\> ,60 University of California Berkeley * * \- /r Jjwiri*"* ^J VEXILLA REGIS VEXILLA REGIS uotitue L B. S. BOSTON batety JDri MDCCCXCIII ONE HUNDRED COPIES PRINTED FOR THE COMPILER AT THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, UNDER THE SU- PERVISION OF D. B. UPDIKE, SIX BEACON STREET, BOSTON. THE SELECTIONS FROM LONGFEL- LOW, LOWELL, WHITTIER, AND EM- ERSON ARE USED BY PERMISSION OF MESSRS. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. j CONTENTS ANUARY God's Appointments Plain Music Compassion .... A Cluster of Graces FEBRUARY Intercession Bearing the Cross Simplicity. Man's Judgments . MARCH Warfare .... The Wrath of Man God's Love for Individuals Woman. The Virgin . APRIL The Heathen . Grief for the Loss of One Reunion .... Self-Sacrifice .... MAY Solitude .... Society God Alone Enough for Us Knowing God JUNE Doubts .... Faith Perfection through Suffering Knowledge from Obedience . JULY Freedom . . . , . . . .82 Liberty . . , . ' . . '. . 85 Intellect. Genius . . yj'; * .88 Aspects of Sin . . < . , . . 91 AUGUST Animals . . . . * . . .96 The Sea . . . , : . > . 100 Mysticism . . .... .V, .... . 103 Rich and Poor . r . ' ', . ; 106 SEPTEMBER Old Age . . . ... ,> .. - . .113 Skepticism .... 116 Childlike Obedience . . . ' . .119 Mystery. . . , v . .v r "^V v 122 OCTOBER Entering into the Labors of Others ^-^ . 126 Time ^ 129 Good Stronger than Evil . . . . . 132 Punishment . . ^ - . ; . . 3 . 134 NOVEMBER Atonement . ... . . . . 140 Tides of the Soul . f .' . . d 143 Fate . ........ . .146 Sad World . . . ; . .149 DECEMBER Peace - ^ . ^ = . 154 Love to God and Man 1 57 The Power of Faith and Love . 160 Repentance, Aspiration, Mercy . J 9 , 164 FOR THE MONTH OF JANUARY Appointments Plain TN the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft ; in his quiver hath he hid me. ISAIAH xlix. 2. But let patience have her perfect work. s. JAMES i. 4. Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life. REVELATION ii. 10. II And so in Cordova through patient nights Columbus watches, or he sails in dreams Between the setting stars and finds new day ; Then wakes again to the old weary days, Girds on the cord and frock of pale Saint Francis, And like him zealous pleads with foolish men. " I ask but for a million maravedis ; Give me three caravels to find a world, New shores, new realms, new soldiers for the Cross Son cosas grandes ! " Thus he pleads in vain ; Yet faints not utterly, but pleads anew, Thinking, " God means it, and has chosen me." GEORGE ELIOT. JANUARY ill We are all of us like the weavers of the Gobe- lins, who, following out the pattern of an unknown artist, endeavor to match the threads of divers colors on the wrong side of the woof, and do not see the result of their labor. It is only when the texture is complete, that they can admire at their ease these lovely flowers and figures, those splendid pictures worthy of the palaces of kings. So it is with us, my friends : we work, we suffer, and v/e see neither the end nor the fruit. But God sees it; and when He releases us from our task, He will disclose to our wondering gaze what He, the great Artist, everywhere present and invisible, has woven out of those toils that now seem to us so sterile, and He will then deign to hang up in His palace of gold the flimsy web that we have spun. F. OZANAM. |jj It is God who prepares men when He intends to use them, and who gives them just what they require for their work, and that by a marvelous suc- cession of events, the connection of which can only be seen when we examine the whole chain. As I glance over my own life, from whatever side I view it I see it all converging to the point where I now stand. LACORDAIRE. j) No sane man at last distrusts himself. His existence is a perfect answer to all sentimental cavils. If he is, he is wanted and has the precise properties that are required. That we are here is proof we ought to be here. EMERSON. 2 JANUARY Patience is the part Of all whom Time records among the great, The only gift I know, the only art, To strengthen up our frailties to our fate. T. PARSONS. jj| I try as much as I can to let nothing distress me, and to take everything that happens as for the best. I believe that this is a duty, and that we sin in not doing so. For, in short, the reason why sins are sins is only because they are contrary to the will of God ; and the essence of sin thus con- sisting in having a will opposed to that which we know to be of God, it is plain, it appears to me, that when He discovers His will to us by events, it would be a sin not to conform ourselves to it. PASCAL. Jjtl When the soul has reached a certain degree of elevation towards God, she easily despises life, and then it is that God binds her to life once more by the ties of duty. Life is a very important busi- ness, though often enough we do not see its utility. Drops of water as we are, we ask what the ocean can want with us, and the ocean might reply that it is made up of such drops. LACORDAIRE. In life's small things be resolute and great To keep thy muscle trained : know'st thou when Fate Thy measure takes, or when she '11 say to thee, " I find thee worthy ; do this deed for me " ? LOWELL. JANUARY JRttffe tJUt Jubal : he was the father of all such as han- dle the harp and organ. GENESIS iv. 21. David took an harp, and played with his hand : so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. i SAMUEL xvi. 23. j You do not perhaps know that Music was among the Greeks quite the first means of education ; and that it was so connected with their system of ethics and of intellectual training, that the God of Music is with them also the God of Righteousness ; the God who purges and avenges iniquity, and con- tends with their Satan as represented under the form of Python, " the corrupter." And the Greeks were incontrovertibly right in this. Music is the nearest at hand, the most orderly, the most delicate, of all bodily pleasures ; it is also the only one which is equally helpful to all the ages of man, helpful from the nurse's song to her infant, to the music, unheard of others, which often, if not most fre- quently, haunts the death-bed of pure and innocent spirits. RUSKIN. I have not long to trouble thee. Good Griffith, Cause the musicians play me that sad note I named my knell, whilst I sit meditating On that celestial harmony I go to. SHAKESPEARE. 