Part 29 (1/2)

June 5

_Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth_.--I SAM. iii. 9.

Though heralded with nought of fear, Or outward sign or show: Though only to the inward ear It whispers soft and low; Though dropping, as the manna fell, Unseen, yet from above, Noiseless as dew-fall, heed it well,-- Thy Father's call of love.

J. G. WHITTIER.

This is one result of the att.i.tude into which we are put by humility, by disinterestedness, by purity, by calmness, that we have the opportunity, the disengagement, the silence, in which we may watch what is the will of G.o.d concerning us. If we think no more of ourselves than we ought to think, if we seek not our own but others' welfare, if we are prepared to take all things as G.o.d's dealings with us, then we may have a chance of catching from time to time what G.o.d has to tell us. In the Mussulman devotions, one constant gesture is to put the hands to the ears, as if to listen for the messages from the other world. This is the att.i.tude, the posture which our minds a.s.sume, if we have a standing-place above and beyond the stir and confusion and dissipation of this mortal world.

A. P. STANLEY.

June 6

_Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my G.o.d_.--REV.

iii. 12.

_In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of G.o.d through the Spirit_.--EPH. ii. 22.

None the place ordained refuseth, They are one, and they are all, Living stones, the Builder chooseth For the courses of His wall.

JEAN INGELOW.

Slowly, through all the universe, that temple of G.o.d is being built.

Wherever, in any world, a soul, by free-willed obedience, catches the fire of G.o.d'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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d 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 7

_Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day_.--I THESS.

v. 5.

_Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart_.--PS. xcvii. 11.

Serene will be our days and bright, And happy will our nature be, When love is an unerring light, And joy its own security.

W. WORDSWORTH.

Nothing can produce so great a serenity of life, as a mind free from guilt, and kept untainted, not only from actions, but purposes that are wicked.