to give our whole existence, every thought, every act, every desire, to
that adored One,--to know that He accepts it all, and loves us in return as
God alone can love? This happiness grows forever. The larger our natures
become, the wider our scope of thought, the stronger our will, the more
fervent our affections, the deeper must be the rapture of such God-granted
prayer. Every sacrifice _resolved on_ opens wide the gate; every sacrifice
_accomplished_ is a step towards the paradise within. Soon it will be no
transitory glimpse, no rapture of a day, to be followed by clouds and
coldness. Let us but labor, and pray, and wait, and the intervals of human
frailty shall grow shorter and less dark, the days of our delight in God
longer and brighter, till at last life shall be nought but His love, our
eyes shall never grow dim, His smile never turn away.
F. B. COBBE.
April 23
_These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges:
there they dwelt with the king for his work_.--I CHRON. iv. 23.
A lowlier task on them is laid,
With love to make the labor light;
And there their beauty they must shed
On quiet homes, and lost to sight.
Changed are their visions high and fair,
Yet, calm and still, they labor there.
HYMNS OF THE AGES.
Anywhere and everywhere we may dwell "with the King for His work." We may
be in a very unlikely or unfavorable place for this; it may be in a literal
country life, with little enough to be seen of the "goings" of the
King around us; it may be among hedges of all sorts, hindrances in all
directions; it may be, furthermore, with our hands full of all manner of
pottery for our daily task. No matter! The King who placed us "there" will
come and dwell there with us; the hedges are all right, or He would soon do
away with them; and it does not follow that what seems to hinder our way
may not be for its very protection; and as for the pottery, why, that is
just exactly what He has seen fit to put into our hands, and therefore it
is, for the present, "His work."
F. R. HAVERGAL.
April 24
_Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ_.--GAL. vi.
2.
Is thy cruse of comfort wasting?
Rise and share it with another,
And through all the years of famine,
It shall serve thee and thy brother.
Is thy burden hard and heavy?
Do thy steps drag heavily?
Help to bear thy brother's burden;
God will bear both it and thee.
ELIZABETH CHARLES.
However perplexed you may at any hour become about some question of truth,
one refuge and resource is always at hand: you can do something for some
one besides yourself. When your own burden is heaviest, you can always
lighten a little some other burden. At the times when you cannot see God,
there is still open to you this sacred possibility, to _show_ God; for it
is the love and kindness of human hearts through which the divine reality
comes home to men, whether they name it or not. Let this thought, then,
stay with you: there may be times when you cannot find help, but there is
no time when you cannot give help.
GEORGE S. MERRIAM.
April 25
_Surely, I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of
his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child_.--PS. cxxxi. 2.
Quiet, Lord, my froward heart,
Make me teachable and mild,
Upright, simple, free from art,
Make me as a weaned child;
From distrust and envy free,
Pleased with all that pleaseth Thee.
J. NEWTON.
Oh! look not after great things: small breathings, small desires after
the Lord, if true and pure, are sweet beginnings of life. Take heed
of despising "the day of small things," by looking after some great
visitation, proportionable to thy distress, according to thy eye. Nay, thou
must become a child; thou must lose thy own will quite by degrees. Thou
must wait for life to be measured out by the Father, and be content with
what proportion, and at what time, He shall please to measure.
I. PENINGTON.
"When Israel was a child, then I loved him" (Hosea xi. 1). Aim to be ever
this little child, contented with what the Father gives of pleasure or of
play; and when restrained from pleasure or from play, and led for a season
into the chamber of sorrow, rest quiet on His bosom, and be patient, and
smile, as one who is nestled in a sweet and secure asylum.
ANON.
April 26
_If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for
it_.--ROM. viii. 25.
_One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one
day_.--2 PETER iii. 8.
Lord! who Thy thousand years dost wait
To work the thousandth part
Of Thy vast plan, for us create
With zeal a patient heart.
J. H. NEWMAN.
I believe that if we could only see beforehand what it is that our heavenly
Father means us to be,--the _soul_ beauty and perfection and glory, the
glorious and lovely spiritual body that this soul is to dwell in through
all eternity,--if we could have a glimpse of _this_, we should not grudge
all the trouble and pains He is taking with us now, to bring us up to that
ideal, which is His thought of us. We know that it is God's way to work
slowly, so we must not be surprised if He takes a great many years of
discipline to turn a mortal being into an immortal, glorious angel.