4 JANUARY jft Oh ! silence that clarion in mercy For it carries my soul away ; And it whirls my thoughts out beyond me, Like the leaves on an autumn day. Oh ! exquisite tyranny silence My soul slips from under my hand, And as if by instinct is fleeing To a dread unvisited land. Thou Lord art the Father of music ; Sweet sounds are a whisper from Thee ; Thou hast made Thy creation all anthems, Though it singeth them silently. FABER. 11 Music : is it not to tender and poetic souls, to wounded and suffering hearts a text which they interpret as their memories need? If the heart of a poet must be given to a musician, must not poetry and love be listeners ere the great musical works of art are understood ? Religion, love, and music : are they not the triple expression of the fact the need of expansion, the need of touching with their own infinite the infinite beyond them, which is in the fibre of all noble souls ? These three forms of poesy end in God, who alone can unwind the knot of earthly emotion. Thus this holy human trinity joins itself to the holiness of God, of whom we make to ourselves no conception unless we surround Him by the fires of love and the golden cymbals of music and light and harmony. BALZAC. 5 JANUARY Music is an outward and earthly economy, under which great wonders are typified: To many men the very names which the science employs are utterly incomprehensible. To speak of an idea or a subject seems to be fanciful or trifling, to speak of the views it opens upon us, to be childish extrava- gance ; yet is it possible that that inexhaustible evo- lution and disposition of notes, so rich yet so simple, so intricate yet so regulated, so various yet so majes- tic, should be a mere sound, that those mysterious stirrings of the heart, and keen emotions, and strange yearnings after we know not what, and awful impressions from we know not whence, should be wrought in us by what is unsubstantial, and comes and goes, and begins and ends in itself? It is not so, it cannot be. No, they have escaped from some higher sphere, they are the outpouring of eternal harmony in the medium of created sound ; they are echoes from our Home, they are the voice of angels, or the Magnificat of saints, or the living laws of Divine Governance, or the Divine Attri- butes something are they besides themselves, which we cannot compass, which we cannot utter, though mortal man has the gift of eliciting them. CARDINAL NEWMAN. jftfo Till David touched his sacred lyre In silence lay the unbreathing wire, But when he swept its chords along, The angels stooped to hear the song. So sleeps the soul till thou, O Lord, Shalt deign to touch its lifeless chord ; 6 JANUARY Till, waked by Thee, its breath shall rise In music worthy of the skies. MOORE. Companion ]J) His compassions fail not. LAMENTATIONS iii. 22. Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. I PETER iii. 8. J)j To mercy, pity, peace, and love All pray in their distress, And to those virtues of delight Return their thankfulness. For Mercy has a human heart ; Pity, a human face ; And Love, the human form divine ; And Peace, the human dress. WILLIAM BLAKE. Perhaps here lay the secret of the hardness he had accused himself of : he had too little fellow-feeling with the weakness that errs in spite of foreseen consequences. Without this fellow-feel- ing how are we to get enough patience and charity toward our stumbling, falling companions in the long and changeful journey? And there is but one way in which a strong determined soul can 7 JANUARY learn it by getting his heartstrings bound round the weak and erring, so that he must share not only the outward consequence of their error, but their inward suffering. GEORGE ELIOT. jfyfti If the heart be right with God, He will weigh the rest in a balance of compassion. CARDINAL MANNING. jft If only dear to God the strong That never trip nor wander, Where were the throng whose morning song Thrills His blue arches yonder ? LOWELL. jpj? Clear images before your gladdened eyes Of nature's unambitious underwood And flowers that prosper in the shade. And when I speak of such among the flock as swerved Or fell, those only shall be singled out Upon whose lapse or error something more Than brotherly forgiveness may attend. WORDSWORTH. | Breathe for his wandering soul one passing sigh, O happier Christian, while thine eye grows dim, In all the mansions of the house on high Say not that Mercy has not one for him. o. w. HOLMES. 8 JANUARY 21 Cluster of (Braces Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience ; and to patience god- liness ; and to godliness brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness charity. II PETER i. 5, 6, 7. Therefore it behooves you to give yourself up to Him in perfect confidence, and so to fulfil all your duties towards God or man, as freely and fully as if you had the most vivid conscious- ness of that upholding grace, and that because faith gives us so much more certain assurance than even our own sense and experience can give. I would far rather know by God's own promise that His help is ever present, and that He wills me to live by His Holy Spirit and be led by His grace, than merely to feel it to be so ; and realize His guiding Hand by my own consciousness. My own feeling and experience might be deceived and might mislead me, but God is infallible, and where He speaks, our reason and senses have no further claim to be heard. PERE DE CONDREN. The virtue of prosperity is temperance, the virtue of adversity is fortitude. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favor. BACON. 