Daily Strength for Daily Needs by Mary W. Tileston (story read aloud .TXT) π
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it to-day, and see if it is not a day of strange, almost curious peace, so sweet that you will be only too thankful, when to-morrow comes, to ask Him to take it also,--till it will become a blessed habit to hold yourself simply and "wholly at Thy commandment for any manner of service." The "whatsoever" is not necessarily active work. It may be waiting (whether half an hour or half a life-time), learning, suffering, sitting still. But shall we be less ready for these, if any of them are His appointments for to-day? Let us ask Him to prepare us for all that He is preparing for us.
F. R. HAVERGAL.
December 15
_Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee_.--PS. cxvi. 7.
We which have believed do enter into rest.--HEB. iv. 3.
Rest is not quitting The busy career; Rest is the fitting Of self to its sphere.
'T is loving and serving The highest and best! 'T is onwards, unswerving,-- And that is true rest.
J. S. DWIGHT.
As a result of this strong faith, the inner life of Catherine of Genoa was characterized, in a remarkable degree, by what may be termed rest, or quietude; which is only another form of expression for true interior peace. It was not, however, the quietude of a lazy inaction, but the quietude of an inward acquiescence; not a quietude which feels nothing and does nothing, but that higher and divine quietude which exists by feeling and acting in the time and degree of God's appointment and God's will. It was a principle in her conduct, to give herself to God in the discharge of duty; and to leave all results without solicitude in His hands.
T. C. UPHAM.
December 16
Thou understandest my thought afar off.--PS. cxxxix. 2.
Who can understand his errors? cleanse Thou me from secret faults.--PS. xix. 12.
My newest griefs to Thee are old; My last transgression of Thy law, Though wrapped in thought's most secret fold, Thine eyes with pitying sadness saw.
H. M. KIMBALL.
Lord our God, great, eternal, wonderful in glory, who keepest covenant and promises for those that love Thee with their whole heart, who art the Life of all, the Help of those that flee unto Thee, the Hope of those who cry unto Thee, cleanse us from our sins, secret and open, and from every thought displeasing to Thy goodness,--cleanse our bodies and souls, our hearts and consciences, that with a pure heart, and a clear soul, with perfect love and calm hope, we may venture confidently and fearlessly to pray unto Thee. Amen.
COPTIC LITURGY OF ST. BASIL.
The dominion of any sinful habit will fearfully estrange us from His presence. A single consenting act of inward disobedience in thought or will is enough to let fall a cloud between Him and us, and to leave our hearts cheerless and dark.
H. E. MANNING.
December 17
_The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance_.--GAL. v. 22, 23.
_Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples_.--JOHN xv. 8.
O Breath from out the Eternal Silence! blow Softly upon our spirits' barren ground; The precious fulness of our God bestow, That fruits of faith, love, reverence may abound.
G. TERSTEEGEN.
Is it possible we should be ignorant whether we feel tempers contrary to love or no?--whether we rejoice always, or are burdened and bowed down with sorrow?--whether we have a praying, or a dead, lifeless spirit?--whether we can praise God, and be resigned in all trials, or feel murmurings, fretfulness, and impatience under them?--is it not easy to know if we feel anger at provocations, or whether we feel our tempers mild, gentle, peaceable, and easy to be entreated, or feel stubbornness, self-will, and pride? whether we have slavish fears, or are possessed of that perfect love which casteth out all fear that hath torment?
HESTER ANN ROGERS.
December 18
We trust in the living God.--I TIM. iv. 10.
Thy secret judgment's depths profound Still sings the silent night; The day, upon his golden round, Thy pity infinite.
I. WILLIAMS. Tr. from Latin.
Now that I have no longer any sense for the transitory and perishable, the universe appears before my eyes under a transformed aspect. The dead, heavy mass which did but stop up space has vanished, and in its place there flows onward, with the rushing music of mighty waves, an eternal stream of life, and power, and action, which issues from the original source of all life,--from Thy life, O Infinite One! for all life is Thy life, and only the religious eye penetrates to the realm of true Beauty.
J. G. FICHTE.
What is Nature? Art thou not the "Living Garment" of God? O Heavens, is it, in very deed, He then that ever speaks through thee; that lives and loves in thee, that lives and loves in me? Sweeter than dayspring to the shipwrecked in Nova Zembla; ah! like the mother's voice to her little child that strays bewildered, weeping, in unknown tumults; like soft streamings of celestial music to my too exasperated heart, came that Evangel. The Universe is not dead and demoniacal, a charnel-house with spectres; but godlike, and my Father's.
