which, when indulged, greatly hinders growth in real godliness. It is
that rueful, repentant, self-accusing temper, which is always looking
back, and microscopically observing how that which is done might have
been better done. Something of this we ought to have. A Christian ought
to feel always that he has partially failed, but that ought not to be
the only feeling. Faith ought ever to be a sanguine, cheerful thing; and
perhaps in practical life we could not give a better account of faith
than by saying, that it is, amidst much failure, having the heart to
_try again_. Our best deeds are marked by imperfection; but if they
really were our best, 'forget the things that are behind'--we shall do
better next time."
F. W. ROBERTSON.
The Evil of Brooding
NOVEMBER 1
"Throughout the Gospel history we discern our Lord's care to keep men in
a fit condition to serve God by active work. All that would impair their
efficiency is to be shunned. Now, to repine and brood over some past
error cuts the sinews of action; from this the Apostles therefore are
always diverted, and they are to be watchful to prevent others from
sinking into dejection and folding their hands in despair. A man who is
hopeless has no heart for work, but when he is so far encouraged as to
be able to exert himself his despondency soon disappears."
_Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.
"Disappointment should always be taken as a stimulant, and never viewed
as a discouragement."
C. B. NEWCOMB.
"I always loved 'At evening time it shall be light,' and I am sure it
comes true to many a young troubled soul, which in its youthful zeal and
impatience cannot help eating its heart out over its own and other
people's failings and imperfections, and has not yet learnt the patience
which comes from realising that in this world we see but the beginning
of things."
Aspiration
NOVEMBER 2
"If a man constantly aspires, is he not elevated?"
THOREAU.
"The thing we long for,--That we are
For one transcendent moment!
Before the Present, poor and bare,
Can make its sneering comment!
* * * * *
Longing is God's fresh heavenward will
With our poor earthward 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 realise our longing!
* * * * *
Ah! let us hope that to our praise
Good God not only reckons
The moments when we tread His ways,
But when the spirit beckons--
That some slight good is also wrought
Beyond self-satisfaction,
When we are simply good in thought,
Howe'er we fail in action."
LOWELL.
There shall never be one Lost Good
NOVEMBER 3
"Therefore to whom turn I but to Thee, the ineffable Name?
Builder and Maker, Thou, of houses not made with hands!
What, have fear of change from Thee Who art ever the same?
Doubt that Thy power can fill the heart that Thy power expands?
There shall never be one lost good! What was shall live as before;
The evil is null, is nought, is silence implying sound;
What was good, shall be good, with, for evil, so much good more;
On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven a perfect round.
All we have willed or hoped or dreamed of good, shall exist,
Not its semblance, but itself; no beauty, nor good, nor power
Whose voice has gone forth, but each survives for the melodist,
When eternity confirms the conception of an hour.
The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too hard,
The passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky,
Are music sent up to God by the lover and the bard;
Enough that He heard it once; we shall hear it by-and-bye."
_Abt Vogler_, ROBERT BROWNING.
Struggling
NOVEMBER 4
"If what shone afar so grand
Turn to nothing in thy hand,
On again, the virtue lies
In the struggle, not the prize."
R. M. MILNES.
"One would like one's own failures to be one's friends' stepping
stones.... I am trying to teach myself that if one _has_ been working,
one has not necessarily been working to good purpose, and that one may
waste strength and forces of all sorts, as well as time."
_Mrs. Ewing's Letters._
"Rise ... as children learn, be thou
Wiser for falling."
TENNYSON.
True Patience
NOVEMBER 5
"There are those who think it is Christian patience to sit down by the
wayside to endure the storm, crying in themselves, 'God is hard on me,
but I will bear His smiting'; but their endurance is only idleness which
is ignoble, and hiding from the battle which is cowardice. Or they cry,
'I am the victim of Fate, but I will be patient'--as if any one could be
a victim if God be love, or as if there were such a thing as blind fate,
when the order of the world is to lead men into righteousness; when to
be victor and not victim is the main word of that order. No, the
severity of the battle is to force us into self-forgetfulness; and this
lazy resignation, this wailing patience, is mere self-remembrance. The
true patience is activity of faith and hope and righteousness in the
cause of men for the sake of God's love of them; is in glad proclamation
of the gospel; is in wielding the sword of the Truth of God against all
that injures mankind."
_The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.
"Wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss,
But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.
What though the mast be now blown overboard,
The cable broke, the holding anchor lost,
And half our sailors swallowed in the flood--
Yet lives our Pilot still."
SHAKESPEARE.
The Appetite for Condolence
NOVEMBER 6
"It is right to exercise a great deal of self-restraint in speaking of
our troubles, and not to let the appetite for condolence grow on us."
_Studies in the Christian Character_, Bishop PAGET.
"Carlyle says, 'My father had one virtue which I should try to
imitate--he never spoke of what was disagreeable and past,' and my
mother was the same; she turned her back at once upon the last months,
which she put away for ever like a sealed volume."
_The Story of my Life_, AUGUSTUS HARE.
"Hacket's motto, 'Serve God and be cheerful.'"
"The Sharp Ferule of Calamity"
NOVEMBER 7
"It is to keep a man awake, to keep him alive to his own soul and its
fixed design of righteousness, that the better part of moral and
religious education is directed; not only that of words and doctors, but
the sharp ferule of calamity under which we are all God's scholars till
we die."
_The Life of R. L. Stevenson_, GRAHAM BALFOUR.
"The best help is not to bear the troubles of others for them, but to
inspire them with courage and energy to bear their burdens for
themselves and meet the difficulties of life bravely."
Lord AVEBURY.
The Essentials of Happiness
NOVEMBER 8
"We weigh ourselves down with burdens of sorrow which are the results of
our selfish thoughts and selfish desires; and every one of these burdens
lessens our power to live righteously in ourselves, and to live usefully
for others."
_The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.
"When you find yourself overpowered, as it were by melancholy, the best
way is to go out, and do something kind to somebody or other."
_Letters of Spiritual Counsel_, KEBLE.
"The grand essentials of happiness are, something to do, something to
love, and something to hope for."
CHALMERS.
"Happiness is easy when we have learnt to renounce."
MME. DE STAEL.
Unrest
NOVEMBER 9
"Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only
begins for man with self-surrender."
_Amiel's Journal._
"What are the chief causes of _Unrest_? If you know yourself, you will
answer Pride, Selfishness, Ambition. As you look back upon the past
years of your life, is it not true that its unhappiness has chiefly come
from the succession of personal mortifications and almost trivial
disappointments which the intercourse of life has brought you? Great
trials come at lengthened intervals, and we rise to breast them; but it
is the petty friction of our everyday life with one another, the jar of
business or of work, the discord of the domestic circle, the collapse of
our ambition, the crossing of our will, the taking down of our conceit,
which make inward peace impossible. Wounded vanity, then, disappointed
hopes, unsatisfied selfishness--these are the old, vulgar, universal
sources of man's unrest."
_Pax Vobiscum_, HENRY DRUMMOND.
Rest
NOVEMBER 10
"Now, what is the first step towards the winning of that rest? It is the
giving up of self-will and the receiving of God's will as our own--and
what that means is clear. It is to make our life at one with God's
character, with justice and purity, with truth and love, with mercy and
joy. It is the surrender of our own pleasure and the making of God's
desire for us the master of our life. That is the first step--a
direction of the soul to God. The second has to do with mankind. It is
the replacing of all self-love by the love of our fellow-men; a
direction of the soul to God through man.
"These two ways are in reality one; and there is no other way, if we
search the whole world over, in which we may attain rest. Simple as it
sounds, it is the very last way many of us seek. We fight against this
truth, and it has to be beaten into us by pain. Clear as it seems, it is
a secret which is as difficult to discover as the Elixir of Life, but it
is so difficult because we do not will to discover it."
_The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.
The Duty of Happiness
NOVEMBER 11
"I cannot think but that the world would be better and brighter if our
teachers would dwell on the Duty of Happiness as well as the Happiness
of Duty."
Lord AVEBURY.
"Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not
on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."
DICKENS.
"Half the world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of happiness. They
think it consists in having and getting, and in being served by others.
It consists in giving and in serving others."
HENRY DRUMMOND.
Discontent
NOVEMBER 12
"He or she that is idle, be they of what condition they will, never so
rich, so well allied, fortunate, happy--let them have all things in
abundance and felicity that heart can wish and desire,--all
contentment--so long as he, or she, or they are idle, they shall never
be pleased, never well in mind or body, but weary still, sickly still,
vexed still, loathing still, weeping, sighing, grieving, suspecting,
offended with the world, with every object, wishing themselves gone or
dead, or else carried away with some foolish phantasy or other."
