Part 38 (1/2)

July 23

_Thou shalt love the Lord thy G.o.d with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind_.--LUKE x. 27.

O G.o.d, what offering shall I give To Thee, the Lord of earth and skies?

My spirit, soul, and flesh receive, A holy, living sacrifice.

J. LANGE.

To love G.o.d ”with all our heart,” is to know the spiritual pa.s.sion of measureless grat.i.tude for loving-kindness, and self-devotedness to goodness; to love Him ”with all our mind,” is to know the pa.s.sion for Truth that is the enthusiasm of Science, the pa.s.sion for Beauty that inspires the poet and the artist, when all truth and beauty are regarded as the self-revealings of G.o.d; to love Him ”with all our soul,” is to know the saint's rapture of devotion and gaze of penitential awe into the face of the All-holy, the saint's abhorrence of sin, and agony of desire to save a sinner's soul; and to love Him ”with all our strength,” is the supreme spiritual pa.s.sion that tests the rest; the pa.s.sion for reality, for wors.h.i.+p in spirit and in truth, for being what we adore, for doing what we know to be G.o.d's word; the loyalty that exacts the living sacrifice, the whole burnt-offering that is our reasonable service, and in our coldest hours keeps steadfast to what seemed good when we were aglow.

J. H. THOM.

July 24

_Walk worthy of G.o.d, who hath called you unto His kingdom and glory_.--I THESS. ii. 12.

_Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not_.--GEN. xxviii. 16.

Thou earnest not to thy place by accident, It is the very place G.o.d meant for thee; And shouldst thou there small scope for action see, Do not for this give room to discontent.

R. C. TRENCH.

Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events.

R. W. EMERSON.

Adapt thyself to the things with which thy lot has been cast; and love the men with whom it is thy portion to live, and that with a sincere affection.

No longer be either dissatisfied with thy present lot, or shrink from the future.

MARCUS ANTONINUS.

I love best to have each thing in its season, doing without it at all other times. I have never got over my surprise that I should have been born into the most estimable place in all the world, and in the very nick of time too.

H. D. Th.o.r.eAU.

July 25

_He knoweth the way that I take_.--JOB xxiii. 10.

_Man's goings are of the Lord; how can a man then understand his own way_?--PROV. xx. 24.

Be quiet, why this anxious heed About thy tangled ways?