T. CARLYLE.
December 19
And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in Thee.--PS. xxxix. 7.
O Lord, be gracious unto us; we have waited for Thee.--ISA. xxxiii. 2.
He never comes too late; He knoweth what is best; Vex not thyself in vain; Until He cometh, rest.
B. T.
We make mistakes, or what we call such. The nature that could fall into such mistake exactly needs, and in the goodness of the dear God is given, the living of it out, And beyond this, I believe more. That in the pure and patient living of it out we come to find that we have fallen, not into hopeless confusion of our own wild, ignorant making; but that the finger of God has been at work among our lines, and that the emerging is into His blessed order; that He is forever making up for us our own undoings; that He makes them up beforehand; that He evermore restoreth our souls.
A. D. T. WHITNEY.
THE Lord knows how to make stepping-stones for us of our defects, even; it is what He lets them be for. He remembereth--He remembered in the making--that we are but dust; the dust of earth, that He chose to make something little lower than the angels out of.
A. D. T. WHITNEY.
December 20
_Take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak_.--MATT. x. 19.
Just to follow hour by hour As He leadeth; Just to draw the moment's power As it needeth.
F. R. HAVERGAL.
You have a disagreeable duty to do at twelve o'clock. Do not blacken nine, and ten, and eleven, and all between, with the color of twelve. Do the work of each, and reap your reward in peace. So when the dreaded moment in the future becomes the present, you shall meet it walking in the light, and that light will overcome its darkness. The best preparation is the present well seen to, the last duty done. For this will keep the eye so clear and the body so full of light that the right action will be perceived at once, the right words will rush from the heart to the lips, and the man, full of the Spirit of God because he cares for nothing but the will of God, will trample on the evil thing in love, and be sent, it may be, in a chariot of fire to the presence of his Father, or stand unmoved amid the cruel mockings of the men he loves.
G. MACDONALD.
December 21
_Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength_.--ISA. xl. 28, 29.
Workman of God! oh, lose not heart, But learn what God is like; And in the darkest battle-field Thou shall know where to strike.
F. W. FABER.
For the rest, let that vain struggle to read the mystery of the Infinite cease to harass us. It is a mystery which, through all ages, we shall only read here a line of, there another line of. Do we not already know that the name of the Infinite is GOOD, is GOD? Here on earth we are as soldiers, fighting in a foreign land, that understand not the plan of the campaign, and have no need to understand it; seeing well what is at our hand to be done. Let us do it like soldiers, with submission, with courage, with a heroic joy. Behind us, behind each one of us, lie six thousand years of human, effort, human conquest: before us is the boundless Time, with its as yet uncreated and unconquered continents and Eldorados, which we, even we, have to conquer, to create; and from the bosom of Eternity there shine for us celestial guiding stars.
T. CARLYLE.
December 22
_I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him_.--ISA. viii. 17.
What heart can comprehend Thy name, Or, searching, find Thee out? Who art within, a quickening flame, A presence round about.
Yet though I know Thee but in part, I ask not, Lord, for more: Enough for me to know Thou art, To love Thee and adore.
F. L. HOSMER.
Stand up, O heart! and yield not one inch of thy rightful territory to the usurping intellect. Hold fast to God in spite of logic, and yet not quite blindly. Be not torn from thy grasp upon the skirts of His garments by any wrench of atheistic hypothesis that seeks only to hurl thee into utter darkness; but refuse not to let thy hands be gently unclasped by that loving and pious philosophy that seeks to draw thee from the feet of God only to place thee in His bosom. Trustfully, though tremblingly, let go the robe, and thou shalt rest upon the heart and clasp the very living soul of God.
JAMES HINTON.
December 23
Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.--2 TIM. ii. 3.
Where our Captain bids us go, 'T is not ours to murmur, "No," He that gives the sword and shield, Chooses too the battle-field On which we are to fight the foe.
ANON.
