Part 23 (1/2)

J. KEBLE.

A heart unloving among kindred has no love towards G.o.d'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 G.o.d? 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. x.x.xi. 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 s.p.a.ce 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 s.h.i.+ne, fearless and confident, for the G.o.d who gave the primrose its rough leaves to hide it from the blast of uneven spring, hangs us in the awful hollows of s.p.a.ce. 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 pa.s.sed over from my G.o.d?”

G. MACDONALD.

May 8

_This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it_.--PS. cxviii. 24.