9 JANUARY jj The more we know the less narrow are our minds. Our sphere of vision is increased. Our horizon is wider. We appreciate the manifold varieties of grace and of vocations. We see how God's glory finds its account in almost infinite di- versity, and how holiness can be at home in oppo- sites, nay, how what is wrong in this man is accept- able, perhaps heroic, in that other man. Hence, we free ourselves from little jealousies, from unchari- table doubts, from unworthy suspicions, from nar- row criticisms, things which are the especial dis- eases of little great men and little good men, and which may be said to frustrate one third, if not more, of all the good works which are attempted in the Church. Goodness which is not greatness also is a sad misfortune. While it saves its own soul it will not let others save theirs. Especially does it contrive, in proportion to its influence, to put a spoke in the wheel of all progress, and has almost a talent for interfering with the salvation of souls. Now, if reading did no more than abate the viru- lence of any one of the diseases mentioned above, would it not be a huge work ? FABER. Mother, I implore you do not be terrified, or arrested in your task, by the wilderness of knowledges which seem requisite. One may choose from all these the true points, few but fruitful, dif- ficult doubtless to many minds, but to you, mo- ther, whose mind seems new to me every day, and whose soul, whether from the advance of years, or whether from its wondrous temperance, wholly 10 JANUARY freed from the deceptions of the world and from the hard servitude of the senses, has power to grow and rise mightily within itself to you, beloved mother, these things will be as easy as they would be hard to the sluggish understanding of all those souls who live so miserably. s. AUGUSTINE. jtf)ti Angel of Patience ! sent to calm Our feverish brows with cooling palm ; To lay the storms of hope and fear, And reconcile life's smile and tear; The throbs of wounded pride to still And make our own our Father's will ! O thou who mournest on thy way, With longings for the close of day, He walks with thee, that Angel kind, And gently whispers, " Be resigned : Bear up, bear on, the end shall tell The dear Lord ordereth all things well ! " FROM GERMAN BY WHITTIER. So far as I can see I am not under the sway of any strong attachment to any cre- ated thing, not even to all the bliss of Heaven, but only to the love of God ; and this does not grow less on the contrary, I believe it is growing together with the longing that all men may serve Him. ... I am at peace within, and my likings and dislikings have so little power to take from me the Presence of the Three Persons of which, while it continues, it is so impossible to doubt, that I seem clearly to know II JANUARY by experience what is recorded by St. John, that God will make His dwelling in the soul, and not only by grace, but because He will have the soul feel that presence. s. THERESA. j The kingdom of established peace Which can no more remove, The perfect powers of godliness, The omnipotence of love. C. WESLEY. ) God is not satisfied with words and thoughts, my sisters. He requires effects and actions. If, therefore, you see a sick person whom you can in any way relieve, leave your devotions courageously to do so. Have compassion for what she suffers, and let her suffering be as your own. The love of God does not consist in shedding tears, nor in that satisfaction and tenderness which we ordinarily de- sire because they are consoling : it consists in serv- ing God with courage, in acting justly, in practising humility. s. THERESA. Jtffi We are daily tempted and solicited into rash and self-fettering judgments. . . . When we have once judged a man, we have, as it were, closed his access to us at all unexpected avenues. We are pledged to one view of him ; he is no more an infi- nite possibility to us ; we have measured him, cal- culated our expectations from him, and never more can look to him with the freshness and reverence of an undefined hope. A man that will do this 12 JANUARY towards a child has closed his heart against much that might enrich it. A sage will listen with an interest approaching to awe to the revelations of a child's heart. He is often judged by it, but judges not that pure, infinite, mysterious depth. And so should it be, as far as possible, with every human spirit. Why should we be asked to try it with our measuring-lines ? to say how deep or how shallow it is ? Why should we not keep the privilege of Hope, which is so very near to Charity. DR. J. H. THOM. 13 FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY A ND he said unto me, Fear not, Daniel; for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. DANIEL x. 12. This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and-fasting. s. MARK ix. 29. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all per- severance and supplication for all saints. EPHESIANS vi. 1 8. II It is observable, that though prayer for self is the first and plainest of Christian duties, the Apostles especially insist on another kind of prayer: prayer for others, for ourselves with others, for the Church, and for the world, that it may be brought into the Church. Intercession is the characteristic of Christian worship, the privilege of the heavenly adoption, the exercise of the perfect and spiritual mind. . . . Why should we be unwilling to admit FEBRUARY what it is so great a consolation to know ? Surely Christ did not die for any common end, but in order to exalt man, who was of the dust of the field, into "heavenly places." . . . He died to bestow upon him that privilege which implies or involves all others, and brings him into nearest resemblance to Himself, the privilege of intercession. CARDINAL NEWMAN. i\i Place yourselves in the presence of Christ, and without fatiguing the understanding converse with Him, and in Him rejoice, without wearying yourselves in searching out reasons ; for there is no soul so great a giant on this road, but has frequent need to turn back and be again an infant at the breast. . . . The knowledge of our sins and of our own selves is the bread which we have to eat with all the meats, however delicate they may be in the way of prayer. s. THERESA. j{j Through the black night, and driving rain, A ship is struggling all in vain To live upon the stormy main. Miserere Domine. Cowering among his pillows white, A child, his blue eyes dim with fright, Prays, " God save those at sea to-night." Miserere Domine. The morning shone all clear and gay On a ship at anchor in the bay 15 FEBRUARY And on a little child at play. Gloria tibi Domine. A. PROCTER. j) More things are wrought by prayer Than this 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 round earth is every way Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. TENNYSON. f)l Never forget, when you begin to pray, that you are entering God's Presence, for two main rea- sons : first, to pay Him the honor and homage due to Him ; which may be rendered without the utter- ance of a word on either side. . . . The second rea- son which takes us into God's Presence is, that we may talk with Him, and hear Him speaking within our hearts by His Gracious Inspirations. This is usually a most intense enjoyment ; it is a great privi- lege to speak familiarly with our Dear Lord, and when He speaks to us, He sheds an abundance of His precious balm and sweetness upon the soul. If we are able to speak to our Lord, let us do so, let us praise, pray, and hearken ; if our utterance is hindered, let us, nevertheless, remain bowed down before Him; He will behold us; He will accept 16 FEBRUARY our patient waiting, and look graciously upon our silence ; it may be He will amaze us by leading us by the hand and bringing us into His realm of prayer. s. FRANCIS DE SALES. foil O dull of heart ! enclosed doth lie In each " Come Lord " an " Here am I." Thy love, thy longing are not thine, Reflections of a love divine : Thy very prayer to thee was given, Itself a messenger from Heaven. ARCHBP. TRENCH. Seating t&e Cross Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. s. MARK viii. 34. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. s. MATTHEW x. 37. l And there is meaning in Christ's words. What- ever misuse may have been made of them whatever false prophets and Heaven knows there have been many have called the young children to them not to bless, but to curse, the assured fact remains, that if you will obey God, there will come a moment when the voice of man will be raised, with all its holiest natural authority, against you. The friend and the wise adviser the brother and the sister the father and the master the entire 17 FEBRUARY voice of your prudent and keen-sighted acquaint- ance the entire weight of the scornful stupidity of the vulgar world for once, they will be against you all at one. You have to obey God rather than man. The human race, with all its wisdom and love, all its indignation and folly, on one side ; God alone on the other. You have to choose. RUSKIN. The man who gives himself to other men can never be a wholly sad man ; but no more can he be a man of unclouded gladness. To him shall come with every consecration a before untasted joy, but in the same cup shall be mixed a sorrow that it was beyond his power to feel before. They who long to sit with Jesus on His throne may sit there if the Father sees them pure and worthy, but they must be baptized with the baptism that He is bap- tized with. All truly consecrated men learn little by little that what they are consecrated to is not joy or sorrow, but a divine idea and a profound obedience, which can find their full outward expres- sion, not in joy, and not in sorrow, but in the mys- terious and inseparable mingling of the two. BISHOP BROOKS. PI Dispose and order all things according to thy will and judgment ; yet thou shalt ever find that of necessity thou must suffer somewhat, either will- ingly or against thy will, and so thou shalt ever find the Cross. 18 FEBRUARY For either thou shalt feel pain in thy body, or in thy soul thou shalt suffer tribulation of spirit. A KEMPIS. U Joan of Arc wept when the saints and angels left her. However beautiful and glorious her visions were, her life from that time had changed. She who had heard till then only one voice, that of her mother, of which her own was the echo, heard now the powerful voice of angels. And what did the celestial voice wish ? That she should leave that mother, that quiet home. She must quit for the world, for war, that little garden under the shadow of the church where she heard only its mu- sical bells, and where the birds ate from her hand. The two authorities, earthly and heavenly, com- manded different things. One or the other she must disobey. This was without doubt her greatest struggle. Those she maintained against the Eng- lish were child's play in comparison. MICHELET. fill Particular devotion to God's service infallibly entails contradiction, calumny, injustice, and various trials from creatures ; and that not only from the wicked, but even from the virtuous, or, at least, those reputed such. JEAN NICHOLAS GROU. pljj Thus everywhere we find our suffering God, And where He trod May set our steps : the Cross on Calvary Uplifted high 19 FEBRUARY Beams on the martyr host, a beacon light In open fight. Mortal, if life smile on thee, and thou find All to thy mind, Think, who did once from Heaven to Hell descend Thee to befriend : So, shalt thou dare forego at His dear call, Thy best, thine all. J. KEBLE. Simplicity yjj Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eye- lids look straight before thee. PROVERBS IV. 25. The Lord preserveth the simple. PSALM cxvi. 6. tjt By two wings a man is lifted up from things earthly; namely, by Simplicity and Purity. Simplicity ought to be in our intention, Purity in our affection. Simplicity doth tend toward God ; Purity doth apprehend and, as it were, taste Him. There is no creature so poor and abject, that it representeth not the goodness of God. If thou wert inwardly good and pure, then wouldst thou be able to see and understand all things well without impediment. A pure heart penetrateth Heaven and Hell. A KEMPIS. 20 FEBRUARY tfott Unfortunately, untruthfulness is the com- monest of all miseries. It is as universal as the consequences of the fall. A truthful man is the rarest of all phenomena. Perhaps hardly any of us have ever seen one. Thorough truthfulness is undoubtedly the most infrequent of all graces. The grace of terrific austerities and bodily macera- tions which has characterized some of the saints, the grace to love suffering, the grace of ecstasy, the grace of martyrdom all these are commoner graces than that of thorough truthfulness. FABER. Not his the golden pen's or lip's persuasion, But a fine sense of right, And Truth's directness, meeting each occasion Straight as a line of light. His faith and works, like streams that intermingle, In the same channel ran : The crystal clearness of an eye kept single Shamed all the frauds of man. WHITTIER. | For never anything can be amiss When simpleness and duty tender it. SHAKESPEARE. fP Tell the dear Marie to speak freely of God wherever she thinks it will be useful, regardless of what those who listen may think or say of her. In a word, I have already told her that while we ought neither to do nor say anything in order to 21 FEBRUARY obtain praise, no more ought we to leave anything undone or unsaid because we may be praised for it. Nor is it hypocritical to act less perfectly than we talk ; of a truth, were it so, we should all be in a bad plight. In that case