Of nothing may we be more sure than this; that, if we cannot sanctify our present lot, we could sanctify no other. Our heaven and our Almighty Father are there or nowhere. The obstructions of that lot are given for us to heave away by the concurrent touch of a holy spirit, and labor of strenuous will; its gloom, for us to tint with some celestial light; its mysteries are for our worship; its sorrows for our trust; its perils for our courage; its temptations for our faith. Soldiers of the cross, it is not for us, but for our Leader and our Lord, to choose the field; it is ours, taking the station which He assigns, to make it the field of truth and honor, though it be the field of death.
F. R. HAVERGAL.
December 15
_Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee_.--PS. cxvi. 7.
We which have believed do enter into rest.--HEB. iv. 3.
Rest is not quitting The busy career; Rest is the fitting Of self to its sphere.
'T is loving and serving The highest and best! 'T is onwards, unswerving,-- And that is true rest.
J. S. DWIGHT.
As a result of this strong faith, the inner life of Catherine of Genoa was characterized, in a remarkable degree, by what may be termed rest, or quietude; which is only another form of expression for true interior peace. It was not, however, the quietude of a lazy inaction, but the quietude of an inward acquiescence; not a quietude which feels nothing and does nothing, but that higher and divine quietude which exists by feeling and acting in the time and degree of God's appointment and God's will. It was a principle in her conduct, to give herself to God in the discharge of duty; and to leave all results without solicitude in His hands.
T. C. UPHAM.
December 16
Thou understandest my thought afar off.--PS. cxxxix. 2.
Who can understand his errors? cleanse Thou me from secret faults.--PS. xix. 12.
My newest griefs to Thee are old; My last transgression of Thy law, Though wrapped in thought's most secret fold, Thine eyes with pitying sadness saw.
H. M. KIMBALL.
Lord our God, great, eternal, wonderful in glory, who keepest covenant and promises for those that love Thee with their whole heart, who art the Life of all, the Help of those that flee unto Thee, the Hope of those who cry unto Thee, cleanse us from our sins, secret and open, and from every thought displeasing to Thy goodness,--cleanse our bodies and souls, our hearts and consciences, that with a pure heart, and a clear soul, with perfect love and calm hope, we may venture confidently and fearlessly to pray unto Thee. Amen.
COPTIC LITURGY OF ST. BASIL.
The dominion of any sinful habit will fearfully estrange us from His presence. A single consenting act of inward disobedience in thought or will is enough to let fall a cloud between Him and us, and to leave our hearts cheerless and dark.
H. E. MANNING.
December 17
_The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance_.--GAL. v. 22, 23.
_Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples_.--JOHN xv. 8.
O Breath from out the Eternal Silence! blow Softly upon our spirits' barren ground; The precious fulness of our God bestow, That fruits of faith, love, reverence may abound.
G. TERSTEEGEN.
Is it possible we should be ignorant whether we feel tempers contrary to love or no?--whether we rejoice always, or are burdened and bowed down with sorrow?--whether we have a praying, or a dead, lifeless spirit?--whether we can praise God, and be resigned in all trials, or feel murmurings, fretfulness, and impatience under them?--is it not easy to know if we feel anger at provocations, or whether we feel our tempers mild, gentle, peaceable, and easy to be entreated, or feel stubbornness, self-will, and pride? whether we have slavish fears, or are possessed of that perfect love which casteth out all fear that hath torment?
HESTER ANN ROGERS.
December 18
We trust in the living God.--I TIM. iv. 10.
Thy secret judgment's depths profound Still sings the silent night; The day, upon his golden round, Thy pity infinite.
I. WILLIAMS. Tr. from Latin.
Now that I have no longer any sense for the transitory and perishable, the universe appears before my eyes under a transformed aspect. The dead, heavy mass which did but stop up space has vanished, and in its place there flows onward, with the rushing music of mighty waves, an eternal stream of life, and power, and action, which issues from the original source of all life,--from Thy life, O Infinite One! for all life is Thy life, and only the religious eye penetrates to the realm of true Beauty.
J. G. FICHTE.
What is Nature? Art thou not the "Living Garment" of God? O Heavens, is it, in very deed, He then that ever speaks through thee; that lives and loves in thee, that lives and loves in me? Sweeter than dayspring to the shipwrecked in Nova Zembla; ah! like the mother's voice to her little child that strays bewildered, weeping, in unknown tumults; like soft streamings of celestial music to my too exasperated heart, came that Evangel. The Universe is not dead and demoniacal, a charnel-house with spectres; but godlike, and my Father's.
T. CARLYLE.
December 19
And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in Thee.--PS. xxxix. 7.
