so / A YEAR OF SACRED SONG I gear of |s>acrelj Ie>oug WITH SELECTIONS IN PROSE FROM SOURCES OLD AND NEW BY MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER AND WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM WATER-COLOUR SKETCHES BY C ftfon iorh RAPHAEL TUCK AND SONS COMPANY, LIMITED MDCCCXCV Copyright, 1895, by Raphael Tuck and Sons Company, Limited preface AS little children gather shells from the pebbly beach, and hold them to their ears to catch the murmurs of the mighty sea, so we gather these pearl-texts from the shore of Divine Love, and, listening with the spirit, catch the message from the sea of eternity which is breaking at our feet. M. C. O. _ 2233328 Jiiepnote. WHOEVER SINGS HIS SONG ARIGHT, MUST CATCH THE KEYNOTE FIRST^ THEN WILL THE PERFECT STRAIN ASCEND, AND INTO RAPTURE BURST. AND IN THE SCALE OF EVERY LIFE THIS NOTE RUNS THROUGH AND THROUGH NO TONES CAN MAKE A PERFECT CHORD UNLESS THE KEY BE TRUE. THE SECRET OF ALL HIGH RENOWN, OF WORTH OR HONEST FAME WHAT IS IT BUT THE ECHO TRUE OF SURE AND LOFTY AIM ? WE TOUCH THE VIBRANT KEYS OF SOUL WITH SPIRIT-FINGER FINE, AND ALL THE HARMONIES OF LIFE BLEND IN A CHORD DIVINE. EACH SOUL MUST SET ITS SONG OF LIFE, IN OCTAVE LOW OR HIGH, AND HE WHOSE STRAIN IS TRULY KEYED SHALL HEAR IT IN THE SKY. WHATEVER NOTE OUR LIPS ESSAY, WHATE'ER THE THEME MAY BE, WITH LISTENING HEART AND EAR ATTENT, SO MAY WE TAKE OUR KEY ! MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. gear of tV, I say, on the Lord. Psalm 2J : 14. 'y ANOTHER year of progress, another year y"\ of praise, ** Another year of proving His presence all the days ; Another year of service, of witness for His love ; Another year of training for holier work above. Thank God, He gives no endless way But lays His hand across the road, Calls many a halt and bids thee stay And rest thee of thy load. He is too full of grace to deal A breathless road that never swerves ; But all things turn and pause and wheel In restful, joyful curves. Busy souls, try, this year, to see what you can make of the broken fragments of time. Glean up its precious dust, those leavings of days and rem- nants of hours, which so many are sweeping out into the vast waste of existence. Perhaps, if you be a miser of moments and half-hours and unex- pected holidays, your careful garnerings may ensure you a full and profitable life, and you may become richer in knowledge than those whose time is all their own. PHILLIPS BROOKS. Because Thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee. Psalm 63 : 3. on thy heart each past "red-letter" \J 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. HAVERGAL. Into all our lives, in many simple, familiar 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 sweet- ness 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 en- couragement or expression of sympathy, the sen- tence that meant more for us 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 His free gifts. s. LONGFELLOW. [2] Take, therefore, no thought of the morrow ; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself . S. Matthew 6 : 24. THE New Year has a smiling face, But tells no tales of what may be ; In silent power he takes his place, And wraps him in uncertainty. And yet some things I count upon, Which he must give ere he be gone ! I count upon some tears to shed, Some sleepless nights, some weary days, Some heaviness of heart and head, Some thorny paths, some stony ways ; These, more or less, for every one, But joy and rest when all is done. The love of God I count upon, As on the mountains in their strength, . It has not failed in the years gone, It will last on through all life's length ; I cannot count on my own love, But His is sure as Heaven above. Has the New Year a secret face ? There are some things, he cannot hide, Welcome him all, and give him place: Long as he can he may abide ! He has surprises for us ? Well, We trust him he the rest shall tell ! MARIANNE FARNINGHAM. [3] ifourtf) So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Psalm 90: 12. SO, here hath been dawning another blue day, Think, wilt thou then let it slip useless away? Out of eternity this new day is born; Into eternity at night will return. CARLYLE. To shape the whole future is not our problem; but to shape faithfully only a 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 In- telligence than ours. . . . This day thou knowest ten commanded duties, seest in thy mind ten things which should be done for one thou doest ! Do one of them; this of itself will show thee ten others which can and shall be done. CARLYLE. 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 to do, 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. [4] January jftftl) Ponder the path of thy feet. Proverbs 4 : 26. LIFE is before ye, from the certain road Ye cannot turn : then take ye up your load. Not yours to tread or leave the unknown way, Ye must go o'er it, meet ye what ye may. A sacred burden is this life to bear, To suffer then is nobler than to dare. Look on it, lift it, bear it solemnly, Stand up and walk beneath it steadfastly; Fail not for sorrow, falter not for sin, But onward, upward, till the goal ye win; Stop not for sloth, nor yet for pleasure stray; God guard ye, and God guide ye on your way. BUTLER. Take life earnestly. Take it an earnest, vital, essential matter. Take it just as though you personally were born to the task of performing a noble task in it as though the world had waited for your coming. Take it as though it was a grand opportunity to do and to achieve, to carry forward great and good schemes : to help and cheer a suffer- ing, weary, it may be a heart-broken, brother. The fact is, life is undervalued by a great majority of mankind. It is not made half as much of as should be the case. Now and then a man stands aside from the crowd, labors earnestly, steadfastly, confidently, and straightway becomes famous. ROYAL PATH OF LIFE. EsJ Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. I Corinthians 10: 12. SO you fell just now in the mud, poor heart ! And to try to rise and be clean is vain? Take both my hands now, and do your part; So you stand on your feet again. Did nobody tell you your feet might slip? Did some one push you ? (such things are done !) Was your path so rough that you needs must slip? Ah ! the blame is on many not one. Sobbing still over that ugly stain ! I may not comfort or hush you, dear ! Through such sad tears in their burning rain Christ and His cross show clear. Must you go sorrowing all your day? Sweet, in suffering souls grow white : Keep my hand through this stony way See where the west turns bright. Always put the best interpretation on a tenet. Why not on Christianity, wholesome, sweet, and poetic? It is the record of a pure and holy soul, humble, absolutely disinterested, a truth-speaker, and bent on serving, teaching, and uplifting men. Christianity taught the capacity, the element, to love the All-perfect without a stingy bargain for personal happiness. It taught that to love him was happiness, to love him in other's virtues. EMERSON. [6] I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Jeremiah 29 : 2. A LITTLE flower so lowly grew, So lonely was it left, That heaven looked like an eye of blue, Down in its rocky cleft. What could the little flower do, In such a darksome place, But try to reach the eye of blue And climb to kiss heaven's face? And there's no life so lone and low But strength may still be given, From narrowest lot on earth to grow The straighter up to heaven. GERALD MASSEY. 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 as- pires after all that which God is ready and infi- nitely desirous to give him. For the sun meets not the springing bud that stretches toward him with half that certainty, as God, the source of all good, communicates Himself to the soul that longs to partake of Him. WILLIAM LAW. [7] Am I my brother's keeper ? Genesis 4 : 9. A SINGLE word is a little thing, jL\. But a soul may be dying before our eyes For lack of the comfort a word may bring, With its welcome help and its sweet surprise. A kindly look costs nothing at all, But a heart may be starving for just one glance, That shall show by the eyelids' tender fall The help of a pitying countenance. It is easy enough to bend the ear To catch some tale of sore distress; For men may be fainting beside us here For longing to share their weariness; These gifts nor gold nor silver may buy, Nor wealth alone can love bestow, But the comfort of word or ear or eye The poorest may offer wherever he go. C. F. RICHARDSON. How many are the sufferers who have fallen amongst misfortunes along the wayside of life ! "By chance" we come that way; chance, acci- dent, 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, whoever, wher- ever, whatsoever he may be. A. p. STANLEY. [8] IVe will remember thy love. Song of Solomon 1 : 4. WHAT thousands and millions of recollec- tions there must be in us! And every now and then one of them becomes known to us; and it shows us what spiritual depths are growing in us, what mines of memory. ... In some age or other, I shall say of some heavenly marvel, per- haps, "It is wonderful, wonderful! And yet in the earth it was hinted to me, by the tones of the wind, and the way the clouds went over my head." I think, perhaps every sight in the world that now is may avail in the world that is to come. On the golden floor of heaven, it may be the better for me that I have noticed even the worm's way in and out of the earth. It may be that some of our little observations now will open into wonderful knowledge hereafter. A plant comes out of the ground a little bud. It opens and grows and blos- soms and seeds, and then dies. Now there is much more in this than I know of yet; much, very much more. If I knew all that is to be learned from a daisy even, I should be less of a stranger to God than I am. But I shall know it sometime. All about me, tree unto tree is uttering speech, and flower unto flower is showing knowledge. But it is in a language that I do not well under- stand, but which I shall remember; and so which I shall learn the whole meaning of hereafter. WILLIAM MOUNTFORD. [9] 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 suffering, rejoice ; that at the revelation of his glory also ye may rejoice -with exceeding joy. If ye are re- proached for the name of Christ, blessed are ye ; because the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God resteth upon you. i Peter 4: 12-14. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time ; casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. I Peter 5 : 7. WE have need of all our crosses. When we suffer much it is because we have strong ties which it is necessary to loosen. We resist and thus retard the divine purpose; we repulse the heavenly hand and it must be laid upon us again and again. If we would at once bring our- selves into harmony with divine will, our crosses would seem light and our burdens easy to be borne. Glad or sad, a dwindling span Is the little life of man. Love and hope and work and tears Fly before the flying years. Yet shall tremulous hearts grow bold All the story is not told For around us as a sea Spreads God's great eternity. CHRISTIAN BURKE. [10] Clcbmtlj Let your loins be girded about and your light burning. S. Luke 12:8. A Prayer for the New Year. OLORD, thou art the God of our fathers, the King eternal, immortal, invisible; we would bless thee at all times, in sorrow and in joy, in privation and in plenty, in life and in death, in time and in eternity. And now, with a new sense of gratefulness, with glad memories of the old year that is gone, and with hopeful confi- dence in view of the new year that has begun, we come afresh to thy feet; to thee who hast crowned the year with thy goodness; to thee whose years do not change; to thee who hast declared that thy Son, our Mediator and Redeemer, is the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever. With thank- fulness for past mercies, with the prayer that our times may ever be in thy hands in the future; with the consecration of our lives anew to thy ser- vice, and pleading that thy mercy shall be shown toward our sins, that thy care shall be around us forever, that our lives shall be fashioned after the image of our Lord, that we may be solaced and comforted in all our toils, and cares, and griefs, and dangers of the coming year with thy continual presence, even thus, O Lord our Father, we come to thee. CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. The acceptable year of the Lord. S. Luke 6: 19. THE issues of life concentrate themselves into a few special points of opportunity. The success and failure of life depend upon whether these opportunities are grasped when they present themselves, or whether they are neglected and permitted to pass. Life's greatest opportunities are not like the great ships which sail from the chief ports of the world, which sail and come again, and sail at stated intervals from the same ports. The great chances touch once at the pier of our lives, throw out the planks of opportunity over which our feet may pass, ring their signal bells in our ears, and then sail out of the harbor and away into the eternal sea and never come again. The little chances linger and return, but the great chances come and go and never come again. ... If with illumined sight we could look back over the lives of the people by whom we are surrounded, how many great and rich op- portunities would we see that they have permitted to drift by them unimproved! J. T. McFARLAND. There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. SHAKESPEARE. [12] / the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not ; I -will help thee. Isaiah 12 : 13. 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, per- haps, 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 contin- uous and successive view. H. E. MANNING. He chose this path for thee. No feeble chance, nor hard, relentless fate, But love, His love, hath placed thy footsteps here; He knew the way was rough and desolate, He knew the heart would often sink with fear; Yet tenderly He whispers, " Child, I see This path is best for thee ! " He chose this path for thee, Though well He knew sharp thorns would tear thy feet, Knew how the branches would obstruct thy way, Knew all the hidden dangers thou wouldst meet, Knew how thy faith would falter day by day; And still the whisper echoed, " Yes, I see This path is best for thee ! " [13] January / will guide thee -with mine eye. Psalm 37 : 8. SO I sang in childhood's days, "Father, thou shalt guide me." So I sang in darker ways, Whatsoever betide me. Young feet turn so oft aside, But the older need a guide, And I pray Every day, Father, Father, guide me. Thou hast led o'er mountain slope, And in deeper hollow; Thee through many a vale of hope Have I learned to follow. In the dark and in the light, Gladsome dawn and blackest night, I have been In changing scene, Safe with thee to guide me. Now I wait, as oft before, Where the way is hidden; Till the journey shall be o'er I will go as bidden; Naught there is for me to fear When I know that thou art near. Here I stand, Take my hand, O, my Father, guide me. [14] jftfteentl) Thy kindness to thy friend. 2 Samuel 16 : 17. HAVE you ever noticed how much of Christ's life was spent in doing kind things in merely doing kind things? Run over it with that in view, and you will find that He spent a great proportion of His time simply in making people happy, in doing good turns to people. There is only one thing greater than happiness in the world, and that is holiness; and it is not in our keeping; but what God has put in our power is the happi- ness of those about us, and that is largely to be secured by our being kind to them. "The greatest thing," says some one, "a man can do for his Heavenly Father, is to be kind to some of His other children." I 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. How superabundantly it pays itself back for there is no debtor in the world so hon- ourable, so superbly honourable, as Love. HENRY DRUMMOND. Kindness is stored away in the heart like rose- leaves in a drawer, to sweeten every object around them. Little drops of rain brighten the meadows and little acts of kindness brighten the world. We can conceive of nothing more attractive than the heart when filled with the spirit of kindness. [15] Blessed is the man that trnsteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. Psalm 17:7. HOPE makes even the struggle of the daily life and the wear and tear of it " not like the convict's trample on the world's great tread- mill, but like an ascent on the luminous steps of duty to the very gates of heaven." "O blessed hope," exclaims Thomas Carlyle, "whereby on man's straight prison walls are painted beautiful, far-stretching landscapes; and into the night of every death is shed holiest dawn." The great doers have always been great hopers. . . . Loss of hope, when the heart dies and the courage fails, and the hands hang listlessly, and a man begins only and sadly to drudge this, the loss of hope, is the blackest loss. We should always hope because the promises are. " I stood amazed and whispered, ' Can it be That he hath granted all the boon I sought? How wonderful that he for me hath wrought ! How wonderful that he hath answered me ! ' O faithful heart ! He said that he would hear And answer thy poor prayer; and he hath heard And proved his promise ! Wherefore didst thou fear? Why marvel that thy Lord had kept his word? More wonderful if he should fail to bless Expectant faith and prayer with good success." WAYLAND HOYT. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh, find- eth. S. Matthew 7 : 8. ARE you weak? Ask for strength. Are you sad? Ask God and He will be your solace. Are you distrustful and in darkness? He will be a lamp to your feet. Are you indifferent? Seek, and a new impulse shall be given your energy; God's image shall fill your heart. Fight the fight, Christian! Jesus is o'er thee; Run the race, Christian! heaven is before thee; He who hath promise" d faltereth never; He will sustain you now and forever. Upon a crutch her girlish face Alight with love and tender grace Laughing she limps from place to place, Upon a crutch. And you and I, who journey through A rose-leaf world of dawn and dew, We cry to heaven overmuch, We rail and frown at fate, while she And many more in agony, Are brave and patient, strong and true, Upon a crutch. ROBERT LOVEMAN. Do not be too moral. . . . Aim above moral- ity. Be not simply good; be good for something. THOREAU. [17] January She hath done what she could. S. Mark 14 : 8. IT is not mine to run With eager feet Along life's crowded ways, My Lord to meet. He hath no need of me In grand affairs, Where fields are lost, or crowns Won unawares. Yet Master, if I may Make one pale flower Bloom brighter for thy sake, Through one short hour; Or sing one high, clear song, On which may soar Some glad soul heavenward, I ask no more. JULIA C. R. DORR. 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. My place of lowly service too, Beneath Thy sheltering wings I see, For all the work I have to do, Is done through sheltering rest in Thee. ANNA L. WARIN. [18] fanuar? jjimeteentl) Dap Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. I Thessalonians 4: 14. AN awe of death we were meant to have ; and fears of it have their use. Down the valley of the shadow of death do dreadful mists arise; then let the thought of God shine out from my soul, and it will glorify the mists, and make them golden with the light of heaven. Our life is a dying daily, as Paul says; and at the longest, it is not such a very long death. For a man may be ever so young and strong, yet it is likely the wood is growing in which he will be coffined; and there is a divine dial-plate, on which the hour of his death is pointed to; and what is to be his grave will be his grave; and his body is waited for. But do I not live in God? And shall I be afraid of dying in God? Is it I that keep my heart go- ing? And ought I then to dread its stopping? Rather what I ought to fear is the will which it does beat with, the Divine will. WILLIAM MOUNTFORD. Sleep is a death. O, make me try, By sleeping, what it is to die ! And as gently lay my head On my grave, as now my bed. Howe'er I rest, great God, let me Awake again at last with Thee ! WILLIAM MOUNTFORD. [19] JJanuar? He that taketh not up his cross and folloiveth after me is not worthy of me. S. Matthew 10:38. I WOULD follow after Christ because I have heard Him speak a natural language, and be- cause I have heard beating in His heart the heart of all. Therefore He is not a person for me who was, and is no more, but the eternal contemporary of us all, the symbol of a spirit which rests with us always. The visible truths of the human and divine Evangel rise every morning on my hori- zon, like new luminaries. I salute and adore them with the same admiration as if I were seeing them for the first time. Miracles, dogmas, strange- ness of forms, which worried me at first, worry me no longer. Across them all I see only one thing, " man in search of God, God in search of man." Nearer my God to Thee, Nearer to Thee, E'en though it be a cross That raiseth me. Still all my prayer shall be, Nearer my God to Thee, Nearer to Thee. SARAH FLOWER ADAMS. Flowers never emit so sweet and strong a fra- grance as before a storm. Beauteous soul ! when a storm approaches thee be as fragrant as a sweet- smelling flower. RICHTER. [20] Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, thai walketh in darkness, and hath no light ? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. Isaiah I : IO. 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, " 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 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 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. GEORGE MACDONALD. Hold thy murmurs, heaven arraigning, The patient see God's loving face; Who bear their burdens uncomplaining, 'Tis they who win the Father's grace. He wounds himself who braves the rod, And sets himself to fight with God. [21] And that ye study to be quiet. I Thessalonians 4:11. I CHARGE my thoughts be humble still, And all my conduct mild; Content, my Father, with Thy will, And quiet as a child. Unite, my roving thoughts, unite In silence soft and sweet; And thou, my soul, sit gently down At thy great Sovereign's feet. DODDRIDGE. Let your words be few, especially when your superiors or strangers are present, lest you betray your own weakness, and rob yourself of the op- portunity which you might otherwise have had to gain knowledge, wisdom, and experience by hear- ing those whom you silenced by your own talking. SIR MATTHEW HALE. Not only to say the right thing in the right place, but, far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. SALA. Of every noble work the silent part is best; Of all expression that which cannot be expressed. w. w, STORY. Govern the lips As they were palace doors, the King within. Tranquil and fair and courteous be all words Which from that presence win. EDWIN ARNOLD. [22] I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in yesus Christ. Philemon 3:14. I PRESS toward the mark for the prize is there, And the Lord Himself will give it, Oh, this life is bright and this life is fair, If we know but how to live it; But the life above is the best of all If our Father's house our own we call And the prize we all at last would claim Is a starry crown, in the Saviour's name. IDA SCOTT TAYLOR. Mighty have been the contests of strength, famous the victories which have declared their ends; but to achieve mastery over self is man's greatest and grandest victory. Moral energy, tempered in the heat of adversity, is the great engine-force which is moving the world, and, united with Christianity, is making the nineteenth century the manhood of the race. As men have risen in stature of morality, they have demanded higher measures and estimates of that stature, and following the fainter rays of this lesser light they have come nearer "that greater light, that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Man should do nothing that he should repent; But if he have, and say that he is sorry, It is a worse fault if he be not truly. BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. [33] Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors ; and their works do follow them. Revelation 14 : 13. And God shall wipe aiuay 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. Revelation 21:4. soft, beloved!" we sometimes say, But have no time to charm away Sad dreams that through the eyelids creep; But never doleful dream again Shall break the happy slumber when "He giveth His beloved sleep." MRS. BROWNING. Shall they forget us because they are "made perfect"? Shall they love us the less because they have power now 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 per- turbation, 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. [24] Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Gala- tians 6 : 7. THAT which you are doing, be it good or evil, that which you are doing to-day and every day, each thought, each action, each event, is contributing to form the character by which you are to be judged. If there be any unchangeable fate in the universe this is that fate, that the future shall ever bring forth the fruits of the past. If I have one wish above all other wishes for you it is that you may sow in such manner that your har- vest days may bring peace to your heart. A Littk Parable. I made the cross myself whose weight Was later laid on me. This thought is torture as I toil Up life's steep Calvary. To think mine own hands drove the nails! I sang a merry song, And chose the heaviest wood I had To build it firm and strong. If I had guessed if I had dreamed Its weight was meant for me I should have made a lighter cross To bear up Calvary ! ANNE REEVE ALDRICH. [25] Jjanuar? Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay doivn his life for his friends. S. John 4: 13. I SEE, I see, those nail-pierced hands ! Which bleeding held my Lord On Calvary's cross, 'mid hostile bands, While sin's atonement poured. Those blessed, lifted, glorious hands, Opened for our supply All Heaven descends at their commands; Salvation draweth nigh. I see, I see, those mighty hands Deliverance and defence ! My troubled heart in comfort stands, While fears are driven hence. Upholding, bleeding, hiding hands ! Such wealth of grace they bring, Weak faith grows strong, and joy expands, And Glory wakes to sing. I see, I see, those cross-scarred hands! They're graven with my name With every name, from out all lands, At Mercy's throne they flame. Those pierced, crimson, loaded hands ! Oh ! let them touch our hearts, While Christ, the Lord, in pity stands, And dying love imparts. JOHN JAY McCABE. [26] Ye servants of the Lord. Psalm 136: I. ALL cannot be commanders-in-chief, for some must fill up the ranks; but in neither case need one fear to put forth his best effort. His- tory deals principally with great names, but the pulse of a nation is not always felt alone at its head. Unity of action tends to a centralization of power; for men are ever striving harder to rise in the scale of humanity. The longing for their ideal has taught them to build their theories upon solid foundations, and not upon the shifting sands which the waves of the great ocean of doubt wash to and fro. A low ideal has always been degenerating in its influence, while, on the other hand, a lofty aim is always promotive of the best results, for it tends to things above and not to things below. There has never been a great man who has not striven to mount the ladder to its topmost round, for it is only from such heights that he can look over the heads of the vast throng below him, and note the restless tide as it surges in its wild fury. Be what thou seemest; live thy creed; Hold up to earth the torch divine; Be what thou prayest to be made, Let the great Master's steps be thine. HORATIUS BONAR. [37] When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret. S. Mat- thew 6 : 6. " OOLITUDE is a harbor where the damages w3 incurred on society's open sea may be re- paired." The modest character, the pure life, would be completely crushed, did it not have these seasons of strengthening. As sleep rests the wearied limbs and rebuilds the worn-out system, so retirement invigorates the intellect overtaxed by society's demands, "soothes the fretted dispo- sition and the hurt feelings." In seclusion the mind finds peace, finds also greatness. " If the chosen soul could never be alone In deep mid-silence, open-doored to God, No greatness ever had been dreamed or done. Among dull hearts a prophet never grew; The nurse of full-grown souls is solitude." It is an excellent plan to have some place to go to be quiet when things vex or grieve us. There are a good many hard times in this life of ours, but we can always bear them if we ask help in the right way. MISS ALCOTT. He that lacks time to mourn, lacks time to mend; Eternity mends that. 