ANNIE KEARY.
April 27
_Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor_,--ZECH. viii. 16.
_For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in
simplicity and godly sincerity... we have had our conversation in the
world_.--2 COR. i. 12.
Appear I always what I am?
And am I what I am pretending?
Know I what way my course is bending?
And sound my word and thought the same?
ANON.
Am I acting in simplicity, from a germ of the Divine life within, or am
I shaping my path to obtain some immediate result of expediency? Am I
endeavoring to compass effects, amidst a tangled web of foreign influences
I cannot calculate; or am I seeking simply to do what is right, and leaving
the consequences to the good providence of God?
M. A. SCHIMMELPENNINCK.
Let it not be in any man's power to say truly of thee that thou art not
simple, or that thou art not good; but let him be a liar whoever shall
think anything of this kind about thee; and this is altogether in thy
power. For who is he that shall hinder thee from being good and simple?
MARCUS ANTONINUS.
April 28
_The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand_.--PS.
cxxi. 5.
_Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend
them_.--PS. cxix. 165.
I rest beneath the Almighty's shade,
My griefs expire, my troubles cease;
Thou, Lord, on whom my soul is stayed,
Wilt keep me still in perfect peace.
C. WESLEY.
One great sign of the practical recognition of the "divine moment," and of
our finding God's habitation in it, is constant calmness and peace of mind.
Events and things come with the moment; but God comes with them too. So
that if He comes in the sunshine, we find rest and joy; and if He comes
in the storm, we know He is King of the storms, and our hearts are not
troubled. God Himself, though possessing a heart filled with the tenderest
feelings, is, nevertheless, an everlasting tranquillity; and when we enter
into His holy tabernacle, our souls necessarily enter into the tabernacle
of rest.
T. C. UPHAM.
My soul was not only brought into harmony with itself and with God, but
with God's providences. In the exercise of faith and love, I endured
and performed whatever came in God's providence, in submission, in
thankfulness, and silence.
MADAME GUYON.
April 29
_I will arise and go to my Father_.--LUKE xv. 18.
O my God, my Father! hear,
And help me to believe;
Weak and weary I draw near;
Thy child, O God, receive.
I so oft have gone astray;
To the perfect Guide I flee;
Thou wilt turn me not away,
Thy love is pledged to me.
HYMNS OF THE SPIRIT.
O child, hast thou fallen? arise, and go, with childlike trust, to thy
Father, like the prodigal son, and humbly say, with heart and mouth,
"Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before Thee, and am no more
worthy to be called Thy son; make me as one of Thy hired servants." And
what will thy heavenly Father do but what that father did in the parable?
Assuredly He will not change His essence, which is love, for the sake of
thy misdoings. Is it not His own precious treasure, and a small thing with
Him to forgive thee thy trespasses, if thou believe in Him? for His hand is
not shortened that it cannot make thee fit to be saved.
JOHN TAULER.
April 30
_Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward_.--EX. xiv. 15.
_No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for
the kingdom of God_.--LUKE ix. 62.
Be trustful, be steadfast, whatever betide thee,
Only one thing do thou ask of the Lord,--
Grace to go forward wherever He guide thee,
Simply believing the truth of His word.
ANON.
The soul ceases to weary itself with planning and foreseeing, giving itself
up to God's Holy Spirit within, and to the teachings of His providence
without. He is not forever fretting as to his progress, or looking back to
see how far he is getting on; rather he goes steadily and quietly on, and
makes all the more progress because it is unconscious. So he never gets
troubled and discouraged; if he falls he humbles himself, but gets up at
once, and goes on with renewed earnestness.
JEAN NICOLAS GROU.
May 1
_I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my
mouth_.--PS. xxxiv. I.
_I will praise Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all Thy
marvellous works_.--PS. ix. I.
Thrice blest will all our blessings be,
When we can look through them to Thee;
When each glad heart its tribute pays
Of love and gratitude and praise.
JANE COTTERILL.
That which befits us, embosomed in beauty and wonder as we are, is
cheerfulness, and courage, and the endeavor to realize our aspirations.