I must be silent for fear of being a hypocrite, since if I speak concern- ing perfection it follows that I count myself perfect. ... It is not good to be so punctilious, nor to distract oneself with so many little questions which do not concern the things of our Lord. Tell her to go on sincerely, holding fast to simplicity and humility, and to cast aside all these subtleties and perplexities. s. FRANCIS DE SALES. ffil Simplicity is an uprightness of soul which checks all useless dwelling upon one's self and one's actions. It is different from sincerity, which is a much lower virtue. We see many people who are sincere without being simple ; they are always thinking about themselves, weighing all their words and thoughts. . . . Dwelling too much upon self produces in weak minds useless scruples and su- perstition, and in stronger minds a presumptuous wisdom which is incompatible with the spirit of God. Both are contrary to true simplicity, which is free and direct, and gives itself up to God with- out reserve, and with a generous self-forgetfulness. How free, how intrepid are the motions, how glorious the progress, that the soul makes when delivered from all low and interested and unquiet cares ! FENELON. 22 FEBRUARY J uc ^ge not, that ye be not judged. S. MATTHEW vii. I. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant ? to his own master he standeth or falleth. ROMANS xiv. 4. We see only a part of each other, but God sees all. Our partial view is, if not mingled with untruth, yet misleading, because imperfect; we only know half the riddle, and we are led astray in guessing at the rest. " But all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." CARDINAL MANNING. Even if the justice of an unfavorable judg- ment was absolutely certain, one might sup- pose that all earnest and gentle natures, under no necessity of duty, would recoil from giving it form, from lodging it in the minds of others, from shaping a bad reputation for another with their own lips, and giving it currency with the intent of their hearts. But when we reflect on the uncertainty of all such judgments, on the profound mystery that attaches to every man, on the hidden depths, the latent work- ings, the possibilities unknown of every human spirit, the presumption that volunteers a judgment, as though that solemn and inscrutable nature was a mere transparency, ought to repel and shock us, as partaking of profaneness and impiety. DR. J. H. THOM. 23 FEBRUARY ]JJ O God, whose thoughts are brightest light, Whose love always runs clear, To whose kind wisdom sinning souls Amidst their sins are dear, Thou art the Unapproached, whose height Enables Thee to stoop, Whose holiness bends undefiled To handle hearts that droop. When we ourselves least kindly are, We deem the world unkind ; Dark hearts, in flowers where honey lies, Only the poison find. FABER. Jtpfoi The way of God, who does all things gently, is to put religion into the mind by reason, and into the heart by grace. . . . Begin by pitying the unbeliever ; he is already wretched enough. PASCAL. J#fatt 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. The look, the air that frets thy sight May be a token, that below The soul has closed in deadly fight 24 FEBRUARY With some infernal, fiery foe, Whose glance would scorch thy smiling grace And cast thee shuddering on thy face. A. PROCTER. FPtUti Probably the majority of repentances have begun in the reception of acts of kindness, which, if not unexpected, touched men by the sense of their being so undeserved. . . . Doubtless the terrors of the Lord are often the beginning of that wisdom which we name conversion ; but men must be frightened in a kind way, or the fright will only make them unbelievers. Kindness has converted more sinners than either zeal or eloquence or learn- ing ; and these last three have never converted any one, unless they were kind also. ... A kind act has picked up many a fallen man who has after- wards slain his tens of thousands for his Lord, and has entered the Heavenly City at last as a con- queror, amidst the acclamations of the saints, and with the welcome of his Sovereign. FABER. Wif Some purest water still the wine may hold. Is there no hope for her no power to save ? Yea, once again to draw up from the clay The fallen dewdrop till it shine above Or save a fallen soul needs but one ray Of Heaven's sunshine or of human love. VICTOR HUGO. 25 FOR THE MONTH OF MARCH GSEarfate TXT'E were troubled on every side ; without were fightings, within were fears. II CORINTHIANS vii. 5. Fight the good fight of faith. i TIMOTHY vi. 12. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. 11 TIMOTHY iv. 7. li Dear to us are those who love us ; the swift moments we spend with them are a compensa- tion for a great deal of misery; but dearer are those who reject us as unworthy, for they add an- other life : they build a heaven before us whereof we had not dreamed, and thereby supply to us new powers out of the recesses of the spirit, and urge us to new and unattempted performances. EMERSON. Ill Let us alone. What pleasure can we have To war with evil ? Is there any peace In ever climbing up the climbing wave ? 26 MARCH All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave, In silence ripen, fall and cease : Give us long rest or death, dark death or dreamful ease ! TENNYSON. ft) Does the road wind up hill all the way ? Yes, to the very end. Will the day's journey take the whole long day ? From morn to night ', my friend. But is there for the night a resting-place ? A roof for when the slow dark hours begin ? May not the darkness hide it from my face ? You cannot miss that inn. Shall I meet other wayfarers at night ? Those who have gone before. Then must I knock or call when just in sight ? They will not keep you standing at that door. Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak ? Of labor you shall find the sum. Will there be beds for me and all who seek ? Yea, beds for all who come. CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. |) There are, it may be, some men so constituted that they turn naturally to the right course ; they take intuitively the healthy view of circum- stance ; God's Spirit finds so little resistance in their nature that they take it for their own ; their spontaneous affections are in unconscious harmony 27 MARCH with the ulterior designs of His Providence. But these are the exceptions, and rather good than great, rather saints than heroes. Most men accomplish the " end for which they were born, the cause for which they came into the world," not by their spon- taneous affections, but by the high strain of Con- science by calling in the force of Principle and Will : God's Spirit strives with theirs : only through deliberate resolve do they choose the higher guid- ance: only through daily self-denial do they re- press the encroachments of the lower nature : they have passions and self-love which would interrupt the calm flow of progressive life, and break its unity into aimless sloth, tumults and wanderings : their members are not by nature instruments of right- eousness : only, as our Lord said, by plucking out the right eye, by cutting off the right hand, can they prepare themselves for God's service. DR. J. H. THOM. fol So long as we live in this world we cannot be without tribulation and temptation. The beginning of all evil temptations is incon- stancy of mind and small confidence in God. We know not oftentimes what we are able to do, but temptations do show us what we are. A KEMPIS. foil The captive's oar may pause upon the galley, The soldier sleep beneath his plumed crest, And Peace may fold her wing o'er hill and valley, But thou, O Christian ! must not take thy rest. 28 MARCH Thou must walk on, however man upbraid thee, With Him who trod the wine-press all alone ; Thou wilt not find one human hand to aid thee, One human soul to comprehend thine own. ANONYMOUS. C&e SSStratJ) of JHan folll For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one. JOB v. 2. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteous- ness of God. s. JAMES i. 20. l First, keep thyself in peace, and then shalt thou be able to pacify others. A passionate man turneth even good into evil, and easily believeth the worst. A good, peaceable man turneth all things to good. X KEMPIS. P The state of the man was murderous and he knew it. More, he irritated it, with a kind of perverse pleasure akin to that which a sick man sometimes has in irritating a wound upon his body. . . . Under his daily restraint, it was his compensa- tion, not his trouble, to give a glance towards his state at night, and to the freedom of its being in- dulged. If great criminals told the truth, which, being great criminals, they do not, they would very rarely tell of their struggles against the crime. Their struggles are towards it. They buffet with oppos- ing waves, to gain the bloody shore, not to recede from it. DICKENS. 29 MARCH $i Take the cloak from his face, and at first Let the corpse do its worst. How he lies in his rights of a man ! Death has done all death can. And absorbed in the new life he leads, He recks not, he heeds Nor his wrong nor my vengeance both strike On his senses alike, And are lost in the solemn and strange Surprise of the change. Ha, what avails death to erase His offence, my disgrace ? I would we were boys as of old In the field by the fold His outrage, God's patience, man's scorn Were so easily borne. I stand here now, he lies in his place Cover the face. BROWNING. yii Such blind hate Is fit for beasts of prey, but not for men. Love comes to cancel all ancestral hate, Subdues all heritage, proves that in mankind Union is deeper than division. GEORGE ELIOT. fill My brain goes this way and that way ; 't will not fix on aught but vengeance. DUG DE GUISE. 30 MARCH 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. BREVIARY. lobe for f nfctotimate fjj Fear not : for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name ; thou art mine. ISAIAH xliii. i. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. DEUTERONOMY XXXlii. 27. yjjj The love of Jesus Christ embraced every in- dividual of the human race, each occupying a distinct place in His Divine Heart, and that Heart was infinite in capacity ; it contained ample room for all, its tenderness for one never encroach- ing on its affection for another. Every Christian may appropriate the Heart of Jesus Christ as if its love had been centred in Him alone, and say with St. Paul, "He loved me, and delivered himself for me" Thus each mortal participates as abun- dantly in the benign influence of the sun as if his invigorating rays were shed on one alone. JEAN NICHOLAS GROU. Yes, for me, for me, He careth With a father's tender care ; 3i MARCH Yes, with me, with me, He shareth Every burden, every fear. Yes, o'er me, o'er me, He watcheth, Ceaseless, watcheth night and day ; Yes, even me, even me, He snatcheth From the perils of the way. Yes, in me, in me, He dwelleth ; I in Him, and He in me ; And my empty soul He filleth Here and through eternity. H. BONAR. Jtti Men of keen hearts would be overpowered by despondency, and would even loathe exist- ence, did they suppose themselves under the mere operation of fixed laws, powerless to excite the pity or the attention of Him who has appointed them. What should they do, especially, who are cast among persons unable to enter into their feelings, and thus strangers to them ; or who have perplexi- ties of mind they cannot explain ^o themselves, much less remove, and no one to help them ; or who have affections and aspirations pent up within them, because they have not met with objects to which to devote them ; or who are misunderstood by those around them, and find they have no words to set themselves right with them ; or who seem to them- selves to be without place or purpose in the world, or to be in the way of others ; or who have the bur- den of some painful secret, or of some incommuni- 32 MARCH cable solitary grief! In all such cases the Gospel narrative supplies our very need, not simply present- ing to us an unchangeable Creator to rely upon, but a compassionate Guardian; a discriminating Judge and Helper. CARDINAL NEWMAN. jtlf Most assuredly no one loves your soul half so much as our Lord Jesus Christ. He is All- Powerful to help you. No one else can help you, save through Him, but He can help you alone. He will not fail to bear the heaviest weight of your trouble, and to draw you gently to Him. Picture Him as stretching out His arms to you, offering you His Help, calling you to hold converse with Him ; and longing, far beyond anything you can imagine, that you should dwell in Him and He in you. All the evil we do not commit, all the temptations to which we do not consent, or which never visit us, all our holy thoughts