O Lord, be gracious unto us; we have waited for Thee.--ISA. xxxiii. 2.
He never comes too late; He knoweth what is best; Vex not thyself in vain; Until He cometh, rest.
B. T.
We make mistakes, or what we call such. The nature that could fall into such mistake exactly needs, and in the goodness of the dear God is given, the living of it out, And beyond this, I believe more. That in the pure and patient living of it out we come to find that we have fallen, not into hopeless confusion of our own wild, ignorant making; but that the finger of God has been at work among our lines, and that the emerging is into His blessed order; that He is forever making up for us our own undoings; that He makes them up beforehand; that He evermore restoreth our souls.
A. D. T. WHITNEY.
THE Lord knows how to make stepping-stones for us of our defects, even; it is what He lets them be for. He remembereth--He remembered in the making--that we are but dust; the dust of earth, that He chose to make something little lower than the angels out of.
A. D. T. WHITNEY.
December 20
_Take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak_.--MATT. x. 19.
Just to follow hour by hour As He leadeth; Just to draw the moment's power As it needeth.
F. R. HAVERGAL.
You have a disagreeable duty to do at twelve o'clock. Do not blacken nine, and ten, and eleven, and all between, with the color of twelve. Do the work of each, and reap your reward in peace. So when the dreaded moment in the future becomes the present, you shall meet it walking in the light, and that light will overcome its darkness. The best preparation is the present well seen to, the last duty done. For this will keep the eye so clear and the body so full of light that the right action will be perceived at once, the right words will rush from the heart to the lips, and the man, full of the Spirit of God because he cares for nothing but the will of God, will trample on the evil thing in love, and be sent, it may be, in a chariot of fire to the presence of his Father, or stand unmoved amid the cruel mockings of the men he loves.
G. MACDONALD.
December 21
_Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength_.--ISA. xl. 28, 29.
Workman of God! oh, lose not heart, But learn what God is like; And in the darkest battle-field Thou shall know where to strike.
F. W. FABER.
For the rest, let that vain struggle to read the mystery of the Infinite cease to harass us. It is a mystery which, through all ages, we shall only read here a line of, there another line of. Do we not already know that the name of the Infinite is GOOD, is GOD? Here on earth we are as soldiers, fighting in a foreign land, that understand not the plan of the campaign, and have no need to understand it; seeing well what is at our hand to be done. Let us do it like soldiers, with submission, with courage, with a heroic joy. Behind us, behind each one of us, lie six thousand years of human, effort, human conquest: before us is the boundless Time, with its as yet uncreated and unconquered continents and Eldorados, which we, even we, have to conquer, to create; and from the bosom of Eternity there shine for us celestial guiding stars.
T. CARLYLE.
December 22
_I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him_.--ISA. viii. 17.
What heart can comprehend Thy name, Or, searching, find Thee out? Who art within, a quickening flame, A presence round about.
Yet though I know Thee but in part, I ask not, Lord, for more: Enough for me to know Thou art, To love Thee and adore.
F. L. HOSMER.
Stand up, O heart! and yield not one inch of thy rightful territory to the usurping intellect. Hold fast to God in spite of logic, and yet not quite blindly. Be not torn from thy grasp upon the skirts of His garments by any wrench of atheistic hypothesis that seeks only to hurl thee into utter darkness; but refuse not to let thy hands be gently unclasped by that loving and pious philosophy that seeks to draw thee from the feet of God only to place thee in His bosom. Trustfully, though tremblingly, let go the robe, and thou shalt rest upon the heart and clasp the very living soul of God.
JAMES HINTON.
December 23
Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.--2 TIM. ii. 3.
Where our Captain bids us go, 'T is not ours to murmur, "No," He that gives the sword and shield, Chooses too the battle-field On which we are to fight the foe.
ANON.
Of nothing may we be more sure than this; that, if we cannot sanctify our present lot, we could sanctify no other. Our heaven and our Almighty Father are there or nowhere. The obstructions of that lot are given for us to heave away by the concurrent touch of a holy spirit, and labor of strenuous will; its gloom, for us to tint with some celestial light; its mysteries are for our worship; its sorrows for our trust; its perils for our courage; its temptations for our faith. Soldiers of the cross, it is not for us, but for our Leader and our Lord, to choose the field; it is ours, taking the station which He assigns, to make it the field of truth and honor, though it be the field of death.
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