Shall not the heart which has received so much, trust the Power by which
it lives? May it not quit other leadings, and listen to the Soul that has
guided it so gently, and taught it so much, secure that the future will be
worthy of the past?
R. W. EMERSON.
I have experienced that the habit of taking out of the hand of our Lord
every little blessing and brightness on our path, confirms us, in an
especial manner, in communion with His love.
M. A. SCHIMMELPENNINCK.
May 2
_The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of
great price_.--I PETER iii. 4.
_To present you holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in His
sight_.--COL. i. 22.
Thy sinless mind in us reveal,
Thy spirit's plenitude impart!
Till all my spotless life shall tell
The abundance of a loving heart.
C. WESLEY.
Holiness appeared to me to be of a sweet, pleasant, charming, serene, calm
nature. It seemed to me, it brought an inexpressible purity, brightness,
peacefulness, and ravishment to the soul; and that it made the soul like a
field or garden of God, with all manner of pleasant flowers, that is all
pleasant, delightful, and undisturbed; enjoying a sweet calm, and the
gently vivifying beams of the sun. The soul of a true Christian appeared
like such a little white flower, as we see in the spring of the year, low
and humble on the ground, opening its bosom to receive the pleasant beams
of the sun's glory; rejoicing, as it were, in a calm rapture; diffusing
around a sweet fragrancy; standing peacefully and lovingly in the midst of
other flowers round about, all in like manner opening their bosoms to drink
in the light of the sun.
JONATHAN EDWARDS.
May 3
_The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them
that trust in Him_.--NAHUM i. 7.
Leave God to order all thy ways,
And hope in Him, whate'er betide;
Thou 'It find Him in the evil days
Thy all-sufficient strength and guide;
Who trusts in God's unchanging love,
Builds on the rock that nought can move.
G. NEUMARK.
Our whole trouble in our lot in this world rises from the disagreement
of our mind therewith. Let the mind be brought to the lot, and the whole
tumult is instantly hushed; let it be kept in that disposition, and the man
shall stand at ease, in his affliction, like a rock unmoved with waters
beating upon it.
T. BOSTON.
How does our will become sanctified? By conforming itself unreservedly to
that of God. We will all that He wills, and will nothing that He does not
will; we attach our feeble will to that all-powerful will which performs
everything. Thus, nothing can ever come to pass against our will; for
nothing can happen save that which God wills, and we find in His good
pleasure an inexhaustible source of peace and consolation.
FRANÇOIS DE LA MOTHE FÉNELON.
May 4
_Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths of lions, out of weakness were made
strong_.--HEB xi. 33, 34.
She met the hosts of Sorrow with a look
That altered not beneath the frown they wore,
And soon the lowering brood were tamed, and took,
Meekly, her gentle rule, and frowned no more.
Her soft hand put aside the assaults of wrath,
And calmly broke in twain
The fiery shafts of pain,
And rent the nets of passion from her path.
By that victorious hand despair was slain;
With love she vanquished hate, and overcame
Evil with good, in her great Master's name.
W. C. BRYANT.
As to what may befall us outwardly, in this confused state of things, shall
we not trust our tender Father, and rest satisfied in His will? Shall
anything hurt us? Can tribulation, distress, persecution, famine,
nakedness, peril, or sword, come between the love of the Father to the
child, or the child's rest, content, and delight in His love? And doth not
the love, the rest, the peace, the joy felt, swallow up all the bitterness
and sorrow of the outward condition?
I. PENINGTON.
May 5
_If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how
canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou
trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of
Jordan_?--JER. xii. 5.
How couldst thou hang upon the cross,
To whom a weary hour is loss?
Or how the thorns and scourging brook,
Who shrinkest from a scornful look?
J. KEBLE.
A heart unloving among kindred has no love towards God's saints and angels.
If we have a cold heart towards a servant or a friend, why should we wonder
if we have no fervor towards God? If we are cold in our private prayers, we
should be earthly and dull in the most devout religious order; if we cannot
bear the vexations of a companion, how should we bear the contradiction of
sinners? if a little pain overcomes us, how could we endure a cross? if we
have no tender, cheerful, affectionate love to those with whom our daily
hours are spent, how should we feel the pulse and ardor of love to the
unknown and the evil, the ungrateful and repulsive?
H. E. MANNING.
May 6
_Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love_.--ROM. xii. 10.
