A temple there has been upon earth, a spiritual Temple, made up of living stones; a Temple, as I may say, composed of souls; a Temple with God for its light, and Christ for the high priest; with wings of angels for its
arches, with saints and teachers for its pillars, and with worshippers for
its pavement. Wherever there is faith and love, this Temple is.
J. H. NEWMAN.
To whatever worlds He carries our souls when they shall pass out of
these imprisoning bodies, in those worlds these souls of ours shall find
themselves part of the same great Temple; for it belongs not to this earth
alone. There can be no end of the universe where God is, to which that
growing Temple does not reach,--the Temple of a creation to be wrought at last into a perfect utterance of God by a perfect obedience to God.
PHILLIPS BROOKS.
January 11
Between us and Thyself remove
Whatever hindrances may be,
That so our inmost heart may prove
A holy temple, meet for Thee.
LATIN MSS. OF 15TH CENTURY.
January 18
Gratitude consists in a watchful, minute attention to the particulars of
our state, and to the multitude of God's gifts, taken one by one. It fills
us with a consciousness that God loves and cares for us, even to the least event and smallest need of life. It is a blessed thought, that from our childhood God has been laying His fatherly hands upon us, and always in benediction; that even the strokes of His hands are blessings, and among the chiefest we have ever received. When this feeling is awakened, the heart beats with a pulse of thankfulness. Every gift has its return of praise. It awakens an unceasing daily converse with our Father,--He speaking to us by the descent of blessings, we to Him by the ascent of thanksgiving. And all our whole life is thereby drawn under the light of His countenance, and is filled with a gladness, serenity, and peace which only thankful hearts can know.
H. E. MANNING.
January 19
Be Thou my Sun, my selfishness destroy,
Thy atmosphere of Love be all my joy;
Thy Presence be my sunshine ever bright,
My soul the little mote that lives but in Thy light.
GERHARD TERSTEEGEN.
January 21
Man, by living wholly in submission to the Divine Influence, becomes surrounded with, and creates for himself, internal pleasures infinitely greater than any he can otherwise attain to--a state of heavenly Beatitude.
J. P. GREAVES.
January 27
Without an end or bound
Thy life lies all outspread in light;
Our lives feel Thy life all around,
Making our weakness strong, our darkness bright;
Yet is it neither wilderness nor sea,
But the calm gladness of a full eternity.
F. W. FABER.
February 11
Cheered by the presence of God, I will do at each moment, without anxiety, according to the strength which He shall give me, the work that His Providence assigns me. I will leave the rest without concern; it is not my affair. I ought to consider the duty to which I am called each day, as the work that God has given me to do, and to apply myself to it in a manner worthy of His glory, that is to say, with exactness and in peace. I must neglect nothing; I must be violent about nothing.
FRANCOIS DE LA MOTHE FENELON.
February 12
Source of my life's refreshing springs,
Whose presence in my heart sustains me,
Thy love ordains me pleasant things,
Thy mercy orders all that pains me.
A. L. WARING.
February 24
O Thou, the primal fount of life and peace,
Who shedd'st Thy breathing quiet all around,
In me command that pain and conflict cease,
And turn to music every jarring sound.
J. STERLING.
February 25
God beholds thee individually, whoever thou art. "He calls thee by thy name." He sees thee, and understands thee. He knows what is in thee, all thy own peculiar feelings and thoughts, thy dispositions and likings, thy strength and thy weakness. He views thee in thy day of rejoicing and thy
day of sorrow. He sympathizes in thy hopes and in thy temptations; He interests himself in all thy anxieties and thy remembrances, in all the risings and fallings of thy spirit. He compasses thee round, and bears thee in His arms; He takes thee up and sets thee down. Thou dost not love
thyself better than He loves thee. Thou canst not shrink from pain more than He dislikes thy bearing it, and if He puts it on thee, it is as thou wilt put it on thyself, if thou art wise, for a greater good afterwards.
J. H. NEWMAN.
March 8
The task Thy wisdom hath assigned,
Oh, let me cheerfully fulfil;
In all my works Thy presence find,
And prove Thine acceptable will.
