Leaves of life, for daily inspiration
by Margaret Bird Steinmetz · English · Gutenberg #14849 · 429,052 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Leaves of life, for daily inspiration
Author: Margaret Bird Steinmetz
Release date: January 31, 2005 [eBook #14849]
Most recently updated: December 19, 2020
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14849
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LEAVES OF LIFE, FOR DAILY INSPIRATION ***
Produced by Stephen Schulze and the Online Distributed Proofreaders Team
LEAVES OF LIFE
FOR DAILY INSPIRATION
BY
MARGARET BIRD STEINMETZ
1914
The Bible text used in this book is taken from the American Standard
Edition of the Revised Bible, copyright, 1901, by Thomas Nelson &
Sons, and is used by permission.
DEDICATED
TO THOSE WHO HAVE HELPED IN GATHERING THESE LEAVES--AND TO THOSE WHO
MAY GATHER SOMETHING FROM THEM.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Macmillan Company, New York, N.Y.
Shailer Mathews, Jane Addams, Newell Dwight Hillis,
Marion Crawford.
The Century Company, New York, N.Y.
S. Weir Mitchell, Theodore Roosevelt, John Kendrick
Bangs, Richard Watson Gilder, Edith Thomas.
Oxford University Press, London, E.C.
Annie Matheson.
The Saalfield Publishing Company, Akron, Ohio.
Joseph Jefferson.
Mitchell Kennerley, New York.
Theodosia Garrison: My Litany.
Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York, N.Y.
Charles W. Eliot: The Durable Satisfactions of Life.
J.R. Miller.
The Pilgrim Press, Boston, Mass.
Henry Ward Beecher.
Harper & Brothers, New York, N.Y.
Will Carleton: Farm Legends.
Margaret E. Sangster: Easter Bells.
Elbert Hubbard, Roycroft Shop, East Aurora, N.Y.
Printed by special permission of the publishers.
W.B. Conkey, Hammond, Ind.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox, copyrighted 1912.
National W.C.T.U., Evanston, Ill.
Frances E. Willard.
American Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia, Pa.
W.E. Winks.
Rand, McNally & Company, Chicago, Ill.
Marie Bashkirtseff.
Tennesseean and American, Nashville, Tenn.
G. Rice.
Cosmopolitan Magazine, New York, N.Y.
O. Henry.
The H.M. Rowe Company, Baltimore, Md.
Edwin Leibfreed: Poems.
Permission from President Wilson for the excerpts from his speeches.
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Mass.
Kate Douglas Wiggin, Richard Watson Gilder, Josephine
Peabody, John Hay, Hugo Münsterberg, Edith Thomas,
Lyman Abbott, John Burroughs, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps,
Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Julia Ward Howe, Harriet
Beecher Stowe, Joel Chandler Harris, Lucy Larcom,
Bret Harte, Bayard Taylor, Alice Freeman Palmer,
Thomas W. Higginson.
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, N.Y.
Henry van Dyke: Music and Other Poems.
Maltbie D. Babcock: Thoughts for Every Day Living.
Sidney Lanier: Poems of Sidney Lanier.
Robert Bridges: Robert Bridges' Poems.
George Meredith: Last Poems.
James Anthony Froude: Short Studies on Great Subjects.
Robert Louis Stevenson: Poems and Works.
W.E. Henley: Poems.
Eugene Field: Western Verse.
G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London.
Arthur Christopher Benson: Along the Road, Silent Isle,
From a College Window, Joyous Gard, Lord Vyet and Other Poems.
Little, Brown & Company, Boston, Mass.
Emily Dickinson, Laura E. Richards, Edward Everett Hale.
George H. Doran Company, New York, N.Y.
Sir Oliver Lodge, Arnold Bennett, J. Stalker, A.H. Begbie.
Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, N.Y.
Percy C. Ainsworth, E.H. Divall, Margaret E. Sangster,
J.H. Jowett, George Matheson.
Longmans, Green & Company, New York and London.
William James.
Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, N.Y.
Maurice Maeterlinck, Hamilton Mabie, Ian Maclaren,
Jerome K. Jerome, G.K. Chesterton, Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Small, Maynard & Company, Boston, Mass.
Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, John B. Tabb, Ernest Crosby.
Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, Boston, Mass.
Paul Hamilton Hayne.
Doubleday, Page & Company, Garden City, New York
Charles Wagner, Edwin Markham, Helen Keller.
E.P. Dutton Company, New York.
George Macdonald.
JANUARY
Janus am I; oldest of potentates;
Forward I look, and backward, and below
I count, as god of avenues and gates,
The years that through my portals come and go.
I block the roads, and drift the fields with snow;
I chase the wild fowl from the frozen fen;
My frosts congeal the rivers in their flow,
My fires light up the hearths and hearts of men.
--Henry W. Longfellow.
JANUARY FIRST
Bartolome Esteban Murillo, baptized 1618.
Paul Revere born 1735.
Betsy Ross born 1752.
Maria Edgeworth born 1767.
Arthur Hugh Clough born 1819.
Old things need not be therefore true,
O brother men, nor yet the new;
Ah! still awhile the old thought retain,
And yet consider it again!
We! what do we see? each a space
Of some few yards before his face;
Does that the whole wide plan explain?
Ah, yet consider it again!
Alas! the great world goes its way,
And takes its truth from each new day;
They do not quit, nor can retain,
Far less consider it again.
--Arthur Hugh Clough.
There are two sorts of content; one is connected with exertion, the
other habits of indolence. The first is a virtue; the other a vice.
--Maria Edgeworth.
Oh send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me:
Let them bring me unto thy holy hill,
And to thy tabernacles.
--Psalm 43. 3.
Almighty God, lead me in the search for life. Teach me what is
important and what is unimportant; what is false, and what is true.
Remove the hindrances that keep me from the worthiest deeds, and grant
that I may have the peace that comes with surrender of self to thy
will. Amen.
JANUARY SECOND
General James Wolfe born 1727.
Colonial flag first raised 1776.
Mary Carey Thomas born 1857.
To what profit we could use the time for our present task that we
spend in impatient waiting and wondering over the future! So often
the future is just one step up from the present, but some of us miss
it by preferring to wait for an elevator.
--M. B. S.
Prepare to live by all means, but for heaven's sake do not forget to
live. You will never have a better chance than you have at present.
You may think you will have, but you are mistaken.
--Arnold Bennett.
He that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his
business at night; while laziness travels so slowly that poverty
soon overtakes him. He that lives on hope will die fasting.
--Benjamin Franklin.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there
is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, whither
thou goest.
--Ecclesiastes 9. 10.
Gracious Father, my heart burns with shame when I think how much I
claim, and how little I am. I pray that my body may not cast a shadow
to-day, and cloud the light of my life to-morrow. Cleanse the windows
of my soul that I may take in thy glory. Amen.
JANUARY THIRD
Marcus Tullius Cicero born B.C. 106.
Martin Luther excommunicated 1521.
Douglas Jerrold born 1803.
Charles Wagner (France) born 1852.
To be continually advancing in the paths of knowledge is one of the
most pleasing satisfactions of the human mind. These are pleasures
perfect consistent with every degree of advanced years.
--Cicero.
Fidelity in small things is at the base of every great achievement.
We too often forget this and yet no truth needs more to be kept in
mind particularly in the troubled eras of history and in the crises
of individual life. In shipwreck a splintered beam, an oar, any
scrap of wreckage saves us. To despise the remnants is
demoralization.
--Charles Wagner.
He that is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much and he
that is unrighteous in a very little is unrighteous also in much.
--Luke 16. 10
Almighty God, may I understand that thou art in everything and that I
cannot hide from thee, for thou boldest me though I know it not. Give
me the desire, and help me to learn of thy laws, that I may know that
even in the least of things, I have the liberty to obtain happiness by
obeying them. Amen.
JANUARY FOURTH
Archbishop Usher born 1580.
Jacob L. Carl Grimm born 1785.
Elizabeth Peabody died 1894.
Years rush by us like the wind, we see not whence the eddy comes,
nor whitherward it is tending, and we seem ourselves to witness
their flight without a sense that we are changed: and yet time is
beguiling man of his strength, as the winds rob the trees of their
foliage.
--Sir Walter Scott.
The bell strikes one. We take no note of Time
But from its loss. To give it, then a tongue
Is wise in man; as if an angel spoke
I feel the solemn sound. If heard aright
It is the knell of my departed hours:
Where are they?
--Edward Young.
Days should speak, And multitude of years should teach wisdom. And
the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding. It is not the
great that are wise, Nor the aged that understand justice.
--Job 32. 7, 9.
Lord God, help me to see my mistakes, and bring me to the realization
of my life. Grant that I may no longer use the time that thou gavest
me to learn in, heedlessly, but to give it my best thought and care.
Amen.
JANUARY FIFTH
Stephen Decatur born 1779.
Robert Morrison born 1782.
Thomas Pringle born 1789.
Let me go where'er I will,
I hear a sky-born music still:
It sounds from all things old,
It sounds from all things young,
From all that's fair, from all that's foul,
Peals out a cheerful song.
It is not only in the rose,
It is not only in the bird,
Not only where the rainbow glows,
Nor in the song of woman heard,
But in the darkest, meanest things
There alway, alway something sings.
'Tis not in the high stars alone,
Nor in the cup of budding flowers,
Nor in the redbreast's mellow tone,
Nor in the bow that smiles in showers,
But in the mud and scum of things
There alway, alway something sings.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament showeth his
handiwork.
--Psalm 19. 1.
Almighty God, grant that my life may no longer be a noise, but be kept
in tune with the sublimest melodies, that wherever I am, there may be
no discords in the songs of my soul. Through thy loving-kindness may
my songs resound. Amen.
JANUARY SIXTH
Epiphany, or Twelfth-Day.
Joan d'Arc born 1412.
David Dale born 1739.
'Twas even so! and thou the shepherd's child,
Joanne, the lowly dreamer of the wild!
Never before and never since that hour
Hath woman, mantled with victorious power,
Stood forth as thou beside the shrine didst stand,
Holy amidst the knighthood of the land.
--Mrs. Felicia Hemans.
Every one must recognize the splendid work which has been done by
women in social and educational fields. And it will, I believe, come
more and more to be recognized that in some respects women are
specially fitted for government and for official-municipal life.
--Sir Oliver Lodge.
Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she judged Israel
at that time. And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between
Ramah and Bethel in the hill-country of Ephraim: and the children of
Israel came up to her for judgment.
--Judges 4. 4, 5.
My Father, help me to be thoughtful and just. May I consider the great
truths and broader visions that may not be seen from where I stand.
May I be willing to accept a better view. Grant that I may realize
that the battle of life is not a sham battle, but a struggle for the
advancement of life. Amen.
JANUARY SEVENTH
General Putnam born 1718.
Robert Nicholl born 1814.
T. DeWitt Talmage born 1832.
Opportunities fly in a straight line, touch us but once and never
return, but the wrongs we do others fly in a circle; they come back
from the place they started.
--T. DeWitt Talmage.
Our share of night to bear,
Our share of morning,
Our blank is bliss to fill,
Our blank is scorning.
Here a star, and there a star,
Some lose their way,
Here a mist, and there a mist,
Afterwards--day!
--Emily Dickinson.
Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your resting-place.
--Micah 2. 10.
Lord God, give me the desire to be persistent in service, while I have
health and strength. May I experience the sweetness that comes in
doing the thing that I ought to have done, as well as that in which I
took the most pleasure. Help me to so live that my days may be useful,
and be recalled with bright and happy recollections. Amen.
JANUARY EIGHTH
John Earl of Stair died 1707.
Sir William Draper died 1787.
Alfred Russel Wallace born 1823.
William Wilkie Collins born 1824.
Sir Laurence Alma-Tadema born 1836.
A blue bird built his nest
Here in my breast.
"O bird of Light! Whence comest thou?"
Said he, "From God above:
My name is Love."
A mate he brought one day,
Of plumage gray.
"O bird of Night! Why comest thou?"
Said she: "Seek no relief!
My name is Grief."
--Laurence Alma-Tadema.
It is not so much resolution as renunciation, not so much courage as
resignation, that we need. He that has once yielded thoroughly to
God will yield to nothing but God.
--John Ruskin.
Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, Neither will he uphold
the evildoers. He will yet fill thy mouth with laughter, And thy
lips with shouting.
--Job 8. 20, 21.
Almighty God, help me to understand that peace does not come in
rebellion or grieving, but is obtained through the calm of the soul.
Grant that if I may be perplexed or worried to-day, I may have the
power to control myself and wait in thy strength. Amen.
JANUARY NINTH
Dr. Thomas Brown born 1778.
Elizabeth O. Benger died 1822.
Caroline Lucretia Herschel died 1848, aged ninety-seven.
Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness altogether past calculation
its powers of endurance. Efforts to be permanently useful must be
uniformly joyous--a spirit of all sunshine.
--Thomas Carlyle.
Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting.
--Washington Irving.
A laugh is worth a hundred groans in any market.
--Charles Lamb.
A glad heart maketh a cheerful countenance; But by sorrow of heart
the spirit is broken.
Better is a dinner of herbs, where love is, Than a stalled ox and
hatred therewith.
--Proverbs 15. 13, 17.
Gracious Father, if I am sorrowing over disappointment and am
forgetful, grant that I may see the things thou hast made, for which I
should be thankful. Help me to so live that I may have a right to
claim a cheerful heart. Amen.
JANUARY TENTH
Dr. George Birkbeck born 1776.
Michel or Marshal Ney born 1769.
Karl von Linné, Linnæus, died 1778.
Ethan Allen born 1737.
Shall I hold on with both hands to every paltry possession? All I
have teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The practical weakness of the vast mass of modern pity for the poor
and the oppressed is precisely that it is merely pity; the pity is
pitiful but not respectful. Men feel that the cruelty to the poor is
a kind of cruelty to animals. They never feel that it is injustice
to equals; nay, it is treachery to comrades.
--G.K. Chesterton.
Be ye all like-minded, compassionate, loving as brethren,
tender-hearted, humble-minded: not rendering evil for evil, or
reviling for reviling; but contrariwise blessing.
--1 Peter 3. 8, 9.
God of justice, may I pause to remember that while I may do a mean act
and keep it hidden from others, I cannot keep it hidden from myself,
nor from thee. Help me to have a nobler sense of the quality of life,
and less anxiety for the quantity, that I may avoid harshness and
selfishness, and be given to tenderness and justice. Amen.
JANUARY ELEVENTH
Alexander Hamilton born 1757.
Bayard Taylor born 1825.
William James born 1842.
Alice Caldwell Regan Rice born 1870.
The paternal relation to man was the basis of that religion which
appealed directly to the heart; so the fraternity of each man with
his fellow was its practical application.
--Bayard Taylor.
It is indeed a remarkable fact that sufferings and hardships do not,
as a rule, abate the love of life; they seem on the contrary,
usually to give it a keener zest; and the sovereign source of
melancholy is repletion. Need and struggle are what excite and
inspire. Our hour of triumph is what brings the void.
--William James.
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been
approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord
promised to them that love him.
--James 1. 12.
Lord God, I come to thee for help that the small things may not force
themselves into my life, and keep me from pursuing the larger things
which are continually open to me. May I not be blind to what I may
have and be, through inspiration and work. Grant that I may not be
satisfied to remain in that in which I have triumphed, but climb to
greater endeavors. Amen.
JANUARY TWELFTH
Edmund Burke born 1729.
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi born 1746.
François Coppée born 1842.
John S. Sargent born 1856.
Show the thing you contend for to be reason; show it to be common
sense; show it to be the means of attaining some useful end. The
question with me is not whether you have a right to render your
people miserable, but whether it is your interest to make them
happy.
--Edmund Burke.
Like the star
That shines afar,
Without haste
And without rest,
Let each man wheel with steady sway
Round the task that rules the day,
And do his best.
--Goethe.
Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth
not itself, is not puffed up.
--1 Corinthians 13. 4.
Gracious Father, cause me to be critical of my life, that I may not be
deceived in myself. Help me to look into my soul and see what thou
dost find there; and with humility may I acknowledge what I am to
thee, and seek thy wisdom and love. Amen.
JANUARY THIRTEENTH
George Fox, founder Society of Friends, died 1691.
Samuel Woodworth (Old Oaken Bucket) born 1785.
Order of King's Daughters founded 1886.
Have thy soul feel the universal breath
With which all nature's quick, and learn to be
Sharer in all that thou dost touch or see;
Break from thy body's grasp thy spirit's trance;
Give thy soul air, thy faculties expanse;
Love, joy, even sorrow,--yield thyself to all!
They make thy freedom, groveling, not thy thrall.
Knock off the shackles which thy spirit bind
To dust and sense, and set at large the mind!
Then move in sympathy with God's great whole,
And be like man at first, a _Living Soul_.
--Richard Henry Dana.
I was deeply impressed by what a gardener once said to me concerning
his work. "I feel, sir," he said, "when I am growing the flowers or
rearing the vegetables, that I am having a share in creation." I
thought it a very noble way of regarding his work.
--J.H. Jowett.
For we are God's fellow workers: ye are God's husbandry, God's
building.
--1 Corinthians 3. 9.
Creator of all, help me to see what there is for me to do; and help me
to know that I cannot be productive if I am hovering in the choice of
my work. May I learn from thy great works of heaven and earth the ways
of selection and steadfastness. Give me the desire to work and the
confidence that is needed to carry on my work. Amen.
JANUARY FOURTEENTH
Madame de Sévigné died 1696.
Edmund Halley died 1742.
Pierre Loti born 1850.
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute
What you can do, or dream you can; begin it;
Boldness has genius, power magic in it.
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated;
Begin and then the work will be completed.
--Goethe.
Were half the power that fills the world with terror,
Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts,
Given to redeem the human mind from error,
There were no need of arsenals or forts.
--Henry W. Longfellow.
Choose you this day whom ye will serve;... but as for me and my
house, we will serve Jehovah.
--Joshua 24. 15.
Almighty God, help me to appreciate the sacredness of work while I
have it to do. Grant that I may be spared the wretchedness that comes
from working with fragments from idleness. May I do my part, even if
it be in obscurity and the night overtakes me before it is done. Amen.
JANUARY FIFTEENTH
Molière born 1622.
Dr. Samuel Parr born 1747.
Edward Everett died 1865.
The sun withholds his generous beam;
Athwart my soul the shadows stream;
The weird winds boisterously blow,
And drift the melancholy snow.
When I, in sorrow and despair,
Expect the storm, with tender care
He rends the clouds and through the blue
The glorious sun breaks forth anew.
--M.B.S.
So with the wan waste grasses on my spear,
I ride forever seeking after God.
My hair grows whiter than my thistle plume
And all my limbs are loose; but in my eyes
The star of an unconquerable praise;
For in my soul one hope forever sings,
That at the next white corner of the road
My eyes may look on Him.
--G.K. Chesterton.
He brought me forth also into a large place;
He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
--Psalm 18. 19.
Loving Father, if I may be discouraged to-day, strengthen my faith.
May I not weary of waiting for thee, but trust in thy promises. Amen.
JANUARY SIXTEENTH
Edmund Spenser died 1599.
Johann August Neander born 1789.
Edward Gibbon died 1794.
Sir John Moore died 1809.
But lovely concord, and most sacred peace,
Doth nourish vertue, and fast friendship breeds;
Weake she makes strong, and strong thing does increase,
Till it the pitch of highest praise exceeds.
--Edmund Spenser.
Perfect good-breeding is the result of nature and not of education;
for it may be found in a cottage, and may be missed in a palace.
'Tis the genial regard for the feeling of others that springs from
an absence of selfishness.
--Disraeli.
Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither
can salt water yield sweet.
--James 3. 12.
Heavenly Father, help me to value my thoughts, words, and deeds. If at
the close of the day, there may be one who has been wounded by my
injustice, may I be willing to make quick atonement. May I avoid the
ways and words that hurt; and not only wish rightly and work rightly,
but speak to enrich others with tenderness. Amen.
JANUARY SEVENTEENTH
John Ray died 1705.
Benjamin Franklin born 1706.
George Bancroft died 1891.
Employ thy time well if thou meanest to gain leisure; and since thou
art not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour! Leisure is time
for doing something useful; this leisure the diligent man will
obtain, but the lazy man never; a life of leisure and a life of
laziness are two things.
--Benjamin Franklin.
There is nothing to gain and everything to lose by despising the
example of nature, and making arbitrary rules for oneself. Our
liberty wisely understood is but a voluntary obedience to the
universal laws of life.
--Amiel.
I will meditate on thy precepts,
And have respect unto thy ways.
--Psalm 119. 15.
My Father, help me to understand the power of nature, that I may be
willing to obey her laws. I pray that I may so live that my life will
proclaim itself without need of boasting or deception. Forbid that I
should spend my life in perfecting trifles, and have no leisure to
enjoy thy great gifts. Amen.
JANUARY EIGHTEENTH
Charles de Montesquieu born 1689.
John Gillies born 1747.
Daniel Webster born 1782.
We would leave for the consideration of those who shall occupy our
places some proof that we hold the blessings transmitted from our
fathers in just estimation; some proof of our attachment to the
cause of good government and of civil and religious liberty; some
proof of a sincere and ardent desire to promote every thing which
may enlarge the understanding and improve the hearts of men.
--Daniel Webster.
Brother and friend, the world is wide,
But I care not whether there be
The soothing song of a summer tide
Or the thrash of a wintry sea,
If but through shimmer and storm you bide,
Brother and friend, with me.
--Percy C. Ainsworth.
Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the King.
--1 Peter 2. 17.
Almighty God, I thank thee for all the tender influences of life; for
all the gentleness and strength that may be given and received through
friendship. Help me to be careful of what I do, for my sake, and for
the sake of those who may follow me. Amen.
JANUARY NINETEENTH
Hans Sachs died 1576.
William Congreve died 1729.
James Watt born 1736.
Robert E. Lee born 1807.
Edgar Allan Poe born 1809.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand--
How few! Yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep--while I weep!
O God, can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
--Edgar Allan Poe.
Do not train up your children in hostility to the government of the
United States. Remember that we are one country now. Dismiss from
your mind all sectional feeling, and bring them up to be Americans.
--Robert E. Lee.
Wait for Jehovah: Be strong, and let thy heart take courage; Yea,
wait thou for Jehovah.
--Psalm 27. 14.
Lord God, I pray that if I have struggled for the wrong, and have
worked with weak hands, thou wilt forgive me for my lost strength.
Give me more light to shine upon my work, upon thy promises, and upon
my duties; and with thy wisdom may I search for the truth that is
behind every wrong, and for the purpose that is beyond all
journeyings. Amen.
JANUARY TWENTIETH
Eve of Saint Agnes.
David Garrick died 1779.
John Howard died 1790.
John Ruskin died 1900.
Nathaniel P. Willis born 1806.
How like a mounting devil in the heart
Rules the unreigned ambition! Let it once
But play the monarch, and its haughty brow
Glows with a beauty that bewilders thought
And unthrones peace forever. Putting on
The very pomp of Lucifer, it turns
The heart to ashes.
--Nathaniel P. Willis.
Temperance, in the nobler sense, does not mean a subdued and
imperfect energy; it does not mean a stopping short in any good
thing, as love or in faith; but it means the power which governs the
most intense energy, and prevents its acting in any way but as it
ought.
--John Ruskin.
And thy gentleness hath made me great.
--Psalm 18. 35.
Gracious Father, I pray that I may be willing to profit by the
experience of great teachers, and appreciate the value of strong
principles. May I too live for the higher ideals of life, and through
a sympathetic response add power and virtue to other lives, while
gaining strength for my own. Amen.
JANUARY TWENTY-FIRST
Miles Coverdale died 1568.
John Fitch born 1743.
John C. Fremont born 1813.
Thomas Erskine born 1750.
Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson born 1824.
So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others I
would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless
while he has a friend.
--Robert L. Stevenson.
So to the calmly gathered thought
The innermost of life is taught,
The mystery dimly understood,
That love of God is love of good:
That to be saved is only this--
Salvation from our selfishness.
--John Greenleaf Whittier.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: love therefore is the
fulfillment of the law. And this, knowing the season, that already
it is time for you to awake out of sleep: for now is salvation
nearer to us than when we first believed.
--Romans 13. 10, 11.
Tender Father, may I not attempt to serve life for my own
gratification. May I not interpret love through vanity, but from
reality. Make me worth while, that I may be relied upon for my
pledges, and needed for my services. Amen.
JANUARY TWENTY-SECOND
Andrea del Sarto died 1531.
Francis Bacon born 1561.
Lord George Byron born 1788.
Queen Victoria died 1901.
Father of light! to thee I call,
My soul is dark within:
Thou who canst mark the sparrow's fall,
Avert the death of sin,
Thou who canst guide the wandering star,
Who calm'st the elemental war,
Whose mantle is yon boundless sky,
My thoughts, my words, my crimes forgive;
And since I soon must cease to live,
Instruct me how to die.
--Lord Byron.
Knowledge, whether it descend from divine inspiration or spring from
human sense, would soon perish and vanish to oblivion if it were not
preserved in books, traditions, conferences, and places appointed.
--Francis Bacon.
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the
prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein.
--Revelation 1. 3.
Almighty God, I would have thy counsel as I read the words and follow
the deeds of helpful lives, that I may be inspired to nobler
activities. Give me the desire to know more of thy holy word, that I
may have a better knowledge of life. Amen.
JANUARY TWENTY-THIRD
John Hancock born 1737.
William Pitt died 1806.
Charles Kingsley died 1875.
Paul Gustave Doré died 1883.
Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful. Welcome it
in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower, and thank Him
for it, who is the fountain of all loveliness.
--Charles Kingsley.
Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege
Through all the years of this life, to lead,
From joy to joy; for she can so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
* * * * *
Nor all the dreary intercourse of daily life,
Shall e'er prevail against us or disturb
Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
Is full of blessings.
--William Wordsworth.
Is not God in the height of heaven?
And behold the height of the stars, how high they are!
And thou sayest, What doth God know?
Can he judge through the thick darkness?
--Job 22. 12, 13.
Lord God, I pray that I may not overlook thy blessings of beauty while
endeavoring to perform my duties. Guide me that I may not struggle to
be where thou wouldst not have me go. Amen.
JANUARY TWENTY-FOURTH
Charles Earl of Dorset born 1637.
Frederick the Great born 1712.
Charles James Fox born 1749.
The great Gods pass through the great Time-hall,
Stately and high;
The little men climb the low clay wall
To gape and spy;
"We wait for the Gods," the little men cry,
"But these are our brothers passing by."
The great Gods pass through the great Time-hall;
Who can see?
The little men nod by the low clay wall,
So tired they be;
'"Tis weary waiting for Gods," they yawn,
"There's a world o' men, but the Gods are gone."
--A.H. Begbie.
But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
--Luke 24. 16.
My Father, may I be careful of getting weary and missing the best
through the need of rest. Intensify my desire for the songs and
glorious ways, that I may not settle into dullness and slumber, while
others pass on in the light. I pray for a keener sense of the
possessions made possible by the deeds and cares of noble men and
women. Amen.
JANUARY TWENTY-FIFTH
Robert Burns born 1759.
Lord Frederick Leighton died 1896.
Daniel Maclise born 1811.
When ranting round in pleasure's ring
Religion may be blinded:
Or if she gie a random sting,
It may be little minded:
But when on life we're Tempest-driv'n--
A conscience but a canker,
A correspondence fixed wi' Heav'n,
Is sure a noble anchor.
--Robert Burns.
Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever;
Do noble things, not dream them, all day long:
And so make life, death, and that vast forever
One grand sweet song.
--Charles Kingsley.
O Lord, by these things men live;
And wholly therein is the life of my spirit:
Wherefore recover thou me, and make me to live.
--Isaiah 38. 16.
Gracious Father, grant that I may not be willing to spend my life for
trivial needs, for thou dost measure me for what I am, and boldest me
for what I lose in waste. Be with me in my judgment of what is best,
that I may make the most of my life. Amen.
JANUARY TWENTY-SIXTH
Lord George Sackville born 1716.
Benjamin Robert Haydon born 1786.
Mary Mapes Dodge born 1838.
General Gordon (Chinese Gordon) killed 1885.
Ave Maria! blessed be the hour,
That time, the clime, the spot, where I so oft
Have felt that moment in its fullest power
Sink o'er the earth so beautiful and soft,
While swung the deep bell in the distant tower
Or the faint dying day-hymn stole aloft,
And not a breath crept through the rosy air,
And yet the forest leaves seemed stirred with
prayer.
--Lord Byron.
I am quite happy, thank God, and like Lawrence, I have tried to do
my duty.
--General Gordon (just before death).
For in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly
in his pavilion:
In the covert of his tabernacle will he hide me;
He will lift me up upon a rock.
--Psalm 27. 5.
Heavenly Father, teach me how to breathe in the sweetness of life.
Reveal to me the life that will bring peace to the soul. May I not be
dismayed, but find the "Peace that passeth all understanding," the
perfect peace that comes from thee. Amen.
JANUARY TWENTY-SEVENTH
Johannes Wolfgang Mozart born 1756.
A.W. von Schlegel born 1767.
David Friedrich Strauss born 1808.
To keep young, every day read a poem, hear a choice piece of music,
view a fine painting, and, if possible, do a good action. Man's
highest merit always is, as much as possible, to rule external
circumstances, and as little as possible to let himself be ruled by
them.
--Goethe.
Let us not always say,
"Spite of this flesh to-day
I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!"
As the bird wings and sings,
Let us cry, "All good things
Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more now than flesh helps soul!"
--Robert Browning.
Surely goodness and loving-kindness shall follow me all the days of
my life.
--Psalm 23. 6.
Loving Father, help me to foresee that it is what I care for to-day
that determines how I will find old age. May I not bring my closing
years to weariness and lonesomeness, but may I have the restfulness
that comes with communing with thee. Amen.
JANUARY TWENTY-EIGHTH
Charlemagne died 814.
Sir Francis Drake died 1596.
Peter the Great died 1725.
Charles George Gordon (Chinese Gordon) born 1833.
He only is advancing in life whose heart is getting softer, whose
blood warmer, whose brain quicker, and whose spirit is entering into
living peace. And the men who have this life in them are the true
lords and kings of the earth--they, and they only.
--John Ruskin.
Just where you stand in the conflict,
There is your place!
Just where you think you are useless,
Hide not your face!
God placed you there for a purpose,
What e'er it be;
Think you he has chosen you for it:
Work loyally.
--Anonymous.
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of
God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing
out!
--Romans 11. 33.
My Father, I thank thee that thou hast endowed me with a will; help me
to use it aright. May I have the knowledge of what thou dost demand of
my soul, that I may do my best with what thou hast given me. Help me
that I may reach out for the highest ideals of life. Amen.
JANUARY TWENTY-NINTH
Emanuel Swedenborg born 1688.
Thomas Paine born 1737.
Adelaide Ristori born 1822.
William McKinley, Ohio, twenty-fourth President
United States, born 1843.
God will keep no nation in supreme place that will not do supreme
duty.
--William McKinley.
Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God
and the angels know of us.
--Thomas Paine.
The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.
--George Eliot.
Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand,
Upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.
So shall we not go back from thee:
Quicken thou us, and we will call upon thy name.
--Psalm 80. 17, 18.
My Father, I pray that I may be just and be given to kindness. May I
be conscious of my virtues, and use them to overcome my faults. May I
hear clearly thy call that I may be sure of the way as I lead others
to duty and happiness. Amen.
JANUARY THIRTIETH
Archbishop Butler born 1774.
Walter Savage Landor born 1775.
Henri Rochefort born 1830.
Why, why repine, my pensive friend,
At pleasures slipped away?
Some the stern fates will never lend,
And all refuse to stay.
I see the rainbow in the sky,
The dew upon the grass;
I see them and I ask not why
They glimmer or they pass.
With folded arms I linger not
To call them back; 'twere vain;
In this, or in some other spot,
I know they'll shine again.
--Walter Savage Landor.
When disappointment comes meet it, but do not carry it along with
you; nor fetter your spirit by changeless haste. "Memory will always
pursue some precious instance of itself," which will bring either
renewed confidence or resignation.
--M. B. S.
For thou shalt forget thy misery;
Thou shalt remember it as waters that are passed away.
--Job 11. 16.
Gracious Father, help me to "Lift mine eyes unto the hills" that
glorify the discouraging ways. May I appreciate thy great love, and
from my limitations find the possibilities that are limitless. Amen.
JANUARY THIRTY-FIRST
Cromwell dissolved Parliament 1655.
Charles Edward (Young Pretender) died 1788.
Franz Schubert born 1797.
James G. Elaine born 1830.
Nature demands that man be ever at the top of his condition. He who
violates her laws must pay the penalty, though he sit on a throne.
--James G. Elaine.
Dig channels for the streams of love,
Where they may broadly run;
And love has overflowing streams
To fill them every one.
For we must share if we must keep
The good things from above;
Ceasing to give, we cease to have--
Such is the law of love.
--R. C. Trench.
And thy life shall be clearer than the noonday;
Though there be darkness, it shall be as the morning.
--Job 11. 17.
My Father, I would remember that it is mostly from my inspirations
that I conceive life. Take away hatred and vanity that keep me in
faults, and awake in me the thoughts that are responsible for visions
that lead to high ideals. Amen.
FEBRUARY
Then came old February, sitting
In an old wagon, for he could not ride,
Drawn of two fishes for the season fitting,
Which through the flood before did softly slide
And swim away; yet he had by his side
His plow and harness fit to till the ground,
And tools to prune the trees, before the pride
Of hasting prime did make them bourgeon wide.
--Edmund Spenser.
FEBRUARY FIRST
Ben Jonson born 1574.
John Philip Kemble born 1757.
Arthur Henry Hallam born 1811.
George Cruikshank died 1878.
It is not growing like a tree
In bulk, doth make man better be;
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:
A lily of a day
Is fairer far in May,
Although it fall and die that night--
It was the plant and flower of Light.
In small proportions we just beauties see;
And in short measure life may perfect be.
--Ben Jonson.
There are four things which are little upon the earth,
But they are exceeding wise:
The ants are a people not strong,
Yet they provide their food in the summer;
The conies are but a feeble folk,
Yet make they their houses in the rocks;
The locusts have no king,
Yet go they forth all of them by bands;
The lizard taketh hold with her hands,
Yet is she in king's palaces.
--Proverbs 30. 24-28.
Creator of all, lead me to see the light, and instruct me that I may
be able to reason. Guard me against spectacular endeavors, that I may
be genuine. Amen.
FEBRUARY SECOND
Candlemas Day.
Nell Gwynn born 1650.
Hannah More born 1745.
William Henry Burleigh born 1812.
'Twas doing nothing was his curse--
Is there a vice can plague us worse?
The wretch who digs the mine for bread,
Or plows, that others may be fed,
Feels less fatigue than that decreed
To him who cannot think, or read.
Not all the peril of temptations,
Not all the conflict of the passions,
Can quench the spark of Glory's flame,
Or quite extinguish Virtue's name.
--Hannah More.
Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife!
To all the sensual world proclaim,
One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name.
--Sir Walter Scott.
He went out, and found others standing; and he saith unto them, Why
stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man
hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard.
--Matthew 20. 6, 7.
Eternal God, who hath weighed the mountains and measured the seas, I
pray that I may not be satisfied to wait in idleness, and let thy
wisdom pass away from me as the days. Steady me in my weakness, and
reveal to me my strength as I draw near and ask of thee. Amen.
FEBRUARY THIRD
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy born 1809.
Horace Greeley born 1811.
Frederick William Robertson born 1816.
Sidney Lanier born 1842.
My soul is sailing through the sea,
But the past is heavy and hindereth me.
The past hath crusted cumbrous shells
That hold the flesh of cold sea-mells
About my soul.
The huge waves wash, the high waves roll,
Each barnacle clingeth and worketh dole
And hindereth me from sailing.
--Sidney Lanier.
To stand with a smile upon your face, against a stake from which you
cannot get away--that no doubt is heroic. True glory is resignation
to the inevitable. But to stand unchained, with perfect liberty to
go away held only by the higher chains of duty, and let the fire
creep up to the heart--that is heroism.
--F.W. Robertson.
We are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not
unto despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not
destroyed.
--2 Corinthians 4. 8, 9.
Gracious Father, thou knowest what I am and the condition of my life.
May I seek thy will for me. Grant that I may never struggle for
consolation through indulgence and indolence, but in my sorrow and
failure may I reach out for thy enduring comfort. Amen.
FEBRUARY FOURTH
Mark Hopkins born 1802.
W. Harrison Ainsworth born 1805.
Jean Richepin born 1849.
Thomas Carlyle died 1881.
Life is not a May-game, but a battle and a march, a warfare with
principalities and powers. No idle promenade through fragrant orange
groves and green flowery spaces, waited on by coral muses, and the
rosy hours; it is a stern pilgrimage through the rough, burning,
sandy solitudes, through regions of thick-ribbed ice.
--Thomas Carlyle.
For all sweet and pleasant passages in the great story of life men
may well thank God; for leisure and ease and health and friendship
may God make us truly and humbly grateful; but our chief song of
thanksgiving must be always for our kinship with him, with all that
such divinity of greatness brings of peril, hardship, toil, and
sacrifice.
--Hamilton Mabie.
Thy bars shall be iron and brass;
And as thy days, so shall thy strength be.
--Deuteronomy 33. 25.
My Father, help me to choose the road that leads to my work, and may I
not fail to reach it, by wandering away from it. Keep me in touch with
the human side of life, holding in mind that "Truth and honesty are
the noblest works of God." Amen.
FEBRUARY FIFTH
Sir Robert Peel born 1788.
Ole Boreman Bull born 1810.
John Muir born 1810.
Dwight L. Moody born 1837.
When a great man dies, then has the time come for putting us in mind
that he was alive!
--Thomas Carlyle.
If I practice one day, I can see the result. If I practice two days,
my friends can see it. If I practice three days, the great public
can see it.
--Ole Bull.
Those who say they will forgive but can't forget an injury simply
bury the hatchet while they leave the handle out, ready for
immediate use.
--Dwight L. Moody.
But I hold not my life of any account as dear unto myself, so that I
may accomplish my course.
--Acts 20. 24.
Almighty God, if I am uncertain, and tremble at the crossroads in
doubt of the right way, may I wait and be led by thee, and follow on,
even if the way be dark and rough. May I be faithful and have thy
presence as thou promised at the end. Amen.
FEBRUARY SIXTH
Queen Anne of England born 1665.
Aaron Burr born 1756.
Sir Henry Irving born 1838.
Nothing earthly will make me give up my work in despair. I encourage
myself in the Lord my God and go forward.
--David Livingstone.
To expect defeat is nine tenths of defeat itself.
--Marion Crawford.
I do not see how any man can afford, for the sake of his nerves and
his nap, to spare any action in which he can partake.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Art is a jealous mistress, she requires the whole man.
--Michael Angelo.
Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.
--1 Corinthians 16. 13.
Almighty God, help me to have true conceptions, that my life may not
be secured to needless purposes. May my soul be influenced by high
ideals, and my work be the production of truth and not of selfishness.
Protect me from evil that I may be kept pure and strong for my work.
Amen.
FEBRUARY SEVENTH
Millard Fillmore, New York, thirteenth President United States born 1800.
Sir Thomas More born 1478.
Charles Dickens born 1812.
Anne Radcliffe died 1823.
Sidney Cooper died 1902.
Let no man turn aside ever so slightly, from the broad path of
honor, on the plausible pretense that he is justified by the
goodness of his end. All good ends can be worked out by good means.
--Charles Dickens.
If evils come not, then our fears are vain;
And if they do, fear but augments the pain.
--Sir Thomas More.
A human heart knows aught of littleness,
Suspects no man, compares with no one's ways,
Hath in one hour most glorious length of days,
A recompense, a joy, a loveliness;
Like eaglet keen, shoots into azure far,
And always dwelling nigh is the remotest star.
--William Ellery Channing.
Teach me thy way, O Jehovah;
I will walk in thy truth:
Unite my heart to fear thy name.
--Psalm 86. 11.
Gracious Father, I pray that thou wilt control my impulses, and
protect me from false interpretations. May I have wisdom, and search
for the high and holy ways. Help me to be patient for thy purposes,
and may my relations to life be triumphant in thy standards. Amen.
FEBRUARY EIGHTH
Samuel Butler born 1612.
John Ruskin born 1819.
General Sherman born 1820.
Jules Verne born 1828.
Richard Watson Gilder born 1844.
If you want knowledge, you must toil for it; and if pleasure, you
must toil for it. Toil is the law. Pleasure comes through toil, and
not by self-indulgence and indolence. When one gets to love work his
life is a happy one.
--John Ruskin.
Whatever sceptic could inquire for,
For every why he had a wherefore.
--Samuel Butler.
Through love to light! O wonderful the way,
That leads from darkness to the perfect day!
From darkness and from sorrow of the night
To morning that comes singing o'er the sea.
Through love to light! through light O God to Thee!
Who art the love, the eternal light of light!
--Richard Watson Gilder.
We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the
night cometh, when no man can work.
--John 9. 4.
My Father, I pray that I may not weight my life with worthless
efforts. May I be guided to the right work, and through the love of it
find strength for my soul. Amen.
FEBRUARY NINTH
C.F. Volney born 1757.
William Henry Harrison, Virginia, ninth President United States, born 1773.
Anthony Hope (Hawkins) born 1863.
George Ade born 1866.
A man's own observation, what he finds good of, and what he finds
hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health. But it is a safer
conclusion to say, "This agreeth not well with me, therefore I will
not continue it"; than to say, "I find no offense of this, therefore
I may use it." For strength of nature in youth passeth over many
excesses, which are owing a man till his age.
--Francis Bacon.
Though man a thinking being is defined,
Few use the grand prerogative of mind.
How few think justly of the thinking few!
How many never think, who think they do!
--Jane Taylor.
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been
approved, he shall receive the crown of life.
--James 1. 12.
Almighty God, I would learn that while thou art a forgiving Lord,
nature has no mercy on them that break her laws. Forgive me for all my
neglect, and help me to see the way in which thou hast through mercy
led me. Give me the power to endure and the strength to resist
temptation. May I seek to understand thy laws, that I may not fail
through ignorance. Amen.
FEBRUARY TENTH
Rev. Henry Hart Milman born 1791.
Charles Lamb born 1775.
Sir William Napier died 1860.
Never let the most well-intended falsehood escape your lips; for
Heaven, which is entirely Truth, will make the seed which you have
sown of untruth to yield miseries a thousandfold.
--Charles Lamb.
We cannot command veracity at will; the power of seeing and
reporting truly is a form of health that has to be distinctly
guarded, and as an ancient rabbi has solemnly said, "The penalty of
untruth is untruth."
--George Eliot.
The bat hangs upside down and laughs at a topsy-turvy world.
--Unknown.
The lip of truth shall be established for ever;
But a lying tongue is but for a moment.
--Proverbs 12. 19.
Lord God, give me the will to hold to the truth and the strength to
help keep the world true; and may I help others to look up and catch
the truth from the purest light. Amen.
FEBRUARY ELEVENTH
Mary, Queen of England, born 1516.
Daniel Boone born 1735.
Lydia M. Child born 1802.
Washington Gladden born 1836.
Thomas A. Edison born 1847.
Few, in the days of early youth,
Trusted like me in love and truth.
I've learned sad lessons from the years;
But slowly and with many tears;
For God made me to kindly view
The world that I was passing through.
And all who tempt a trusting heart
From faith and hope to drift apart,
May they themselves be spared the pain
Of losing power to trust again!
God help us all to kindly view
The world that we are passing through!
--Lydia M. Child.
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the
mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing;
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
--Isaiah 55. 12.
Lord God, I pray that I may not rest my hope in self alone, but know
that the greatest joy is in the hope of the world. Help me to have
faith in mankind; and with a loyal heart and a brave spirit be as kind
to the world as I can. Amen.
FEBRUARY TWELFTH
Dr. Cotton Mather born 1663.
Peter Cooper born 1791.
Abraham Lincoln, Kentucky, sixteenth President United States, born 1809.
Robert Charles Darwin born 1809.
George Meredith born 1828.
With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the
right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish
the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds, ... to do all
which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among
ourselves and with all nations.
--Abraham Lincoln.
The great moral combat between human life and each human soul must
be single.... When a soul arms for battle she goes forth alone.
--Owen Meredith.
According to the grace of God which was given unto me, as a wise
master builder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon.
--1 Corinthians 3. 10.
Almighty God, I thank thee for the courage that comes with a great
life. Help me to be brave, even if it is only that others may be
blest. May I lay a careful foundation and plan to build the best that
I can afford. Amen.
FEBRUARY THIRTEENTH
David Allan born 1744.
Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord born 1754.
Richard Wagner died 1883.
A man is not his hope, nor yet his despair, nor yet his past deed.
We know not yet what we have done; still less what we are doing.
Wait till evening, and other parts of our work will shine than we
had thought at noon, and we shall discover the real purport of our
toil.
--Henry D. Thoreau.
When you make a mistake don't look back at it long. Take the reason
of the thing into your mind, and look forward. Mistakes are lessons
of wisdom.... The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your
power.
--Hugh White.
He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing seed for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
--Psalm 126. 6.
My Father, help me to survey my life. Make me compassionate and
considerate, that I may be qualified to promote that which is helpful.
May I appreciate that what is worth keeping I can obtain from thee.
Amen.
FEBRUARY FOURTEENTH
Saint Valentine's Day.
Captain James Cook killed 1779.
Jean Ernest Reynaud born 1808.
Oh! little loveliest lady mine,
What shall I send for your valentine?
Summer and flowers are far away;
Gloomy old Winter is king to-day;
Buds will not blow, and sun will not shine:
What shall I do for a valentine?
I've searched the gardens all through and through
For a bud to tell of my love so true;
But buds are asleep and blossoms are dead,
And the snow beats down on my poor little head:
So, little loveliest lady mine,
Here is my heart for your valentine.
--Laura E. Richards.
Oh rank is gold, and gold is fair,
And high and low mate ill;
But love has never known a law
Beyond its own sweet will!
--John G. Whittier.
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God.
--1 John 4. 7.
Loving Father, may I not fall to nodding in the balmy air of luxury
and miss the messages of love. Arouse me, that I may give and take in
the treasures of love as they come my way, and that they may not pass
unnoticed. Amen.
FEBRUARY FIFTEENTH
Galileo Galilei born 1564.
Louis XV born 1710.
S. Weir Mitchell born 1829.
Sir Frederick Treves born 1853.
The night I know is nigh at hand,
The mists lie low on hill and bay,
The autumn sheaves are brown and dry,
But I have had the day.
Yes, I have had, dear Lord, the day.
When at thy call I have the night
Brief be the twilight as I pass
From light to dark, from dark to light.
--S. Weir Mitchell.
If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small--too
small to be worth talking about, for the day of adversity is its
first real opportunity.
--Maltbie Babcock.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him
that loved us.
--Romans 8. 37.
My Father, may my daily work not be the means of separating me from
thee, but may I have thee for my companion through my work. Forbid
that I should ever submit to despair from weakness of body, but that I
may be blest and grow strong as my spirit lives in thee. Amen.
FEBRUARY SIXTEENTH
Philip Melanchthon born 1497.
Gasper de Coligny born 1517.
Thomas Robert Malthus born 1766.
Ernst Heinrich Haeckel born 1834.
Thy love shall chant its own beatitudes
After its own life working. A child's kiss
Set on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad.
A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich;
A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong;
Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense
Of service which thou renderest.
--Elizabeth B. Browning.
Ask nothing more of me, sweet;
All I can give you I give.
Heart of my heart, were it more,
More would be laid at your feet:
Love that should help you to live,
Song that should help you to soar.
--Algernon Charles Swinburne.
All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto
you, even so do ye also unto them.
--Matthew 7. 12.
Lord God, I pray that I may not neglect the help and happiness that I
may give with compassion and love. Make me strong in all the senses
that answer to the call of humanity. Help me to guide and protect
little children, and to care for the comforts of the old. Amen.
FEBRUARY SEVENTEENTH
Kate Greenaway born 1846.
Michael Angelo Buonarroti died 1563.
Giordano Bruno burned at Rome 1600.
Molière died 1673.
Rose Terry Cooke born 1827.
Frances E. Willard died 1898.
It is not much
To give a gentle word or kindly touch
To one gone down
Beneath the world's cold frown,
And yet who knows
How great a thing from such a little grows?
O, oftentimes,
Some brother upward climbs
And hope again
Uplifts its head, that in the dust had lain,
Gives place to morning's light.
--E. H. Divall.
I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was
driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will
strengthen that which was sick.
--Ezekiel 34. 16.
My Father, may I not sorrow so that I fail to comfort the sorrowing,
and may I not be so happy that I fail to see that others need to be
glad. I thank thee for thy providences. May I serve thee in helping
others to brighter lives. Amen.
FEBRUARY EIGHTEENTH
Martin Luther died 1546.
George Peabody born 1795.
Wilson Barrett born 1846.
A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing:
Our helper he amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
Doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great:
And, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
--Martin Luther.
Let us stand by our duty fearlessly and effectively. I am not bound
to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I
am bound to live up to the light that I have.
--Abraham Lincoln.
Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
My God, my rock, in whom I will take refuge.
--Psalm 18. 2.
Lord God, help me to lay my life in the rocks of thy foundation, and
not in moving sands which are tossed from shore to shore. May I cling
to the rock that was cleft for me and trust for thy care. Amen.
FEBRUARY NINETEENTH
Copernicus born 1473.
Leonard Bacon born 1802.
W.W. Story born 1819.
Adelina Patti born 1843.
So mine are these new fruitings rich,
The simple to the common brings;
I keep the youth of souls who pitch
Their joy in this old heart of things;
Full lasting is the song, though he
The singer passes; lasting too,
For souls not lent in usury,
The rapture of the forward view.
--George Meredith.
All deep things are Song. It seems, somehow, the very central
essence of us, Song; as if all the rest were wrappages and hulls!
the primal element of us; of us, and all things.
--Thomas Carlyle.
Ye shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and
gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come unto the
mountain of Jehovah.
--Isaiah 30. 29.
Lord God, help me to feel the power of praise. "As words without
thoughts never to heaven go," so the highest praises are never sung
alone, but rendered with service and love. May I have the heart to
sing thy praises far and near, and rejoice in him from whom all
blessings flow. Amen.
FEBRUARY TWENTIETH
J.H. Voss born 1828.
Joseph Jefferson born 1829.
Mihaly Munkacsy (Michael Lieb) born 1844.
Who serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
--Voltaire.
Lo, Spring comes forth with all her warmth and
love,
She brings sweet justice from the realms above;
She breaks the chrysalis, she resurrects the dead;
Two butterflies ascend encircling her head.
And so this emblem shall forever be
A sign of immortality.
--Joseph Jefferson.
Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel,
And afterward receive me to glory.
--Psalm 73. 24.
Lord God, I pray that I may not neglect my soul in trying to fathom
immortal life. If I may be hesitating between comfort and work, remind
me of the greatness of the place which I started to reach. May I not
grow weary of climbing and falter on the stair. Breathe upon me thy
inspiration and love, that I may continue in faith all the way. Amen.
FEBRUARY TWENTY-FIRST
Edmund William Gosse born 1849.
Karl Czerny born 1791.
Cardinal John H. Newman born 1801.
Jean L.E. Meissonier born 1815.
Alice Freeman Palmer born 1855.
Prune thou thy words, the thoughts control
That o'er thee swell and throng;
They will condense within thy soul,
And change to purpose strong.
--John H. Newman.
Think truly, and thy thoughts
Shall the world's famine feed;
Speak truly, and each word of thine
Shall be a fruitful seed;
Live truly, and thy life shall be
A great and noble creed.
--Horatio Bonar.
We ought to love everybody and make everybody love us. Then
everything else is easy.
--Alice Freeman Palmer.
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy healing
shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before
thee; the glory of Jehovah shall be thy rearward.
--Isaiah 58. 8.
Almighty God, look upon me with pity; so often I have obeyed the
thoughts that have been misleading and profitless. Make me more
careful of what I think and say, and may I learn from my mistakes the
forbidden paths. Help me to keep my mind in unity with thy will. Amen.
FEBRUARY TWENTY-SECOND
George Washington, Virginia, first President United
States, born 1732.
James Russell Lowell born 1819.
Margaret E. Sangster born 1838.
Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial
fire called conscience.
--George Washington.
Life is a sheet of paper white
Whereon each one of us may write
His word or two, and then comes night.
Greatly begin! though thou hast time
But for a line, be that sublime.
Not failure, but low aim is crime.
--James Russell Lowell.
God keep us through the common days,
The level stretches white with dust,
When thought is tired, and hands upraise
Their burdens feebly since they must;
In days of slowly fretting care
Then most we need the strength of prayer.
--Margaret E. Sangster.
Make level the path of thy feet,
And let all thy ways be established.
--Proverbs 4. 26.
Lord God, help me to realize the influence of the individual life. And
as I would care for my own, may I seek to do for others; and may I not
criticize, but help all who are trying to make the world better. Amen.
FEBRUARY TWENTY-THIRD
Samuel Pepys born 1633.
George F. Handel born 1685.
George Frederick Watts born 1817.
John Keats died 1821.
Margaret Deland born 1857.
Labor is life! 'tis the still water faileth;
Idleness ever despaireth, bewaileth:
Keep the watch wound, or the dark rust assaileth;
Flowers droop and die in the stillness of noon.
Labor is glory! the flying cloud lightens;
Only the waving wing changes and brightens,
Idle hearts only the dark future frightens,
Play the sweet keys, wouldst thou keep them in tune.
--Frances S. Osgood.
KEATS
Palled death, with kisses ghostly,
Wooed and won him while too young,
And the world reveres him mostly,
For the songs he might have sung.
--Samuel A. Wood.
Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the
curtains of thy habitations; spare not: lengthen thy cords, and
strengthen thy stakes.
--Isaiah 54. 2.
Almighty God, I pray for the will to do my finest work. Disclose to me
if I am being detained by serving selfishness in myself or in others.
Lead me to what is right for me to do; and may I diligently tarry in
it. Amen.
FEBRUARY TWENTY-FOURTH
Samuel Lover born 1797.
Robert Fulton died 1815.
George William Curtis born 1824.
'Tis not to enjoy that we exist,
For that end only; something must be done;
I must not walk in unreproved delight
These narrow bounds, and think of nothing more,
No duty that looks further and no care.
--William Wordsworth.
We weave our thoughts into heart-spun plans,
And weave secure for a fitful day,
But lose in the web of earthly things
The pattern of sublimity.
Shall days spring up as wild vines grow,
Unheeding where they climb or cling?
Consider, child, before you sow,
And wait not until harvesting.
--M.B.S.
Jehovah is my strength and my shield;
My heart hath trusted in him, and I am helped:
Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth;
And with my song will I praise him.
--Psalm 28. 7.
Loving Father, command my judgment for the influences which I permit
to come into my life. Grant that I may not delay my purposes for the
lack of comforts which are so often made more than life. With thy
strength may I be steadfast in what I would achieve. Amen.
FEBRUARY TWENTY-FIFTH
William Seely died 1521.
Sir Christopher Wren died 1723.
Jane Goodwin Austin born 1831.
Camille Flammarion born 1842.
In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes. All other
passions do occasionally good; but wherever pride puts in its word
everything goes wrong.
--John Ruskin.
He that is proud eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own
trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praises itself but in the
deed, devours the deed in the praise.
--William Shakespeare.
Save me alike from foolish pride
Or impious discontent;
At aught Thy wisdom hath denied,
Or aught Thy wisdom lent.
--Alexander Pope.
A man's pride shall bring him low; But he that is of a lowly spirit
shall obtain honor.
--Proverbs 29. 23.
Heavenly Father, I pray that I may not let pride keep me down when it
may be mine to be carried to the heights. With tenderness take me out
of myself, that I may see how pride deceives, and destroys an humble
spirit. Help me to master both stubbornness and pride. Amen.
FEBRUARY TWENTY-SIXTH
Christopher Marlowe (baptized 1564).
Victor Hugo born 1802.
Lord Cromer born 1841.
Thomas Moore died 1852.
When I go down to the grave I can say, like so many others, I have
finished my work; but I cannot say I have finished my life; my day's
work will begin again the next morning. My tomb is not a blind
alley; it is a thoroughfare. It closes in the twilight to open in
the dawn.
--Victor Hugo.
There's nothing bright above, below,
From flowers that bloom to stars that glow,
But in the light my soul can see
Some feature of the Deity.
There's nothing dark below, above,
But in its gloom I trace God's love,
And meekly wait that moment when
His truth shall turn all bright again.
--Thomas Moore.
Jehovah redeemeth the soul of his servants;
And none of them that take refuge in him shall be
condemned.
--Psalm 34. 22.
Lord God, may I not only feel the need of thee when I am burdened with
sorrow and care, but may I have need of thee in my pleasures and joys.
I thank thee for thy gracious kindness, thy mercy and thy protection.
Amen.
FEBRUARY TWENTY-SEVENTH
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow born 1807.
Ellen Terry born 1848.
Mary F. Robinson born 1857.
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time--
Footprints that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's wintry main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
--Henry W. Longfellow.
They are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think;
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.
--James Russell Lowell.
Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good
works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
--Matthew 5. 16.
Merciful Father, help me to know that my shadow cannot fall without
me, and that my footprints cannot be found where I have never trodden.
I pray that thou wilt make me so familiar with the right path that it
may be mine to have the privilege of leading others to the right
places. Amen.
FEBRUARY TWENTY-EIGHTH
Montaigne born 1533.
Mary Lyon born 1797.
Sir John Tenniel born 1820.
Soul, rule thyself; on passion, deed, desire,
Lay thou the laws of thy deliberate will.
Stand at thy chosen post, Faith's sentinel:
Though Hell's lost legions ring thee round with fire,
Learn to endure.
--Arthur Symonds.
The confidence in another man's virtue is no slight evidence of a
man's own, and God willingly favors such a confidence.
--Montaigne.
Though a host should encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear:
Though war should rise against me,
Even then will I be confident.
--Psalm 27. 3.
My Father, may I ever be kept in remembrance of my virtue, and may I
be sensitive to its strength. As I go on my way, keep me within
control of the impetuous desires of my nature, and in call of the
duties and obligations of my daily life. Amen.
FEBRUARY TWENTY-NINTH
Anne Lee born 1736.
G.A. Rossini born 1792.
John Landseer died 1852.
Happy is he and more than wise
Who sees with wondrous eyes and clean
This world through all the gray disguise
Of sleep and custom in between.
--G.K. Chesterton.
In the morning, when thou findest thyself unwilling to rise,
consider with thyself presently, if it is to go about a man's work
that I am stirred up. Or was I made for this, to lay me down, and
make much of myself in a warm bed.
--Marcus Aurelius.
Arise and be doing, and Jehovah be with thee.
--1 Chronicles 22. 16.
Gracious Father, help me to take of the wealth of my day, while it is
in season, and accessible. May I not be ignorant of the abundance in
which I live, and be found in overwhelming regret. Forgive me for all
that I have missed in life, and make me more watchful of that which is
to come. Amen.
MARCH
Spring still makes spring in the mind,
When sixty years are told;
Love makes anew this throbbing heart,
And we are never old.
Over the winter glaciers,
I see the summer glow,
And through the wild-piled snowdrift
The warm rosebuds below.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson.
MARCH FIRST
Alexander Balfour born 1767.
Frederick François Chopin born 1809.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens born 1848.
William Dean Howells born 1837.
Thy soul shall enter on its heritage
Of God's unuttered wisdom. Thou shalt sweep
With hand assured the ringing lyre of life,
Till the fierce anguish of its bitter strife,
Its pain, death, discord, sorrow, and despair,
Break into rhythmic music. Thou shalt share
The prophet-joy that kept forever glad
God's poet-souls when all a world was sad.
Enter and live! Thou hast not lived before.
--S. Weir Mitchell.
Return unto thy rest, O my soul;
For Jehovah hath dealt bountifully with thee.
For thou hast delivered my soul from death,
Mine eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
--Psalm 116. 7, 8.