_In her tongue is the law of kindness_.--PROV. xxxi. 26.
Since trifles make the sum of human things,
And half our misery from our foibles springs;
Since life's best joys consist in peace and ease,
And though but few can serve, yet all can please;
Oh, let the ungentle spirit learn from hence,
A small unkindness is a great offence.
HANNAH MORE.
All usefulness and all comfort may be prevented by an unkind, a sour,
crabbed temper of mind,--a mind that can bear with no difference of opinion
or temperament. A spirit of fault-finding; an unsatisfied temper; a
constant irritability; little inequalities in the look, the temper, or the
manner; a brow cloudy and dissatisfied--your husband or your wife cannot
tell why--will more than neutralize all the good you can do, and render
life anything but a blessing.
ALBERT BARNES.
You have not fulfilled every duty, unless you have fulfilled that of being
pleasant.
CHARLES BUXTON.
May 7
_He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth
the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names_.--PS. cxlvii.
3, 4.
Teach me your mood, O patient stars!
Who climb each night the ancient sky,
Leaving on space no shade, no scars,
No trace of age, no fear to die.
R. W. EMERSON.
I looked up to the heavens once more, and the quietness of the stars seemed
to reproach me. "We are safe up here," they seemed to say; "we shine,
fearless and confident, for the God who gave the primrose its rough leaves
to hide it from the blast of uneven spring, hangs us in the awful hollows
of space. We cannot fall out of His safety. Lift up your eyes on high, and
behold! Who hath created these things--that bringeth out their host by
number? He calleth them all by names. By the greatness of His might, for
that He is strong in power, not one faileth. Why sayest thou, O Jacob! and
speakest, O Israel! my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed
over from my God?"
G. MACDONALD.
May 8
_This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in
it_.--PS. cxviii. 24.
_Why stand ye here all the day idle_?--MATT. xx. 6.
So here hath been dawning another blue day;
Think, wilt thou let it slip useless away?
Out of eternity this new day is born;
Into eternity at night will return.
T. CARLYLE.
Small cares, some deficiencies in the mere arrangement and ordering of our
lives, daily fret our hearts, and cross the clearness of our faculties; and
these entanglements hang around us, and leave us no free soul able to give
itself up, in power and gladness, to the true work of life. The
severest training and self-denial,--a superiority to the servitude of
indulgence,--are the indispensable conditions even of genial spirits, of
unclouded energies, of tempers free from morbidness,--much more of the
practised and vigorous mind, ready at every call, and thoroughly furnished
unto all good works.
J. H. THOM.
True, we can never be at peace till we have performed the highest duty of
all,--till we have arisen, and gone to our Father; but the performance
of smaller duties, yes, even of the smallest, will do more to give us
temporary repose, will act more as healthful anodynes, than the greatest
joys that can come to us from any other quarter.
G. MACDONALD.
May 9
_The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the
Lord_.--JOB i. 21.
What Thou hast given, Thou canst take,
And when Thou wilt new gifts can make.
All flows from Thee alone;
When Thou didst give it, it was Thine;
When Thou retook'st it, 't was not mine.
Thy will in all be done.
JOHN AUSTIN.
We are ready to praise when all shines fair; but when life is overcast,
when all things seem to be against us, when we are in fear for some
cherished happiness, or in the depths of sorrow, or in the solitude of a
life which has no visible support, or in a season of sickness, and with the
shadow of death approaching,--then to praise God; then to say, This fear,
loneliness, affliction, pain, and trembling awe are as sure tokens of love,
as life, health, joy, and the gifts of home: "The Lord gave, and the Lord
hath taken away;" on either side it is He, and all is love alike; "blessed
be the name of the Lord,"--this is the true sacrifice of praise. What can
come amiss to a soul which is so in accord with God? What can make so much
as one jarring tone in all its harmony? In all the changes of this fitful
life, it ever dwells in praise.
H. E. MANNING.
May 10
_The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants; and none of them that trust
in Him shall be desolate_.--PS. xxxiv. 22.
_Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him_.--JOB xiii. 15.
I praise Thee while my days go on;
I love Thee while my days go on:
Through dark and dearth, through fire and frost,
With emptied arms and treasure lost,
I thank Thee while my days go on.
