Part 53 (2/2)

JOHN WESLEY.

October 15

_Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me_.--PS. xl. 12, 13.

_Sin shall not have dominion over you_.--ROM. vi. 14.

O Thou, to whose all-searching sight The darkness s.h.i.+neth as the light!

Search, prove my heart; it pants for Thee; Oh, burst these bonds, and set it free!

G. TERSTEEGEN.

Yes, this sin which has sent me weary-hearted to bed and desperate in heart to morning work, that has made my plans miscarry until I am a coward, that cuts me off from prayer, that robs the sky of blueness and the earth of springtime, and the air of freshness, and human faces of friendliness,--this blasting sin which perhaps has made my bed in h.e.l.l for me so long,--this can be conquered. I do not say annihilated, but, better than that, conquered, captured and transfigured into a friend: so that I at last shall say, ”My temptation has become my strength! for to the very fight with it I owe my force.”

W. C. GANNETT.

October 16

_I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast showed unto Thy servant_.--GEN. x.x.xii. 10.

Some murmur if their sky is clear, And wholly bright to view, If one small speck of dark appear In their great heaven of blue: And some with thankful love are filled, If but one streak of light, One ray of G.o.d's good mercy, gild The darkness of their night.

R. C. TRENCH.

Habitual sufferers are precisely those who least frequently doubt the Divine benevolence, and whose faith and love rise to the serenest cheerfulness. Possessed by no idea of a prescriptive right to be happy, their blessings are not benumbed by antic.i.p.ation, but come to them fresh and brilliant as the first day's morning and evening light to the dwellers in Paradise. With the happy it is their constant peace that seems to come by nature, and to be blunted by its commonness,--and their griefs to come from G.o.d, sharpened by their sacred origin; with the sufferer, it is his pain that appears to be a thing of course, and to require no explanation, while his relief is reverently welcomed as a divine interposition, and, as a breath of Heaven, caresses the heart into melodies of praise.

J. MARTINEAU.

October 17

_Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice_.--I SAM. XV. 22.

_Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show to you to-day_--EX. xiv. 13.

The folded hands seem idle: If folded at His word, 'Tis a holy service, trust me, In obedience to the Lord.

ANNA s.h.i.+PTON.

It is not the mult.i.tude of hard duties, it is not constraint and contention that advance us in our Christian course. On the contrary, it is the yielding of our wills without restriction and without choice, to tread cheerfully every day in the path in which Providence leads us, to seek nothing, to be discouraged by nothing, to see our duty in the present moment, to trust all else without reserve to the will and power of G.o.d.

FRANcOIS DE LA MOTHE FeNELON.

G.o.dliness is the devotion of the soul to G.o.d, as to a living person whose will is to be its law, whose love is to be its life. It is the habit of living before the face of G.o.d, and not the simply doing certain things.

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