Almighty God, grant that I may never be so discouraged that I feel my
life has been spent. Help me to so live, that I may not follow into
hopeless days, but look for the bright and beautiful in to-morrow.
Forgive me for all that I have asked for and accepted through willful
judgment, and make me more careful in selecting my needs. Amen.
MARCH SECOND
Juvenal born A.D. 40.
John Wesley died 1791.
Horace Walpole died 1797.
Nature never says one thing, Wisdom another.
--Juvenal.
By all means, use some times to be alone;
Salute thyself--see what thy soul doth wear;
Dare to look in thy chest, for 'tis thine own,
And tumble up and down what thou findest there.
--William Wordsworth.
Lonesomeness is part of the cost of power. The higher you climb, the
less can you hope for companionship. The heavier and the more
immediate the responsibility, the less can a man delegate his tasks
or escape his own mistakes.
--Shailer Mathews.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and
having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy
Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee.
--Matthew 6. 6.
My Father, I pray that thou wilt take care of my thoughts when I am
alone and tired, and keep them strong and clean. Grant that while I
commune with thee I may yield to my needs and be restored with keener
energy for worthier deeds. May I ask of thy wisdom every day. Amen.
MARCH THIRD
Edmund Waller born 1605.
George Herbert died 1633.
Christine Nilsson born 1843.
Pitch thy behaviour low, thy projects high,
So shalt thou humble and magnanimous be;
Sink not in spirit: who aimeth at the sky,
Shoots higher than he that means a tree.
--George Herbert.
We and God have business with each other; and in opening ourselves
to his influence our deepest destiny is fulfilled.
--William James.
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things
which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but
the things which are not seen are eternal.
--2 Corinthians 4. 18.
Almighty God, help me to remember that "the power of character is the
highest point of success," and that thou hast put within reach of all
the choice ideals of life. May I have the desire to cultivate strong
purposes, and strive for high endeavors, that I may not aim for the
low. Amen.
MARCH FOURTH
Casimer Pulaski born 1748.
Sir Henry Raeburn born 1756.
E.W. Bull, originator Concord grape, born 1806.
Alexander Graham Bell born 1847.
It is perfectly obvious that men do necessarily absorb, out of the
influences in which they grow up, something which gives a complexion
to their whole after-character.
--Anthony Froude.
All common things, each day's events
That with the hour begin and end,
Our pleasures and our discontents
Are rounds by which we may ascend.
--Henry W. Longfellow.
Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win
by fearing to attempt. I
--Shakespeare.
And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and
slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead; and the stone
sank into his forehead, and he fell upon his face to the earth.
--1 Samuel 17. 49.
My Father, I would remember that my life may decline from the neglect
of small things; for as thou dost nourish the wheat from flakes of
snow, and supply the springs from drops of rain, so thou wilt
strengthen my soul from every little blessing. I pray that I may not
forget to watch my habits, and keep track of the hours that culture
and sustain my life. Amen.
MARCH FIFTH
Correggio died 1534.
Howard Pyle born 1853.
Arthur Foote born 1853.
When I have the time so many things I'll do,
To make life happier and more fair
For those whose lives are crowded now with care,
I'll help to lift them from their low despair
When I have time.
When I have time the friend I love so well
Shall know no more the weary, toiling days;
I'll lead his feet in pleasant paths always,
And cheer his heart with words of sweetest praise,
When I have time.
Now is the time! Speed, friend; no longer wait
To scatter loving smiles and words of cheer
To those around whose lives are drear;
They may not need you in the far-off year:
Now is the time.
--Unknown.
Behold now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of
salvation.
--2 Corinthians 6. 2.
Lord God, teach me this day to know that the veriest trifle often
keeps happiness alive, and that the smallest trifle often may kill it.
I pray that now thou wilt put within my heart that touch of love,
which brings consideration for others, and the care that brings the
greatest happiness. Amen.
MARCH SIXTH
Michael Angelo Buonarroti born 1475.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning born 1806.
George du Maurier born 1831.
Beloved, let us love so well
Our work shall still be better for our love,
And still our love be sweeter for our work:
And both commended for the sake of each
By all true workers and true lovers born.
--Elizabeth B. Browning.
Earth saddens, never shall remove,
Affections purely given;
And e'en that mortal grief shall prove
The immortality of love,
And heighten it with heaven.
--Elizabeth B. Browning.
And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body
to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
--1 Corinthians 13. 3.
Loving Father, I pray that I may not try to change the standard of
love by grafting on my own selfishness and infirmities. May I remember
that it is mostly for gratification that love is held to the base in
life; may I follow it to the summits, where it is divine. Amen.
MARCH SEVENTH
Sir Thomas Wilson died 1755.
Sir Edwin Landseer born 1802.
Luther Burbank born 1849.
Earth gets its price for what it gives us;
The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in,
The priest has his fee who comes and shrives us,
We bargain for the graves we lie in;
At the devil's booth are all things sold,
Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;
For a cap and bells our lives we pay,
Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking;
'Tis heaven alone that is given away,
'Tis only God may be had for the asking.
--James Russell Lowell.
We are our own fates. Our own deeds
Are our doomsmen. Man's life was made
Not for men's creeds,
But men's actions.
--Owen Meredith.
The free gift of God is eternal life.
--Romans 6. 23.
Gracious Father, may the world speak to me of thy love, and of thy
gifts of peace and power, which it freely offers. May I not pass by
its great values, and prefer to purchase at a great cost my indolence
and dissipation.
--Amen.
MARCH EIGHTH
Dr. John Fothergill born 1712.
C.P. Cranch born 1813.
Anna Letitia Barbauld died 1825.
O boundless self-contentment voiced
In flying air-born bubbles!
O joy that mocks our sad unrest,
And frowns our earth-born troubles!
The life that floods the happy fields
With song and light and color,
Will shape our lives to richer states
And heap our measures fuller.
--C.P. Cranch.
One may secure and preserve that repose in the turbulence of a great
city--as Shakespeare surely found and preserved it in the London of
the sixteenth century. For repose does not depend on external
conditions; it depends on sound adjustment to tasks, opportunities,
pleasures, and the general order of life.
--Hamilton Mabie.
That we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in godliness and gravity.
--1 Timothy 2.2.
Gracious Father, help me to understand that peace cannot abide in
misery, nor can it stay with every mood. May I be able to overcome the
depression that may keep me in sadness and isolation, and have delight
in the gladness of friends, and live in the peace of strong
resolutions. Amen.
MARCH NINTH
Americus Vespucius born 1451.
Lewis Gonzaga born 1568.
Comte de Mirabeau born 1749.
William Cobbett born 1762.
Edwin Forrest born 1806.
Yet nerve thy spirit to the Proof, and blanch not at thy chosen lot;
The timid good may stand aloof, the sage may frown--yet faint thou not;
Nor heed the shaft too surely cast, the foul and hissing bolt of scorn;
For with thy Side shall dwell, at last, the victory of endurance born.
--William C. Bryant.
You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and
forge yourself into one.
--James Anthony Froude.
Can thy heart endure, or can thy hands be strong, in the days that I
shall deal with thee?
--Ezekiel 22.14.
Loving Father, search me, and if there be any evil ways in me, correct
them, and lead me into the ways everlasting. I pray that I may not be
deformed from selfishness, but with a lowly and expectant heart run
with patience and triumph the race that is set before me. Amen.
MARCH TENTH
Bishop Duppa born 1698.
Professor Playfair born 1748.
Charles Loyson (Père Hyacinthe) born 1827.
So he died by his faith. That is fine--
More than the most of us do.
But stay. Can you add to that line
That he lived for it too?
It is easy to die. Men have died
For a wish or a whim--
From bravado or passion or pride.
Was it hard for him?
But to live: every day to live out
All the truth that he dreamt,
While his friends met his conduct with doubt,
And the world with contempt.
Was it thus that he plodded ahead,
Never turning aside?
Then we'll talk of the life that he led.
Never mind how he died.
--Ernest Crosby.
For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the
Lord Jehovah: wherefore turn yourselves, and live.
--Ezekiel 18. 32.
Almighty God, help me to live an upright life. Give me courage to
abandon useless customs, and seeming duties that keep me from
perfecting my life. Amen.
MARCH ELEVENTH
Torquato Tasso born 1544.
Alexander Mackenzie died 1820.
Henry Drummond died 1897.
There is nothing that is puerile in nature; and he who becomes
impassioned of a flower, a blade of grass, a butterfly's wing, a
nest, a shell, wraps around a small thing that always contains a
great truth. To succeed in modifying the appearance of a flower is
insignificant in itself, if you will; but reflect upon it for
however short a while and it becomes gigantic.
--Maurice Maeterlinck.
O world, as God has made it! All is beauty:
And knowing this, is love, and love is duty:
What further may be sought for or declared?
--Robert Browning.
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not,
neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all
his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
--Matthew 6. 28, 29.
Creator of all, I do know that if I may hold myself close enough, I
can hear restful music through the breeze, and find secrets in the
flowers and leaves. I rejoice that thou hast made the woods and rivers
that thou dost love, so I too might possess them, and not be a tenant
of them only. May I look and study deeper the things which bring me
closer to thee. Amen.
MARCH TWELFTH
Cesare Borgia killed 1507.
Bishop Buckley born 1684.
Simon Newcomb born 1835.
Among the happiest and proudest possessions of a man is his
character. It is a wreath, it is a bank in itself. What is the
essence and life of character? Principle, integrity, independence.
--Bulwer Lytton.
No great genius was ever without some mixture of madness, nor can
anything grand or superior to the voice of common mortals be spoken
except by the agitated soul.
--Aristotle.
Handsome is that handsome does.
--Oliver Goldsmith.
Since thou hast been precious in my sight, and honorable, and I have
loved thee; therefore will I give men in thy stead, and peoples
instead of thy life.
--Isaiah 43. 4.
Lord God, forbid that I should try to supplant character with manners
and worldly goods. May I remember that thou seest me, and knowest me,
and I need no shield from thee. Help me that I may be found acceptable
while thou dost search me to the depths of the soul. Amen.
MARCH THIRTEENTH
Joseph Priestley born 1733.
Esther Johnson (Stella) born 1681.
Regina Maria Roche died 1845.
If stores of dry and learned lore we gain
We keep them in the memory of the brain;
Names, things, and facts--whate'er we knowledge call,
There is the common ledger for them all;
And images on this cold surface traced
Make slight impressions and are soon effaced.
But we've a page more glowing and more bright
On which our friendship and our love to write;
That these may never from the soul depart,
We trust them to the memory of the heart.
There is no dimming--no effacement here;
Each pulsation keeps the record clear;
Warm golden letters all the tablet fill,
Nor lose their luster till the heart stands still.
--Daniel Webster.
I often wonder why it is that we are not all kinder than we are. How
much the world needs it! How easily it is done! How instantaneously
it acts! How infallibly it is remembered!
--Henry Drummond.
Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many
days.
--Ecclesiastes 11. 1.
My Father, thou hast taught me through the gifts of life, that there
is no labor or price too dear to pay for love. I pray to love thee
more that I may have more love to bestow on others. Amen.
MARCH FOURTEENTH
Thomas H. Benton born 1782.
Johann Strauss born 1804.
Victor Emmanuel born 1820.
Rivers to the ocean run,
Nor stay in all their course;
Fire ascending seeks the sun;
Both speed them to their source;
So a soul that's born of God,
Pants to view his glorious face,
Upward tends to his abode,
To rest in his embrace.
--Robert Seagrave.
As the bird trims her to the gale
I trim myself to the storm of time;
I man the rudder, reef the sail,
Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime;
Lowly faithful, banish fear,
The port well worth the cruise is near
And every wave is charmed.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson.
As the hart panteth after the water brooks,
So panteth my soul after thee, O God.
--Psalm 42. 1.
My Father, I pray that if I meet with difficulty, I may not go
backward, nor stand still, and fear to go forward. Unfold to me the
depth and breadth of the ideal and beautiful, that I may not be
content to succeed in the shallowness of life: but may I aspire to the
height of the soul, even if I fail to acquire great things. Amen.
MARCH FIFTEENTH
Julius Cæsar killed B.C. 44.
Peasants War began 1512.
Andrew Jackson, North Carolina, seventh President
United States, born 1767.
John Davenport died 1670.
I will take the responsibility!
--Andrew Jackson.
What ought to be possible for everyone is to arrive at a sort of
harmony of life, to have definite things that they want to do....
The people whom it is hard to fit into any scheme of benevolent
creation are the vague, insignificant, drifting people, whose only
rooted tendency is to do whatever is suggested to them.
--Arthur C. Benson.
Heard are the voices,
Heard are the sages,
The worlds, and the ages;
Choose well! your choice is
Brief and endless.
--Goethe.
Only be strong and very courageous, to observe to do according to
all the law....
--Joshua 1. 7.
Gracious Father, I pray that thou wilt free me from evil thoughts
before they become a habit. Create in me that freedom which makes me
not ashamed to acknowledge the wrong, and which will enable me to
stand for the right. Quicken my thoughts, that they may keep my heart
inspired. Amen.
MARCH SIXTEENTH
James Madison, Virginia, fourth President United
States, born 1751.
Caroline Lucretia Herschel born 1750.
Alexander Watts born 1797.
If we live truly we shall see truly. It is as easy for the strong
man to be strong as it is for the weak to be weak. When we have new
perception we shall gladly disburthen the memory of the hoarded
treasures as old rubbish. When a man lives with God his voice shall
be as sweet as the murmur of the brook and the rustle of the corn.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The tissue of the life to be,
We weave with colors all our own,
And in the field of Destiny
We reap as we have sown.
--Raphael.
Now when they beheld the boldness of Peter and John, and had
perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled;
and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
--Acts 4. 13.
Lord God, quiet me if I am not calm, that my soul may be able to
contemplate and have an opportunity to grow. Help me, that I may be
able even in discouragements to have the true perception of life.
Amen.
MARCH SEVENTEENTH
Saint Patrick's Day.
Ebenezer Elliott born 1781.
Dr. Thomas Chalmers born 1780.
Moncure D. Conway born 1832.
Clara Morris born 1849.
What is really wanted is to light up the spirit
that is within a child. In some sense and in some
effectual degree there is in every child the material
of good work in the world; and in every child, not
only in those who are brilliant, not only in those
who are quick, but in those who are stolid, and even
in those who are dull.
--William Gladstone.
If you make children happy now, you will make
them happy twenty years hence by the memory of
it.
--Kate Douglas Wiggin.
And these words, which I command thee this day,
shall be upon thy heart; and thou shalt teach them
diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them
when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou
walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and
when thou risest up.
--Deuteronomy 6. 6, 7.
Lord God, may I be diligent for the progress of
little children. Show me how I may minister unto
them; and grant that I may be able to see the
necessity of giving, more than I do the pleasure of
receiving. Amen.
MARCH EIGHTEENTH
William Byrd died 1674.
John C. Calhoun born 1782.
Grover Cleveland, New Jersey, twenty-second President
United States, born 1837.
My minde to me a kingdom is:
Such perfect joy therein I finde
As far exceeds all earthly blisse
That God or nature hath assignede.
--William Byrd.
Teach your proud will to make those nobler choices
Which bring to soul and heart enduring health.
Deafen your ears to those contending voices,
Look in your heart, learn your own being's wealth.
Its resources vast, its undiscovered treasure
Waiting for these same idle hands to mine.
Learn that the grandest of Nature's creations
May not be bounded by man's limitations.
--Rose E. Cleveland.
But he is in one mind, and who can turn him?
And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
--Job 23. 13.
Almighty God, grant that I may never succumb to the controlling
influences of the body, and lose the power of my mind. May I guard the
dictates of my heart and keep my mind in command to obey thy will.
Amen.
MARCH NINETEENTH
David Livingstone born 1813.
Alice French (Octave Thanet) born 1850.
William Jennings Bryan born 1860.
Isn't it interesting to get blamed for everything? But I must be
thankful in feeling that I would rather perish than blame another
for my misdeeds and deficiencies.
--David Livingstone.
Criticism is helpful. If a man makes a mistake, criticism enables
him to correct it; if he is unjustly criticized, the criticism helps
him. I have had my share of criticism since I have been in public
life, but it has not prevented me from doing what I thought proper
to do.
--William Jennings Bryan.
For himself hath said, I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I
in any wise forsake thee. So that with good courage we say, The Lord
is my helper; I will not fear.
--Hebrews 13. 5, 6.
Loving Father, I thank thee that thou art the same yesterday, to-day,
and forever; and I am glad I cannot receive from thee the slights and
wounds that I may give or receive from my friends. May I be
considerate and more forgiving, and by my sincerity be worthy of the
purpose which I pursue. Amen.
MARCH TWENTIETH
Publius Ovidius (Ovid) born B.C. 43.
Sir Isaac Newton died 1727.
Karl August Nicander born 1799.
Henrik Ibsen born 1828.
Whoever is not with me in the essential things of life, him I no
longer know--I owe him no consideration.
--Henrik Ibsen.
Only he who lives in truth finds it. The deepest truth is not born
of conscious striving, but comes in the quiet hour when a noble
nature gives itself into the keeping of life, to suffer, to feel, to
think, and to act as it is moved by a wisdom not its own.
--Hamilton Mabie.
Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to
the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the
prize of the high calling of God.
--Philippians 3. 13, 14.
Lord God, I thank thee for the silent ways of revelation which bring
hopeful communion with thee. Help me to be composed, that my life may
not create a noise and my soul miss the messages that come from the
depths of truth and love. Amen.
MARCH TWENTY-FIRST
Johann Sebastian Bach born 1685.
Archbishop Cranmer burnt at Oxford 1556.
Jean Paul Richter born 1763.
Henry Kirke White born 1785.
Go through life with soft influences breathing around thee. Keep thy
heart high above the many-colored mist of earth and above its storm
clouds.
--Jean Paul Richter.
Recollection is the only paradise from which we cannot be turned
out.
--Jean Paul Richter.
Come, Disappointment, come!
Thou art not stern to me;
Sad monitress! I own thy sway,
A votary sad in every day,
I bend my knee to thee,
From sun to sun
My race will run;
I only bow, and say, My God, thy will be done!
--Henry Kirke White.
If I say, I will forget my complaint,
I will put off my sad countenance, and be of good cheer.
--Job 9. 27.
Gracious Father, help me to respond cheerfully when called upon to
give. May I never repent of tenderness which others fail to
appreciate, but may I be glad of all that I give and for all I
receive. Amen.
MARCH TWENTY-SECOND
Sir Anthony Vandyke born 1599.
Caroline Sheridan Norton born 1808.
Johann Goethe died 1832.
Dr. Farrar, Dean of Canterbury, died 1903.
Rosa Bonheur born 1822.
Red Love still rules the day, white Faith enfolds the night,
And hope, green-mantled, leads the way by the walls of the City of Light.
Therefore I walk as one who sees the joy shine through
Of the other Life behind our life, like the stars behind the blue.
--Dean Farrar.
There can be no greater delight than is experienced by a man who, by
his own unaided resources, frees himself from the consequences of
error: Heaven looks down with satisfaction upon such a spectacle.
--Goethe.
Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold a
land that reacheth afar.
--Isaiah 33. 17.
Lord God, help me to remember that I may not only be forgiven for my
transgression, but with thy help I may be led away from the wrong. May
I be content to follow where thou dost lead. Amen.
MARCH TWENTY-THIRD
Pierre Savant La Place born 1749.
Schuyler Colfax born 1823.
Richard A. Proctor born 1837.
Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves
together; that at length they may emerge, full-formed and majestic,
into the daylight of life.... Nay, in thy own mean perplexities, do
thou thyself but hold thy tongue for one day; on the morrow how much
clearer are thy purposes and duties!
--Thomas Carlyle.
Deliberate much before you say and do anything; for it will not be
in your power to recall what is said or done.
--Epictetus.
Set a watch, O Jehovah, before my mouth;
Keep the door of my lips.
--Psalm 141. 3.
My Lord, make me a lover of the truth. Make me careful of my thoughts,
and the words I would speak, that I may not think selfishly and speak
cruelly, but keep myself holy unto thee. Amen.
MARCH TWENTY-FOURTH
Queen Elizabeth died 1603.
Fanny Crosby born 1820.
Henry W. Longfellow died 1882.
Sir Edwin Arnold died 1904.
Every quivering tongue of flame
Seems to murmur some great name,
Seems to say to me "Aspire!"
No endeavor is in vain;
Its reward is in the doing,
And the rapture of pursuing
Is the prize of vanquished gain.
--Henry W. Longfellow.
Never be sad or desponding
If thou hast faith to believe;
Grace for the duties before thee
Ask of thy God and receive.
--Fanny Crosby.
I spread forth my hands unto thee:
My soul thirsteth after thee, as a weary land.
--Psalm 143. 6.
Almighty God, make me conscious of my weaknesses, and make me ashamed
of my indulgences. Give me a victory over self; and may I consider
more what I put in my life. May I be eager for that which will inspire
me for greater aspirations. Amen.
MARCH TWENTY-FIFTH
Archbishop John Williams born 1582.
Joachim Murat born 1771.
Anna Seward died 1809.
How awful is the thought of the wonders underground,
Of the mystic changes wrought in the silent, dark profound!
How each thing upward tends by necessity decreed,
And the world's support depends on the shooting of a seed!
The summer's in her ark, and this sunny-pinioned day
Is commissioned to remark whether Winter holds her sway:
Go back, thou dove of peace, with myrtle on thy wing,
Say that floods and tempests cease, and the world is ripe for Spring.
--Horace Smith.
I should never have made my success in life if I had not bestowed
upon the least thing I have ever undertaken the same attention and
care that I have bestowed upon the greatest.
--Charles Dickens.
Gather up the broken pieces which remain over, that nothing be lost.
--John 6. 12.
Loving Father, cause me to learn from nature that to have perfection I
must be attentive at the beginning of growth. Help me to select with
care the soil wherein I plant; and to weed and cultivate my life that
it may grow to beauty and usefulness. Amen.
MARCH TWENTY-SIXTH
Konrad von Gesner born 1516.
W. E. H. Lecky born 1838.
Gustave Guillaumet born 1840.
Walt Whitman died 1892.
Every man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him, but a
day comes when he begins to care that he do not cheat his neighbor.
Then all goes well. He has changed his market-cart into a chariot of
the sun.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson.
He that is unacquainted with the nature of the world must be at a
loss to know where he is. And he that cannot tell the ends he was
made for is ignorant both of himself and the world too.
--Marcus Aurelius.
Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth.
--2 Timothy 2. 15.
Almighty God, may I not only approve of justice and kindness, but
practice it. Grant that I may be attentive to the call of work and
steadfast in completing it. May I be sincere to those who are dear to
me, and never falter in my support to those who are dependent upon me.
Amen.
MARCH TWENTY-SEVENTH
Alfred Vigny born 1799.
General A. W. Greely born 1847.
Sir Gilbert Scott died 1878.
It takes great strength to bring your life up square
With your accepted thought and hold it there:
Resisting the inertia that drags it back
From new attempts, to the old habit's track.
It is so easy to drift back, to sink.
So hard to live abreast of what you think.
--Charlotte Perkins Stetson.
If a person had delivered up your body to anyone whom he met in his
way, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in
delivering up your own mind to be disconcerted and confounded by
anyone who happens to give you ill language.
--Epictetus.
Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly
vision.
--Acts 26. 19.
My Father, my soul sinks with shame when I think of the great moments
that I have given over to mean little things. Help me that I may
reckon more on the value of time, and live not to tolerate life, but
to have a great need for it, that day by day I may have a deeper
consciousness of its appropriate use. Amen.
MARCH TWENTY-EIGHTH
Santi d'Urbino Raphael born 1483.
Sir Thomas Smith born 1514.
Margaret (Peg) Woffington died 1760.
They may not need me,
Yet they might;
I'll let my heart be
Just in sight--
A smile so small
As mine might be
Precisely their
Necessity.
--Unknown.
You hear that boy laughing?--you think he's all fun;
But the angels laugh too at the good he has done;
The children laugh loud as they troop to his call,
And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing,
be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to
another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other.
--Ephesians 4. 31.
Lord God, I pray that I may be fair, and not pass judgment on those
whom I like or those whom I dislike, and so bring unhappy regrets. May
I remember that, though hasty judgment often may be temporary, the
gain or loss of a friend may be permanent. Amen.
MARCH TWENTY-NINTH
Dr. John Lightfoot born 1602.
John Tyler, Virginia, tenth President United States,
born 1790.
Amelia Barr born 1831.
The year's at the spring
And the day's at the morn;
The hillside's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing:
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his heaven:
All's well with the world.
--Robert Browning.
Dear Lord and Father of mankinds
Forgive our feverish ways;
Reclothe us in our rightful mind;
In purer lives thy service find,
In deeper reverence praise.
--John G. Whittier.
In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.
--Isaiah 30. 15.
Lord God, I beseech thee to give me the strength which endures. Grant
that I may have the ceaseless content which is secured by choosing and
continuing in the right way. From the wealth of each day renew my
hope, and quiet my soul with the calm of thy peace. Amen.
MARCH THIRTIETH
Sir Henry Wotton born 1568.
Archbishop Somner born 1606.
John Fiske born 1842.
John Constable died 1837.
I said, "Let us walk in the field."
He said, "Nay walk in the town."
I said, "There are no flowers there."
He said, "No flowers but a crown."
I said, "But the air is thick,
And the fogs are veiling the sun."
He answered, "Yet souls are sick
And souls in the dark undone."
I cast one look at the field,
Then set my face to the town.
He said: "My child, do you yield?
Will ye leave the flowers for the crown?"
Then into his hand went mine
And into my heart came He,
And I walked in a light divine
The path I had feared to see.
--George Macdonald.
Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of
Jehovah your God.
--Jeremiah 26. 13.
Eternal God, teach me the way of a complete and unbroken trust. In my
disappointments, and in my devotions, may my faith and hope be as
immortal as my soul. May I listen for thy voice and answer thy call.
Amen.
MARCH THIRTY-FIRST
Ludwig von Beethoven died 1827.
Joseph Francis Haydn born 1732.
Andrew Lang born 1844.
Charlotte Brontë died 1855.
The Great Being unseen, but all-present, who in his beneficence
desires only our welfare, watches the struggle between good and evil
in our hearts, and waits to see whether we obey his voice, heard in
the whispers of conscience, or lend an ear to the Spirit Evil, which
seeks to lead us astray. Rough and steep is the path indicated by
divine suggestion; mossy and declining the green way along which
temptation strews flowers. Then conscience whispers, "Do what you
feel is right, obey me, and I will plant for you firm footing."
--Charlotte Brontë.
God help us do our duty, and not shrink,
And trust in heaven humbly for the rest.
--Owen Meredith.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have
set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse:
therefore choose life.
--Deuteronomy 30. 19.
My Father, as I review my life I am impressed how accurately my deeds
have copied my thoughts. And though I have failed the so often, yet I
pray that thou wilt accept my yearnings, to think and work for the
best in every day. Amen.
APRIL
God's April is coming up the hill, and the noisy winds are quieting
down, subdued by the fragrance of the wild flowers on the way. Lest
we miss the richness of life, while pursuing the world, God
continues to pour out precious fragrance from his storehouse, and
unconsciously, our souls are lulled to peace through the sweetness
of April days.
--M.B.S.
APRIL FIRST
All Fools' Day.
William Harvey born 1578.
Prince von Bismarck born 1815.
Edwin A. Abbey born 1852.
Agnes Repplier born 1858.
It is a peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others,
and to forget his own.
--Cicero.
A man may be as much a fool from the want of sensibility as the want
of sense.
--Mrs. Jameson.
He that knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool: shun
him.
--Arabian Maxim.
Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit?
There is more hope of a fool than of him.
--Proverbs 26. 12.
Almighty God, grant that I may be spared the allurements of deceptive
happiness which leaves weary days. I ask for wisdom that I may not
speak foolishly, think foolishly, or act foolishly; and may I not be
detained by the foolishness of others, but pursue my work, whether it
be far or near. Amen.
APRIL SECOND
Charlemagne born 742.
Thomas Jefferson, Virginia, third President United
States, born 1743.
Hans Andersen born 1805.
Frederic A. Bartholdi born 1834.
Emile Zola born 1840.
When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself public
property.
--Thomas Jefferson.
We hold these truths to be self-evident--that all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.
--Declaration of Independence.
Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand?
--Sir Walter Scott.
Render therefore unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's.
--Matthew 22. 21.
My Lord, I thank thee for the wisdom and love that is spoken through
the lives of strong men and women. Grant that I may be willing to
learn of them, and gladly serve where I am needed, remembering that
thou art Lord of all. Amen.
APRIL THIRD
George Herbert born 1593.
Washington Irving born 1783.
Edward Everett Hale born 1822.
John Burroughs born 1837.
Sum up at night what thou hast done by day
And in the morning what thou hast to do:
Dress and undress thy soul: mark the decay
And growth of it; if with thy watch that too
Be dowl, then wind up both; since we shall be
Most surely judged, make thy accounts agree.
--George Herbert.
To look up and not down,
To look forward and not back,
To look out and not in, and
To lend a hand.
--Edward E. Hale.
There is a healthy hardiness about real dignity that never dreads
contact and communion with others, however humble.
--Washington Irving.
I put on righteousness, and it clothed me:
My justice was as a robe and a diadem.
--Job 29. 14.
My Lord, I pray that I may always be found clothed in love and
kindness. Make me worthy to minister to those who may be dependent on
me, and whether they be rich or poor, high or low, may I try to help
them. Amen.
APRIL FOURTH
Oliver Goldsmith died 1774.
Dorothea Dix born 1802.
James Freeman Clarke born 1810.
"The greatest object in the universe," said a certain philosopher,
"is a good man struggling with adversity"; yet there is still a
greater, which is the good man who comes to relieve it.
--Oliver Goldsmith.
Yet I believe that somewhere, soon or late,
A peace will fall
Upon the angry reaches of my mind;
A peace initiate
In some heroic hour when I behold
A friend's long-quested triumph, or unbind
The tressed gold
From a child's laughing face. I still believe--
So much believe.
--J. Drinkwater.
But whoso hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need,
and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God
abide in him?
--1 John 3. 17.
Almighty God, may I have a liberal heart. Grant that I may feel the
needs of thy children in all lands; and may I be willing to give of
thy blessings, as I am ready to receive them. May my tribute be not
only of tender thoughts and kind words, but may I give of myself, and
of what I have, as thou hast through love and wisdom done for me.
Amen.
APRIL FIFTH
Elihu Yale born 1648.
Sir Henry Havelock born 1795.
Frank Stockton (Francis) born 1834.
Algernon Charles Swinburne born 1837.
As morning hears before it run
The music of the mounting sun,
And laughs to watch his trophies won
From darkness, and her hosts undone,
And all the night becomes a breath,
Nor dreams that fear should hear and flee
The summer menace of the sea,
So hear our hope what life may be,
And know it not for death.
--Algernon Charles Swinburne.
I came from God, and I'm going back to God, and I won't have any
gaps of death in the middle of my life.
--George MacDonald.
The hope of the righteous shall be gladness;
But the expectation of the wicked shall perish.
--Proverbs 10. 28.
Lord God, teach me the way and show me the light of the eternal day;
and may the vision fill my soul as I take courage and follow it. May I
not be fearful of what may be provided, but remember that before the
creation of life thou didst have a purpose in death. May I be
trustful. Amen.
APRIL SIXTH
Albert Dürer died 1528.
James Mill born 1773.
Jean Baptiste Rousseau born 1669.
Even if the sacrifices which are made to duty and virtue are painful
to make, they are well repaid by the sweet recollections which they
leave at the bottom of the heart.
--Jean B. Rousseau.
I am the man of a thousand loves,
A thousand loves have I;
And all my loves are white-winged doves,
That into my soul would fly.
I am the man of a thousand friends
Of tuneful memory;
And each of them spends the delicate ends
Of a brilliant day with me.
And all my gifts are magical words
That sing sweet songs to me;
And the sensitive words are caroling birds
In the garden of imagery.
--Edwin Leibfreed.
Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life.
--Revelation 2. 10.
Loving Father, I bless thee for thy love and ministry. May I enter
into a broader conception of sharing thy gifts. May I not seek thy
blessings to keep, but to use for renewed inspiration. Amen.
APRIL SEVENTH
Saint Francis Xavier born 1506.
William Wordsworth born 1770.
William Ellery Channing born 1780.
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The child is Father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
--William Wordsworth.
A self-controlled mind is a free mind, and freedom is power. I call
that mind free which jealously guards its intellectual rights and
powers. I call that mind free which resists the bondage of habit,
which does not live on its old virtues, but forgets what is behind,
and rejoices to pour itself forth in fresh and higher exertions.
--William Ellery Channing.
That ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new
man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness
of truth.
--Ephesians 4. 23, 24.
Lord God, give me the power to control my mind and heart, that I may
not be a slave to habits that may keep me from eternal love and
blessedness. May I have sympathy and compassion for others, and
cherish thy tenderness and mercy as I hold it in my daily life. Amen.
APRIL EIGHTH
Petrarch crowned 1341.
William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, born 1580.
David Rittenhouse born 1732.
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life from aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
--Emily Dickinson.
The most solid comfort one can fall back upon is the thought that
the business of one's life is to help in some small way to reduce
the sum of ignorance, degradation, and misery on the face of this
beautiful earth.
--George Eliot.
Make full my joy, that ye be of the same mind, having the same love,
being of one accord, of one mind; doing nothing through faction or
through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting other
better than himself.
--Philippians 2. 2, 3.
My Father, take away the spirit, if I may be inclined to keep the
best, and to be always seeking my portion. May I have the desire to
share with those who have less, and to give to those who may have
more, whether it be of bread or love. Amen.
APRIL NINTH
Fisher Ames born 1758.
John Opie died 1807.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti died 1882.
Gather a shell from the strown beach
And listen at its lips; they sigh
The same desire and mystery,
The echo of the whole sea's speech.
And all mankind is this at heart--
Not anything but what thou art:
And Earth, Sea, Man are all in each.
--Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
And as, in sparkling majesty, a star
Gilds the bright summit of some glory cloud;
Brightening the half-veil'd face of heaven afar;
So when dark thoughts my boding spirit shroud,
Sweet Hope! celestial influence round me shed,
Waving the silver pinions o'er my head.
--John Keats.
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
that ye may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
--Romans 15. 13.
Almighty God, may I ever know the generous glow that comes with an
overwhelming desire to cultivate the soul. With hope may I find the
way through the darkness that leads to immortality, even if I may have
to experience the weariness that may accompany it. Amen.
APRIL TENTH
Hugo Grotius born 1583.
William Hazlitt born 1778.
General Lew Wallace born 1827.
General William Booth born 1829.
The essence of happy living is never to find life dull, never to
feel the ugly weariness which comes of overstrain; to be fresh,
cheerful, leisurely, sociable, unhurried, well-balanced. It seems to
me impossible to be these things unless we have time to consider
life a little, to deliberate, to select, to abstain.
--Arthur C. Benson.
Four things come not back--the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past
life, the neglected opportunity.
--William Hazlitt.
Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling
and election sure.
--2 Peter 1. 10.
My Father, may I not miss my work through indifference and feel it is
thy neglect of me. May I be reminded that the enrichment of life comes
through persistency and being consistent, and may not be found on the
idle paths of extravagant ways. Help me to take up my work with a
willing spirit and give my best to it. Amen.
APRIL ELEVENTH
George Canning born 1770.
Edward Everett born 1794.
Donald G. Mitchell (Ik Marvel) born 1822.
The safe path to excellence and success in every calling, is that of
appropriate preliminary education, diligent application to learn the
art of assiduity and practicing it.
--Edward Everett.
That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life shall be destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete.
Behold, we know not anything:
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last--far off--at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring.
--Alfred Tennyson.
And we desire that each one of you may show the same diligence unto
the fullness of hope even to the end: that ye be not sluggish, but
imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises.
--Hebrews 6. 11, 12.
Lord God, help me in all my circumstances, and be with me in my daily
work. Help me in my efforts, as I endeavor to attain, and may my will
be hid in thine. Amen.
APRIL TWELFTH
Edward Young died 1765.
Edward Bird born 1772.
Henry Clay born 1777.
I would rather be right than be President.
--Henry Clay.
Who does the best his circumstances allow
Does well, acts nobly; angels could no more.
--Edward Young.
Pedigree haz no more to do in making a man aktually grater than he
iz than a pekok's feather in his hat haz in making him aktually
taller. When the world stands in need of an arestokrat, natur
pitches one into it, and furnishes him papers without enny flaw in
them.
--Josh Billings.
Cast not away therefore your boldness, which hath great recompense
of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, having done the will
of God, ye may receive the promise.
--Hebrews 10. 35, 36.
Lord God, help me to select with care the site, the plans, and the
foundation of my life. May I use the best material; and may it be
worthy of a permanent home. Amen.
APRIL THIRTEENTH
Madame Jeanne Guyon born 1648.
Dr. Thomas Beddoes born 1760.
James Harper born 1795.
If there were dreams to sell,
Merry and sad to tell,
And the crier rang the bell,
What would you buy?
A cottage lone and still
With bowers nigh,
Shadowy, my woes to still,
Until I die.
Such pearl from Life's fresh crown
Fain would I shake me down,
Were dreams to have at will
This would best heal my ill,
This would I buy.
--Thomas Lovell Beddoes.
I pray you, bear me hence From forth the noise and rumor of the
field Where I may think the remnant of my thoughts In peace, and
part this body and my soul With contemplation and devout desires.
--William Shakespeare.
Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile.
--Mark 6. 31.
Lord God, help me to bear in mind that to step aside and safeguard the
mind in contemplation is a safe guard to the soul. Amen.
APRIL FOURTEENTH
Dr. George Gregory born 1754.
George Frederic Handel died 1759.
Horace Bushnell born 1802.
Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies--
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower--but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
--Alfred Tennyson.
So much is history stranger than fiction, and so true it is Nature
has caprices which Art dares not imitate.
--Thomas Macaulay.
Nature is the face of God. He appears to us through it, and we can
read his thoughts in it.
--Victor Hugo.
Many, O Jehovah my God, are the wonderful works
which thou hast done,
And thy thoughts which are to us-ward.
--Psalm 40. 5.
Eternal God, I thank thee for the seasons which bring abundance and
beauty. I thank thee for thy loving care, which is over all and
forever. May I behold thy works and make thee a very present help for
all my needs, and perceive the joy of thy love through the greatness
of the earth. Amen.
APRIL FIFTEENTH
Emile Souvestre born 1806.
John Lothrop Motley born 1814.
Henry James born 1843.
Abraham Lincoln died 1865.
Two thirds of human existence are wasted in hesitation, and the last
third in repentance.
--Emile Souvestre.
And, having thus chosen our course, let us renew our trust in God
and go forward without fear and with manly hearts.
--Abraham Lincoln.
The barriers are not erected which shall say to aspiring talent,
"Thus far and no further."
--Beethoven.
Be strong and of good courage.
--Joshua 1. 6.
Almighty God, I pray that I may always be alive to my opportunities,
but may I never leave others impoverished by taking advantage of them.
May my prosperity be conducted with my eyes open, guarding what I give
and receive, that my possessions may remain valuable through life.
Amen.
APRIL SIXTEENTH
Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax, born 1661.
Charles W. Peale born 1741.
Sir John Franklin born 1786.
Weary of myself and sick of asking
What I am, and what I ought to be,
At the vessel's prow I stand, which bears me
Forward, forward, o'er the starlit sea
O air-born voice! long since severely clear,
A cry like thine in my own heart I hear.
Resolve to be thyself: and know that he
Who finds himself, loses his misery.
--Matthew Arnold.
This above all to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou can'st not then be false to any man.
--William Shakespeare.
Let thine eyes look right on,
And let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
Make level the path of thy feet,
And let all thy ways be established.
--Proverbs 4. 25, 26.
My Father, give me a sense of nearness to thee when I may be faltering
from weariness in well doing. May I hold to my determinations. Help me
to know what is useless, that I may not give unnecessary energy, and
to know what is worth while, that I may acquire strength through the
power of truth. Amen.
APRIL SEVENTEENTH
Bishop Benjamin Hoadley died 1761.