BURTON.
"We are never more discontented with others than when we are
discontented with ourselves. The consciousness of wrong-doing makes us
irritable, and our heart in its cunning quarrels with what is outside
it, in order that it may deafen the clamour within."
_Amiel's Journal._
"Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble
up, if thou wilt ever dig."
MARCUS AURELIUS.
Self-centred People
NOVEMBER 13
"It is self-centred people that are lonely--the richer the gift, the
richer the giver. No one was ever the worse for giving."
F. F. MONTRESOR.
"Misanthropy is always traceable to some vicious experience or
imperception--to some false reading in the lore of right and wrong, or
it proceeds from positive defects in ourselves, from a departure from
things simple and pure, whereby we forfeit happiness without losing the
sense of the proper basis on which it rests; yet even thus perverted by
the prejudices of the world, we still find a soothing pleasure in
contemplating that happiness which belongs to simplicity and virtue."
ACTON.
"The largest and most comprehensive natures are generally the most
cheerful, the most loving, the most hopeful, the most trustful. It is
the wise man, of large vision, who is the quickest to discern the moral
sunshine gleaming through the darkest cloud."
Contentment
NOVEMBER 14
"Contentment comes neither by culture nor by wishing; it is
reconciliation with our lot, growing out of an inward superiority to our
surroundings."
J. K. MCLEAN.
"If you wish to be miserable, think about yourself, about what you want,
what you like, what respect people ought to pay you; and then to you
nothing will be pure. You will spoil everything you touch, you will make
misery for yourself out of everything which God sends you: you will be
as wretched as you choose."
CHARLES KINGSLEY.
"Do not let your head run upon that which is none of your own, but pick
out some of the best of your circumstances, and consider how eagerly you
would wish for them, were they not in your possession."
MARCUS AURELIUS.
Contentment
NOVEMBER 15
"Man seeks pleasure and self--great unforeseen results follow. Man seeks
God and others--and there follows pleasure."
ARNOLD TOYNBEE.
"The true felicity of life is to be free from perturbations; to
understand our duties towards God and man; to enjoy the present without
any serious dependence upon the future. Not to amuse ourselves with
either hopes or fears, but to rest satisfied with what we have. The
great blessings of mankind are within our reach; but we shut our eyes,
and, like people in the dark, we fall foul upon the very thing we search
for, without finding it. Tranquillity is the state of human perfection,
it raises us as high as we can go, and makes every man his own
supporter; whereas he that is borne up by anything else may fall. He
that judges right and perseveres in it, enjoys a perpetual calm; he
takes a true prospect of things; he observes an order, measure, a
decorum in all his actions; he has a benevolence in his nature; and
squares his life according to reason, and draws to himself love and
admiration. Without a certain and unchangeable judgment, all the rest is
but fluctuation. Liberty and serenity of mind must necessarily ensue
upon the mastering of those things which either allure or affright us,
when, instead of those flashy pleasures we shall find ourselves
possessed of joys transporting and everlasting."
SENECA.
"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself, nothing can bring you peace
but the triumph of principle."
EMERSON.
Discontent
NOVEMBER 16
"Discontent is want of self-reliance; it is infirmity of will."
EMERSON.
"To repel one's cross is to make it heavier."
_Amiel's Journal._
"She had that rare sense which discerns what is unalterable; and submits
to it without murmuring."
GEORGE ELIOT.
"But for me,
What good I see, humbly I seek to do,
And live obedient to the Law, in trust
That what will come and shall come, must come well."
_The Light of Asia_, E. ARNOLD.
Magnifying Troubles
NOVEMBER 17
"Another weight is the cares of life. We keep so many which we might
shake off, that it is more than pitiful. We encourage fears for our
life, our future, our wealth, till all our days are harassed out of
peace, till the very notion of trust in God is an absurdity. We waste
life away in petty details, spending infinite trouble on transient
things, magnifying the gnats of life into elephants, tormenting
ourselves and others over household disturbances, children, servants,
little losses, foolish presentiments, our state of health, our
finances,--till every one around us is infected with our disease of fret
and worry. This is indeed to weight our soul. Our life with God, our
work for man, are dragged to earth."
_The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.