'Tis an ill cure For life's worst ills, to have no time to feel them. HENRY TAYLOR. [28] Sianuarp Draw them with bands of love. Hosea 11:4. If we love one another, God divelleth in us. I John 4:12. YOU will find as you look back upon your life that the moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love. As memory scans the past, above and beyond all the transitory pleasures of life, there leap forward those supreme hours when you have been enabled to do unnoticed kindnesses to those round about you, things too trifling to speak about, but which you feel have entered into your eternal life. I have seen almost all the beautiful things God has made; I have enjoyed almost every pleasure that He has planned for man; and yet, as I look back, I see standing out above all the life that has gone four or five short experiences when the love of God reflected itself in some poor imitation, some small act of love of mine, and these seem to be the things which alone, of all one's life, abide. Everything else in all our lives is transitory. Every other good is visionary. PHILLIPS BROOKS. She doeth little kindnesses Which most leave undone or despise; For nought which sets one heart at ease, And giveth happiness and peace, Is low esteemed in her eyes. LOWELL. [29] A man that hath friends must shcnv himself friendly. Proverbs 18: 24. MAN is the artificer of his own happiness. Let him beware how he complains of the disposition of circumstances, for it his own dis- position he blames. If this is sour, or that rough, or the other steep, let him think if it be not his work. If his looks curdle all hearts, let him not complain of a sour reception; if he hobble in his gait, let him not grumble at the roughness of the way; if he is weak in the knees, let him not call the hill steep. This was the pith of the inscrip- tion on the wall of the Swedish inn, "You will find at Trochate excellent bread, meat, and wine; provided you bring them with you." THOREAU. As a stove parts with its heat to bring all sur- rounding objects into its own heated condition, so we affect those surrounding us. Not more cer- tainly does a rose diffuse its fragrance than human beings dispense their influence wherever they go. ... Is a man religious? Not more truly does the sunshine impart its glory to surrounding ob- jects than that man's religious influence passes from him to all persons and things within its sphere. Houses become so imbued with the influ- ence of the people that live in them that sensitive persons can feel that influence as soon as they enter. WILLIAM DENTON. [30] Slanuar? Be kindly affectioned one towards another with brotherly love. Romans 12: 10. IN our memories there is more storing up than we can tell. And God is so wonderful, that what is nothing as a sight, or an event, may prove very precious as a recollection. WM. MOUNTFORD. Alas ! I did not say it, The little, kindly word; I let some care delay it From ears that might have heard. And last night in the silence, And last night in the gloom, Death went before and entered That sorrow-haunted room. This morn I stand with fingers Upon the battered gate wee, white, frightened faces O babes all desolate ! 1 might have borne God's message In humble phrase of prayer, I might have given water To lips that perished there. But, clay upon the pillow; My footsteps are too late, And now I stand with fingers Upon the battered gate. MARY M. BOWEN. [31] >econO //if chasteneth us for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Hebrews 12 : 10. OWHAT will that joy be, where the soul, being perfectly prepared for joy, and joy prepared by Christ for the soul, it shall be our business eternally to rejoice! Then shalt thou be suffi- ciently convinced that thy Redeemer was saving thee, as well when He crossed thy desires as when He granted them, when He broke thy heart as when He bound it up. Thou poor soul, who prayest for joy, complainest for want of joy, longest for joy, thou shalt then have full joy, as much as thou canst hold, and more than ever thou hast thought on, or thy heart desired. Then shall a new, a spirit-childhood come, A fresher sense of life in thee have room ! A life that knows no pain, no death, no tomb ! There sight shall know what faith hath first be- lieved, There perfect trust thy heart hath not conceived, There sad'ning thoughts be gone, thy mind here grieved ! Then for the work, my soul, that waits thee there, A firm, bold heart within thee daily bear, Undimmed by painful thoughts, unbowed by care. [32] / will bring the blind by a way that they knew not. Isaiah 13 : 1 6. ONE of the most blessed promises in the Bible is this : " And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; and will lead them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight." Surely this is something we can personally appro- priate without question. For we are verily blind. We know nothing that is before us; our eyes are of no use whatever in foretelling either good or ill; and, being blind, it is impossible for us to know which is the best path for us to take in life. In our perplexity God says: I will take you safely through these ways that are dark and unknown to you; in these paths that are so doubtful, that lie along really dangerous places, I will lead you. So may we take the infinite comfort of the promise to our hearts. Blind though we are, and rough the road over which we walk, our Guide knows the path perfectly, and is not only able to take us over it safely, but also to give us great comfort and good cheer on the way. Lord, I would clasp thy hand in mine, Nor ever murmur or repine, Content, whatever lot I see, Since 'tis my God that leadeth me. j. GILMORE. Happy he who is willing to be led. [33] Rejoice evermore. I Thessalonians 5:16. I T is impious in a good man to be sad. SHAKSPEARE. Let us wipe our tears, lift up our heads, and give ourselves to brave and cheerful toil. In due time the release will come; rest so sweet after the toil is over; glory so bright after the darkness is passed; victory so grand, that we shall not wish the conflicts to have been less fierce, or the perils of the day less numerous or painful. A heart rejoicing in God delights in all His will, and is most 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. [34] tfelmtar? jfourtfy Comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient towards all men, I Thessalonians 5 : 14. THY love shall chant itself its own beatitudes, after its own life working. A child-kiss set on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad; a poor man, served by thee, shall make thee rich; a rich man, helped by thee, shall make thee strong; thou shalt be served thyself by every sense of service which thou renderest. MRS. BROWNING. Doing good is the only certainly happy action of a man's life. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. A beneficent person is like a fountain watering the earth, and spreading fertility; it is, therefore, more delightful and more honorable to give than to receive. EPICURUS. There do remain dispersed in the soil of human nature seeds of goodness, of benignity, of ingenu- ity which, being cherished, excited, and quickened by good culture, do, by common experience, thrust out flowers very lovely, and yield fruits very pleasant, of virtue and goodness. BARROW. To feel much for others and little for our- selves; to restrain our selfish, and to indulge our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature. ADAM SMITH. [35] jfiftl) The blood of Jesus Christ his Son deanseth us from a!! sin. I John 1 : 7. IN one of our national industries there is a daily miracle wrought. From the foul herding places of the outcast, the thief, and the murderer, is brought their infected, cast-off clothing, to feed the hungry jaws of the paper-mills. The reeking mass is torn asunder, submitted to chemical proc- esses, and when the mighty cylinders cease turn- ing, behold! "The beggar's rags are transformed into a fair, white carpet, whereon royal Thought may tread;" a stainless scroll where poets trace their dreams; where psalms of praise glow like clustered stars, and the name of God is inscribed. There is a greater miracle. There are minds perverted from all sweet influences, souls dwarfed with greed, hearts seared with crime, lives tainted with every passion. But in each the divine spark still glows, unquenchable, deathless. One pulse from the God-heart thrilling through the hand we extend, one echo from the Eternal Voice, in our whispered "brother," and sin, stain, and hurt may drop away forever, from that shining crystal, a purified soul. MRS. JOHN JAY MCCABE. Say not 'twas all in vain, The anguish and the darkness and the strife; Love thrown upon the waters comes back again In quenchless yearnings for a nobler life. ANNA SHIPTON. [36] Speak not evil one of another. S. James 4 : 2. HE alone, whose hand is bounding Human power and human will, Looking through each soul's surrounding, Knows its good or ill. For thyself, while wrong and sorrow Make to thee their strong appeal, Coward wert thou not to utter What the heart must feel. Earnest words must needs be spoken When the warm heart bleeds or burns, With its scorn of wrong, or pity For the wronged, by turns. But, by all thy nature's weakness, Hidden faults and follies known, Be thou, in rebuking evil, Conscious of thine own. Not the less shall stern-eyed duty To thy lips her trumpet set, - But with harsher blasts shall mingle Wail ings of regret. WHITTIER. There is nothing that calls us to so sharp a halt in the habit of criticism or fault-finding as taking one look into our own hearts, and beholding there all our own weakness and inconsistency. [37] And in every work that he 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 Chronicles 21 : 31. WHEN one's whole life becomes dominated by one fixed purpose, round which all other purposes revolve, every day if it be a worthy one witnesses the advancement to a higher plane of feeling and of thought. When Turner, the great artist, was asked where he gained his perfect com- mand of nerve and muscle, he replied, "It cost me my life." So the habit of close thought, the charm of perfect diction, the power of soul beauty, or mastery of unworthy purposes, must be paid for with strong effort, even with life, if need must. " Heaven is not gained by a single bound, But we build the ladder by which we rise, From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, And we mount to its summit round by round." The law of growth is from the inner to the out- ward, and our souls expand with the expanding thought. The informed nature is like the mock- ing-bird in its native woods, echoing a thousand varying voices, but the voice it hears most often, and whose voice is sweetest to its sense, is the one to which after a while its own notes will be at- tuned. MRS. JOHN JAY McCABE. [38] sou!: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake- Psalm 23 : i, 3. THE Lord is my Shepherd, He leadeth my soul In pastures all pleasant and green, I rest in His shadow, I walk in His light, And food from His harvests I glean ; Beside the cool waters and rivers of peace Which sparkle with life as they flow, Refreshing my heart and reviving my strength He guides me, as onward I go. My soul He restoreth, when wandering astray, His patience unfailing abides, He heals me when broken, redeems when oppressed, And loves me the while that He chides ; My eyes may be holden from seeing His face He leadeth me, leadeth me still, In paths of the righteous, by ways that He knows, Where nothing can work me an ill. The Lord is my Shepherd, a table He spreads In presence of those whom I fear, Anointing my head with a baptism sweet, As ever He draweth more near. His bounty provides for my every need, With plenty He blesses my board, Each day brings its manna, refreshing my strength, Tis mine ere the gift is implored. MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. [64] If any man love God the same is known of him , i Corin- thians 8 : 3. of my Love, lean hard ! And let Me feel the pressure of thy care ; I know thy burden, for I fashioned it ; Poised it in My own Hand, and made its weight Precisely that which I saw best for thee, And when I placed it on thy shrinking form I said, " I shall be near, and while thou leanest On Me, this burden shall be Mine not thine." So shall I keep within My circling arms, The child of My own Love ; here lay it down Nor fear to weary Him who made, upholds, And guides the universe. Yet closer come ; Thou art not near enough. Thy care, thyself Lay both on Me, that I may feel my child Reposing on my heart. Thou lovest me I doubt it not ; then loving Me, lean hard. Let the fearful and timid one see that God is love essentially and eternally love to all and therefore to him ; and that God has done and suffered all that love could suggest for the well- being of His creatures. ALEXANDER RALEIGH. Be what thou seemest ! live thy creed ! Hold up to earth the touch divine ; Be what thou prayest to be made, Let the great Master's steps be thine. BONAR. [65] God is in heaven and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few. Ecclesiastes 5 : 2. POSSIBLY the highest point where human weak- ness manifests itself is in an effort at expres- sion. The human heart resembles the sea. One day it lies like a calm, untroubled lake ; soon to be lashed into fury, and then subside into moans and sobs, as though longing to give voice to its sorrow, or carry its mighty secret up to the surface, and bear it proudly to the shore. Words are the only vessels in which we can make our voyages on the sea of thought, and weak and frail they are, indeed. We struggle for recognition, for expression, for the power of utterance, but we struggle sometimes in vain. Not so with God. His forms of expression are too manifest for our understanding. It is almost impossible to open the eyes without beholding some expression of divinity. j. T. MACFARLAND. The thoughts that in our hearts keep pace, Lord, make a holy, heavenly throng, And steep in innocence and grace The issue of each guarded tongue. T. H. GILL. If singing breath or echoing chord To every hidden pang were given, What endless melodies were poured, As sad as earth, as sweet as heaven ! HOLMES. [66] Love is the fulfilling of the laiu. Rom'ans 13 : 10. LOVE is lost by thoughtlessness, by incon- sideration, and by selfishness, more than by any other way. Do you want to lose your love ? It is like those old Venetian glasses, fine, slender, and delicate ; pour into one all the great wealth of your affection and the glass will hold it, but let one drop of the poison of self-will or indifference get there and the glass is shattered into a thousand pieces. Where are only stems and thorns Veiled in curled leaves, dead and brown, Gardens where we only see Where the roses used to be ! ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN. Say never ye loved once, God is too near above, the grave below, And all our moments go Too quickly past our souls for saying so. The mysteries of life and death avenge Affections light of range ; There comes no change to justify that change. MRS. BROWNING. Oh ! cast thou not Affection from thee ! In this bitter world, Hold to thy heart that only treasure fast ; Watch, guard it suffer not a breath to dim The bright gem's purity. FELICIA HEMANS. [67] Dap Grievous "words stir 'up anger. Proverbs 15:1. Put out the Fire. WHEN our houses take fire, says Dr. Cuyler, the first impulse is to go after a bucket of water. But if temper takes fire, the first impulse is to throw on more fuel. Now the best bucket of water for a roused tem- per is resolute silence. If, whenever an irritating act were done, or an injury struck us, we should firmly seal our lips for even ten minutes, we would save ourselves many a quarrel, many a heartburn, many a mortification, many a disgrace to our religious profession. Speech is often explosive and shattering. Silence is cooling. It cools us off and cools other people. One of the calmest men I ever knew told me that he used to be violently passionate, but he broke his temper by resolutely bridling his tongue until his anger died away. Come, here is work and a rank field begin ! Put thou thine edge to the great weeds of sin ; So shalt thou find the use of life, and see Thy Lord at set of sun, Approach and say, " Well done ! " E. W. ELLSWORTH. Let your spirit dwell upon the sunny hilltops of serenity, where the shadows cast by ill-temper and evil spirits can never reach. [68J 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 tts, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12 : I. WE are compassed about by a cloud of wit- nesses, whose hearts throb in sympathy with every effort and struggle, and who thrill with joy at every success. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. " I am working alone and no one heeds ! " Who says so does not know There are clear eyes watching on every side, And wherever our feet may go, We are " compassed about with so great a crowd," That if we could only see, We never could think that our life is small, Or that we may unnoticed be ! We seem to suffer and bear alone Life's burden and all its care ; And the sighs and prayers of the heavy heart Vanish into the air ; But we do not suffer or work alone, And after a victory won, Who knows how happy the hosts may be Who whisper a soft " Well done ! " MARIANNE FARNINGHAM. [69] A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. Prov- erbs 22: i. A good name is better than precious ointment. Ecclesiastes T.I. SUCH a name is better than "great riches." Its money value is wealth. Its character value is beyond estimate. He who has a large balance to his credit in the confidence, the affection and sym- pathies of his fellow-men, is far richer than one whose name is worth just so many dollars. In the one case, the money is the basis of confidence. In the other, the man. To get a fortune and keep a good name, is surely better than riches without a good name. But now and then there are cases where men preserve their integrity, and yet do not achieve financial success. Misfortune may pursue them, or they may lack business judgment ; fire or storm may keep a man's losses up with his gains, and he may die poor, even though bearing a good name. What have we to say of such an one? Why, just what Scripture says : " A good name is better than precious ointment." Riches are temporal, but character is eternal. EARL CRANSTON. His the name that's nearest heaven, Godward breathed in full heart's praise, Who most thorns has drawn, not driven ; Mirrored back most tears on face Of poor Humanity. [70] Consider the lilies how they grow : they toil not, they spin not ; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. S. Luke 12 : 27. MY heart is weary for the lilies. Oh, That I might wander far beyond the snow And find the garden where the lilies grow ! Lilies, clean silver lilies to illume And glorify the dimness of my room, Lilies of light to penetrate the gloom. Not the bright roses of the shining day ; Roses are fittest when the hour is gay ; For holy-hearted lilies now I pray. Christ ! make Thine Easter lilies bloom again ! See, how Thy poor are crying out in pain, And all the land is full of snow and rain. . Sharp is the wind, and cutting is the sleet, Cold and unclean we walk the street ; Cold and unclean the mire about our feet. In vain we turn for hope toward Thy sky ; Clouds are so dense, and Heaven alas so high. No sun shines visible to human eye. Show us, O Thou who once removed our stain, We need not pray for purity in vain ! Christ ! bid Thy solemn lilies bloom again. BLANCHE NEVIN. [71] He that loveth life shall lose it ; and he thathateth his life in this ivor Id shall keep it unto life eternal. S. John 12 : 25. IF pain were banished from the earth life would become utterly unfruitful. Neither nations nor individuals make any history in peace. We are always trying to make life what it never can be safe, constant, and equal. If we could succeed in this effort, this severe and measured existence would have little value ; for we are so made that sad meanings are the highest meanings the only largely significant expressions of the eternal will as revealed in us. Pity and need Make all flesh kin. There is no caste in blood, Which runneth of one hue, nor caste in tears, Which trickle salt with all ; neither comes man To birth with title-mark stamped on the brow, Nor sacred thread on neck. Who doth right deeds Is twice-born, and who doeth ill deeds vile. EDWIN ARNOLD. Hear then this lesson ; hear and learn : He who would save his soul, I say, Must lose his soul ; must dare to turn And lift the fallen by the way ; Must make his soul worth saving by some deed That grows and grows, as grows a fruitful seed. JOAQUIN MILLER. [73] Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Galatians 6 : 2. IF you were toiling up a weary hill Bearing a load beyond your strength to bear, Straining each nerve untiringly, and still Stumbling and losing foothold here and there, And each one passing by would do so much As give one upward lift, and go his way, Would not the slight reiterated touch Of help and kindness lighten all the day ? If you were breasting a keen wind, which tossed And buffeted and chilled you as you strove, Till, baffled and bewildered quite, you lost The power to see the way, and aim and move, And one, if only for a moment's space, Gave you a shelter from the bitter blast, Would you not find it easier to face The storm again when the brief rest was past? There is no little and there is no much ; We weigh and measure and define in vain. A look, a word, or a responsive touch Can be the ministers of joy to pain ; A man can die of hunger walled in gold, A crumb may quicken hope to stronger breath, And every day we give or we withhold Some little thing which tells for life and death. SUSAN COOLIDGE. * [73] jfottrteentl) Trust in the Lord and do good. Psalm 37 : 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 F. BUTTS. When God is in the midst of a kingdom or a city, He makes it as firm as Mount Zion that can- not be removed. When He is in the midst of a soul, though calamities throng about it on all hands, 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 God in men's hearts that makes them shake like leaves at every blast of danger ? R. LEIGHTON. Why is sun more bright than rain? Why does night bring forth the day ? Why do souls grow strong through pain? Tis God's way. Him to trust though sunbeams fail, Him to love though loves decay, Him to see behind the veil, Be my way. [74] % jfiftrnufy /?/ //;/j / say, brethren, the time is short. I Corinthians 7:29. 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 The time is short. Up, up, my soul, the long-spent time redeeming, Sow thou the seeds of better deed and thought : Light other lamps while yet thy light is beaming, The time The time is short. By all the lapses thou hast been forgiven, By all the lessons prayer to thee hath taught, To others teach the sympathetic heaven. The time The time is short. HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH. He whose days pass without imparting and receiv- ing is like the bellows of a smith : he breathes in- deed, but he does not live. HINDU PROVERB. Thou fadest as a flower, O man ! Of food for musing here is store. O man, thou fallest as a leaf ! Pace thoughtfully earth's leaf-strewn floor. R. C. TRENCH. [75] Serve him with a perfect heart and willing mind. I Chron- icles 28 : 9. Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Romans 12:2. 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 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 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 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. 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. Waste not thy being ; back to Him Who freely gave it, freely give ; Else is that being but a dream ; 'Tis but to be, and not to live. BONAR. [76] Ask and it shall be given you. S. Matthew 7 : 8. I ASKED for bread : God gave a stone instead. Yet while I pillowed there my head, The angels made a ladder of my dreams, Which upwards to celestial mountains led. And when I woke, beneath the morning's beams, Around my resting-place fresh manna lay ; And praising God, I went upon my way, For I was fed. I asked for strength ; for with the noontide heat I fainted, while the reapers, singing sweet, Went forward with ripe sheaves I could not bear. Then came the Master with His blood-stained feet, And lifted me with sympathetic care. Then on His arm I leaned till all was done ; And I stood with the rest at set of sun, My task complete. God answers prayer; sometimes, when hearts are weak, He gives the very gifts believers seek. But often faith must learn a deeper rest, And trust God's silence when He does not speak ; For He, whose name is love, will send the best. Stars may burn out, nor mountain walls endure ? But God is true, His promises are sure To those who seek. MYRA GOODWIN PLANZ. [77] (Eigljteentl) Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life where- unto thou art also called. I Timothy 6:12. EVEN were the immortality of the soul a fiction, I would be sorry not to believe it. I con- fess I am not so humble as the atheists. I do not follow their thoughts ; but for myself would not barter the idea of my immortality for the happiness of to-day, for I delight to deem myself immortal as God himself. MONTESQUIEU. Where our Captain bids us go Tis not ours to murmur "No." He that gives the sword and shield, Chooses too the battle-field Where we are to fight the foe. ANONYMOUS. Who art thou that complaineth of thy life of toil ? Complain not ! Look up, my wearied brother ; see thy fellow-workmen there, in God's eternity ; sur- viving 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 shalt return home in honor; doubt it not, if in the battle thou keep thy shield ! Thou, in the Eternities and deepest death-king- doms art not an alien ; thou art everywhere a deni- zen. Complain not. CARLYLE. jjiineteentl) Like as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame ; he remembereth that we are dust. Psalm 103 : 13, 14. FATHER ! How much of strength and conso- lation centres in that word ! In this single view of God how much there is to bind us to Him with fervent and ever-growing love ! He knows the bitter, weary way, The needless striving by the way, The souls that weep, the souls that pray He knows ! He knows how hard the fight hath been, The cloud that came our lives between, The wounds the world hath never seen, He knows ! He knows when faint and worn we sink, How deep the pain, how near the brink Of dark despair we pause and shrink ; He knows ! He knows : O heart take up thy cross, And know earth's treasures are but dross. And He will prove as gain our loss ! He knows ! MARIAN LONGFELLOW. The merciful compassion of our heavenly Father broods over us, as the blue sky bends over the earth. The great Father heart is everywhere. [79] / thank my God, ma&ing- mention of thee always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith. Philippians 4:5. Walk -worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. Ephesians 4:1. Let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified. Psalm 50 : 1 6. LET us hold fast the threefold cord that cannot be broken, the friend wishing, the friend re- ceiving, and the mighty Friend loving to give as much as is needed. ANDREW MURRAY. " Love makes drudgery divine." Love cannot help itself, it outruns and leaves law far behind. The question is not what must I do, but what may I do? Love will stop at nothing. It takes up its cross and travels after its object over every hill and mountain of difficulty. Love desires all to partake of its bliss ; it runs on with unceasing cry " What shall I render for such benefits?" POWERSCOURT. Without or star or angel for their guide, Who worship God shall find Him. Humble love And not proud reason keeps the door of heaven. Love finds admission when proud science fails. YOUNG. [8oJ Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust. Psalm 11:4. GO forth to meet the solemnities and to conquer the trials of existence, believing in a Shep- herd of your souls. Then faith in Him will support you in duty, and duty firmly done will strengthen faith ; till at last 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. STOPFORD A. BROOKE. Upon God's providence I lean, As lean in faith I must ; The lesson of my life hath been, A heart of grateful trust. No burden yet was on me laid Of trouble or of care, But He my trembling step hath stayed And given me strength to bear. I know not what beyond may lie, But look in humble faith, Into a larger life to die And find new birth in death. And so my onward course I fare With happy heart and calm, And mingle with my daily care The music of my psalm. FREDERICK L. HOSMER. [81] Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. S. Matthew 6:34. HE that hath many causes of joy, and so great, is very much in love with sorrow and peevish- ness, who loses all these pleasures, and chooses to sit down upon his little handful of thorns. JEREMY TAYLOR. 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. WILLIAM J. IRONS. O my friend, look not out at what stands in the way ; what if it looks dreadful as a lion, is not the Lord stronger than the beasts 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. PENNINGTON. Griefs Clearing Sky. Who knows whither the clouds have fled ? In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake; And the eyes forget the tears they have shed, The heart forgets its sorrow and ache. LOWELL. [82] In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3 : 6. He leadeth me. Psalm 23 : 2. 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 our future as He is our past, as much as, and far more than we can feel Him to be in our pres- ent. Partakers thus of the divine nature, resting in that perfect All-in-Ail in whom our nature is eternal too, we walk without fear, full of hope and courage and strength to do His will, waiting to do the endless good which He is always giving as fast as He can get us able to take it in. GEORGE MACDONALD. "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 hilltops high and fair I dwell, or in the sunless valleys, where The shadows lie, what matter ? He is there. HENRY A. BARRY. Keep to the present little inch that is before you, and accomplish that in the little moment that belongs to it. M. A. KELLY. [83] Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Hebrews 1 2 : 6. HE took them from me, one by one, The things I set my heart upon ; They looked so harmless, fair and blest, Would they have hurt me ? God knows best ; He loves me so, He would not wrest Them from me if it were not best. I will not say I did not weep As doth a child that wants to keep The pleasant things in hurtful play His wiser parent takes away ; But in this comfort I will rest : He who hath taken knoweth best. F. H. MAER. Let Christ's love flow into our souls and fill them. Then struggles and sacrifices will lose their bitter- ness, even if they must keep some of their pain. God's work begun within is a pledge of His work finished. Until the day of the Lord Jesus, then let us look up, rejoice and hope and love. God chastens thee because He loves thee ! . . . He loved thee into sorrow, and He will love thee through it. Love is the reason of all He does. MACDUFF. God's love with keen flame purges like the light- ning flash. [8 4 ] Thou understandest my thought afar off. Psalm 139 : 2. WISELY the great Plato wrote, " Thinking is the soul talking with itself." The visible part of man dies and is forgotten, but his soul, his thought, is immortal. As thought is the breath of men's spirit, so it is the character of his thought which determines the character of his immortality. Whether the magnetism of his influence shall stimu- late other men to worthy and lofty purposes, or whether it shall leave upon succeeding generations such black stains of crime as no angel tears can wash away, shall be determined by the character and power of a thought. There are thoughts which are plague-spots, thoughts which are prophecies, thoughts which are convictions, thoughts which are pledges and prayers, thoughts which are wounds in the world's deep heart. Battle and bloodshed, cruelty and wrong, murder and oppression, have all sprung and grown from the first murderous thought of Cain. There are thoughts which are symbols. The Taj Mahal, stainless in its matchless beauty and purity, sprang, a white flower of sorrow, from the grave where were buried together the dead and the living heart, and so shall forever symbolize the love of the Indian King whose loyal soul clung to one woman living and mourned her dead. Thought is mysteriously transformed into beliefs ; into laws ; into creeds. Under every thought lies a feeling too deep for perfect expression. [85] soap ' In the night-time his song shall be with me. Psalm 42 : 8. He shall give thee songs in the night. Job 35 : 10. OH ! still those precious words remain, The strains of trust and love Which beat the air, like spirit-wings And lift the heart above. Those songs on which the saints of old Scaled heaven's loftiest height, And 'cross the blue horizon's rim Secured their crowns of light. I bind the memory of those songs Close to my reverent heart, They turn temptation's face away And bid my griefs depart ; They soothe me, soft as spirit-hands That fan the fainting soul, And all invisibly they lift My life to heaven's goal. MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. If there be memory in the world to come, If thought recur to some things silenced here, Then shall the deep heart be no longer dumb, But find expression in that happier sphere ; It shall not be denied the utmost sum Of love to speak without or fault or fear, But utter to the harp, with changes sweet, Words that, forbidden still, then heaven were incomplete. JEAN INGELOW. [86] Lave suffer eth long and is kind. I Corinthians 13:4. THE love of Jesus reproduces itself in the lives of His working and suffering children. In some shape they are ever giving themselves to God and for their fellow-men. True love is no thin dis- embodied sentiment. Love asserts its presence in a practical, visible way, when once it really lives. CANON LIDDON. Let your friends have your sympathy and your help . . . and let simplicity, love, and humility be your great aim just to do God's work without an atom of self-love in it. Keep this aim ever true and pure and all will come out right, even though many a weary step has to be trod in the footsteps of JeSUS. H. MONSELL. Who saith, " I loved once " ? Not angels, whose clear eyes love, foresee, Love through eternity, Who, by " to love," do apprehend " to be " ; Not God, called love, His noble crown-name, cast- ing A light too broad for blasting ! The great God, changing not from everlasting, Saith not, " I loved once." E. B. BROWNING. [87] Thou shall forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away. Job 1 1 : 1 6. I LOOK around me and think how many there are in the same trouble as myself, perhaps much greater, and they have no Father to go to. I look behind me and think of all the way I have been led, and the mercy upon mercy which I have experienced. I look before and above me and think of my heaven at the door. Jesus my fore- runner there, my God there, where, through won- drous grace, I shall soon be myself. BISHOP BULL. My mind was full of troubles wild, And all my heart was filled with sorrow, When, by my side, a little child Pointed toward the sky and smiled, And said, " The sun will shine to-morrow." I looked, and all my pain had flown ; Would He, who e'en takes thought of sparrows, Give me, instead of bread, a stone? Or never heed my weary moan ? Or pierce my soul with many arrows? O weary souls ! however black Your lives may be, this comfort borrow ; Look ever forward, look not back, But keep upon the homeward track, And look for sunshine on the morrow. EDITH HELENA COOKE. [88] I will lift ttp my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my strength. Psalm l:2l. AND now, O Lord, our God, we desire to be caught up out of the fever and turbulence of the times in which we dwell. We desire to find Thee a very present help in time of trouble. Lord, Thou hast promised to make Thyself a refuge. Thou art a mountain in a weary land. We remem- ber in days gone by, when we have gone up out of the city and troubled vale unto the tops of moun- tains, and found, while it was heated and full of summer burnings below, that there it was cool and transparent, that there no sound was heard, and everything dwelt in eternal calm and purity. Be pleased, O Lord, to grant, since Thou art lifted far above toil and heat and turbulence, that we may be able to find Thee, and to refresh ourselves in Thy presence. BEECHER. " Unto the Hills." O restless heart, so full of cares, Yet longing so for better things, Impatient even in thy prayers, And vexed at trifling happenings, Receive the strength that calms and stills, Lift up thine eyes "unto the hills." MARY THOMPSON. [89] Whoso is wise, will ponder these things. Psalm 107 : 43. G OOD will, like a good name, is got by many actions and lost by one. JEFFREY. Every event of life points, if it does not carry us, on to the cross. JONATHAN EDWARDS. Show me the man you honor; I know by that symptom better than by any other, what kind of a man you are yourself; for you show me what your ideal of manhood is, and what kind of a man you long to be. CARLYLE. Make each day a critic on the last. . POPE. Be noble ; and the nobleness that lies In other hearts, sleeping, but never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own. LOWELL. Taking the first step with the good thought, the second with the good word, and the third with the good deed, I entered Paradise. ZOROASTER. In the midst of much failure have the heart to begin again. Fear not so long as you have Christ with you as your friend and defender. JOHN HALL. Seeing much, suffering much, and endeavoring much are the pillars of learning. D'ISRAELI. [90] Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish. S. Luke 13 : 3. OF all acts, is not, for man, repentance the most divine? The deadliest sin were the consciousness of no sin. The heart so conscious is divorced from sincerity, humility, and fact. Hence the experience of David is the truest em- blem of man's moral progress and warfare ever written. CARLYLE. Coming to Jesus is the desire of the heart after Him. It is to feel our sin and misery, and to believe that He is willing and able to pardon, comfort, and keep us ; to ask Him to help us, and to trust Him as in a friend. To have the same feelings and desires as if He were visibly present, and we came and implored Him to bless us, is to come to Him, though we do not see His face nor hear His voice. The penitent's desire for pardon, his prayer, " Lord, save me ; I perish " this is coming to Him. NEWMAN HALL. A true repentance shuns the evil itself More than the external suffering or the shame. SHAKSPEARE. Pass me not, O God, my Father, Sinful though my heart may be ; Thou mightst leave me, but the rather Let Thy mercy rest on me, Even me. MRS. ELIZABETH CODNER. [91] 9 jfourtt) ZVa/ //4y bread to the hungry. Isaiah 58 : 7. IF there be a pleasure on earth which angels cannot enjoy, and which they might almost envy a man the possession of, it is the power of relieving distress ; if there be a pain which devils might pity a man for enduring, it is the death-bed reflection that we have possessed the power of doing good, but that we have abused and perverted it to purposes of ill. COLTON. In all the human gifts and passions, though they advance nature, yet they are subject to excess ; but charity alone admits no excess. For so we see, by aspiring to be like God in power, the angels transgressed and fell; but by aspiring to be like God in goodness or love, neither man nor angel ever did or shall transgress. For unto the imita- tion we are called. BACON. Beneficence is a duty. He who frequently prac- tises it, and sees his benevolent intentions realized, at length comes really to love him to whom he has done good. KANT. [92] blG55*m6s re^h on Evening and morning and at noon, will I cry and pray aloud : and he shall hear my voice. Psalm 15 : 17. MOST holy and eternal God, Lord and Sover- eign of all the creatures, I humbly present to Thy divine majesty myself, my soul and body, my thoughts and my words, my actions and inten- tions, my passions and my sufferings, to be dis- posed by Thee to Thy glory, to be blessed by Thy providence, to be guided by Thy counsel, to be sanctified by Thy Spirit, and afterwards that my soul and body may be received into glory : for nothing can perish which is under Thy custody; and the enemy of souls cannot devour what is Thy portion, nor take it out of Thy hand. This day, O Lord, and all the days of my life I dedicate to Thy honor, and the actions of my calling to the uses of grace, and the religion of all my days to be united to the merits and intercession of my holy Saviour Jesus, that in Him and for Him I may be pardoned and accepted. Amen. JEREMY TAYLOR. We kneel how weak, we rise how full of power. \Yhy therefore should we do ourselves this wrong, Or others that we are not always strong, That we ever are overborne with care, That we should ever weak or heartless be, Anxious or troubled, when with us in prayer, And joy and strength and courage are with Thee ? R. C. TRENCH. [93] Thy word is a lamp unto my Jeet, and a light unto my path. Psalm 119: 105. ON land and ocean men have rejoiced at the shining of a guiding star. The thankful mar- iner steers over the pathless sea by one steadfast star that befriends him out of the North. The caravan crawling by night across the trackless desert makes the tinkling of the camel bells fol- low the twinkling of the star that points the way. In years now forever happily gone, the bondman fleeing through the forests, wading swamps and swimming streams to elude the bloodhound's scent and escape the overseer's lash, hiding by day, and hurrying by night, rejoiced to see a kindly star that burned in the northern sky like a light in Liberty's window, signalling the way to friendly soil, marr- hood, and the powerful shelter of the flag of our Union flying over the border. As surely in spiritual realms as on sea and land a guiding light shines from above. In the sky of every human soul is some starry revelation which, if followed, will lead to the manifold liberty with which Christ makes men free. When we cannot see our way, Let us trust and still obey ; He who bids us forward go, Cannot fail the way to show. [94] jfourtl) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 1 1 : I. AT present I only feel that there is a chamber whose name is Peace, and which opens toward the sun-rising. ... I know that the little film which covers the pupil of my eye is the only wall between her world and mine, but that hair-breadth is as effectual as the space between us and the sun. I cannot see her, I cannot feel when I come home that she comes to the door to welcome me as she always did. I can only hope that when I go through the last door that opens for all of us I may hear her coming step upon the other side. LOWELL. Be patient and be wise ! The eyes of Death Look on us with a smile : her soft caress That stills the anguish and that stops the breath, Is Nature's ordination, meant to bless Our mortal woes with peaceful nothingness. Be not afraid ! The Power, that made the light In your kind eyes, and set the stars on high, And gave us love, meant not that all should die Like a brief day-dream quenched in sudden night. Think that to die is but to fall asleep And wake refreshed when the new morning breaks, And golden day her rosy vigor takes From winds that fan Eternity's white height And the white crests of God's perpetual deep. [95] WILLIAM WINTER. jftftl) I flee unto thee to hide me. Psalm 143 : 9. OUR life is hid with Christ in God. Our present life in Him may be compared to that of the seed, a hidden life contending underground, against cold and darkness and obstructions, yet bearing within its breast the indestructible germ of vitality. Death lifts the soul into sunshine for which a hidden, invisible work in the life of the flower has prepared it. Then bless thy sacred growth, nor catch At pain; but thrive unseen and dumb ; Keep clean, bear fruit, earn life and watch, Till the white-winged reapers come. HENRY VAUGHAN. I could not ask for you a greater gift than that in the future, when your autumn time of life shall come, you may have the spring-time in your heart. There is only one life where the new never becomes old, where the love is always kept fresh, and is always a first love with increasing freshness ; and that is having the One who says " I am the life ! " MARGARET BOTTOME. Whate'er events betide, Thy will they all perform ; Safe in Thy heart my head I hide, Nor fear the coming storm. H. F. LYTE. [96] In my Father's house are many mansions : if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. S. John 14: I. WHERE does it lie that land of rest To which the over-wearied pass? Where are the ways which they have pressed, Or the soft meadows green with grass, Through which they go into the shade Of the home-place the Lord has made? So close the door shuts after them, Nor sight nor sound can reach us here ; Faintly we speak the requiem, And still it seems that they are near. We cannot tell ; we only know That Christ receives them where they go. But that is surely heaven enough ; Where Jesus is, their home shall be. The storms have ceased which once were rough, And gently, o'er a tranquil sea, Knowing no care because He cared, They reached the home He has prepared. Love made it ready. Love is wise. Oh, happy they who, safe at home, Have had the tears wiped from their eyes, Assured that no more grief will come ; For Christ has borne away their cares, And He has answered all their prayers. MARIANNE FARNINGHAM. [97] Slpril Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth! S. James 3=5- SHE told a lie, a little lie It was go small and white, She said, " It cannot help but die Before another night." And then she laughed to see it go, And thought it was as white as snow. But oh, the lie ! It larger grew, Nor paused by night or day, And many watched it as it flew, And if it made delay, Like something that was near to death, They blew it onward with their breath. And on its track the mildew fell, And there was grief and shame, And many a spotless lily-bell Was shrivelled as with flame. The wings that were so small and white Were large, and strong, and black as night. One day a woman stood aghast, And trembled in her place, For something flying far and fast Had smote her in the face Something that cried in thunder-tone, I come ! I come ! Take back your own ! ELLEN M. H. GATES. [98J In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening -withhold not thy hand. Ecclesiastes 1 1 : 6. SOW with a generous hand ; Pause not for toil or pain ; Weary not through the heat of summer ; Weary not through the cold spring rain ; But wait till the autumn comes For the sheaves of golden grain. Sow, and look onward, upward, Where the starry light appears Where, in spite of the coward's doubting, Or your own heart's trembling fears, You shall reap in joy the harvest You have sown to-day in tears. ADELAIDE A. PROCTER. Once in a while I think of my little orange tree I had a few winters ago. It was very small, in a small pot, but it had so many oranges on it I won- dered whether they would grow or shrink up and fall from the tree. They didn't fall, and they didn't seem to grow, but they lived. ... I came to love my little orange tree. One day when I stood by admiring it, I fancied it said, " O, I am nothing now, but you should see me in my home in California, then you would see an orange tree." It never reached there. But ... we shall some day be where our environment will be perfectly suited to our nature and we shall come to our best. MARGARET BOTTOME. [99] Lo I am with you ahvay, even unto the end of the world. S. Matthew 38 : 20. O CHARM to drive away the power of dark- ness, " The Father is with me ! " O solace to the poor wounded spirit, "The Father is with me ! " O light for the desolate and broken heart, whatever is taken away, " The Father is with me ! " Have you grasped this precious revelation? You who live in happy homes ; you whose lives are easy and free from want ; you whose wishes are fulfilled, and upon whom life smiles brightly have you taken to heart this tnith, "My Father is with me "? Learn it now. Dwell on it now. Let it give a deeper meaning to your prosperous life, a deeper earnestness to your way of feeling and acting. "The Father is with me wherever I am." And then, when the storms begin to blow, and the great billows break upon you, and in the rush of salt waves you taste at last the bitterness of suffering, then you will know as a comfort which nothing can take from you : " The Father is with me." CANON WYNNE. My bark is wafted to the strand By breath divine ; And on the helm there rests a hand Other than mine. [100] T He that receivelh seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it ; ivhich also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundred fold, some sixty, some thirty. S. Matthew 13: 13. ^ HOUGH to-day may not fulfil All thy hopes, have patience still. P. GERHARDT. He does not need to transplant us into a different field, but right where we are, with just the circum- stances 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 your- selves absolutely into His hands, and let Him have His own way with you. H. w. s. It is the spring ! prepare the seeds And tender plants new bloom to show, Turn the rich earth, pull up the weeds, And clear each cumbered garden row. Waste not the wealth of April showers, For sunshine which our need befriends, Think ! on these evanescent hours The harvest of the year depends. [101] CAROLINE NORTON. The Lord shall guide thee continually. Isaiah 63 : 2. THE light of God's wisdom can make a path for us even across the stormy sea of life. His guidance shows a track where we can pilot our little human craft safely. His love will bring us into port when the voyage is over. Light of life so sweetly streaming, Down upon life's troubled sea, With the love of Jesus beaming, Shine, shine on me. Light of life that knows no fading From all changes Thou art free ; Holy light that knows no shading Shine, shine on me. Light of life, in days of gladness To Thy radiance I would flee ; Be my strength in days of sadness, Shine, shine on me. BONAR. May none of us founder before we reach the har- bor, but may every one of us have that pilot in the ship, that guidance, that living Christ, that we shall be sure, through calm and conflict, of reaching the land which He appoints ; and may it be Immanuel's land that place of rest where no storms are, and where no tears wet the eye. BEECHER. [102] Be of good courage. Numbers 13 : 20. AT the bloody battle of Marengo the French lines fell back in a complete rout, and the officers rushed up to their commander, crying : "The battle is lost ! " "Yes," exclaimed the gen- eral, " one battle is lost, but there is time to win another." Inspired by his faith and courage, the officers hurried back, turned the head of the re- treating column, and when in a few hours the last gun was fired, the French camped on the field of battle. Marengo had been won. So if we are thinking of battles lost the past year, in 'school or in business, or, worse still, in character lost temper, lost patience, lost spirit- uality or prayerfulness let us remember that there is yet time to win another battle. Raise the standard once more, take fresh courage, put on the whole armor, and God will surely give us the victory. w. H. POPE. If the day's brief pain and passing care Have seemed too much and too hard to bear ; If under its trivial press and smart Thou hast failed in temper and lost in heart ; If the undiscouraged, journeying sun, As it sinks to rest with its travail done, Leaves thee all spent with trouble and sorrow - How shalt thou face the harder to-morrow ? SUSAN COOLIDGE. [103] Ye cannot serve God and mammon, S. Matthew 6 : 24. IT is the old choice which still is presented to every soul ; the old crisis which reappears in every experience. Caesar, or Christ, that is the ques- tion ; the vast, attractive, sceptical world, with its pleasures and ambitions, and its prodigal promise, or the meek, majestic, and winning figure of Him of Nazareth? The election remains for each of us ; and the moment of the election, in the shaded and solemn " Valley of Decision," will be memorable in our history, when suns for us have ceased to shine ! It is not the lower appetites in man which offer the sharpest or stubbornest resistance to the man- dates of Christ, though these have their place, and often a large one, in such opposition. The love of ease ; the indisposition to any pro- tracted and patient labor for an ideal cause ; the eager passion for secular success, the pride which insists on determining its own plan and path ; the weakened impression of things supernatural ; even the intellectual habit which finds miracles unscien- tific, and insists on applying its own measures to the whole career and office of the Lord all these and other kindred forces now affect minds encompassed by the world, to encourage and confirm their reluc- tance toward Christ. [104] jfourtmul) Your Father knoiveth what things ye have need of, S. Matthew 6: 8. BE content to be a child, and let thy Father proportion out daily to thee what light, what power, what exercises, what straits, what fears, what troubles He sees fit for thee. i. PENNINGTON. Song of the Seeds. Tis so dark, so dark, here underground ! We reach and we struggle, we know not where ; We long for something we have not found, We seek and we find not, but cannot despair. It is warm and sweet here under the earth, And so peaceful too, why can not we stay ? What is this change that is named a birth ? And what is that wonderful thing called Day? But a power is on us, we may not wait ; Within us we feel it struggle and thrill, While upward we reach to find our fate, And this ceaseless, mysterious want to fulfil. They say that at last we shall reach the Air Will breathing be freedom, and Light be Life? What mystic change shall we meet with there When the blossom shall crown this mute, strange life? FLORENCE SMITH. God goes before and ploughs, and we are but the seed dropped into His furrows. [105] jFiftmttl) Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. S. Matthew 1 2 : 34. LET us beware of losing our enthusiasm. Let us ever glory in something ; and strive to retain our admiration for all that would ennoble, and our interest in all that would enrich and beau- tify our life. PHILLIPS BROOKS. Enthusiasm is more than anything else, a broad consciousness of real relations, and a joyous activ- ity therein. The fuller one's appreciation of his proper relation to God's enterprises, and the more lively his efforts therein, the larger the life he lives. He beholds raying off from himself a thou- sand-fold chords of oneness with God's world and universe. He realizes that over every one he can send thrilling influences of power and good. Doing it, he lives joyously in the highest intents of his existence. He humbly discovers himself to be a fountain of beneficence, achieving possibilities of blessing earth and gladdening heaven. JOHN J. McCABE. Beautiful is young enthusiasm ; keep it to the end, and be more and more correct in fixing on the object of it. It is a terrible thing to be wrong in that the source of all our miseries and confu- sions whatever. CARLYLE. [106] Blessed are they -which do hunger and thirst after righteous- ness, for they shall be filled. S. Matthew 5 : 6. I WEARY, for the day is hard and long ; I have forgot my early morning song ; Footsore and faint, upon the ground I lie ; Out of the dust I only send a cry For Thee. I hunger, for my food is bitter bread, Mingled with falling tears that I have shed ; Out of the arms of death or ere I die, My soul lifts up her pleading cry For Thee. I thirst ; the cooling springs no more o'erflow, The summer drouth has touched their sources so ; My spirit fails beneath a fervid sky, Yet my hot lips still tremble with a cry For Thee. O Way of Life ! draw in my weary feet ! O Bread of Life ! of thee I fain would eat ! O Living Water ! fill my chalice high ! O Blessed Christ ! now hear my suppliant cry For Thee. MARY A. RIPLEY. The mountains lift their crests so high, that weary clouds, which have no rest in the sky, love to come to them, and, wrapping about their tops, distil their moisture upon them. Thus mountains hold com- merce with God's invisible ocean, and, like good men, draw supplies from the unseen. [107] BEECHER. atptti A man that hath friends must show himself friendly. Proverbs 33 : 24. A friend loveth at all times. Proverbs 17: 17. IF we would build on a sure foundation in friend- ship, we must love our friends for their sakes rather than our own. CHARLOTTE BRONTE. Be careful to make friendship the child and not the father of virtue ; for many strongly knit minds are rather good friends than good men. PHILIP SIDNEY. The friendship of high and sanctified spirits loses nothing by death but its alloy : failings disappear, and the virtues of those whose " faces we shall behold no more " appear greater and more sacred when beheld through the shades of the sepulchre. ROBERT HALL. The greatest medicine is a true friend. SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE. A faithful friend is the true image of the Deity. NAPOLEON. How are holy friendships possible? In mutual devotedness to the good and true. A man, be the heavens ever praised, is sufficient for himself; yet were ten men, united in love, capable of being and of doing what ten thousand singly would fail in. Infinite is the help man can yield to man. [108] Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world. S. John 4=5- followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6 : 12. r I "HOSE who are now at rest were once like JL ourselves. They were once weak, faulty, sin- ful ; 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 commonplace. 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 yours. They have overcome, each one, and one by one; each in his turn, when the day came, and God called him to trial. And so shall you likewise. H. E. MANNING. 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. WHITTIER. When we comprehend the fulness of what death will do for us, in all our outlook and forelook, dying is triumphing. BEECHER. [109] jjimeteentt) Dap To every thing there is a season. . . . He hath made every thing beautiful in his time. Ecclesiastes 3:1. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone ; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come. . . . The fig tree putleth forth her green Jigs. Song of Solomon 2:11, 12, 13. NATURE becomes to the soul a perpetual letter from God, freshly written every day and each hour. The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy. Flowers are the sweetest things that God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into. The superfluous blossoms on a fruit tree are meant to symbolize the large way in which God loves to do pleasant things. As flowers never put on their best clothes for Sunday, but wear their spotless raiment and exhale their odor every day, so let your Christian life, free from stain, ever give forth the fragrance of the love of God. The lonely pine on the mountain-top waves its sombre boughs and cries: "Thou art my sun!" And the little meadow-violet lifts its cup of blue, and whispers with its perfumed breath, "Thou art my sun ! " And the grain in a thousand fields rustles in the wind and makes answer, " Thou art my sun ! " BEECHER. [no] Is there no balm in Gilead ? is there no physician there? Jeremiah 9 : 22. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my Mood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. S. John 6: 54. THERE are necessities in our hearts which nothing human can supply ; passions which nothing human can either satisfy or control ; powers which nothing human can either adequately excite or occupy ; and oh, there are sorrows, deep sor- rows, which will not be assuaged ; wounds which, if the balm in Gilead cannot heal, must fester for- evermore ; sins, far beyond the reach of all skill but that of the Great Physician of souls. R. J. BRECKINRIDGE, D.D. We shall not be critics then, pedants then, little technical inquirers then. We shall feel that the cross, and that alone, can go right into our life, with the answer to our difficulties, and the balm for our wound and sorrow. JOSEPH PARKER. Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind ; Sight, riches, healing of the mind, Yea, all I need, in Thee I find, O Lamb of God, I come ! Just as I am, Thou wilt receive ; Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve ; Because Thy promise, I believe, O Lamb of God, I come ! [m] For my name's sake will I defer mine anger. . . . For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it. Isaiah 48: 9-11. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26 : 3. IT requires a great amount of courage to conquer self. " He that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city ; " and though the name of the one that conquers himself may not be em- blazoned and immortalized as that of the general who captures a city, yet it may be noticed by a child who may be led in the same way to conquer. " For my name's sake will I defer Mine anger," said the King. For His name's sake, for His own sake, Still unfaltering In His kindly patience, He Doth silent wait as then, Doth silent wait, and silent watch, This Lord and King of men. " For my name's sake, for mine own sake : " Oh, wise and subtle speech, That leadeth us, that showeth us, The height that we might reach ; That height of heights, where Love enthroned, Reins sov'reign of the soul, And guides the impulse and the will With sure and sweet control. Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caugJit up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. I Thessalonians 17 : 18. WHEN our last summons shall come to us, may it not be the surprise of sorrow, but rather of joy, and may we hear in the voice of death the call of God, " Come up hither." And when we reach home and Christ may we find there awaiting us, safe and glorified, those whom we have loved and lost those who have been called from our side to await us in the clouds. The heart which, like a staff, was one For mine to lean and rest upon, The strongest on the longest day With steadfast love, is caught away And yet my days go on, go on. Whatever's lost, it first was won ; We will not struggle nor impugn. Perhaps the cup was broken here That heaven's new wine might show more clear. I praise Thee while my days go on. 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. MRS. BROWNING. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. S. John 3 : 16. LOVE strong as death nay, stronger, Love mightier than the grave, Broad as the earth, and longer Than ocean's wildest wave ; This is the love that sought us, This is the love that bought us, This is the love that brought us To gladdest day from saddest night, From deepest shame to glory bright, From depths of death to life's fair height ; This is the love that leadeth Us to His table here, This the love that spreadeth For us the royal cheer. When temptation sore is rife, When we faint amidst the strife, Thou, whose death hath been our life, Save us, Holy Jesu. So, with hope in Thee made fast, When death's bitterness is past We may see Thy face at last : Save us, Holy Jesu. LITANY OF THE PASSION, Ye have not passed this way heretofore. Joshua 3 : 4. DO not draw back from any way because you never have passed there before. The truth, the task, the joy, the suffering on whose border you are standing, oh, my friend, to-day go into it with- out a fear : only go into it with God who has been always with you. PHILLIPS BROOKS. And thither thou, beloved, and thither I May set our heart, and set our face, and go Faint, yet pursuing home on tireless feet. CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. Heaven the country, Christ the way. We know the way : thank God who hath shown us the way ! Jesus Christ our way to beautiful Paradise, Jesus Christ the Same forever, the Same to-day. CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. Through love to light ! Oh, 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 of love, the eternal light of light. RICHARD WATSON GILDER. For the goodness of God emiureth continually. Psalm 52 : I. For his merciful kindness is great toward us : and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Psalm 117: 2. IN the petty round of duties When the strength and patience fail, In the heat and stress of battle When the bravest spirits quail, In the hour of self-surrender, Dwell not on the painful strife, But remember God who loves thee Planned thy lot and place in life. Every battle with thy self-hood, Every failure overcome, Every harshness unresented While the lips keep bravely dumb, Brings us nearer to God's promise And His pardoning gift of love, Lifts the soul from earthly shadows To the perfect life above. Lean far out into the future, It will teach thee how to wait ; Look alone to God's sweet mercy, With no thought of chance or fate ; And beyond earth's transient echoes, Leading, spirit-like, before, Hear the promise still repeated, " It endures forevermore ! " MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. [H6J God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46 : I. THERE is need in adversity to cling fast to God's hand. The Scripture precepts are full of point and meaning as to the perils of merely human success. But great and dreadful is the peril of those about whom a fierce and relentless army of human reverses has encamped, who see the failure of one human hope after another, with only winter and night as the emblems of their life. How precious to all in such sorrow is the sun of God's love, that is always shining, the blessings always ready to spring up in the heart worn with the cares of earth, when that heart turns to receive the in- fluences of heaven. Ah ! feeble, deftless hands of time, That are not apt their tasks to do ! Ah ! dim, weak eyes that ought to shine, Dull thought that cannot thought pursue ! Yet some wise hand controls my hand, And light gleams till I understand. And through the days, whate'er betide, I feel a mystery of aid Within me, and on every side, So that I need not be dismayed. Where'er I go, a Helper there Receives me into tender care. MARIANNE FARNINGHAM. ["7] We -walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5 : 7. NOT by mere moods, not by how I feel to-day, or how I felt yesterday, may I know whether I am indeed living the life of God, but only by knowing that God is using me to help others. No mood is so bright that it can do without that warrant. No mood so dark that, having that war- rant, it need despair. PHILLIPS BROOKS. We cannot kindle when we will The fire which in the heart resides, The spirit bloweth and is still, In sympathy our soul abides : But tasks in hours of insight willed Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled. With aching hands and bleeding feet We dig and heap, lay stone by stone ; We bear the burden and the heat Of the long day and wish 'twere done. Not till the hours of light return All we have built do we discern. MATTHEW ARNOLD. Follow the teachings of God's providence blindly if He so wills it, but looking back at the end of life we shall see that it was the only possible way for us to reach our best development. [118] Great is thy faith ; be it unto thee even as thou wilt. S. Matthew 15: 28. 1 ^AITH is the king's knowledge of his own JL kingdom. A weak man who has no faith in Christ is a king who does not know his own royalty. But the soul which in its need cries out and claims its need's dominion ..." Come to me, O Christ, for I need Thee," finds itself justified. Its bold and humble cry is honoured and answered instantly. The answer comes, " Great is thy faith : be it unto thee as thou wilt." " What wilt thou that I should do unto thee ? " Faith adds new charms to earthly bliss, And saves me from its snares ; Its aid, in every duty, brings And softens all my cares. Wide it unveils celestial worlds Where deathless pleasures reign ; And bids me seek my portion there, Nor bids me seek in vain. There, there unshaken would I rest, Till this frail body dies ; And then on faith's triumphant wings, To endless glory rise. TURNER. For the Lord give th wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowl- edge and understanding. Proverbs 2 : 6. BIBLE study teaches how to grapple with spir- itual problems before those questions become so profound as to defy solution. What a safeguard is this from folly what a protection from danger ! When temptations come it finds the soul so an- chored in the faith that it is not moved from its foundations of righteousness. Its convictions are clear and well-wrought out, for it has settled the solemn question of life once for all and is freed from doubt and unrest. Bible study develops latent powers. It brings into the life an object, into the heart a joy, into the future a hope. New desires and beliefs start into being. Then thoughts which had been but dimly outlined become visible, and thus the soul- education is begun. Divine meanings sometimes flash into view from the study of some single verse which has long seemed ob- scure, and then the spiritual perceptions start up into swift and beautiful creation. With magnetic force they grasp the complex meanings and the hidden strength. MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. What glory gilds the sacred page ! Majestic, like the sun, It gives a light to every age ; It gives, but borrows none. WILLIAM COWPER. [120] Ctjirttetl) A still, small voice. I Kings 19: 12. HOW the sorrows and perplexities of life mul- tiply and darken around us in the midnight watches ! Then is the time when the soul should lean hard upon the Everlasting Arms, remembering that if we have wandered there is one strong to restore. If we have sinned there is one ready to forgive. Oh, the waiting in the watches of the night ! In the darkness, desolation, and contrition, and afright ; In the awful hush that holds us shut away from all delight ; The ever weary fancy that forever weary goes, Recounting ever over every aching loss it knows, The ever weary eyelids gasping ever for repose In the dreary, weary watches of the night. Dark, stifling dark the watches of the night. With tingling nerves at tension, how the blackness flashes white. With spectral visitations smitten past the inner sight ! What shuddering sense of wrongs we've wrought that may not be redressed. Of tears we did not brush away of lips we left unpressed, And hands that we let fall, with all their loyalty unguessed ! Ah ! the empty, empty watches of the night ! [121] JAMES W. RILEY. 9 jfifti) / must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day. S. John 9 : 4. May Song. BEE, sipping sweets from the nodding white clover, Lingering long where the honey-dew drips, Teach me a lesson, O busy brown rover, Tell me what theme I should keep on my lips. " Work," hums the bee, " be ceaselessly doing, Garner your stores in the bright morning hours ; Fair is the day, but the dim night pursuing Drops her dark mantle o'er close-folded flowers." Lily, my priestess, so white and so saintly, Lifting your face to the sun's golden glow, Preach me a sermon, oh, whisper it faintly, Can they live purely who live here below? " Turn your face skyward ; base souls in depres- sion, Bend the gaze downward, where clods bound the view ; Nature makes ever her silent confession ; Growth seeks the light, pure souls seek the true." MRS. JOHN JAY McCABE. [122] Shokcspear The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord. Job I : 21 . DEATH is the swelling of the seed that is dried up, and that is waiting for its planting. Death is the bursting April that all winter long has lain close-bound within itself, waiting for its life of efflorescence. Death is entering on summer from the frigid zone. When you look on it in the light of this grander disclosure, this prophetic thought of the apostle, the wonder is that men want to live, that they do not hunger and thirst for dying. For death is coronation ; it is stepping from bond- age into liberty, from darkness into light, it is blos- soming ; it is going out of a prison-house into the glory of the Father's community. When the hero goes do not cover him with black, nor with any of the circumstances that related to him here. Chris- tianity after a few thousand years ought to have taught man, that the going out of life is for honour and glory and immortality. BEECHER. Oh, to be ready when death shall come ; Oh, to be ready to hasten home ; No earthward clinging, No lingering gaze, No sigh at parting, No sore amaze, But sweetly, gently to pass away, From the world's dim twilight into day. Yea, I will help thee. Isaiah 16 : IO. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like- minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus. Romans 5:5. BE angel to some one to-day : Thou knowest not who it may be ; Some fallen one found by the way, That asketh assistance from thee. Mayhap at the Beautiful Gates, Where circumspect worshippers throng, A wandering beggar awaits To catch the sweet service of song. It may be that somebody's child, Aweary with wages of sin, Bedraggled with filth and defiled, Is anxious true life to begin. Then open thy heart and thy hand, The supplicant turn not away, But give what thou hast at command Be angel to some one to-day. Thou knowest not but in that hour Thou checkest the sob or the tear, The Author of life-giving power, The Master Himself may appear. [124] jfourtJ) But they shall sit every man under his vine and his fig tree. Micah 4 : 4. THERE are abodes in all of our cities, poor, humble rooms ; yet the men who live in them would die rather than to surrender them. For each house is home to some of these men. Whenever he thinks of it he sees angels of God hovering around it. The ladders of heaven are let down to it. The children may come up after awhile, and win high position, but not until their dying day will they forget that humble roof, under which their father rested and their mother sang. Oh, if you would gather up all the tender memories, all the lights and shades of the heart, and had only four letters to spell out their magnitude and eter- nity of meaning, you would, with streaming eyes and trembling hand, write it out in these four living capitals, " HOME." TALMAGE. Our Mothers. Hundreds of stars in the lovely sky, Hundreds of shells on the shore together, Hundreds of birds that go singing by, Hundreds of birds in the sunny weather. Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn, Hundreds of bees in the purple clover, Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn, But only one mother, the wide world over. THE ADVANCE. jfiftl) They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great good- ness. Psalm 1 65 : 7. HE will revere those times, and in our memo- ries preserve and still keep fresh, like flowers in water, those happier days. RICHTER. Memory seizes the passing moment, fixes it upon the canvas, and hangs the picture on the walls of the inner chamber of the soul, for her to look upon when she will. HAVEN. There are recollections as pleasant as they are sacred and eternal. There are words and faces and places that never lose their hold upon the heart. There may be words that we seldom hear amid the whirl of life ; faces that we may never see on earth again ; but they had a controlling influence over us, and they can never be wholly forgotten. The flight of years cannot sully their innocence, nor diminish their interest, and eternity will pre- serve them among the dearest reminiscences of earth. We may meet and love other faces, we may treasure other words, we may have other joys, but those familiar faces, and those dear old places, remain invested with a fadeless beauty. They be- come the stars in the firmament of youth, lighting up the night of the past, and when in later years the shades of sorrow gather around the soul, memory reveals those stars still shining. HENRY A. WALKER. [ I2 6] 77ie heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Jeremiah 17:9. QELFISHNESS may masquerade as love. It w.3 may christen its own sins, foibles, by condon- ing the offences of others, meaning at the same time to lug its own sins through the breach in the legal wall that it has made for other people's delin- quencies. That self-cheat is a fruit of the heart that is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. To escape this error the Bible must be constantly studied. It is a " lamp unto the feet and a light unto the path," but if it is left on a book-shelf opened only on special occasions, ... it cannot light one through these difficult ways. " The heart is deceitful" ; this defines sin clearly, warns the transgressor plainly, and swings its lurid danger signal over the abyss of despair, and sets forth distinctly the fact that no amiability, not even the moralities, can cure sin. Lord ! we would put aside The gauds and baubles of this mortal life Weak self-conceit, the foolish tools of strife, The tawdry garb of pride And pray, in Christ's dear name, Thy grace to deck us in the robes of light ; That at His coming we may stand aright, And fear no sudden shame. AN ADVENT CAROL. [127] We shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. I Corinthians 15 : 53. IF life be regarded as the commencement of immortality, it will be freed from trifling asso- ciations, and still more from those which are low and degrading. It will assume a permanence in our eyes from its first moment to its last. It will be the opening of a boundless career. Death will no more be a violent extinction, a fathomless and frightful chasm, a blank oblivion ; but it will be a change, a landing-place, an entrance into the ever- lasting abode of spirits and of God. It will be regarded by the contemplative as Life's last shore, Where vanities are vain no more, Where all pursuits their goal obtain, And life is all retouched again ; When in their bright results shall rise Thoughts, virtues, friendships, griefs, and joys. With rest almost in sight the spirit faints, And flesh and heart grow weary at the last ; Our feet would walk the %ity of the saints, Even before the silent gate is passed. Teach us to wait until Thou shalt appear To know that all Thy ways and times are just : Thou seest wh^t we believe and fear, Lord, make us also to believe and trust ! [128] PHCEBE GARY. etgljtl) Say to them that are of a fearful heart : Be strong, fear not. Isaiah 35 : 4. 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 AURELIUS ANTONINUS. Be quiet, why this anxious heed About thy tangled ways? God knows them all, He giveth speed, And He allows delays. E. w. Let God do with me what He will, anything He will ; whatever it be, it will either be heaven itself or some beginning of it. WILLIAM MOUNTFORD. 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 ; 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. E. B. PUSEY. What though I stand and work alone ? In some fair, unborn year From seed which I in tears have sown A harvest will appear. MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. [129] Let all thy -ways be established. Proverbs 4 : 26. DO you know what it is to be established ? God give us the power to form habits that we may crystallize character. All improvement in the fin- gers of the knitter, the eye of the painter, the tongue of the speaker, the hand of the artisan, is the gift of habit. Prayer, faith, regularity, all that builds up steadiness of character, is augmented by habit. Habit is the parent's hold upon the child, the good man's power against Satan. To form habit apply yourself to a given plan industriously, punctually, and persistently. Having this power in your mind, use it in acquir- ing habits of obedience and of faith. To repel one's task will only make it more diffi- cult ; to accept it is the sole way to make it tolera- ble. And, rightly accepted, peace, if not happiness, will follow its fulfilment, " as waves flow in the fur- row of the ship's strong keel." j. j. MCLAUGHLIN. My half-day's work is done, And this is all my part, I give a patient God My constant heart, And clasp His banner still, Though all the blue be dim ; These stripes, no less than stars, Lead after Him. [130] Day unto day utter eth speech. Psalm 19: 2. THERE is no day born but comes like a stroke of music into the world, and sings itself all the way through. No event is discordant. All times and passages are full of melody, if we would but hear it; as in tumultuous floods and rushing falls of water, every drop is as obedient to the laws of nature as if it lay in the bosom of the tranquil lake, so all things, wildest excesses as well as calmest flows, are obedient to God ; His providence is in them, stately and as serene going on to its own ends and manifestations. BEECHER. This is the earth He walked on ; not alone That Asian country keeps the stain ; 'Tis not alone that far Judean plain, Mountain and river ! Lo, the sun that shone On Him shines now on us ; when day is gone The moon of Galilee comes forth again And lights our path as His : an endless chain Of years and sorrows makes the round world one. The air we breathe, He breathed, the very air That took the mould and music of His high And God-like speech. Since then shall mortal dare With base thought front the ever-sacred sky, Soil with foul deed the ground whereon He laid In holy death His pale, immortal head ? RICHARD WATSON GILDER. Grievous words stir up anger. Proverbs 15:1. THE silence of our innocence persuades when speaking fails. SHAKESPEARE. Since I cannot govern my tongue, though within my own teeth, how can I hope to govern the tongues of others? FRANKLIN. The Tone of the Voice. It is not so much what you say As the manner in which you say it ; It is not so much the language you use, As the tone in which you convey it. " Come here ! " I sharply said, And the baby cowered and wept ; " Come here ! " I cooed, and he looked and smiled, And straight to my lap he crept. The words may be mild and fair, And the tones may pierce like a dart ; The words may be soft as the summer air, And the tones may break the heart. For words but come from the mind, And grow by study and art ; But the tones leap forth from the inner self, And reveal the state of the heart. THE YOUTH'S COMPANION. Think before you speak. The ones we wound by unkind speech are most often those whose intimate relation with us affords us opportunity for the sud- den thrust. [132] Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Psalm 116 : 15. DEATH is made the conqueror's coronation. The sunset means eternal day with the trusting soul. Faith looks beyond the veil, where voices call and hands beckon from the eternal future. Hence, we ever " look up," and from the seat on the throne with Christ we shall wait the ingathering of the cycles of eternity. When the stars have grown old, we shall be young. When the moon turns pale, our garlands will be fresh. When we have been singing ten thousand ages, the song we sing will be new. Heaven will never be exhausted. C. P. MASDEN. " Sailor ! " we cried, " tell us where lies thy port ! " And still came back the answer, clear and strong, " I know not where, yet am I homeward bound, This is His sea ; its pulses rise and fall As His breath moves them, and its currents set Steady and deep, to bear me where He will." So he sailed on, and once, when stars were large And luminous, through changeful purple mists, Rocked by slow waves that bore him from our sight, And calm with peace that lay too deep for smiles, He drifted gently to a palm-girt shore, And knew, at last, where God's fair islands lie. EMILY HUNTINGTON MILLER. [133] For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. I Corinthians 13: 12. WHEN Alston died, he left sketches, with here and there a part finished with wonderful beauty. So Christians go to heaven with their vir- tues in outline, only here and there a part completed. But " that which is in part shall be done away," and God shall finish the pictures. BEECHER. I was so near the garden wall, The drooping vines and maples tall, The lawn, the house, each well-known place, And yet the fog hid every trace Of any dear remembered face. A little world drew near apace And shut me in so small and round, So narrow, cold, and dark, I found No hint of all that lay so near Of beauty, light, and love's good cheer. But soon the rift grew wide and high, And sunlight, flashing from blue sky, Revealed each well-remembered spot The fog had lately blotted out. So after days brought mist and doubt, And shut the love of God without ; And then again a sunbeam sped Through waves of cloud above my head, And as I looked through rifts of cloud I found familiar paths to God. ETTA R. McCAUGHEY. [134] jfourtcentl) The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil ; he shall preserve thy soul. Psalm 131 : 7. 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. JEAN NICOLAS GROU. But when the sharp strokes flesh and heart run through, For thee and not another : only known, In all the universe, through sense of thine ; Not caught by eye or ear, not felt by touch, Nor apprehended by the spirit's sight, But only by the hidden, tortured nerves, In all their incommunicable pain, God speaks Himself to us, as mothers speak To their own babes, upon the tender flesh With fond familiar touches close and dear ; Because He cannot choose a softer way To make us feel that He Himself is near, And each apart His own beloved and known. UGO BASSI. [135] The tree is known by his fruit. S. Matthew 12 : 33. MANY great projects have their beginnings in littleness and obscurity. We are prone to dwell upon certain epochs in the history of nations, or upon crisis-hours in the lives of men, rather than upon the common level of every-day life. We wonder over results without considering causes. Little heeding the undercurrent of feeling, which silently gathers force and form, as it nears the shores of visible success, we fail to divine the secret unrest which impels its direction. A poet, gazing upon a Moslem temple, marvelled over the massive grandeur of its ancient walls which centuries had not shaken. Faith forsook his soul, when he saw the shrine of the false prophet firmly planted where men had striven in vain to estab- lish a temple of the living Christ. But scaling the giddy wall, he found the stones broken and crumbled, where a peepul-tree had sprung from a seed, chance-flung upon the roof. That was the atom which was to shatter the temple of a false religion. The little seed " Did more to shiver the ancient wall, Than earthquake, war, simoon, and all The centuries in their lapse and fall." So it is in the spiritual realm. Our lives are wrought upon by invisible forces, and the world recognizes the power of those agencies only when it sees their accomplished work. MRS. JOHN JAY MCCABE. 7 '// be glad ami rejoice in thy mercy. Psalm 31 : 7. MY little leaves, why are you glad ? Answer, quivering little leaves, Small clapping leaves, so freshly clad, In a green world that never grieves. Answer me, for my heart is sad ! "Love God, love God ! " they sing, Gay as the birds a-wing. My little flowers, what's your delight? Now answer, for my soul believes In your sweet petals, pure and white, Sweet purity no man deceives. Answer, my flow'rets fair and bright. " Love God, love God ! " they sing, Gay as the birds a-wing. The flowers and grass make their reply, With all the merry clapping leaves, And echoing the holy cry, The drooping heart its joy retrieves. All voices to their maker fly. " Love God, love God ! " they sing, Gay as the birds a-wing. CONSTANCE HOPE. The utterances of God are all around us if we will but hear them. Even in the discords that jar the music of every life, the accents of goodness and mercy and divine love may be heard. [137] Unto the land flowing -with milk and honey. Jeremiah 32 : 22. PROSPECT closely resembles retrospect. The traveller, who stands at a journey's end, weary, and travel-stained with the dust of the way, looks back over his road, with a mind enriched by in- cidents of the journey. Travel has made him wise ; we call him a sage. But the traveller, with his voyage yet before him, sees all things, not in retrospect, but in prospect. . . . He sees visions of holy peoples, heavenly lands and wonderful scenes, towards which he is setting his face. He becomes a seer. EDWARD G. BALDWIN. Oh, as I rest when the long march is over, Loosing my sandals at close of the day, Journeyings ended, no longer a rover, Still keep me near Thee forever and aye. Then while I swell the glad strain of rejoicing Pealing far over Eternity's sea, This is the theme I will ever be voicing, Nearer my Saviour, still nearer to Thee ! Pilgrimage ended, Lights and shades blended, Then face to face will I see How Thou did'st lead me, How Thou did'st speed me, Nearer and nearer to Thee ! MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. Ctgljteenti) Give us this day our daily bread. The Lord's Prayer. IV E us our daily bread," we pray, And know but half of what we say. The bread on which our bodies feed Is but the moiety of our need. The soul, the heart, must nourished be, And share the daily urgency. And though it may be bitter bread On which the nobler parts are fed, No less we crave the daily dole, O Lord, of body and of soul ! Sweet loaves, the wine must all afoam, The manna and the honey-comb, All these are good, but better still The food which checks and moulds the will. The sting for pride, the smart for sin The purging draught for self within, The sorrows which we shuddering meet, Not knowing their after-taste of sweet, All these we ask for when we pray, "Give us our daily bread this day." SUSAN COOLIDGE. O Father, give us, we pray Thee, not what we in our blindness ask for, but what Thou in Thy wisdom seest that we need ! [i39] For if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you. S. Matthew 6: 14. MY heart was heavy, for its trust had been Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong ; So, turning gloomily from my fellow-men, One summer Sabbath-day I strolled among The green mounds of the village burial-place ; Where, pondering how all human love and -hate Find one sad level ; and how, soon or late, Wronged and wrong-doer, each with meekened face, And cold hands folded over a still heart, Pass the green threshold of our common grave, Whither all footsteps tend, whence none depart, Awed, for myself, and pitying my race, Our common sorrow, like a mighty wave, Swept all my pride away, and trembling I forgave. WHITTIER. Think on thy wants, on thy faults. Recollect all the patience, all the kindness, all the tenderness, which has been shown thee. Think also on life how short it is, how much unavoidable bitterness it possesses ; how much which it is easy either to bear or chase away ; and think how the power of affection can make all things right. FREDERIKA BREMER. Not how much we have borne, but how freely we have forgiven, will be the plea which wins our own pardon. [140] Restore tinto me. Psalm 51 : 12. I LOST a friend the other day His heart was pure and strong and true Our days were sweet, but all too few ; He passed from earth the other day. But while I see him here no more, I know that on a happier shore, Not here, but in eternity, God will give back my friend to me. I lost a friend long years ago Awhile our paths together lay, And we were happy by the way Until we parted years ago. From out each other's lives we passed ; Each went his way, but yet, at last, Or here, or in eternity, God will give back my friend to me. I lost a friend or, shall I say, He lost himself ! For sin and shame Have left me little but the name Of him I loved, and love to-day. My friend, as lost, I weep, deplore ; But faith says : " One can save, restore." To Thee I come, I pray to Thee, O Christ, give back my friend to me. PATON H. HOGE. [141] My grace is sufficient for thee. 2 Corinthians 12:9. GOD is enough ! thou, who in hope and fear Toilest through desert-sands of life, sore-tried, Climb trustful over death's black ridge, for near The bright wells shine : thou wilt be satisfied. God doth suffice ! O thou, the patient one, Who puttest faith in Him, and none beside, Bear yet thy load ; under the setting sun The glad tents gleam : thou wilt be satisfied. By God's gold Afternoon ! peace ye shall have ; Man is in loss except he live aright, And help his fellow to be firm and brave, Faithful and patient : then the restful night ! EDWIN ARNOLD. 