any inquiry touching theism.... Human nature is the most important part of nature as a whole whereby to investigate the theory of theism. This I ought to have anticipated on merely _a priori_ grounds, had I not been too much immersed in merely physical research." Of how many now does this same explanation hold! They segregate man from the rest of the universe, and endeavor an interpretation of the unhuman remainder. They forget that man is part and parcel of the universe, bone of its bone, as imperative an expression of its substantial nature as are rocks and stars, and that _any philosophy which interprets the world minus man has not interpreted the world_. Here is the difference between a Haeckel and a Phillips Brooks. All the dominant ideas of the one are drawn from existence minus man; all the controlling convictions of the other are drawn from the heights and depths of man's own life. The first approach inevitably leads to irreligion, for Spirit cannot reveal itself except in spirit and until one has found God in man he will not find him in nature. The second as certainly leads to religion, for, as Augustine said, "If you dig deep enough in every man you find divinity." Over against the testimony of the sub-human that there is a mechanistic aspect to the world, stands the unalterable testimony of the human that there is as well an ideal, purposive, and spiritual aspect to the world. Surely the latter brings us nearer to the heart of truth. _We never understand anything except in terms of its highest expression and man is the summit of nature._ Could religion find a voice, therefore, she would wish to speak not in terms of apology but of challenge, when science, assuming all of reality for its field, grows arrogant. Describe the aspect of the world that belongs to you, she would say. I have learned my lesson; your field is yours, and no interference at my hands shall trouble you again. But remember the limitations of your domain--to observe and describe phenomena and to plot their laws. That is an immense task and inexpressibly useful. But when you have completed it, the total result will be as unlike the real world as a medical manikin with his wire nerves and painted muscles is unlike a real man. The manikin is sufficiently correct; everything is truly pictured there--_except life_. So things are as science sees them, but things are more than science sees. Plot then the mechanistic aspect of the world, but do not suppose that you have caught all of truth in that wide-meshed net! When you have said your last word on facts observed and laws induced, man rises up to ask imperious questions with which you cannot deal, to present urgent problems for which no solution ever has been found save Augustine's, "I seek for God in order that my soul may _live_." V Our thought so ended, however, would leave science and religion jealously guarding their boundaries, not cooperating as allies. _Such suspicious recognition of each other's realms does not exhaust the possibilities._ When once the separate functions each by the other have been granted, we are free to turn our thought to the inestimable service which each is rendering. Consider the usefulness of science to the ideal causes of which religion is the chief! Science has given us the _new universe_, not more marvelous in its vastness than in its unity. For the spectroscope has shown that everywhere through immeasurable space the same chemical properties and laws obtain; the telescope has revealed with what mathematical precision the orbits in the heavens are traced and how unwaveringly here or among the stars gravitation maintains its hold. Man never had so immense and various and yet so single and unified a world before. Polytheism once was possible, but science has banished it forever. Whatever may be the source of the universe, it is _one_ Source, and whoever the creator, he is more glorious in man's imagination than he could ever have been before. Science also has put at the disposal of the ideal causes _such instruments as by themselves they would never have possessed_. We are hoping for a new world-brotherhood, and we pray for it in Christian churches as the Father's will. But the instruments by which the inter-racial fellowship must be maintained and without which it would be unthinkable are science's gift. Railroads, steamships, telegraphs, telephones, wireless--these are the shuttles by which the ideal faiths in man's fraternity may be woven into fact. When Christian physicians heal the sick or stamp out plagues that for ages have been man's curse and his despair, when social maladjustments are corrected by Christian philanthropy, and saner, happier ways of living are made possible; when comforts that once were luxuries are brought within the reach of all, and man's life is relieved of crushing handicaps; when old superstitions that had filled man's life with dread for ages are driven like fogs before science's illumination, and religious faith is freed of their incumbrance; when great causes of relief have at their disposal the unimaginable wealth which our modern economic system has created--can anyone do sufficient justice to man's debt to science? And once more science has done religion an inestimable service in establishing as a point of honor the ambition _to see straight and to report exactly_. The tireless patience, the inexorable honesty, the sacrificial heroism of scientists, pursuing truth, is a gift of incalculable magnitude. Huxley is typical of science at its best when he writes in his journal his ideal--"To smite all humbugs however big; to give a nobler tone to science; to set an example of abstinence from petty personal controversies and of toleration for everything but lying; to be indifferent as to whether the work is recognized as mine or not, so long as it is done." Countless obscurantisms and bigotries, shams and sophistries have been driven from the churches by this scientific spirit and more are yet to go. Science has shown intellectual dishonesty to be a sin of the first rank. Christianity never can be thankful enough for science; on our knees we should be grateful for her as one of God's most indispensable gifts. Nor should the fact that many a scientist whose contributions we rejoice in was not certain about God defer our gratitude. Cyrus, the Persian, is not the only one to whom the Eternal has said, "I will gird thee, though thou hast not known me" (Isa. 45:5). When, however, science has done her necessary work, she needs her great ally, religion. Without the insight and hope which faith alone can bring, we learn a little about the world, our minds enclosed in boundaries beyond which is dark, unfathomable mystery. We rejoice in nature's beauty and in friendship, suffer much with broken bodies and more with broken family ties, until we die as we were born--the spawn of mindless, soulless powers that never purposed us and never cared. And the whole universe is purposeless, engaged with blind hands, that have no mind behind them, on tasks that mean nothing and are never done. Science and religion should not be antagonists; they are mutually indispensable allies in the understanding and mastery of life. [4] J. G. Holland. CHAPTER VIII Faith and Moods DAILY READINGS The relationship of faith to feeling, rather than faith's relationship to mind, is with many people the more vital interest. The emotional results of faith are rightfully of intense concern to everyone, for our feelings put the sense of value into life. To see a sunset without being stirred by its beauty is to miss seeing the sunset; to have friends without feeling love for them is not to have friends; and to possess life without feeling it to be gloriously worth while is to miss living. Now, in this regard, the attitude of faith stands sharply opposed to its direct contrary--the attitude of fear. Faith and fear are the two emotional climates, in one or the other of which everyone tends habitually to live. To the comparison of these we set ourselves in the daily readings. Eighth Week, First Day =Give ear to my prayer, O God; And hide not thyself from my supplication. Attend unto me, and answer me: I am restless in my complaint, and moan, Because of the voice of the enemy, Because of the oppression of the wicked; For they cast iniquity upon me, And in anger they persecute me. My heart is sore pained within me: And the terrors of death are fallen upon me. Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, And horror hath overwhelmed me. And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then would I fly away, and be at rest. Lo, then would I wander far off, I would lodge in the wilderness.= =--Psalm 55:1-7.= How many people are slaves to the mood from which this psalmist suffered! "Fearfulness and trembling" are their habitual attitude toward life. They fear to die and just as much they fear to live; before every vexatious problem, before every opposing obstacle, even before the common tasks and responsibilities of daily living, they stand in dread; and every piece of work is done by them at least three times--in previous worry, in anxious performance, and in regretful retrospect. Such fear _imprisons_ the soul. No two men really live in the same world; for while the outward geography may be identical, the real environment of each soul is created by our moods, tempers, and habits of thought. Fear builds a prison about the man, and bars him in with dreads, anxieties, and timid doubts. And the man will live forever in that prison unless faith sets him free. _Faith is the great liberator._ The psalmist who found himself a prisoner of "fearfulness and trembling" obtained his liberty and became a "soul in peace" (v. 18); and the secret of his freedom he revealed in the closing words of his psalm--"But I will trust in Thee." Faith of some sort is the only power that ever sets men free from the bondage of their timidities and dreads. If a man is the slave of fearfulness, there is no substance in his claim to be a man of faith; a man who has vital faith is not habitually fearful. And as Emerson said, "He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear." _O God, we remember with sadness our want of faith in Thee. What might have been a garden we have turned into a desert by our sin and wilfulness. This beautiful life which Thou hast given us we have wasted in futile worries and vain regrets and empty fears. Instead of opening our eyes to the joy of life, the joy that shines in the leaf, the flower, the face of an innocent child, and rejoicing in it as in a sacrament, we have sunk back into the complainings of our narrow and blinded souls. O deliver us from the bondage of unchastened desires and unwholesome thoughts. Help us to conquer hopeless brooding and faithless reflection, and the impatience of irritable weakness. To this end, increase our faith, O Lord. Fill us with a completer trust in Thee, and the desire for a more whole-hearted surrender to Thy will. Then every sorrow will become a joy. Then shall we say to the mountains that lie heavy on our souls, "Remove and be cast hence" and they shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto us. Then shall we renew our strength, and mount up with wings as eagles; we shall run and not be weary; we shall walk and not faint. We offer this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen._--Samuel McComb. Eighth Week, Second Day Not only is it true that fear imprisons while faith liberates; fear _paralyzes_ and faith _empowers_. The only attitude in which a man has command of his faculties and is at his best, is the attitude of faith; while fear bewilders the mind and paralyzes the will. The physical effects of fear are deadly; it positively inhibits any useful thinking; and in the spiritual life its results are utterly demoralizing. Fear is the panic of a soul. Consider such an estate as the author of Deuteronomy presents: =And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot: but Jehovah will give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul; and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear night and day, and shalt have no assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would it were morning! for the fear of thy heart which thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.--Deut. 28:65-67.= Such a situation oppresses every vital power, and the conquest of such a situation must always be inward before it can be outward; _the man must pass from fear to faith_. Let even a little faith arise in him, and power begins to return. Men fear that they cannot overcome evil habits, that they cannot successfully meet difficult situations, that they cannot hold out in the Christian life, and that great causes cannot be fought through to victory--and the weakness which appalls them is the creation of their own misgiving. "Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt." But faith is tonic; the results which follow a change of heart from fear to faith are miraculous; spiritual dwarfs grow to giants and achieve successes that before would have been unbelievable. No verse in Scripture has behind it a greater mass of verifiable experience than: "This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith" (I John 5:4). _Gracious Father, Thou hast invited us, unworthy as we are, to pray for all sorts and conditions of men.... We pray for all who are in bondage to fear, unable to face the tasks of life or bear the thought of death with peace and dignity. Free them from the tyranny of these dark dreads. Let the inspiration of a great faith or hope seize their souls, and lift them above their fruitless worry and idle torments, into a region of joy and peace and blessedness. We pray for the victims of evil habits, the slaves of alcohol or morphine, or any other pretended redeemer of the soul from weariness and pain. Great is the power of these degrading temptations; but greater still is the saving energy of Thy Spirit. So let Thy Spirit enter the hearts of these unhappy children of Thine, that their will may be made strong to resist, and that the burning heat of high thoughts may consume the grosser desires of the flesh. We pray for souls bound beneath self-imposed burdens, vexed by miseries of their own making; for the children of melancholy, who have lost their way and grope without a light; for those who do their work with no enthusiasm, and, when night falls, can find no sleep though they search for it as for hidden treasure. Let Thy light pierce through their gloom and shine upon their path...._ _Unite us to Jesus Christ, Thy perfect Son, in the bonds of a living trust, so that sustained by His example, and sanctified by His Spirit, we may grow more and more into the image of His likeness. These, and all other blessings, we ask in His name and for His sake. Amen._--Samuel McComb. Eighth Week, Third Day There are many situations in life which naturally throw the pall of dread over man's soul. Life is seldom easy, it is often overwhelmingly difficult, and if a man has worry in his temperament, circumstances supply plenty of occasions on which to exercise it. The difference between men lies here: those in whom the fear-attitude is master hold the oppressive trouble so close to the eye that it hides everything else; those whom the faith-attitude dominates hold trouble off and see it in wide perspectives. A copper cent can hide the sun if we hold it close enough to the eye, and a transient difficulty can shut out from a fearful soul all life's large blessings and all the horizons of divine good will. Fear _disheartens_ men by concentrating their attention on the unhappy aspects of life; _but faith is the great encourager_. Whittier lived in a generation full of turmoil and trouble, and his own life is a story of prolonged struggle against illness, disappointments, and poverty. But, listen: "Yet sometimes glimpses on my sight Through present wrong, the eternal right; And, step by step, since time began I see the steady gain of man." That is the attitude of faith; it does not deny the evil, but it sees around it, refuses to be obsessed or scared by it, and takes heart from a large view when a small view would be appalling. And history always confirms the large view. Fear may be right for the moment, but in the long run it is a liar; only faith tells the truth. =Be merciful unto me, O God; for man would swallow me up: All the day long he fighting oppresseth me. Mine enemies would swallow me up all the day long; For they are many that fight proudly against me. What time I am afraid, I will put my trust in thee.= =--Psalm 56:1-3.= _Almighty and ever-living God, we draw near unto Thee, believing that Thou art, and that Thou wilt reward all those who diligently seek Thee. We are weak, mortal men, immersed in this world's affairs, buffeted by its sorrows, flung to and fro by its conflicts of right and wrong. We cry for some abiding stay, for some sure and steadfast anchorage. Reveal Thyself to us as the eternal God, as the unfathomable Love that encompasses every spirit Thou hast made, and bears it on, through the light and the darkness alike, to the goal of Thine own perfection. And yet, when Thou speakest to us, we are covered with confusion, for now we remember all the sadness and evil disorder of our lives. Thou hast visited our hearts with ideals fair and beautiful, but alas! we have grown weary in aspiration, and have declined into the sordid aims of our baser selves. Thou hast given us the love of parent and of friend, that we might thereby learn something of Thine own love; yet too often have we despised Thy gift and shut our hearts to all the wonder and the glory. We make confession before Thee of our sin and folly and ignorance. Again and again we have vowed ourselves to Thy service; again and again our languid wills have failed to do Thy Will. We have been seduced by the sweet poison of sin, and even against light and knowledge we have done that which Thou dost abhor, and which in our secret hearts we loathe. And now we almost fear to repent, lest Thou shouldst call us into judgment for a repentance that must needs be repented of. O mighty Saviour of men! be patient with us a little longer. Take us back to Thyself. Without Thee, we are undone; with Thee, we will take fresh heart of hope, and bind ourselves with a more effectual vow, and laying aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, we will follow Thee whithersoever Thou leadest. Amen._--Samuel McComb. Eighth Week, Fourth Day Fear depresses vitality and is a fruitful cause of nervous disorders, with all their disastrous reactions on man's health. Modern investigation has shown beyond any reasonable doubt that while illness comes often by way of the body, it comes also by way of the mind; our moods and tempers have a physical echo, and of all fatal mental states none is so ruinous as fear. It is not strange, therefore, that some people never are well. As Dr. McComb puts it, "Many play at living--they do not really live. They fear the responsibilities, the struggles, the adventures, not without risk, which life offers them. They fear illness. They fear poverty. They fear unhappiness. They fear danger. They fear the passion of sacrifice. They fear even the exaltation of a pure and noble love, until the settlements in money and social prestige have been duly certified. They fear to take a plunge into life's depths. They fear this world, and they fear still more the world beyond the grave." In such a mood no man can possibly be well. Faith, therefore, which drives out fear, has always been a minister of health. The Master's healings, which to the rationalism of a previous generation seemed incredible, in the light of the present knowledge seem inevitable. He had faith and he demanded faith, and wherever the faith-attitude can be set in motion against the fear-attitude and all its morbid brood, the consequences will be physical as well as moral. An outgrown custom of the early Church does not now seem so strange as it did a generation ago: =Is any among you suffering? let him pray. Is any cheerful? let him sing praise. Is any among you sick? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him. Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working.--James 5:13-16.= _Eternal God, who art above all change and darkness, whose will begat us, and whose all present love doth enfold and continually redeem us, Holy Guest who indwellest, and dost comfort us; we have gathered to worship Thee, and in communion with Thee to find ourselves raised to the light of our life, and the Heaven of our desires._ _Pour upon our consciousness the sense of Thy wonderful nearness to us. Reveal to our weakness and distress the power and the grace that are more than sufficient for us. May we see what we are, Thy Spirit-born children linked by nature, love, and choice to Thy mighty being; and may the vision make all fears to fade, and a Divine strength to pulse within._ _Enable us to carry out from this place the peace and strength that here we gain, to take into our homes a kinder spirit, a new thoughtfulness; that we may brighten sadness, heal the sick, and make happiness to abound. May we take into our daily tasks and life of labor, a sense of righteousness that shall be as salt to every evil and corrupting influence._ _Because we have walked here awhile with Thee, may we be able to walk more patiently with man. Send us forth with love to the fallen, hope for the despairing, strength to impart to the weak and wayward; and carry on through us the work Thou didst commence in Thy Son our Brother Man and Saviour God. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. Eighth Week, Fifth Day Fear makes impossible any satisfying joy in life. A man of faith may be deeply joyful even in disastrous circumstances, but a man of fear would be unhappy in heaven. Stevenson sings in "the saddest and the bravest song he ever wrote": "God, if this were faith?... To go on for ever and fail and go on again, And be mauled to the earth and arise, And contend for the shade of a word and a thing not seen with the eyes: With half of a broken hope for a pillow at night That somehow the right is the right, And the smooth shall bloom from the rough: Lord, if that were enough?" Sad this song may be, but at the heart of it is yet a fierce joy because faith is there. But put a man of fear in luxury and remove from him every visible cause of disquiet and he will still be miserable. The more a man considers these two determinant moods in life, the more he sees that somehow the faith-attitude must be his, if life is to be worth living. Without it life dries up into a Sahara; with it, he comes into a company of the world's glad spirits, who one way or another have felt what the Psalmist sings: =Jehovah is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? Jehovah is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid? When evil-doers came upon me to eat up my flesh, Even mine adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell. Though a host should encamp against me, My heart shall not fear: Though war should rise against me, Even then will I be confident. One thing have I asked of Jehovah, that will I seek after: That I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of Jehovah, And to inquire in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly in his pavilion: In the covert of his tabernacle will he hide me; He will lift me up upon a rock. And now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me; And I will offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto Jehovah.= =--Psalm 27:1-6.= _Gracious Father! We confess the painful riddle of our being, that, while claiming kinship with Thee, we feel far from Thee. O, what means this strange bewilderment, this never-ending war between our worse and better thoughts? We are Thine by right, yet we have not given ourselves wholly to Thy care. Our hearts know no rest, save in Thee, yet they have sought it in this world's vainglory, which passeth away. We seek to quench our thirst at the cisterns of this earth, but they are broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Lead us to Thy well of life that springeth up eternally. Give us to drink of that spiritual water, of which, if any man drink, he shall never thirst again. We lament our want and poverty before Thee. Open Thou our eyes to behold the unsearchable riches of Thy grace, and increase our faith that we may make them ours. Unite us to Thee in the bonds of will and love and purpose. Out of Thy fulness, which is in Christ, give to each one of us according to his need. Make us wise with His Wisdom; pure with His purity; strong with His strength; that we may rise into the power and glory of the life that is life indeed. Hear our hearts' weak and wandering cries, and when Thou hearest, forgive and bless, for His sake. Amen._--Samuel McComb. Eighth Week, Sixth Day =No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment? Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure of his life? And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.= =But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.--Matt. 6:24-33.= The meaning of this passage hinges on the first "therefore." You cannot serve God and selfish gain at the same time, says Jesus; you should choose decisively to serve God; and _therefore_ you must not be anxious about yourself. For _anxious fear so concentrates a man's thought on himself that he can serve no one else_. That this is the meaning of this familiar passage is clear also from its conclusion. The real reason for conquering anxious fear is that a man may give himself wholeheartedly to the service of the Kingdom. That fear does spoil usefulness is obvious; a man cannot be fearful for himself and considerate of his fellows. As Stevenson puts it in "Aes Triplex," "The man who has least fear for his own carcass has most time to consider others. That eminent chemist who took his walks abroad in tin shoes and subsisted wholly upon tepid milk had all his work cut out for him in considerate dealings with his own digestion. So soon as prudence has begun to grow up in the brain, like a dismal fungus, it finds its first expression in a paralysis of generous acts." The shame of our fearful living is that it circles about self, is narrowed down to mean solicitudes about our own comfort, and is utterly incapable of serving God or seeking first his Kingdom. Only faith puts folk at leisure from their small anxieties so that they can be servants of a worthy cause. Jesus, therefore, in this passage is not giving us the impossible injunction not to think about tomorrow; he is stating a truth of experience, that anxious fear for oneself which so draws in the thought that God's great causes are forgotten is a deadly peril in man's life. By faith thrust out the mean and timid solicitudes, is his injunction, that life may be free to put first things first. _We come to Thee, our Father, that we may more deeply enter into Thy joy. Thou turnest darkness into day, and mourning into praise. Thou art our Fortress in temptation, our Shield in remorse, our Covert in calamity, our Star of Hope in every sorrow. O Lord, we would know Thy peace, deep, abiding, inexhaustible. When we seek Thy peace, our weariness is gone, the sense of our imperfection ceases to discourage us, and our tired souls forget their pain. When, strengthened and refreshed by Thy goodness, we return to the task of life, send us forth as servants of Jesus Christ in the service and redemption of the world. Send us to the hearts without love, to men and women burdened with heavy cares, to the miserable, the sad, the broken-hearted. Send us to the children whose heritage has been a curse, to the poor who doubt Thy Providence, to the sick who crave for healing and cannot find it, to the fallen for whom no man cares. May we be ministers of Thy mercy, messengers of Thy helpful pity, to all who need Thee. By our sympathy, our prayers, our kindness, our gifts, may we make a way for the inflow of Thy love into needy and loveless lives. And so may we have that love which alone is the fulfilling of Thy law. Hasten the time when all men shall love Thee and one another in Thee, when all the barriers that divide us shall be broken down, and every heart shall be filled with joy and every tongue with melody. These gracious gifts we ask, in Jesus' name. Amen._--Samuel McComb. Eighth Week, Seventh Day Fear does not reveal its disastrous consequences to the full until it colors one's thoughts about the source and destiny of life. Folk work joyfully at a picture-puzzle so long as they believe that the puzzle can be put together, that it was meant, completed, to compose a picture, and that their labor is an effort made in reasonable hope. But if they begin to fear that they are being fooled, that the puzzle is a hoax and never can be pieced together anywhere by anyone, how swiftly that suspicion will benumb their work! So joyful living depends on man's conviction that this life is not a hapless accident, that a good purpose binds it all together, and that our labor for righteousness is not expended on a futile task without a worthy outcome. But fear blights all such hope; it whispers what one pessimist said aloud: "Life is not a tragedy but a farcical melodrama, which is the worst kind of play." That fear benumbs worthy living, kills hope, makes cynical disgust with life a reasonable attitude, and with its frost withers all man's finest aspirations. _Only faith in God can save men from such fear._ Fear or faith--there is no dilemma so full of consequence. Fear imprisons, faith liberates; fear paralyzes, faith empowers; fear disheartens, faith encourages; fear sickens, faith heals; fear makes useless, faith makes serviceable--and, most of all, fear puts hopelessness at the heart of life, while faith rejoices in its God. =Oh give thanks unto Jehovah; for he is good; For his lovingkindness endureth for ever. Let Israel now say, That his lovingkindness endureth for ever. Let the house of Aaron now say, That his lovingkindness endureth for ever. Let them now that fear Jehovah say, That his lovingkindness endureth for ever. Out of my distress I called upon Jehovah: Jehovah answered me and set me in a large place. Jehovah is on my side; I will not fear: What can man do unto me?= =--Psalm 118:1-6.= _O God, we invoke Thy blessing upon all who need Thee, and who are groping after Thee, if haply they may find Thee. Be gracious to those who bear the sins of others, who are vexed by the wrongdoing and selfishness of those near and dear to them, and reveal to them the glory of their fellowship with the sufferings of Christ. Brood in tenderness over the hearts of the anxious, the miserable, the victims of phantasmal fear and morbid imaginings. Redeem from slavery the men and women who have yielded to degrading habits. Put Thy Spirit within them, that they may rise up in shame and sorrow and make confession to Thee, "So brutish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before Thee." And then let them have the glad assurance that Thou art with them, the secret of all good, the promise and potency of better things. Console with Thy large consolation those who mourn for their loved dead, who count the empty places and long for the sound of a voice that is still. Inspire them with the firm conviction that the dead are safe in Thy keeping, nay, that they are not dead, but live unto Thee. Give to all sorrowing ones a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Remember for good all who are perplexed with the mysteries of existence, and who grieve because the world is so sad and unintelligible. Teach them that Thy hand is on the helm of affairs, that Thou dost guide Thine own world, and canst change every dark cloud into bright sunshine. In this faith let them rest, and by this faith let them live. These blessings we ask in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen._--Samuel McComb. COMMENT FOR THE WEEK I Many people do not find their most perplexing difficulty either in the realm of trust or of belief, but in a problem which includes both. They are confused because neither their experience of God nor their intellectual conviction of the reasonableness of faith is dependable and steady. Faith comes and goes in them with fluctuating moods that bring an appalling sense of insecurity. Their religious life is not stable and consistent; it runs through variant degrees of confidence and doubt, and its whimsical ups and downs continually baffle them. To classify some folk as men of faith and some as men of doubt does not, in the light of this experience, quite tally with the facts. There are moods of faith and moods of doubt in all of us and rarely does either kind secure unanimous consent. Were we to decide for irreligion, a minority protest would be vigorously urged in the interests of faith, and when most assuredly we choose religion, the prayer, "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24) is still appropriate. We often seem to be exchanging, as Browning's bishop says: "A life of doubt diversified by faith, For one of faith diversified by doubt." Some hope arises when we observe that this experience which so perplexes us is fully acknowledged in the Bible. The popular supposition is that when one opens the Scripture he finds himself in a world of constant and triumphant faith. No low moods and doubts can here obscure the trust of men; here God is always real, saints sing in prison or dying see their Lord enthroned in heaven. When one, however, really knows the Bible, it obviously is no serene record of untroubled faith. It is turbulent with moods and doubt. Here, to be sure, is the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, on Immortality, but here too is another cry, burdened with all the doubt man ever felt about eternal life, "That which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; and man hath no preeminence above the beasts" (Eccl. 3:19). The Scripture has many exultant passages on divine faithfulness, but Jeremiah's bitter prayer is not excluded: "Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? Wilt thou indeed be unto me as a deceitful brook, as waters that fail?" (Jer. 15:18). The confident texts on prayer are often quoted, but there are cries of another sort: Job's complaint, "Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him" (Job 23:8); Habakkuk's bitterness, "O Jehovah, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? I cry unto thee of violence and thou wilt not save" (Hab. 1:2). The Bible is no book of tranquil faith. From the time when Gideon, in a mood like that of multitudes today, cried, "Oh, my Lord, if Jehovah is with us, why then is all this befallen us?" (Judges 6:13) to the complaint of the slain saints in the Apocalypse, "How long, O Master, the holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood" (Rev. 6:10), the Bible is acquainted with doubt. It knows the searching, perplexing, terrifying questions that in all ages vex men's souls. If the Psalmist, in an exultant mood, sang, "Jehovah is my shepherd," he also cried, "Jehovah, why casteth thou off my soul? Why hidest thou thy face from me?" (Psalm 88:14). No aspect of the Scripture could bring it more warmly into touch with man's experience than this confession of fluctuating moods. At least in this the Bible is our book. Great heights are there, that we know something of. Psalmists sing in adoration, prophets are sure of God and of his coming victory; apostles pledge in sacrifice the certainty of their belief, and the Master on Transfiguration Mountain prays until his countenance is radiant. And depths are there, that modern men know well. Saints cry out against unanswered prayer and cannot understand how such an evil, wretched world is ruled by a good God; in their bitter griefs they complain that God has cast them off, and utterly forgotten and, dismayed, doubt even that a man's death differs from a dog's. This is our book. For the faith of many of us, however we insist that we are Christians, is not tranquil, steady, and serene. It is moody, occasional, spasmodic, with hours of great assurance, and other hours when confidence sags and trust is insecure. II Faith so generally is discussed as though it were a creed, accepted once for all and thereafter statically held, that the influence of our moods on faith is not often reckoned with. But the moods of faith are the very pith and marrow of our actual experience. When a Christian congregation recite together their creedal affirmation, "I believe in God," it _sounds_ as though they all maintained a solid, constant faith. But when in imagination, one breaks up the congregation and interprets from his knowledge of men's lives what the faith of the individuals actually means, he sees that they believe in God not evenly and constantly, but more or less, sometimes very much, sometimes not confidently at all. Our faith in God is not a static matter such as the recitation of a creed suggests. Some things we do believe in steadily. That two plus two make four, that the summed angles of a triangle make two right angles--of such things we are unwaveringly sure. No moods can shake our confidence; no griefs confuse us, no moral failures quench our certainty. Though the heavens fall, two and two make four! But our faith in God belongs in another realm. It is a vital experience. It involves the whole man, with his chameleon moods, his glowing insights, his exalted hours, and his dejected days when life flows sluggishly and no great thing seems real. This experience of variable moods in faith does not belong especially to feeble folk, whose ups and downs in their life with God would illustrate their whole irresolute and flimsy living. The great believers sometimes know best this tidal rise and fall of confidence. Elijah one day, with absolute belief in God, defied the hosts of Baal and the next, in desolate reaction, wanted to die. Luther put it with his rugged candor, "Sometimes I believe and sometimes I doubt." John Knox, at liberty to preach, "dings the pulpit into blads" in his confident utterance; but the same Knox recalled that, in the galleys, his soul knew "anger, wrath, and indignation which it conceived against God, calling all his promises in doubt." The Master himself was not a stranger to this experience. He believed in God with unwavering assurance, as one believes in the shining of the sun. But the fact that the sun perpetually shines did not imply that every day was a sunshiny day for him. The clouds came pouring up out of his dark horizons and hid the sun. "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say?" (John 12:27). And once the fog drove in, so dense and dark that one would think there never had been any sun at all. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46). This experience of fluctuating moods is too familiar to be denied, too influential to be neglected. There can be no use in hiding it from candid thought behind the recitation of a creedal formula. There may be great use in searching out its meaning. For there are ways in which this common experience, at first vexatious and disquieting, may supply solid ground for Christian confidence. III In dealing with these variant moods of faith we are not left without an instrument. We have _the sense of value_. We discern not only the _existence_ of things, but their _worth_ as well. When, therefore, a man has recognized his moods as facts, he has not said all that he can say about them. Upon no objects of experience can the sense of value be used with so much certainty as upon our moods. _We know our best hours when they come._ The lapidary, with unerring skill, learns to distinguish a real diamond from a false, but his knowledge is external and contingent, compared with the inward and authoritative certainty with which we know our best hours from our worst. Our great moods carry with them the authentic marks of their superiority. Experience readily confirms this truth. We all have, for example, _cynical and sordid moods_. At such times, only the appetites of physical life seem much to matter; only the things that minister to common comfort greatly count. When Sydney Smith, the English cleric, writes, "I feel an ungovernable interest in my horses, my pigs, and my plants. But I am forced and always was forced to task myself up to an interest in any higher objects," most of us can understand his mood. We grow obtuse at times to all that in our better moods had thrilled us most. Nature suffers in our eyes; great books seem dull; causes that once we served with zest lose interest, and personal relationships grow pale and tame, From such mere dullness we easily drift down to cynicism. Music once had stirred the depths, but now our spirits tally with the scoffer's jest, "What are you crying about with your Wagner and your Brahms? It is only horsehair scraping on catgut." Man's most holy things may lose their grandeur and become a butt of ridicule. When the mood of Aristophanes is on, we too may hoist serious Socrates among the clouds, and set him talking moonshine while the cynical look on and laugh. The spirit that "sits in the seat of the scornful" is an ancient malady. But every man is thoroughly aware that these are not his best moods. From such depleted attitudes we come to worthier hours; _real life_ arrives again. Nature and art become imperatively beautiful; moral causes seem worth sacrifice, and before man's highest life, revealed in character, ideal, and faith, we stand in reverence. These are our great hours, when spiritual values take the throne, when all else dons livery to serve them, and we find it easy to believe in God. Again, we have _crushed and rebellious moods_. We may have been Christians for many years; yet when disaster, long delayed, at last descends, and our dreams are wrecked, we _do_ rebel. Complaint rises hot within us. Joseph Parker, preacher at the City Temple, London, at the age of sixty-eight could write that he had never had a doubt. Neither the goodness of God nor the divinity of Christ, nor anything essential to his Christian faith had he ever questioned. But within a year an experience had fallen of which he wrote: "In that dark hour I became almost an atheist. For God had set his foot upon my prayers and treated my petitions with contempt. If I had seen a dog in such agony as mine, I would have pitied and helped the dumb beast; yet God spat upon me and cast me out as an offense--out into the waste wilderness and the night black and starless." No new philosophy had so shaken the faith of this long unquestioning believer. But his wife had died and he was in a heartbroken mood that all his arguments, so often used on others, could not penetrate. He believed in God as one believes in the sun when he has lived six months in the polar night and has not seen it. These heartbroken moods, however, are not our best. Out of rebellious grief we lift our eyes in time to see how other men have borne their sorrows off and built them into character. We see great lives shine out from suffering, like Rembrandt's radiant faces from dark backgrounds. We see that all the virtues which we most admire--constancy, patience, fortitude--are impossible without stern settings, and that in time of trouble they find their aptest opportunity, their noblest chance. We rise into a new mood, grow resolute not to be crushed, but, as though there were moral purpose in man's trials, to be hallowed, deepened, purified. The meaning of Samuel Rutherford's old saying dawns upon us, "When I am in the cellar of affliction, I reach out my hand for the king's wine." And folk, seeing us, it may be, take heart and are assured that God is real, since he can make a man bear off his trial like that and grow the finer for it. These are our great hours too, when the rains descend, and the winds blow, and the floods come, and beat upon our house, and it is founded on a rock! Once more, we have hours of _discouragement about the world_. The more we have cared for moral causes and invested life in their advancement, the more we are desolate when they seem to fail. Some rising tide in which we trusted turns to ebb again, injustice wins its victories, the people listen to demagogues and not to statesmen, social causes essential to human weal are balked, wars come and undo the hopes of centuries. Who does not sometimes fall into the Slough of Despond? Cavour, disheartened about Italy, went to his room to kill himself. John Knox, dismayed about Scotland, in a pathetic prayer entitled, "John Knox with deliberate mind to his God," wrote, "Now, Lord put an end to my misery." We generally think of Luther in that intrepid hour when he faced Charles V at Worms; but he had times as well when he was sick with disappointment. "Old, decrepit, lazy, worn out, cold, and now one-eyed," so runs a letter, "I write, my Jacob, I who hoped there might at length be granted to me, already dead, a well-earned rest." During the Great War, this mood of discouragement has grown familiar. Many can understand what Robert Louis Stevenson meant when he wrote, of the Franco-Prussian war, "In that year, cannon were roaring for days together on French battlefields, and I would sit in my isle (I call it mine after the use of lovers) and think upon the war, and the pain of men's wounds, and the weariness of their marching.... It was something so distressing, so instant, that I lay in the heather on the top of the island, with my face hid, kicking my heels for agony." But these dismayed hours are not our best. As Bunyan put it, even Giant Despair has fainting fits on sunshiny days. In moods of clearer insight we perceive out of how many Egypts, through how many round-about wilderness journeys, God has led his people to how many Promised Lands. The Exodus was not a failure, although the Hebrews, disheartened, thought it was and even Moses had his dubious hours; the mission of Israel did not come to an ignoble end in the Exile, although multitudes gave up their faith because of it and only prophets dared believe the hopeful truth. The crucifixion did not mean the Gospel's end, as the disciples thought, nor did Paul, imprisoned, lose his ministry. _Nothing in history is more assured than this, that only men of faith have known the truth._ And in hours of vision when this fact shines clear we rise to be our better selves again. What a clear ascent the race has made when wide horizons are taken into view! What endless possibilities must lie ahead! What ample reasons we possess to thrust despair aside, and to go out to play our part in the forward movement of the plan of God! "Dreamer of dreams? we take the taunt with gladness, Knowing that God beyond the years you see, Has wrought the dreams that count with you for madness Into the texture of the world to be." These are our better hours. IV Such sordid, cynical, crushed, rebellious, and discouraged moods we suffer, but we have hours of insight, too, when we are at our best. And as we face this ebb and flow of confidence, which at the first vexatiously perplexed our faith, an arresting truth is clear. The creed of irreligion, to which men are tempted to resign their minds, is simply the _intellectual formulation of what is implied in our less noble hours_. Take what man's cynical, sordid, crushed, rebellious, and discouraged moods imply, and set it in a formal statement of life's meaning, and the result is the creed of irreligion. But take man's best hours, when the highest seems the realest, when even sorrows cannot crush his soul, and when the world is still the battlefield of God for men, and formulate what these hours imply, and the result is the central affirmations of religious faith. Even Renan is sure that "man is most religious in his best moments." Of this high interpretation our variant moods are susceptible, that _we know our best hours when they come, and the faith implied in them is essential Christianity_. As Browning sings it: "Faith is my waking life: One sleeps, indeed, and dreams at intervals, We know, but waking's the main point with us." This fact which we so have come upon is a powerful consideration in favor of religion's truth. _Are we to trust for our guidance the testimony of our worse or better hours?_ We have low moods; so, too, we have cellars in our houses. But we do not _live_ there; we live upstairs! It is not unnatural to have irreligious moods. There may be hours when the eternal Energy from which this universe has come seems to be playing solitaire for fun. It shuffles the stars and planets to see what may chance from their combinations, and careless of the consequence, from everlasting to everlasting it shuffles and plays, and shuffles and plays again. But these are not our best hours. We may have moods when the universe seems to us, as Carlyle's figure pictures it, "as if the heavens and the earth were but boundless jaws of a devouring monster, wherein, I, palpitating, lay waiting to be devoured," but we are inwardly ashamed of times like that. Man comes to this brutal universe of irreligion by way of his ignoble moods. When he lifts up his soul in his great hours of love, of insight, and of devotion, life never looks to him as irreligion pictures it; it never has so looked to him and it never will! In his best hours man always suspects that the Eternal must be akin to what is best in us, that our ideals are born from above, have there their source and destiny, that the Eternal Purpose reigns and yet shall justify the struggle of the ages, and that in anyone who is the best we know, we see most clearly what the Eternal is and means. That goodness is deeper than evil, that spirit is more than flesh, that life is lord of death, that love is the source of all--such convictions come naturally to us when we are at our best. When one examines such affirmations, he perceives that Christianity in its essential faiths is the expression of our finest hours. This is the source whence Christianity has come; it is man's best become articulate. Some used to say that Christian faith had been foisted on mankind by priests. Christian faith has no more artificially been foisted upon human life than the full blown rose is foisted on the bud. Christianity springs up out of man's best life; it is the utterance of his transcendent moods; _it is man believing in the validity of his own noblest days_. Christianity, therefore, at its heart can never fail. Its theologies may come and go, its institutions rise and fall, its rituals have their dawn, their zenith, and their decline, but one persistent force goes on and will go on. _The Gospel is saying to man what man at his best is saying to himself._ Christ has a tremendous ally in human life--our noblest hours. They are all upon his side. What _he_ says, _they_ rise to cry "Amen" to. When we are most truly ourselves we are nearest to him. Antagonistic philosophies, therefore, may spring up to assail the Gospel's influence, and seem to triumph, and fall at last and be forgotten. Still Christ will go on speaking. Nothing can tear him from his spiritual influence over men. _In every generation he has man's noblest hours for his ally._ V In the fact to which our study of man's variant moods has brought us we have not only a confirming consideration in favor of religion's truth, but an _explanation of some people's unbelief_. They live habitually in their low moods; they inhabit spiritual cellars. We are accustomed to say that some friend would be saved from his ignoble attitudes by a vital religious faith; but it is also true that his persistent clinging to ignoble attitudes may be the factor that makes religious faith impossible. According to Dickens's "Tale of Two Cities" a prisoner in the Bastille, who had lived in a cell and cobbled shoes for many years, became so enamored of the narrow walls, the darkness, the task's monotony, that, when liberated, he built a cell at the center of his English home, and on days when the skies were clear and birds were singing, the tap of his cobbler's hammer in the dark could still be heard. So men, by an habitual residence in imprisoning moods, render themselves incapable of loving the wide horizons, the great faiths and hopes of religion. They do not merely make excursions of transient emotion into morose hours and, like men that find that the road is running into malarial swamps, turn swiftly to the hills. They dwell in their moroseness; they _choose_ it, and often obstinately resist deliverance. The common moods that thus incapacitate the soul for faith are easily seen in any man's experience. There are _sullen_ tempers when we are churlish and want so to be. There are _stupid_ tempers, when our soul is too negligent to care, too dull to ask for what only aspiring minds can crave or find. There are _bored_ moods when we feel about all life what Malachi's people felt about worship, "Behold, what a weariness is it!" (Mal. 1:13); _rebellious_ moods when, like Jonah, deprived of a comfort he desired, we cry, "I do well to be angry, even unto death" (Jonah 4:9); _suspicious_ moods, when we mistrust everyone, and even of some righteous Job hear Satan's insinuating sneer, "Does Job fear God for nought?" (Job 1:9). No man is altogether strange to _frivolous_ hours, when those thoughts are lost which must be handled seriously if at all, and _wilful_ hours, when some private desire assumes the center of the stage and angrily resents another voice than his. To say that one who habitually harbors such moods cannot know God is only a portion of the truth; such a man cannot know anything worth knowing. He can know neither fine friends nor great books; he cannot appreciate beautiful music or sublime scenery; he is lost to the deepest loves of family and to every noble enthusiasm for human help. Athwart the knowledge of these most gracious and necessary things stand our obtuse, ignoble moods. The sullen, stupid, bored, rebellious, suspicious, frivolous, or wilful tempers, made into a spiritual residence, are the most deadly prison of the soul. Of course one who dwells there has no confidence in God. Lord Shaftesbury, the English philanthropist, made too sweeping a statement about this, but one can see the basis for his judgment: "Nothing beside ill-humor, either natural or forced, can bring a man to think seriously that the world is governed by any devilish or malicious power. I very much question whether anything beside ill-humor can be the cause of atheism." At least one may be sure that where ill-humor habitually reigns, vital faith in God is made impossible. After full acknowledgment, therefore, of the momentous intellectual problems of belief, we must add that there is a _moral qualification for faith in God_. So great a matter is not achieved by any sort of person, with any kind of habitual moods and tempers. There are views which cellar windows do not afford; one must have balconies to see them. When Jesus said that the pure in heart are blessed because they see God, he was not thinking merely, perhaps not chiefly, of sexual impurity as hindering vision. He was pleading for a heart cleansed of all such perverse, morose, and wayward moods as shut the blinds on the soul's windows. He knew that men could not easily escape the sense of God's reality if they kept their vision clear. On elevated days we naturally think of Spirit as real, and see ourselves as expressions of spiritual purpose, our lives as servants of a spiritual cause. When one habitually dwells in these finer moods, he cannot tolerate a world where his Best is a transient accident. _He must have God, for faith in God is the supreme assertion of the reality and eternity of man's Best._ Any man who habitually lives in his finest moods will not easily escape the penetrating sense of God's reality. VI The certainty with which we tend to be most deeply religious in our best hours is clear when we consider that a man does practically believe in the things which he counts of highest worth. Lotze, the philosopher, even says that "Faith _is_ the feeling that is appreciative of value." It is conceivable that one might be so constituted that without any sense of value he could study facts, as a deaf man might observe a symphony. The sound-waves such a man could mechanically measure; he could analyze the motions of the players and note the reactions of the crowd, but he would hear no music. He would not suffuse the whole performance with his musical appreciations; he would neither like it nor condemn. Man might be so constituted as to face facts without feeling, but he is not. Facts never stand in our experience thus barren and unappreciated--mere neutral _things_ that mean nothing and have no value. The botanist in us may analyze the flowers, but the poet in us estimates them. The penologist in us may take the Bertillon measurements of a boy, but the father in us best can tell how much, in spite of all his sin, that boy is worth. This power to estimate life's _values_ is the fountain from which spring our music, painting, and literature, our ideals and loves and purposes, our morals and religion. Without it no man can live in the real world at all. If we would know, therefore, in what, at our highest altitudes, we tend to believe, we should ask _what it is that we value most, when we rise toward our best_. In our lowest hours what sordid, mercenary, beastly things men may prize each heart knows well. But ever as we approach our best the things that are worth most to us become elevated and refined. Our better moods open our eyes to a world where character is of more worth than all the rest beside, and through which moral purpose runs, to be served with sacrifice. We become aware of spiritual values in behalf of which at need physical existence must be willingly laid down; and words like honor, love, fidelity, and service in our hours of insight have halos over them that poorer moods cannot discern. Man at his best, that is to say, _believes in_ an invisible world of spiritual values, and he furnishes the final proof of his faith's reality by sacrificing to it all lesser things. The good, the true, the beautiful command him in his finer hours, and at their beck and call he lays down wealth and ease and earthly hopes to be their servant. Men really _do believe_ in the things for which they sacrifice and die. In no more searching way can a man's faith be described than _in terms of the objects which thus he values most_. Wherever men find some consuming aim that is for them so supreme in worth that they sacrifice all else to win it, we speak of their attitude as a religion. The "religion of science" describes the absolute devotion of investigators to scientific research as the highest good; the "religion of art" describes the consuming passion with which some value beauty. When we say of one that "money is his God" we mean that he estimates it as life's highest treasure, and when with Paul we speak of others, "whose god is the belly" (Phil. 3:19), we mean men whose sensual life is to them the thing worth most. _What men believe in, therefore, is most deeply seen not by any opinions which they profess, but by the things they prize._ Faith, as Ruskin said, is "that by which men act while they live; not that which they talk of when they die." Many a man uses pious affirmations of Christian faith, but it is easy to observe from his life that what he really believes in is money. Where a man's treasure is, as Jesus said, his heart is, and there his faith is, too. Is there any doubt, then, what we most believe in when we are at our best? While in our lower altitudes it may be easy to believe that the physical is the ultimately real, in our upper altitudes we so value the spiritual world, that we tend with undeniable conviction to feel sure that it must be causal and eternal. Materialism is man's "night-view" of his life; but the "day-view" is religion. Tyndall the scientist was regarded by the Christians of his generation as the enemy of almost everything that they held dear. Let him, then, be witness for the truth which we have stated. "I have noticed," he said, speaking of materialism, "during years of self-observation, that it is not in hours of clearness and vigor that this doctrine commends itself to my mind." The challenge, therefore, presented to every one of us by Christian faith is ultimately this: _Shall I believe the testimony of my better hours or of my worse?_ Many who deny the central affirmations of the Gospel put the object of their denial far away from them as though it were an external thing; they say that they deny the creed or the Bible or the doctrine about God. Such a description of a man's rejection of religious faith is utterly inadequate--the real object of his denial is inward. One may, indeed, discredit forms of doctrine and either be unsure about or altogether disbelieve many things that Christians hold, but when one makes a clean sweep of religion and banishes the central faiths of Christianity _he is denying the testimony of his own finest days_. From such rejection of faith one need not appeal to creed nor Bible, nor to anything that anybody ever said. Let the challenge strike inward to the man's own heart. From his denial of religious faith we may appeal to the hours that he has known and yet will know again, when the road rose under his feet and from a height he looked on wide horizons and knew that he was at his best. To those hours of clear insight, of keen thought, of love and great devotion, when he knew that the spiritual is the real and the eternal, we may appeal. They were his best. He _knows_ that they were his best. And as long as humanity lives upon the earth this conviction must underlie great living--that _we will not deny the validity of our own best hours_. CHAPTER IX Faith in the Earnest God DAILY READINGS Throughout our studies we have been thinking of the effect of faith on the one who exercises it. As an introduction to this week's thought on the earnestness of God, let us approach the effect of faith from another angle. Faith has enormous influence on the one in whom it is reposed; not only the believer but the one in whom he believes is affected by his faith. Ninth Week, First Day =I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church that is at Cenchreæ: that ye receive her in the Lord, worthily of the saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever matter she may have need of you: for she herself also hath been a helper of many, and of mine own self.= =Salute Prisca and Aquila my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus, who for my life laid down their own necks; unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles: and salute the church that is in their house. Salute Epænetus my beloved, who is the first-fruits of Asia unto Christ. Salute Mary, who bestowed much labor on you. Salute Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also have been in Christ before me. Salute Ampliatus my beloved in the Lord.--Rom. 16:1-8.= This series of personal commendations is only the beginning of the last chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans. All the way through one hears the individual names of Paul's friends and fellow-laborers, with his discriminating and hearty praise of each. It is clear that he has faith in these men and women; he believes in them and relies on them. Consider the effect on them that Paul's confidence in their Christian fidelity would naturally have. There is no motive much more stirring than the consciousness that somebody believes in us, is trusting and counting on us. Whatever is fine and noble in human life responds to that appeal. Soldiers who feel that their country is relying upon their fidelity, children who are conscious that their parents believe in them, friends who are heartened by the assurance that some folk completely trust them--how much of the best in all of us has come because we have been the objects of somebody's faith! A Connecticut volunteer in the American Revolution has written that George Washington once paused for a moment in front of his company and said simply, "I am counting on you men from Connecticut." And the recruit clasped his musket in his arms and wept with the devotion which Washington's confidence evoked. Would not the sixteenth chapter of Romans have a similar effect on those who read it? _O Thou loving and tender Father in heaven, we confess before Thee, in sorrow, how hard and unsympathetic are our hearts; how often we have sinned against our neighbors by want of compassion and tenderness; how often we have felt no true pity for their trials and sorrows, and have neglected to comfort, help, and visit them. O Father, forgive this our sin, and lay it not to our charge. Give us grace ever to alleviate the crosses and difficulties of those around us, and never to add to them; teach us to be consolers in sorrow, to take thought for the stranger, the widow, and the orphan; let our charity show itself not in words only, but in deed and truth. Teach us to judge as Thou dost, with forbearance, with much pity and indulgence; and help us to avoid all unloving judgment of others; for the sake of Jesus Christ Thy Son, who loved us and gave Himself for us. Amen._--Johann Arndt, 1555. Ninth Week, Second Day =And it came to pass in these days, that he went out into the mountain to pray; and he continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his disciples; and he chose from them twelve, whom also he named apostles: Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas, and James the son of Alphæus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.--Luke 6:12-16.= The power that comes to men when someone believes in them must have come to these disciples whom Jesus trusted with his work. We often note the power that was theirs through their faith in Christ; consider today the inspiration that came from Christ's faith in them. He picked them out, commissioned them, relied on them, and believed in their ability with God's help to carry his work to a successful issue. All that is most distinctive and memorable in their character came from their response to that divine trust. How they must have encouraged themselves in times of failure and disheartenment by saying: He believes in us; even though we are ignorant and sinful, he believes in us; he has trusted his work to us, and for all our inability he has faith that we can carry it to triumph! Their faith in themselves and what they could do with God's help must have been almost altogether a reflex of his faith in them. Our contention, therefore, that faith is the dynamic of life has now a new confirmation: _the faith that lifts and motives life is not simply our faith in the Divine, but the faith of the Divine in us_. One of the most glorious results of believing in God is that a man can press on to the further confidence that God believes in us. If he did not, he would never have made us. The very fact that we are here means that he does believe in us, in our possibilities of growth, in our capacities of service, in what he can do in and for and through us before he is done. Man's faith in God and God's faith in man together make an unequalled motive for great living. Yet there is always a sad appendix to every list of trusted men, with somebody's blighted name: "Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor." _Loving Father, our hearts are moved to gratitude and trust when we look up to Thee. We rejoice that through our fleeting days there runs Thy gracious purpose. We praise Thee that we are not the creatures of chance, nor the victims of iron fate, but that out from Thee we have come and into Thy bosom we shall return. We would not, even if we could, escape Thee. Thou alone art good, and to escape from Thee is to fall into infinite evil. Thy hand is upon us moving us on to some far-off spiritual event, where the meaning and the mystery of life shall be made plain and Thy glory shall be revealed. Look in pity upon our ignorance and childishness. Forgive us our small understanding of Thy purpose of good concerning us. Be not angry with us, but draw us from the things of this world which cannot satisfy our foolish hearts. Fill us with Thyself, that we may no longer be a burden to ourselves. So glorify the face of goodness that evil shall have no more dominion over us. Amen._--Samuel McComb. Ninth Week, Third Day The fact that God has faith in us is not alone a source of comfort; it presents a stirring challenge. It means that he is in earnest about achieving his great purposes in human life and that he is counting upon us to help. He has set his heart on aims, about which he cares, and to whose achievement he is calling us; he is confident that with him we can work out, if we will, loftier character and a better world. Let us consider some of the purposes which God is counting on us, in fellowship with him, to achieve. The prophet Micah, in a brief but perfect drama, gives one clue. First the Lord summons his people to a trial, with the eternal mountains for judges: =Hear ye now what Jehovah saith: Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. Hear, O ye mountains, Jehovah's controversy, and ye enduring foundations of the earth; for Jehovah hath a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.--Micah 6:1, 2.= Then, the Lord presents his case: =O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of bondage; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him; remember from Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know the righteous acts of Jehovah.--Micah 6:3-5.= Then the people put in their hesitant, questioning plea. =Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old? will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?--Micah 6:6, 7.= Then the mountains pronounce judgment: =He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?--Micah 6:8.= God, then, is in earnest about _just_, _kind_, _and humble character_. He believes in it as a possibility; he sees the making of it now in human hearts; he is pledged to further and establish it with all his power; and he is counting on us for loyal cooperation with all our powers of choice. Vital faith means a transforming partnership with a God who is in earnest about character. _O Thou who art the Father of that Son which hast awakened us and yet urgeth us out of the sleep of our sins, and exhorteth us that we become Thine, to Thee, Lord, we pray, who art the supreme Truth, for all truth that is, is from Thee. Thee we implore, O Lord, who art the highest Wisdom, through Thee are wise, all those that are so. Thou art the supreme Joy, and from Thee all have become happy that are so. Thou art the highest Good and from Thee all beauty springs. Thou art the intellectual Light, and from Thee man derives his understanding. To Thee, O God, we call and speak. Hear us, O Lord, for Thou art our God and our Lord, our Father and our Creator, our Ruler and our Hope, our Wealth and our Honor, our Home, our Country, our Salvation, and our Life; hear, hear us, O Lord. Few of Thy servants comprehend Thee, but at least we love Thee--yea, love Thee above all other things. We seek Thee, we follow Thee, we are ready to serve Thee; under Thy power we desire to abide, for Thou art the Sovereign of all. We pray Thee to command us as Thou wilt; through Jesus Christ Thy Son our Lord. Amen._--King Alfred, 849. Ninth Week, Fourth Day God also is in earnest about _social righteousness_. =I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Yea, though ye offer me your burnt-offerings and meal-offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.--Amos 5:21-24.