Benjamin Franklin died 1790.
William G. Simms born 1806.
Shall I ask the brave soldier who fights at my side,
In the cause of mankind, if our creeds agree?
Shall I give up the friend I have valued and tried,
If he kneel not before the same altar as me?
--Thomas Moore.
I met a little Elf-man once,
Down where the lilies blow.
I asked him why he was so small
And why he didn't grow.
He slightly frowned, and with his eye
He looked me through and through.
"I'm quite as big for me," said he
"As you are big for you."
--John Kendrick Bangs.
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their
own sight!
--Isaiah 5. 21.
Loving Father, grant that I may not barter love with formalities, nor
sacrifice love for customs. But, may I have a fellowship that is true
and sincere, and that may be counted on, though all and for all. Amen.
APRIL EIGHTEENTH
Lord Jeffreys died 1689.
George Henry Lewes born 1817.
Sir Francis Baring born 1740.
Nor can I count him happiest who has never
Been forced with his own hand his chains to sever,
And for himself find out the way divine;
He never knew the aspirer's glorious pains,
He never earned the struggler's priceless gains.
--James Russell Lowell.
There is not time for hate, O wasteful friend.
Put hate away until the ages end.
Have you an ancient wound? Forget the wrong--
Out in my West a forest loud with song
Towers high and green over a field of snow,
Over a glacier buried far below.
--Edwin Markham.
Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold on the life eternal,
whereunto thou wast called, and didst confess the good confession in
the sight of many witnesses.
--1 Timothy 6. 12.
Lord God, help me to realize the power of my life. I feel ashamed and
alarmed when I think of the grievous wrongs I may have done for greed.
May I have delight in the struggles I have made for the ways of
righteousness. Make me careful to avoid the things that debase life.
May I aspire for the highest and best. Amen.
APRIL NINETEENTH
Roger Sherman born 1721.
Lord Byron died 1824.
Lord Beaconsfield (Disraeli) died 1881.
Charles Darwin died 1882.
The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his
opportunity when it comes. --Disraeli.
One sees, and the other does not see; one enjoys
an unspeakable pleasure, and the other loses that
pleasure which is as free to him as the air....
The whole outward world is the kingdom of the
observant eye. He who enters into any part of
that kingdom to possess it has a store of pure enjoyment
in life which is literally inexhaustible and
immeasurable. His eyes alone will give him a life
worth living.
--Charles W. Eliot.
Having eyes, see ye not?
--Mark 8. 18.
My Father, help me to realize that I cannot feel the joy that breathes
through the early morning unless I am with it. May I see distinctly
the glory of to-day. Help me to be watchful and keep my spirit awake,
that I may receive thy revelations. Amen.
APRIL TWENTIETH
Marcus Aurelius born 121.
Elizabeth Barton (Maid of Kent) executed 1534
Sir Francis T. Baring born 1796.
Alice Cary born 1820.
Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to throw away. Death
stands at your elbow. Be good for something while you live and it is
in your power.
--Marcus Aurelius.
And O, my heart, my heart,
Be careful to go strewing in and out
The way with good deeds, lest it come about
That when thou shalt depart,
No low lamenting tongue be found to say,
The world is poorer since thou went'st away
--Alice Cary.
A good man prolongs his life; to be able to enjoy one's past life is
to live twice.
--Martial.
The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance.
--Psalm 112. 6.
Heavenly Father, thou hast made my life dear; forgive me if I have
made dearer the things that I have put around it. Many days have been
used for costly things that have faded and are laid aside. May I
realize the meaning of days that have been lost. Make me more
concerned for what I put in the days to come. Amen.
APRIL TWENTY-FIRST
Peter F. Abelard died 1142.
Friedrich Fröbel born 1782.
Reginald Heber born 1783.
James Martineau born 1805.
Charlotte Brontë born 1816.
Henry Shaw (Josh Billings) born 1818.
Education should lead and guide man to clearness concerning himself
and in himself, to peace with nature, and to unity with God.
--Friedrich Fröbel.
When spring unlocks the flowers, to paint the
laughing soil;
When summer's balmy showers refresh the mower's
toil;
When winter binds in frosty chains the fallow and
the flood,
In God the earth rejoiceth still, and owns its maker
good.
--Reginald Heber.
A memory without a blot or contamination must be an inexhaustible
source of pure refreshment.
--Charlotte Brontë.
For ye are all sons of light, and sons of the day: we are not of the
night, nor of darkness.
--1 Thessalonians 5. 5.
Lord of light, thou art the light of my life. May I make thee the joy
and light of my soul. Call me to where it is clear and high, that I
may see above the mist. May I not weary in climbing to reach thee in
the high places. Amen.
APRIL TWENTY-SECOND
Henry Fielding born 1707.
Immanuel Kant born 1724.
Philip James Bailey born 1816.
We live in deeds, not years: in thoughts, not breaths:
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
--Philip James Bailey.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations. The only
sin is limitation. As soon as you once come up with a man's
limitations it is all over with him.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson.
But he that looketh into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and so
continueth, being not a hearer that forgeteth but a doer that
worketh, this man shall be blessed in his doing.
--James 1. 25.
Lord God, help me to break away from habits that fasten me in the ruts
of life. Draw me out to thy broad way, where there are no limits to
thy wonderful works, that I may expand my life. Amen.
APRIL TWENTY-THIRD
William Shakespeare born 1564, died 1616.
Cervantes died 1616.
J.M.W. Turner born 1775.
James Buchanan, Pennsylvania, fifteenth President
United States, born 1791.
James Anthony Froude born 1818.
Thomas Nelson Page born 1853.
Edwin Markham born 1852.
My crown is in my heart, not on my head:
Not decked with diamonds and Indian Stones,
Nor to be seen. My crown is called content.
A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.
--William Shakespeare.
At the heart of the cyclone tearing the sky
And flinging the clouds and the towers by
Is a place of central calm:
So here in the roar of mortal things,
I have a place where my spirit sings,
In the hollow of God's Palm.
--Edwin Markham.
Rest in Jehovah, and wait patiently for him:
Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way.
--Psalm 37. 7.
Almighty God, my heart beats quicker and the desire for thy care grows
stronger when I remember thy promises are given for all eternity. May
I be grateful and contented with thy love and care. Amen.
APRIL TWENTY-FOURTH
Edmund Cartwright born 1743.
Anthony Trollope born 1815.
Arthur Christopher Benson born 1862.
By religion I mean the power, whatever it be, which makes a man
choose what is hard rather than what is easy; what is lofty and
noble rather than what is mean and selfish; that puts courage into
timorous hearts and gladness into clouded spirits.
--Arthur C. Benson.
For all noble things the time is long and the way rude.... For every
start and struggle of impatience there shall be so much attendant
failure.... But the fire which Patience carries in her own hand is
that truly stolen from heaven--unquenchable incense of life.
--John Ruskin.
But they that wait for Jehovah shall renew their strength; they
shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be
weary; they shall walk, and not faint.
--Isaiah 40. 31.
My Father, I pray that I may not be indifferent to the call of my
soul. May I not seek to serve the disappearing and neglect to make
life worthy. Acquaint me with the permanent values of life. Make clear
the way of strength, that I may not be misled by ease and carried to
weakness. May my life be ennobled by the power of my possessions.
Amen.
APRIL TWENTY-FIFTH
Oliver Cromwell born 1599.
John Keble born 1792.
Alexander Duff born 1806.
Guglielmo Marconi born 1874.
Mrs. Burton Harrison (Constance Cary) born 1846.
Samuel Wesley died 1735.
Truly God follows us with encouragements: let him not lose his
blessing upon us! They come in season, and with all the advantages
of heartening, as if God should say, "Up and be doing, and I will
stand by you and help you!" There is nothing to be feared but our
own sin and sloth.
--Oliver Cromwell.
Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear,
It is not night if thou be near;
O may no earthborn cloud arise
To hide thee from thy servants' eyes.
--John Keble.
For Jehovah God is a sun and a shield:
Jehovah will give grace and glory;
No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
--Psalm 84. 11.
My Father, may I not err in choosing thy benefits, nor fail from the
neglect to use them. Make me appreciative of all thy gifts, and,
through thy wisdom and power, may I find the best use for them. Amen.
APRIL TWENTY-SIXTH
David Hume born 1711.
Daniel Defoe died 1791.
Charles F. Browne (Artemus Ward) born 1834.
How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life of man! and by
what secret different springs are the affections hurried about, as
different circumstances present! To-day we love what to-morrow we
hate; to-day we seek what to-morrow we shun; to-day we desire what
to-morrow we fear; nay, even tremble at the apprehension of.
--Daniel Defoe.
Now don't do nothin' which isn't your Fort, for ef you do you'll
find yourself splashin' round in the Kanawl, figgeratively speakin'.
--Artemus Ward.
Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there
are diversities of ministrations, and the same Lord. And there are
diversities of workings, but the same God, who worketh all things in
all.
--1 Corinthians 12. 4-6.
Lord forbid that I should fear to change for the better or be so
pleased with myself and the things which surround me that I feel no
need for a higher life. Make me dissatisfied if I am not trying to
grow in truth and to live in noble deeds. Amen.
APRIL TWENTY-SEVENTH
Samuel Morse born 1791.
Lajos Kossuth born 1802.
Herbert Spencer born 1820.
Ulysses S. Grant, Ohio, eighteenth President United
States, born 1822.
Ralph Waldo Emerson died 1882.
People who are dishonest, or rash, or stupid will inevitably suffer
the penalties of dishonesty, or rashness, or stupidity.
--Herbert Spencer.
Abide in the simple and noble regions of thy life; obey thy heart.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Well, then, we must cut our way out.
--General Grant.
Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.
--Ephesians 6. 13.
Loving Father, help me to live a simple and noble life. Grant that I
may have the blessedness that comes through peace, and escape the
misery that comes from cruelty and untruth. Through my life may what I
reap show that I have been careful in choosing and cultivating what I
have sown. Amen.
APRIL TWENTY-EIGHTH
Charles Cotton born 1630.
James Monroe, Virginia, fifth President United
States, born 1758.
Anthony Ashley, Earl of Shaftesbury, born 1801.
During a long life I have proved that not one kind word ever spoken,
not one kind deed ever done, but sooner or later returns to bless
the giver, and becomes a chain, binding men with golden bands to the
throne of God.
--Earl of Shaftesbury.
There's many a time when the bitterest thing
Is said without reason, and God knows
The courage it takes to suffer the sting,
By hiding the wounds that the heart shows.
There's many a sob we bravely keep down
For the sake of old times revered so,
There's many a head with thorns for a crown
Where kisses would soon make the heart glow.
--Edwin Leibfreed.
So shalt thou know wisdom to be unto thy soul;
If thou hast found it, then shall there be a reward,
And thy hope shall not be cut off.
--Proverbs 24. 14.
My Father, if I am to-day without happiness, may I go in search of it.
Help me to remember that the will thou hast given me to overcome evil
with good I may use to overcome misery with happiness. Make me careful
that I may not be trapped by selfishness as I look for joy. May I
delight in the sweet sensations that are felt in having consideration
for others, and may I make kindness a daily habit. Amen.
APRIL TWENTY-NINTH
Michel Ruyter died 1676.
Abbe Charles de St. Pierre died 1743.
Matthew Vassar born 1792.
Edward Rowland Sill born 1841.
Never yet was a springtime,
Late though lingered the snow,
That the sap stirred not at the whisper
Of the south wind, sweet and low;
Never yet was a springtime
When the buds forgot to blow.
Ever the wings of the summer
Are folded under the mold;
Life that has known no dying,
Is Love's, to have and to hold,
Till, sudden, the burgeoning Easter!
The song! the green and the gold![1]
--Margaret E. Sangster.
In tracing the shade, I shall find out the sun.
--Owen Meredith.
All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but
grievous; yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that
have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness.
--Hebrews 12. 11.
Almighty God, grant that as the fulfillment of the green comes to the
withered grass, so thy restoring may come to me with the glory of life
that comes in the resurrection of the soul. I trust thee to bring me
out of winter's seal, that I may help make the spring. Amen.
[Footnote 1: From Easter Bells. Copyright, 1897, by Harper &
Brothers.]
APRIL THIRTIETH
Chevalier de Bayard killed 1524.
Sir John Lubbock born 1834.
James Montgomery died 1854.
David Livingstone died 1873.
We scatter seeds with careless hands,
And dream we ne'er shall see them more;
But for a thousand years
Their fruit appears
In weeds that mar the land.
--John Keble
And there came up a sweet perfume
From the unseen flowers below,
Like the savor of virtuous deeds,
Of deeds done long ago.
--Mrs. Southey.
Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of pure nard, very precious,
and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair:
and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
--John 12. 3.
My Father, I pray that it may be mine to have the recollection of
happy deeds, and not the memory of unkept promises. Help me to
remember that one act is worth a thousand intentions, and that memory
is the storehouse that supplies old age. Make me careful of my memory,
that it may not be burdened. Amen.
MAY
I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in the embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit tree wild;
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast-fading violets covered up in leaves;
And mid-May's wildest child,
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.
--John Keats.
Such a starved bank of moss
Till that May morn,
Blue ran the flash across:
Violets were born.
--Robert Browning.
MAY FIRST
Arbor Day.
Joseph Addison born 1672.
Arthur, Duke of Wellington, born 1769.
If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend,
experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope
your guardian genius.
--Joseph Addison.
He who plants a tree, he plants love;
Tents of coolness spreading out above
Wayfarers, he may not live to see.
Gifts that grow are best;
Hands that bless are blest;
Plant-life does the rest!
Heaven and earth help him who plants a tree,
And his work his own reward shall be.
--Lucy Larcom.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water,
That bringeth forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also doth not wither;
And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
--Psalm 1. 3.
My Creator, give me joyful eyes for joyful nature. May I be alive to
the gentle influences of a May day which bring new experiences to all
who may receive them: and may I serve thee by unfolding to others the
love of truth, the love of good, and the love of beauty. Amen.
MAY SECOND
Leonardo da Vinci died 1519.
Robert Hall born 1764.
Jerome K. Jerome born 1859.
William Henry Hudson born 1862.
Without a false humility;
For this is love's nobility,--
Not to scatter bread and gold,
Goods and raiment bought and sold;
But to hold fast his simple sense,
And speak the speech of innocence,
And with hand and body and blood,
To make his bosom-counsel good.
He that feeds man serveth few;
He serves all who dares be true.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Small service is true service while it lasts:
Of humblest friends scorn not one:
The daisy, by the shadow it casts,
Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun.
--William Wordsworth.
Surely then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot;
Yea, thou shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear.
--Job 11. 15.
Heavenly Father, I would be thankful for the blessings I am inclined
to forget. Give me a heart of gratitude, and forbid that I should hold
my friends for material gain or selfish ends. May I through the
truthfulness of my lips, and the honor of my acts, be a necessary
friend. Amen.
MAY THIRD
Niccolo Machiavelli born 1469.
Thomas Hood died 1845.
Jacob Riis born 1849.
The longing for ignoble things;
The strife for triumph more than truth;
The hardening of the heart that brings
Irreverence for the dreams of youth;
All these must first be trampled down
Beneath our feet, if we would gain
In the bright fields of fair renown
The right of eminent domain.
--John Keble.
One lesson, and only one, history may be said to repeat with
distinctness; that the world is built somehow on moral foundations;
that in the long run, it is well with the good; in the long run it
is ill with the wicked.
--James Anthony Froude.
No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this
life; that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier. And if
also a man contend in the games, he is not crowned, except he have
contended lawfully.
--2 Timothy 2. 4, 5.
Gracious Father, may my heart be mindful of thee, that I may discover
the truth and possess it. Steady me in my affections and save me from
wandering impulses; and may I help to put wrong down and uplift
humanity. Amen.
MAY FOURTH
Frederick Edwin Church born 1826.
Isaac Barrow died 1677.
John James Audubon born 1780.
Horace Mann born 1796.
Thomas Henry Huxley born 1825.
The chess board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the
universe, the rules of the game we call the laws of nature. My
metaphor will remind some of you of the famous picture in which
Retzsch has depicted Satan playing chess with man for his soul.
Substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture a calm, strong
angel, who is playing "for love," as we say, and would rather lose
than win, and I should accept it as an image of human life.
--Thomas Henry Huxley.
Riches and nobility fade together. O, my God! be thou praised for
having made love for all time, and immortal as thyself.
--George Sand.
He hath given food unto them that fear him:
He will ever be mindful of his covenant.
The works of his hands are truth and justice;
All his precepts are sure.
--Psalm 111. 5, 7.
Father of life, I know I cannot hold youth. I may have prosperity or
poverty. I thank thee that thou hast taught me that love may be kept
changeless through all. Amen.
MAY FIFTH
Napoleon Bonaparte died 1821.
Empress Eugenie born 1826.
Bret Harte died 1902.
As I stand by the cross, on the lone mountain's crest,
Looking over the ultimate sea,
In the gloom of the mountain a ship lies at rest,
And one sails away from the lea;
One spreads its white wings on the far-reaching track,
With pennant and sheet flowing free;
One hides in the shadow with sails laid aback--
The ship that is waiting for me.
But lo! in the distance the clouds break away,
The gate's glowing portals I see,
And I hear from the outgoing ship in the bay
The song of the sailors in glee.
So I think of the luminous footprints that bore
The comfort o'er dark Galilee,
And wait for the signal to go to the shore
To the ship that is waiting for me.
--Bret Harte.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; for thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
--Psalm 23. 4.
Eternal God, I praise thee, that "thy love is broader than the measure
of man's mind," and that through all my years I may hide myself in
thee, trusting thee to the end. Amen.
MAY SIXTH
Plato born B.C. 427.
Robespierre born 1758.
General Andrea Messena born 1758.
Hard ye may be in the tumult,
Red to your battle hilts;
Blow give blow in the foray,
Cunningly ride in the tilts.
But tenderly, unbeguiled--
Turn to a woman a woman's
Heart, and a child's to a child.
Test of the man if his worth be
In accord with the ultimate plan
That he be not, to his marring,
Always and utterly man.
That he may bring out of the tumult,
Fetter and undefiled,
To woman the heart of a woman--
To children the heart of a child.[1]
--O. Henry.
A man's concern is only whether in doing anything he is doing right
or wrong--acting the part of a good man or a bad.
--Plato.
A faithful man shall abound with blessings.
--Proverbs 28. 20.
Almighty God, I pray that I may seek sincerely those whom I approach
with sympathy, and by my honor may they feel the same sincerity for
me. Amen.
[Footnote 1: Special permission Cosmopolitan Magazine, New York.]
MAY SEVENTH
Correggio born 1494.
Robert Browning born 1812.
Johannes Brahms born 1833.
Lord Rosebery (Archibald Primrose) born 1847.
So, take and use thy work: amend what flaws may lurk,
What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim!
My times be in Thy hand! perfect the cup as planned!
Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same!
--Robert Browning.
No matter how often defeated, you are born to victory. The reward of
a thing well done is to have done it.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson.
When I hear a young man spoken of as giving promise of high genius,
the first question I ask about him is always--Does he work?
--John Ruskin.
Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
--Matthew 5. 48.
O God, I pray that thou wilt search me, and in the silent moments show
me myself without obstruction. Breathe upon me thy awakening breath,
that I may be revived to nobler activities. Amen.
MAY EIGHTH
Rev. William Jay born 1769.
François Mignet born 1796.
Louis Gottschalk born 1829.
John Stuart Mill died 1873.
A profound conviction raises a man above the feeling of ridicule.
--John Stuart Mill.
A garden is a lonesome thing, God wot!
Rose plot,
Fringed pool,
Ferned grot--
The veriest school
Of peace; and yet the fool
Contends that God is not--
Not God! in the gardens! when the eve is cool?
Nay but I have a sign;
'Tis very sure God walks in mine.
--Thomas E. Brown.
Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee:
Jehovah make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
--Numbers 6. 24, 25, 26.
My Father, may this be a day of usefulness. Make me sure of myself,
that I may not spend my days in questioning, but accept with
gratefulness thy love and tender care. Make me worthy to be called thy
child. Amen.
MAY NINTH
John Brown (Ossawattomie) born 1800.
Johann Schiller died 1805.
J.M. Barrie born 1860.
Have love! not love alone for one,
But man as man thy brother call:
And scatter like the circling sun
Thy charities on all.
--Johann Schiller.
He spoke, and words more soft than rain
Brought the Age of Gold again:
His action won such reverence sweet,
As hid all measure of the feat.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson.
That their hearts might be comforted, they being knit together in
love.
--Colossians 2. 2.
Gracious Lord, I pray that I may not only be known to those who are my
own, but may I consider all mankind. May those who need me find me
through my gentleness, and may they be assured by quiet confidence and
faith. Amen.
MAY TENTH
Rouget de l'Isle born 1760.
Jared Sparks born 1789.
James Bryce born 1838.
Sir Henry Stanley died 1904.
For four months and four days I lived with David Livingstone in the
same house, or in the same boat, or in the same tent, and I never
found a fault in him. I am a man of quick temper, and often without
sufficient cause, I dare say, have broken the ties of friendship;
but with Livingstone I never had cause for resentment, but each
day's life with him added to my admiration for him.
--Sir Henry Stanley.
In speech right gentle, yet so wise: princely of mien,
Yet softly mannered; modest, deferent,
And tender-hearted, though of a fearless blood.
--Edwin Arnold.
Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.
--Matthew 5. 14.
Almighty God, help me to aspire, that my life may tend toward the
ideal. May I be persuaded that I cannot be that which I do not
possess, nor can I live in that which I do not know. Help me to put
the best in what I do, that I may not feel I have failed, even though
it may not seem to be a success. Amen.
MAY ELEVENTH
Baron Münchhausen born 1720.
William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, died 1778.
Jean Léon Gérôme born 1824.
And methought that beauty and terror are only one, not two;
And the world has room for love, and death, and thunder and dew;
And all the sinews of hell slumber in the summer air;
And the face of God is a rock, but the face of the rock is fair.
Beneficent streams of tears flow at the finger of pain;
And out of the cloud that smites, beneficent rivers of rain.
--Robert Louis Stevenson.
It is more shameful to be distrustful of our friends than to be
deceived by them.
--La Rochefoucauld.
Thou shalt rejoice in all the good which Jehovah thy God hath given
unto thee.
--Deuteronomy 26. 11.
Lord God, may I comprehend the sacredness of friendship. I thank thee
for my friends, and for all the beautiful influences which they bring
to my life. May I never hold friendship without the sincerity to
return it. Correct my faults, and cause me to learn the secret of
cheerful endurance, that I may be steadfast. Amen.
MAY TWELFTH
Robert Fielding died 1712.
James Sheridan Knowles born 1784.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti born 1828.
Jules Massenet born 1842.
Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been;
I am also called No-more, Too-late, Farewell;
Unto thine ear I hold the dead sea-shell
Cast up thy Life's foam-fretted feet between;
Unto thine eyes the glass where that is seen
Which had Life's form and Love's, but by my spell
Is now a shaken shadow intolerable,
Of ultimate things unuttered the frail screen.
--Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Let me not pass my work at morn
And then at eve,
Find for what purpose I was born--
Just as I leave.
--M.B.S.
We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the
night cometh, when no man can work.
--John 9. 4.
Lord God, I do earnestly pray that thou wilt give me strength to break
away, if I may be trying to free myself from habits that mar my
character. May I not lose courage and fall back in the old ways, but
by faith be led where I should go. Amen.
MAY THIRTEENTH
Carolus Linnæus (Karl von Linné) born 1707.
Alphonse Daudet born 1840.
Sir Arthur Sullivan born 1842.
I heard a voice in the darkness singing
(That was a valiant soul I knew),
And the joy of his song was a wild bird winging
Swift to his mate through a sky of blue.
And his song was of love and all its bringing
And of certain day when the night was through;
I raised my eyes where the hope was springing,
And I think in his heaven God smiled too
(That was a valiant soul I knew).
--J. Stalker.
The soul aids the body, and at certain moments raises it. It is the
only bird which bears upward its own cage.
--Victor Hugo.
But desire earnestly the greater gifts.
--1 Corinthians 12. 31.
Gracious Lord, I rejoice that thou dost know the depths of my soul,
and that I may call upon thee to supply its needs. Make me worthy that
I may not be kept from the springs of joy where my soul may be
refreshed, and where I may gather hope and encouragement for the
greater loves of life. Amen.
MAY FOURTEENTH
John Dutton born 1659.
Gabriel D. Fahrenheit born 1686.
Robert Owen born 1771.
Henry Grattan died 1820.
They that wander at will where the
Works of the Lord are revealed,
Little guess what joy can be got
From a cowslip out of the field.
--Alfred Tennyson.
Move onward serenely, cast aside regret, cleanse and purify life,
only be undismayed and hopeful, as you turn page after page of the
revelation of God.
--Arthur C. Benson.
Thou wilt show me the path of life:
In thy presence is fullness of joy;
In thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
--Psalm 16. 11.
My Father, I thank thee that nature reveals thy power as she unfolds
her beauty and wonder to the searching eye. Guide me that I may see in
the little flower the smile of welcome, the look of kindness, and the
beauty of hope which it renders to all; and may I learn from it thy
protection in the smallest things of life. Amen.
MAY FIFTEENTH
Ephraim Chambers died 1740.
Florence Nightingale born 1820.
Michael W. Balfe born 1808.
Edmund Keane died 1833.
Daniel O'Connell died 1847.
Light human nature is too lightly lost
And ruffled without cause, complaining on,
Restless with rest, until being overthrown,
It learneth to lie quiet.
--Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Was the trial sore?
Temptation sharp? Thank God a second time!
Why comes temptation but for a man to meet
And master and make crouch beneath his foot,
And so be pedestaled in triumph? Pray
"Lead us into no such temptations, Lord!"
Yea, but, O thou whose servants are the bold,
Lead such temptations by the head and hair,
Reluctant dragons, up to who dares fight
That so he may do battle and have praise.
--Robert Browning.
Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that
were heard, lest haply we drift away from them.
--Hebrews 2. 1.
Almighty God, if I am overwhelmed by the tides of temptation and
discouragement, let me not drift away to sea, but anchor and take
harbor in thee. May I not be afraid to trust in thy protection, but
calmly wait and watch for thy deliverance. Amen.
MAY SIXTEENTH
Sir William Patty born 1623.
Honore de Balzac born 1799.
William H. Seward born 1801.
Felicia Hemans died 1835.
Favored of Heaven! O Genius! are they thine,
When round thy brow the wreaths of glory shine;
While rapture gazes on thy radiant way,
'Midst the bright realms of clear mental day?
No! sacred joys! 'tis yours to dwell enshrined,
Most fondly cherished, in the purest mind.
--Felicia Hemans.
Genius is intensity.
--Honore Balzac.
But what if I fail of my purpose here?
It is but to keep the nerves at strain,
To dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall,
And, baffled, get up and begin again--
So the chase takes up one's life, that's all.
--Robert Browning.
Be urgent in season, out of season.
--2 Timothy 4. 2.
My Lord, my life makes me conscious of weakness, and my memory brings
regret; forgive me for the lost strength I neglected to develop. In
thy compassion encourage me to be more watchful of my power, that I
may usefully increase it, and not willfully deplete it. May I learn
the need of constancy in well-doing. Amen.
MAY SEVENTEENTH
Heloise died 1163.
Matthew Parker died 1575.
Edwin Jenner born 1749.
The weakest among us has a gift, however seemingly trivial, which is
peculiar to him, and which worthily used, will be a gift to his race
forever.
--John Ruskin.
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God who is our home.
--William Wordsworth.
A weak mind sinks under prosperity as well as under adversity. A
strong and deep mind has two highest tides--when the moon is at
full, and when there is no moon.
--Julius Hare.
Thou hast granted me life and lovingkindness; And thy visitation
hath preserved my spirit.
--Job 10. 12.
Almighty God, I pray that I may have a true appreciation of the
quality of life. Reveal to me my responsibilities and help me to make
them my opportunities. Keep me in search of thoughts and deeds that
will increase the delight of my soul. Amen.
MAY EIGHTEENTH
Francis Mahony (Father Prout) died 1866.
Mrs. Johnson (Stella) born 1735.
John Wilson (Christopher North) born 1785.
Longing is God's fresh heavenward will,
With our poor earthly striving;
We quench it, that we may be still
Content with merely living.
But would we learn that heart's full scope
Which we are hourly wronging,
Our lives must climb from hope to hope,
And realize our longing.
--James Russell Lowell.
Pretexts are not wanted when one wishes a thing.
--Goldoni.
Friendship is for all aid and comfort through all the relations of
life and death--for serene days and graceful gifts and country
rambles; but also for rough roads, and hard fare, shipwreck,
poverty, and persecution.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Strive to enter in by the narrow door.
--Luke 13. 24.
Eternal God, I pray that thou wilt graciously restore my spirits if I
may have settled into despondency over my disappointments. May I have
the will to rise above them, and patiently strive for renewed hope.
Amen.
MAY NINETEENTH
James Boswell died 1795.
Johann Gottlieb Fichte born 1762.
William E. Gladstone died 1898.
Tired! Well, what of that?
Didst fancy life was spent on beds of ease,
Fluttering the rose-leaves scattered by the breeze?
Come! rouse thee, work while it is called to-day!
Coward, arise--go forth upon the way!
Lonely! And what of that?
Some one must be lonely; 'tis not given to all
To feel a heart responsive rise and fall,
To blend another life into its own;
Work may be done in loneliness; work on.
Dark! Well, what of that?
Didst fondly dream the sun would never set?
Dost fear to lose thy way? Take courage yet,
Learn thou to walk by faith and not by sight,
Thy steps will be guided, and guided right.
--Unknown.
And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall
reap, if we faint not.
--Galatians 6. 9.
My Father, if thou wert far off I could not reach thee in time, for I
falter so much and need thee so often. I pray that thou wilt keep so
near that I can feel thy love and strength breathing within me. Amen.
MAY TWENTIETH
Elizabeth G. Fry born 1780.
John Stuart Mill born 1806.
Alfred Domett born 1811.
Rudolf H. Lotze born 1817.
Marquis de Lafayette died 1834.
Nature has written a letter of credit upon some men's faces which is
honored wherever presented. You cannot help trusting such men; their
very presence gives confidence. There is a "promise to pay" in their
faces which gives confidence, and you prefer it to another man's
indorsement. Character is credit.
--William M. Thackeray.
Henry Drummond has told us how in the heart of Africa he came across
men and women who remembered the only white man they ever saw
before--David Livingstone; and as you cross his footsteps in the dark
continent men's faces light up as they speak of the kind doctor who
passed there years ago. They could not understand him; but they felt
the love that beat in his heart.
Who is wise and understanding among you? let him show by his good
life his works in meekness of wisdom.
--James 3. 13.
My Lord, inspire me with kind words and thoughtful deeds, that I may
share the yearnings and sympathy of others. May my life show that I am
dependable, and may none be left lonely to-day because of my
forgetfulness. Amen.
MAY TWENTY-FIRST
Albrecht Dürer born 1471.
Fernando de Soto died 1542.
Alexander Pope born 1688.
Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake;
The center moved, a circle straight succeeds,
Another still, and still another spreads;
Friend, parent, neighbor, first it will embrace,
Its country next, and next, the human race.
--Alexander Pope.
A gentleman is one who understands and shows every mark of deference
to the claim of self-love in others, and exacts it in return from
them.
--William Hazlitt.
But he knoweth the way that I take;
When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
My foot hath held fast to his steps;
His way have I kept, and turned not aside.
--Job 23. 10.
Lord God, teach me how secret actions make or destroy my life. Show me
the deep lines made by sorrow and discontent that cannot be effaced.
May I look toward the corrections of life and not on my imperfections,
that my life may be a helpful influence. Amen.
MAY TWENTY-SECOND
Newman Hall born 1816.
Wilhelm Richard Wagner born 1813.
Maria Edgeworth died 1849.
Victor Hugo died 1885.
Who cares for the burden, the night, and the rain,
And the long, steep, lonesome road,
When at last through the darkness a light shines plain,
When a voice calls "Hail," and a friend draws rein,
With an arm for the stubborn load?
For life is the chance of a friend or two
This side of the journey's goal.
Though the world be a desert the long night through,
Yet the gay flowers bloom and the sky shows blue
When a soul salutes a soul.
--Unknown.
In all misfortune the greatest consolation is a sympathizing friend.
--Cervantes.
They help every one his neighbor; and every one saith to his
brother, Be of good courage.
--Isaiah 41. 6.
Loving Father, may I lay hold upon the highest standards of friendship
and so be qualified to be a friend. May those who call and lean on me
feel secure in my support. May none ever be ashamed to call me friend.
Grant that those whom I love may keep faith with me. Amen.
MAY TWENTY-THIRD
Thomas Hood born 1798.
Margaret Fuller Ossoli born 1810.
Henrik Ibsen died 1896.
Dr. John Campbell died 1861.
Chance cannot touch me! Time cannot hush me!
Fear, Hope, and longing, at strife;
Sink as I rise, on, on, upward forever,
Gathering strength, gaining breath--
Naught can sever
Me from the Spirit of Life.
--Margaret Fuller.
But evil is wrought by want of thought, as well as want of heart.
--Thomas Hood.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy
to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward.
--Romans 8. 18.
Heavenly Father, cause the newness of life to continue to flow through
my heart, that I may not be fatigued, as I struggle with
discouragements. Release me from hopeless cares that I have made mine,
thinking they were thine. May I trust in the boundless limit of thy
mercy, and rejoice in the world of living light. Amen.
MAY TWENTY-FOURTH
Jean Paul Marat born 1744.
Stephen Girard born 1750.
Sir Robert Adair born 1763.
Queen Victoria born 1819.
Caroline Fox born 1819.
I see my way as birds their trackless way.
I shall arrive! what time, what circuit first,
I ask not: but unless God send his hail
Or blinding fireballs, sleet, or stifling snow,
In some time, his good time, I shall arrive:
He guides me and the bird.
--Robert Browning.
To live in the presence of great truths and eternal laws--that is
what keeps a man patient when the world ignores him, and calm and
unspoiled when the world praises him.
--Honore Balzac.
But whoso putteth his trust in Jehovah shall be safe.
--Proverbs 29. 25.
Lord Jehovah, all goodness, tenderness, and forbearance that are in my
life have come from thee. May I not lose them in self, but by them
make possible happiness and endurance for others. Amen.
MAY TWENTY-FIFTH
Ralph Waldo Emerson born 1803.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (George) born 1803.
Dr. William Paley died 1805.
William Henry Channing born 1810.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
Loved the wild rose, and left it on the stalk?
At rich men's tables eaten bread and pulse?
Unarmed faced danger with a heart of trust?
And loved so well a high behavior,
In man or maid, that thou from speech refrained,
Nobility more noble to repay?
O, be my friend and teach me to be thine!
--Ralph Waldo Emerson.
What the superior man seeks is in himself;
What the small man seeks is in others.
--Confucius.
Make no friendship with a man that is given to anger;
And with a wrathful man thou shalt not go.
--Proverbs 22. 24.
Lord God, may I live for the pure and upright, and have the
blessedness of a rejoicing heart. May I yearn for the secrets of
nature. Grant that my life may not seek destruction, but tenderly find
and protect life. Amen.
MAY TWENTY-SIXTH
The Venerable Bede died 735.
Count Nicolas Ludwig Zinzendorf born 1800.
Capel Lofft died 1821.
Let us disengage ourselves from care about the passing things of
time; let us soar above our worldly possessions. The bee does not
less need its wings when it has gathered an abundant store, for if
it sink in the honey, it dies.
--Saint Augustine.
Perhaps if we could penetrate nature's secrets, we should find that
what we call needs are more essential to the well-being of the world
than the most precious grain or fruit.
--Nathaniel Hawthorne.
We trust the Lord in faith serene,
A ladder he hath given;
The lower rounds in earth are seen,
The higher reach to heaven.
--Thomas Brevior.
Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment?
--Matthew 6. 25.
Almighty God, I bless thee for the privilege of a great life. May I
not be satisfied to rest with idle hands in youth and make age
regretful because I have lived a useless life: but with a clear eye
and an exalted mind may I choose the "durable satisfactions" that may
be mine. Amen.
MAY TWENTY-SEVENTH
Alighieri Dante born 1265.
John Calvin died 1564.
Julia Ward Howe born 1819.
Noah Webster died 1843.
John Kendrick Bangs born 1862.
To your judgments give ye not the reins
With too much eagerness, like him who ere
The corn be ripe, is fain to count the grains:
For I have seen the briar through the winter snows
Look sharp and stiff--yet on a future day
High on its summit bear the tender rose:
And ship I've seen, that through the storm hath passed,
Securely bounding o'er the watery way,
At entrance of the harbor wrecked at last.
--Dante, translated by Wright.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me:
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make them free,
While God is marching on.
--Julia Ward Howe.
Trust in Jehovah with all thy heart,
And lean not upon thine own understanding.
--Proverbs 3. 5.
Lord God, help me to know my ability, that I may not attempt with
weakness that which requires strength to undertake; and make me stable
that I may not relax vigilance even though victory seems assured.
Amen.
MAY TWENTY-EIGHTH
William Pitt born 1759.
Thomas Moore born 1779.
Louis Agassiz born 1807.
The bird let loose in eastern skies,
When hastening fondly home,
Ne'er stoops to earth her wing, nor flies
Where idle warblers roam;
But high she shoots through air and light,
Above all low delay,
Where nothing earthly bounds her flight,
Nor shadow dims her way.
--Thomas Moore.
Remember, the essence of religion is, a heart void of offense toward
God and man; not subtle speculative opinions, but an active
principle of faith.
--William Pitt.
And hope putteth not to shame; because the love of God hath been
shed abroad in our hearts.
--Romans 5. 5.
God of mercy, reveal to me the hallowed life. May I be reminded that,
while I may save and keep the dust from things that perish, my life,
though unkept and undeveloped, tells in itself the value and need of
the most watchful care. Amen.
MAY TWENTY-NINTH
Patrick Henry born 1736.
Joseph Fouche born 1763.
Josephine died 1814.
Gerald Massey born 1829.
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of
chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course
others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.
--Patrick Henry.
Though hearts brood o'er the past, our eyes
With smiling features glisten;
For lo! our day bursts up the skies,
Lean out your souls and listen!
The world is following freedom's way,
And ripening with her sorrow;
Take heart! Who bears the cross to-day
Shall wear the crown to-morrow.
--Gerald Massey.
For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love
and discipline.
--2 Timothy 1. 7.
Lord God, may I never feel that I have a right to sell thy joys, nor
the privilege of giving away my burdens. Grant that I may not forsake
my principles, but may I keep the way clear that memory may find an
unruffled rest. Amen.
MAY THIRTIETH
Decoration Day.
Joan d'Arc burned at Rouen 1431.
Alexander Pope died 1744.
Voltaire died 1778.
Alfred Austin born 1835.
Here is the nation God has builded by our hands. What shall we do
with it? Who stands ready to act again and always in the spirit of
this day of reunion and hope and patriotic fervor? The day of our
country's life has but broadened into morning. Do not put uniforms
by. Put the harness of the present on. Lift your eyes to the great
tracts of life yet to be conquered in the interest of righteous
peace, of that prosperity which lies in a people's hearts and
outlasts all wars and errors of men.
--Woodrow Wilson.
Cover them over with beautiful flowers:
Deck them with garlands these brothers of ours;
Lying so silent, by night and by day,
Sleeping the years of their manhood away;
* * * * *
Give them the laurels they lost with their life.
--Will Carleton.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
his friends.
--John 15. 13.
My Father, as I pause this day to think of the brave men and women who
have given their lives for the sake of others, may I be thankful for
them. May I remember that noble deeds and kind words are never lost,
but that self may block the way to justice. O Father, make war to
cease! and lead us to victories that are won through peace. Amen.
MAY THIRTY-FIRST
Ludwig Tieck born 1773.
Joseph Haydn died 1809.
Walt Whitman born 1819.
Passage, immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins!
Away, O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
Out the hawser--haul out--shake out every sail!
Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?
Have we not groveled here long enough eating and drinking like mere brutes?
Have we not darkened and dazed ourselves with books long enough?
Sail forth--steer for the deep waters only,
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me,
For we are bound where mariner has not dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.
--Walt Whitman.
Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be affrighted at them:
for Jehovah thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not
fail thee, nor forsake thee.
--Deuteronomy 31. 6.
My Father, give me joyful courage to squarely face my life. Help me to
know that I cannot vanquish life by evading duties, nor encircling
myself with indulgences. If I may be blind to my situation, restore my
sight that I may make ready a worthy passage with thee. Amen.
JUNE
There lives a glory in these sweet June days
Such as I found not in the days gone by,
A kindlier meaning in the unclouded sky,
A tenderer whisper in the woodland ways;
And I have understanding of the lays,
The birds are singing, forasmuch as I
Have learned how love avails to satisfy
A man's whole heart, and fills his lips with praise.
--Percy C. Ainsworth
JUNE FIRST
Nicolas Poussin born 1594.
Sir Christopher Marlowe died 1593.
Sir David Wilkie died 1841.
Hugo Münsterberg born 1863.
In every act of ours, in every feeling and every volition and every
thought, we are conscious of a self which expresses its aims and
meanings. Every idea of ours points beyond itself, every volition
binds us in decision, and every experience gets meaning by our
attitudes. The most immediate task which life demands from us in the
understanding of ourselves and of others is, therefore, to interpret
our ideas, to draw the consequences of our will, to appreciate the
attitudes, to measure them by higher standards.
--Hugo Münsterberg.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
--Genesis 1. 26.
My Creator, I pray that I may not only have the desire to know life,
but the assurance to live it. Help me to understand that my earthly
possessions are not the measure of my life, nor my body the boundary
of my living. May I reach for the high standards that are free,
without limit, to all. Amen.
JUNE SECOND
Ethelbert baptized 597.
John Randolph born 1773.
Thomas Hardy born 1840.
In battle or business, whatever the game,
In law or in love, it is ever the same:
In the struggle for power, or scramble for pelf,
Let this be your motto: "Rely on yourself."
--John G. Saxe.
Labor is necessary to excellence. This is an eternal truth, although
vanity cannot be taught to believe or indolence to heed it.
--John Randolph.
But let each man prove his own work, and then shall he have his
glorying in regard of himself alone, and not of his neighbor.
--Galatians 6. 4.
Almighty God, I regret the hours of indiscretion and waste; through
thy forgiveness may I have thy help over past wrongs. May I have a
deeper conception of a profitable life, that I may hereafter live by
it. Amen.
JUNE THIRD
Sydney Smith born 1771.
Dr. John Gregory born 1724.
Richard Cobden born 1804.
Jefferson Davis born 1808.
Norman Macleod born 1812.
Certainly, let the board be spread and let the bed be dressed for
the traveler; but let not the emphasis of hospitality lie in these
things. Honor to the house where they are simple to the verge of
hardship, so that there the intellect is awake and reads the law of
the universe, the soul worships truth and love, honor and courtesy
flow into all deeds.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Kind actions, and good wishes, and pure thoughts
No mystery is here: Here is no boon
For high--yet not for low: The smoke ascends
To heaven as lightly from the cottage hearth
As from the haughtiest palace.
--William Wordsworth.
Given to hospitality.
--Romans 12. 13.
Gracious Father, I beseech thee to give me wisdom for kind thoughts
and deeds. Teach me true hospitality, that I may be gracious in my own
home and appreciative in the home of others. May I not temper my
hospitality for certain reasons, but have a genuine welcome for all.
Amen.
JUNE FOURTH
George III born 1738.
Lord Edward Fitzgerald died 1798.
General Garnet Wolseley born 1833.
This is the gospel of labor--ring it,
Ye bells of the kirk--
The Lord of Love came down from above
To live with the men who work.
This is the rose he planted, here
In the thorn-cursed soil;
Heaven is blest with perfect rest, but
The blessing of earth is toil.
--Henry van Dyke
No man is born into the world whose work
Is not born with him. There is always work
And tools to work withal, for those who will;
And blessed are the horny hands of toil.
--James Russell Lowell.
Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt
rest.
--Exodus 23. 12.
My Father, I pray for the love of work, and the desire to cultivate
life. Stir me, that I may be ambitious. May I not stare at life in an
everyday way and forget that others are watching for the surprises.
Help me to be considerate and kind in all that I do. Amen.
JUNE FIFTH
Socrates born B.C. 469.
Dr. Adam Smith born 1723.
Karl Maria von Weber died 1826.
O. Henry died 1910.
You think that upon the score of foreknowledge and divining I am
infinitely inferior to the swans. When they perceive approaching
death they sing more merrily than before, because of the joy they
have in going to the God they serve.
--Socrates.
O yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill,
To pangs of nature, sins of will,
Defects of doubt, and taints of blood;
That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life shall be destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete.
--Alfred Tennyson.
How precious is thy lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men
take refuge under the shadow of thy wings.
--Psalm 36. 7.
Eternal God, forbid that I should try to set up thy judgment-seat in
so small a place as self, and attempt to render decisions for thee. My
soul lives anew as I think of thy love, and that there is no place
where thy mercy can be withheld from me. Amen.
JUNE SIXTH
Diego R. Velasquez born 1599.
Pierre Corneille born 1606.
Nathan Hale born 1755.
Sir John Stainer born 1840.
These stones that make the meadow brooklet murmur
Are the keys on which it plays.
O'er every shelving rock its touch grows firmer,
Resounding notes to raise.
If every path o'er which footsteps wander,
Were smooth as ocean strand,
There were no theme for gratitude and wonder
At God's delivering hand.
--W. E. Winks.
We also rejoice in our tribulations: knowing that tribulation
worketh steadfastness; and steadfastness, approvedness; and
approvedness, hope.
--Romans 5. 3, 4.
My Father, if rain may come to-day, may I realize its help, with the
power of the sun, to increase life; and may its influence be sweet and
wholesome to me, as I learn that sadness is temporary and will
disappear with the coming of gladness. May I go search for the joy
that may be mine to-day. Amen.
JUNE SEVENTH
Robert Bruce died 1329.
George Bryan (Beau Brummel) born 1778.
Rev. W.D. Conybeare born 1787.
When the lamp is shattered
The light in the dust lies dead--
When the cloud is scattered
The rainbow's glory is shed.
When the lute is broken
Sweet tones are remembered not;
When the lips have spoken
Loved accents are soon forgot.
--Percy Bysshe Shelley.
A slip of the rose may take root, and bring forth a bloom to give
peace to the soul. A slip of the tongue may take root, and bring
forth a thorn that will torture the soul.
--M.B.S.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of
itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye
abide in me.
--John 15. 4.
Many of us, O Father, overlook the fragrance of the rose while we are
being pierced by its thorn. Increase my faith in life and in thee,
that I may not be dismayed over mysteries, but sincerely wait for
deliverance. Amen.
JUNE EIGHTH
Mohammed died 632.
Thomas Rickman born 1776.
Charles Reade born 1814.
John Everett Millais born 1829.
If one touch of nature makes the whole world kin, methinks that
sweet and wonderful thing sympathy is not less powerful. What golden
barriers, what ice of centuries, it can melt in a moment!
--Charles Reade.
If I had two loaves of bread, I would sell one to buy white
hyacinths to feed my soul.
--Mohammed.
What do you live for if it is not to make life less difficult for
each other?
--George Eliot.
Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to
visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep
oneself unspotted from the world.
--James 1. 27.
My Father, help me to understand that kind hearts and willing hands
are made possible by the depth and greatness of thy love. May I
possess the spirit of forgiveness and consideration, that I may not
hold prejudice and revenge, but help with sympathy and tenderness.
Amen.
JUNE NINTH
George Stephenson born 1781.
John Howard Payne born 1791.
Richard D. Blackmore born 1825.
Charles Dickens died 1870.
Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many; not
upon your past misfortunes, of which all have some.
--Charles Dickens.
'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home!
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
Which, sought through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.
Home! home! sweet, sweet home!
There's no place like home!
--John Howard Payne.
For thou shalt forget thy misery;
Thou shalt remember it as waters that are passed away.
--Job 11. 16.
Lord God, my soul fills with gratitude for the blessings which I have
received and enjoyed. Help me to conform to thy will concerning my
duties. May I not try to resist thy providence. I pray that thou wilt
bless my daily life, and make my home a place to dispense kindness and
cheerfulness. Amen.
JUNE TENTH
Sir Edwin Arnold born 1832.
Henry M. Stanley born 1840.
Edward Everett Hale died 1809.
Robert Schumann born 1810.
What have you done with your soul, my friend?
Where is the ray you were wont to send,
Glancing bright through the outer night,
Touching with hope what was dark before,
Glimmering on to the further shore?
--Arthur C. Benson.
God suffers the light to know eclipse,
Dashes the cup from the eager lips;
You perchance would have drunk too deep.
--Arthur C. Benson.
Lift where you stand.
--Edward Everett Hale.
A friend is the first person who comes in when the whole world has
gone out.
--Unknown.
Who comforteth us in all our affliction, that we may be able to
comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort
wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
--2 Corinthians 1.4.
Almighty God, help me to correct my mistakes, and to be more careful
of what I take in my life. May I always stretch out a hand of love to
inspire others with confidence to care more for themselves and more
for thee. Amen.
JUNE ELEVENTH
Roger Bacon died 1292.
George Wither born 1588.
John Constable born 1776.
Exceeding gifts from God are not blessings, they are duties. They do
not always increase a man's happiness; they always increase his
responsibilities.
--Charles Kingsley.
Make a rule and pray for help to keep it. Once a day spare room for
a thought that will pursue a strong purpose. Help in some way the
progress of a weary soul who cannot repay you.
--M. B. S.
There is no true potency, remember, but that of help; nor true
ambition, but ambition to save.
--John Ruskin.
And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the
afflicted soul: then shall thy light rise in darkness, and thine
obscurity be as the noon day.
--Isaiah 58. 10.
Heavenly Father, when I think of how little I have given away my heart
burns with shame, as I recall what thou hast given to me. May I from
this day be more thoughtful of thy tender compassion by being less
selfish with what I have. Amen.
JUNE TWELFTH
Harriet Martineau born 1802.
Charles Kingsley born 1819.
Dr. Thomas Arnold (Arnold of Rugby) died 1842.
Sir Oliver Lodge born 1851.
Do to-day's duty, fight to-day's temptation, and do not weaken and
distract yourself by looking-forward to things which you cannot see,
and could not understand if you saw them.
--Charles Kingsley.
Genuine religion has its roots deep down in the heart of
humanity.... The actions of the Deity make no appeal to any special
sense. We are deaf and blind, therefore, to the imminent grandeur
around us unless we have insight enough to appreciate the whole and
to recognize the woven fabric of existence flowing steadily from the
loom of an infinite progress toward perfection.
--Sir Oliver Lodge.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down
from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither
shadow that is cast by turning.
--James 1. 17.
Gracious Father, forbid that I should make thee regret thy gifts to
me; and if I have failed to appreciate them, look upon me with pity,
for I have cheated myself more than I have thee. Give me a deeper
appreciation, that I may be strengthened day by day in the veriest
duties of life. Amen.
JUNE THIRTEENTH
Dr. Thomas Young born 1773.
General Winfield Scott born 1786.
Dr. Thomas Arnold (Arnold of Rugby) born 1795.
William Butler Yeats born 1865.
Beyond all wealth, honor, or even health, is the attachment we form
to noble souls, because to become one with the good, generous, and
true is to become, in a measure, good, generous, and true ourselves.
--Thomas Arnold.
Open thy bosom, set thy wishes wide, and let in manhood--let in
happiness; admit the boundless theater of thought from nothing up to
God ... which makes a man.
--Thomas Young.
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their
labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to
him that is alone when he falleth, and hath not another to lift him
up.
--Ecclesiastes 4. 9, 10.
Heavenly Father, I thank thee for good friends, and for the delight
that dwells in fellowship. Give me the power to apprehend love, and
guard me against the ways to lose it. May I look to my friends to help
me to be pure, and to help me live my truest life. Amen.
JUNE FOURTEENTH
Carlo Guidi born 1650.
Harriet Beecher Stowe born 1812.
Mary Carpenter died 1877.
When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you
till it seems as if you couldn't hold on a minute longer, never give
up then, for that's just the time and place that the tide will turn.
--Harriet Beecher Stowe.
I cannot do it alone,
The waves run fast and high,
And the fogs close chill around,
And the light goes out in the sky;
But I know that we two
Shall win in the end--
God and I.
--Unknown.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not.
--Hebrews 10. 23.
Almighty God, I pray that thou wilt sustain me when I may be enduring
for a purpose, and to accomplish it seems beyond my strength. Renew me
with courage, and give me unceasing hope, and faith that is able to
hold out to the end. Amen.
JUNE FIFTEENTH
Thomas Randolph born 1605.
Edward Grieg born 1843.
Thomas Campbell died 1844.
What is rightly done stays with us, to support another right beyond,
or higher up; whatever is wrongly done vanishes; and by the blank,
betrays what we would have built above.
--John Ruskin.
The seed ye sow another reaps,
The wealth ye find another keeps,
The robe ye weave another wears,
The arms ye forge another bears.
--Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon
thee; thou saidst, Fear not.
O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul;
thou hast redeemed my life.
--Lamentations 3. 57, 58.
Lord God, reveal to me my selfishness if I am receiving much and
giving little to satisfy life. May I be grateful and considerate of
all those who labor to give me comfort and happiness. Amen.
JUNE SIXTEENTH
Hugh Capet succeeds to throne of father 956.
Sir Richard Fanshawe died 1666.
Sir John Cheke born 1514.
When to the sessions of sweet, solemn thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.
--William Shakespeare.
Seldom can the heart be lonely
If it seek a lonelier still--
Self-forgetting, seeking only
Emptier cups of love to fill.
--F. R. Havergal.
The Lord Jehovah hath given me the tongue of them that are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary.
--Isaiah 50. 4.
Gracious Father, keep within me that cheer and courage which never has
a place for weary murmurings; and with peace make the hours of
solitude profitable as they pass. Help me to seek those who are in
need of sympathy and encouragement, that I may help them to have a
tranquil life. Amen.
JUNE SEVENTEENTH
Joseph Addison died 1719.
Charles François Gounod born 1818.
Sir E. C. Burne-Jones died 1898.
He who plants a tree
Plants a hope.
Rootlets up through fibers blindly grope,
Leaves unfold unto horizons free.
So man's life must climb
From the clods of time
Unto heavens sublime.
Canst thou prophesy, thou little tree,
What the glory of the boughs shall be?
--Lucy Larcom.
Very early, I perceived that the object of life is to grow.
--Margaret Fuller.
Many a genius has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for a
thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed.
--George Henry Lewes.
And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and
men.
--Luke 2. 52.
Almighty God, thy power is so great I cannot express it; help me to
comprehend the meaning of it, that I may feel more profoundly thy
expectations of my life. May I remember that to forget that life is
eternal may make me to lose all it has grown. Amen.
JUNE EIGHTEENTH
Robert Stewart born 1769.
Battle of Waterloo 1815.
William Cobbett died 1835.
Not he the threatening texts who deals
Is highest 'mong the preachers,
But he who feels the woes and weals
Of all God's wandering creatures.
He doth good work whose heart can find
The spirit 'neath the letter;
Who makes his kind of happier mind,
Leaves wiser men and better.
Dear Bard and Brother! let who may
Against thy faults be railing,
(Though far, I pray, from us be they
That never had a failing!)
--James Russell Lowell.
Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath of
God: for it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will
recompense, saith the Lord.
--Romans 12. 19.
Heavenly Father, I pray that I may not be so occupied in expressing my
judgment of others, that I will forget to live in thy judgment myself.
May I have the compassion for others that I hope to receive from thee.
Amen.
JUNE NINETEENTH
Magna Charta signed, Runnymede, 1215.
Blaise Pascal born 1623.
Charles H. Spurgeon born 1834.
Find your niche and fill it. If it is ever so little, if it is only
a hewer of wood or a drawer of water, do something in the great
battle for God and truth.
--Charles Spurgeon.
If I do what I may in earnest, I need not mourn if I work no great
work on earth. To help the growth of a thought that struggles toward
the light; to brush with gentle hand the stain from the white of one
snowdrop--such be my ambition.
--George Macdonald.
Jehovah thy God will bless thee in all thy work, and in all that
thou puttest thy hand unto.
--Deuteronomy 15. 10.
Lord God, I pray that I may not through conceit be betrayed into
slacking my work, or through visions of greatness lose it. Teach me
how to obtain the secret wealth in the smallest thing; and may I
recognize thy treasures, and fill my life with the finest that may be
given me. Amen.
JUNE TWENTIETH
John of Lancaster born 1389.
Dr. Adam Ferguson born 1723.
Anna Letitia Aiken (Mrs. Barbauld) born 1743.
If the soft hand of winning Pleasure leads
By living waters, and through flowery meads,
Where all is smiling, tranquil, and serene,
Oh! teach me to elude each latent snare,
And whisper to my sliding heart, "Beware!"
With caution let me hear the Syren's voice,
And doubtful, with a trembling heart rejoice.
If friendless in a vale of tears I stray,
Where briars wound, and thorns perplex my way,
Still let my steady soul thy goodness see,
And, with a strong confidence, lay hold on Thee.
--Anna Letitia Barbauld.
For thou, O God, hast proved us:
Thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.
--Psalm 66. 10.
O Lord, teach me to select my pleasures with care, that I may not
plunge into joyful moments that are irretrievable. May I indulge in
the pleasures that bring happiness and not weariness. Grant that I may
have the honor to protect others from harm and loss, as I engage in my
pleasures and in my work. Amen.
JUNE TWENTY-FIRST
Captain John Smith died 1631.
Anthony Collins born 1676.
Jacques Offenbach born 1819.
In our eagerness to solve life we start out to trace its mysteries
and trample God's truths as we search. As we return we discover the
shattered treasures, and gladly stoop to gather up the fragments,
and with them translate the revelations of the soul.
--M.B.S.
I stretch my hands out in the empty air;
I strain my eyes into the heavy night;
Blackness of darkness!--Father, hear my prayer;
Grant me to see the light!
--George Arnold.
But when he came to himself he said, How many hired servants of my
father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish here with
hunger! I will arise and go to my father.
--Luke 15. 17, 18.
Heavenly Father, I pray that as I search for the truth I will not be
so eager to seek thy mysteries as I am to extend thy ministries. Grant
that by thy love I will be guided in comprehending and exalting thy
kingdom. May my service bring me wisdom as I obey thy laws. Amen.
JUNE TWENTY-SECOND
Matthew Henry died 1714.
Karl Wilhelm von Humboldt born 1767.
H. Rider Haggard born 1856.
The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment. Sorrow
is a kind of rust in the soul, which every new idea contributes in
its passage to scour away.
--Dr. Johnson.
We may be sure that one principle will hold throughout the whole
pursuit of thoughtful happiness--the principle that the best way to
secure future happiness is to be as happy as is rightfully possible
to-day. To secure any desirable capacity for the future, near or
remote, cultivate it to-day. What would be the use of immortality
for a person who cannot use well half an hour? asks Emerson.
--Charles W. Eliot.
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to
them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not.
--Isaiah 35. 3, 4.
Loving Father, help me that I may realize the depth of thy love. If I
may be discouraged over my failures, speak to me hopefully and lead me
out where I may find the right way to succeed. May I not be kept in
sorrow, but find each day the happiness that brings a thankful heart.
Amen.
JUNE TWENTY-THIRD
Mark Akenside died 1770.
John Fill born 1625.
Josephine born 1763
Could we by a wish
Have what we will and get the future now,
Would we wish aught done undone in the past?
So, let him wait God's instant men call years;
Meantime hold hard by truth and his great soul,
Do out the duty! Through such souls alone
God stooping shows sufficient of his light
For us i' the dark to rise by. And I rise.
--Robert Browning.
Press not thy purpose on thy Lord,
Urge not thy erring will,
Nor dictate to the Eternal mind
Nor doubt thy Maker's skill.
--Lydia H. Sigourney.
Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning;
For in thee do I trust:
Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk;
For I lift up my soul unto thee.
--Psalm 143. 8.
My Father, help me to see that in my portion of work thou hast
entrusted me to help further th
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