E. B. BROWNING.
The sickness of the last week was fine medicine; pain disintegrated the
spirit, or became spiritual. I rose,--I felt that I had given to God more
perhaps than an angel could,--had promised Him in youth that to be a blot
on this fair world, at His command, would be acceptable. Constantly offer
myself to continue the obscurest 'and loneliest thing ever heard of, with
one proviso,--His agency. Yes, love Thee, and all Thou dost, while Thou
sheddest frost and darkness on every path of mine.
MARY MOODY EMERSON.
May 11
_Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive
evil_?--JOB ii. 10.
_Thou hast dealt well with Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy
word_.--PS. cxix. 65.
Whatsoe'er our lot may be,
Calmly in this thought we'll rest,--
Could we see as Thou dost see,
We should choose it as the best.
WM. GASKELL.
It is a proverbial saying, that every one makes his own destiny; and this
is usually interpreted, that every one, by his wise or unwise conduct,
prepares good or evil for himself: but we may also understand it, that
whatever it be that he receives from the hand of Providence, he may so
accommodate himself to it, that he will find his lot good for him, however
much may seem to others to be wanting.
WM. VON HUMBOLDT.
Evil, once manfully fronted, ceases to be evil; there is generous
battle-hope in place of dead, passive misery; the evil itself has become a
kind of good.
T. CARLYLE.
May 12
_Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer:... ye shall have
tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a
crown of life_.--REV. ii. 10.
Then, O my soul, be ne'er afraid,
On Him who thee and all things made
Do thou all calmly rest;
Whate'er may come, where'er we go,
Our Father in the heavens must know
In all things what is best.
PAUL FLEMMING.
Guide me, O Lord, in all the changes and varieties of the world; that in
all things that shall happen, I may have an evenness and tranquillity
of spirit; that my soul may be wholly resigned to Thy divinest will
and pleasure, never murmuring at Thy gentle chastisements and fatherly
correction. Amen.
JEREMY TAYLOR.
Thou art never at any time nearer to God than when under tribulation; which
He permits for the purification and beautifying of thy soul.
M. DE MOLINOS.
Prize inward exercises, griefs, and troubles; and let faith and patience
have their perfect work in them.
I. PENINGTON.
May 13
_I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou
shouldest keep them from the evil_.--JOHN xvii. 15.
In busy mart and crowded street,
No less than in the still retreat,
Thou, Lord, art near, our souls to bless,
With all a Father's tenderness.
I. WILLIAMS.
Only the individual conscience, and He who is greater than the conscience,
can tell where worldliness prevails. Each heart must answer for itself, and
at its own risk. That our souls are committed to our own keeping, at our
own peril, in a world so mixed as this, is the last reason we should
slumber over the charge, or betray the trust. If only that outlet to the
Infinite is kept open, the inner bond with eternal life preserved, while
not one movement of this world's business is interfered with, nor one
pulse-beat of its happiness repressed, with all natural associations dear
and cherished, with all human sympathies fresh and warm, we shall yet be
near to the kingdom of heaven, within the order of the Kosmos of God--in
the world, but not of the world--not taken out of it, but kept from its
evil.
J. H. THOM.
May 14
_And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God_?--MICAH vi. 8.
_Put on therefore... kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness,
long-suffering_.--COL. iii. 12.
Plant in us an humble mind,
Patient, pitiful, and kind;
Meek and lowly let us be,
Full of goodness, full of Thee.
C. WESLEY.
There is no true and constant gentleness without humility; while we are so
fond of ourselves, we are easily offended with others. Let us be persuaded
that nothing is due to us, and then nothing will disturb us. Let us often
think of our own infirmities, and we shall become indulgent towards those
of others.
FRANÇOIS DE LA MOTHE FÉNELON.
Endeavor to be patient in bearing with the defects and infirmities of
others, of what sort soever they be; for that thyself also hast many
failings which must be borne with by others. If thou canst not make thyself
such an one as thou wouldest, how canst thou expect to have another in all
things to thy liking?
THOMAS À KEMPIS.
May 15
_My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest_.--EX. xxxiii.
14.
_Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at
Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore_.--PS. xvi. 11.
Thy presence fills my mind with peace,
Brightens the thoughts so dark erewhile,
Bids cares and sad forebodings cease,
Makes all things smile.
CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT.