To all the sensual world proclaim
One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name._
WALTER SCOTT.
_Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray
for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your
tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you
shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the
richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God._
PHILLIPS BROOKS.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the rest of the night and the joy
and beauty of the morning. This day we accept as a loving tribute of Thy
Love to Thy children. May we not mar it by unhallowed thoughts, unkind,
hasty and regretful speech and shameful and evil deeds. May ours be the
illumination which comes from moral and spiritual conquest. May we feel
the ties that bind us tenderly to Thee and to one another; and work for
that large human brotherhood, which holds in its strong embrace even the
most distant and isolated member of the human family. May we go forth to
our work with a deep and abiding faith in the power of good over evil
and willing to do our share in the building up of Thy kingdom of love
and righteousness, peace and good will here upon earth. Amen.
HENDRIK VOSSEMA.
August 21
_We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success, often
discover what will do by finding out what will not do, and probably
he who never made a mistake never made a discovery. Horne Tooke
used to say of his studies in intellectual philosophy that he had
become all the better acquainted with the country through having
had the good luck sometimes to lose his way._
SAMUEL SMILES.
Our Father, in the strength of our nightly rest and daily bread we go
forth to whatever needs us or awaits us. Nothing from Thee is too
difficult for us to attempt; nothing too grievous for us to bear. Teach
us how priceless is Thy gift of life, how close we are to the fountain
of strength, how sure of success is every effort to bring good to pass.
Reverently and believingly would we hearken to Thee in our inmost souls.
Let not our failures dishearten us, or the delay of results cause chill
of doubt or fear. May our presence have strength and peace for others,
and our lives proclaim that Thou livest and art good to all. In the name
of Christ we lift our prayer. Amen.
SAMUEL C. BEANE.
August 22
_At Bannockburn Lord Randolph Murray was being sorely pressed by a
large body of cavalry. Sir James Douglas got leave from Bruce to go
to his aid, but just as he came up he found the English in
disorder, and many horses galloping away with empty saddles.
"Halt!" he cried to his men; "These brave men have already repulsed
the enemy; let us not diminish their glory by seeking to share
it."_
WILLIAM MOODIE.
O God of Hosts! On many a field of battle wilt Thy soldiers fight this
day. Help them to be brave and true. Give them a glorious victory. Help
us who watch to give them full credit for their valor. May we not
diminish by seeking to share their glory. May we not render their deeds
commonplace by insisting that "It is so easy, so natural, for them to be
good," implying that their struggle has not been hard or that their
victories had not been what ours have proven to be. Help us, O Lord,
with valor to fight our own battles and run our own race and with
gratitude to be glad in others' victories. Amen.
J. FRANK CHASE.
August 23
_The bee that sips her sweets from flowers fair,
Flying on careless wing now here, now there,
With azure skies above, green sward below,
And soft south wind to bear her to and fro,
Might seem the soul of self-devoted ease,
Her life a draught of nectar without lees.
Not so! Her prime is full of strenuous deed
That shames our own in generous meed
Of work for other's good. Long summer days
She builds her golden house, with guerdons stays
Her Queen, uprears her young, and stores her food--
Then sudden shuns her wealth, her home, her brood,
And seeks new haven on an unknown sea,
Leaving her life-work to posterity._
HENRY HOYT MOORE.
Gracious Father in heaven, and all about me, Thy gentleness doth ever
tend to make life greater and richer. Thy providence is so wholesomely
good, I would fain be completely at home in it. Thou art very gracious.
Help me to be as gracious in my way as Thou art in Thy wonderful way.
When I acknowledge that Thou art good and wise, there comes a joyous
freedom to my spirit that makes life a sweet pleasure. I desire ever to
work in the fulness of this faith without grudging, without suspecting,
an open, glad and fruitful service. Oh, help me then to love my fellows
more, and Thee sincerely! Amen.
ELIHU GRANT.
August 24
_Drudgery is the gray angel of success.... Look at the leaders in
the professions, the solid men in business, the master-workmen who
begin as poor boys and end by building a town to house their
factory-hands, they are drudges of the single aim.... "One thing I
do."... Mr. Maydole, the hammer-maker of Central New York, was an
artist: "Yes," he said, "I have made hammers for twenty-eight
years." "Well, then you ought to be able to make a pretty good
hammer by this time." "No, sir," was the answer, "I never made a
pretty good hammer--I make the best hammer made in the United
States."_
WILLIAM C. GANNETT.
