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 a.r.s.enals 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 G.o.d, 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

Moliere 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 gra.s.ses on my spear, I ride forever seeking after G.o.d.

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