= Anyone who cares about character must care about social conditions, for every unfair economic situation, every social evil left to run its course means ruin to character. And the God of the Bible, because he cares supremely for personal life at its best, is zealously in earnest about social justice; his prophets blazed with indignation at all inequity, and his Son made the coming Kingdom, when God's will would be done on earth, the center of his message. To fellowship with this earnest purpose of God we all are summoned; God believes in the glorious possibilities of life on earth; he is counting on us to put away the sins that hold the Kingdom back and to fight the abuses that crush character in men. To believe in God, therefore--the God who is fighting his way with his children up through ignorance, brutality, and selfishness to "new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness"--is no weakly comfortable blessing. It means joining a moral war; it means devotion, sacrifice; its spirit is the Cross and its motive an undiscourageable faith. And our underlying assurance that this war for a better world can be won is not simply our belief that it can be done, but _our faith that God is, and that he believes that it can be done_. When we pray we say, "Thy Kingdom come," and we are full of hope about the long, sacrificial struggle, for the purpose behind and through it all is first of all God's. Our earnestness is but an echo of his. _O Thou Eternal One, we adore Thee who in all ages hast been the great companion and teacher of mankind; for Thou hast lifted our race from the depths, and hast made us to share in Thy conscious intelligence and Thy will that makes for righteousness and love. Thou alone art our Redeemer, for Thy lifting arms were about us and Thy persistent voice was in our hearts as we slowly climbed up from savage darkness and cruelty. Thou knowest how often we have resisted Thee and loved the easy ways of sin rather than the toilsome gain of self-control and the divine irritation of Thy truth...._ _We pray Thee for those who amid all the knowledge of our day are still without knowledge; for those who hear not the sighs of the children that toil, nor the sobs of such as are wounded because others have made haste to be rich; for those who have never felt the hot tears of the mothers of the poor that struggle vainly against poverty and vice. Arouse them, we beseech Thee, from their selfish comfort and grant them the grace of social repentance. Smite us all with the conviction that for us ignorance is sin, and that we are indeed our brother's keeper if our own hand has helped to lay him low. Though increase of knowledge bring increase of sorrow, may we turn without flinching to the light and offer ourselves as instruments of Thy spirit in bringing order and beauty out of disorder and darkness. Amen._--Walter Rauschenbusch. Ninth Week, Fifth Day The thought which we have been pursuing leads us to a truth of major importance: if God is thus in earnest, believing in man's possibilities and laboring for them, then he cannot be known by anyone who does not share his purpose and his labor. _Action is a road to knowledge and some things never can be known without it._ If one would know the business world, he must be an active business man; no amount of abstract study and speculation can take the place of vital participation in business struggle. The way to understand any movement or enterprise is to go into it, share its enthusiasms and hopes, labor sacrificially for its success, bear its defeats as though they were our own, and rejoice in its achievements as though nothing so much mattered to our happiness. Such knowledge is thorough and vital; when one who so has learned what war is, or the missionary enterprise, or the fight against the liquor traffic, stands up to speak, a merely theoretical student of these movements sounds unreal and tame. If therefore God is earnest Purpose, with aims in which he calls us to share, no one can thoroughly know him merely by _thinking_; he must know him by _acting_. =But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God.--John 3:21.= =Jesus therefore answered them, and said, My teaching is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from myself.--John 7:16, 17.= Many people endeavor to reach a satisfactory knowledge of God by clarifying their thought and working out a rational philosophy. But, by such intellectual means alone, they could not gain satisfactory knowledge of so familiar a thing as home life. To know home life one elemental act is essential: get into a home and share its problems, its satisfactions, and its hopes. So the most adequate philosophy by itself can bring no satisfactory knowledge of God; only by working with God, sharing his purposes for the world, sacrificially laboring for the aims he has at heart can men know him. _Eternal God, who hast formed us, and designed us for companionship with Thee; who hast called us to walk with Thee and be not afraid; forgive us, we pray Thee, if craven fear, unworthy thought, or hidden sin has prompted us to hide from Thee. Remove the suspicion which regards Thy service as an intrusion on our time and an interference with our daily task. Shew to us the life that serves Thee in the quiet discharge of each day's duty, that ennobles all our toil by doing it as unto Thee. We ask for no far-off vision which shall set us dreaming while opportunities around slip by; for no enchantment which shall make our hands to slack and our spirits to sleep, but for the vision of Thyself in common things for every day; that we may find a Divine calling in the claims of life, and see a heavenly reward in work well done. We ask Thee not to lift us out of life, but to prove Thy power within it; not for tasks more suited to our strength, but for strength more suited to our tasks. Give to us the vision that moves, the strength that endures, the grace of Jesus Christ, who wore our flesh like a monarch's robe and walked our earthly life like a conqueror in triumph. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. Ninth Week, Sixth Day Because action with God is essential to any satisfying knowledge of him, action is one of the great resolvers of doubt. Many minds, endeavoring to think through the mystifying problems of God's providence, find themselves in a clueless labyrinth. The more they think the more entangled and confused their minds become. Their thoughts strike a fatal circle, like wanderers lost in the woods, and return upon their course, baffled and disheartened. To such perplexed minds the best advice often is: Cease your futile thinking and go to work. Let action take the place of speculation. Break the fatal round of circular thought that never will arrive, and go out to act on the basis of what little you do believe. Your mind like a dammed stream is growing stagnant; set it running to some useful purpose, if only to turn mill-wheels, and trust that activity will bring it cleansing in due time. Horace Bushnell, the great preacher, while a skeptical tutor at Yale, was disturbed because so many students were unsettled by his disbelief. In the midst of a revival he said that like a great snag he caught and stopped the newly launched boats as fast as they came down. Unable to think his way out of his intellectual perplexity, he faced one night this arresting question: "What is the use of my trying to get further knowledge, so long as I do not cheerfully yield to what I already know?" And kneeling he prayed after this fashion: "O God, I believe there is an eternal difference between right and wrong, and I hereby give myself up to do the right and to refrain from the wrong. I believe that Thou dost exist, and if Thou canst hear my cry and wilt reveal Thyself to me, I pledge myself to do Thy will, and I make this pledge fully, freely, and forever." What wonder that in time the light broke and that Bushnell became a great prophet of the faith! Even Paul, finishing his laborious discussion of God's providence toward Israel, acknowledges his baffled thought: =O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen.--Rom. 11:33-36=. And then, as if he turned from philosophy to action with gratitude, he begins the twelfth chapter: =I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.--Rom. 12:1, 2.= _O God, we thank Thee for the sweet refreshment of sleep and for the glory and vigor of the new day. As we set our faces once more toward our daily work, we pray Thee for the strength sufficient for our tasks. May Christ's spirit of duty and service ennoble all we do. Uphold us by the consciousness that our work is useful work and a blessing to all. If there has been anything in our work harmful to others and dishonorable to ourselves, reveal it to our inner eye with such clearness that we shall hate it and put it away, though it be at a loss to ourselves. When we work with others, help us to regard them, not as servants to our will, but as brothers equal to us in human dignity, and equally worthy of their full reward. May there be nothing in this day's work of which we shall be ashamed when the sun has set, nor in the eventide of our life when our task is done and we go to our long home to meet Thy face. Amen._--Walter Rauschenbusch. Ninth Week, Seventh Day =Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? or athirst, and gave thee drink? And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? And when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me.--Matt. 25:34-40.= The earnestness of God is not about any diffuse generality; it is about persons. His purposes concern them, and he believes in them and in their capacities for fellowship with him, for growing character and for glorious destiny. If, therefore, one wishes the sense of God's reality which comes from active co-partnership, let him serve persons, believe in them, and be in earnest about them. A woman, troubled by invincible doubts, was given by a wise minister the Gospel of John and a calling-list of needy families, and was told to use them both. She came through into a luminous faith, and which helped her more, her reading or her service, she could never tell. When the Master said that the good we did to the least of his brethren, we did to him, he indicated a road to vital knowledge of him; he said in effect that we can always find him in the lives of people to whom we give love and help. Many will never find him at all unless they find him there. The great believers have been the great servants; and the reason for this is not simply that faith produced service, but also that _service produced faith_. The life of Sir Wilfred Grenfell, for example, makes convincingly plain that his faith sent him to Labrador for service, and that then he drew out of service a compound interest on his original investment of faith. _O God, the Father of the forsaken, the Help of the weak, the Supplier of the needy, who hast diffused and proportioned Thy gifts to body and soul, in such sort that all may acknowledge and perform the joyous duty of mutual service; Who teachest us that love towards the race of men is the bond of perfectness, and the imitation of Thy blessed Self; open our eyes and touch our hearts, that we may see and do, both for this world and for that which is to come, the things which belong to our peace. Strengthen us in the work we have undertaken; give us counsel and wisdom, perseverance, faith, and zeal, and in Thine own good time, and according to Thy pleasure, prosper the issue. Pour into us a spirit of humility; let nothing be done but in devout obedience to Thy will, thankfulness for Thine unspeakable mercies, and love to Thine adorable Son Christ Jesus.... Amen._--Earl of Shaftesbury, 1801. COMMENT FOR THE WEEK I Throughout our studies we have been asserting that faith in God involves confidence that creation has a purpose. But we shall not see the breadth and depth of the affirmation, or its significant meaning for our lives, unless more carefully we face a question, which, as keenly as any other, pierces to the marrow of religion: _Is God in earnest?_ That the God of the Bible is in earnest is plain. If we open the Book at the Exodus, we hear him saying, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people, ... and have heard their cry, ... and I am come down to deliver them" (Exodus 3:7, 8). If we turn to the prophets, we find Hosea, interpreting the beating of God's heart: "How am I to give thee up, O Ephraim? How am I to let thee go, O Israel? How am I to give thee up? My heart is turned upon me, my compassions begin to boil"[5] (Hos. 11:8). Everywhere in the Old Testament, God is in earnest: about personal character--"What doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:8); about social righteousness--"Let justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream" (Amos 5:24); about the salvation of the world--"It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth" (Isa. 49:6). When from the Old Testament one turns to the New, he faces an assertion of God's earnestness that cannot be surpassed: "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." God in the New Testament is as much in earnest as that, and all the major affirmations of the Book cluster about the magnetism of this central faith. God is even like a shepherd with a hundred sheep, who having lost one, leaves the ninety and nine and goes after that which is lost, until he finds it (Luke 15:4). From the earliest Hebrew seer dimly perceiving him, to the last apostle of the New Covenant, the God of the Bible is tremendously in earnest. How profoundly the acceptance of this faith deepens the meaning and value of life is evident. For a moment some might think that the major question is not whether _God_ is in earnest but whether _we_ are; but when a man considers the hidden fountains from which the streams of his human earnestness must flow, he sees how necessary is at least the hope that at the heart of it creation is in earnest too. Von Hartmann, the pessimist, makes one of his characters say, "The activities of the busy world are only the shudderings of a fever." How shall a man be seriously in earnest about great causes in a world like that? The men whose devoted lives have made history great have seen in creation's busyness more than aimless shuddering. Moses was in earnest, but behind his consecration was his vision of the Eternal, saying to Pharaoh, "Let my people go!" The Master was in earnest, but with a motive that took into its account the purposefulness of God, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17). Indeed, no satisfying meaning, no real unity are conceivable in a purposeless universe. The plain fact is that _within_ the universe nobody explains anything without the statement of its purpose. A chair is something to sit down on; a watch is something to tell time by; a lamp is something to give illumination in the dark--and lacking this purposive description, the story of the precedent history of none of these things, from their original materials to their present shape, would in the least tell what they really are. One who knows all else about a telephone, practically knows nothing, unless he is aware of what it is _for_. Nor is the necessity of such explanation lessened when scientists endeavor descriptions in their special realms. Huxley, narrating the growth of a salamander's egg, writes, "Let a moderate supply of warmth reach its watery cradle, and the plastic matter undergoes changes so rapid, and yet so steady and so purposelike in their succession, that one can only compare them to those operated by a skilled modeler upon a formless lump of clay. As with an invisible trowel, the mass is divided and subdivided into smaller and smaller portions, until it is reduced to an aggregation of granules not too large to build withal the finest fabrics of the nascent organism. And, then, it is as if a delicate finger traced out the line to be occupied by the spinal column and moulded the contour of the body; pinching up the head at one end, the tail at the other, and fashioning flank and limb into the due salamandrine proportions, in so artistic a way, that, after watching the process hour by hour, one is almost involuntarily possessed by the notion that some more subtle aid to vision than an achromatic, would show the hidden artist, with his plan before him, striving with skilful manipulation to perfect his work." The obvious fact is that salamanders' eggs act as though they were seriously intent on making salamanders; and lion's cells as though they were tremendously in earnest about making lions. As Herbert Spencer said of a begonia leaf, "We have therefore no alternative but to say, that the living particles composing one of these fragments, have an innate tendency to arrange themselves into the shape of the organism to which they belong." _But if this is so, purpose is essential in the description of every living thing._ All about us is a world of life with something strikingly like purposeful action rampant everywhere, so that in describing an elm tree it will not do to say only that forces from behind pushed it into being; one must say, too, that from our first observation of its cells they acted as though they were intent on making nothing else but elm. They went about their business as though they had a purpose. The tree's cause is not alone the forces from behind; it is as well the aim that in the cells' action lay ahead. Men can describe nothing in heaven above or on the earth beneath without the use of purposive terminology. How shall they try otherwise to describe the universe? _A world in which the minutest particles and cells all act as though they were eagerly intent on achieving aims, can only with difficulty be thought of as an aimless whole._ Man's conviction is insistent and imperious that creation, so surcharged with purposes, must have Purpose. The greatest scientists themselves are often our best witnesses here. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace are the twin discoverers of evolution. Said the former: "If we consider the whole universe the mind refuses to look at it as the outcome of chance." Said the latter: the world is "a manifestation of creative power, directive mind, and ultimate purpose." What such men have coldly said, the men of devout religion have set on fire with passionate faith. They have been sure that this world is not "A tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." In every cause that makes for man's salvation they have seen the manifest unveiling of divine intent. _God is in earnest_--this conviction has possessed them utterly, and to live and die for those things on behalf of which the Eternal is tremendously concerned has been the aim, the motive, and the glory of their lives. II One need only watch with casual observance the multitudes who say that they believe in God, to see how few of them believe in this God who is in earnest. When they confess their faith in deity they have something else in mind beside the God of the Bible, compassionately purposeful about his world and calling men to be his fellow-workers. Let us therefore consider some of the fallacies that enable men to believe in a God who is _not_ in earnest. For one thing, some _put God far away_. Missionaries in Africa's interior find tribes worshiping stocks, stones, demons, ghosts, but this does not mean that no idea of a great original god is theirs. Often they are not strangers to that thought, but, as an old Africander woman said, "He never concerned himself with me; why should I concern myself with him?" To such folk a great god exists, but he does not care; he dwells apart, an indifferent deity, who has left this world in the hands of lesser gods that really count. The task of the missionary, therefore, is not to prove the existence of a creator--"No rain, no mushrooms," said an African chief; "no God, no world"--but it is to persuade men that the God who seems so far away is near at hand, that he really cares, and over each soul and all his world is sacrificially in earnest. Such missionary work is not yet needless among Christian people. Said a Copenhagen preacher in a funeral discourse, "God cannot help us in our great sorrow, because he is so infinitely far away; we must therefore look to Jesus." One feels this Siberian exile of God from all vital meaning for our humanity, when he is called the "Absolute," the "Great First Cause," the "Energy from which all things proceed." Like the man, examined by the Civil Service, who, asked the distance from sun to earth, answered, "I do not know how far the sun is from the earth; but it is far enough so that it will not interfere with the proper performance of my duties at the Customs Office," so men with phrases like "the Great First Cause" put God an immeasurable distance off. No man has dealings with a "Great First Cause," no "Great First Cause" ever had vital, personal, constraining meanings for a man. Rather across infinite distance and time unthinkable, we vaguely picture a dim Figure, who gave this toboggan of a universe its primal shove and has not thought seriously of it since. So a wanderer down the street might put a child upon her sled and giving her a start down-hill, go on his way. She may have a pleasant slide, but he will not know; she may fall off, but he will not care; there may be a tragic accident, but that will not be his concern--he has gone away off down the street. Multitudes of nominal believers have a god like that. In comparison with such, one thinks of men like Livingstone. His God was compassionately concerned for Africa, spoke about black folk as Hosea heard him speak concerning Israel, "How can I give thee up? How can I let thee go?" until the fire of the divine earnestness lit a corresponding ardor in Livingstone's heart and he went out to be God's man in the dark continent. Such men have smitten the listless world as winds fill flapping sails, crying "Move!" And the God of such has been tremendously in earnest. III Some gain a God lacking serious purpose, not by putting him afar off, but by endeavoring to bring him so near that they _diffuse him everywhere_. Writers tell us that God is in every rustling leaf and in every wave that breaks upon the beach; we are assured that God is in every gorgeous flower and in every flaming sunset. And the poetry of this is so alluring that we cannot bear to have God specially anywhere, because we are so anxious to keep him everywhere. Preachers delight to illustrate their thought of God with figures drawn from nature's invisible energies-- "Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you: But when the leaves hang trembling The wind is passing through. Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I: But when the trees bow down their heads The wind is passing by." By such comparisons are we taught to see that God invisibly is everywhere. For all the valuable truth that such speech contains, its practical issue, in many minds today, is to strip God of the last shred of personality, and with that loss to end the possibility of his being in earnest about anything. He has become refined Vapor thinly diffused through space. Folk say they love to meditate on him, and well they may! For such a god asks nothing of anybody except meditation; he has no purposes that call for earnestness in them. When little children are ruined in a city's tenements, when the liquor traffic brutalizes men, when economic inequity makes many poor that a few may be made rich, when war clothes the world with unutterable sorrow, such a god does not care. He is not in earnest about anything. For the only thing in the universe that can be consciously in earnest is personality, and when one depersonalizes God, the remainder is a deity who has no love, no care, no purpose. Thousands do obeisance to such a gaseous idol. From this fallacy spring such familiar confessions of faith as this, "God is not a person; he is spirit." If by this negation one intends to say that God is not a limited individual, that is obviously true; but _the contrast between personality and spirit is impossible_. One may as well speak of dry water as of impersonal spirit. Rays of radium are unimaginably minute and swift, but they are not spirit. Nothing in the impersonal realm can be conceived so subtle and refined that it is spirit. Spirit begins only where love and intelligence and purpose are, and these all are activities of personality. No one can _really_ believe what Jesus said, "God is a Spirit," without being ready to pray as Jesus prayed, "Our Father." Between an impersonal, diffused, and gaseous god, and the God of the Bible, how great the difference! God's pervading omnipresence is indeed affirmed in Scripture. There, as much as in any modern thought, the heavens declare his glory, the flowers of the field are illustrations of his care, and the influences of his spirit are like the breeze across the hills. To the ancient Hebrew, heaven and sheol were the highest and the lowest, but of each the Psalmist says to God, "Thou art there," and as for the uttermost parts of the sea, "even there shall thy hand lead me" (Psalm 139:7-10). Cries Jeremiah from the Old Testament, "Am I a God at hand, saith Jehovah, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? saith Jehovah. Do not I fill heaven and earth?" (Jer. 23:23, 24). And Paul answers from the New Testament, "Not far from every one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:27, 28). But the God of the Bible who so pervades and sustains all existence never degenerates into a Vapor. When Egyptian taskmasters crack their whips over Hebrew slaves, he cares. When exiles try in vain to sing the songs of Zion in a strange land, he cares. When evil men build Jerusalem with blood, and rapacious men pant after the dust on the head of the poor, he cares. He is prodigiously in earnest, and those who best represent him, from the great prophets to the sacrificial Son, are like him in this, that they are mastered by consuming purpose. The God of the Bible is sadly needed by his people. For lack of him religion grows often listless and churches become social clubs. IV By another road men travel to believe in a God who is not in earnest: _they think of him as an historic being_. It was said of Carlyle, shrewdly if unjustly, that his God lived until the death of Oliver Cromwell. Whatever may be the truth about Carlyle, it is easy to find folk whose God to all intents and purposes is dead. Long since he closed his work, spoke his last word, and settled down to inactivity and silence. He made the world, created man, thundered from Sinai, established David's kingdom, brought back the exiles, inspired the prophets and sent his Son. He _once_ was earnest; the record of his ancient acts is long and glorious, and men find comfort in reading what he used to do. They would not explicitly confess it, but in fact they habitually think of God in the past tense. They cannot conceive the universe as happening by chance, and they posit God as making it; they cannot believe that the transcendent characters of olden times were uninspired, so God becomes the explanation of their power. When such believers wish to assure themselves of God they go to the stern of humanity's ship and watch the wake far to the rear; but they never stand on the ship's bridge, and feel it sway and turn at the touch of a present Captain in control. They have not risen to the meaning of the Bible's reiterated phrase, "_the living God_." Höffding tells us that in a Danish Protestant church, well on into the nineteenth century, worshipers maintained the custom of bowing, when they passed a certain spot upon the wall. The reason, which no one knew, was discovered when removal of the whitewash revealed a Roman Catholic Madonna. Folk had bowed for three centuries before the place where the Madonna _used to be_. So some folk worship deity; he is not a present reality but a tradition; their faith is directed not toward the living God himself, but toward what some one else has written about a God who used to be alive. They do not feel now God's plans afoot, his purposes as certainly in progress now as ever in man's history. They stand rather like unconverted Gideon, facing backwards and lamenting, "Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of?" (Judges 6:13). Not by what we say, but by our practical attitudes we most reveal how little we believe in an earnest, living God whose voice calls _us_, whose plans need _us_, as much as ever Moses or David or Paul was summoned and required. If we say that we do believe in this living God we are belied by our discouragements, deserving as we often do the rebuke which Luther's wife administered to the Reformer. "From what you have said," she remarked, standing before him clothed in deep, mourning black, "and from the way you feel and act I supposed that God was dead." If we say that we believe in a living, earnest God, we are belied by our reluctance to expect and welcome new revelations of God's truth and enlarging visions of his plan. Willing to believe what the astronomers say, that light from a new star reaches the earth each year, we act as though God's spiritual universe were smaller than his physical, and do not eagerly await the new light perpetually breaking from his heavens. But most of all the little influence which our faith in God has upon our practical service is a scathing indictment of its vitality and power. No one who really believes in an earnest, living God can have an undedicated life. He may not think of the Divine in the past tense chiefly; the present and the future even more belong to God; and through each generation runs the earnest purpose of the Eternal, who has never said his last word on any subject, nor put the final hammer blow on any task. A faith like this, deeply received and apprehended, is a masterful experience. It changes the inner quality of life; it makes the place whereon we stand holy ground; it urgently impresses us into the service of those causes that we plainly see have in them the purpose of God. No outlook upon life compares with this in grandeur; no motive for life is at once so weighty and so fine. V One of the subtlest fallacies by which we miss believing in an earnest God is not describable as an opinion. Men fall into it, who neither reduce God to a Great First Cause, nor diffuse him into a vapor, nor regard him as an historic being. _They rather allow their superstitious sentiments to take the place of worthy faith._ Plenty of people who warmly would insist on their religion, reveal in their practical attitudes how utterly bereft of serious moral purpose their God is. They think their fortune will be better if they do not sit thirteen at a table or occupy room thirteen at a hotel; on occasion they throw salt or look at the moon over their right shoulders and rap on wood to assure their safety or their luck; and to be quite certain of divine favor they hang fetishes, like rabbits' feet, about their necks. Their attitude toward such surviving pagan superstitions is like Fontenelli's toward ghosts. "I do not believe in them," he said, "but I am afraid of them." That this is a law-abiding universe with moral purpose in it, such folk obviously do not believe. Their God is not in earnest. He spends his time watching for dinner parties of thirteen or listening for folk who forget to rap on wood when they boast that they have not been ill all winter. The utter poverty to which great words may be reduced by meager minds is evident when such folk say that they believe in God. Even when these grosser forms of superstition are not present, others hardly more respectable may take their place. God is pictured as a King, surrounded with court ritual, in the complete and proper observance of which he takes delight, and any rupture in whose regularity awakes his anger. To go to church, to say our prayers, to read our Bibles, to be circumspect on Sunday, to help pay the preacher's salary and to contribute to the missionary cause--such things as these comprise the court ritual of God. These Christian acts are not presented as gracious privileges, opportunities, like fresh air and sunshine and friendship, to make life rich and serviceable; they are presented as works of merit, by which we gain standing in God's favor and assure ourselves of his benignity. For with those who so conform to his ordinances and respect his taboos, he is represented as well-pleased, and he blesses them with special favors. But any infraction of these rituals is sure to bring terrific punishment. God watches those who do not sing his praises or who fail in praying, and he marks them for his vengeance! Dr. Jowett tells us that in the Sunday school room of the English chapel where as a child he worshiped, a picture hung that to his fascinated and frightened imagination represented the character of God: a huge eye filled the center of the heavens, and from it rays of vision fell on every sort of minute happening and small misdeed on earth. As such a monstrous Detective, jealous of his rights and perquisites, God is how often pictured to the children! So H. G. Wells indignantly interprets his experience: "I, who write, was so set against God, thus rendered. He and his Hell were the nightmare of my childhood; I hated him while I still believed in him, and who could help but hate? I thought of him as a fantastic monster, perpetually spying, perpetually listening, perpetually waiting to condemn and to strike me dead; his flames as ready as a grill-room fire. He was over me and about my feebleness and silliness and forgetfulness as the sky and sea would be about a child drowning in mid-Atlantic. When I was still only a child of thirteen, by the grace of the true God in me, I flung this lie out of my mind, and for many years, until I came to see that God himself had done this thing for me, the name of God meant nothing to me but the hideous sear in my heart where a fearful demon had been." This "bogey God" is in earnest about nothing except the observance of his little rituals; he is unworthy of a good man's worship, he has no purpose that can capture the consent and inspire the loyalty of serious folk. How many so-called unbelievers are in revolt against this perversion of the idea of God, taught them in childhood! The deity whom they refuse to credit is not the Father, with "the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ" (Eph. 3:11); often they have not heard of him. Their denial is directed against another sort of God. "I wish I could recall clearly," writes one, "the conception of God which I gained as a boy in Sunday school. He was as old as grandfather, I know, but not so kind. We were told to fear him." Surely the real God must sympathize with those who hate his caricature. A vindictive Bogey, querulous about the mint, anise, and cummin of his ritual, in earnest about nothing save to reward obsequious servants and to have his vengeance out on the careless and disobedient, is poles asunder from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with his majestic purpose for the world's salvation. VI Of all the sentiments, however, by which a worthy faith is made impossible, none is so common, in these recent years, _as the ascription to God of a weak and flaccid affectionateness_. God's love is interpreted by love's meaning in hours when we are gentle with our children or tender with our friends. The soft and cosy aspects of love, its comforts, its pities, its affections, are made central in our thought of God. We are taught, as children, that he loves us as our mothers do; and as from them we look for coddling when we cry for it, so are our expectations about God. Our religion becomes a selfish seeking for divine protection from life's ills, a recipe for ease, an expectant trust, that as we believe in God he in return will nurse us, unharmed and happy, through our lives. No one intimately acquainted with the religious life of men and women can be unaware of this widespread, ingrained belief in a soft, affectionate, grandmotherly God. What wonder that life brings fearful disillusionment! What wonder that in a world where all that is valuable has been "Battered with the shocks of doom To shape and use," the God of coddling love seems utterly impossible! The lack in this fallacious faith is central; there is no place in it for the movement of God's moral purpose. _To ascribe love to God without making it a quality of his unalterable purpose, which must sweep on through costs in suffering however great, is to misread the Gospel._ Many kinds of love are known in our experience, from a nursing mother with her babe to a military leader with his men. In Donald Hankey's picture of "the Beloved Captain" we see affection and tenderness, as beautiful as they are strong: "It was a wonderful thing, that smile of his. It was something worth living for, and worth working for.... It seemed to make one look at things from a different point of view, a finer point of view, his point of view. There was nothing feeble or weak about it.... It meant something. It meant that we were his men and that he was proud of us.... When we failed him, when he was disappointed in us, he did not smile. He did not rage or curse. He just looked disappointed, and that made us feel far more savage with ourselves than any amount of swearing would have done.... The fact was that he had won his way into our affections. We loved him. And there isn't anything stronger than love, when all's said and done." Yet, this Captain, loving and beloved, will lead his men in desperate charges, where death falls in showers, but where the purpose which their hearts have chosen forces them to go. The love of God must be like that; it surely is if Jesus' love is its embodiment. His affection for his followers, his solicitude and tenderness have been in Christian eyes, how beautiful! They shine in words like John's seventeenth chapter where love finds transcendent utterance. Yet this same Master said: "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves" (Matt. 10:16); "Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake" (Matt. 5:11); "Then shall they deliver you up unto tribulation, and shall kill you; and ye shall be hated of all the nations for my name's sake" (Matt. 24:9); "They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you shall think that he offereth service unto God" (John 16:2); "If any man cometh unto me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26). The love of Jesus was no coddling affection; it had for its center a moral purpose that balked at no sacrifice. He took crucifixion for himself, and to his beloved he cried, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matt. 16:24). Such love is God's; and _preachers who advertise his Fatherhood as a gentle nurse that shelters us from suffering have sapped the Gospel of its moral power_. God's love is austere as well as bountiful; he is, as Emerson said, the "terrific benefactor." Indeed, faith in a God of coddling love may be one of the most pernicious influences in human life. Our trust, so misinterpreted, becomes a cushion on which to lie, a sedative by which to sleep. When ills afflict the world that men could cure, such misbelievers merely trust in God; when tasks await man's strength, they quietly retreat upon their faith that God is good and will solve all, until religion becomes a by-word and a hissing on the lips of earnest men. Such misbelievers have not dimly seen the Scripture's meaning, where faith is not a pillow but a shield, from behind which plays a sword (Eph. 6:16) and where men do not sleep by faith, but "fight the good fight of faith" instead (I Tim. 6:12). Or if such misbelievers do rouse themselves to lay hold on their Divinity, it is to demand God's love for them and not to offer their lives to God. As Sydney Smith exclaimed about some people's patriotism, "God save the King! in these times too often means, God save my pension and my place, God give my sisters an allowance out of the Privy Purse, let me live upon the fruits of other men's industry and fatten upon the plunder of the public." Faith in God never is elevated and ennobling until we overpass "_God for our lives!_" to cry "_Our lives for God!_" Then at the luminous center of our faith shines the divine purpose, costly but wonderful, that binds the ages together in spiritual unity. To that we dedicate our lives; in that we exceedingly rejoice. No longer do we test God's goodness by our happiness or our ill-fortune; we are _his_ through fair weather and through foul. No longer do we merely hold beliefs, we are held by them, captured now and not simply consoled by faith. Only so are we learning discipleship to Christ and are beginning really to believe in the Christian God. VII From all these common fallacies of thought and sentiment one turns to the New Testament to find the God of the Gospel. The very crux of the Good Tidings is that God is so much in earnest that he is the eternal Sufferer. The ancient Greeks had a god of perfect bliss; he floated on from age to age in undisturbed tranquillity; no cry of man ever reached his empyrean calm; his life was an endless stream of liquid happiness. How different this Greek deity is from ours may be perceived if one tries to say of him those things which the Scripture habitually says of God. "In all their affliction he was afflicted" (Isa. 63:9); "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, these may forget, yet will not I forget thee" (Isa. 49:15); "God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses" (Eph 2:4, 5); "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" (John 3:16). None of these things that Christians say about their God can be said of a deity who dwells in tranquil bliss. Indeed let one stand over against a war-torn, unhappy world and try to think that God does not suffer in man's agony, and he will see how useless and incredible such a God would be. God looks on Belgium and he does not care; he looks on Armenia desolate and Poland devastated, and he does not care; he sits in heaven and sees his children wounded and alone in No-man's land, watches the deaths, the heart-breaks, the poverty of war, its ruined childhood and its shattered families, and he does not care--how impossible it is to believe in such a God! A God who does not care does not count. Christians, therefore, have the God who really meets the needs of men. He cares indeed, and, with all the modesty that words of human emotion must put on when they are applied to him, he suffers in the suffering of men and is crucified in his children's agonies. God limited himself in making such a world as this; in it he cannot lightly do what he will; he has a struggle on his heart; he makes his way upward against obstacles that man's imagination cannot measure. There is a cross forever at the heart of God. He climbs his everlasting Calvary toward the triumph that must come, and he is tremendously in earnest. One important consequence follows such faith as this. Confidence in such an earnest, sacrificial God makes inevitable the Christian faith in immortality. Our solar system is no permanent theater for God's eternal purposes; it is doomed to dissolution as certainly as any human body is doomed to die. In the Lick observatory one reads this notice under a picture of the sun: "The blue stars are considered to be in early life, the yellow stars in middle life, the red stars in old age.... From the quality of its spectrum the sun is classified as a star in middle age." Those, therefore, who, denying their own immortality, comfort themselves with prophesying endless progress for the race upon the earth, have no basis for their hopes. "We must therefore renounce those brilliant fancies," says Faye the scientist, "by which we try to deceive ourselves in order to endow man with unlimited posterity, and to regard the universe as the immense theater on which is to be developed a spontaneous progress without end. On the contrary, life must disappear, and the grandest material works of the human race will have to be effaced by degrees under the action of a few physical forces which will survive man for a time. Nothing will remain--'Even the ruins will perish.'" If one believes, therefore, in the God who is in earnest, he cannot content himself with such a universe--lacking any permanent element, any abiding reality in which the moral gains of man's long struggle are conserved. God's purpose cannot be so narrow in horizon that it is satisfied with a few million years of painful experiment, costly beyond imagination, yet with no issue to crown its sacrifice. In such a universe as Faye pictures, lacking immortality, generation after generation of men suffer, aspire, labor, and die, and this shall be the history of all creation, until at last Shakespeare's prophecy shall be fulfilled, "The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind." If such is to be the story of creation, there is no purpose in it and the Christian faith in an earnest God is vain. Only one truth is adequate to crown our confidence in a purposeful universe and to make it reasonable: _personality must persist_. We believe in immortality, not because we meanly want rewards ahead, but because in no other way can life, viewed as a whole, find sense and reason. If personality persists, this transient theater of action and discipline may serve its purpose in God's time, and disappear. He is in earnest, but not for rocks and suns and stars, he is in earnest about persons--the sheep of his pasture are men. They are not mortal; they carry over into the eternal world the spiritual gains of earth; and all life's struggle--its vicarious sacrifice, its fearful punishments, its labor for better circumstance and worthier life--is justified in its everlasting influence on personality. When we say that God cares, we mean no vague, diffusive attitude toward a system that lasts for limited millenniums and then comes to an uneventful end in a cold sun and a ruined earth. We mean that he cares for personality which is his child, that he suffers in the travail of his children's character, and that this divine solicitude has everlasting issues when the heavens "wax old like a garment." Still Paul's statement stands, one of the most worthy summaries of God's earnestness that ever has been written: "The creation waits with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed" (Rom. 8:19).[6] [5] George Adam Smith's Translation. [6] Moffatt's Translation. CHAPTER X Faith in Christ the Savior: Forgiveness DAILY READINGS During the next two weeks we are to consider some of the distinctive meanings which faith in Christ has had for his disciples. They have found in that faith unspeakable blessing and have uttered their gratitude in radiant language. But, just because of this, many folk find themselves in difficulty. Their expectations concerning the Christian life have been lifted very high, and in their experience of it they have been disappointed. Their problem is not theoretical doubt, but practical disillusionment. Their difficulty lies in their experience that the Christian life, while it may be theoretically true, is not practically what it is advertised to be. At this common problem let us look in the daily readings. Tenth Week, First Day Many expect in the Christian experience an emotional life of joy and quietude which they have not found. They are led to expect this by many passages of Scripture about "peace in believing," by many hymns of exultation where a mood of unqualified spiritual triumph finds voice, and by testimonies of men who speak of living years without any depressed hours or flagging spirits. Such a wonderful life of elevated emotion many crave for themselves; they came into the Christian fellowship expecting it; and they neither have it, nor are likely to achieve it. Now the beauty of a clear, high emotional life no one can doubt, _but we must not demand it as a condition of our keeping faith_. We ought not to seek God simply for the sake of sensational experiences, no matter how desirable they may be. In all the ages before Christ, the outstanding example of deep personal religion, expressing itself in over forty years of splendidly courageous prophetic ministry, is Jeremiah, and his temperament was never marked by quietude and joy. His emotional life was profoundly affected by his faith: _courage was substituted for fear_. But if he had demanded the mood of the 103rd psalm as a price for continued faith, he would have lost his faith. He was not temperamentally constructed like the psalmist--and he was a far greater personality. We must not be too much concerned about our spiritual sensations. Consider the Master's parable about the two sons: one had amiable feelings, but his will was wrong, the other lacked satisfactory emotions, but he did the work. =But what think ye? A man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in the vineyard. And he answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented himself, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. Which of the two did the will of his father? They say, The first.--Matt. 21:28-31.= _Ah, Lord, unto whom all hearts are open; Thou canst govern the vessel of our souls far better than we can. Arise, O Lord, and command the stormy wind and the troubled sea of our hearts to be still, and at peace in Thee, that we may look up to Thee undisturbed, and abide in union with Thee, our Lord. Let us not be carried hither and thither by wandering thoughts, but, forgetting all else, let us see and hear Thee. Renew our spirits; kindle in us Thy light, that it may shine within us, and our hearts may burn in love and adoration towards Thee. Let Thy Holy Spirit dwell in us continually, and make us Thy temples and sanctuary, and fill us with Divine love and light and life, with devout and heavenly thoughts, with comfort and strength, with joy and peace. Amen._--Johann Arndt, 1555. Tenth Week, Second Day Many came into the Christian life because they needed conquering power in their struggle against sin. They were told that absolute victory could be theirs through Christ, and they set their hearts on that in ardent hope and expectation. But they are disappointed. That they have been helped they would not deny, but they find that the battle with besetting sin is a running fight; it has not been concluded by a final and resounding victory. This seems to them a denial of what Christian preachers and Christian hymns have promised, and perhaps it is. Hymns and preachers are not infallible. Christian experience, however, is plainly aligned against their disappointment. Some men under the power of Christ are immediately transformed so that an old sin becomes thenceforth utterly distasteful; even the desire for it is banished altogether. But a great preacher, only recently deceased, no less really under the power of Christ, had all his life to fight a taste for drink which once had mastered him. His battle never ceased. His victory consisted not in the elimination of his appetite, but in abiding power to keep up the struggle, to refuse subjugation to it, and at last gloriously to fall on sleep, admired and loved by his people who had seen in him steadfast, unconquerable will, sustained by faith. To have done with a sinful appetite in one conclusive victory is glorious; but we must not demand it as a price of keeping faith. Perhaps our victory must come through the kind of patient persistence which James the Apostle evidently knew. =Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations; knowing that the proving of your faith worketh patience. And let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing.= =But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting: for he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord; a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.--James 1:2-8.= _O Lord God Almighty, who givest power to the faint, and increasest strength to them that have no might; without Thee we can do nothing, but by Thy gracious assistance we are enabled for the performance of every duty laid upon us. Lord of power and love, we come, trusting in Thine almighty strength, and Thine infinite goodness, to ask from Thee what is wanting in ourselves; even that grace which shall help us such to be, and such to do, as Thou wouldst have us. O our God, let Thy grace be sufficient for us, and ever present with us, that we may do all things as we ought. We will trust in Thee, in whom is everlasting strength. Be Thou our Helper, to carry us on beyond our own strength, and to make all that we think, and speak, and do, acceptable in Thy sight; through Jesus Christ. Amen._--Benjamin Jenks, 1646. Tenth Week, Third Day =Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul: He guideth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.= =--Psalm 23:1-4.= What expectations are awakened by such a passage! Many have come into the Christian life because in experience they have found that "it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." They wanted a Guide in the mysterious pilgrimage of life, and in the words of hymns like, "He leadeth me, O blessed thought!" they saw the promise of a God-conducted experience. But they are disappointed. They have the same old puzzles to face about what they ought to do; they have no divine illumination that clears up in advance their uncertainty as to the wisdom of their choices; they are not vividly aware of any guidance from above to save them from the perplexities which their companions face about conduct and career. Of course part of their difficulty is due to false expectation. Not even Paul or John was given mechanical guidance, infallible and unmistakable; they never had a syllabus of all possible emergencies with clear directions as to what should be done in every case; they were guided through their normal faculties made sensitive to divine suggestion, and doubtless they never could clearly distinguish between their thought and their inspirations. Divine guidance, did not save them from puzzling perplexities and unsure decisions. But it did give them certainty that they were in God's hands; that he had hold of the reins behind their human grasp; that when they did wisely and prayerfully the best they knew, he would use it somehow to his service. And so far as the vivid consciousness of being guided is concerned, that probably came _in retrospect_; when they saw how the road came out, they agreed that God's hand must have been in the journey. Such an experience it is reasonable to expect and possible to have. _O God our Lord, the stay of all them that put their trust in Thee, wherever Thou leadest we would go, for Thy ways are perfect wisdom and love. Even when we walk through the dark valley, Thy light can shine into our hearts and guide us safely through the night of sorrow. Be Thou our Friend, and we need ask no more in heaven or earth, for Thou art the Comfort of all who trust in Thee, the Help and Defence of all who hope in Thee. O Lord, we would be Thine; let us never fall away from Thee. We would accept all things without murmuring from Thy hand, for whatever Thou dost is right. Blend our wills with Thine, and then we need fear no evil nor death itself, for all things must work together for our good. Lord, keep us in Thy love and truth, comfort us with Thy light, and guide us by Thy Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen._--S. Weiss, 1738. Tenth Week, Fourth Day Many folk grow up into the Christian life, and so interpret the love of God that they expect from him affectionate mothering; they look to him to keep them from trouble. In childhood, sheltered from life's tragic incidents, this expectation was more or less realized; but now in maturity they are disappointed. God has not saved them from trouble; he has not dealt with them in maternal tenderness. Rather Job's complaint to God is on their lips: =I cry unto thee, and thou dost not answer me: I stand up, and thou gazest at me. Thou art turned to be cruel to me; With the might of thy hand thou persecutest me....= =Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? Was not my soul grieved for the needy? When I looked for good, then evil came; And when I waited for light, there came darkness. My heart is troubled, and resteth not; Days of affliction are come upon me.= =--Job 30:20, 21; 25-27.= One such disappointed spirit says that in youth, even if she hurt her finger, she was told to pray to God and he would take away the bruise; but now life does not seem to be directed by that kind of a God at all. It isn't! A pregnant source of lost faith is to be found in this unscriptural presentation of God's love. In Scripture God's love for his people and their tragic suffering are put side by side, and the Cross where the well-beloved Son is crucified is typical of the whole Book's assertion that God does not keep his children from trouble. Sometimes he leads them into it; and always he lets the operation of his essential laws sweep on, so that disease and accident and death are no respecters of character. When Ananias was sent with God's message to the newly converted Paul, that greeting into the Christian life concerned "how many things he must suffer" (Acts 9:16). Whatever else our faith must take into account, this is an unescapable fact: we are seeking the impossible when we ask that our lives be arranged on the basis that we shall not face trouble. Faith means a conquering confidence that good will, a purpose of eternal love, runs through the whole process. It says, not apart from suffering, but in the face of it: "I'm apt to think the man That could surround the sum of things, and spy The heart of God and secrets of his empire, Would speak but love--with him the bright result Would change the hue of intermediate scenes, And make one thing of all Theology." _Almighty God to whom all things belong, whose is light and darkness, whose is good and evil, Master of all things, Lord of all; who hast so ordered it, that life from the beginning shall be a struggle throughout the course, and even to the end; so guide and order that struggle within us, that at last what is good in us may conquer, and all evil be overcome, that all things may be brought into harmony, and God may be all in all. So do Thou guide and govern us, that every day whatsoever betide us, some gain to better things, some more blessed joy in higher things may be ours, that so we, though but weaklings, may yet, God-guided, go from strength to strength, until at last, delivered from that burden of the flesh, through which comes so much struggling, we may enter into the land of harmony and of eternal peace. Hear us, of Thy mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen._--George Dawson, 1877. Tenth Week, Fifth Day =Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ.--Eph. 4:13-15.= Many came into the Christian life familiar with such an idea of growth. They expected the new life to be an enlarging experience, with new vistas, deepening satisfactions, increasing certitude. If at the beginning the Christian way did not content them, they blamed their immaturity for the unsatisfactory experience; they appealed to the days ahead for fuller light. But they are disappointed. They have not grown. The most they can claim is that they are stationary; the haunting suspicion cannot altogether be avoided that their faith is dwindling and their fervor burning down. This difficulty is not strange--with many folk it is inevitable; for they have never grasped the fact that the Christian life, like all life whatsoever, is law-abiding, and that to expect effects without cause is vain. That a Christian experience has begun with promise does not mean that it will magically continue; that the spirit will naturally drift into an enlarging life. An emotional conversion, like a flaming meteor, may plunge into a man's heart, and soon cool off, leaving a dead, encysted stone. But to have a real life in God, that begins like a small but vital acorn and grows like an aspiring oak, one must obey the laws that make such increasing experience possible. To keep fellowship with God unimpeded by sin, uninterrupted by neglect; to think habitually as though God were, instead of casually believing that he is; to practice love continually until love grows real; and to arrange life's program conscientiously as though the doing of God's will were life's first business--such things alone make spiritual growth a possibility. _We desire to confess, O Lord, that we have not lived according to our promises, nor according to the thoughts and intents of our hearts. We have felt the gravitation of things that drew us downward from things high and holy. We have followed right things how feebly! Weak are we to resist the attraction of evils that lurk about the way of goodness; and we are conscious that we walk in a vain show. We behold and approve Thy law, but find it hard to obey; and our obedience is of the outside, and not of the soul and of the spirit, with heartiness and full of certainty. We rejoice that Thou art a Teacher patient with Thy scholars, and that Thou art a Father patient with Thy children. Thou art a God of long-suffering goodness, and of tender mercies, and therefore we are not consumed._ _And now we beseech of Thee, O Thou unwearied One, that Thou wilt inspire us with a heavenly virtue. Lift before us the picture of what we should be and what we should do, and maintain it in the light, that we may not rub it out in forgetfulness; that we may be able to keep before ourselves our high calling in Christ Jesus. And may we press forward, not as they that have attained or apprehended; may we press toward the mark, for the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus, with new alacrity, with growing confidence, and with more and more blessedness of joy and peace in the soul. Amen._--Henry Ward Beecher. Tenth Week, Sixth Day The Christian experience which disappoints its possessor by lack of growth is common, because so many leave the idea of growth vague and undefined. They expect in general to grow, but in what direction, to what describable results, they never stop to think. If we ran our other business as thoughtlessly, with as little determinate planning and discipline, as we manage our Christian living, any progress would be impossible. What wonder that as Christians we often resemble the child who fell from bed at night, and explained the accident by saying, "I must have gone to sleep too near the place where I got in"! Growth is always in definite directions, and folk will do well at times, without morbid self-examination, to forecast their desired courses. Becoming Christians from motives of fear, as many do, we should press on to a fellowship with God in which fear vanishes in divine friendship and cooperation. Choosing the Christian life for self-centered reasons, because it can do great things for us, we should press on to glory in it as a Cause on which the welfare of the race depends and for which we willingly make sacrifice. Beginning with narrow ideas of service to our friends and neighborhood, we should press on to genuine interest in the world-field, in international fraternity, and in Christ's victory over all mankind. Such definite lines of progress we well may set before us. And a life that does grow, so that each new stage of maturing experience finds deeper levels and greater heights, is never disappointing; it is life become endlessly interesting and worth while. =Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you: only, whereunto we have attained, by that same rule let us walk.--Phil. 3:12-16.= _Our Father, we pray Thee that we may use the blessings Thou hast given us, and never once abuse them. We would keep our bodies enchanted still with handsome life, wisely would we cultivate the intellect which Thou hast throned therein, and we would so live with conscience active and will so strong that we shall fix our eye on the right, and, amid all the distress and trouble, the good report and the evil, of our mortal life, steer straightway there, and bate no jot of human heart or hope. We pray Thee that we may cultivate still more these kindly hearts of ours, and faithfully perform our duty to friend and acquaintance, to lover and beloved, to wife and child, to neighbor and nation, and to all mankind. May we feel our brotherhood to the whole human race, remembering that nought human is strange to our flesh but is kindred to our soul. Our Father, we pray that we may grow continually in true piety, bringing down everything which would unduly exalt itself, and lifting up what is lowly within us, till, though our outward man perish, yet our inward man shall be renewed day by day, and within us all shall be fair and beautiful to Thee, and without us our daily lives useful, our whole consciousness blameless in Thy sight. Amen._--Theodore Parker. Tenth Week, Seventh Day While some, for reasons such as we have suggested, have made at least a partial failure of the Christian life, and are tempted to feel that their experience is an argument against it, we may turn with confidence to the multitude who have found life with Christ an ineffable blessing. =There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.--Rom. 8:1-6.= Innumerable disciples of Jesus can subscribe to this Pauline testimony, and the center of their gratitude, as of his, is the victory over sin which faith in Christ has given them. The farther they go with him the more wonderful becomes the meaning of his Gospel. What Thomas Fuller, in the seventeenth century, wrote about the Bible, they feel about their whole relationship with Christ: "Lord, this morning I read a chapter in the Bible, and therein observed a memorable passage, whereof I never took notice before. Why now, and no sooner, did I see it? Formerly my eyes were as open, and the letters as legible. Is there not a thin veil laid over Thy Word, which is more rarified by reading, and at last wholly worn away? I see the oil of Thy Word will never leave increasing whilst any bring an empty barrel." As for the consciousness of filial alliance with the God and Father of Jesus, that has been a deepening benediction. How many can take over the dual inscription on an ancient Egyptian temple, as an expression of their own experience! A priest had written, in the name of the Deity, "I am He who was and is and ever shall be, and my veil hath no man lifted." But near at hand, some man of growing life and deepening faith has added: "Veil after veil have we lifted, and ever the Face is more wonderful." _Eternal and Gracious Father, whose presence comforteth like sunshine after rain; we thank Thee for Thyself and for all Thy revelation to us. Our hearts are burdened with thanksgiving at the thought of all Thy mercies; for all the blessings of this mortal life, for health, for reason, for learning, and for love; but far beyond all thought and thankfulness, for Thy great redemption. It was no painless travail that brought us to the birth, it has been no common patience that has borne with us all this while; long-suffering love, and the breaking of the eternal heart alone could reconcile us to the life to which Thou hast ordained us. We have seen the Son of Man sharing our sickness and shrinking not from our shame, we have beheld the Lamb of God bearing the sins of the world, we have mourned at the mysterious passion and stood astonished at the cross of Jesus Christ; and behind all we have had the vision of an altar-throne and one thereon slain from the foundation of the world; heard a voice calling us that was full of tears; seen beyond the veil that was rent, the agony of God._ _O for a thousand tongues to sing the love that has redeemed us. O for a thousand lives that we might yield them all to Thee. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. COMMENT FOR THE WEEK I Hitherto in our studies we have thought of God as the object of our faith. From the beginning, to be sure, we have been using the Master as the Way. The God who is in earnest about immortal personalities is supremely revealed in Jesus Christ. But through Christ's mediation we have been trying to pierce to the Eternal character and purpose; we have been taking Jesus at his word, "He that believeth on me, believeth not on me but on him that sent me" (John 12:44). The meaning of faith for the Christian, however, cannot be left as though Christ were an instrument which God used for his revealing and then thrust aside, a symbol in terms of whom we may poetically picture God. Christ has been for his people more than a transparent pane, itself almost forgettable, through which the divine light shone. His personality has been central and dominant, and when his disciples have most vividly expressed the meaning of their faith they have said that they believed in him. The first Christians whose experience is enshrined in the New Testament did not deal with faith in God alone. They adored Jesus; they were illimitably thankful to him; they rejoiced to call themselves his bondservants and to suffer for him; they claimed him as a brother, but they acknowledged him their Lord as well; and they bowed before him with inexpressible devotion. "They all set him in the same incomparable place. They all acknowledged to him the same immeasurable debt." One need not read far in the New Testament to see why these first disciples so adored their Lord. He was their Savior. They called him by many other names--Messiah, _Logos_, Son of Man, and Son of God--in their endeavor to do justice to his work and character, but one name shines among all the rest and swings them about it like planets round a sun. He is the Savior. From the annunciation to Joseph, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21), to the New Song of the Apocalypse (Rev. 5:5-13), the New Testament is written around the central theme of saviorhood. These first disciples were vividly aware of an abysmal need, which had been met in Christ, a great peril from which through him they had escaped; and throughout the New Testament one never loses the accent of astonished gratitude, from folk who were once slaves and now are free, who from victims have been turned to victors. When Wilberforce's long campaign for the freeing of British slaves was at its climax, the population of Jamaica lined the shore for days awaiting the ship that should bring news of Parliament's decision. And when from a boat's prow the messenger cried "Freedom," the island rang with the thanksgiving of the liberated. Such rejoicing one hears in the New Testament. The disciples speak of the freedom wherewith Christ has set them free (Gal. 5:1); they say that they were dead and now are made alive (Rom. 6:11-13); once overwhelmed by sin, they now cry, "More than conquerors" (Rom. 8:37). Nor have they any doubt who is the agent or what is the agency of their salvation: Christ is the Savior and faith the means. "This is the victory that hath overcome the world," they cry, "even our faith" (I John 5:4). If we are to understand this attitude of the first disciples toward Christ the Savior, _we must appreciate as they did the peril from which he rescued them_. One cannot understand the meaning of any character who, like Moses, delivered a people from their bondage, unless he deeply feels the importance of the problem to whose solution the man contributed. Moses shines out against the background of a nation's trouble like a star against the midnight sky. When the blackness of the night is gone, the star has vanished, too. The race's deliverers never can retain their brightness in our gratitude unless we keep alive in our remembrance the evil against which they fought. If we would know Moses, we must know Pharaoh; if we would know Wellington, we must know Napoleon. If we are to value truly the great educators, we must estimate aright the blight that ignorance lays on human life. John Howard will be nothing to us, if we do not know the ancient prison system in comparison with which even our modern jails are paradise; and Florence Nightingale will be an empty name, if we cannot imagine the terrors of war without a nurse. Always we must see the stars against the night. Nor is there any other way in which a Christian can keep alive a vital understanding of his Lord. Many modern Christians seem to have lost vision of the problem that Jesus came to solve, of the human peril to whose conquest he made the supreme contribution. They think that the Church has adored Jesus because of a metaphysical theory about him, but all theories concerning Christ have arisen from a previous devotion to him. Or they think that Jesus is adored because he was so uniquely beautiful in character. But while without this his people never would have called him Lord, not on this account chiefly have they looked on him with inexpressible devotion. No one can understand the Christian attitude toward Jesus except in terms of the bondage from which he came to rescue us. There is a human cry that makes his advent meaningful; it is like the night behind the star of Bethlehem. Long ago a Psalmist heard that cry and every age and land and soul has echoed it, "My sins are mightier than I" (Psalm 65:3).[7] II The peril of sin as the innermost problem of human life is in these days obscure to many minds. For one thing, sin has been so continuously preached about, that it seems to some an ecclesiastical question, fit for discussion, it may be, in a church on Sunday, but otherwise not often emerging in ordinary thought. But sin is no specialty of preaching. If a man, forgetting churches and sermons, seriously ponders human life as he knows it actually to be, if he gathers up in his imagination the deepest heartaches of the race, its worst diseases, its most hopeless miseries, its ruined childhood, its dissevered families, its fallen states, its devastated continents, he soon will see that the major cause of all this can be spelled with three letters--sin. To make vivid this peril as the very crux of humanity's problem on the earth, one needs at times to leave behind the customary thoughts and phrases of religion and to seek testimony from sources that the Church frequently forgets. When governments try to build social states where equity and happiness shall reign, their prison systems, their criminal codes, their courts of law loudly advertise that their problem lies in sin. When jurists plan leagues of nations and sign covenants to make the world a more fraternal place, only to find greed, hate, and cruelty demolishing their well-laid schemes, their failure uncovers the crucial problem of man's sin. When philanthropists try to lift from man's bent back the burdens that oppress him, it becomes plain how infinitely their task would be lightened, if it were not for sin. As for literature--where the seers, regardless of religious prejudice, have tried to see into the human heart and truly to report their insights--its witness is overwhelming as to what man's problem is. No great book of creative literature was ever written without sin at the center. Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, Faust, Les Misérables, Romola, The Scarlet Letter--let the list be extended in any direction and to any length! Always the insight of the creative seers reports one inner peril of the race. Sin is no bogey erected by the theologians, no ghost imagined by minds grown morbid with the fear of God. Sin to every seeing eye is the one most real and practical problem of mankind. For another reason this crucial problem is dimly seen by many minds: we do not often use the word about ourselves. The hardest thing that any man can ever say is "I have sinned." We make mistakes, we have foibles of character and conduct, we even fall into error--but we do not often sin. By such devices we avoid the painful consciousness of our inward malady and even the name of our disease is banished from decorous speech. But sin does not go into exile with its name. Sin has many aliases and can swiftly shift its guise to gain a welcome into any company. Sin in the slums is gross and terrible. It staggers down the streets, blasphemes with oaths that can be heard, wallows in vice unmentionable by modest lips. Then some day prosperity may visit it. It moves to a finer residence, seeks the suburbs, or finds domicile on a college campus. It changes all its clothes. No longer is it indecent and obscene. Its speech is mild, its civility is irreproachable. It gathers a company of friends who minister to pleasure and respectability, and the cry of the world's need dies unheard at its peaceful door. It presses its face continually through the pickets of social allowance, like a bad boy who wishes to trespass on forbidden ground but fears the consequence. Its goodness is superficial seeming; at heart it is as bad as it dares to be. It has completely changed its garments, but it is the same sin--indulgent, selfish, and unclean. Sin, as anyone can easily observe, takes a very high polish. Neither by calling sin an ecclesiastical concern nor by covering its presence in ourselves with pleasant euphemisms can we hide its deadly bane in human life. The truth and import of this negative statement become clear and convincing when its positive counterpart is faced. The world needs _goodness_. The one thing in which mankind is poor and for the lack of which great causes lag and noble hopes go unfulfilled is character. With each access of that humanity leaps forward; with the sag of that all else is failure. And the one name for every loss and lack and ruin of character is sin. That is our enemy. Upon the defeat of that all our dearest hopes depend, and in its victory every dream of good that the race has cherished comes to an end. III The urgency of this truth is manifest when we note the consequence of sin in our own lives. No statement from antiquity has accumulated more confirming evidence in the course of the centuries than the Psalmist's cry, "My sins are mightier than I." Let us consider its truth in the light of our experience. Our sins are stronger than we are _in their power to fasten on us a sense of guilt that we cannot shake off_. Sinful pleasures lure us only in _anticipation_, dancing before us like Salome before her uncle, quite irresistible in fascination. Happiness seems altogether to depend upon an evil deed. But on the day that deed, long held in alluring expectation, is actually done--how swift and terrible the alteration in its aspect! It passes from anticipation, through committal, into memory, and it never will be beautiful again. We lock it in remembrance, as in the bloody room of Bluebeard's palace, where the dead things hung; at the thought of it we shrink and yet to it our reminiscence continually is drawn. Something happens in us as automatic as the dropping of a loosened apple from a tree; all the laws of the moral universe conspire to further it and we have no power to prevent: sin becomes guilt. When on a lonely ocean the floating bell-buoys toll, no human hands cause them to ring; the waste of an unpeopled ocean surrounds them everyway. The sea by its own restlessness is ringing its own bells. So tolls remorse in a man's heart and no man can stop it. Our sins are stronger than we are _in their power to become habitual_. If one who steps from an upper window had only the single act to consider, his problem would be simple. He could step or not as he chose. But when one steps from an upper window he finds himself dealing with a power over which his will has no control. Master of his single act, he is not master of the _gravitation_ that succeeds it. Many a youth blithely plays with sin, supposing that separate deeds--which he may do or refrain from as he will--make up the problem. Soon or late he finds that he is dealing with moral laws, built into the structure of the universe as gravitation is--laws which he did not create and whose operation he cannot control. By them with terrific certainty thoughts grow to deeds, deeds to habits, habits to character, character to destiny. At the beginning sin always comes disguised as liberty. Its lure is the seductive freedom which it promises from the trammels of conscience and the authority of law. But every man who ever yet accepted sin's offer of a free, unfettered life, discovered the cheat. Free to do the evil thing, to indulge the baser moods--so men begin, but they end _not free to stop_, bound as slaves to the thing that they were free to do. They have been at liberty to play with a cuttle-fish, and now that the first long arm with its suckers grasps them, and the second arm is waving near, they are not at liberty to get away. Our sins are mightier than we are _in their power to make us tempt our fellows_. When we picture our sinfulness, even to ourselves, we naturally represent our lives assailed by the allurements of evil and passively surrendering. We are the tempted; we pity ourselves because the outward pressure was too strong for the inward braces. We forget that in sin we are not simply the passive subjects of temptation; sin always makes us active tempters of our fellows. No drug fiend ever is content until he wins a comrade in his vice; a thief would have his friends steal, too; a gossip is not satisfied until other lips are tearing reputations into shreds; and vindictiveness is happiest when other hearts as well are lighted with lurid tempers. Sin always is contagious as disease is; the tempted becomes tempter on the instant that he falls. Peter weak, lures Jesus to his weakness, and the Master recognizes the active quality of his disciple's sin; "Get thee behind me, Satan!" (Matt. 16:23). Sin satanizes men and sends them out to seduce their fellows. When, therefore, a sensitive man repents of his evil, he abhors himself--not mildly as a victim, but profoundly as a victimizer. He repents of the way he has played Satan to others, sometimes deliberately, sometimes by the unconscious influence of an unworthy spirit. He remembers the times when his words have poisoned the atmosphere which others breathed, when his tempers have conjured up evil spirits in other hearts, when his attitude has made wrongdoing easy for his friends and family, and well-doing hard. And his desperate helplessness in the face of sin is made most evident when he recalls the irrecoverable injury which lives have suffered and are suffering, hurt, perhaps ruined, by his evil. _Our sins are mightier than we are in their power to bring their natural consequences upon other lives._ The landlord, of whom President Hyde has told, who without disinfection rented to a new family an apartment where a perilous disease had been, is typical of every evil-doer. When the only child of the incoming family fell sick of the disease and died, and the landlord was faced with his guilt, he pleaded his unwillingness to spend the money which the disinfection would have cost. He denied his Lord for ten dollars. Let the law punish him as it can, the crux of his moral problem lies in the fact that however much he may be sorry now, he never can bear all the consequences of his sin. Somewhere there is a childless home bearing part of the result of his iniquity. One who had done a deed like that might well crave death and oblivion. But everyone who ever sinned is in that estate. No man ever succeeded in building around his evil a wall high and thick enough to contain all evil's consequences. They always flow over and seep through; they fall in cruel disaster on those who love us best. One never estimates his sin aright until he sees that no man ever bears all the results of his own evil. Always our sins nail somebody else to a cross; they even "crucify ... the Son of God afresh" (Heb. 6:6). Such is the meaning of the peril against whose background the New Testament believers saw the luminous figure of the Savior. Sin brings men into the debt of a great guilt which they cannot pay and into the bondage of tyrannous habits which they cannot break; it makes men tempting satans to their fellows, and it hurls its results like vitriol across the faces of their family and friends. And when one looks on the lamentable evils of the world at large, its sad inequities, its furious wars, he sees no need to deal delicately with sin or to speak of it in apologetic tones. Sin is, as the New Testament saw it, the central problem of mankind. If anyone has ever come with the supreme contribution to its conquest, the face of the world may well be turned toward him today. In the Christian's faith, such a Savior has come. For if the visitor from Mars who so often has been imagined coming to earth, should come again, and amazed at the churches built, the anthems sung, the service wrought in Jesus' name, should curiously inquire what this character had done to awaken such response, we should have to answer: Jesus of Nazareth made no direct contribution to science or art or government or law--with none of these important realms did he concern himself. Only one thing he did: _he made the indispensable contribution to man's fight for great character against sin_. And because that is man's crucial problem, all science, art, government, and law are under an unpayable indebtedness to him. Because that is man's innermost need, his birthday has become the hinge of history, until one cannot write a letter to his friend without dating his familiar act from the advent of him who came to save us in our struggle for godliness against evil. IV Faith in Christ has a double relationship with the problem of man's sin; it concerns _the basis on which we are to be judged and the strength by which we are to conquer_. Christ has brought to men a gospel of forgiveness and power. With regard to the first--and with the first alone this chapter is concerned--the opinion of many modern men is swift and summary: folk are to be judged by what they do; the output of a man, as of a machine, is the test of him. Until this popular method of judgment is convicted of inadequacy, there is no hope of understanding what Christians have meant by being "saved through faith" (Eph. 2:8). We must see that men are worth more than they _do_. A man's deeds alone are an insufficient basis for judgment, because _motives for the same act may be low or high_. No one can be unaware of the Master's meaning when he speaks of those who do their alms before men to be seen of them (Matt. 6:1ff), or of Paul's when he says, "If I bestow all my goods to feed the poor ... but have not love" (I Cor. 13:3). Some men habitually shine to good advantage by such means; they have the facile gift of putting their best foot forward. Like a store at Christmas time, its finest goods in the window and inferior stock for sale upon the counters, they are infinitely skilful in gaining more credit than their worth deserves. One who has dealt with such folk becomes aware that to estimate an isolated deed is superficial; one must know the motive. A cup of cold water or a widow's penny may awake the Master's spirited approval, and millions rung into the temple treasury by showy Pharisees meet only scorn. Deeds alone are an insufficient basis for judgment because, while we are more than body, _our bodies are the instruments of all that visibly we do_. Many a man in spirit is like a swift mill race, eager for service, but the flesh, a battered mill wheel, ill sustains the spirit's vehemence; it breaks before the shock. One must shut the gates and patch up the wheel, before the spirit, impatient for utterance, may have its way again; and some mill-wheels never can be mended. Says one of Robert Louis Stevenson's biographers: "When a temporary illness lays him on his back, he writes in bed one of his most careful and thoughtful papers, the discourse on 'The Technical Elements in Style.' When ophthalmia confines him to a darkened room, he writes by the diminished light. When after hemorrhage, his right hand has to be held in a sling, he writes some of his 'Child's Garden' with his left hand. When the hemorrhage has been so bad that he dare not speak, he dictates a novel in the deaf and dumb alphabet." When one has lived with handicapped folk, discerning behind the small amount of work the infinite willingness for more, and in the work done a quality that makes quantity seem negligible, he perceives that deeds are no sufficient measure of spiritual value. Only an eye that pierces behind the unwrought work to the _man_, willing while the flesh was weak, can ever estimate how much some spirits are worth. Deeds alone are an insufficient basis for judgment because _men face unequal opportunities_. Some start with one talent, some with ten. The cherished son of a Christian family ought to live a decent life; how favorable his chance! But if a vagrant wharf-rat by some mysterious vision of decency and determination of character makes a man of himself, how much more his credit! The worth of goodness cannot be estimated without knowledge of the struggle which it cost. When one considers the smug, conventional respectability of some, possessing every favorable help to goodness, and the rough but genuine integrity of others who have fought a great fight against crippling handicaps to character, he sees why, in any righteous judgment, the last will be first, as Jesus said, and the first last. Only God, with power to understand what heredity and circumstance some men have faced, what enticements they have met, what a fight they have really waged even when they may have seemed to fail, can tell how much they are worth. "What's done we partly may compute, But know not what's resisted." Judgment based on deeds alone can never truly estimate a man, because in every important decision of our lives an _"unpublished self" finds no expression in our outward act_. Duty is not always clear; at times it seems a labyrinth without a clue. Perplexed, we balance in long deliberation the opposing reasons for this act or that, until, forced to choose, we obtain only a majority vote for the decision. Yet that uncertain majority alone is published in our deed; man's eyes never see the unexpressed protestant minority behind. And when the choice proves wrong, and friends are grieved and enemies condemn and what we did is hateful to ourselves, only one who knows how much we wanted to do right, and who accounts not only the published but the unpublished self can truly estimate our worth. Peter, who denied his Lord, it may be because he wanted the privilege of being near him at the trial, is not the only one who has appealed from the outward aspect of his deed to the inner intention of his heart: "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee" (John 21:17). Moreover, even when we choose aright, _no deed can ever gather into utterance all that is best and deepest in us_. A mother's love is as much greater than any word she speaks or act she does, as the sunshine is greater than the focused point where in a burning glass we gather a ray of it. We are infinitely more than words can utter or deeds express. No adequate judgment, therefore, can rest on deeds alone. A machine may be estimated by its output, but a man is too subtle and profound, his motives and purposes too inexpressible, his temptations and inward struggles too intimate and unrevealed, his possibilities too great to be roughly estimated by his acts alone. "Not on the vulgar mass Called 'work' must sentence pass, Things done, that took the eye and had the price; O'er which, from level stand, The low world laid its hand, Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice: But all, the world's coarse thumb And finger failed to plumb, So passed in making up the main account; All instincts immature, All purposes unsure, That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's amount: Thoughts hardly to be packed Into a narrow act, Fancies that broke through language and escaped; All I could never be, All, men ignored in me, This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped." V If, however, we are to understand the Christian's meaning when he speaks of being saved by faith (Rom. 3:28; 5:1; Gal. 3:24), we need to see not only that men are worth more than they _do_, but as well that they are worth more than they _are_. Some things always start large and grow small; some things always start small and grow large; but a man may do either, and his value is determined not so much by the position he is in, as it is by the direction in which he is moving. Even of stocks upon the market in their rise and fall this truth is clear. The figure at which a stock is quoted is important, but the meaning of that figure cannot be understood unless one knows whether it was reached on the way up or the way down. How much more is any static judgment of a man impossible! One starts at the summit, with endowments and opportunities that elevate him far above his fellows, and frittering away his chance, drifts down. Another, beginning at the bottom, by dint of resolute endeavor climbs upward, achieving character in the face of odds before which ordinary men succumb. Somewhere these two men will pass, and, statically judged, will be of equal worth. But one is drifting down; one climbing up. The innermost secret of their spiritual value lies in that hidden fact. _When, therefore, one would judge a man, he must pierce behind the deeds that he can see, behind the present quality that he can estimate, back to the thing the man has set his heart upon, to the direction of his life, to the ideal which masters him--that is, to his faith._ There lies the potential future of the man, his ultimate worth, the seed of his coming fruit. If one has eyes to see what that faith is, he knows the man and what the man is bound to be. When, therefore, men set their hearts on Christ, lay hold on him by faith as life's Master and its goal, that faith opens the door to God's forgiveness. In Augustine's luminous phrase, "The Christian already has in Christ what he hopes for in himself." He is Christ's brother in the filial life with God, young, immature, undeveloped--but the issue of that life is the measure of the stature of Christ's fulness. God does not demand the end when only the beginning is possible, does not scorn the dawn because it is not noon. He welcomes the first movement of man's spirit toward him, not for the fruit which yet is unmatured, but for the seed which still is in the germ; he takes the will for the deed, because the will is earnest; he sees the journey's end in Christlike character, when at the road's beginning the pilgrim takes the first step by faith. There is no fiction here; God ought to forgive and welcome such a man. All good parents act so toward their children. This divine grace corresponds with truth, for a man is _worth_ the central, dominant faith, that determines life's direction and decides its goal. And the Gospel that God so deals with man, announced in the words of Jesus, illustrated in his life, sealed in his death, has been a boon to the race that puts all men under an immeasurable debt to Christ. VI This method of judgment which all good men use with their friends and families has been often disbelieved, in its Christian formulations, because it has been misrepresented and misunderstood. But human life, far outside religious boundaries, continually illustrates the wisdom and righteousness of so judging men by faith. Roswell McIntyre deserted during the Civil War; he was caught, court-martialled, and condemned to death. He stood with no defense for his deed, no just complaint against the penalty, and with nothing to plead save shame for his act, and faith that, with another chance, he could play the man. On that, the last recourse of the condemned, President Lincoln pardoned him. "EXECUTIVE MANSION, Oct. 4, 1864. Upon condition that Roswell McIntyre of Co. E, 6th Reg't of New York Cavalry, returns to his Regiment and faithfully serves out his term, making up for lost time, or until otherwise discharged, he is fully pardoned for any supposed desertion heretofore committed, and this paper is his pass to go to his regiment. ABRAHAM LINCOLN." Was such clemency an occasion for lax character? The answer is written across the face of Mr. Lincoln's letter in the archives: "Taken from the body of R. McIntyre at the Battle of Five Forks, Va., 1865." Five Forks was the last cavalry action of the war; McIntyre went through to the finish. Any one who knows the experience of being forgiven understands the motives that so remake a pardoned deserter. The relief from the old crushing condemnation, the joy of being trusted again beyond desert, the gratitude that makes men rather die than be untrue a second time, the unpayable indebtedness from which ambition springs, "whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto him" (II Cor. 5:9)--this is the moral consequence of being pardoned. Goodness so begotten reaches deep and high, has in it conscious joy and hope, feels vividly the value of its moral victories, possesses great motives for sacrificial service in the world. The Apocalypse is right. There is a song in heaven that angels cannot sing. Only men like McIntyre will know how to sing it. The vital and transforming faith that saves is always better presented in a story than in an argument, and in the Scripture the best description of it is Jesus' parable of the Prodigal. As the Master drew that portrait of life in the far country, all the watching Pharisees thought that such a boy was lost. The Prodigal himself must have guessed that his case was hopeless. His friends, his character, his reputation, his will were gone, and in the inner court-room of his soul with maddening iteration he heard sentence passed, Guilty. Only one hope remained. If he was unspoiled enough by the far country's pitiless brutality to think that at home they might bear no grudge, might find forgiveness possible, might offer him another chance as a hired servant, if he could think that perhaps his father even _wanted_ him to come home, then there was hope. With such slender faith the boy turned back from the far country. He had the same lack of character, the same weakened will, the same evil habits. Only one difference had as yet been wrought. Before, he had been facing toward swine, now he was facing toward home. The _direction_ of his life was changed by faith. And when the father saw him, homeward bound, "_while he was yet afar off,_" forgiveness welcomed him. No pardon could unload from the lad's life all the fearful consequences of his sin. As long as he lived, the scars on health, repute, and usefulness were there. But forgiveness could take the sin away _as a barrier to personal friendship with the father_; the old relationships of mutual confidence, helpfulness, and love could be restored; the glorious chance could be bestowed of fighting through the battle for character, not hopelessly in the far country, but victoriously at home. One of the chief glories of the Gospel is that it has so reclaimed the waste of humanity, made sons of Prodigals and patriots of McIntyres. Its Pauls were persecutors, its Augustines the slaves of lust, and its rank and file men and women to whom Christ's message has meant forgiveness, reinstatement, a new chance, and boundless hope. Scientific business conserves its waste and makes invaluable by-products from what once was slag; but Christ has been the conserver of mankind. The lost and sick have been returned to sanity and wholesomeness and service; humanity has been enriched beyond computation, with Bunyans and Goughs and Jerry McAuleys. Tolstoi's simple confession in "My Religion" is typical of multitudes: "Five years ago I came to believe in Christ's teaching, and my life suddenly became changed: I ceased desiring what I had wished before, and began to desire what I had not wished before. What formerly had seemed good to me appeared bad, and what had seemed bad appeared good.... The direction of my life, my desires became different: what was good and bad changed places." Tolstoi had indulged, as he acknowledges, in every form of unmentionable vice practiced in Russia; and yet forgiven, reinstated, transformed, he was carried to his burial by innumerable Russian peasants with banners flying. Where Christ's influence has vitally come, the loss and wreck and flotsam of the moral world have been so reclaimed to character and power. At the beginning of the Christian era, a few desolate sand lagoons lay off the Paduan coast of Italy. There the wild fowl made their nests; the lonely skiffs of fishermen threaded the reedy channels; the storms washed the shifting and uncertain sands. And possibly to this day the lagoons would have been thus barren and deserted, had not the Huns swept down on Italy. The Huns made the building of Venice necessary. They did not intend so fair a consequence of their terrific onslaughts. Their thoughts were on death and pillage. But because they came, the Italians fled to the lagoons, built there, behind the barricade of restless waters, their gleaming city, developed there the commerce that combed the world, built the Doge's palace as the abode of justice, and raised St. Mark's in praise of God. Venice was the city of Salvation; it rose resplendent because the Huns had come. So Christ turns the ruin of sin to victory, and builds in human life character, recovered and triumphant. If his Gospel can have its way, a spiritual Venice will arise to make the onslaught of the moral Huns an evil with a glorious issue. What wonder that inexpressible devotion has been felt for him by all his people? [7] "Iniquities prevail against me." CHAPTER XI Faith in Christ the Savior: Power DAILY READINGS As we saw in the last week's study, Christian faith has always centered around the person of Jesus himself. This week let us consider some testimonies from the New Testament as to the meaning and effect of this definitely Christian faith. Eleventh Week, First Day It must be clear to any observing mind that the world does not suffer from lack of faith. There is faith in plenty; everybody is exercising it on some object. In the Bible we read of folk who "trust in vanity" (Isa. 59:4), who "trust in lying words" (Jer. 7:4), or "in the abundance of riches" (Psalm 52:7); and the Master exclaims over the difficulty which those who "trust in riches" have when they try to enter the Kingdom of God (Mark 10:24). Faith, then, is a necessary faculty of the soul: the power by which we commit ourselves to any object that wins our devotion and commands our allegiance. No man avoids its use, and men differ only in the objects toward which their faith is directed. Of all the tragedies caused by the misuse of human powers, none is more frequent and disastrous than the ruin that follows the misuse of faith. With this necessary and powerful faculty in our possession, capable of use on things high or low, to what determination can a man more reasonably set himself than this?--_since I must and do use faith on something, I will choose the highest_. It is with such a rational and worthy choice that the Christian turns to Jesus. He is the best we know; we will direct our faith toward him. This does not mean that in the end our faith does not rest on God; it does, for Jesus is the Way, the Door, as he said, and faith in him moves up through him to the One who sent him. As Paul put it, "Such confidence have we through Christ to God-ward" (II Cor. 3:4). But faith in Jesus is the most vivid, true, and compelling way we have of committing ourselves to the highest and best we know. In the light of this truth, we can understand why John calls such faith the supreme "work" which God demands of us. =Work not for the food which perisheth, but for the food which abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him the Father, even God, hath sealed. They said therefore unto him, What must we do, that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.--John 6:27-29.= _Gracious Father! Thou hast revealed Thyself gloriously in Jesus Christ, the Son of Thy love. In Him we have found Thee, or rather, are found of Thee. By His life, by His words and deeds, by His trials and sufferings, we are cleansed from sin and rise into holiness. For in Him Thou hast made disclosure of Thine inmost being and art drawing us into fellowship with Thy life. As we stand beneath His Cross, or pass with Him into the Garden of His Agony, it is Thy heart that we see unveiled, it is the passion of Thy love yearning over the sinful, the wandering, seeking that it may save them. No man hath seen Thee at any time, but out from the unknown has come the Son of Man to declare Thee. And now we know Thy name. When we call Thee Father, the mysteries of existence are not so terrible, our burdens weigh less heavily upon us, our sorrows are touched with joy. Thy Son has brought the comfort that we need, the comfort of knowing that in all our afflictions Thou art afflicted, that in Thy grief our lesser griefs are all contained. Let the light which shines in His face, shine into our hearts, to give us the knowledge of Thy glory, to scatter the darkness of fear, of wrong, of remorse, of foreboding, and to constrain our lives to finer issues of peace and power and spiritual service. And this prayer we offer in Christ's name. Amen._--Samuel McComb. Eleventh Week, Second Day The New Testament clearly reveals the experience that _forgiveness_ comes in answer to such self-committing faith in Christ as we spoke of yesterday. =And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that even forgiveth sins? And he said unto the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.--Luke 7:48-50.= In popular thought forgiveness is often shallowly conceived. It is thought to be an easy agreement to forget offense, a good-natured waving aside of injuries committed as though the evil done were of no consequence. But forgiveness is really a most profound and searching experience; and it takes two persons, each sacrificially desirous of achieving it, before it can be perfected. In the pardoner, the passion for saviorhood must submerge all disgust at the sin in love for the sinner; and in the pardoned, desire for a new life must create sacrificial willingness to hate and forsake the evil and humbly accept a new chance. It follows, therefore, that no one can forgive another, no matter how willing he may be to do so, unless the recipient fulfils the conditions that make pardon possible. Forgiveness is a mutual operation; no forgetting or good will on the part of one person is forgiveness at all; and the attitude in the forgiven man that makes the reception of pardon possible is negatively penitence and positively faith. Any experience of human forgiveness reveals that the offender must detest his sin and turn from it in trust and self-commitment to claim the mercy and choose the ideals of the one whom he has wronged. That God in Christ is willing to forgive is the Christian Gospel; and if we go unforgiven it is for lack of faith. That is the hand which grasps the proffered pardon. _Almighty God, whose salvation is ever nigh to them that seek Thee, we think of our little lives, of their wayward ways, and we remember Thee and are troubled. Our days pass from us and we are heated with strifes, and troubled and restless, with mean temptations and fugitive desires. We spend our years in much carelessness, and too seldom do we think of the greatness of our trust and the wonder and mystery of our being. We are vexed with vain dreams and trivial desires. We live our days immersed in petty passions. We strain after poor uncertainties. We pursue the shadows of this passing life and continually are we visited by our own self-contempt and bitterness. We have known the better and have chosen the worse. We have felt the glory and power of a higher life and yet have surrendered to ignoble temptations and to satisfactions that end with the hour._ _Almighty Father, of Thy goodness do Thou save our lives, so smitten with passion, from the failure and misery that else must come to us. Be with us in our hours of self-communion, and inspire us with good purpose and service to Thee. Be with us when heart and flesh faint, and there seems no help or safety near us. Be with us when we are carried into the dry and lonely places, seeking a rest that is not in them. Sustain us, we beseech Thee, under the burden of our many errors and failures. From the confused aims and purposes of our lives may there be brought forth, by the aid of Thy Spirit, and the teaching and discipline of life, lives constant and assured in service and obedience to Thee. Amen._--John Hunter. Eleventh Week, Third Day It is clear in the New Testament that all the _free movements of divine help_ depend on the presence of man's faith. Words like these are continually on the lips of Jesus: "Be of good cheer; thy faith hath made thee whole" (Matt. 9:22); "According to your faith be it done unto you" (Matt. 9:29); "Great is thy faith: be it done unto thee even as thou wilt" (Matt. 15:28). Human life as a whole confirms the truth which such words suggest: _Man's faith is always the limit of his blessing; he never obtains more than he believes in._ Men live in a world of unappropriated truth and unused power; and the blessings of truth and power can be reached only by ventures of faith. Even electricity withholds its service from a man who, like Abdul Hamid, has not faith enough to try. In personal relationships this fact becomes even more clear. Whatever gifts of good will may be waiting in the heart of any man, we are shut out from them forever, unless we have the grace of faith in the man and open-hearted self-commitment to him. As the Christian Gospel sees man's case, the central tragedy lies here: that God in Christ is willing to do so much more in and for and through us than we have faith enough to let him do. Our unbelief is not a matter of theoretical concern alone; it practically disables God, it handicaps his operation in the world, it is an "evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God" (Heb. 3:12). The divine will is forced to wait upon the lagging faith of man. How often the Master exclaimed, "O ye of little faith!" (Matt. 6:30; 8:26). And the reason for his lament was eminently practical. =And coming into his own country he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house. And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.--Matt. 13:54-58.= _Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we desire to come to Thee in all humility and sincerity. We are sinful; pardon Thou us. We are ignorant; enlighten Thou our darkness. We are weak; inspire us with strength. In these times of doubt, uncertainty, and trial, may we ever feel conscious of Thine everlasting light. Soul of our soul! Inmost Light of truth! Manifest Thyself unto us amid all shadows. Guide us in faith, hope, and love, until the perfect day shall dawn, and we shall know as we are known._ _Almighty God, teach us, we pray Thee, by blessed experience, to apprehend what was meant of old when Jesus Christ was called the power of God unto salvation, for we stand in need of salvation from sin, from doubt, from weakness, from craven fear; we cannot save ourselves; we are creatures of a day, short-sighted, and too often driven about by every wind of passion and opinion. We need to be stayed upon a higher strength. We need to lay hold of Thee. Manifest Thyself unto us, our Father, as the Saviour of our souls, and deliver us from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Amen._--John Hunter. Eleventh Week, Fourth Day Not only is man's power to appropriate the divine blessing dependent on faith; in the experience of the New Testament man's power of achievement has the same source. =Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast it out? And he saith unto them, Because of your little faith: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.--Matt. 17:19, 20.= Mountains are symbols of difficulty, and the Master's affirmation here that faith alone can remove them is clearly confirmed in human experience. It may seem at times as though faith, compared with the obstacles, were like a minute mustard seed before the ranges of Lebanon, but faith can overcome even that disproportion in size. Great leaders always must have such confidence. Listen to Mazzini: "The people lack faith ... the faith that arouses the multitudes, faith in their own destiny, in their own mission, and in the mission of the epoch; the faith that combats and prays; the faith that enlightens and bids men advance fearlessly in the ways of God and humanity, with the sword of the people in their hand, the religion of the people in their heart, and the future of the people in their soul." In any great movement for human good, the ultimate and deciding question always is: How many people can be found who have faith enough to believe in the cause and its triumph? When enough folk have faith, any campaign for human welfare can be won. Without faith men "collapse into a yielding mass of plaintiveness and fear"; with faith they move mountains. And when men have faith in Christ as God's Revealor--faith, not formal and abstract, but real and vital--they begin to feel about the word "impossible" as Mirabeau did, "Never mention to me again that blockhead of a word!" _O God, our Father, our souls are made sick by the sight of hunger and want and nakedness; of little children bearing on their bent backs the burden of the world's work; of motherhood drawn under the grinding wheels of modern industry; and of overburdened manhood, with empty hands, stumbling and falling._ _Help us to understand that it is not Thy purpose to do away with life's struggle, but that Thou desirest us to make the conditions of that struggle just and its results fair._ _Enable us to know that we may bring this to pass only through love and sympathy and understanding; only as we realize that all are alike Thy children--the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak, the fortunate and the unfortunate. And so, our Father, give us an ever-truer sense of human sisterhood; that with patience and steadfastness we may do our part in ending the injustice that is in the land, so that all may rejoice in the fruits of their toil and be glad in Thy sunshine._ _Keep us in hope and courage even amid the vastness of the undertaking and the slowness of the progress, and sustain us with the knowledge that our times are in Thy hand. Amen._--Helen Ring Robinson. Eleventh Week, Fifth Day Faith in Christ has always been consummated, in the experience to which the New Testament introduces us, in an inward transformation of life. =I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.--Gal. 2:20.= Such conversion of life is the normal result of a vital fellowship whose bond is faith. For one thing, a man at once begins to care a great deal more about his own quality when he believes in Christ and in Christ's love. "What a King stoops to pick up from the mire cannot be a brass farthing, but must be a pearl of great price." To be loved by anyone is to enter into a new estimate of one's possible value; to be loved by God in Christ is to come into an experience where our possible value makes us alike ashamed of what we are and jubilant over what we may become. We begin saying with Irenæus, "Jesus Christ became what we are that he might make us what he is." And then, faith, ripening into fellowship, opening the life sensitively to the influence of the friend, issues in a character infused by the friend's character. He lives in us. Such transformation of life does not happen in a moment; it requires more than instantaneous exposure to take the Lord's picture on a human heart; but time-exposure will do it, and "Christ in us" be alike our hope of glory and our secret of influence. _O Father Eternal, we thank Thee for the new and living way into Thy presence made for us in Christ; the way of trust, sincerity, and sacrifice. Beneath His cross we would take our stand, in communion with His Spirit would we pray, in fellowship with the whole Church of Christ we would seek to know Thy mind and will._ _We desire to know all the fulness of Christ, to appropriate His unsearchable riches, to feed on His humanity whereby Thou hast become to us the bread of our inmost souls and the wine of life, to become partakers of Thy nature, share Thy glory, and become one with Thee through Him._ _Give unto us fellowship with His sufferings and insight into the mystery of His cross, so that we may be indeed crucified with Him, be raised to newness of life, and be hidden with Christ in Thee._ _We desire to make thankful offering of ourselves as members of the body of Christ; in union with all the members may we obey our unseen Head, so that the Body may be undivided, and Thy love, and healing power, and very Self may be incarnate on the earth in one Holy Universal Church. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. Eleventh Week, Sixth Day With faith in Christ so seen as the secret of divine forgiveness and assistance, of achieving power and inward transformation, there can be little surprise at the solicitude which the New Testament shows concerning the disciples' faith. We find this urgent interest in Paul: =Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone; and sent Timothy, our brother and God's minister in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith; ... night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face, and may perfect that which is lacking in your faith.--I Thess. 3:1, 2, 10.= =We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, even as it is meet, for that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the love of each one of you all toward one another aboundeth.--II Thess. 1:3.= And one of the most appealing revelations of Jesus' habit in prayer concerns his supplication for Peter's faith. =Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat: but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not; and do thou, when once thou hast turned again, establish thy brethren.--Luke 22:31, 32.= In all such passages one feels at once that faith is used as Paul uses it in the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians--a comrade and ally of hope and love. It is not a matter of dogma and does not move in the realm of opinion, although ideas of the first magnitude may be involved in it. It is primarily a bond of divine fellowship, which at once keeps the life receptive to all that God would do for the man and moves the man to do all that he should for God. If that fails, even Peter would fall in ruins, and the expression is none too strong, when in I Timothy the failure of such vital faith is described as a "shipwreck" (I Tim. 1:19). But when by faith the consciousness of God has grown clear, and alliance with him is so real that we stop arguing about it and begin counting on it in daily living, the increment of power and confidence and stability which a man may win is quite incalculable. _O Thou plenteous Source of every good and perfect gift, shed abroad the cheering light of Thy seven-fold grace over our hearts. Yea, Spirit of love and gentleness, we most humbly implore Thy assistance. Thou knowest our faults, our failings, our necessities, the dulness of our understanding, the waywardness of our affections, the perverseness of our will. When, therefore, we neglect to practice what we know, visit us, we beseech Thee, with Thy grace, enlighten our minds, rectify our desires, correct our wanderings, and pardon our omissions, so that by Thy guidance we may be preserved from making shipwreck of faith, and keep a good conscience, and may at length be landed safe in the haven of eternal rest; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen._--Anselm, 1033. Eleventh Week, Seventh Day Some who gladly acknowledge the surprising results which faith can work in life, do not see any great importance in the object to which faith attaches itself. They say that faith is merely a psychological attitude, and that faith in one thing does as well as faith in another. Folk are healed, they point out, by all kinds of faith, whether directed toward fetishes, or saints' relics, or metaphysical theories, or God himself. It is the faith, they say, and not the object, which does the work. There is a modicum of truth in this. Faith, by its very power to organize man's faculties and give them definite set and drive, is itself a master force, and if a man has no interest beyond the achievement of some immediate end, like conquering nervous qualms or getting strength for a special task, he may achieve that end by believing in almost anything, provided he believes hard enough. _But to believe in some things may debauch the intelligence and lower the moral standards, even while it achieves a practical end._ To win power for a business task by believing in a palm-reader's predictions is entirely possible, but it is a poor bargain; a man sells out his intelligence for cash. The object in which a man believes does make an immense difference in the effect of his faith on his _mind_ and _character_. An African savage may gain courage for an ordeal by believing in his fetish--but how immeasurable is the abyss between the meaning of that faith for the whole of life and the meaning of a Christian's faith in God! We have no business, for the sake of immediate gain, to allow our faith to rest in anything lower than the highest. =Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ: whom not having seen ye love; on whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.--I Peter 1:3-9.= _Gracious Father of our spirits, in the stillness of this worship may we grow more sure of Thee, who art often closest to us when we feel Thou hast forsaken us. The toil and thought of daily life leave us little time to think of Thee; but may the silence of this holy place make us aware that though we may forget Thee, Thou dost never forget us. Perhaps we have grown careless in contact with common things, duty has lost its high solemnities, the altar fires have gone untended, Thy light within our minds has been distrusted or ignored. As we withdraw awhile from all without, may we find Thee anew within, until thought grows reverent again, all work is hallowed, and faith reconsecrates all common things as sacraments of love._ _If pride of thought and careless speculation have made us doubtful of Thee, recover for us the simplicity that understands Thou art never surer than when we doubt Thee, that through all failures of faith Thou becomest clearer, and so makest the light that once we walked by seem but darkness. Help us then to rest our faith on the knowledge of our imperfection, our consciousness of ignorance, our sense of sin, and see in them shadows cast by the light of Thy drawing near._ _If Thy purposes have crossed our own and Thy will has broken ours, enable us to trust the wisdom of Thy perfect love and find Thy will to be our peace._ _So lead us back to meet Thee where we may have missed Thee. Amen._--W. E. Orchard. COMMENT FOR THE WEEK I The forgiveness which the Gospel offers--reinstating a man in the personal relationships against which he sinned, and giving him another chance--opens opportunity, but by itself it does not furnish power. The saviorhood of Christ, however, so far from failing at this crucial point, makes here its chief claim to preeminence. However one may explain it, the normal quality of a genuine Christian life is moral energy. The Gospel not alone to Paul, but to all generations of Christ's disciples, had been "God's saving power for everyone who has faith" (Rom. 1:16).[8] Faith always supplies moral dynamic. Emerson's challenge, "They can conquer who believe they can," is easily verified in daily life. In practical business, in social reform, in personal character, no more common or fatal barrier to success exists than disbelief in possibilities. While some who think they can when they cannot, prove the rule by its exception, we are sure in advance that one who believes he cannot, has lost his battle before it has begun. Granted a task worth doing, sufficient strength for its accomplishment, and motives in plenty to make success desirable, and one insinuating enemy can spoil the enterprise. Let the subtle fear that the task is impossible obsess the thought, paralyze the nerve, and no hope is left. Like chlorine gas, such fear defeats us before we have begun to fight and fills our trenches with asphyxiated powers. Anyone who is to be a savior to mankind, therefore, must be able to make men say, "I can." That Christ has had that influence on men is the commonplace of Christian biography from the beginning until now. "In him who strengthens me I am able for anything" (Phil. 4:13)[9] is a word of Paul's which the best Christian experience confirms. It does not mean that men can do what they will, overriding all obstacles to chosen goals; it means that they are aware of resources in reserve, of power around them and in them, so that they are not afraid of anything which they may face. If a duty ought to be done, they are confident that they can do it; if a trouble must be borne, they are assured that they can bear it. This buoyant faith is more than a grace of temperament. In Paul's case, for example, it was not due to rugged health, for that he lacked; it was not the easy optimism of some happiness cult, for he was a persecuted man, bearing in his body "the marks of the Lord Jesus"; and such a note of assured resource as we just have quoted did not come from the hopefulness of fortunate circumstance, but from a prison where he wore a chain. Paul himself is certain that his sense of power springs from discipleship to Jesus. And when one turns to the gospels, he sees that whenever the Master had opportunity to exert to the full his influence on men, some such result as here appears in Paul is evident. A contagious personality always enlarges the sense of possibilities and powers in other men. A man, leaving Trinity Church, where he had heard Phillips Brooks, exclaimed, "He always makes me feel so strong." It was said that one could not stand for a moment with Edmund Burke under an archway, to let a shower pass by, without emerging a greater man. Each one of us knows folk who so impress him. We go into their presence, weak, self-pitiful; when we come out, the horizons are broader, the possibilities have enlarged, there is more in us than we had suspected, we are convinced that we _can_. To a degree that escapes our estimation Jesus exerted that influence on men. Napoleon said that he made his generals out of mud. Out of what, then, did the Master make his apostles? At the beginning, Peter, for example, is protesting, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord," and Jesus is bending over him, saying: Come after me, and I will make you a fisher of men; if you will, you can. After months of influence, Peter, still shamed and weak, is pleading his love against his deed, and Jesus is saying: Feed my sheep; feed my lambs; if you will, you can. In Jesus' relationship with his disciple, a great personality stands over a lesser one, by life and word insistently saying, _You can_, until power is vitally transmitted, and in the vacillating, vehement Simon there emerges rock-like, stable Peter. Throughout the Christian centuries nothing has been more typical than this of the Master's influence on men. He has come to innumerable sodden lives, held slaves to tyrannous sin, saying in the hopelessness of bondage, "I cannot," and he has touched them with his contagious confidence, until they rose into freedom, saying, "By the help of God, I can!" He has come into social situations, where ancient evils, long entrenched and seemingly invincible, withstood the assault of reformation, and he has put inexhaustible resource into his people, until they said with an old reformer, "Impossible? If that is all that is the matter, let us go ahead!" He has come to his Church, reluctant to undertake a world-wide mission, staggered by the task's magnitude, and he has made men pray with _life_ and not alone with lip, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Wherever the influence of Christ vitally has come, the horizons of possibility have widened and the sense of power grown inexhaustible. _Such influence is of the very essence of saviorhood and the attitude that appropriates it is saving faith._ When John B. Gough, desperately enmeshed in habit, faces the Christian Gospel of release one easily may trace his changing response. Dubious at first, he wants to believe it but he does not dare. He wishes it were true, but the whole logic of his situation, his long habit, his spoiled reputation, his weakened will, argue against the possibility. As Augustine said about his lust, "The worse that I knew so well had more power over me than the better that I knew not." Still, a note of authority in the Gospel, as though spoken by one whose power to perform is equal to the thing he promises, arrests Gough's mind, captures his imagination, awakens his spirit's deep desire, until at last the Master's call, "You can," is answered by the human cry, "I will," and the man moves out into new possibilities, new powers, and increasing liberty. That _is_ salvation. It is no formal status decreed by legal enactment, as though a judge technically acquitted a prisoner. It is new life, inward liberation from old habits, apprehensions, anxieties, and fears. It lifts horizons, consumes impossibilities, and at the center of life sets the stirring conviction that what ought to be done can be done. Christians who are accustomed lightly to assert that they are saved need specially to take this truth to heart. Some speak as though salvation were a technicality and they sing about it, "'Tis done, the great transaction's done." To many such, were candor courteous, one would wish to say: Saved? Saved from what? You are habitually anxious. Your life is continually vexed with little fears and apprehensions. When trouble comes, you are sure that you cannot stand it; when tasks present themselves, you are certain that you cannot perform them. You have pet self-indulgences, from major sins to little meannesses; you know that they are wrong; but when suggestion comes that you surrender them, you are sure that you have not the strength. When causes, plainly Christian, on whose successful issue man's weal depends, appeal to you for help, you weaken every enterprise by your disheartenment. Saved from _what_? Not from fear, timidity, selfishness, and stagnation! And if you say, Saved from Hell--what is Hell but the final subjugation of the soul to such sins as you now are cherishing? The words of Jesus are promises of saviorhood from real and present evils: "Be not _anxious_" (Matt. 6:34); "Go, _sin_ no more" (John 8:11); "_Fear_ not, little flock" (Luke 12:32). When one, by faith, turns his face homeward from such destroyers of life, he begins to be saved; but only as he lives by faith in fellowship with the Divine and so achieves progressive victory, does he keep on being saved. _The heart of salvation is victorious power._ II Not all men feel the need of the power which comes from discipleship to Christ. They live content without such increment of strength as Christians find in faith. Their power is equal to their tasks because their tasks are levelled to their power. One cannot understand, therefore, what the Saviorhood of Christ has meant to men, unless he sees how Christ has created the need of the very power he furnishes. He has done this, in part, _by awakening the desire for an ascending life_. Men do not naturally want to believe in possibilities too great and taxing; it always is easier to leave undisturbed the _status quo_. Even changing one's residence is difficult. Though one may move to a better house, yet to decide to move, to break old relationships, to tear up and refit the furnishings, and to adjust oneself to new associations mean stress and strain. So men come to be at home with habits; they are comfortably accustomed to timidity and self-indulgence. Release into a new life does not lure as privilege; it repels as hardship. Some sins, indeed, are followed by remorse, but others, grown habitual, bring a sense of well-being and content. We like ourselves; we do not want a better life; we are unwilling to pay its cost. Our sins are no bed of nettles, but a lotus land of decent ease. Were we candidly to speak to them, we should say, O Sin, you are a comfortable friend! When most we want forbidden fruit you suggest excuses. You side happily with our inclinations and save us from the struggle that high duty costs and the sacrifice of striving for the best. Among the blessings of our lives, we count you not the least, O decent, comfortable, self-indulgent Sin! Idlers thus drift listlessly and refuse a voyage with a purpose and a goal; youths living by low standards, look on Christlike character as beyond their interest and possibility; undedicated men find excuse for holding back devotion to great causes in the world--we shelter ourselves from aspiration and enterprise behind our faithlessness. Into such a situation Christ repeatedly has come, bringing a vision of what life ought to be, too imperative to be neglected, too challenging to be denied. Men have been shaken out of their content; the true color of their lives has been revealed against his white background, the meanness of their plans against the wide ranges of his purpose. From seeing him they have gone back to be content in their old habits, but in vain. Can one who has seen a home be happy in a hovel? Ranke, the historian, says, "More guiltless and more powerful, more exalted and more holy, has naught ever been on earth than his conduct, his life, and his death. The human race knows nothing that could be brought even afar off into comparison with it." So he has been the disturber of man's ignoble self-content, and to say that we believe in him means that, no longer able to endure the thing we are, we go on pilgrimage toward the thing he is. Faith means that we decide to _move_. This first essential work of saviorhood Christ has wrought, and when men start to follow him, they feel the need of power. For another thing, Christ has created a thirst for the power he furnishes by _revealing the quality of character in the possession of which salvation ultimately consists_. At the beginning of the ethical development whether of the individual or of the race, goodness is defined in terms of prohibitions. There are many things which men ought _not_ to do; they walk embarrassed in the presence of their duty like courtiers before an exacting prince. How negative and repelling such goodness is! As another exclaims: "They do not break the Sabbath themselves, but no one who has to spend it with them likes to see the dreadful day come round. They do not swear themselves, but they make all who know them want to. They are just as good as trying not to be bad can make them." Discerning spirits, therefore, turn to goodness positively conceived. "Thou shalt not" becomes "Thou shalt"; duty consists of rules to be kept, precepts to be observed, principles to be applied, and we go out to do good deeds to men. But whoever seriously tries to do deeds really good, faces a need of moral elevation, as much beyond the outward act of good as that surpasses the observance of prohibitions. _Good deeds are not a matter of will alone, but of spiritual quality._ Let the wind blow to fan the faces of the sick, but if it discover that it is laden with disease, what shall it do? To blow this way or that may be within volition's power, but not to _cleanse_ oneself. The task of character reaches inward, beyond the things we do or refrain from doing to the man we are. Goodness is something more than girding up the loins, blowing upon the hands, and setting to the work of being dutiful. It springs from the spirit's depths; it is tinctured with the spirit's quality; and deeds are never really better than the soul whose utterances they are. From "Thou shalt not do" to "Thou shalt do" and from "Thou shalt do" to "Thou shalt be," man's flying goal of goodness moves. And this ideal in Christ has been incarnate, visible, imperative. He _was_ right in the inner quality and flavor of his life; and to be like him involves a pure and powerful personality. Whoever sets that task ahead knows that he cannot strut proudly into it. Like Alice entering Wonderland he must grow very small before he can grow large. The Christ who has power to give has revealed the need of it. Not only by the intensifying of the ideal, but by its extension, has Christ created thirst for divine help. In youth the problem of character concerns personal habits. Our untamed strength must be broken to the harness, and the snaffle bit be used upon our wayward powers. We justly fear our sins and in their triumph we see the wreck of individual prospects and the ruin of our families' hopes. Our concern centers about ourselves, and its crux is self-mastery. But when in maturity, somewhat "at leisure from ourselves" in settled habits, we no longer fear our own ruin nor think it probable, goodness extends its meaning. To play our part in man's advancement, to live, work, sacrifice, and if need be die for causes on which our children's hopes depend, becomes our ideal. As boys in spring-time when the ice is melting see from a hill-top the swirling flood that overflows the plain, and know that somewhere underneath the unfamiliar and tumultuous rapids the main channel runs, from which the floods have broken, to which in time they must return, so in a generation when man's life has broken its banks in fury we still believe that the main course of the divine purpose is not forever lost. To believe that, and in the strength of it to toil for the ends God seeks, becomes to awakened spirits the essential soul of goodness. When such meanings enter into his ideal, a man runs straight upon the need of God. For we may make our contribution to the cause of man's good upon the earth and our children may make theirs, but if this world is a spiritual Sahara, never meant for character and social weal, and against the dead set of the desert's power we are building oases here with our unaided fingers, then the issue of our work stands in no doubt. The Sahara will pile its burning sands about us and hurl its blistering winds across us, and we and our works together come to naught. By as much, then, as a man really cares about democracy and liberty and social equity, about human brotherhood and Christian civilization, by so much he needs God, who gathers up the scattered contributions of his children and builds them into victory. A man alone may keep the decalogue, but alone he cannot save the world. Who dreams of that wants power. And Christ has made men dream of that, believe in that with passionate certainty, until "Thy Kingdom come" is the daily prayer of multitudes. To no human strength can such prayer be offered; we are not adequate to an eternal, universal task. Again Christ has brought us to the need of power, and his people call him Savior, because the need which he creates he also satisfies. In one of the tidal rivers near New York, the building of a bridge was interrupted by a derelict sunk in the river's bottom. Divers put chains about the obstacle and all day long the engineer directed the maneuvering of tugs as they puffed and pulled in vain endeavor to dislodge the hulk. Then a young student, fresh from the technical school, asked for the privilege of trying, and from the vexed, impatient chief obtained his wish. "What will _you_ do it with?" the engineer enquired. "The flat-boats in which we brought the granite from Vermont," the young man answered. So when the tide was out, the flat boats were fastened to the derelict. The Atlantic began to come in; its mighty shoulders underneath the boats lifted--lifted until the derelict had to come. The youth had harnessed infinite energy to his task. To the consciousness of such resource in the spiritual world Christ has introduced his people. They have meant not formula but fact, not technicality but experience, when they have called him Savior. III This consciousness of power has come in part from Christ's revelation of God the Father. Whoever has sinned against his friend or unkindly wronged a child knows what sin does to personal relationships. How swift a change comes over a son's thought of his father when the son has sinned! The wrong may have been done secretly so that his sire does not know, and the boy alone on earth is conscious of it. But for all that the filial relationship has lost its glory. Before the sin, the son was happy with his father near; they were companions, confidants, and to the boy fatherhood was very beautiful. Now, he is most unhappy with his father near; the father's eyes like a detective's pierce him through, the face like a judge's waits sternly to condemn. He is looking at his father through the dark glasses of his sin, and they distort his vision. When one considers the gods whom men have worshiped, approaching them by bloody altar-stairs, offering their first-born to assuage wrath or win from apathy to favor, he sees, extended to a racial scale, our boyhood's tragedy. _Mankind has been looking at the Father through its ignorance and sin and it has seen him beclouded and awry._ Christ changed all that. By what he taught, by what he was, by what he suffered he has said to man, so that man increasingly has believed it--You are wrong about God. He does not stand aloof--careless or vindictive; he is not as he looks to you through the twisted lenses of your evil. He loves you. He _cares_ beyond your power to understand, and all my compassion but reveals in time what is eternally in him. He is pledged to the victory of goodness in you and in the world, and you have not used all your power until you have used his, for that, too, is yours. From that day the fight against sin has been a new thing, and men have gone into it with battle-cries they never used before--"_God_ was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" (II Cor. 5:19); "_God_ commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8); "If _God_ is for us, who is against us?" (Rom. 8:31). This access of power has come in part from Christ's revelation of _man_. When a jewel is taken from darkness into sunlight, there is a two-fold revealing. The sunlight is disclosed in new glory, for it never seemed so beautiful before as it appears breaking in splendor through the jewel's heart. And there is a revelation of the jewel. Dull and unillumined in the dark, it is lustrous when the sun enlightens it. So Christ brought us an unveiling of the Father; the Divine never had seemed so wonderful as when it poured in glory through his purity and love. And he brought as well a new revelation of man. Our human nature, bedimmed by sin and lusterless, he in his own person took up into the light, and lifting it where all mankind could see he cried--This _is_ human nature--man as God intended him to be--no slave of fate and dupe of sin, but a free man and a victor. And from that day the war on sin has had new spirit in it, and battle cries that presage triumph have grown familiar on the fighters' lips: "Now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be" (I John 3:2); "Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13); "His precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature" (II Pet. 1:4). IV Christ's double revelation of God and man, however, has had its vital impact of power on life in what Christians have always called _the experience of the Spirit_. When the New Testament speaks its characteristic word about the Spirit, it means the conscious presence of the living God in the hearts of men, and that is the very essence of religion. The first Christians did not know God in one way only; they knew him in three ways. So one man might know Beethoven the composer and be an authority upon his works; another might know Beethoven the performer and delight in his playing; and another might know Beethoven the man and rejoice in his friendship--but no one could know the whole of Beethoven until he knew him all three ways. The New Testament Christians came thus to God. He was the Father, Creator of all; he was the Character, revealed in Jesus; but as well he was the Spiritual Presence in their lives, their sustenance and power. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit" (II Cor. 13:14)--such was their experience of the Divine. It was not dogma; it was _life_. God was Creator, Character, and Comforter. Christian experience is in continual danger of drifting from this vital center. In our age especially, we are prone to find God at the end of an argument and to leave him there. We have been compelled by militant agnosticism to put our apologetic armies on the defensive. Finding it impossible to hold the respect of men's intelligence without reasonable arguments in the faith's behalf, we have had to draw such inferences from the nature of the material universe, from the necessities of human thought, the demands of human conscience, and the progress of moral evolution in history, that materialism should be made, what indeed it is, a discredited affair. But God so arrived at, by way of reason, is an external matter. He is an hypothesis to explain the universe. "He sitteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers before him." Granted the incalculable value in such faith, putting unity into history and purpose into life--it is not religion and it never can be. _Religion begins when the God outwardly argued is inwardly experienced._ Religion begins when we cease using the tricky and unstable aeroplane of speculation to seek Him among the clouds, and retreat into the fertile places of our own spirits where the living water rises, as Jesus said. God outside of us is a theory; God inside of us becomes a fact. God outside of us is an hypothesis; God inside of us is an experience. God the Father is the possibility of salvation; God the Spirit is actuality of life, joy, peace, and saving power. God the transcendent may do for philosophy, but he is not enough for religion. Without this completion of the Gospel, Christ's saviorhood does not reach inward to our need. For lacking it, we stand before the Master with the same admiration that a man who is no painter feels when he sees a Raphael. He knows the work is sublime, but he is not proposing to reproduce it. He is conquered by its beauty, but he knows no possibility of its imitation. If, however, there were a spirit of Raphael that could lay hold upon a man's life and transform him to the master's skill and power, then his admiration would become inwardly effective. _It takes the spirit of Raphael to do Raphael's work._ If this gospel of an indwelling dynamic is not coupled with our admiration for Jesus, we are like a student practicing the fingering of the Hallelujah Chorus on an organ from which the power has been shut off. With what accuracy his fingers travel the keys, who can tell? Once Handel's soul, on fire with the passion of harmony, burned itself into that composition. He wrote it upon his knees. But with whatever agility the student's fingers follow the notes, no Hallelujah Chorus comes from his organ to praise God and move men. So the record of this matchless character handed to us in the gospels, like notes of music meant to be played again, is but our despair, if we must attempt its reproduction on a powerless organ. Our admiration for it is external and ineffectual. We fall thereby into a static religion of creed; we have no dynamic religion of progress and hope. This then is the glorious message, where the Christian Gospel reaches its climax, and which alone puts fullest meaning into Jesus' perfect life: _the Spirit of God in Jesus made his quality; that same Spirit is underground in our lives, striving to well up in characters like his, until we live, yet not we, but Christ lives in us_. Any spring day may serve to illustrate this faith. Where does the restlessness in nature have its source? Every tree, in discontent, hastens to make buds into leaves, and every blade of grass is tremulous with impatient life. No tree, however, is a sufficient explanation of its own haste and dissatisfaction; no flower has in itself the secrets of its eager growth. The spirit of life is abroad, and crowding itself everywhere on old, dead forms, is making them bloom again. Explain then, the moral restlessness of our hearts in other wise! We do ill, and are distraught with remorse until we repent and make reparation. We attain money or talents, and are chased day and night by the urgent call to their spiritual dedication. We conform ourselves to decency and still hear a call for goodness beyond all earthly need. We succeed as the world calls it, and we know that it is failure; we fail as the world sees it, and our hearts sing for joy because we know that we have succeeded. Everywhere we are confronted with a pulsing life that longs to get itself expressed in us. We cannot get away from God. He is not far, he is here. This Spirit, for whom there is no better name than the Spirit of Jesus, is our continual companion. We are locked in an enforced fellowship with him. There is no friend with whom we deal more directly and continually than with him. Every time we open an inspiring book and devoutly study it, this Spirit is pleading for entrance. Every time we pray he stands at the door and knocks. Every time some child in need, or some great cause demanding sacrifice, lays claim on us, this Spirit is crying to be let in. Men's hunger for food, their love for family and friends, are not more direct, concrete, immediate experiences than our dealings with this Spirit of the Lord. He is not only God the Father; he is God the Spirit, striving to dwell in us and work through us. Into a vital use of this relationship with the Divine, Christ opened the way and multitudes have followed. He has taught men to find that same resourcefulness in the spiritual world which science finds in the physical. Every successful invention of a man like Edison involves a twofold faith: that there is inexhaustible power in the universe and that, with persistent patience and cooperation, there is no telling what marvels yet may come from the employment of it. Faith is science's flying column. It runs out into engineering, agriculture, medicine, and refuses to limit the possibilities. Science is a tremendous believer; it lives by faith that almost anything may yet be done. Such a relationship Paul sustained with the Spirit. He was confident of resources there, "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Eph. 3:20). He was a spiritual Edison, a believer in the divine reality and power and their availability by faith in human life. Only such a Gospel is adequate to man's deepest need. Sin, whether its forms be decent or obscene, cripples men's wills with the appalling certainty that they are slaves. As a hypnotist draws imaginary circles around his victims, across which they cannot step, so Sin, that Svengali of the soul, whether in personal or social life, paralyzes its dupes with disbelief in possibilities. To innumerable folk, emprisoned by their fears and sins, Christ has been the Savior. He has awakened that faith which, as he said, is the greatest mountain-mover known to men. They have been "strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man" (Eph. 3:16). V When one considers, as we have in these two chapters, what Christ has meant in the experience of his people, little wonder can remain that they have called him by such high names as have aroused man's incredulity. For this Gospel of power has never been separable from him, as though he were its historic fountain and could easily be forgotten by those who far down-stream enjoyed the water. His personality itself has been the inspiration of his people. At Marston Moor, when the Puritans and Cavaliers were aligned for battle and all was in readiness for conflict to begin, Oliver Cromwell came riding across the plain. And the chronicler says that at the sight of him the Puritans sent up a great victorious shout, as though their battle already had been won. Some such effect our Lord has had on his disciples. To explain that effect one would have to speak not so much of his teaching as of himself--his character and purpose; nor so much of them as of the Cross where all he taught and was came to a point of flame that has set the world on fire. Christ was the "nerve o'er which do creep The else unfelt oppressions of the earth." He suffered with man and for man, he uniquely embodied in his own experience the universal law that the consequences of sin fall in part on the one who loves the sinner and tries to save him; and in that sacrifice his work for man was consummated, and his influence over man confirmed. When his people have bowed before him in unutterable devotion they have been thinking not only of what he has done for them, but of what it cost him to do it. Why, therefore, should we wonder that his disciples at their best have called Jesus divine? His first followers began with no abstract ideas of deity; they began with "the man, Christ Jesus" (I Tim. 2:5). They had no idea at the first that he was more. His bodily and mental life had obeyed the laws of normal human development, advancing "in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men" (Luke 2:52). He hungered after his temptation, thirsted on the Cross, slept from weariness while the boat tossed in a storm, and exhausted, sat beside the well. Like other men he had elevated hours of great rejoicing; times when compassion moved him to tears, as when he saw a multitude unshepherded or, swinging round the brow of Olivet, beheld Jerusalem; and hours of hot indignation, too, as when he found his Father's house a den of thieves or spoke out his heart against the Pharisees. He asked questions, and was astonished, now at the people's lack of faith, again at the centurion's excess of it. His fellowship with God was nourished by secret prayer, his power replenished by retreat to quiet places for communion, and all his life was lived, his temptations faced, his troubles borne, and his work done in a spirit of humble, filial dependence on his Father. Thus real and human, a sharer in their limitations, their sorrows, and their moral trials, the first disciples saw the Master. But ever as they lived with him, whether in physical presence or in spiritual fellowship, he wrought in them a Savior's work. He became to them manhood indeed, but manhood plus. He grew in their apprehension, as though a boy had thought an ocean's inlet were a lake enclosed, and now discovers that it is the sea itself, and all its tides the pulse of the great deep. How should they name this greatness in their Lord? They were not utterly without a clue, for he himself had introduced them to the life divine. They had learned through him to say about themselves that they were temples in which God dwelt (II Cor. 6:16), that God abode in them (I John 4:12), that he stood ever waiting to come in (Rev. 3:20), and that the possession of the divine nature was the Gospel's promise (II Pet. 1:4). By what other element in their experience could they interpret the greatness of their Lord? It might be inadequate, but it was the best they had. They rose to understand the divine life in him from the experience of the divine life in themselves. "God was in Christ," they said. They never dreamed of claiming equality with him. Like pools beside the sea, they understood the ocean's quality from their own. There are not two kinds of sea-water; nor, with one God, can there be two kinds of divine life. But so understanding the sea, shall the pool claim equality with it? Rather, the sea has deeps, tides, currents, and relationships with the world's life that no pool can ever know. So Christ was at once their brother and their Lord. He was real, because they interpreted his life divine from the foregleams of God's presence in themselves. He was adorable, because he was an ocean to their landlocked pools, and they waited for his tides. Only by some such road as these first disciples trod can men come to a vital understanding of the Lord. Nothing but _experience_ can give us a living estimate of anything; without that theory is vain. Let a man live with the Master's manhood until it grows luminous and through it he sees the character of God; let a man avail himself of the Master's saviorhood until forgiven and empowered he finds the "life that is life indeed"; let a man grow in the experience of God's presence until he knows not only the God without but the God within; and then if he rises to estimate his Lord, he will not hesitate to see in Jesus the incarnate presence of the living God. After that, theology may help or hinder him, according as it is wise and vital or cold and formal; but with theology or not, he knows the heart of the New Testament's attitude toward Jesus. He understands why the first Christians summed up their faith as "believing in the Lord Jesus Christ." [8] Moffatt's translation. [9] Moffatt's translation. CHAPTER XII The Fellowship of Faith DAILY READINGS Our thought turns, in our closing week of study, from believers taken one by one, to believers gathered in fellowship. This community of faith has wider boundaries than the organized churches; in a real sense it includes all servants of man's ideal aims; yet in the Church we naturally seek the chief meanings of fellowship for faith. Why men do not go to church, is often asked. But why men do go, so that in spite of countless failures in the churches, attendance on public worship and loyalty to organized religion are among mankind's most usual habits, is an inquiry far more important. To that inquiry let us in the daily readings turn our thought. Twelfth Week, First Day =But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to enter.= =Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves....= =Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone. Ye blind guides, that strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel!--Matt. 23:13-15; 23, 24.= Jesus' indictment of the Jewish Church is terrific, and yet no one who knows the story of the Christian churches can doubt that they often have deserved the same condemnation. They have at times committed all the sins that can be laid at any institution's door; they have been selfish, formal, worldly, cruel. A wonder-story from the Arctic says that once the candle-flames froze and the explorers broke them off and wore them for watch charms; the flames of the great fire congealed and were wound like golden ornaments around men's necks. So repeatedly the burning words of Scripture, the blazing affirmations of old creeds, on fire at first with the passion of souls possessed by God, have been frozen in the churches' Arctic climate, and handed to men like talismans and amulets, with no saving warmth or light. Creeds, rituals, organizations--how often these frozen forms of life have taken the place of inward spiritual power! Dr. Washington Gladden would not be alone in saying: "While therefore I had as large an experience of church-going in my boyhood as most boys can recall, I cannot lay my hand on my heart and say that the church-going helped me to solve my religious problems. In fact, it made those problems more and more tangled and troublesome." And yet the Church goes on. Voltaire prophesied its collapse in fifty years, and in fifty years the house where he made the prophecy was a depot for the circulation of the Scriptures. The Church's persistence, continual adaptation to new conditions, and apparently endless power of revival must have some deep reason. It may be because prayer like this which follows has never utterly died out in the sanctuary. _O Thou that dwellest not in temples made with hands! We ever stand within the courts of Thy glorious presence, only we open now the gates of our poor praise. Thou hast enriched this day of rest, O Lord, with Thy choicest gifts of peace; and lo! Thou unforgetting God, its record is before Thee, for ages past, moistened with penitential tears, and illumined with glad hopes, and hallowed by the innumerable prayers of faithful and saintly men. In this our day may the churches of Thy Holy One seek Thee still in spirit and truth; may we also enter in and find our rest, being of one heart and mind, and serving Thee with a wakeful and humble joy. Teach us now how we may converse with Thee, for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness. We are naked and without disguise before Thee; oh! hide not Thyself from us behind our ignorance and sin. May we at least in this Thine hour shake off the sluggish clouds of sense and self that cling around our souls; and strenuously open our whole nature to the breath of Thy free spirit, and the healthful sunshine of Thy grace. Let the divine image of the Son of God visit us with power; driving out, with the chastisement of penitence, all obtruding passions that profane the temple of our hearts, and turn into a place of traffic that native house of prayer. O God of glory, God of grace! let not the things which are spiritually discerned be foolishness unto us through the blindness of our conscience: Thou knowest the thoughts of our wisdom that they are vain; take them from us, and bid them vanish away, lost in that wisdom from above which is revealed only to the pure in heart. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thee be every thought of praise! Amen._--James Martineau. Twelfth Week, Second Day Some men doubtless go to church from traditional habit only, but such a motive obviously is not adequate to explain why the recurrent tides of humanity, even after an ebb in interest, sweep back to the Church again. In the eighteenth century, for example, Butler reports the common opinion that all that remained for Christianity was decent obsequies. But in a few years the Wesleys began a movement that changed the spiritual complexion of the English-speaking world, and swept multitudes into Christian fellowship. One reason for this repeated fact is clear. Mankind cannot and will not consent to live without faith in God, and faith in God in its genesis and its sustenance is largely a matter of contagion. We are not so much taught it; we catch it. It is vitally imparted in the family circle, and wherever kindred and believing spirits gather. No man is so independent as to escape the vital fact that his noblest emotions, attitudes, ideals, and faiths are socially engendered and socially sustained; he never would have had them in a solitary life and a solitary life would soon spoil those which he has now. A man may believe in his country and love her; but let him join in a patriotic movement or even attend a high-spirited patriotic meeting, and he will believe in her and love her more ardently. Man's religious life is not lawless; it is regulated by the same necessities of fellowship. The Church has made many mistakes, but on her altar the fire has never utterly gone out, and in her fellowship the faith of multitudes has been kindled. =Let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for he is faithful that promised: and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works; not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh.--Heb. 10:23-25.= _Great is Thy name, O God, and greatly to be praised. In Thee all our discordant notes rise into perfect harmony. It is good for us to think of the wonder of Thy being. Thou art silent, yet most strong; unchangeable, yet ever changing; ever working, yet ever at rest, supporting, nourishing, maturing all things. O Thou Eternal Spirit, who hast set our noisy years in the heart of Thy eternity, lift us above the power and evils of the passing time, that under the shadow of Thy wings we may take courage and be glad. So great art Thou, beyond our utmost imagining, that we could not speak to Thee didst Thou not first draw near to us and say, "Seek ye my face." Unto Thee our hearts would make reply, "Thy face, Lord, will we seek."... We thank Thee for our birth into a Christian community, for the Church and the Sacraments of Thy grace, for the healing day of rest, when we enter with Thy people into Thy House and there make holy-day; for the refreshment of soul, the joys of communion, the spiritual discipline, the inspiration of prayer and hymn and sermon.... We praise Thee for the myriad influences of good, conscious and unconscious, that have been about us, deeply penetrating our inner life, shaping and fitting us for Thy Kingdom. Thou hast indeed forgiven all our iniquities, and healed all our diseases, and redeemed our life from destruction, and crowned us with loving-kindness. Therefore would we call upon our souls, and all that is within us, to bless Thy holy Name. Amen._--Samuel McComb. Twelfth Week, Third Day =For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.--Gal. 5:13-15.= One fundamental reason for the endless revival of the Church is that faith never is satisfied until it issues in work. It insists on our being "servants one to another." We have spoken of God's merciful acceptance of a man when out of sin he turns his life by faith toward Christ; but to interpret this as meaning the adequacy of faith without effective service is to misread Scripture and to demoralize life. Faith that does not lead to service is no real faith at all. But whenever men endeavor to express in work any faith which they may hold they must come together. Service involves cooperation. A hermit may have faith, but his faith does not concern any ideal hopes on earth; it has no outlooks save upon his own soul's condition in the world to come; it is a narrow, selfish, inoperative thing. As soon as men are grasped by some moving faith about what ought to be done for God's service and man's welfare here and now, a hermit's solitude or any sort of unaffiliated life becomes impossible. They must combine in a fellowship of faith and of labor to seek common ends. They begin to say with Edward Rowland Sill, "For my part I long to 'fall in' with somebody. This picket duty is monotonous. I hanker after a shoulder on this side and the other." And to fall in with others to serve Christian ends means some kind of church. Let us pray today for a church more fit to express this passion to serve. _God, we pray for Thy Church, which is set today amid the perplexities of a changing order, and face to face with a great new task. We remember with love the nurture she gave to our spiritual life in its infancy, the tasks she set for our growing strength, the influence of the devoted hearts she gathers, the steadfast power for good she has exerted. When we compare her with all other human institutions, we rejoice, for there is none like her. But when we judge her by the mind of her Master, we bow in pity and contrition. Oh, baptize her afresh in the life-giving spirit of Jesus! Grant her a new birth, though it be with the travail of repentance and humiliation. Bestow upon her a more imperious responsiveness to duty, a swifter compassion with suffering, and an utter loyalty to the will of God. Put upon her lips the ancient Gospel of her Lord. Help her to proclaim boldly the coming of the Kingdom of God and the doom of all that resist it. Fill her with the prophet's scorn of tyranny, and with a Christ-like tenderness for the heavy-laden and down-trodden. Give her faith to espouse the cause of the people, and in their hands that grope after freedom and light to recognize the bleeding hands of the Christ. Bid her cease from seeking her own life, lest she lose it. Make her valiant to give up her life to humanity, that like her crucified Lord she may mount by the path of the cross to a higher glory. Amen._--Walter Rauschenbusch. Twelfth Week, Fourth Day =For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon him: for, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? even as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things!--Rom. 10:11-15.= The necessity of affiliation for effective faith is clear when one considers the missionary enterprise. One of the noblest qualities in human life is our natural desire to share our blessings. Every normal child is happier when some other child is joining in the play; every lover of music is gladdened by sharing with a friend enjoyment of a favorite symphony; save in singularly churlish folk the love of having others partake our joys is spontaneous and hearty. To those whom Christian faith, has blessed with hope and power, the undeniable impulse comes to share these finest benedictions with all other men. The missionary enterprise does not rest upon a text; it wells up from one of the worthiest impulses in man's life. One may be fairly sure, that save as some perverted theology inhibits a spirit of love, a man's missionary interest will be proportionate to the reality and value of his own experience. If he himself has something well worth sharing, he will want to share it. But the missionary enterprise is more than any individual can compass; it demands organization, cooperation, and massed resources; it cannot be prosecuted without a church. The further our thought proceeds the more clear it becomes that the question is not, shall we have churches? but rather, since churches are inevitable, of what sort shall they be? _O Thou who hast made all nations of men to seek Thee and to find Thee; bless, we beseech Thee, Thy sons and daughters who have gone forth, into distant lands, bearing in their hands Thy Word of Life. We rejoice that, touched with the enthusiasm of Christ, so many have consecrated their lives to proclaiming the message of Thy love to those other sheep of Thine who are not of our fold, that they may be united with us and that there may be one flock and one Shepherd. Help Thy ministering servants to recognize the fragments of truth and goodness that are ever found where men are sincere and to claim these glimpses of Thyself as the prophecies of a fuller revelation. When discouraged by the hardness of their task, and the meager fruit of all their labor, give them faith to see the far-off whitening harvest. Inspire them with Thy gracious promise that though the sower may go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, he will come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Comfort them in their exile and loneliness with a sense of Thy companionship and with the prayers and sympathy of their brethren at home. Through them let Thy Word have free course and be glorified. And so let Thy Kingdom come, and Thy Will be done on earth as in Heaven, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen._--Samuel McComb. Twelfth Week, Fifth Day =After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.--Matt. 6:9-15.= The central ideal of Christian effort is set for us in the first petition of the Master's prayer. But a Kingdom on earth, with God's will done here in heavenly fashion, is a social idea. It means not only right personal quality; it means right family life, and economic, political, and international relationships Christianized. No amount of fine individual character, necessary as it is, will of itself rectify the social maladjustments and inequities. Were everyone as good as possible, we still should need organized action. All parts of an engine may be correct, and yet they may be wrongly fitted together. As it is, social relations obviously demand concerted action; we must join together to combat immoral industrial conditions, to throttle the liquor traffic, to make human fraternity a fact and not a dream. The opposition to all such reforms is organized, and no haphazard attack will succeed. Now, many organizations may arise to serve special ends and may do excellent service to the cause, but what has proved true in the conflict with the liquor traffic, is true also of enterprises for industrial justice and international cooperation--_only when the churches see the moral issue and put their power in, is there any hope of victory_. A Christian whose faith involves the Kingdom sees plainly that he cannot go on without the Church. _O Lord, we praise Thy holy name, for Thou hast made bare Thine arm in the sight of all nations and done wonders. But still we cry to Thee in the weary struggle of our people against the power of drink. Remember, Lord, the strong men who were led astray and blighted in the flower of their youth. Remember the aged who have brought their gray hairs to a dishonored grave. Remember the homes that have been made desolate of joy, the wifely love that has been outraged in its sanctuary, the little children who have learned to despise where once they loved. Remember, O Thou great avenger of sin, and make this nation to remember._ _May those who now entrap the feet of the weak and make their living by the degradation of men, thrust away their shameful gains and stand clear. But if their conscience is silenced by profit, do Thou grant Thy people the indomitable strength of faith to make an end of it. May all the great churches of our land shake off those who seek the shelter of religion for that which damns, and stand with level front against their common foe. May all who still soothe their souls with half-truths, saying "Peace, peace," where there can be no peace, learn to see through Thy stem eyes and come to the help of Jehovah against the mighty. Help us to cast down the men in high places who use the people's powers to beat back the people's hands from the wrong they fain would crush._ _O God, bring nigh the day when all our men shall face their daily task with minds undrugged and with tempered passions; when the unseemly mirth of drink shall seem a shame to all who hear and see; when the trade that debauches men shall be loathed like the trade that debauches women; and when all this black remnant of savagery shall haunt the memory of a new generation but as an evil dream of the night. For this accept our vows, O Lord, and grant Thine aid. Amen._--Walter Rauschenbusch. Twelfth Week, Sixth Day =Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word; that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that thou didst send me, and lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me.--John 17:20-23.= To the Christian the Church is a problem, just because she is a necessity. He caught his faith from the contagion of her fellowship and he sees that if he is to serve effectively the ideals of Christ and the coming of the Kingdom he must work through some church. But because the Church is necessary, he is not thereby made content with her. She is at once helping and hindering the spread of the faith; she is the source of immeasurable good and yet she is not "one, that the world may believe." A traveler across the American plains in springtime sees fences, tiresomely prominent, staring at him from the landscape; but in summer when he returns the fences are invisible. The wheat and corn are growing, the earth is bearing fruit, and while the old divisions may be there, they all are hidden. One suspects that if Christians everywhere set themselves with hearty zeal to bear the fruit of service for the common weal, if they gave themselves to achieve the aims of Christ for men with ardor and thoroughness, the sectarian divisions would grow unimperative and disappear. We may not be able to think the disagreements through, but we may be able to work them out; even where we cannot recite a common creed, we can share a common purpose. The War, where Jewish rabbis have held crucifixes before the eyes of dying soldiers, and where Catholic priests have met death, as one did at Gallipoli, following a Wesleyan chaplain--"my Protestant comrade"--into danger, has revealed how deeply underneath our sharp divisions our spiritual loyalties seek unity when crisis comes. For all the unity that can come without compromise to conscience, surely the Christian people are bound to pray and work. _O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Saviour, the Prince of Peace; give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions. Take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatsoever else may hinder us from godly union and concord; that as there is but one body and one Spirit, and one hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen._--"The Book of Common Prayer." Twelfth Week, Seventh Day =For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved his appearing.--II Tim. 4:6-8.= The fellowship of faith is not bounded by the earth. Paul's expectation took into its account a communion that far overreached the confines of temporal experience. The New Testament believers not only held but vividly apprehended that the "whole family" to which they belonged in Christian communion was "in heaven and on earth." Their outlook Wordsworth has expressed in modern words: "There is One great society alone on earth: The noble Living and the noble Dead." To that society of the world's prophets and martyrs, seers and servants, it may well be a man's ambition to belong. And that ideal is not impossible to anyone, for the mark and seal of their fellowship is that they have "kept the faith." When others despaired, lost heart, and deserted causes on which man's welfare hung, they kept the faith. When mysteries perplexed their minds and discouragement, to human vision, was more rational than hope, they turned from sight to insight and they kept the faith. When new knowledge, half-understood, disturbed old forms of thought and multitudes were confused in uncertainty and disbelief, they kept the faith. And they often came to their end, like Paul, having "suffered the loss of all things"--yet not all, for they had kept the faith. "For all the saints, who from their labors rest, Who Thee by faith before the world confessed, Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest, Alleluia! O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old, And win with them the victor's crown of gold, Alleluia! O blest communion, fellowship Divine! We feebly struggle; they in glory shine; Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine. Alleluia!" _O God, Thou only Refuge of Thy children! who remainest true though all else should fail, and livest though all things die; cover us now when we fly to Thee. Thy shelter was around our fathers. Thy voice called them away, and bids us seek Thee here till we depart to be with them. In Thy memory are the lives of all men from of old. Before Thy sight are the secret hearts of all the living. We stand in awe of Thy justice which, since the ages began, hath never changed: and we cling to Thy mercy that passeth not away._ _Almighty Father, Thou art a God afar off as well as nigh at hand. Thou who in times past didst pity the prayers of our forerunners, and especially of that suffering servant of Thine whom Thou hast made our Leader unto Thee! be pleased to strengthen us now, O Lord, to bear our lighter cross and surrender ourselves for duty and for trial unto Thee. Show us something of the blessed peace with which they now look back on their days of strong crying and tears, and teach us that it is far better to die in Thy service than to live for our own. Rebuke within us all immoderate desires, all unquiet temper, all presumptuous expectations, all ignoble self-indulgence, and feeling on us the embrace of Thy Fatherly hand, may we meekly and with courage go into the darkest ways of our pilgrimage, anxious not to change Thy perfect will, but only to do and bear it worthily. May we spend all our days in Thy presence, and meet our death in the strength of Thy grace, and pass thence into the nearer light of Thy knowledge and love. Amen._--John Hunter. COMMENT FOR THE WEEK I So far in our studies we have been dealing with the individual believer in his search for a reasonable faith. But we must face at last what from the beginning has been true, that there is no such thing as an individual believer. _All faiths are social._ However little we may be aware of each other's influence, however intangible the social forces which shape the convictions by which we live, no man builds or keeps his faiths alone. We may pride ourselves on our independent thought, but the fact remains as Prof. William James has stated it: "Our faith is faith in some one else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case." The realm of religious conviction is not the only place where we hold with a strong sense of personal possession what has been given us by others, and often forget to acknowledge our indebtedness. We believe in democracy and popular education, not because by some gift of individual genius we are wiser than our unbelieving sires, but because, in the advance of the race, that faith has been wrought out by many minds, and, with minute addition of our own thought, we share the general conviction. As a man considers how rich and varied are the faiths he holds, how few of them he ever has thought through or ever can, and how helpless he would be, if he were set from the beginning to create any one of them, he gains new insight into Paul's words, "What hast thou that thou didst not receive? but if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?" (I Cor. 4:7). Indeed, this same truth holds in every relationship. Nothing is more impossible than a "self-made man." In no realm can that common phrase be intelligently applied to anyone. If in business one has risen from poverty to wealth, he has used railroads that he did not invent and telephones that he does not even understand; he has built his business on a credit system for which he did not labor and whose moral basis has been laid in the ethical struggles of unnumbered generations. For the clothes he wears, the food he eats, the education he receives, he is debtor to a social life that taps the ends of the earth and that has cost blood not his and money which he never can repay. If granting this, a man still say, "My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth" (Deut. 8:17), he may well consider whence his power has come. His distant ancestors stalked through primeval forests, their brows sloped back, their hairy hides barren of clothes, and in their hands stone hatchets, by the aid of which they sought their food. What has this Twentieth Century boaster done to change the habits of the Stone Age to the civilization on which his wealth is based or to elevate man's intellect to the grasp and foresight of the modern business world? All the power by which he wins his way is clearly a social gift, and any contribution which he may add is infinitesimal compared with his receipts. By this truth all declarations of individual independence need to be chastened and controlled and all boasting cancelled utterly. Normal minds have their times of self-assertion in religion, when they grow impatient of believing anything simply because they have been told. As a college Junior put it: "I must clear the universe of God, and then start in at the beginning to see what I can find." But to assert a reasonable independence ought not to mean that one cut himself off from the support of history, the accumulated experience of the race, the insight of the seers, and in unassisted isolation walk, like Kipling's cat, "by his wild lone." No man can do that anywhere and still succeed. Imagine a man, in politics, dubious of his old affiliations and disturbed by the conflicting opinions of his day. If, so perplexed, he should throw over all that ever had been thought or done in civic life, and in an unaided individual adventure attempt out of his own mind to constitute a state, in what utter confusion would he land! No mind can begin work as though it were the first mind that ever acted, or were the only mind in action now. All effective thinking is social; contributions from innumerable heads pour in to make a wise man's knowledge. And to suppose that any man can climb the steep ascent of heaven all alone and lay his hands comprehensively on the Eternal is preposterous. No one ever apprehended a science so, much less God! Even Jesus fed his soul on the prophets of his race. II Indeed, Jesus' attitude toward the fellowship of faith is most revealing, seen against the background of his nation's history. In the beginning, there was in Israel no such thing as individual religion. In the earliest strata of the Bible's revelation, we find no indication of a faith that brought God and each of his people into intimate relationships. Jehovah was the God of the nation as a whole and not of the people one by one. When he spoke, he spoke to the community through a leader; "Speak thou with us and we will hear," the people cried to Moses, "but let not God speak with us lest we die" (Exodus 20:19). It was at the time of the Exile, when the nation fell in ruins, and the hearts of faithful Jews were thrown back one by one on God that individual trust, peace, joy, and confidence found utterance. It was Jeremiah (Chap. 31) and Ezekiel (Chap. 18) who saw men individually responsible to God, and who opened the way for loyal Jews to be his people even when the nation was no more. And what they began Jesus completed. He lifted up the individual and made each man the object of the Father's care. "It is not the will of your Father ... that _one_ of these little ones should perish" (Matt 18:14). "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, and having lost _one_ of them ..." (Luke 15:4). "The very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matt. 10:30). As for religion's inner meaning, it became in Jesus' Gospel not a national ritual but a private faith: "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret" (Matt. 6:6). While Jesus, however, so emphasized the inward, individual aspects of religion, he did not leave it there, as though persons could ever be like jugs in the rain, separate receptacles that share neither their emptiness nor their abundance. He bound his disciples into a fellowship. He joined their channels until, like interflowing streams, one contributed to all and the spirit of all was expressed in each. He braided them into friendship with himself and with each other, so close that the community did what no isolated believer ever could have done--it survived the shock of the crucifixion, the agony of sustained persecution, the frailties of its members, and the discouragements of its campaign. On that _group_ the Master counted for his work: "The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). And when the New Testament Church emerged, the fellowship which Christ himself had breathed into it was clear and strong. Men who became Christians, in the New Testament, came into a new relationship with God indeed, but into a new human fraternity as well. They were "builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph. 2:22), and even when death came that fellowship was not destroyed. They were still "the whole family in heaven and on earth" (Eph. 3:15). John Wesley was right: "The Bible knows nothing of a solitary religion." In the Old Testament religion was predominantly national; in the New Testament, individuals rejoicing in the "Beloved Community" could not describe their life without the reiteration of "one another." They were to "pray one for another" and "confess sins one to another" (James 5:16); they were to "love one another" (I Pet 1:22), "exhort one another" (Heb. 3:13), "comfort one another" (I Thess. 4:18); they were to "bear one another's burdens" (Gal. 6:2) and in communal worship "admonish one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (Col. 3:16). So when they thought of their faith, they never held it in solitary confidence; they were "strong to apprehend _with all the saints_ what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge" (Eph. 3:18). III When a modern believer endeavors to interpret this spirit in the New Testament in terms of his own wants, he sees at once that he needs fellowship for the _enriching_ of his faith. Cooperation for achievement is a modern commonplace, but when Paul prayed, as we have quoted him, that the Ephesians might be "strong to _apprehend_ with all the saints," he was stating the more uncommon proposition that men must cooperate for knowledge. He saw the divine love in its length, breadth, depth, and height on one side, and on the other a solitary man endeavoring to understand it. Impossible! said Paul; the divine love in its fulness cannot be known in solitude, it must be apprehended in fellowship. At first nothing seems more strictly individual than knowledge. To know is an intimate, personal affair; it cannot be carried on by proxy. But even casual thought at once makes clear that in solitude we cannot know even the physical universe. No man can go apart and through the narrow aperture of his own mind see the full round of truth. For astronomers study the stars, geologists the rocks, chemists know their special field and physicists know theirs; each scientist understands in part, and if one is to know the breadth and length and height and depth of the physical world he must be strong to apprehend with all the scientists. In religion this necessity of cooperation in knowing God may not at first seem evident. In the secret session behind closed doors, as Jesus said, one finds his clearest thought of God, and in the individual heart the divine illumination comes. So some insist; and the answer does not deny, but surpasses the truth in the insistence. _Is yours the only heart where God is to be found? Does the sea of his grace exhaust itself in what it can reveal in your bay?_ Rather, in how many different ways men come to God, how various their experiences of him, and how much each needs the rest for breadth and catholicity of view! One man comes to God by way of intellectual perplexity and he knows chiefly faith's illumination of life's puzzling problems; another comes through the experience of sin and he responds to such a phrase as "God our Saviour" (I Tim. 1:1); another comes to God through trouble and has found in faith "eternal comfort and good hope through grace" (II Thess. 2:16); and another by way of a happy life has found in God the object of devoted gratitude. One, a mystic, finds God in solitary prayer; another, a worker, knows him chiefly as the Divine Ally. Some are very young and have a child's religion; some are at the summit of their years and have a strong man's achieving faith; and some are old and are familiar with the face of death and the thought of the eternal. How multiform is man's experience of God! Some compositions cannot be interpreted by a solo. Let the first violinist play with what skill he can, he alone is not adequate to the endeavor. There must be an orchestra; the oboes and viols, the drums and trumpets, the violins and cellos must all be there. So faith in God is too rich and manifold to be interpreted by individuals alone; a fellowship is necessary. Even Paul, in one of his most gloriously mixed-up and yet revealing sentences, prays for fellowship that his faith may be enriched: "I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; that is, that I with you may be comforted in you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine" (Rom. 1:11, 12). Poverty of faith, therefore, is not due only to individual lapses of character and perplexities of mind; _it is due to neglect of Christian fellowship_. One who with difficulty has clung to his slender experience of God, goes up to the church on Sunday. Even though it be a humble place of prayer, if the worship is genuine, the hymns, the prayers, the Scriptures gather up the testimony of centuries to the reality of God. Here David speaks again and Isaiah answers; here Paul reaffirms his faith and John is confident that God is love. Here the saints before Christ cry, "Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer" (Psalm 18:2), and the sixteenth century answers, "A mighty fortress is our God"; and the nineteenth century replies, "How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord!" We go up to the church finding it hard to sing, "_My_ Jesus, _I_ love thee, _I_ know thou art _mine_"; we go down with a _Te Deum_ in our hearts: "The glorious company of the apostles praise thee; The goodly fellowship of the prophets praise thee; The noble army of martyrs praise thee; The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee." In the rich and varied faiths of the Church we find a far more fruitful relationship with God than by ourselves we ever could have gained. Without such an enriching experience men can only with difficulty keep faith alive. Twigs that snap out of the camp-fire lose their flame and fall, charred sticks; but put them back and they will burn again, for fire springs from fellowship. Amiel, after an evening of solitude with a favorite book on philosophy, wrote what is many a Christian's prayer: "Still I miss something--common worship, a positive religion, shared with other people. Ah! when will the church to which I belong in heart rise into being? I cannot, like Scherer, content myself with being in the right all alone. I must have a less solitary Christianity." IV Men need fellowship, not only for the enrichment of their faith, but for its _stability_. No man can successfully believe anything all alone. Let an opinion in any realm be denied, despised, neglected by common consent of men, and not easily do we hold an unshaken conviction of its truth. But let it be agreed with, supported and endorsed by many, especially by men of insight, and with each additional testimony to its truth our faith grows confident. A fundamental experience of man is that his faiths are socially confirmed. Authority of some sort, therefore, never is outgrown in any province of knowledge, and strugglers after faith have solid right to the sustenance which it can give. For one thing the authority of the _expert_ is acknowledged everywhere. When a great astronomer speaks about the stars, most of us put our hands upon our mouths and humble ourselves to listen. If in science, expert knowledge has this authority--not artificial, infallible, and externally enforced, but vital, serviceable, and real--how much more in realms where insight and spiritual quality are indispensable! Such authority comes in the spirit of Paul: "Not that we have lordship over your faith, but are helpers of your joy" (II Cor. 1:24). An amateur stands before a picture like Turner's "The Building of Carthage" and either does not notice the details, or noticing sees no special meaning there. But when Ruskin, Turner's seer, begins to speak--how wonderful the children in the foreground sailing toy boats in a pool, prophecy of Carthage's future greatness on the sea!--one by one the details take fire and glow with meaning as our eyes are opened. Such is the service of a real authority. It does not, as Weigel says, put out a person's eye and then try to persuade him to see with some one else's. It rather cures our blindness and enables us to see what by ourselves we were incapable of seeing. Christ supremely, when allowed to be himself, has helped men thus. He has not oppressed the mind with burdensome authority, denying us our right to think. He has come appealing to our little insight with his own clear vision, "Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?" (Luke 12:57). Things which we see dimly he has clarified; things which we did not see at all, he has made manifest. He has been what he called himself, the Light, and his people have said of him what the man in John's ninth chapter said, "He opened mine eyes" (John 9:30). A struggler after faith may well count among his assets the insight of the seers and of the Seer. As another states it: "Our weak faith may at times be permitted to look through the eyes of some strong soul, and may thereby gain a sense of the certainty of spiritual things which before we had not." Beside the authority of the seers, there is _the authority of racial experience_, to which indeed no mind ought slavishly to subject itself, but from which all minds ought to gain insight and confidence. Tradition has done us much disservice. Oppressions that might long before have been outgrown have been counted holy because they were hoary. There must be something to commend an opinion or a custom beside its age, and all progress depends upon recognizing that "Time makes ancient good uncouth." But if out of the past have come evils to be overthrown, out of the past also have come the best possessions of the race. "Traditional" has grown to be an adjective of ill repute; it signifies in common parlance the inheritance of oppressive ideals and institutions that hold the "dead hand" over hopes of progress. But our best music also, our poetry, and our art are traditional; the discoveries of our scientists on the long road from alchemy to chemistry, from magic to physics are traditional; all that each new generation begins with, fitted out like the well-favored child of a provident father, is traditional. No one can describe the utter barrenness of life, if we could not build on the accumulations of our sires, using the result of their toil as the basis of our work, their hardly won wisdom as our guide. To discount anything because it is traditional is to discount everything, except that comparatively minute addition which each new generation makes to the slowly accumulating wisdom and wealth of the race. As Mr. Chesterton has put it: "Tradition may be defined as the extension of the franchise. Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our father." Now racial experience is dubious at many points and at very few does it approach finality. But on one matter it speaks with a unanimity that is nothing short of absolute. _Man cannot live without religion_--like the earth beneath the mountain peaks this universal experience of the race underlies the special insights of the seers. When during the mid-Victorian discomfiture of faith at the first disclosures of the new science, Tennyson's "In Memoriam" appeared, Prof. Sidgwick wrote of it, "What 'In Memoriam' did for us, for me at least in this struggle, was to impress on us the ineffable and irradicable conviction that _humanity_ will not and cannot acquiesce in a godless world." That conviction is confirmed by the whole experience of the race. To be sure religion, like love, exists in all degrees. From degraded lust to the relationship of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, love is infinite in variety; it takes its quality from the character of those whom it affects; yet through all its changes it is itself so built into the structure of mankind, that though there be loveless individuals, life as a whole is unimaginable without it. So religion runs the gamut of human quality. In a Hindu idolater it performs disgusting rites to placate an angry god, and in Rabindranath Tagore it cries: "If thou speakest not I will fill my heart with thy silence and endure it. I will keep still and wait like the night with starry vigil and its head bent low with patience. The morning will surely come, the darkness will vanish, and thy voice pour down in golden streams, breaking through the sky." In Torquemada it is cruel; in Father Damien it becomes a passion for saviorhood. Religion helped Sennacherib to his campaigns and Isaiah to his prophecies; it preached the Sermon on the Mount and it dragged Jesus before Pilate. Can the same spring send forth sweet water and bitter? But religion does it, for religion is life motived by visions of God; it is tremendous in strength, but with man's unequal power to understand the Divine, it is ambiguous in quality. Like electricity, it is magnificent in blessing or terrible in curse. Yet through all its degrees man's relationship with the Invisible is so essentially a part of his humanity that lacking it he has never yet been discovered, and without it he cannot be conceived. It was this impressive witness of racial experience that made John Fiske, of Harvard, say, "Of all the implications of the doctrine of evolution with regard to man, I believe the very deepest and strongest to be that which asserts the Everlasting Reality of Religion." This testimony of the spiritual seers and this cumulative experience of the race have a right to play a weighty part in any consideration of religious faith. Even a rebellious youth might pause before he scoffs at a mature and thoughtful mind, letting his Church, his Scripture, and his Christ speak impressively to him about the reality of God. What we all do in every other realm, when we are wise, this mind is doing in religion. His individual grasp on truth he sets in the perspective of history. He does not feel himself upon a lonely quest when he seeks God; rather he feels behind him and around him the race of which he is a part and which never yet has ceased to believe in the Divine, and he sees his own insights illumined by those supreme spirits who have talked with God "as a man talketh with his friend." He knows as well as any youth that authority has been stereotyped in theories of artificial infallibility, to which no mature mind for a moment can weakly surrender its right to think, but he refuses to give up a real authority because some have held a false one. The authority of the dictionary is one thing--literal and external. But the authority of a good mother moves on a different plane. It is not artificial and oppressive. It is vital and inspiring. She has lived longer, experienced more than her children; she is wiser, better, more discerning than they. A man who has had experience of great motherhood comes to feel that if his mother thinks something very strongly and very persistently, he would better consider that thing well, for the chances are overwhelming that there is truth in it. How much more shall he feel so about the age-long experience of the saints with God! In this respect at least there still is truth in Cyprian's words, "He that hath God for his Father, hath the Church for his Mother." V Faith needs fellowship not alone for enrichment and stability, but for _expression_. For faith, as from the beginning we have maintained, is not an effortless acceptance of ideas or personal relationships; it is an active appropriation of convictions that drive life, and Christian faith especially has always involved a campaign whose object is the saving of the world. Such an expression of religious life involves cooperation; men cannot effectively support the "work of faith" (I Thess. 1:3) apart from fellowship. The necessity for this cooperative expression of religion is clear when we consider the _one in whom we believe_. How anyone can expect in solitude to believe in Christ is a mystery. For Christ, with overflowing love to those who shared his filial fellowship with God, said, "No longer do I call you servants ... I have called you friends" (John 15:15); his care encompassed folk who never heard of him and whom he never saw, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring ... and they shall become one flock, one shepherd" (John 10:16); and beyond his generation's life his love reached out to followers yet unborn, "Them also that believe on me through their word" (John 17:20). Whatever other quality a movement sprung from such a source may possess, it must be social. Moreover, Jesus' faith was active; the meaning of it he himself disclosed, "All things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23). In such a spirit, both by himself and through his followers, he sought the lost, healed the sick, preached the Gospel, and expectantly proclaimed an earth transformed to heaven. Such a character cannot be known in contemplation under the trees in June or through the pages of an interesting book. If Garibaldi, leading his men to the liberation of Italy, had found a devotee who said, I believe in you; I love to read your deeds, and often in my solitary, meditative hours I am cheered by the thought of you--one can easily imagine the swift and penetrating answer! That you believe in me is false; no one believes in me who does not share my purpose; the army is afoot, great business is ahead, the cause is calling, he who believes follows. Such a spirit was Christ's. The hermits, whether of old time in their cells, or of modern time with their unaffiliated lives, are wrong. _The final test of faith in Christ is fellowship in work._ The Church itself has been to blame for much undedicated faith. Correctness of opinion has been substituted, as a test, for fidelity of life. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved," has been interpreted to mean: accept a theory about Christ's person and all is well. But one need only go back in imagination to the time when first that formula was used to see how vital was its import. To believe in Christ then meant to accept a despised religion, to break ties that men value more than life, to face the certainty of contempt and the risk of violence. To believe in Christ then meant coming out from old relationships and going to a sect where one was pilloried with derision, that one might work for the things which Christ represents. No one did that as a theory; it required a tremendous thrust of the will, a decision that reached to the roots of life. All this was involved in believing on Christ, and our decent holding of a theory about him, in a time when all lips praise him, is a poor substitute for such vital faith. John tells us that once a multitude of Jews professed belief in Jesus, but the Master, hearing their affirmations, saw the superficial meaning there. "Many believed on his name," says John--"but Jesus did not trust himself unto them" (John 2:23, 24). How many believe in Christ in such a way that he cannot believe in them! They forget that while the test of a man is his faith, the test of faith is faithfulness. An apostolic injunction needs modern enforcement, "that they who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works" (Titus 3:8). The necessity for a cooperative expression of religion is evident again in the _truth which we believe_. Take in its simplest form the Gospel which Christianity presents, that God is in earnest about personality, and what urgency is there for associated work! For personality is being ruined in this world. False ideas of life, idolatry whether to fetishes in Africa or to money here, irreligion in all its manifold and blighting forms, are destroying personality from within, and from without sweatshops, tenements, war, the liquor traffic, industrial inequity, are engaged in the same task of ruin. The common contrast between individual and social Christianity is superficial. The one thing for which the Christian cares is personal life, and in its culture and salvation he sees the aim of God and Godlike men. Whatever, therefore, affects _that_ is his concern, and what is there that does not affect it? What men believe about life's meaning and its destiny strikes to the core of personal life, and the houses in which men live, the conditions under which they work, the wages that they are paid, and the environments which surround their plastic childhood--these, too, mould for good or ill the fortunes of personality. The Christian, therefore, who intelligently holds the faith that he professes cannot be negligent either of evangelism, education, and missionary enterprise upon the one side, or of social reformation on the other. These are two ends of the tunnel by which the Gospel seeks to open out a way for personality to find its freedom. A man who says that he believes in Jesus Christ, and yet is complacent about child labor and commercialized vice, poor housing conditions and unjust wages, the trade in liquor and the butchery of men in war, stands in peril of hearing the twenty-third chapter of Matthew's gospel brought up to date for his especial benefit by the same lips that spoke it first. The indignation of the Master falls on priests and Levites who, speeding to the temple service, "pass by on the other side" the victims of social injury. Isolated Christians, however, cannot further this campaign for personality redeemed from inward ills and outward handicaps. _Evil is organized, and goodness must be, too._ As wisely would a single patriot shoulder a rifle and set out for France as would an unaffiliated Christian set his solitary strength against the massed evil of the world. Men increase effectiveness by a large per cent through fellowship, as ancient Hebrews saw: "Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand" (Lev. 26:8). VI Many secondary fellowships offer to a Christian opportunity for associated service; no cooperative endeavor to make this a better world for God to rear his children in should lack Christian sympathy and support. But the primary fellowship of Christians is the Church. Some indeed would have no church; they would have man's spiritual life a disembodied wraith, without "a local habitation and a name." But no other one of all man's finer interests has survived without organized expression. Justice is a great ideal; any endeavor to incarnate it in human institutions sullies its purity. One who dwelt only on the lofty nature of justice, who thought of it uncontaminated and ideal, might protest against its embodiment in the tawdry ritual and demeaning squabbles of a law court. Between the poetry of justice and the recriminations of lawyers, the perjury of witnesses, the fumbling uncertainty of evidence, the miscarriages of equity, how bitterly a scornful mind could point the contrast! But a reverent mind, sorry as it may be at the misrepresentation of the ideal in the human institution, is ill content with scorn. He who with insight reads the history of jurisprudence, perceives how the courts of law, with all their faults, have conserved the gains in social equity, have propagated the ideal for which they stand, have made progress sometimes slowly, sometimes with a rush like soldiers storming a redoubt, and in times of stress have been a bulwark against the invasion of the people's rights. The poetry of justice would have been an idle dream without equity's laborious embodiment in codes and courts. Some minds dwell with joy upon the spiritual Church. Its names are written on no earthly roster, but in the Book of Life; its worship is offered in no earthly temple, but in the trysting places where soul meets Over-soul in trustful fellowship; its baptism is not with water but with spirit, its eucharist not with bread but with the shared life of the Lord. Or, ranging out to think of the Church as an ideal human brotherhood men dream as Manson did in "The Servant in the House": "If you have eyes, you will presently see the church itself--a looming mystery of many shapes and shadows, leaping sheer from floor to dome. The work of no ordinary builder!... The pillars of it go up like the brawny trunks of heroes: the sweet human flesh of men and women is moulded about its bulwarks, strong, impregnable: the faces of little children laugh out from every corner-stone: the terrible spans and arches of it are the joined hands of comrades; and up in the heights and spaces there are inscribed the numberless musings of all the dreamers of the world. It is yet building--building and built upon. Sometimes the work goes forward in deep darkness: sometimes in blinding light: now beneath the burden of unutterable anguish: now to the tune of a great laughter and heroic shoutings like the cry of thunder. Sometimes, in the silence of the night-time, one may hear the tiny hammerings of the comrades at work up in the dome--the comrades that have climbed ahead." All such ideals, like pillars of fire and cloud, lead the march toward a promised land. They are to the actual Church what the poetry of justice is to the actual courts. But in one case as in the other, such ideals are dreams if, with labor and struggle, through many mistakes, against the disheartenment of man's frailty and sin, we do not work out an institution that shall embody and express man's spiritual life. Even now a discerning spirit whose own faith has been nourished at the altar regards the Church with boundless gratitude. She has indeed been to the Gospel what courts are to justice, indispensable and yet burdensome, an institution that the ideal cannot live without and yet often cannot easily live with. No one feels her faults so acutely as one who devotedly values the Gospel and longs for its adequate expression on the earth. Yet the Church conserves the race's spiritual gains, fits out our youth with the treasure of man's accumulated faith, is a power house of endless moral energy for good causes in the world, exalts the ideal aims of life amid the crushing pressure of material pursuits, holds out a gospel of hope to men whom all others have forsaken, and to the ends of the earth proclaims the good pews of God and the Kingdom. No other fellowship offers to men of faith so great an opportunity to make distinctive contribution to the race's spiritual life. In the presence of the Church's service and the Church's need an unaffiliated believer in Jesus Christ is an anomaly. For enrichment, stability, and expression, faith must have fellowship. _"Oh magnify Jehovah with me, and let us exalt His name together"_ (Psalm 34:3). SCRIPTURE PASSAGES USED IN THE DAILY READINGS EXODUS 3:1-5 (VI-5); 4:24-26 (II-4). DEUTERONOMY 28:65-67 (VIII-2). II KINGS 21:3-6 (IV-5). JOB 30:20, 21, 25-27 (X-4); 37:23 (V-3); 38:31-38 (VII-1). PSALMS 16:5-11 (III-5); 23:1-4 (X-3); 27:1-6 (VIII-5); 27:7-14 (V-7); 51:1-4 (III-3); 55:1-7 (VIII-1); 56:1-3 (VIII-3); 73:2, 3, 16, 17, 24-26 (II-6); 103:1-5 (III-2); 118:1-6 (VIII-7); 145:1-10 (III-7); 146:1-5 (IV-1). PROVERBS 2:1-5 (II-3); 4:1-9 (II-2). ECCLESIASTES 3:11 (V-3). ISAIAH 1:10-17 (IV-2); 40:26-31 (V-4); 51:9-16 (VI-6); 55:1-3 (II-7). AMOS 5:21-24 (IX-4). MICAH 6:1-8 (IX-3). MATTHEW 6:6-14 (III-1); 6:9-15 (XII-5); 6:24-33 (VI-6); 7:15-20 (V-6); 7:24-27 (VI-7); 13:54-58 (XI-3); 17:19-20 (XI-4); 18:12-14 (II-4); 21:28-31 (X-1); 23:13-15, 23, 24 (XII-1); 25:34-40 (IX-7). MARK 12:28-30 (V-1). LUKE 6:12-16 (IX-2); 7:48-50 (XI-2); 18:9-14 (IV-3); 22:31, 32 (XI-6). JOHN 3:21 (IX-5); 4:23, 24 (IV-5); 6:16, 17 (IX-5); 6:27-29 (XI-1); 7:16, 17 (IX-5); 14:25-27 (VII-2); 17:20-23 (XII-6). ACTS 17:22-28 (IV-6). ROMANS 8:1-6 (X-7); 8:14-16 (V-5); 8:24, 25 (III-4); 10:11-15 (XII-4); 11:33, 34 (V-3); 11:33-12:2 (IX-6); 15:13 (III-4); 16:1-8 (IX-1). I CORINTHIANS 2:10-14 (VII-4); 3:4-9 (III-6); 3:18-23 (VII-6); 4:11-13 (VI-2). II CORINTHIANS 5:5 (V-2). GALATIANS 2:20 (XI-5); 5:13-15 (XII-3); 5:16-23 (IV-7). EPHESIANS 1:15-19 (VII-5); 4:13-15 (X-5). PHILIPPIANS 3:12-16 (X-6). I THESSALONIANS 3:1, 2, 10 (XI-6); 5:21 (V-1). II THESSALONIANS 1:3 (XI-6). I TIMOTHY 6:20, 21 (II-5). II TIMOTHY 1:3-5 (II-1); 4:6-8 (XII-7). HEBREWS 1:1, 2 (VII-7); 2:8-10 (VI-3); 4:1, 2, (I-6); 10:23-25 (XII-2); 10:32-36 (I-4); 11:1 (I-1); 11:3, 6 (I-5); 11:8-10 (I-2); 11:13-16 (I-1); 11:24-27 (I-2); 11:32-40 (I-3); 12:1-3 (VI-4); 13:7 (I-7). JAMES 1:2-8 (X-2); 2:14-21 (IV-4); 5:13-16 (VIII-4). I PETER 1:3-9 (XI-7); 4:12-16, 19 (VI-1). II PETER 1:5 (V-1). JUDE 20-25 (VII-3). SOURCES OF PRAYERS USED IN THE DAILY READINGS ALFRED, KING--IX-3, "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by S. F. Fox. ANSELM, ST.--XI-6. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by S. F. Fox. ARNDT, JOHANN--IX-1; X-1. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by S. F. Fox. ARNOLD, THOMAS--VII-5. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by S. F. Fox. BACON, FRANCIS--VII-2. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by S. F. Fox. BEECHER, HENRY WARD--I-4; I-7; II-7; III-5; III-7; IV-7; V-7; VI-6; X-5. "A Book of Public Prayer." BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER--XII-6. DAWSON, GEORGE--X-4. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by S. F. Fox. HALE, SIR MATTHEW--VII-4. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by S. F. Fox. HUNTER, JOHN--I-1; IV-5; XI-2; XI-3; XII-7. "Devotional Services for Public Worship." JENKS, BENJAMIN--X-2. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by S. F. Fox. MCCOMB, SAMUEL--I-6; II-1; III-1; VI-3; VIII-1; VIII-2; VIII-3; VIII-5; VIII-6; VIII-7; IX-2; XI-1; XII-2; XII-4. "A Book of Prayers for Public and Personal Use." MARTINEAU, JAMES--III-4; IV-4; V-2; VI-2; XII-1. "Prayers in the Congregation and in College." NEWMAN, FRANCIS W.--VI-1; VI-7. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by S. F. Fox. ORCHARD, W. E.--I-2; I-3; II-2; II-3; II-4; II-5; II-6; III-2; IV-3; IV-6; V-1; V-3; V-6; VI-5; VII-1; VII-3; VII-7; VIII-4; IX-5; X-7; XI-5; XI-7. "The Temple." PARKER, THEODORE--I-5; V-4; V-5; VI-4; VII-6; X-6. "Prayers." RAUSCHENBUSCH, WALTER--III-6; IV-1; IV-2; IX-4; IX-6; XII-3; XII-5. "Prayers of the Social Awakening." ROBINSON, HELEN RING--XI-4. "Thy Kingdom Come," by Ralph E. Diffendorfer. SHAFTESBURY, EARL OF--IX-7. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by S. F. Fox. STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS--III-3. "Prayers Written at Vailima." VAN DYKE, HENRY--IV-6. "Thy Kingdom Come," by Ralph E. Diffendorfer. WEISS, S.--X-3. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by S. F. Fox.