O Lord, we remember our daily duties before Thee, the hard toil which
Thou givest us in our manifold and various avocations, and we pray Thee
that there may be in us such a confidence in our nature, such earnest
obedience to Thee, we reverencing all Thy qualities and keeping Thy
commands, that we shall serve Thee every day, making our life one great
act of holiness unto Thee. May our continuous industry be so squared by
the golden rule that it shall nicely fit with the interests of all with
whom we have to do, and so by our handicraft all mankind shall be
blessed. Amen.
THEODORE PARKER.
August 25
_His larger life ye cannot miss
In gladly, nobly using this._
BAYARD TAYLOR.
_There are saints enough if we only know how to find
them--sainthoods of the fireside and of the market place. They wear
no glory round their heads; they do their duties in the strength of
God; they have their martyrdoms and win their palms, and though
they get into no calendars, they leave a benediction and a force
behind them on the earth when they go up to heaven._
PHILLIPS BROOKS.
Our Father, in Whose life are our lives, help us to use all things nobly
and so find joy in Thee. We thank Thee for faithful souls who in
humblest station have reflected Thy life and have worked for blessing.
In Thy strength they have sought to build Thy kingdom, and though they
have had no glory of men they yet have wrought for Thee and have won
place in Thy heart. Because they have aided the world and others have
entered into their labors their good work shall remain and its quiet
influence shall be a benediction. Though they have lived obscure lives
and have filled obscure places they have been precious in Thy sight and
are numbered with Thy saints. May we, like them, eternally serve Thee.
Amen.
GEORGE H. YOUNG.
August 26
_We can't choose happiness either for ourselves or for another; we
can't tell where that will lie. We can only choose whether we will
indulge ourselves in the present moment, or whether we will
renounce that for the sake of obeying the divine voice within
us,--for the sake of being true to all the motives that sanctify
our lives. I know this belief is hard; it has slipped away from me
again and again; but I have felt that if I let it go forever, I
should have no light through the darkness of this life._
GEORGE ELIOT.
O God, Thou knowest the hours in which we desire Thee. Thou knowest that
Thou hast made us to love truth and to walk in the light and when we are
unjust, unkind, unloving, then we are not true to ourselves,--then we
forget that we are living souls and that Thou art our Father. Let us not
draw nigh to Thee with our lips while our hearts are far from Thee, but,
knowing how dependent and frail we are, may we feel that it is a good
and helpful thing to draw nigh unto Thee by faith and prayer,--and to
take thought of that Infinite Love which holds us all in its arms of
strength and mercy. Lift up our minds today, warm our affections, and
deepen within us the feeling of reverence, of gratitude, and guide all
the longings of our hearts aright. Amen.
JOSHUA YOUNG.
August 27
_Life may be given in many ways,
And loyalty to truth be sealed
As bravely in the closet as the field,
So bountiful is fate;
But then to stand beside her,
When craven churls deride her,
To front a lie in arms and not to yield,
This shows, methinks, God's plan
And measure of a stalwart man,
Limbed like the old heroic breeds,
Who stands self-poised on manhood's solid earth,
Not forced to frame excuses for his birth,
Fed from within with all the strength he needs._
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
Heavenly Father, in this new day may we recognize a new opportunity for
seeking Thy purpose in us; to become stronger children of Thine, and
worthier followers of Thy Son. Whatever be our trial give us courage to
stand without compromise, for that which we believe to be true; give us
grace to rise superior to praise or blame, timidity or self-interest; to
be loyal to the best in us, and be ever ready to protest against wrong
and injustice. Help us to know ourselves as temples of Thine; to know
that the essential principal in us is not dust, but God; to rise to that
dignity of sonship that compels one to choose the right and say: "Here I
stand, I cannot do otherwise." In His name. Amen.
HERBERT H. GRAVES.
August 28
_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 affirms 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 by._
ROBERT BROWNING.