C. WESLEY.
March 12
There is a faith in God, and a clear perception of His will and designs, and providence, and glory, which gives to its possessor a confidence and patience and sweet composure, under every varied and troubling aspect of events, such as no man can realize who has not felt its influences in his own heart. There is a communion with God, in which the soul feels the presence of the unseen One, in the profound depths of its being, with a vivid distinctness and a holy reverence, such as no words can describe. There is a state of union with God, I do not say often reached, yet it has been attained in this world, in which all the past and present and future seem reconciled, and eternity is won and enjoyed; and God and man, earth and heaven, with all their mysteries, are apprehended in truth as they lie in the mind of the Infinite.
SAMUEL D. ROBBINS.
March 13
_He that abideth in me, and I in him, bringeth forth much fruit_.--JOHN xv.
5.
_Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us_.--PS. xc. 17.
As some rare perfume in a vase of clay
Pervades it with a fragrance not its own,
So, when Thou dwellest in a mortal soul,
All Heaven's own sweetness seems around it thrown.
H. B. STOWE.
March 24
_I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety_.--PS. iv. 8.
_He giveth His beloved sleep_.--PS. cxxvii. 2.
He guides our feet, He guards our way,
His morning smiles bless all the day;
He spreads the evening veil, and keeps
The silent hours while Israel sleeps.
I. WATTS.
April 1
To know that Love alone was the beginning of nature and creature, that nothing but Love encompasses the whole universe of things, that the governing Hand that overrules all, the watchful Eye that sees through all, is nothing but omnipotent and omniscient Love, using an infinity of wisdom, to save every misguided creature from the miserable works of its own hands, and make happiness and glory the perpetual inheritance of all the creation, is a reflection that must be quite ravishing to every intelligent creature that is sensible of it.
WM. LAW.
April 2
_Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you_?--I COR. iii. 16.
Father! replenish with Thy grace
This longing heart of mine;
Make it Thy quiet dwelling-place,
Thy sacred inmost shrine!
JOHANN SCHEFFLER.
Not man's manifold labors, but his manifold cares, hinder the presence of God. Whatsoever thou doest, hush thyself to thine own feverish vanities, and busy thoughts, and cares; in silence seek thy Father's face, and the
light of His countenance will stream down upon thee. He will make a secret cell in thine heart, and when thou enterest there, there shalt thou find Him. And if thou hast found Him there, all around shall reflect Him, all shall speak to Him, and He will speak through all. Outwardly thou mayest be doing the work of thy calling; inwardly if thou commend thy work to God, thou mayest be with Him in the third Heaven.
E. B. PUSEY.
April 5
A soul occupied with great ideas best performs small duties; the divinest views of life penetrate most clearly into the meanest emergencies; so far from petty principles being best proportioned to petty trials, a heavenly spirit taking up its abode with us can alone sustain well the daily toils,
and tranquilly pass the humiliations of our condition.
J. MARTINEAU.
April 7
To those who are His, all things are not only easy to be borne, but even to be gladly chosen. Their will is united to that will which moves heaven and earth, which gives laws to angels, and rules the courses of the world. It is a wonderful gift of God to man, of which we that know so little
must needs speak little. To be at the centre of that motion, where is everlasting rest; to be sheltered in the peace of God; even now to dwell in heaven, where all hearts are stayed, and all hopes fulfilled. "Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee."
H. E. MANNING.
April 11
_Wherefore, beloved... be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless_,--2 PETER iii. 14.
His conscience knows no secret stings,
While grace and joy combine
To form a life whose holy springs
Are hidden and divine.
I. WATTS
April 14
Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be,
As more of heaven in each we see:
Some softening gleam of love and prayer
Shall dawn on every cross and care.
J. KEBLE.
April 19
Thou layest Thy hand on the fluttering heart,
And sayest, "Be still!"
The silence and shadow are only a part
Of Thy sweet will;
Thy presence is with me, and where Thou art
I fear no ill.