and good intentions, all our long- ings after that which is right, are so many witnesses of His Loving Kindness towards us ; for faith teaches us that without Him we can do nothing. How could He help you thus unless He cared for yOU ? PERE DE CONDREN. P In the joy of the Resurrection we shall see the countenance of the Friend who has loved us, sorrowed for us, died for us ; the countenance of the Son of God fixed upon each one of us ; the eyes of our Redeemer looking upon us personally one by one ; His voice speaking to us as He spoke to 33 MARCH Mary at the sepulchre, calling us each one by name. This is the beginning of the joy. CARDINAL MANNING. yfii Alone, no ! God hath been there long before, Eternally hath waited on that shore For us who were to come To our eternal home ; And He hath taught His angels to prepare In what way we are to be welcomed there. Like one that waits and watches He hath sate As if there were none else for whom to wait, Waiting for us, for us, Who keep Him waiting thus, And who bring less to satisfy His love Than any other of the souls above. FABER. SSRoman. A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband. PROVERBS xii. 4. The Lord is with thee : blessed art thou among women. s. LUKE i. 28. God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. GALATIANS iv. 4. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven ; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. REVELATION xii. I. 34 MARCH In one of the most rich and beautiful of European galleries hangs Raphael's greatest Madonna, called the Madonna of St. Sixtus. Among the dreary sands at the edge of the Egyp- tian desert, under the shadow of the Pyramids, stands the mighty Sphinx, the work of unknown hands, so calm and so eternal in its solitude that it is hard to think of it as the work of human hands at all. These two suggest comparisons which are certainly not fancies. They are the two great ex- pressions, in art, of the two religions the religion of the East and of the West. Fatalism and Provi- dence they seem to mean. Both have tried to express a union of humanity with something which is its superior; but one has joined it only to the superior strength of the animal, while the other has filled it with the superior spirituality of a divine nature. The Sphinx has life in its human face written into a riddle, a puzzle, a mocking bewilder- ment. The Virgin's face is full of a mystery we can- not fathom, but it unfolds to us a thousand of the mysteries of life. It does not mock, but blesses us. The Sphinx oppresses us with colossal size. The Virgin is not a distortion or exaggeration, but a glorification of humanity. The Egyptian monster is alone amid its sands, to be worshipped, not loved. The Christian woman has her child clasped in her arms, enters into the societies and sympathies of men, and claims no worship except love. BISHOP BROOKS. 35 MARCH In all the history of the past, through all man's experience, we have seen the Crea- tive Principle made operative through that reflected glory, Queen of Heaven, the feminine attribute of Love; the gentle power of Beauty leading us always upward towards the perfect Light. This has ever been the element which has lifted us out of the night and death of selfishness into the glo- rious light of day, making us co-creators with the Creator, till, in giving ourselves to His purposes, we at last find our long-sought Happiness. Through- out all human story we have seen this principle in- carnated for us and manifested in Woman. Here, then, is the true Heroine of our Drama of Exist- ence, which closes with this as the final word of life: " The Eternal, the Womanly, Lifts, leads us on." GOETHE'S KEY TO FAUST, BY w. P. ANDREWS. j^jj There is not a war in the world, no, nor an injustice, but you women are answerable for it ; not in that you have provoked, but in that you have not hindered. There is no suffering, no in- justice, no misery in the earth, but the guilt of it lies with you. Men can bear the sight of it, but you should not be able to bear it. ... Have you ever considered what a deep undermeaning there lies, or at least may be read, if we choose, in our custom of strewing flowers before those whom we think most happy ? The path of a good woman is 36 MARCH indeed strewn with flowers, but they rise behind her steps, not before them. . . . Far away among the moorlands and the rocks, far in the darkness of the terrible streets, these feeble florets are lying, with all their fresh leaves torn and their stems broken. Will you never go down to them nor set them in order in their little fragrant beds, nor fence them, in their trembling, from the fierce wind ? Shall morning follow morning for you but not for them? ... Oh, you queens, you queens, among the hills and happy greenwood of this land of yours, shall the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests ; and in your cities shall the stones cry out against you, that they are the only pillows where the Son of Man can lay His head ? RUSKIN. The role of Christian women was some- thing similar to that of the guardian an- gels they might lead the world, but while remain- ing invisible themselves. It is very seldom that angels become visible in the hour of supreme danger, as the Angel Raphael did to Tobit ; so is it only at certain moments long foreseen, that the empire of woman becomes visible, and that we behold these angels, who were the saviors of Christian society, manifesting themselves under the names of Blanche of Castille and Joan of Arc. F. OZANAM. jflrtJU I* 1 tne First Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul speaks of the glory of the woman as of a thing distinct from the glory of the man. 37 MARCH Their endowments are unlike ; their work is differ- ent; their provinces are separate. If she ape the man she will lose the half of love, and yet not gain the commanding mind. . . . To live in the hearts of those who make the laws is more than to have a vote. And if we must take a gloomy view, I, for one, agree with Madame de Stael, the most intel- lectual of women. "It were far better," she says, " in order to keep something sacred on earth, that in marriage there should be one slave rather than two free-thinkers." BISHOP SPALDING. It is a significant fact that in all religious systems which, instead of representing God chiefly as moral Lawgiver, are fond of dwell- ing on Him as the Holy