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 God in the least, and live more quietly in the absence of all faith, than I should do, I am persuaded, if I possessed them. [142] Abide till ye go thence. S. Matthew 10: II. The Master of the Isles. J UST beyond our utmost fathom Is the anchorage we crave, But the Master knows the soundings By the reach of every wave What imperial adventure Some wide morning it will be, Sweeping to the Lonely Haven From the chartless round of sea ! How imposing a departure, While this little harbor smiles, Steering for the outer sea-rim With the Master of the Isles ! BLISS CARMAN. As strangers and voyagers our city of habitation is not here ; the houses we build are but for the hour ; the city, whose builder and maker is God, shines everlastingly ; and those mansions, not made with hands but eternal in the heavens, are our home. Thitherward we flock in companies and in families thither each is tending. And we rejoice that God is sending forth messages to us by the hour ; that we are remembered, and that we are secured. BEECHER. [143] Ye have need of patience. Hebrews 10 : 36. THERE are many trials in life which do not seem to come from unwisdom or folly. They are silver arrows shot from the bow of God, and fixed inextricably in the quivering heart. They are to be borne. They are not meant, like snow on water, to melt as soon as they strike. But the moment an ill can be borne patiently, it is disarmed of its poison, though not of its pain. BEECHER. There will come a weary day When, overtaxed at length, Both hope and love beneath The weight give way. Then with a statue's smile, A statue's strength, Patience, nothing loth, And uncomplaining, does The work of both. PHILLIPS BROOKS. We have very little command over the circum- stances in which we may be called by God to do our part, but unlimited command over the temper Of Our SOUls. J. H. THOM. God has but one duty at a time for any child of His to perform. If we are doing the one duty He has for us to do at the present moment, that is all that He requires. The results are His. [144] I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. Ephesians 4:1. DO not dare to think that a child of God can worthily work out his career or worthily serve God's other children unless he does both in the love and fear of God, their Father. Be sure that ambition and charity themselves will grow mean unless they are both inspired and exalted by re- ligion. PHILLIPS BROOKS. What Might Be Done. What might be done if men were wise What glorious deeds, my suffering brother, Would they unite, In love and right, And cease their scorn of one another. Oppression's heart might be imbued With kindling drops of loving-kindness, And knowledge pour, From shore to shore, Light on the eyes of mental darkness. The meanest wretch that ever trod, The deepest sunk in guilt and sorrow, Might stand erect, In self-respect, And share the teeming world to-morrow. CHARLES MACKAY. [145] Watch therefore ; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. S. Matthew 24 : 42. What of the Day ? WHAT of the day? Do you ask? Then assuredly know That the day which began weary ages ago Speeds on to an issue sublime ; And the King whose glad coming draws hourly more near Will, haply, when least you expect Him, appear, And the blessed, long-prayed-for Sabbatical year Usher in, in the fulness of time. Will you hasten the day? Will you labour and pray? Will you thrust in the sickle and reap while you may, The plenteous harvests that lie Waiting still for our hand In every land, And rip'ning 'neath every sky? Will you gather the stones for His temple divine ? And the gems in the crown of His glory to shine Brighter far than the sun? And then when He comes, bowing low at His feet, With rapture unspeakable hear Him repeat, " Well done, thou good servant, well done ! " Four things come not back : the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, the neglected opportunity. [146] Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. I Peter I : 7. TO-MORROW you have no business with. You steal if you touch to-morrow. It is God's. Every day has in it enough to keep every man occupied, without concerning himself with the things which lie beyond. BEECHER. Be not anxious about to-morrow. Do to-day's, fight to-day's, temptation ; and do not weaken and distract yourself by looking forward to things which you cannot see, and would not understand if you saw them. CHARLES KINGSLEV. It is not the cares of to-day, but the cares of to-morrow, that weigh a man down. For the need of to-day we have a corresponding strength given. For the to-morrow we are told to trust. It is not ours yet, and it may never be. It is enough to be patient unto the coming of the Lord and to do the work of the present hour. GEORGE MACDONALD. Thou, who hast made the weakest strong In holy trust and high endeavor, And taught the fainting soul to sing, " Thy God forsakes the righteous never," On Thee, the Rock, Thy people rest, And bear unmoved each wave of sorrow, Knowing, Who giveth present good Will strength impart for each to-morrow. MRS. ANNA M. HUNTLEY. [147] / am a burden to myself. Job 7 : 20. THIS is sometimes the language of the afflicted. Thus it was the exclamation of Job. We talk of trouble. He could say, " Behold, and see if ever there was sorrow like unto my sorrow." If we cannot approve of the strength of his complaint, we hardly know how to condemn it. God Himself overlooks it, and only holds him forth as an exam- ple of patience. . . . Afflictions may be great in themselves from their number and frequency, and suddenness and subject. But yield not to im- patience and despondency. Such afflictions have often introduced a train of mercies, and the valley of Achor has been a door of hope. How many in heaven, how many on earth, are now thanking God for their trials. He knows how to deliver. Say, " Lord, I am oppressed ; undertake for me." " Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee." WILLIAM JAY. Faith, patience, love, we need to cultivate, Our faint hearts are so ready to despair, So prone to cry the burden is too great For us to bear. He sends the bitter who has sent the sweet, And it is best, And often 'tis in sorrow and defeat That we are blessed. [148] Lord, not my feet only, but my hands and my head. S. John 13:9. THE secret which selfishness never masters is this of the joy of consecration. In self- devotion for king or cause, those who would lose their life have found it, and in carelessness of them- selves have gained grace and renown. But no such joy, elsewhere known among men, has risen to the pitch of his or hers on whom the vision of Christ has shone. Emancipation from all defer- ence to the world has been their prerogative. The hardest and bleakest conditions of life have become to them as jasper walls and crystal pavements. The heart dilates now with equal triumph, while gathering to itself divinest quality, whenever de- voted in a similar sense to the King of the World. And he now feels it has in it the vital and sure presage of victory. He follows the banners that never go down. His Leader is one who knows no defeat. Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my heart : it is Thine own; It shall be Thy royal throne. Take my love ; my Lord, I pour At Thy feet its treasure-store. Take myself, and I will be Ever, only, ALL for Thee. HAVERGAL. [149] Let those that trust in thee rejoice. Psalm 5:11. HAPPINESS, according to the laws of nature and of God, inheres in voluntary and pleas- urable activities; and activity increases happiness in proportion as it is diffusive. No man can be so happy as he who is engaged in a regular business that tasks the greatest part of his mind. I had almost said that it was the beau-ideal of happiness for a man to be so busy that he does not know whether he is or is not happy ; who has not time to think about himself at all. The man who rises early in the morning, joyful and happy, with an appetite for business as well as for breakfast ; who has a love for his work, and runs eagerly to it as a child runs to its play ; who finds himself refreshed by it in every part of his day, and rests after it as from a wholesome and delightful fatigue, has one great and very essential element of happiness. BEECHER. Take joy home, And make a place in thy great heart for her, And give her time to grow, and cherish her, Then will she come, and oft will sing to thee When thou art working in the furrows ; aye, Or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn. It is a comely fashion to be glad ; Joy is the grace that we say to God. JEAN INGELOW. 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. II Maccabees 6: 31. IT is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion ; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain ; and this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. ABRAHAM LINCOLN AT GETTYSBURG. Thank God for deeds of valor done ! Thank God for victories hardly won ! That such as you need never know The anguish of those dark days of woe ; For time and peace old wounds have healed, And flowers now strew the battle-field. HELEN HUNT. Abraham Lincoln for them, as for him, char- acter decreed a life and a death. PHILLIPS BROOKS. Thy will be done. The Lord's Prayer. WHEN the loss of property and the severance of friendships has come, when the future is overcast, and we know nothing of what is before us except simply this, that God's will must be clone, and when we try to leave all to Him, the endurance which then reveals itself is the masterful power of the human will. Men trained in this experience cannot be frightened nor disheartened by troubles, however great. R . s. STORRS. Lord, carry me. Nay, but I grant thee strength To walk and work thy way to heaven at length. Lord, why then am I weak ? Because I give Power to the weak, and bid the dying live. Lord, J am tired. He hath not much desired The goal, who at the starting-point is tired. Lord, dost Thou know ? I know what is in man ; What the flesh can, and what the spirit can. Lord, dost Thou care ? Yea, for thy gain or loss So much I cared, it brought Me to the cross. Lord, I believe ; help Thou mine unbelief. Good is the word; but rise, for life is brief. The follower is not greater than the Chief; Follow thou Me along My way of grief. CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. eace be aroond A friend lovcth at all times. Proverbs 17: 17. aY friend he was ; my friend from all the rest ; With child -like faith he oped to me his heart : No door was locked on altar, grave or grief; No weakness veiled, concealed no disbelief; The hope, the sorrow, and the wrong were bare, And oh, the shadow only showed the fair ! I gave him love for love ; but deep within, I magnified each frailty into sin ; He smiled upon the censorship, and bore With patient love the touch that wounded sore ; Until at length, so had my blindness grown, He knew I judged him by his faults alone. At last it came the day he stood apart, When from my eyes he proudly veiled his heart . . . When in his face I read what I had been And with his vision saw what I had seen. Too late ! too late ! O, could he then have known When his love died that mine had perfect grown ; And when the veil was drawn, abused, chastised, The censor stood, the lost one truly prized. Too late we learn that man must hold his friend Unjudged, accepted, faultless to the end. JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY. [153] Uune Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God diuellcth in you. I Corinthians 3: 1 6. 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 wall a living stone. When in your hard fight, your tiresome drudgery, or in your terrible temptation, you catch the purpose of your being, and give your- self 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 com- monplace and homely ways ; there God is hew- ing out the pillars for His temple. Oh, if the stone can only have some vision of the temple of which it is to lie 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. Blessed is any weight, however overwhelming, which God has been so good as to fasten with His own hands upon our shoulders. FABER. 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. 9|une SIGH and grieve that you are so carnal and worldly, and your passions so unmortified. That you are so full of corrupt inclinations, so unguarded in your outward senses, so often ensnared by many vain imaginations. So much inclined to outward things, so negligent as to inward. So ready for laughter and dissipation, so unready for weeping and compunction. So prompt for relaxation and bodily comfort, so disinclined for austerity and fervor. So curious to hear news and see fine sights, so slack to embrace what is lowly and common. So eager to have much, so sparing in giving, so close in retaining. So inconsiderate in speech, so unable to keep silence, so undisciplined in manners, so impetuous in actions. So hasty to take rest, so slow to labor. So wakeful to attend to stories, so sleepy at holy vigils. So anxious to finish devotions, so wandering in attention. So soon distracted, so rarely fully collected. So suddenly stirred to anger, so apt to take offence. So often making good resolutions, so seldom bringing them to good effect. THOMAS A KEMPIS. [155] 3Iune jfourtl) 2E>ai? Take heed to your spirit. Malachi II : 15. THFRE is no situation which we cannot sweeten or embitter at will. If the past is gloomy, there is no need of dwelling upon it. If the mind can make one vigorous exertion, it can another. The same energy you put forth in acquir- ing knowledge would enable you also to baffle mis- fortune. Determine not to think of what is pain- ful, resolutely turn away from vexatious subjects, bend all your attention to more elevating interests, and then you defeat the woes of the past. It is for the future and in the future that we live. Strength of character is not mere strength of feeling ; it is the resolute restraint of strong feeling. It is unyielding resistance to whatever would dis- concert us from without or unsettle us from within. DICKENS. A man's house should be on the hill-top of cheer- fulness and serenity, so high that no shadows rest upon it, and where the morning comes so early that the day has twice as many golden hours as those of other men. He is to be pitied whose house is in some valley of grief between the hills, with the longest night and the shortest day. Home should be the centre of joy, equatorial and tropical. BEECHER. [156] 31uue jfiftl) Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only. S. James I : 22. O PATIENT, willing doers of the word - Who worship tireless at the Master's shrine, With hearts that gentle charity has stirred To acts and deeds of pity half divine O blessed, faithful children of the King, To whom the Saviour's shield of faith is given, Full many a golden sheaf your arm shall bring When all the reapers gather home in heaven ! IDA SCOTT TAYLOR. We must love the Lord if we would learn to serve Him and win others to Him. WILLIAM ORMISTON. Do something in this busy, bustling, wide-awake world. Move about for the benefit of mankind, if not for yourselves. JOHN B. GOUGH. Better a day of strife Than a century of sleep. RYAN. I count this thing to be grandly true : That a noble deed is a step toward God, Lifting the soul from the common sod To a purer air and a broader view. HOLLAND. Cast forth thy act, thy word, into the ever-living, ever-workin universe. CARLYLE. 3|une As the duty of every day required. 2 Chronicles 8 : 14. THE heroes of the race shrank doubtless from their work as you are shrinking now from yours, from a sense of unfitness. At length, unable longer to res'ist the call of duty, "each forgot his weakness and went and worked his fragment." So for each of us the duty waits. Our deed may not seem worth the doing, because so small. But it is our " fragment " and must be done ; and no one else can do it for us. Let not life, then, be frittered away in vacillation and weak compliances, " like those meagre streamlets which seem to lose their way at every new impediment, forever turning backward or turning around ; nor, on the other hand, emulate the headlong mountain torrent, boisterous and destructive." Let the ideal of your strength rather be that of the ocean, which, as one finely observes in the calmest hour, still heaves its resistless might of waters to the shore with an imperial consciousness of strength that laughs at opposition. Practise thy spirit to great thoughts and things ; We can foretell the future of ourselves, And fateful only to himself is each." WILLIAM J. TILLEY. 31une Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment? S. Matthew 6: 25. IF a man's mind be thoroughly alive, he cannot be content with good health, good revenue, and good dwelling. There are heart-achings and out- goings which waste the life, which cannot be soothed or appeased by bread alone. On the one hand you find sad hearts surrounded by the highest personal and social advantages, and on the other you will find hearts glad with unspeakable joy in spite of circumstances the most untoward and harassing. It is therefore, in the opinion of Christian thinkers, a superficial and mocking theory of human happi- ness which concerns itself mainly with circum- stances. What is wanted is a principle which will put all accidental conditions in their right place, and persistently remind man that " the life is more than bread," and that apparent failure may be real SUCCeSS. JOSEPH PARKER. 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 marvellous succession 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 all converging to the point where I now stand. LACORDAIRE. 31ime Happy shall thou be. Psalm 12$: 2. HAPPY is the man who has that in his soul which acts upon the dejected as April show- ers upon violet roots. Gifts from the hand are sil- ver and gold ; but the heart gives that which neither silver nor gold can buy. To be full of goodness, to be full of cheerfulness, full of hope, full of sym- pathy, causes a man to carry blessings of which he himself is as unconscious as a lamp of its own shining. Such an one moves on human life like as stars move on dark seas to bewildered mariners ; as the sun wheels, bringing all the seasons with him from the south. BEECHER. Forget the past, and live the present hour ; Now is the time to work, the time to fill The soul with noblest thought, the time to will Heroic deeds, to use whatever dower Heaven has bestowed, to test our utmost power. Now is the time to love, and better still, To serve our loved ones ; over passing ill To rise triumphant. Thus the perfect flower Of life shall come to fruitage ; wealth amass For grandest giving ere the time is gone. Be glad to-day, to-morrow may bring tears ; Be brave to-day, the darkest night will pass, And golden rays will usher in the dawn ; Who conquers now shall rule the coming years. SARAH K. BOLTON. [160] I -will not forsake my people. I Kings 6: 13. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Isaiah 41 : 17. Forsake Me Not. FORSAKE me not, though fast the night is falling And shadows gather in the darkened sky. I cannot fear, when Thou, O God, art calling, I cannot fall when Thy kind arms are nigh. Stay Thou with me ! be Thou my refuge ever, My strength, my all whatever be my lot ! Oh, bless me with Thy gracious love forever, And in the gloom of night forsake me not ! Forsake me not in time of tribulation, Be Thou my Rock and Fortress in despair ; Oh, fill my burdened soul with Thy salvation, And pour Thy spirit's balm on all my care. Though sorrows break my heart, O gracious Father, Thy rod and staff can comfort my distress ! Though grief oppress, and heavy tear-drops gather, Thy pitying love can bring me sweet redress. Forsake me not ! breathe Thou into my being The very breath of heaven from above ; Unseal my eyes, that I Thy goodness seeing May know and feel Thy deep, Thy boundless love. In storm or calm, be Thou, O God, beside me That I, Thy child, may never be forgot ; Through shade or sun, by day or night-time guide me Through all my journey, oh, forsake me not ! IDA SCOTT TAYLOR. [161] Ponder the path of thy feet. Proverbs 15 : 26. AMONG the pitfalls in our way, The best of us walk blindly ; So, man, be wary, watch and pray, And judge your brother kindly. ALICE GARY. We are all wicked ; what one of us blames in another each will find in his own breast. SENECA. Into the path of sin One step may take you, For wrong lies near To the path of right ; . But lower down From right to wrong, The way descends ; But back again to right Tis steep and rugged. How often do we confess the same sins and pray against them, and yet still commit them as much as ever, and lie as deeply under the power of them ! We raise a great deal of dust under our feet, but we do not move from off the ground on which we stood. We do not go forward at all. We do, and undo. We weave sometimes a web of holiness, but we let evil and thoughtless purposes in, and unravel all again. Nothing but the grace of God can save us from sin. [162] 3[wte He chasteneth us for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. Hebrews 12 : 10. OWHAT will that joy be, where the soul, being perfectly prepared for joy, and joy prepared by Christ for the soul, it shall be our business eter- nally to rejoice ! WILLIAM j. TILLEY. A Husk. I take it in my hand, A form whose use is o'er, Cast off by the ripe soul That needed it no more. A withered, worthless thing, The mocking whirlwind's scorn Would God have cared to fashion it Except to shield the corn? MARY F. BUTTS. Then shall a new, a spirit childhood come, A fresher sense of life in thee have room ! A life that knows no pain, no death, no tomb ! There sight shall know what faith hath first believed, There perfect trust thy heart hath not conceived, There saddening thoughts be gone, thy mind here grieved ! Then for the work, my soul, that waits thee there, A firm, bold heart, within thee bear, Undimmed by painful thoughts, unbowed by care. WILLIAM J. TILLEY. [163] Follow that which is good. i Thessalonians 5:15. /^OODNESS is the only orthodoxy that God V^JT cares one particle about, and every man that is living the Christ-life is orthodox doctrine go to the winds. If you ask me if some representa- tions of truth are not more likely to produce this than others, Yes ; and therefore it is important that men should study to be true according to the test of Scripture. But so long as that blazing centre re- mains, " I am determined to know nothing but Christ, and Him crucified " because He represented the God of love who suffered for all the universe and all it contains so long as that is the grand ideal of life, it is nonsense for the man that does not pattern after that, to pattern after the intellectual elements of it, or the mere auxiliary institutions. But if he has both he is doubly blest. BEECHER. Tis only noble to be good. Count not thy life by calendars ; for years Shall pass by thee unheeded, whilst an hour Some little fleeting hour, too quickly past May stamp itself so deeply on thy brain, Thy latest years shall live upon its joy. KENNEDY. If the heart be right with God, He will weigh the rest in a balance of compassion. CARDFNAL MANNING. [164] Thou shalt abide for me. Hosea 3: 3. my life ! " We have said it or sung it before the Lord, it may be many times ; but if it were only whispered but once in His ear with full purpose of heart, should we not believe that He heard it? And if we know that He heard it, should we not believe that He has answered it, and fulfilled this, our heart's desire? For with Him hearing means heeding. Then why should we doubt that He did verily take our lives when we offered them our bodies when we presented them ? Have we not been wronging His faithful- ness all this time by practically, even unconsciously, doubting whether the prayer ever reached Him? And if so, is it any wonder that we have not realized all the power and joy of full consecration? By some means or other He has to teach us to trust implicitly every step of the way. And so, if we do not really trust in this matter, He has had to let us find out our want of trust by withholding the sensible part of the blessing, and thus stirring us up to find out why it is withheld. An offered gift must be either accepted or re- fused. Can He have refused it when He has said, " Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out " ? If not, then it must have been accepted. [165] Slime ifourteenti) Dap Your father knoweth what things ye have need of. S. Mat- thew 6 : 8. He Knows. HUSH, child ! doth not thy Heavenly Father know ? Love causelessly would never wound thee So. Sometimes the chastened lean upon His breast, And, sobbing, find themselves more closely pressed. Hereafter thou shall better understand What discipline was needed from His hand. Be patient, then, and to His will resigned, And thou shall be more Christ-like and refined. Implicil Irusl is thine, but He imparts His fulness only unto emptied hearts ; Who asks His love will in return receive Far more than tongue can tell, or thought conceive. Then give Him children, home, thy weight of care ; They are too heavy for ihy slrenglh to bear. The pitying Father will thy fears relieve, And bind the wounds His children must receive. MRS. ANNA M. HUNTLEY. My son, suffer me to do wilh thee what I please. I know what is expedient for thee. Thou thinkest as man ; thou judgest in many things as human affection persuadeth thee. THOMAS A KEMPIS. [166] jfiftecnti) Take my yoke upon you and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto your souls. S. Matthew 1 1 : 29. HRIST'S invitation is a call to begin life over again upon a new principle upon His own principle. " Watch my way of doing things," He says. " Follow me. Take life as I take it. Be meek and lowly and you will find rest." . . . Christ's life outwardly was one of the most troubled lives ever lived : tempest and tumult, tumult and tempest, the waves breaking over it all the time till the worn body was laid in the grave. But the inner life was a sea of glass. The great calm was always there. At any moment you might have gone to Him and found rest. And even when the bloodhounds were dogging Him in the streets of Jerusalem, He turned to His disciples and offered them, as a last legacy, " My peace." Nothing ever for a moment broke the serenity of Christ's life on earth. There was nothing that the world could do to Him, that could ripple the surface of His spirit. Such living, as mere living, is altogether unique. It is the mind at leisure from itself. It is the perfect poise of the soul ; the stability of assured convictions ; the eternal calm of an invulnerable faith ; the repose of a heart set deep in God. It is the mood of the man who says, with Browning, " God's in His heaven, all's well with the world." HENRY DRUMMOND. [167] 31une My flesh and my heart faileth : but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever. Psalm 73 : 26. THERE are heart sicknesses known to earth more real and distressing than any physical malady. Times there are in each human life when the sharp sword pierces to the very centre of the soul. Speaking after the manner of this world, the agony seems greater than can be borne. What then? Shall we sink down in despair? No. There is a better way. Summon thy soul to new courage, and patience. Say to thy soul within the thick shadows, even where no light enters, " My soul, wait thou only upon God." SPURGEON. Pain's furnace heat within me quivers, God's breath upon the flame doth blow, And all my heart in anguish shivers, And trembles at the fiery glow ; And yet I whisper : As God will ! And in His hottest fire hold still. Why should I murmur? For the sorrow Thus only longer lived would be ; Its end may come, and will, to-morrow, When God has done His work in me ; So I say, trusting : As God will ! And, trusting to the end, hold still. FROM THE GERMAN. [168] Rules for Making Sunshine. WHEN you rise in the morning, form a. reso- lution to make the day a happy one to a fellow-creature. It is easily done ; a left-off gar- ment to the man who needs it, a kind word to the sorrowful, an encouraging expression to the striving, trifles in themselves light as air, will do it, at least for the twenty- four hours ; and if you are young, depend upon it, it will tell when you are old ; and if you are old, it will send you gently and happily down the stream of human time to eternity. By the most simple arithmetical sum, look at the result; you send one person, only one, happily through the day, that is three hundred and sixty- five during the course of the year ; and suppose you live only forty years after you commence that of medicine, you have made fourteen thousand six hundred human beings happy, at all events for a time. Now is not this simple ? It is too short for a sermon, too homely for ethics, too easily accomplished for you to say, " I would if I could." SYDNEY SMITH. Be like the bird, that, halting in her flight Awhile on boughs too slight, Feels them give way beneath her and yet sings, Knowing that she hath wings. VICTOR HUGO. [169] 3)une Be sober, be vigilant. I Peter 5 : 8. The prudent man looketh well to his own going. Proverbs 14: 10. K EEP at some work of usefulness. We forge our own fetters. To thine own self be true. SHAKSPEARE. The worst things are the perversion of good things. Abused intellectual gifts make the danger- ous villain ; abused sensibilities make the accom- plished tempter. F. w. ROBERTSON. The lost days of my life until to-day, What were they ; could I see them on the street Lie as they fell ? Would they be ears of wheat Sown once for food but trodden into clay ? Or golden coins squander'd and still to pay ? Or drops of blood dabbling the guilty feet? Or such spilt waters as in dreams must cheat The undying throats of Hell, a thirst alway? I do not see them here ; but after death God knows I know the faces I shall see, Each one a murdered self, with low last breath. " I am thyself, what hast thou done to me ? And I and I thyself " lo ! each one saith, And thou thyself to all eternity. D. G. ROSSETTI. [170] 3!utte Little children, keep yourselves from idols. i John 5 : 21. T O make idols, and find them clay And to bewail their worship. Therefore pray. FELICIA HEMANS. Two Lost Heroes. And so Death took your hero, How kind to you was Fate ! For Death but crystallizes Life, And you need only wait. Death keeps him, dear, safe from all tainting touch, I, in your place, could scarcely weep so much. For, I, too, lost my hero. Would God it were by Death ! Would God that he were sainted, That I might spend my breath In praying to heaven to make my deeds so sweet That he might welcome me when we should meet ! Alas, alas, my hero ! How often we bow down, Deceived, to crown a coward king And deify a clown ! Pass on ; compared to me you know not grief. You have lost him, but I have lost Belief. ANNE REEVE ALDRICH. [171] Hum For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, -whether it be good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5 : 10. PERHAPS it may have been little thought of, in the days of careless unconcern, which you have spent hitherto ; but I call upon you to think of it now ; to lay it to heart ; and no longer delay when the high waters of death and judgments and eternity are thus set before you. It is my prayer to carry you beyond the regions of sight and sense, to the regions of faith, and to assure you in the name of Him who cannot lie, that as sure as the hour for the laying of the body in the grave comes, so surely will also come the hour of the spirit returning to Him who gave it. Yes, the day of final reckoning will come, and the appearance of the Son of God in the heaven, and the opening of the books will come, and the standing of men of all generations before the judgment-seat will come, and the solemn passing of that sentence which is to fix your destiny for eternity, will come. CHALMERS. And I know of the future judgment, How dreadful soe'er it be, That to sit alone with my conscience Will be judgment enough for me. [172] 3!ime We ought to love one another. S. John 4:11. THE world is full of love that is not much better than no love at all. The fuel of the stove makes the room warm, but there are great piles of trees among the rocks on the top of the hill, where nobody can get them ; but these do not make anybody warm. Just so in family, love makes the parents and children, the brothers and sisters, happy ; but if they take care never to say a word about it, as if it were a crime, they will not be much happier than as if there was no love among them ; the house will seem cold even in summer. We long for tenderness like that which hung About us, lying on our mother's breast ; A selfish feeling that no pen or tongue Can praise aright, since silence sings its best. A love, as far removed from passion's heat As from the chillness of its dying fire ; A love to lean on when the failing feet Begin to totter and the eyes to tire. In youth's brief heyday hottest love we seek, The reddest rose we grasp but when it dies God grant the latter blossoms, violets meek, May spring for us beneath life's autumn skies. God grant some loving one be near to bless Our weary way with simple tenderness. ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [173] 31um He that rusteth in his riches shall fall ; but the righteous shall flourish as a branch. Proverbs 1 1 : 28. Contentment with godliness is great gain. i Timothy 6 : 6. They that will be rich fall into temptation. I Timothy 6 : 9. / was a father to the poor. Job 29 : 16. Both low and high, rich and poor together. Psalm 49: 2. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness a\' 77*ne blaster and Lord : and ye say well ; for so I am. S. John 13: 13. IN our most exalted moods we ought to be the most ready to render the lowliest service to our fellow-men. The proof that we have the divine fellowship, the evidence that we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, should appear in the promptness and gladness with which we discharge the offices of a servant. It is significant that Christ never commands us to do those things which men consider great, that He never holds up for admiration the things which the world applauds ; but, over and over again, He lays stress upon those small deeds of kindness which it is possible for every one to perform, but which are counted insig- nificant in the eyes of the world. In that wonder- ful foreview which He gives of the final judgment, He does not recite the great and distinguished things which the righteous have done. But He speaks of those things which lie within the possi- bility for every man and woman. " I was an hun- gered and ye gave me meat ; 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." " Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it to Me." J. T. McFARLAND. Being dead yet speaketh. Hebrews 11:4. A NYTHING the dead leave unfinished, makes lT\. one feel the nothingness of human purposes ! I remember the pain in which I once saw what would have been a beautiful picture, only it was not finished ; for the painter had died suddenly. And there was a statue which was just being brought out of the marble when the artist died. Whatever purpose death cuts a man off from has for his surviving friends a look, as though it had been shone on by light, not of this world. MOUNTFORD. This is the prerogative of the noblest natures, that their death exercises a no less blessed influ- ence than did their life ; that they lighten us from above, like stars by which to steer our course. GOETHE. And now, sometimes, from upper heights, From spaces wide and blue, The echoes of the voice we loved Floats down to us anew ; " We hail thee, comrade," comes the word And swift the answer flies, As evermore we send response " We hail thee in the skies." MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. [252] Let patience have her perfect work, James 1 : 4. MANY a one is asking in the midst of hard- ship and sorrow, "Is life worth living?" We must not be swept away by such thoughts. Ours is a God-given life, and every soul is precious in His sight. Why was I born? God, who never made a human being without some purpose, plans a high destiny for every one of us. Beautiful fabrics are woven by weavers who never see their work but on the wrong side. They sit before the loom with rough edges always before them. But the master- workman knows just what he wants ; he has chosen the pattern and set the weaver at work, and by and by, when the tapestry is finished, the workman is astonished at the beauty his own hands have created. We have the pattern of a perfect character in the Lord Jesus Christ. He sets us at the task of weaving from that pattern every day. " How dis- appointing and wearisome is my life ! " we say. Where is the use in this monotonous round? But if our eyes are upon the pattern, and we faithfully obey orders, though we may not see now how the right side looks, it will be a glad surprise when it is finished. [253] September Light is sown for ike righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. Psalm 97 : II. WHAT inexpressible joy for me, to look up through the apple-blossoms and the flutter- ing leaves, and to see God's love there ; to listen to the thrush that has built his nest there, and to feel God's love who cares for the birds, in every note that swells his little throat ; to look beyond to the light 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 un- changeable 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 if I could unwrap fold after fold of God's universe, I should unfold only more and more blessing, and see deeper and deeper into the love which is at the heart of all. ELIZABETH CHARLES. 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 dusty lane and wrangling mart, Plying their daily task with busier feet, Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat. KEBLE. [254] Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. . Ephesians 5 : 19. SING ! as the birds shall teach thee A song of love and trust ; Sing ! till the world shall listen, Till thine own eyes shall glisten As joy or grief shall reach thee, As a true singer must ; May the brave music swelling, From thy good heart upwelling, Its message still be telling Long after thou art dust. Sing ! for the world is weary With burden of its care ; And men are heavy-hearted, Perplexed, misjudged, and thwarted, And sin has made life dreary, Temptation everywhere ; Sing ! as true singer may, Driving these clouds away With promises of day Whose coming shall be fair. God sent His singers upon earth With songs of sadness and of mirth, That they might touch the hearts of men And bring them back to heaven again. LONGFELLOW. [255] How beautiful are the feet of them who bring glad tidings of good things. Isaiah 52 : 7. ONCE the question was asked, " Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing that thou hast no tidings ready?" If we want to have beautiful feet, we must have tidings ready which they are to bear. If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth. There are plenty of cups of cold water to be carried in all directions ; not to the poor only, ministries of love are often as much needed by a rich friend. In such ser- vices we are treading in the blessed footsteps of His most holy life, who "went about doing good ! " HAVERGAL. He hath said, " How beautiful the feet ! " The feet so weary, travel-stained, and worn The feet that humbly, patiently have borne The toilsome way, the pressure, and the heat. The feet, not hastening on with winged flight, Nor strong to trample down the opposing foe ; So lowly, and so human, they must go By painful steps to scale the mountain height. Not unto all the tuneful lips are given, The ready tongue, the words so strong and sweet ; Yet all may turn, with humble, willing feet, And bear to darkened souls the light of heaven. SARAH GERALDINE STOCK. [256] He was wounded for our transgressions. Isaiah 53 : 5. O CHRIST, what burdens bowed Thy head ! Our load was laid on Thee ; Thou stood'st in the sinner's stead, Did'st bear all ill for me. A Victim led, Thy blood was shed ; Now there's no load for me. Jehovah lifted up His rod O Christ, it falls on Thee ! Thou wast sore stricken of Thy God ; There's not one stroke for me. Thy tears, Thy blood beneath it flowed, Thy bruising healeth me. MARY A. R. COUSIN. With silent, soft, and mighty pressure, the sight of the Sufferer's holiness, and the gratitude for the Sufferer's pity, as one complete power, one perfect love, has drawn the depths of men's lives on to the nature of the Sufferer, and there their oneness to Him has become known to them, and they, in and through Him, have been renewed into the image of their Father, and His Father. The robber who was crucified with Him felt that power first. It was a baptism of blood, and the power which our baptisms re-echo found its first utterance in Him. " Being by nature, born in sin and the child of wrath," there by the fellowship of suffering, there by the power of love ... he was made the child of grace. PHILLIPS BROOKS. [257] Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task? Exodus 5 : 14. THERE is some duty which God has made ready for you to do to-day ! He has built it like a house for you to occupy. You have not to build it. He has built it, and He will lead you up to its door and set you with your feet upon its threshold. Will you go in and occupy it? Will you do the duty which He has made ready? Per- haps it is the great comprehensive duty of the consecration of yourself to Him. Perhaps it is some special task. Whatever it is, may He who anticipated your love by His own in giving you the task, now help you to fulfil His love with yours by doing it. Amen. PHILLIPS BROOKS. Oh, how many deeds Of deathless virtue and immortal good The world had wanted, had the actor said " I will do this to-morrow ! " LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 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. [258] WHITTIER. For who hath despised the day of small things. -Zechariah 4: 10. OPRINGS are little things, but they are sources w_3 of large streams ; a helm is a little thing, but it governs the course of a large ship ; a bridle-bit is a small thing, but see its use and power ; nails and pegs are little things, but they hold parts of large buildings together ; a word, a look, a frown, are all little things, but powerful for good or evil. Think of this, and mind the little things. Pay that little debt its pjomise redeem. Little acts are elements of true greatness. . . . They are tests of character and disinterestedness. They are the straws upon life's deceitful current, and show the current's way. The heart comes all out in them. They move on the dial of character and responsi- bility significantly. They indicate the character and destiny. They help to make the immortal man. It matters not so much where we are as what we are. It is seldom the acts of moral heroism are called for. Rather the real heroism of life is, to do all its little duties promptly and faithfully. ROYAL PATH OF LIFE. 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. [259] September The Lord have patience with me. S. Matthew 18: 26. THE soul loses command of itself when it is impatient. Whereas, when it submits with- out 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 bitterest pain, if our will remains firm and sub- missive. Peace in this life springs from acquies- cence even in disagreeable things, not in an exemption from bearing them. FENELON. Oh ! lose not patience, weary heart ! Tangled life's web may seem ; But thread by thread the Master's hand Unravels what we deem Inextricable ; then we see How skilled a guide that hand must be. And so in faith we day by day Take both the toil and pain, Knowing the work and warfare each Shall end in heavenly gain, And those who have through patience won, Shall hear the Master's word, "Well done !" G. M. TAYLOR. [260] To do my duly in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call me. Book of Common Prayer. "AT 7HO speaks for this man?" From the VV great white throne, Veiled in its roseate clouds, the voice came forth ; Before it stood a parted soul alone. And rolling east and west, and south and north, The mighty accents summoned quick and dead ; " Who speaks for this man, ere his doom be said ? " Shivering he listened, for his early life Had passed in dull, unnoted calm, away ; He brought no glory to his early strife, No wreath of fame, or genius' fiery ray ; Weak, lone, ungifted, quiet, and obscure, Born in the shadow, dying 'mid the poor. Lo ! from the solemn concourse, hushed and dim, The widow's prayer, the orphan's blessing rose ; The struggler told of trouble shared by him, The lonely of cheered hours and softened woes ; And like a chorus spake the crushed and sad, " He gave us all he could and all he had." And little words of loving-kindness said, And tender thoughts, and help in time of need, Sprang up like leaves by soft spring showers fed, In some waste corner, sown by chance-flung seed. In grateful wonder heard the modest soul, Such trifles gathered to so blest a whole. ALT, THE YEAR ROUND. [261] I am their music. Lamentations 3: 63. WHEN troubles come, go at them with songs. When griefs arise, sing them down. Lift the voice of praise against care. They sing in heaven, and among God's people on earth ; song is the appropriate language of Christian people. BEECHER. Music should strike fire from the heart of man and bring tears from the eyes of woman. BEETHOVEN. What martial music is to marching men, should song be to humanity. ALEXANDER SMITH. I stand by every word I utter when I sing, and feel that I must to the death. It is not alone song with me, melodious sounds, it is the lesson inculcated ; hope in the future, bright joys to come, the mercy of an all -wise God. I would not sing a frivolous word before my audience for anything on earth. ANTOINETTE STERLING. The glory of heaven, The sorrow of earth, Were breathed in one whisper, When music had birth. God set a harp in nature's beating breast ; The secret of the music yet to be Lay latent in the strings. At His behest Love breathed upon the wires and set it free. [262] I am the good shepherd ' : the good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. S. John 10 : 2. HIS life " for thee " ! Oh, wonderful gift ! not promised, but given; not to friends, but to enemies. Given without condition, without reserve, without return. Himself unknown and unloved, His gift unsought and unasked, He gave His life for thee ; a more than royal bounty the greatest gift that Deity could devise. Oh, grandeur of love ! " I lay down My life for the sheep ! " And we for whom He gave it have held back, and hesi- tated to give our lives, not even for Him (He has not asked us to do that), but to Him ! But that is past, and He has tenderly pardoned the unloving, ungrateful reserve, and has graciously accepted the poor little fleeting breath and speck of dust which was all we had to offer. And now His precious death and His glorious life are all " for thee." HAVERGAL. I gave My life for thee, My precious blood I spilt That thou might ransomed be And saved from woe and guilt. I gave My life for thee What hast thou given for Me? May we set before us Thine own image, calmly beholding us, and forever looking forth upon the strife of life, not indifferent to its least act ; and may we live as seeing Thee who art invisible. [263] Seekest thou great tilings for thyself? Seek them not. Jeremiah 14: 5. OH ! to be nothing nothing ! Only to lie at His feet, A broken and emptied vessel, For the Master's use made meet ! Emptied that He may fill me, As forth to His service I go ; Broken that so, unhindered, Through me His life may flow. Oh ! to be nothing nothing ! An arrow hid in His hand, Or a messenger at His gateway, Waiting for His command ; Only an instrument, ready For Him to use at His will ; And willing, should He not require me, In patience to wait on Him still. G. M. TAYLOR. Oh ! be little, be little ; and then thou wilt be content with little ; and if you 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 mayst 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. PENNINGTON. [ 2 6 4 ] D 1 Have mercy upon me, O God . . . blot out my transgressions. Psalm 51:1. k EPTH of Mercy, can there be Mercy still reserved for me ? Can my God His wrath forbear Me, the chief of sinners, spare?" The Salvation Army records tell how often this hymn has been sung in the slums of London, and how men and women deep in sin, feeling that for them there could be no forgiveness, have heard the message of " salvation to the uttermost," sung in this hymn and been saved by it. Dr. Lyman Abbott says : " The man who has committed a great sin and followed it with a great repentance, is fur- ther along in the moral life than the man who has never committed a great sin and does not know that he is a sinner." The outcasts of Christ's time were not the men with stains upon their garments and with shame upon their brows ; they were the men and women who did not know that they had sins to be forgiven. I have read stories of men who were walled up in some dungeon castle and left to die there ; and as I look out in life, as I look sometimes into my own heart and my own life, it seems to me that we who preach the Gospel and we who sit in the pews and come to the prayer- meetings are in danger of that very doom ; we are in danger of walling up ourselves through our own self-satisfaction and dying of asphyxia. [265] JENNIE M. BINGHAM. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. I Samuel 15 : 22. r I "HERE is no action so slight nor so mean but A it may be done to a great purpose, and en- nobled therefore ; 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. RUSKIN. Not at the battle front, writ of in story ; Not on the blazing wreck, steering to glory, Not while in martyr-pangs, soul and flesh sever, Died he this hero new, hero forever. No pomp poetic crowned, no forms enchained him, No friends applauding watched, no foes arraigned him, Death found him there, without grandeur or beauty, Only an honest man, doing his duty : Death found and touched with finger in flying : Lo ! he rose up complete hero undying. DINAH MULOCH CRAIK. 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 yield- ing 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. FENELON. [266] September These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars itt his right hand. Revelation n : I. ALL the promises are "To him that over- cometh." Listen ! " He that overcometh shall be clothed with white raiment and ... I will confess his name before my Father, and before the angels." "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even also as I overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne." " He that overcometh shall inherit all thmgs, and I will be his God, and he shall be My son." All the symbolisms of that glory are symbolisms of victory, palms, sceptres, crowns, thrones. It is possible for a man to drift along with life's great army of martyrs, reformers, philanthropists, and victors, and yet develop none of their soldierly spirit. One may go through life and win no vic- tories, compromise with every foe, overcome noth- ing, achieve nothing; but it is not for such that heaven waits. Not to the vanquished, Heaven opens its portals. Rest is the glory given To crowned immortals, Where never foes surprise, Where never storms arise, Past all uncertainties, His rest shall be glorious. [267] W. F. BARTHOLOMEW. September The love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. Ephcsians 3= 19- IF ever human love was tender, and self-sacri- ficing, 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 lavish itself 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 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 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. s. // passeth Knowledge. It passeth knowledge ; that dear love of Thine ! My Jesus ! Saviour ! Yet this soul of mine Would of that love, in all its depth and length, Its height, and breadth, and everlasting strength, Know more and more. But ah ! I cannot tell, or sing, or know, The fulness of that love, whilst here below : Yet my poor vessel I may freely bring, O Thou who art of love the living spring, My vessel fill. MARY SHEKLETON. [268] September The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. S. James 5 : 2. 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 day 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 so wisely measured to our strength that the bruised reed is never broken. We do not enough look at our trials in this con- tinuous 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 a line. H. E. MANNING. Be still and trust, For His strokes are strokes of love, Thou must for thy profit bear ; He thy filial fear would move, Trust thy Father's loving care, Be still and trust. Know God is near Though thou think Him far away, Though His mercy long hath slept, He will come and not delay When His child enough hath wept, For God is near. ANTON ULRICH (1667). [269] {toenti>?0i]ttl) / would not live always. Job 7:16. OH, the woods and the hill-sides, the meadows and the gardens, the valley with the river in it, summer morning with its long shadows in the moist grass, and the summer evening going away in the west, calm and sublime, like the last words of a blessing ! Oh, in all these things, the beauty there has been, what has it been, and what is it now ? It is God ; and so it is what my soul will be living in forever. . . . Oh, how my soul used to yearn after Him ! Strange feeling it was ! Sorrow, joy, love, worship, it was all these, and an in- finite longing. It was what would have felt wealth like poverty, and what no sceptre would have pleased, an infinite longing, to which the whole world felt little and nothing. MOUNTFORD. Wings ! Wings ! To touch the hem of the veil that swings, As moved by the breath of God between The world of sense and the world unseen ; To swoon where the mystic folds divide And wake, a child, on the other side ! To wake and wonder if it be so, And weep for joy at the loss of woe ; To know the seeker is sought and found ; To find Love's being, but not his bound ; Oh ! for the living that dying brings ! Wings ! Wings ! MARY A. LATHBURY. [270] soap In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. Isaiah 30: 15. THE blessing of her quiet life Fell on us like the dew ; And good thoughts, where her footsteps pressed, Like fairy blossoms grew. WHITTIER. It is the lives, like the stars, which simply pour down on us the calm light of their bright and faithful being, to which we look and out of which we gather the deepest calm and courage. No man or woman 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. The deliverance of the soul from all useless and selfish and unquiet cares, brings to it an unspeak- able peace and freedom ; this is true simplicity. And the effect of this simplicity is felt, not in one's life alone, but it shines into other lives with a clear serene light like that of moonlight or star-shine. This is the strength of the quiet soul : other souls will come to it for rest and quieting; other lives will grow peaceful by viewing its peace. Small anxieties and frets will vanish in its presence, and earthly shadows will be pierced and interfused with its heavenly light. [27!] Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. Psalm 103 : 4. ^ I ^HE ideal embodied in a redeemed life is high. J_ It means not alone your own salvation, but that you are called to the work of saving the world. William Scott, the Vermont boy whose life Lincoln saved, after he had been condemned to be shot, is an example of how a redeemed life spent itself in sacred service. Scott, in telling of his interview, said that Mr. Lincoln came to him and said : "My boy, you are not going to be shot to- morrow. I am going to trust you and send you back to your regiment. I have come to Washing- ton when it was hard to come, and now, how will you pay my bill?" Scott said : "There was a big lump in my throat ; I could scarcely speak, but I managed to say, ' I will pay you some way.' " " But it is a great deal," said Mr. Lincoln ; and then he put his hands on my shoulders, and said : " My bill is a very large one, my boy. There is only one man in the world who can pay it, and his name is William Scott. If from this day he does his duty so that at life's close he can say, ' I have kept my promise and have done my duty as a soldier, then my debt will be paid. Will you make that promise, and try to keep it?' ' The record says that Scott became one of the truest, best soldiers ever known, and that he died risking his life in the rescue of wounded men. [272] Whom having not seen, ye love. I Peter 1 : 8. IN reflecting the character of Christ, it is no real obstacle that we may never have been in visible contact with Himself. There lived once a young girl whose perfect grace of character was the wonder of those who knew her. She wore on her neck a gold locket which no one was ever allowed to open. One day, in a moment of unusual confidence, one of her companions was allowed to touch its secret spring and learn its secret. She saw written these words " Whom having not seen, I love" That was the secret of her beautiful life. She had been changed into the Same Image. DRUMMOND. Whom Having Not Seen, Ye Love. " Not seen ! " The veil of flesh Doth dim our spirit's eyes, Nor shall we see, until We mount the vaulted skies. But we will love Thee still, our Lord ! Believing all Thy gracious word. " Not seen ! " but dearer far Than aught that greets the sight ; We seek Thee through the day, And trust Thee through the night. In busy toil or silent sleep, Thy loving watch around us keep. [273] That Rock was Christ, I Corinthians 10 : 4. The Wondrous Rock of Ages. O WONDROUS Rock of Ages, What power and might are Thine, What memories 'round Thee cluster As pilgrims 'round a shrine ! Rock, ever firm and steadfast, Confessed in prayer and song, In whom our fathers trusted, What hopes around Thee throng ! The storms of life may gather, The winds beat to and fro, But always there is refuge, Where we may freely go ; No dark or dread disaster Can e'er oppress the day, For 'neath Thy sacred shelter All griefs are swept away. O precious Rock of Ages ! Since Thou wert cleft for me, I'm sheltered from all danger If I but hide in Thee ; Securely there abiding On Thee I calmly rest, Whatever be my portion I count it good and blest. MARTHA ( -API'S dl.IVKK. [274] a od 5bie!d l-o l-hy October 9 Wherefore seeing -we also are compassed about with so great a clottd of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Hebrews 12: I. are encompassed about by a cloud of wit- nesses, 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 feeling that is worldly and every unworthy purpose, and enshrine us, in the midst of a forgetful and unspiritual world, with an atmosphere of heavenly peace ! They have over- come have risen are crowned, glorified; but still they remain to us, our assistants, our com- forters, 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." HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. Not a vain and cold ideal, Not a poet's dream alone, But a presence warm and real, Seen and felt and known. WHITTIER. [275] Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me . . . and ye shall find rest. S. Matthew 1 1 : 20. /'""CHRIST never said much in mere words about V_x the Christian graces. He lived them, He was them. Yet we do not merely copy Him. We learn His art by living with Him, like the old apprentices with their masters. He says " Follow me . . . and you will find rest." Perhaps if we knew how much was involved in the simple " learn" of Christ, we would not enter His school with so" irresponsible a heart. For there is not only much to learn, but much to unlearn. Many persons never go to this school at all until character has almost taken on its fatal set. But it can be done and there is Rest in the school although there is also much Work. HENRY DRUMMOND. The heart bereft of all its brood of singing hopes, and left 'Mid leafless boughs, a cold, forsaken nest, With snowflakes in it : folded in Thy breast Doth lose its deadly chill ; and grief that creeps Unto Thy side for shelter, finding there The wound's deep cleft, forgets its moan and weeps Calm, quiet tears ; . . . pain on Thee doth press Its quivering cheek, and all the weariness, The want that keep their silence, till from Thee They hear the gracious summons ; none beside Hath spoken to the world-worn, " Come to me ! " [276] October If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye -which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness ; considering thy- self, lest thou also be tempted. Galatians 6 : i. What doest thou here, Elijah ? I Kings 9:13. GOD well knew where Elijah was when He asked, "What doest thou here?" But He would know from Elijah himself, that, being called upon to account for his conduct, he might be con- vinced of his folly. God has a right to know where we are, and what we are doing ; He is interested in observing our conduct ; interested as a judge who is to pass sentence upon our actions ; as a friend, who would check us when we go astray. Elijah's reproof was a reproof given to a good man. But while God does not cast him off, He reprehends - him. It is thus His gentleness makes us great If a brother be overtaken in a fault, let us not employ the earthquake, the wind, and the fire, but the small still voice. Let us take him aside, and tell him his fault between him and us alone. Jesus, let Thy pitying eye Call back a wandering sheep ; False to Thee, like Peter, I Would fain like Peter weep ; Let me be by grace restored, On me be all long-suffering shown, Turn and look upon me, Lord, And break this heart of stone. c. WESLEY. t 2 ??] SDctobcr jfourtlj In our low estate. Psalm 1 36 : 23. NOT a few in their last hours find themselves tried because the future is so uncertain, be- cause their life has been so imperfect. . . . When they think what God is in His purity and majesty, they tremble, and dare not die. Why, then, do they not think what God is in His mercy ! He stands in the plenitude of all-comforting grace grace not to be given to those that have, but grace to be given as raiment is given to those that are naked, as medicine is given to those that are sick, as food is given to those that are hungry, as charity is bestowed on those that are needy. God supplies, not the supplied, but the unsupplied ; He strengthens, not the strong, but the weak ; He comforts, not the rejoicing, but the sorrowing. BEECHER. Leave all to God, Forsaken one, and stay thy tears ; For the Highest knows thy pain, Sees thy suffering, and thy fears ; Thou shall not wait His help in vain. Leave all to God. If thou love Him, Walking truly in His ways, Then no trouble, cross, or death, E'er shall silence faith and praise ! All things serve thee here beneath If thou love God. ANTON ULRICH. [278] All things to all men. I Corinthians 9 : 22. VERY largely we ourselves become what others are to us. ... Love truly, and then other men's souls will be sources of your soul's growth. Sympathize with the good in their endeavors, and you yourself will be morally stronger. Revere the wise, and yours will be the state of mind into which wisdom comes most freely. Love little children, and something of their innocence will come over your mind, and whiten its darker spots. Love them that are old, and your soul will be as though the longer experienced in life. This life that we are living in is not empty of power, but full of it, power that is on us and about us always, and into the nature of which we have vision given us, that we should not perish. Wish to be a child of God ; and then sunshine and frost, and friends and enemies, and youth and age, and business and pleasure, and all things will help to make you one. MOUNTFORD. Attainment. The soul that longs for higher things unknown, Shall not forever long unsatisfied ; The heart's desire shall of itself alone Lift up the soul to that for which it cried. MARY A. LEWIS. [279] October Thy law is within my heart. Psalm 40 : 8. Within. WITHIN the circling storm there is a centre Of perfect rest ; Within the cloud we so much fear to enter Are visions blest. Within the husk the harvest lies enfolded ; The chaff falls dead, But the sweet life the summer months have moulded Becomes our bread. Within the bark, all rough and deeply wrinkled, Flow hidden streams, Bearing a thousand flowers with perfume sprinkled The sun's bright beams. Within the shell are wings, and songs unspoken, A perfect bird ; All useless wings, until the shell be broken, And songs unheard ! Within, the spirit dwells ; the outer letter Is not the whole ; Tis but the body, or at times a fetter Binding the soul. Within the veil, beyond the world's pollution, Are seas of light, Giving to each enigma its solution The perfect sight ! HENRY BURTON. [280] October soap For the very works' sake. S. John 14 : 1 1. OTH KRS shall sing the song, Others shall right the wrong, Finish what I begin, And all I fail of, win. What matter, I or they? Mine or another's day, So the right word be said And life the sweeter made? WHITHER. I will not say that humility is the only way to excellence, but I am sure that it is one road. LONGFELLOW. Labour as if the success of this life and the life eternal rested upon you alone. And yet keep to that sweet humility which allows others to build upon the low foundation of that which you have begun but could not finish. Keep in mind the idea that it is the work itself that is of consequence to the world, and not the worker. No matter whether He calls us into ways of honour or of scorn, it is all one if His work is thereby done. The consecrated soul will merge all thoughts of self in the one thought of helping on the kingdom of God. [281] October dBtgljtl) Dap As for man, his days are a$ grass : as a flower of the field, so he flour isheth. Psalm 103: 15. ' I ^HERE is a past which is gone forever, but A there is a future which is still our own. F. W. ROBERTSON. Looking calmly yet humbly for the close of my mortal career, which cannot be far distant, I rever- ently thank God for the blessings vouchsafed me in the past, and with an awe that is not fear, and a consciousness of demerit that does not exclude hope, await the opening before my steps of the gates, of the eternal world. HORACE GREELEY. The places that know you will soon know you no more forever. The cares that made you fret yester- day are already below the horizon. Your friends have gone on before ; but what of that ? You will soon be with them. Your life is full of troubles and mischiefs ; but what of that ? Your mischiefs and troubles are nearly over nearer than you think. The glorious future is almost yours. It is not death to close The eye long dimmed with tears, And wake, in glorioys repose, In God's Eternal Years. ABRAHAM H. C. MOLAN. [282] October When I fail I shall arise. Micah 7 : 8. / will arise and go to my Father. S. Luke 15 : 18. 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. s. FRANCIS DE SALES. 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. F. W. HAVERGAL. I O child, hast thou fallen ? arise, and go, with child-like 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 mis- doings. Is it not His own precious pleasure, and a small thing for Him to forgive thy trespasses, if thou believe in Him ? for His hand is not shortened that it cannot make thee fit to be saved. JOHN TAULER. [283] The Lord is my helper. Hebrews 13:6. 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, . . . and that you will accomplish more good. FENELON. Just to trust and yet to ask Guidance still ; Take the training or the task As He will. Just to follow, hour by hour, As He leadeth, Just to draw the moment's power As it needeth ; Just to trust Him that is all, Then the day will surely be Peaceful, whatsoe'er befall, Bright and blessed, safe and free. [284] October Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Isaiah 55 : 6. NEARER to Thee, O my Father, still nearer, This is my song and my reverent plea, This is the theme of my fervent petition, Nearer to Thee, Saviour, nearer to Thee ! When I am heedless Thy hand will restrain me, Gently my feet all the way will be led, When I am weary Thy love will sustain me, Sweetly thy dews will descend on my head. Waking or sleeping, smiling or weeping, What recks it how my days be If they but lead me, if they but speed me Nearer and nearer to Thee ? Or, if in darkness my path must be followed, Speak through the silence, my spirit constrain, Show me what providence, sacred and hallowed, Urges my steps through the valley of pain ! Show me how service or sacrifice lowly Leads to the heights and to visions divine, Whisper a message all tender and holy, Thus through the gloom will Thy voice answer mine. Trusting or fearing, listening or hearing, All my days let them be Envoys to lead me, heralds to speed me Nearer and nearer to Thee ! MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. [285] October By grace ye are saved. Ephesians 11:5. IT is not strength of intellect that saves a man, or the most respectable surroundings, or ortho- doxy of creed. All these under pressure have proved to be but ropes of sand attached to anchors of straw ; they never hold a man against the tides of strong temptation. He must have Christian principle, or he is lost. No man is safe in business or safe in politics or safe in personal character, when conscience cuts loose from God. He may float for a while, but it is a question of time how soon he shall strike and go to the bottom. God never insures any one, not even in the church, who has refused to guide his course by the Bible com- pass, and to fasten his soul to Jesus Christ. But the cable of Christ's love will not only keep you steadfast through life's storms and through its treacherous under-currents, but will advance you heavenward. The refusal of Jesus Christ means the shipwreck of your immortal soul. Fasten in faith your weakness to His strength, your sinful heart to His cleansing grace, and you are saved. If you reach heaven, my friend, you will come in, like that returning ship from its long voyage, with your anchor at the prow. You will give all the glory not to your own skill or your own seamanship, but to Him whose atoning blood purchased your redemption, and whose mighty arm of love brought you into the heavenly port. THEODORE L. CUYLER. [286] October In him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:28. 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. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. 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. SCUDDER. 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 them- selves part of the same great Temple : for it belongs not to this world 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. Nothing of joy or grief, of pleasure or pain that we experience but has some part in the experience of Christ. When we make prayer the scaling ladder to reach Him, we not only find Him, but we may indeed live in Him as He in us. [287] SDctobet; jfourteentl) SDap We walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5 : 7. day," we say, and turn our eyes Toward the fair hills of Paradise. Some day, some time, a sweet, new rest Shall blossom, flower-like, in each breast, Some time, some day, our eyes shall see The faces kept in memory, Some day their hands shall clasp our hands Just over in the morning lands. Some day our ears shall hear the song Of triumph over sin and wrong. Some day, some time ; but oh \ not yet ; But we will wait, and not forget That some time all these things shall be, And rest be given you and me. So wait, my friend, though years move slow, The happy time will come, we know. NEW ORLEANS ITEM. This is what it is to walk by faith to feel that we are ever drawing nearer to our home. You that are called of God, you that have a hope in Jesus Christ, have not only a duty, but a right of joy. It is a part of that treasure which God has given you, and you have a right to be increasingly joyful. The nearer you come to the end of life and to the kingdom of heaven, the more your heart should shine and your tongue rejoice. [288] October :f tfteemi) Be ye kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as Cod, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Ephesians 4 : 32. does not demand of us that we should not see the faults of others ; we must in that case shut our eyes. But it commands us to avoid attending to them unnecessarily, and that we be not blind to the good, while we are so clear- sighted to the evil that exists. No man is obliged to live so free from passion as not to show some resentment ; and it is rather stoical stupidity than virtue, to do otherwise. Anger may glance into the breast of a wise man, but rest only in the bosom of fools. Fight hard against resentment. Anger will come, but resist it strongly. A spark may set a house on fire. A fit of passion may give you cause to mourn all the days of your life. Never revenge an injury. I bow before the noble mind That freely some great wrong forgives ; Yet noble is the one forgiven Who baars that burden well, and lives. ADELAIDE PROCTER. The soul which sin has overtaken is like a bruised reed. It must be raised up gently, that it may once more aspire heavenwards. E. BERSIER. Reproof is not an act of butchery, but of surgery. ARCHBISHOP SECKER. [289] With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12:3. A FOUNTAIN, or a well, in the sacred writings, /~\ is an emblem of that which produces joy and refreshment ; which sustains and cheers. The figure is often employed to denote that which supports and refreshes the soul; which sustains man when sinking from exhaustion as the bub- bling fountain or well refreshes the weary and faint- ing pilgrim. It is thus applied to God as an over- flowing fountain, fitted to supply the wants of all. The water of life is sweet and refreshing, the wells of salvation are deep and inexhaustible ; but none can drink save those who draw. " With joy we are to draw water out of the wells of salvation. Faith is the bucket, but joy and love are the hands that move it. O Christ, we come to draw, For we are thirsty, faint, and worn, Thine are the living wells Whence cooling waters flow, And healing for our wounds : O give us strength to draw. But help us, Lord, we pray, Our vessels are so small, That we must dip and dip again Before our thirst is quenched Or hearts made whole again ; O give us strength to draw ! [290] October Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou ivilt cause thine ear to hear. Psalm IO : 17. LEARN to entwine with prayers the small cares, the trifling sorrows, the little wants of daily life. Whatever affects you be it a changed look, an altered tone, an unkind word, a wound, a demand you cannot meet, a sorrow you cannot disclose turn it into prayer, and send it up to God. Disclosures you may not make to man you can make to the Lord. Only give yourself to prayer, whatever be the occasion that calls for it. From this sinful heart of mine. To Thy bosom I would flee ; I am not my own, but Thine, " God be merciful to me ! " There is one beside Thy throne, And my only hope and plea Are in Him, and Him alone, " God be merciful to me ! " He my cause will undertake, My interpreter will be ; He's my all and for His sake, " God be merciful to me ! " J. S. B. MONSELL. [291] October (Eigljteentl) With lovingkindness. Jeremiah 31 : 3. 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 by sweet words ; at another, by smoothing an invalid's pillow ; at another, by sooth- ing a sobbing child. 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 con- siderate small ones. F. w. ROBERTSON. Sow love, and taste its fruitage pure ; Sow peace, and reap its harvests bright ; Sow sunbeams on the rock and moor, And find a harvest home of light. BONAR. 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. [292] October With patience. S. Luke 8: 15. GO bend to God, and leave to Him The mystery of thy brother's heart, Nor vainly think his faith is dim Because in thine it has no part. He too is mortal, and, like thee, Would soar to immortality. There may be hope as pure, as bright, As ever sought eternity, There may be light, clear, heavenly light, Where all seems cold and dark to thee. And as a bird each fond endearment tries To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies, He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way. GOLDSMITH. God can and does render sinners happy in spite of their sins, for Christ's sake, remitting to them its penalty, while its power is only partially broken, fostering them, and rejoicing over them until their restoration to spiritual health is complete. Any- thing that turns the sinner's regard inward on him- self as a ground of hope, instead of bidding him look to Christ, must plunge him into despair, and despair is the portal of death. CHARLES HODGE. Be patient under trials, and always look at the reverse side for the mercy that may be concealed beneath the " forming providence." [293] October tEtoenttetl) Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. I Corinthians IO : 5. T HEY are never alone who are accompanied by noble thoughts. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. A broad-minded selection of noble passages, though it may not be able to do all we could wish in a moral way, can certainly do much to raise men to a high moral, political, and social plane. I believe that gems of literature introduced into our schools, if properly taught, will be able to do this, partly by their own directive influence, on the young mind, but particularly and partly as it shall result in an abiding thirst for noble reading. JOHN B. PEASLEE. Certain thoughts are prayers. There are mo- ments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees. VICTOR HUGO. For your own sakes, brethren, for God's sake, let your thought rise. Bid it, force it to rise. Think of the face of Jesus, of your future home in heaven, of the loved ones who have gone before you. Think of all that has ever cheered, quick- ened, braced you. In such thoughts, to such thoughts, Jesus will assuredly and increasingly re- veal Himself. LIDDON. The key to every man is his thought. THACKERAY. [294] October H Tke cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians 6 : 14. My Cross. ~E lays on me my cross, It is my own ; I know, alone, My suffering, my loss. He binds it on my heart ; Its fibres press With sore distress, From it I never part. My cross is meted me : Its breadth and length Fitted my strength ; Though weighted heavily. No less than this Enough could be To chasten me, Until the Hand I kiss. You have your cross, my friend. . . . There is pain in the duty which you do. But if in all your pain you know that God's love is becoming a dearer and plainer truth to you ; and that the vision of the world's redemption is growing more certain and bright, then you can be more than brave ; you can triumph in every task, in every sacrifice. Your cross has won something of the beauty and glory of your Lord's. Rejoice and be glad, for you are crucified with Christ. PHILLIPS BROOKS. [295] October Because I live ye shall live also. S. John 14: 19. GOD'S I am if the soul has God within it it is His everlastingly, His to grow forever. There will grow in it the whole wisdom in which this world is made. In the dark everything is shut out from us but the omnipotent present, and so in darkness the Godhead wraps us around like a felt presence. A clear night calms me, and while I am walking in it, high truths rise upon my soul, like stars above the horizon. In nature, one view calms the soul, another purifies it, and another sublimes it. But it is possible, in the sight of the same scene, and at the same time, for one man to feel one way, and another another ; for one looker to be solem- nized, and another to be made more hopeful. Just as, looking on the blessed face of Christ, a happy person would rejoice more purely, and a tearful one sorrow more holily. So it is with nature. O, out in the country, sometimes, my soul feels wrapped, as though in the arms of the Great Father. It is as though the wind whispered me divine messages ; and it is as though divine mean- ing broke upon me from out of the clouds, and the hillsides, and from among the stars. And I know that I am growing into the spirit of it all, the brightness of the sun, the majesty of the night, the purity of the winter, and the contentment of the summer. MOUNTFORD. [296] October My meat is to do the will of him that sent me. S. John 4 : 24. TVTOTHING is small or great in God's sight; J_ Nl whatever He wills becomes great to us, how- ever 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 perform- ance 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 NICHOLAS GROU. 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. JEAN INGELOW. [297] October Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 3i:3- WE know how to love our friends because they are no worse than we ; but how Christ can stoop from without the circle of blessed spirits to love us, who are begrimed with sin, and be- stormed with temptation, and wrestling with the lowest parts of humanity, that is past our finding out. He has loved us from the foundation of the world ; and because heaven was too far away for us to see, He came down to earth to do the things which He has always been doing profusely above. Christ's life of earth was not an official mission ; it was a development of His everlasting state, a dip to bring within our horizon those character- istics and attributes which otherwise we could not comprehend; God's pilgrimage on earth as a shepherd, in search of His wolf-imperilled fold. And when I look into His life I say to myself, "As tender as this, and yet on earth ? What is He now, then?" BEECHER. It passeth knowledge : that dear love of Thine ! My Jesus ! Saviour ! Yet this soul of mine Would of that love in all its depth and length, And height and breadth and everlasting strength Know more and more. MARY SHACKELTON. [298] Get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Proverbs 15:7. Think of It. THE secret of success of one of England's most learned men was bound up in four little words, which he took as a motto, " I'll think of it." And although to-day we may think it a little thing to think, let us learn that it is the power that moves the world. That it is the great drive-wheel of progress, driving, with its propelling force, humanity from wrong to right ; driving it from the dark shades of barbarity into the sun-lit regions of civilization ; lifting it higher, step by step, into that glorious realm, manhood. And as surely as terrestrial power is drawn from the sun, so surely is the propelling power and influence over man drawn from that fountain ever rich and full, the mind. Great truths are dearly bought. The common truth, Such as men give and take from day to day, Comes in the common walks of easy life, Blown by the ceaseless wind across our way. Great truths are greatly won. Not found by chance, Nor wafted on the breath of summer dream, But grasped in the great struggle of the soul Hard buffeting with adverse wind and stream. HORATIUS BONAR. [299] October I say unto thee, Arise. S. Luke 7:14. HE meets us bearing forth our dead hopes through the city's gate ; He meets us when our hearts are faint and weary ; when we feel the emptiness of all with which this world has sought to cheat our earnest longings for the great, the real, and the true. He stands beside the bier, He bids us weep no more, He stops our mourning steps ; the dead hear Him ; hopes of youth, aspira- tion of heart, dreams of purity, of high service, with which once our spirits kept glad company, but which had withered, and sunk, and died, as the hot and scorching sun of common life arose upon us these revive ; they turn to Him, and He gives them back to us, and bids us cherish them for Him. BIBLE STUDIES. Bring warmth to this coldness, bring life to this death ; Renew the great miracle ; let us behold The stone from the mouth of the sepulchre rolled, And hope, like to Lazarus, rise as of old ! Let our faith, which in darkness and coldness has lain, Revive with the warmth and the brightness again, And in blooming of flower and budding of tree The symbols and types of our destiny see ; The life of the spring-time, the life of the whole, And as the sun to the sleeping earth love to the SOul ! WHITTIER. [300] Here a little and there a little. Isaiah 28 : IO. THERE are no such things as trifles in the biography of man. Drops make up the sea. Acorns cover the earth with oaks and the ocean with navies. Sands make up the bar in the har- bor's mouth, on which vessels are wrecked ; and little things in youth accumulate into character in age, and destiny in eternity. If you cannot be a great river, bearing great vessels of blessing to the world, you can be a little spring by the wayside of life, singing all the day and all the night, and giving a cup of cold water to every weary, thirsty one who passes by. Life is made up of little things. He who travels over a continent must go step by step. He who writes books must do it sentence by sentence. What is the happiness of our life made up of ? Little courtesies, little kindnesses, pleasant words, genial smiles, a friendly letter, good wishes, and good deeds. One in a million once in a lifetime may do a heroic action ; but the little things that make up our life come every day and every hour. If we make the little events of life beautiful and good, then is the whole life full of beauty and goodness. ROYAL PATH OF LIFE. See that you have enough of the little virtues and common fidelities, and you need not mourn because you are neither a renowned hero nor a saint. [301] October This is my Beloved and this is my Friend. Song of Solo- mon 5 : 16. Calvary. Under an Eastern sky, Amid a rabble's cry, A man went forth to die For me. Thorn-crowned His blessed head, Blood-stained His every tread ; Cross-laden, on he sped, For me. Pierced glow His hands and feet, Three hours o'er Him beat Fierce rays of noon-tide heat For me. Thus were Thou made all mine : Lord make me wholly Thine ; Grant grace and strength divine To me. In thought, and word, and deed Thy will to do. Oh, lead My soul, e'en though it bleed, To Thee. BOSTON PILOT. He who was the holiest among the mighty, and the mightiest among the holy, has, with His pierced hand, lifted heathenism off its hinges, and turned the dolorous and accursed centuries into new chan- nels, and now governs the ages. RICHTER. [302] October 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. Hebrews 12: n. THOSE who are now at rest were once like our- selves. They were once weak, faulty, sinful ; they had their burdens and hindrances, their slum- bering and weariness, their failures and their falls. But now they have overcome. Their life was once homely and commonplace. Their day ran out like 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 circum- stances 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. Around me, like a silver bell Rung down the listening sky to tell Of holy help, a sweet voice fell. " Still hope and trust," it sang ; " the rod Must fall, the wine-press must be trod, But all is possible with God ! " WHITTIER. [303] / have chosen the way of truth, Psalm 119: 30. Truth. T HE seat of truth is in our secret hearts, Not in the tongue, which falsehood oft imparts. BRANDON. Truth crushed to earth shall rise again, The eternal years of God are hers ; But error, wounded, writhes in pain, And dies among his worshippers. BRYANT. His yea is Yea forevermore ! MARGARET I. PRESTON. No power can die that ever wrought for truth. J. R. LOWELL. God is the author of truth, the devil the father of lies. If the telling of a truth shall endanger thy life, the Author of truth will protect thee from danger, or reward thee for thy damage. If the telling of a lie may secure thy life, the father of lies will beguile thee of thy gains, or traduce the security. Better by losing of a life to save it, than by saving of a life to lose it. However, better thou perish than the truth. [304] October And the work of righteousness shall be peace ; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. Isaiah 32: 17. AH ! why by passing clouds oppressed, Should vexing thoughts distract thy breast : Turn thou to Him in every pain, Whom suppliant never sought in vain ; Thy strength in joy's ecstatic day, Thy hope, when joy has passed away. H. F. LYTE. 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. Reparation. In the midnight darkness deep, Shrouding all my room, Somewhere tender violets Hide their purple bloom. Darker, softer, grows the night, Deeper still the gloom ; Penetrating, rich, intense, Breathes the blest perfume. GRACE DUFFIELD GOODWIN. jljotember 9- His mercy endureth for ever. Psalm 107: I. of heaven to light our pathway, Word our fainting souls to cheer, Peace to calm our sad forebodings When our spirits shrink with fear, Courage for renewed endeavor When our failures we deplore " God's great mercy still endureth Now and always, evermore." Calm assurance for misgiving When we falter by the way, Sweet reply to anxious questions When we know not what we say, Strength and wisdom for our guidance, Word of truth from heaven's lore, Given for our consolation, " Mercy stands forever more." Like a heavenly benediction Falling on us from above, Sinking deep in every spirit, Are those precious words of love ; And the message thrills us ever As we whisper o'er and o'er, " O the mercy pure, transcendent Which endures forever more ! " [306] In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Colossians 2 : 9. L AY hold of Christ with both your poor, empty hands. ELIZABETH PRENTISS. Every day we see something new in Christ. His love hath neither brim nor bottom. We may have as much of God as we will. Christ puts the key of the treasure-chamber into our hand, and bids us take all we want. If a man is admitted into the bullion vault of a bank, and told to help himself, and comes out with one cent, whose fault is it that he is poor? Whose fault is it that Chris- tian people generally have such scanty portions of the fine riches of God? MCLAREN. Thou, O most compassionate, Who didst stoop to our estate, Drinking of the cup we drain, Treading in our path of pain, Through the doubt and mystery, Grant to us Thy steps to see, And the grace to draw from thence Larger hope and confidence. Show Thy vacant tomb and let As of old the angels sit Whispering by its open door, " Fear not, He hath gone before." WHITHER. [307] jgofcember To die is gain. Philippians l: 21. If a man die he shall live again. Leviticus 18 : 5. WE are glad for those who go, going forth by permission by the door of life and death. We are glad for those whose work is completed ; who rest from it ; whose life is purified upon this sphere, and begins to blossom in the other. We rejoice that Thou art taking from out of the company of sinful men, and from the midst of troubles in this life, one and another into the dear delights of their Father's kingdom, and that they that sang here are to-day singing more sweetly above. BEECHER. If one had watched a prisoner many a year, Standing behind a barred window-pane, Fettered with heavy hand-cuff and with chain, And gazing on the blue sky, far and clear ; And suddenly some morning he should hear The man in the night had contrived to gain His freedom, and was safe, would this bring pain ? Ah, would it not to dullest heart appear Good tidings? Yesterday I looked on one Who lay as if asleep in perfect peace. His long imprisonment for life was done. Eternity's great freedom his release Had brought. Yet they who loved him called him dead, And wept, refusing to be comforted. H. B. M. [308] IJofcember jfourtl) As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Psalm 42 : I. IN the soul the elements of decay do not enter it longs for things immortal ; it perpetuates nationalities, and builds pyramids to the skies ; its nature is instinctively far-reaching and goes out in its longings after the eternal the Infinite ; its powers develop themselves while striving to build something lasting, which shall survive the wrecks of time. The soul continually longs for something beyond its reach ; it even longs for a perfection which will satisfy its ideal, and is never satisfied is ever restless. Death is the point where Divinity claims its own eternity dawns on the soul in its grandeur at last ; the mortal has put on immortal- ity that which was inherent still remains. Death is the portal where the soul and body part forever, from which the soul wings its flight to its future abode. God only is the creature's home, Though long and rough the road ; Yet nothing less can satisfy The love that longs for God. How little of that road, my soul, How little hast thou gone ! Take heart, and let the thought of God Allure thee further on. [309] jFtftt) As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you. Isaiah 66: 13. LIKE a cradle, rocking, rocking, Silent, peaceful, to and fro, Like a mother's sweet looks dropping On the little face below, Hangs the green earth, swinging, turning, Jarless, noiseless, safe, and slow ; Falls the light of God's face bending Down and watching us below. And as* feeble babes that suffer, Toss and cry and will not rest, Are the ones the tender mother Holds the closest, loves the best ; So when we are weak and wretched, By our sins weighed down, distressed, Then it is that God's great patience Holds us closest, loves us best. O great heart of God ! whose loving Cannot hindered be or crossed, Will not weary, will not even In our death itself be lost Love divine ! of such great loving, Only mothers know the cost Cost of love, which all love passing, Gave a Son to save the lost. SAKE HOLM. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it ivith thy might ; for there is no work, nor ' device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave. Ecclesiastes 9 : 10. 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. NEWMAN. Without a diligent and faithful obedience to the calls and claims of others upon us, our religious profession is simply dead. Neglect of charitable offices will miserably darken our own hearts, and hide the face of God from us. H. E. MANNING. We mean to do it : some day, some day, We mean to slacken this fevered rush That is wearing our very souls away, And grant to our goaded hearts a hush That is holy enough to let them hear The footsteps of angels drawing near. The day we dreamed of comes at length, When, tired of every mocking guest, And broken in spirit and shorn of strength, We drop, indeed, at the door of rest ; And wait, and watch, as the days wane on But the angels we meant to call are gone. MARGARET J. PRESTON. / have trodden the wine press alone. Isaiah 63 : 3. Surely he hath borne our sorrows. Isaiah 53:4. EFE'S battles thou must fight all single-handed, No friend, however dear, can bear thy pain. No other soul can ever bear thy burdens, No other hand for thee the prize may gain. Lonely we journey through this vale of sorrow, No heart, in full, respondeth to our own ; Each one alone must meet his own to-morrow, Each one must tread the weary way alone. Ah ! weary heart ! why art thou sad and lonely ? Why this vain longing for an answering sigh ? Thy griefs, thy longings, trials and temptations Are known and felt by Him who reigns on high. ANNA HOLYOKE HOWARD. An hour of solitude, passed in sincere and ear- nest prayer in conflict with, and conquest over, a single passion or subtle bosom sin, will teach us more of thought, will more effectually awaken the faculty and form the habit of reflection than a year's study in the schools without them. COLERIDGE. By all means, use sometimes 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 whate'er thou findest there. HERBERT. If ye endure chastening God dealeth -with you as sons ; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not ? Hebrews 12:7. GOD is as incapable of being indifferent towards His lost mankind, as is a mother towards her lost child. Lost mankind are not only His lost, but His lost children. Does not the Source of all hearts feel? And is He not concerned for His lost? In the Divinity of indifference I cannot believe. I could far more easily believe that the Divine Heart carries a huge grief; and that "the Man of Sor- rows " only partially represents the tenderness of Infinite Love. In human hearts, in mother's love, in angelic love, and in the person of Jesus, the affections of God have a wide and wonderful revela- tion ; but what the Divine Affections are in their Fountain-head must be beyond all revealing and conceiving. PULSFORD. God liveth ever ! Wherefore, soul, despair thou never ! What though thou treadest with bleeding feet A thorny path of grief and gloom, Thy God will choose the way most meet To lead thee heavenward, lead thee home. For this life's long night of sadness He will give thee peace and gladness ; Soul, forget not in thy pains Good o'er all forever reigns. ZIBU. [313] jljotember My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Exodus 33 : 14. HOW shall we rest in God? By giving our- selves 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 and saints have tested 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 deso- late. 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 NICHOLAS GROU. 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. With God for my friend I pass through my life in peace. In fellowship with Him I find a rest from all earthly dangers and fatigues. jljctocmber The Lordshall lift you up. S. James 4 : 10. Lift Me Higher. LIFT me higher, O my Saviour, As I journey on my way, Help me over life's deep pitfalls, Draw me nearer day by day ; Lift me up from doubt and darkness, Let me feel Thy loving care, While I hear Thy tender accents Like a whisper in the air. Lift me from unworthy self-hood, Let me set my will aside While I measure Thy forbearance, While I count Thy mercies wide ; Every burden, every trial, Every sorrow I may feel, Every act of lowly service, May they lift me higher still ! When I drink from broken cisterns Lead me to Thy living wells, Drop my bucket in the waters Where life's current freely swells ; That my thirsty, fainting spirit, Worn with toil and weary strife, May be lifted to salvation And to everlasting life. MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. [315] Be ye angry and sin not : let not the sun go down ttpon your wrath. Ephesians 4 : 26. B E angry and sin not!" the easiest charge He that will be angry and not sin, let him be angry at nothing but sin. j. TRAPP. " Forgiveness before sundown ! " He who never feels the throb of indignation is imbecile. He who can walk among the injustices of the world inflicted upon himself and others, without flush of cheek or flash of eye, or agitation of nature, is either in sympathy with wrong, or devoid of feel- ing. It all depends on what you are angry at, and how long the feeling lasts, whether anger is right or wrong. TALMAGE. Anger becomes sinful if wrongly directed, or if there be an inadequate cause for it. A natural manifestation of indignation is manly, and is often absolutely necessary to resent an injury. A lesson which I well may heed, A word of fitness to my need. Search thine own heart. What paineth thee In others in thyself may be ; All dust is frail, all flesh is weak ; Be thou the man that thou dost seek. [ 3I 6] WHITTIER. IJofoembet; Yet a little while and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Hebrews 10 : 37. GOD comes to His people in an undisclosed and unrecognized form, in the hours of their despondency. That which seems to us to be a cloud and darkness is, after all, but the garment in the midst of which Christ is walking. All right occupations, all duties, all fidelities, bring along with them a divine presence. We are never alone. The most menial callings, routine, occupations, things not agreeable in themselves, but necessary, and things of duty, all of them have or may have with them a Christ. I cannot think but God must know About the thing I long for so ; I know He is so good, so kind, I cannot think but He will find Some way to help, some way to show Me to the thing I long for so. SAXE HOLM. Patiently wait, for His steps will not tarry, Patiently listen He cometh apace ; " Only a little time " thou who art weary, Then shalt behold Him and gaze on His face. All thou hast longed for He brings at His coming ; Down the dim ages Thy gift cometh sure, See that thy hands are made fit to receive it, See that thy heart and thy spirit are pure. [317] M - c - - Jjotember Mighty to save. Isaiah 63 : I. JESUS CHRIST takes men, not because they are clean, but because they are willing to be taken. He takes them in all their poorness and leanness, and irregularities, and says, " I am willing to carry you and bear with you through your whole life if I can see that in the end my affection and patience will bring you into the enjoyment of the eternal inheritance." It is the cleansing, forgiving, endur- ing, remedial love of Christ Jesus that gives a man hope. When wrong rises up in me I feel that there is something higher than that. It is the faithful- ness of Christ, and the wonderful power of Christ's love to redeem men from sin, that gives me hope. Mine is a day of fear and strife, A needy soul, a needy life, A needy world, a needy age ; Yet, in my perilous pilgrimage, I cast my soul on Thee, Mighty to save, even me, Jesus, Thou Son of God. To Thee I come ; ah ! only Thou Canst wipe the sweat from off this brow ; Thou, only Thou, canst make me whole, And soothe the fever of my soul ; I cast my soul on Thee, Mighty to save e'en me, Jesus, Thou Son of God. Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. I Samuel 7:12. WE are often speculating on what is to come. You who trust that you are God's children may take one answer as regards the coming years : you are going forth into nothing but goodness. I cannot say that you may not be going forth to meet trouble, toil, disappointment. It may be ; but if you are at God's side you are going forward to nothing but good. If the worst that you fear shall come to pass, you will find His goodness hidden in the very heart of the disaster. M. R. VINCENT. The years have taught me many things, But none so sure as this : That shelter, solace, joy, and strength Are always where God is. So now, when hope and courage fail. And only fear is strong, My heart will sing, as in the past, An unforgotten song. God is my Yefuge and my strength, I will not be afraid ; And though the night be wild and dark, I meet it undismayed. MARIANNE FARNINGHAM. [319] Jljcfoembcr jFifteentl) The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be com- pared -with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:18. r I "HERE come times in every life when men JL must undergo a crucial test. But the per- fection of Christian loyalty is to trust God even though He slays us through those affections and desires that are dearest to us. How blest is that man who receives every pain and trouble as a divine messenger sent by his Heavenly Father, and so enters into a fuller fel- lowship and sympathy with his Saviour ! What will it matter, by and by, Whether with cheek to cheek I've lain Close by the pallid angel, Pain ; Soothing myself through sob and sigh ? " All will be elsewise by and by ! " What will it matter? Naught, if I Only am sure the way I've trod, Gloomy or gladdened, leads to God ; Questioning not of the how, the why, If I but reach Him, by and by. Ah ! it will matter, by and by, Nothing but this that joy or pain Lifted me skyward, helped me gain, Whether through rack or smile or sigh, Heaven, home, all in all, by and by ! HELEN HUNT JACKSON. Thy thoughts shall be established. Psalm 16:3. ONE thought I have, my ample creed, So deep it is and broad, And equal to my every need, It is the thought of God. At night my gladness is my prayer ; I drop my daily load, And every care is pillowed there Upon the thought of God. Make yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts. None of us yet know what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thought proof against all ad- versity. Bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure-houses of pre- cious and restful thoughts, which care cannot dis- turb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty take away from us, houses built without hands, for our souls to live in. RUSKIN. The truth and sincerity of God to His people appears in the openness and plainness of His thought as He makes it known to them. A friend who is reserved naturally comes under a cloud in the thoughts of his /companions, but he who carries a window of crystal in his breast delivers himself from all suspicion of unfaithfulness. And thus is God open-hearted to His saints. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain ; for the former things have passed away. Revelation 21 : 4. METHOUGHT I walked along a pleasant way, Sunlight and shadow flecking leaf and sod, And, hand in my hand, was one beside me trod, Her fair face adding brightness to the day. Sudden we came upon a hidden door, And she that walked beside me passed within, Nor did return. But where she "late had been There came a voice that clamored " Nevermore ! " That Voice I knew ; but straightway, seemingly, From the shut door a gentle echo rung, And " Evermore ! " still " Evermore ! " it sung, And ever softer and more dreamingly. God of the living ! from within the door No echo came that blest word " Evermore ! " JOHN W. CHADWICK. And even now we may anticipate the glory of that time when " there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying." If we keep the city of our heart holy with the presence of a living Christ we may believe that they are even now with us in sympathy and sweet communion, and that it is not death, but fulness of life upon which they have entered through the door of the grave. [322] a O woman, great is thy faith. S. Matthew 15 : 28. " \ T 7OMAN, how great is thy faith ! I have not V V found so great faith, no, not in Israel," said, wonderingly, the highest authority whose lips ever found utterance on this earth, in reference to woman. And it is true : so marvellous and beautiful a thing as the faith of a woman who loves, nowhere else exists. Ordinarily, this wonder-working power is neither seen nor felt, and its existence is scarcely noted ; but let a sudden emergency come, and it springs, full grown, and like a guardian spirit, to the side of the stricken one, and its confident whis- per sustains amid the din of a hundred accusing Voices. JENNIE JUNE. Fain would I hold my lamp of life aloft Like yonder tower built high above the reef; Steadfast, though tempests rave or winds blow soft, Clear, though the sky dissolve in tears of grief. For darkness passes ; storms shall not abide. A little patience and the fog is past. After the sorrow of the ebbing tide The singing flood returns in joy at last. The night is long and pain weighs heavily ; But God will hold His world above despair. Look to the east, where up the lucid sky The morning climbs ! The day shall yet be fair. CELIA THAXTER. [339] / am going the way of all the earth. Joshua 23 : 14. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. Job 7 : 6. The house appointed for all the living. Job 30 : 23. AS in our advance we leave earthly things behind us, may all the sweet. influences of the other world come forth to meet us ; and if we are coming upon the other world in the darkness of the night, may we have foretastes and sweet-wafted premoni- tions to cheer us in the dark passage. Up Hill. Does the road wind up hill all the way? Yes, to the very end. Will the day's journey take the whole day long? 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 the 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 ? Yes, beds for all who come. CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. [340J December And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh. Genesis 22 : 14. TEHOVAH-JIREH means "The Lord will pro- J vide." Write deep in your heart this day this word of sublime confidence, Jehovah-jireh. It tells you that you can trust God always, that no promise of His ever fails, that He doeth all things well, that out of all seeming loss and destruction of human hopes He brings blessing. You have not passed this way heretofore. There will be joys and sor- rows, failures and successes. You cannot forecast individual experiences. You cannot see a step before your feet. Yet Jehovah-jireh calls you to enter the new year with calm trust. MILLER. I care not what the approaching year brings, if it results only in good. I care not though it may be undriven like a chariot whose driver has been thrown to the ground, if God only sits and holds the coursers of Time. If God is in the chariot, I care not what else is in it or around it. If God will take care of my thoughts and feelings ; if He will mark out my ways and lead me in them ; if He will appoint my burdens ; if He will give to my faith the vision of eternal life ; if He will touch and refine my affections ; if He will direct my aspira- tions toward heavenly estate, I shall be content, and shall rejoice in whatever scenes I may be called to pass through. PHILLIPS BROOKS. [341] J^ecember This God is our Cod for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death. Psalm 48 : 14. WE have often to travel solitary ways. Some of us have perplexed paths to tread. Some of us have sad memories of times when we journeyed in company with those who will never share our tent or counsel or steps any more, and, as we sit lonely by our watch-fire in the wilderness, we have aching hearts and silent nights. Some of us may be as yet rich in companions and helpers, whose words are wisdom, whose wishes are love to us, and may tremble to think that after a while they or we shall have to tramp on by ourselves. There is a Presence which never departs, which moves before us as we journey, and hovers over us as a shield when we rest ; a cloud to veil the sun that it smite us not by day, and a pillar of flame as the night falls, being ever brightest when we need it most, and burning clearest of all in the valley at the end, where its guidance will only cease, because then "the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne will lead them." ALEXANDER McLAREN. The soul that walks with God upon the heights Hath secrets voiceless to the alien air ; To him who is of God, the things of God are clear. [342] December Whoso trmteth in the Lord, happy is he. Proverbs 16 : 20. TIRED fathers, weary mothers, when is your happy day coming? Long since you ex- pected it to dawn. It is not here yet, nor will it ever be so long as you do not determine that it shall be to-day. This failure to take comfort as you pass along life's pathway, but ever looking forward for all enjoyment of good, is throwing away the real sweets of life. You may as well attempt to store up summer sunshine to warm in winter, or bottle moonshine for cloudy nights. The real and only true way is to find in the pres- ent all the good God gives us. Our whole lives may be filled with joy if we are only willing to learn that in all good work there is profit, in all sorrow there are some rays of sunshine, and in all care some compensation. Make the most of to-day. BIBLE STUDIES. If thou art blest, Then let the sunshine of thy gladness rest On the dark edges of each cloud that lies Black in thy brothers' skies. If thou art sad Still be thou in thy brothers' gladness glad. Gold hath its roses, blue skies a cloud, Fortune a fall, and hope a shroud ; But Trust upon its mountain height, Reflects a ray of heaven's own light. [343] Why stand ye here all the day idle ? S. Matthew 20 : 6. A LAZY Christian shall always want four things, viz. : Comfort, content, confidence, and assur- ance. God hath made a separation between joy and idleness, between assurance and laziness, and therefore it is impossible for thee to bring these together. T. BROOKS. Jacob saw the angels, some ascending, others descending, but none standing still. God hath made Behemoth to play in the water, not so men ; they must be doing, that will keep with God. JOHN TRAPP. 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 with- out concern ; it is not my affair. I ought to con- sider 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. FENELON. [344] And there shall be no night there ; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun ; for the Lord giveth them light. Revelation 22 : 5. IT is winter here and we are frost-bitten or ice- clad. It will be summer there, and we shall be in fragrant blossom and glorious leaf. To us here the glory of God shines as the sun shines in a cloudy day. Now it is hidden altogether ; now a procession of clouds pass over it, and there comes through them a fitful, checkered light ; and now it is disclosed to full view. But there is a place where the glory of God shall be an uninterrupted stream, which shall be so clear, so apparent, that we shall live in the presence of it. ... We shall see Him as He is, for there is no night there. BEECHER. Oh, where the living waters flow, Along that radiant shore, My soul, a wanderer here, shall know The exile thirst no more. And, borne on eagle's wings afar, Free thought shall claim its dower, From every realm, from every star, Of glory and of power. MRS. F. D. HEMANS. [345] December (OHebentlj 2Da^ Cast down but not destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4 : 9. THE cloud of trial while it drops, Christian, is rolling over thy head, and then comes fair weather with eternal sunshine of glory. " Canst thou not watch with Christ one hour? " GURNALL. Think how completely all the griefs of this mortal life will be compensated by one age, of the felicities beyond the grave, and then think that one age multiplied by ten thousand times is not so much to eternity as one grain of sand to the whole material universe. JOHN FOSTER. Count each affliction, whether light or grave, God's messenger sent down to thee. Do thou With courtesy receive him ; rise and bow And, ere his shadow pass thy threshold, crave Permission for his heavenly feet to lave ; Then lay before Him all thou hast ; allow No cloud of passion to usurp thy brow Or mar thy hospitality, no wave Of mortal tumult to obliterate The soul's marmoreal calmness : grief should be Like joy, majestic, equable, sedate ; Confirming, cleansing, raising, making free ; Strong to consume small troubles ; to commend Great thoughts, grave thoughts, thoughts lasting to the end. AUBREY DE VERB. December Lord make me to know mine end and the measure of my days, what it is ; that I may knoiu how frail I am, Psalm 39 = 4- THEY are slipping away these sweet, swift years, Like a leaf on the current cast ; With never a break in the current flow, We watch them as one by one they go Into the beautiful past. As silent and swift as a weaver's thread, Or an arrow's flying gleam ; As soft as the languorous breezes bid, That lift the willow's long golden lid, And ripple the glassy stream. As light as the breath of the thistle-down, As fond as a lover's dream ; As pure as the flush in the sea-shell's throat, As sweet as the wood-bird's wooing note, So tender and sweet they seem. One after another we see them pass, Down the dim-lighted stair ; We hear the sound of their steady tread In the steps of the centuries long since dead, As beautiful and as fair. There are only a few years left ; ah, let No envious taunts be heard ; Make life's fair pattern of rare design, And fill up the measure with love's sweet wine, But never an angry word. t347] December N' Fear not, little flock : for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom, S. Luke 12 : 32. 'EW YEAR met me somewhat sad : Old Year leaves me tired. Stripped of favorite things I had, Balked of much desired : Yet further on my road to-day, God willing, further on my way. New Year coming on apace, What have you to give me ? Bring you scathe, or bring you grace, Face me with an honest face : You shall not deceive me : Be it good or ill, be it what you will, It needs shall help me on my road, My rugged way to heaven, please God ! CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. All of our courage will be in vain and all our good resolutions will sleep as sentinels over-wearied at their post if Thou, O God, art not vigilant for us during the year that is dawning before us. May we have clearer and truer conceptions of duty with each successive year until we are lifted up into the higher life. Amen. BEECHER. Eternity has no gray hairs. Here the flowers fade, the heart withers, man grows old and dies, the world lies down in a sepulchre of ages. But time writes no wrinkles on the brow of eternity. [348] December jfourteentt) s>ap The former things are passed away. Revelation 21:4. GOD sometimes gives to man a guileless and holy second childhood, in which the soul becomes childlike, not childish, and the faculties, in full fruit and ripeness, are mellow without sign of decay. This is that sought-for land of Beulah, where they who have travelled manfully the Chris- tian way abide awhile, to show the world a perfect manhood. Life, with its battles and its sorrows, lies far behind them ; the soul has thrown off its armor, and sits in an evening undress of calm and holy leisure. Thrice blessed the family or neigh- borhood that numbers among it one of those not yet ascended saints. Shall I complain because the feast is o'er, And all the banquet lights have ceased to shine ? For joy that was and is no longer mine ; For love that came and went, and comes no more ; For hopes and dreams that left my open door ; Shall I, who hold the past in fee, repine ? Nay ! there are those who never quaffed life's wine That were the unblest fate one might deplore. LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON. We are what the past has made us. The results of the past are ourselves. ROBERTSON. [349] December jfifteenti) These light afflictions are but for a moment. 2 Corinthians 4: 17. r I "HERE is no cup of joy so sweet but that if X we hold it attently to our spirit's taste we shall detect in it the salt-flavor of tears. There is no laughter so silvery clear but that some quality in it shall suggest the cry of pain ; there are no eyes so bright with joy but that some gleam from their depths shall suggest the fountain of tears. Tragedy haunts the footsteps of happiness as night haunts the footsteps of day, and death is the dim shadow that glides inseparably and silently at the heels of all life. . . . What philosophy shall we bring to our support in the presence of all this? What estimate shall we place upon life with all this sorrow in it? ... What is the answer of faith? Job rendered it thousands of years ago, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." j. T. MCFARLAND. To every one on earth God gives a burden to be carried down The road that leads between the cross and crown ; No lot is wholly free, He giveth one to thee. Take thou thy burden then Into thy hands, and lay it at His feet, And whether it be sorrow or defeat, Or pain, or sin, or care, Oh, leave it calmly there. MARIANNE FARNINGHAM. [350] N Nevertheless, afterward. Hebrews 12: 2. OW the pruning, sharp, unsparing ; Scattered blossom, bleeding shoot ! Afterward, the plenteous bearing, Of the Master's pleasant fruit. Now the spirit conflict-riven, Wounded heart, unequal strife ; Afterward the triumph given And the victor's crown of life. HAVERGAL. To maintain a steady and unbroken mind, amidst all the shocks of adversity, forms the highest honor of man. Afflictions supported by patience and sur- mounted by fortitude, give the last finishing stroke to the heroic and the virtuous character. Thus the vale of tears becomes the theatre of human glory ; that dark cloud presents all the beauties in the bow of virtue. Moral grandeur, like the sun, is brighter in the day of the storm, and never is so truly sublime as when struggling through the darkness of an eclipse. Patience is the guardian of faith, the preserver of peace, the cherisher of love, the teacher of humility. Patience governs the flesh, strengthens the spirit, sweetens the temper, stifles anger, extinguishes envy, subdues pride ; she bridles the tongue, re- strains the hand, tramples upon temptations, en- dures persecutions. ROYAL PATH OF LIFE. [351] December A man of sorrows. Isaiah 13:3. IF Jesus had walked in paths that were without stone or thorn, and with eyes that were never tear-stained and a heart that was never grief-rent, He might be to us a vision of radiant beauty, but we could never understand Him nor feel that He understood us. But the wound in the hand which He extends to us, and the sorrow underlying the smile of the face which He turns toward us, give us mutual understanding. Now we can believe that He understands our tears, and our heartaches, and our agonies. It is the deep-laid cable of sorrow which runs under the great salt-sea of tears, and along which throb flashes of pain, that binds together the continents of life. . . . He trod the wine-press of the wrath of God alone. Gathering about Him the folds of sorrow as heavy and sombre as the gloom with which the starless midnight mantles the hills, bearing the sins of the world in His martyr-heart, He went down into the valley and shadow of death, that the gates of Paradise might be opened to repentant sinners. Behold the Man "a Man of sorrows, and ac- quainted with grief ! " j. T. MCFARLAND. O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy heart, What sins were laid on Thee ! A victim led, Thy blood was shed That blood avails for me. [352]