F. R. HAVERGAL.
April 22
If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would be all sunshine
In the sweetness of our Lord.
F. W. FABER.
What would it be to love absolutely a Being absolutely lovely,--to be able 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 25
"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
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 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.
May 4
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 11
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 13
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 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.
How shall we rest in God? By giving ourselves wholly to Him. If you give yourself by halves, you cannot find full rest; there will ever be a lurking disquiet in that half which is withheld. Martyrs, confessors, and saints
have tasted this rest, and "counted themselves happy in that they endured." A countless host of God's faithful servants have drunk deeply of it under the daily burden of a weary life,--dull, commonplace, painful, or desolate. All that God has been to them He is ready to be to you. The heart once fairly given to God, with a clear conscience, a fitting rule of life, and a steadfast purpose of obedience, you will find a wonderful sense of rest coming over you.
JEAN NICOLAS GROU.
May 20
_To be spiritually minded is life and peace_.--ROM. viii. 6.
Stilled now be every anxious care;
See God's great goodness everywhere;
Leave all to Him in perfect rest:
He will do all things for the best.
FROM THE GERMAN.
We should all endeavor and labor for a calmer spirit, that we may the better serve God in praying to Him and praising Him; and serve one another in love, that we may be fitted to do and receive good; that we may make our passage to heaven more easy and cheerful, without drooping and hanging the wing. So much as we are quiet and cheerful upon good ground, so much we live, and are, as it were, in heaven.
R. SIBBES.
June 2
Then every tempting form of sin,
Shamed in Thy presence, disappears,
And all the glowing, raptured soul
The likeness it contemplates wears.
P. DODDRIDGE.
Then does a good man become the tabernacle of God, wherein the divine Shechinah does rest, and which the divine glory fills, when the frame of his mind and life is wholly according to that idea and pattern which he
receives from the mount. We best glorify Him when we grow most like to Him: and we then act most for His glory, when a true spirit of sanctity, justice, and meekness, runs through all our actions; when we so live in the world as becomes those that converse with the great Mind and Wisdom of the whole world, with that Almighty Spirit that made, supports, and governs all things, with that Being from whence all good flows, and in which there is no spot, stain, or shadow of evil; and so being captivated and overcome by
the sense of the Divine loveliness and goodness, endeavor to be like Him, and conform ourselves, as much as may be, to Him.
DR. JOHN SMITH.
Do right, and God's recompense to you will be the power of doing more right. Give, and God's reward to you will be the spirit of giving more: a 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.
F. W. ROBERTSON.
June 6
Slowly, through all the universe, that temple of God is being built. Wherever, in any world, a soul, by free-willed obedience, catches the fire of God's likeness, it is set into the growing walls, a living stone. When, in your hard fight, in your tiresome drudgery, or in your terrible temptation, you catch the purpose of your being, and give yourself to God,
and so give Him the chance to give Himself to you, your life, a living stone, is taken up and set into that growing wall. Wherever souls are being tried and ripened, in whatever commonplace and homely ways;--there God is hewing out the pillars for His temple. Oh, if the stone can only have some vision of the temple of which it is to be a part forever, what patience must fill it as it feels the blows of the hammer, and knows that success for it is simply to let itself be wrought into what shape the Master wills.
PHILLIPS BROOKS.
June 25
"We mustn't be in a hurry to fix and choose our own lot; we must wait to be guided. We are led on, like the little children, by a way that we know not. It is a vain thought to flee from the work that God appoints us, for the
sake of finding a greater blessing to our own souls; as if we could choose for ourselves where we shall find the fulness of the Divine Presence, instead of seeking it where alone it is to be found, in loving obedience."
GEORGE ELIOT.
June 28
This deliverance of the soul from all useless and selfish and unquiet cares, brings to it an unspeakable peace and freedom; this is true simplicity. This state of entire resignation and perpetual acquiescence produces true liberty; and this liberty brings perfect simplicity. The soul
which knows no self-seeking, no interested ends, is thoroughly candid; it goes straight forward without hindrance; its path opens daily more and more to "perfect day," in proportion as its self-renunciation and its
self-forgetfulness increase; and its peace, amid whatever troubles beset it, will be as boundless as the depths of the sea.