Spirit, there the prophets are, or at least may be, women. So was it among the Phrygian Christians of old, who developed the doctrine of the Paraclete. So has it ever been among the Society of Friends, who keep silence till the Spirit speaks. So is it when the Catholic ecstatica attests the supernatural grace that still penetrates and consecrates the organism of the vis- ible Church. DR. JAMES MARTINEAU. Seraph of Heaven ! too gentle to be human, Veiling beneath that radiant form of woman All that is insupportable in thee Of light and love and immortality. Sweet Benediction in the eternal curse ! Veil'd Glory of this lampless universe ! Thou Moon beyond the clouds ! Thou living Form 38 MARCH Among the dead ! Thou Star above the storm ! Thou Wonder and thou Beauty and thou Terror ! Thou Harmony of Nature's art ! Thou Mirror In whom, as in the splendor of the sun, All shapes look glorious which thou gazest on ! SHELLEY. j*jP O Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son, Created beings all in lowliness Surpassing, as, in height above them all ; Term by the eternal counsel pre-ordained ; Ennobler of thy nature, so advanced In thee that its great Maker did not scorn To make Himself His own creation ; For in thy womb rekindling shone the love Revealed whose genial influence makes now This flower to germin in eternal peace ; Here thou to us of charity and love Art as the noonday torch ; and art beneath To mortal men of hope a living spring. DANTE. ffi$i Mother of the Fair Delight Thou handmaid perfect in God's sight, Now sitting fourth beside the Three, Thyself a woman-Trinity Being a daughter born to God, Mother of Christ from stall to rood, And wife unto the Holy Ghost : Oh, when our need is uppermost, Think that to such as death may strike Thou once wert sister sisterlike ! 39 MARCH Thou headstone of humanity, Groundstone of the great Mystery, Fashioned like us, yet more than we ! Ah ! knew'st thou of the end, when first That Babe was on thy bosom nurs'd ? Or when He tottered round thy knee Did thy great sorrow dawn on thee ? And through His boyhood, year by year Eating with Him the Passover, Didst thou discern confusedly That holier sacrament, when He, The bitter cup about to quaff, Should break the bread and eat thereof ? Soul, is it Faith, or Love, or Hope, That lets me see her standing up Where the light of the Throne is bright ? Unto the left, unto the right, The cherubim, arrayed, conjoint, Float inward to a golden point, And from between the seraphim The glory issues for a hymn. DANTE ROSSETTI. 40 FOR THE MONTH OF APRIL T WILL call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not be- loved. ROMANS ix. 25. That which may be known of God is manifest in them ; for God hath shewed it unto them. ROMANS i. 19. These, having not the law, are a law unto them- selves : which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another. ROMANS ii. 14, 15. H Men begin, little children begin, by calling God by the primal name of Father. It was a name revealed in Paradise ; but if no revelation had been made, it would have welled up from human con- sciousness like the waters that are under the earth. In the vast deserts of heathenism where the shade of death has lain, and still lies, the untutored mass of the people have ever been, and are still, aware APRIL of a Heavenly Father. Amid all superstitions and all false teaching, in spite of ignorance and degra- dation, may we not hope that as it is undoubtedly true that no instance can be named where a people have not looked up to One above, so in their inculp- able ignorance, not only will the multitudes escape condemnation, but many will even have elicited by God's grace that act of clinging and pious love which will have lifted them to the seats of the Blessed ? And he who knows God under the name of Father can it be denied that he has a true and real knowledge of Him ? BISHOP OF NEWPORT AND MENEVIA. Ill We have been taught that Christ is the First begotten of God ; that He is the Reason of which all mankind are partakers ; and that those who live according to Reason are Christians. Such among the Greeks were Socrates, Heraclitus, and the like. Whatsoever at any time the philosophers or law-givers said or discovered that was God, they did it according to their measure of Reason, Light, and Knowledge ; but because they knew not Reason to the full, which is Christ, they many times said things contradictory one to another. JUSTIN MARTYR. A The soul of Man is Christian by Nature. TERTULLIAN. |jj From the Conscience of the Heathen accusing or excusing them, I argue that there is some 42 APRIL other rule for human actions besides the written Word ; and that this rule could be no other than the Law of Nature, and of Right Reason, imprinted in their hearts, which is as truly the Law and Word of God as that written in our Bible. The law of Nature leads us to do actions conformable to those which Christianity inspires, for Christianity has only re- established and perfected the law of Nature; so that I am persuaded there is no Christian virtue but the traces and sentiments thereof may be found in ancient Paganism, how corrupt soever it may have been. . . . Before the birth of Christ many holy persons, not of the race of Abraham, obtained salvation by the observation of the Law of Nature. BISHOP SANDERSON. fj Everywhere throughout the world, everywhere throughout the ages, men have sought holiness. The best and noblest men everywhere have always been true seekers after God. That is inexplicable if Christianity is a new power, a new gift to the faculties of man, nay, as it often seems to be stated, a new set of faculties in man which he has not pos- sessed before. But how entirely explicable, how natural it is, if what the Incarnation did was to re- deem men into what was their original and unde- stroyed nature and privilege. BISHOP BROOKS. Jj| "And I saw that there was an Ocean of Dark- ness and Death : but an infinite Ocean of Light 43 APRIL and Love flowed over the Ocean of Darkness : and that I saw the infinite Love of God. 7 ' GEORGE FOX. foil All souls that struggle and aspire, All hearts of prayer by thee are lit ; And, dim or clear, thy tongues of fire On dusky tribes and twilight centuries sit. Nor bounds, nor clime, nor creed thou know'st, Wide as our need thy favors fall ; The white wings of the Holy Ghost Stoop, seen or unseen, o'er the heads of all. WHITTIER.