O God, our heavenly Father! we come before Thee at this morning hour,
thanking Thee for Thy loving care, that has protected us through the
night, and for the blessed sleep, that has brought refreshment to our
bodies and minds. We are grateful, O Father, for this new day, rich in
hope and promise and opportunity, and we pray that, as its hours pass,
we may be kept very near to Thee, that the "Words of our mouth and the
meditations of our heart, may be acceptable in Thy sight," that when the
day is done, and we come to Thee at its close, we need in no wise to be
ashamed. Amen.
NELLIE MANN OPDALE.
August 29
_How often does the chopper of some stone,
While toiling at his task of heave and shock,
Find in the heart-space of a severed rock
The impress of some fern that once had grown,
Full of aspiring life and color-tone,
Deep in the forest where the shadows flock,
Till, caught within the adamantine block,
It lay for ages hidden and unknown!
So many a beauteous thought blooms in the mind
But unexpressed, droops down into the soul
And lies unuttered in the silence there
Until some opener of the soul shall find
The fern-like fossilled dream, complete and whole,
And marvel at its beauty past compare._
ALFRED L. DONALDSON.
O mighty Potter, to whose steadfast eyes
A thousand years lie open as one day,
Thy patient hand set firm on life's great wheel
This heavy, shapeless clay.
Rough and imperfect, yet it owns Thy touch;
Spare not, nor stay, the pressure of Thine hand;
Make known Thy power; and soon, or late, let love
Perfect what love hath planned!
Amen.
L. H. HAMMOND.
August 30
_The dark green summer, with its massive hues,
Fades into Autumn's tincture manifold;
A gorgeous garniture of fire and gold
The high slope of the ferny hill indues.
The mists of morn in slumbering layers diffuse
O'er glimmering rock, smooth lake, and spiked array
Of hedgerow thorns a unity of gray.
All things appear their tangible form to lose
In ghostly vastness. But anon the gloom
Melts, as the sun puts off his muddy veil.
And now the birds their twittering songs resume,
All summer silent in the leafy dale.
In spring they piped of love on every tree,
But now they sing the song of memory._
HARTLEY COLERIDGE.
Ever blessed Father, in Whose pleasant world we are glad to awake again,
looking forward to a happy and useful day, we beseech Thy loving
guidance through these hours. May we look abroad with gratitude and love
upon this beautiful earth, doubly beautiful in the waning summer time,
when a new splendor comes across the hills, and Thou dost reveal
Thyself, as of old, in the burning bush. Grant that we may look through
nature up to nature's God. Grant that the mists of doubt and uncertainty
which often hide Thee from us may be dispersed in the sunlight of a
happy faith, and that the heart, so often sad and silent, may once more
lift its cheerful song to Thee. Amen.
ALFRED GOODING.
August 31
_No rare creative inspirations throng
My quiet spirit, silent, sad and lone;
No Sapphic flame hath on its altar shone;
No music to my nature doth belong.
Thou art the sunlight, I am Memnon's stone,
Thou art the zephyr, I give back its song;
The harp Aeolian can do no wrong
To the soft airs which wake an answering tone:
Upon my soul, Oh, then breathe tenderly;
Subdue the discord, still the jarring strain;
So may the harp-strings yield but melody.
If notes discordant give thy keen ear pain,
Set the fine chords again to harmony;
Let but sweet echoes of thyself remain._
ADA FOSTER MURRAY.
O Thou Who art the source of all that is and the giver of all that makes
life blessed, we thank Thee that Thy providence abides through every
change and that Thou dost cheer the loneliest lot with the comfort of
Thy presence. Thou hast been with us in times past and now on this last
day of the summer months, we would thank Thee for the blessings of the
closing season and ask for the continuance of Thy unfailing care and the
enrichment of our souls with the gifts of Thy Spirit. Bring us into
harmony with all that is pure and good, and enable us to walk in the
light of Thy favor and in the paths of Thy commandments. Amen.
CHARLES H. VAIL.
September 1
_'Neath harvest moon the stricken summer lies
Still smiling bravely in her brightest bloom,
Her heart yet holds no hint of gloom,
No trace of sadness in her sunlit eyes.
We love thee, Summer, child of Paradise--
A myriad host announce thy coming doom
Chanting the requiem of thy wintry tomb,
While lovingly look down the tender skies;
A holy hush is in the hazy air
As in thy radiant beauty thou dost sleep!