"I pack my troubles in as little compass as I can for myself, and never
let them annoy others."
SOUTHEY.
Bearing Trouble
NOVEMBER 18
"Once open the door to trouble, and its visits are three-fold; first,
anticipation; second, in actual presence; third, in living it over
again. Therefore never anticipate trouble, make as little of its
presence as possible, forget it as soon as past."
"It is better to employ our minds in bearing the ills we have, than in
providing against those which may never befall us."
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
"Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to
bear are those which never come."
LOWELL.
"If you want to be cheerful, jes' set yer mind on it an' do it. Can't
none of us help what traits we start out in life with, but we kin help
what we end up with. When things first got to goin' wrong with me, I
says, 'Oh, Lord, whatever comes, keep me from gettin' sour.'... Since
then I've made it a practice to put all my worries down in the bottom of
my heart, then set on the lid an' smile."
_Lovey Mary_, ALICE HEGAN RICE.
The Secret of the Joy of Living
NOVEMBER 19
"We live not in our moments or our years--
The Present we fling from us like the rind
Of some sweet Future, which we after find
Bitter to taste, or bind that in with fears,
And water it beforehand with our tears--
Vain tears for that which never may arrive:
Meanwhile the joy whereby we ought to live,
Neglected or unheeded, disappears.
Wiser it were to welcome and make ours
Whate'er of good, tho' small, the present brings--
Kind greetings, sunshine, song of birds, and flowers,
With a child's pure delight in little things;
And of the griefs unborn to rest secure,
Knowing that mercy ever will endure."
Archbishop TRENCH.
"The secret of the joy of living is the proper appreciation of what we
actually possess."
Causes of Thankfulness
NOVEMBER 20
"I sleep, I eat and drink, I read and meditate, I walk in my neighbour's
pleasant fields, and see the varieties of natural beauties, and delight
in all that in which God delights--that is, in virtue and wisdom, in the
whole creation, and in God Himself. And he that hath so many causes of
joy, and so great, is very much in love with sorrow and peevishness, who
loses all these pleasures, and chooses to sit down upon his little
handful of thorns."
JEREMY TAYLOR.
"Where much is given, much shall be required. There are never privileges
to enjoy without corresponding duties to fulfil in return."
PHILLIPS BROOKS.
"Thou that hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more--a grateful heart."
GEORGE HERBERT.
Causes of Thankfulness
NOVEMBER 21
ON LEAVING A HOME FOR INCURABLES
"It didn't seem much to be able to walk away, to look back, to remember
what we had seen; and yet how is it that we are not on our knees in
gratitude and thankfulness for every active motion of the body, every
word we speak, every intelligent experience and interest that passes
through our minds?"
Miss THACKERAY.
"Nothing raises the price of a blessing like its removal; whereas, it
was its continuance which should have taught us its value."
HANNAH MORE.
"O God, animate us to cheerfulness! May we have a joyful sense of our
blessings, learn to look on the bright circumstances of our lot, and
maintain a perpetual contentedness."
CHANNING.
Grumbling
NOVEMBER 22
"His eyes were bright with intelligence and trained powers of
observation; and they were beautiful with kindliness, and with the
well-bred habit of giving complete attention to other people and their
affairs when he talked with them. He had a rare smile ... but the real
beauty of such mouths as his comes from the lips being restrained into
firm and sensitive lines, through years of self-control and fine
sympathies.... Under-bred and ill-educated women are, as a general rule,
much less good-looking than well-bred and highly-educated ones,
especially in middle life; not because good features and pretty
complexions belong to one class more than to another, but because nicer
personal habits and stricter discipline of the mind do.... And if, into
the bargain, a woman has nothing to talk about but her own and her
neighbour's everyday affairs, and nothing to think about to keep her
from continually talking, life, my dear child, is so full of little
rubs, that constant chatter of this kind must almost certainly be
constant grumbling. And constant grumbling makes an ugly under-lip, a
forehead wrinkled with frowning, and dull eyes that see nothing but
grievances."
_A Bad Habit_, Mrs. EWING.
Grumbling
NOVEMBER 23
"Cultivate the habit of never putting disagreeables into words, even if
it be only the weather which is in question; also of never drawing other
people's attention to words or things which will irritate them."
LUCY SOULSBY.
"A cucumber is bitter--Throw it away.--There are briars in the
road--Turn aside from them.--This is enough. Do not add, And why were
such things made in the world?"