FRANCOIS DE LA MOTHE FENELON.
July 15
_Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in_.--PS. xxiv. 9.
_Ye are the temple of the living God_.--2 COR. vi. 16.
Fling wide the portals of your heart,
Make it a temple set apart
From earthly use for Heaven's employ,
Adorned with prayer, and love, and joy.
So shall your Sovereign enter in,
And new and nobler life begin.
G. WEISSEL.
Thou art to know that thy soul is the centre, habitation, and kingdom of God. That, therefore, to the end the sovereign King may rest on that throne of thy soul, thou oughtest to take pains to keep it clean, quiet, and peaceable,--clean from guilt and defects; quiet from fears; and peaceable
in temptations and tribulations. Thou oughtest always, then, to keep thine heart in peace, that thou mayest keep pure that temple of God; and with a right and pure intention thou art to work, pray, obey, and suffer (without being in the least moved), whatever it pleases the Lord to send unto thee.
M. DE MOLINOS
July 16
_Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee; which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee_.--PS. xxxi. 19.
_I will sing unto the Lord, because He hath dealt bountifully with me_.--PS. xiii. 6.
Thy calmness bends serene above
My restlessness to still;
Around me flows Thy quickening life,
To nerve my faltering will;
Thy presence fills my solitude;
Thy providence turns all to good.
S. LONGFELLOW.
With a heart devoted to God and full of God, no longer seek Him in the heavens above or the earth beneath, or in the things under the earth, but recognize Him as the great fact of the universe, separate from no place or part, but revealed in all places and in all things and events, _moment by
moment_. And as eternity alone will exhaust this momentary revelation, which has sometimes been called the ETERNAL Now, thou shalt thus find God ever present and ever new; and thy soul shall adore Him and feed upon Him in the things and events which each new moment brings; and thou shalt never be absent from Him, and He shall never be absent from thee.
T. C. UPHAM.
July 22
_Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord_.--PS. cvii. 43.
What channel needs our faith, except the eyes?
God leaves no spot of earth unglorified;
Profuse and wasteful, lovelinesses rise;
New beauties dawn before the old have died.
Trust thou thy joys in keeping of the Power
Who holds these changing shadows in His hand;
Believe and live, and know that hour by hour
Will ripple newer beauty to thy strand.
T. W. HIGGINSON.
July 26
_They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even for ever_.--PS.
cxxv. I, 2.
How on a rock they stand,
Who watch His eye, and hold His guiding hand!
Not half so fixed amid her vassal hills,
Rises the holy pile that Kedron's valley fills.
J. KEBLE.
That is the way to be immovable in the midst of troubles, as a rock amidst the waves. When God is in the midst of a kingdom or city, He makes it firm as Mount Sion, that cannot be removed. When He is in the midst of a soul,
though calamities throng about it on all hands, and roar like the billows of the sea, yet there is a constant calm within, such a peace as the world can neither give nor take away. What is it but want of lodging God in the soul, and that in His stead the world is in men's hearts, that makes them
shake like leaves at every blast of danger?
R. LEIGHTON.
August 2
_Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation_.--ISA. xii. 2.
_Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith_?--MARK. iv. 40.
Still heavy is thy heart?
Still sink thy spirits down?
Cast off the weight, let fear depart,
And every care be gone.
P. GERHARDT.
August 3
_Thou hast made him exceeding glad with Thy countenance_.--PS. xxi. 6.
MY heart for gladness springs,
It cannot more be sad,
For very joy it laughs and sings,
Sees nought but sunshine glad.
P. GERHARDT.
A new day rose upon me. It was as if another sun had risen into the sky; the heavens were indescribably brighter, and the earth fairer; and that day has gone on brightening to the present hour. I have known the other joys of life, I suppose, as much as most men; I have known art and beauty, music
and gladness; I have known friendship and love and family ties; but it is certain that till we see GOD in the world--GOD in the bright and boundless universe--we never know the highest joy. It is far more than if one were translated to a world a thousand times fairer than this; for that supreme
and central Light of Infinite Love and Wisdom, shining over this world and all worlds, alone can show us how noble and beautiful, how fair and glorious they are.
ORVILLE DEWEY.
August 26
_Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord_.--ZECH. ii. 13.
Be earth, with all her scenes, withdrawn;
Let noise and vanity be gone:
In secret silence of the mind,
My heaven, and there my God, I find.
I. WATTS.
It is only with the pious affection of the will that we can be spiritually attentive to God. As long as the noisy restlessness of the thoughts goes on, the gentle and holy desires of the new nature are overpowered and
inactive.
J. P. GREAVES.
There is hardly ever a complete silence in our soul. God is whispering to us wellnigh incessantly. Whenever the sounds of the world die out in the soul, or sink low, then we hear these whisperings of God. He is always whispering to us, only we do not always hear, because of the noise, hurry,
and distraction which life causes as it rushes on.
F. W. FABER.
The prayer of faith is a sincere, sweet, and quiet view of divine, eternal truth. The soul rests quiet, perceiving and loving God; sweetly rejecting all the imaginations that present themselves, calming the mind in the
Divine presence, and fixing it only on God.
M. DE MOLINOS.
August 27
If any sincere Christian cast himself with his whole will upon the Divine Presence which dwells within him, he shall be kept safe unto the end. What is it that makes us unable to persevere? Is it want of strength? By no means. We have with us the strength of the Holy Spirit. When did we ever
set ourselves sincerely to any work according to the will of God, and fail for want of strength? It was not that strength failed the will, but that the will failed first. If we could but embrace the Divine will with the whole love of ours; cleaving to it, and holding fast by it, we should be borne along as upon "the river of the water of life." We open only certain
chambers of our will to the influence of the Divine will. We are afraid of being wholly absorbed into it. And yet, if we would have peace, we must be altogether united to Him.
H. E. MANNING.
September 2
O God, who art Peace everlasting, whose chosen reward is the gift of peace, and who hast taught us that the peacemakers are Thy children, pour Thy sweet peace into our souls, that everything discordant may utterly vanish, and all that makes for peace be sweet to us forever. Amen.
GELASIAN SACRAMENTARY, A. D. 492.
September 18
It is not by seeking more fertile regions where toil is lighter--happier circumstances free from difficult complications and troublesome people--but by bringing the high courage of a devout soul, clear in principle and aim, to bear upon what is given to us, that we brighten our inward light, lead something of a true life, and introduce the kingdom of heaven into the midst of our earthly day. If we cannot work out the will of God where God has placed us, then why has He placed us there?
J. H. THOM.
September 20
_Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy presence from the pride of man: Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues_.--PS. xxxi. 20.
The praying spirit breathe,
The watching power impart,
From all entanglements beneath
Call off my anxious heart.
My feeble mind sustain,
By worldly thoughts oppressed;
Appear, and bid me turn again
To my eternal rest.
C. WESLEY.
September 22
_The word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it_.--DEUT. xxx. 14.
But, above all, the victory is most sure
For him, who, seeking faith by virtue, strives
To yield entire obedience to the Law
Of Conscience; Conscience reverenced and obeyed,
As God's most intimate presence in the soul,
And His most perfect image in the world.
W. WORDSWORTH.
What we call Conscience is the voice of Divine love in the deep of our being, desiring union with our will; and which, by attracting the affections inward, invites them to enter into the harmonious contentment, and "fulness of joy" which attends the being joined by "one spirit to the Lord."
J. P. GREAVES.
I rejoice that God has bestowed upon you a relish and inclination for the inner life. To be called to this precious and lofty life is a great and undeserved grace of God, to which we ought to respond with great faithfulness. God invites us to His fellowship of love, and wishes to prepare our spirit to be His own abode and temple.
GERHARD TERSTEEGEN.
September 29
_Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God_.--MATT. v. 8.
_Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord_.--HEB. xii. 14.
Since Thou Thyself dost still display
Unto the pure in heart,
Oh, make us children of the day
To know Thee as Thou art.
For Thou art light and life and love;
And Thy redeemed below
May see Thee as Thy saints above,
And know Thee as they know.
J. MONTGOMERY.
Doubt, gloom, impatience, have been expelled; joy has taken their place, the hope of heaven and the harmony of a pure heart, the triumph of self-mastery, sober thoughts, and a contented mind. How can charity towards
all men fail to follow, being the mere affectionateness of innocence and peace? Thus the Spirit of God creates in us the simplicity and warmth of heart which children have, nay, rather the perfections of His heavenly hosts, high and low being joined together in His mysterious work; for what
are implicit trust, ardent love, abiding purity, but the mind both of little children and of the adoring seraphim!
J. H. NEWMAN.
October 20
_Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good_.--ROM. xii. 21.
Come, in this accepted hour;
Bring Thy heavenly kingdom in;
Fill us with Thy glorious power,
Rooting out the seeds of sin.
C. WESLEY.
If we wish to overcome evil, we must overcome it by good. There are doubtless many ways of overcoming the evil in our own hearts, but the simplest, easiest, most universal, is to overcome it by active occupation in some good word or work. The best antidote against evil of all kinds,
against the evil thoughts which haunt the soul, against the needless perplexities which distract the conscience, is to keep hold of the good we have. Impure thoughts will not stand against pure words, and prayers, and deeds. Little doubts will not avail against great certainties. Fix your
affections on things above, and then you will be less and less troubled by the cares, the temptations, the troubles of things on earth.
A. P. STANLEY.
October 23
_Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God: Thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness_.--PS. cxliii. 10.
The battle of our life is won,
And heaven begun,
When we can say, "Thy will be done!"
But, Lord, until
These restless hearts in Thy deep love are still,
We pray Thee, "Teach us how to do Thy will!"
LUCY LARCOM.
October 31
_And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him_.--GEN. v. 24.
Oh for a closer walk with God,
A calm and heavenly frame;
A light to shine upon the road
That leads me to the Lamb!
W. COWPER.
Is it possible for any of us in these modern days to so live that we may walk with God? Can we walk with God in the shop, in the office, in the household, and on the street? When men exasperate us, and work wearies us,
and the children fret, and the servants annoy, and our best-laid plans fall to pieces, and our castles in the air are dissipated like bubbles that break at a breath, then can we walk with God? That religion which fails us
in the every-day trials and experiences of life has somewhere in it a flaw. It should be more than a plank to sustain us in the rushing tide, and land us exhausted and dripping on the other side. It ought, if it come from
above, to be always, day by day, to our souls as the wings of a bird, bearing us away from and beyond the impediments which seek to hold us down. If the Divine Love be a conscious presence, an indwelling force with us, it
will do this.
CHRISTIAN UNION.
November 5
_The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are_.--I COR. iii. 17.
Now shed Thy mighty influence abroad
On souls that would their Father's image bear;
Make us as holy temples of our God,
Where dwells forever calm, adoring prayer.
C. J. P. SPITTA.
This pearl of eternity is the church or temple of God within thee, the consecrated place of divine worship, where alone thou canst worship God in spirit and in truth. When once thou art well grounded in this inward worship, thou wilt have learned to live unto God above time and place. For
every day will be Sunday to thee, and, wherever thou goest, thou wilt have a priest, a church, and an altar along with thee. For when God has all that He should have of thy heart, when thou art wholly given up to the obedience of the light and spirit of God within thee, to will only in His will, to
love only in His love, to be wise only in His wisdom, then it is that everything thou dost is as a song of praise, and the common business of thy life is a conforming to God's will on earth as angels do in heaven.
WM. LAW.
December 2
The great step and direct path to the fear and awful reverence of God, is to meditate, and with a sedate and silent hush to turn the eyes of the mind inwards; there to seek, and with a submissive spirit wait at the gates of Wisdom's temple; and then the Divine Voice and Distinguishing Power will arise in the light and centre of a man's self.
THOMAS TRYON.
December 17
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.