Nature, arrayed in rainbow colors fair,
Is strong of heart her vigil long to keep:
We know the secret thou dost seek to tell,--
Thou art immortal, Summer, fare thee well._
ANNA A. GORDON.
Heavenly Father, behind all changes dost Thou lurk in eternal constancy.
Never lingering, each good of life gives place to the better Thou hast
in store, and in glory and gladness resigns to that which comes after.
From the good that is, may we learn to pass cheerfully to the better
that is to be,--from the cool morning and sunny noon to the purple
gloaming and the star-lit night, from the tender spring and glowing
summer to the golden autumn and snow-pure winter, from the sweet life
that now is to that fulness of realization whose sweeter splendors eye
hath not seen nor the heart of man conceived. We place our hands in
Thine and would walk with Thee in holiest trust and serenest peace.
Amen.
THOMAS W. ILLMAN.
September 2
_"I will be happy all the day
Let come what may."
'Twas early morning when the word was said,
And like a journey 'cross a weary plain
There stretched the hours, but I was comforted
As heart and voice sung o'er the sweet refrain,
"I will be happy all the day
Let come what may."_
_"I will make hope and only hope
My horoscope."
The sombre, brooding clouds of discontent
Oppress one's spirit like a throbbing pain;
One frets and moans in one's environment,
But with a look ahead I sing again,
"I will make hope and only hope
My horoscope."_
FREDERICK A. BISBEE.
Yea, Lord, we thank Thee that we may hope and be happy all the day for
Omnipotence is our Father and our changeless Friend, and we have naught
to fear. We are glad of life and thank Thee for all that makes it heroic
or beautiful or sweet. We rejoice in our home, in our dear ones, and in
the precious human loves that reflect the love divine. Pardon our sins,
we pray Thee, and work out Thy purposes in us. May we work and hope on
and be glad in Thee filling this day so full of useful employ that when
the night shall come, we shall lie down to sleep upon Thy loving
children like tired but happy children, and so find rest and refreshment
for another day with men and Thee. Amen.
CARL F. HENRY.
September 3
_There's a dance of leaves in that aspen bower,
There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree,
There's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower,
And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea._
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.
_O sweet September! thy first breezes bring
The dry leaf's rustle and the squirrel's laughter,
The cool, fresh air, whence health and vigor spring
And promise of exceeding joy hereafter._
GEORGE ARNOLD.
O Lord, we thank Thee for the spring, which brought her handsome
promise, for the gorgeous preparation which the summer made in his manly
strength, and we bless Thee for the months of autumn, whose sober beauty
now is cast on every hill and every tree. We thank Thee for the harvests
which the toil and the thought of man have gathered already from the
surface of the ground, or digged from its bosom. We bless Thee for the
other harvests still growing beneath the earth, or hanging abundant
beauties in the autumnal sun from many a tree, all over our blessed
Northern land. Amen.
THEODORE PARKER.
September 4
_Do right, and God's recompense to you will be the power to do more
right. Give, and God's reward to you will be the spirit of giving
more: blessed spirit, for it is the Spirit of God Himself, whose
Life is the blessedness of giving. Love, and God will pay you with
the capacity of more love; for love is Heaven, love is God within
you._
FREDERICK W. ROBERTSON.
O Lord, we thank Thee for Thy manifold gifts unto the children of men.
Thou givest life and all the sustenance of life. Thou givest our fair
and beautiful world. Thou givest us the power of hope and faith and
thought. From Thine own giving may we learn that it is more blessed to
give than to receive. Teach us, O Lord, to give more freely and more
gladly, and may we learn how our own life, and joy and growth are
involved in the spirit in which we give and serve. In all our giving and
all our serving may we keep before us the vision of the Master who gave
Himself that we might live. Amen.
GEORGE L. PERIN.
September 5
_Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar.
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come
From God who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy,
At length the man perceives it die away
And fade into the light of common day._
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.
O Eternal God, Who art without beginning of days or end of years, from
Whom cometh all our life; pardon, we beseech Thee, the sins of Thy
children, wherein we have darkened Thine own image within us. Let not
our light die away amid the common toil and daily care, but so glorify
our life with Thy spirit, that we may gladly present both souls and
bodies to Thy service an acceptable sacrifice, and, learning to love
Thee above all things, may be approved in Thy sight as true disciples of
Thy Son Jesus Christ. Amen.
WILLIAM E. GASKIN.
September 6
_A haze on the far horizon,
The infinite tender sky,
The ripe, rich tint of the corn-fields,
And the wild geese sailing high,
And all over upland and lowland
The charm of the goldenrod--
Some of us call it Autumn,
And others call it God._
WILLIAM H. CARRUTH.
Once more, O God, Thou partest the curtains of night to bless us with a
new day. In its dawning Thou revealest Thyself to us anew. Fresh
beauties break upon our vision; new evidences of Thy goodness appear;
new joys rise in our hearts. We thank Thee for the harvest of corn that
feeds our bodies and the harvest of beauty that feeds our souls; for the
blue of the distant hills and the wide stretch of meadow and prairie;
for golden flower and flying bird; for the nearness of Thy presence in
the brooding haze; for the thoughts unutterable that rise within us. In
thankfulness may we go forth to our daily tasks and live in
consciousness of Thy eternal presence and love. Amen.
RODNEY F. JOHONNOT.
September 7
_I come under your windows, some fine morning, and play you one of
my adagio movements, and some of you say,--This is good, play us so
always. But, dear friends, if I did not change the stop sometimes,
the machine would wear out in one part and rust in another. How
easily this or that tune flows! you say, there must be no end of
such melodies in him. I will open the poor machine for you one
moment, and you shall look. Every note marks where a spur of steel
has been driven in. It is easy to grind out the song, but to plant
these bristling points which make it was the painful task of time._
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
We thank Thee, Father, for Thy love which, like the morning light, fails
not to greet us at each opening day. While its radiant beams light up
the pathway from our hearts to Thine, we come, with eager steps, for
morning worship and for praise. Take Thou, we pray, the hand
outstretched out to Thee and lead us safely through another day. Grant
us the strength to do our very best and leave results with Thee. We do
not ask for ease, but victory; not for the praise of men, but for the
blessing of our God upon our heaven-appointed task. Grant us the joy
supreme of knowing, when the sun has set, that we have left undone no
duty to our God or fellowman. Amen.
J. W. ANNAS.
September 8
_Admit into thy silent breast
The notes of but one bird
And instantly thy soul will join
In jubilant accord._
_The perfume of a single flow'r
Inhale like breath of God,
And in the garden of thy heart
A thousand buds will nod._
_Toward one star in heaven's expanse
Direct thy spirit's fight,
And thou wilt have in the wide world,
My child, enough delight._
JOHANNA AMBROSIUS.
Our Father In Heaven, as Thou turnest the earth once more toward the
light to give us another day may we not forget that all things come of
Thee. Thou givest us this beautiful earth, adorned with a thousand
varied beauties, crowded with opportunities and possibilities, for our
home. Day and night, sunshine and the rain, labor and trial, joy and
victory, all are from Thy hand. Whatever the circumstances of our life,
whatever our labor and place, help us to remember that life is a school
in which to learn, an arena where we may fight and win. May we gain
wisdom and strength to win the victory which is life eternal, and in
finding that may we find peace and content in Thee. Amen.
FREDERICK A. TAYLOR.
September 9
_Give me the gospel of the fields and woods--
The sermons written in the book of books;
The sweet communion of the things of earth
Fresh with the warm baptism of the sun.
Give me the offertory of bud and bloom,
The perfect caroling of happy birds.
Give me the creed of one of God's fair days
Wrought in the beauty of its loveliness;
And then, the benediction of the stars,
His eloquent ministers of the night._
JAMES RAVENSCROFT.
Heavenly Father, we praise Thee for the breaking day, the singing birds,
the dew in the meadows, the fragrance of the flowers, ascending like
old-time incense from Jewish altar, the sun gilding the hill-tops, the
veiled stars, the gliding river, mirroring in its depths, sedge and tree
and overhanging sky. Thou hast ordained that we nestle in the bosom of
nature and feel the touch of God. Pour strength into our beings from
bird and flower, and Thy spirit which moves in them, that our youth may
be renewed like the eagle's. So shall the memories of earth enrich our
heaven. We praise and supplicate in the name of Jesus. Amen.
L. A. FREEMAN.
September 10
_Just whistle a bit if the day be dark
And the sky be overcast:
If mute be the voice of the piping lark,
Why, pipe your own small blast._