MARCUS AURELIUS.
"Patience under adverse circumstances will often bring about favourable
results, while complaint only accentuates and fixes the cause of
complaint. Avoid mention of the disagreeable things that may come into
your life. If you cannot be patient you can at least be silent. The
secret of success lies not so much in knowing what to say as in what to
avoid saying."
Grumbling
NOVEMBER 24
"If you have not slept, or if you have slept, or if you have a headache,
or sciatica, or leprosy, or thunder-stroke, I beseech you by all the
angels to hold your peace, and not pollute the morning, to which all the
housemates bring serene and pleasant thoughts, by corruptions and
groans."
EMERSON.
"Walk thy way greatly! So do thou endure
Thy small, thy narrow, dwarfed and cankered life,
That soothing Patience shall be half the cure
For ills that lesser souls keep sore with strife."
C. GREENE.
"Our personal interests, by the force of their importunity, exclude all
larger sympathies if these are not already matured before the conflict
begins. In the press of the world we lose sight of life, if the life is
not within us."
Bishop WESTCOTT.
Grumblers
NOVEMBER 25
"There is a sect, unfortunately known to most in this land, under the
denomination of Grumblers, whose fundamental maxim is--whatever is, is
wrong. Wherever they are found, and they are found almost everywhere,
they operate as a social poison; and though they contrive to embitter
the enjoyments of everybody about them, they perpetually assume that
themselves are the only aggrieved persons, and with such art as to be
believed, till thoroughly known. They have often some excellent
qualities, and the appearance of many amiable ones; but rank selfishness
is their chief characteristic, accompanied by inordinate pride and
vanity. They have a habit of laying the consequences of their own sins,
whether of omission or of commission, upon others; and, covered with
faults, they flatter themselves they 'walk blameless.' Where their
selfishness, pride, or vanity are interested, they exhibit signs of
boundless zeal, attention, and affection, to which those who are not
aware of their motives, are the dupes; but the very moment their
predominant feelings are offended, they change from April to December.
They have smiles and tears at command for their holiday humour; but in
'the winter of their discontent,' there is no safety from the bitterest
blasts. Their grievances are seldom real, or if real, are grossly
exaggerated, and are generally attributed to themselves; for, absorbed
in their own feelings, they are wonderful losers of opportunities. In
conclusion, I think it would be for their advantage, as it certainly
would be for that of the rest of the world, if they were made subject to
some severe discipline; and I would suggest for the first, second, and
third offence, bread and water and the treadmill, for one, two, and
three months respectively; for the fourth offence, transportation for
seven years to Boothia Felix, or some such climate; and any subsequent
delinquency I would make capital, and cause the criminal to be shut up
with some offender in equal degree, there to grumble each other to
death."
_The Original_, THOMAS WALKER.
Cheerfulness
NOVEMBER 26
"'Tis a Dutch proverb that 'paint costs nothing,' such are its
preserving qualities in damp climates. Well, sunshine costs less, yet is
finer pigment. And so of cheerfulness, or a good temper, the more it is
spent, the more of it remains."
EMERSON.
"Mirth is like a flash of lightning that breaks through a gloom of
clouds and glitters for a moment. Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of
daylight in the mind and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity."
ADDISON.
"Always laugh when you can; it is a cheap medicine. Merriment is a
philosophy not well understood. It is the sunny side of existence."
BYRON.
"Fortune will call at the smiling gate."
Japanese Proverb.
Humour
NOVEMBER 27
"The sense of humour is the oil of life's engine. Without it, the
machinery creaks and groans. No lot is so hard, no aspect of things is
so grim, but it relaxes before a hearty laugh."
G. S. MERRIAM.
"It was a novel with a purpose, and its purpose was to show that it is
only by righteousness that men and nations prevail; also that there is
much that is humorous in life as well as much that is holy, and that
healing virtue lies in laughter as well as in prayers and tears."
_Isabel Carnaby_, ELLEN THORNEYCROFT FOWLER.
"I dare not tell you how high I rate humour, which is generally most
fruitful in the highest and most solemn human spirits. Dante is full of
it, Shakespeare, Cervantes, and almost all the greatest have been
pregnant with this glorious power. You will find it even in the Gospel
of Christ."
_Tennyson--a Memoir_, by his Son.