As for thee, the Lord thy God hath noi suffered thee so to do. - DEUT. Xviii. 14. LORD, for the erring thought WHAT W. D. HOWELLS 7HAT an amazing, what a blessed disproportion between the evil we do, and the evil we are capable of doing, and seem sometimes on the very verge of doing! If my soul has grown tares, when it was full of the seeds of nightshade, how happy ought I to be! And that the tares have not wholly strangled the wheat, what a wonder it is! We ought to thank God daily for the sins we have not committed. F. W. FABER. WE give thanks often with a tearful, doubtful voice, for our spiritual mercies positive; but what an almost infinite field there is for mercies negative! We cannot even imagine all that God has suffered us not to do, not to be. F. R. HAVERGAL. You are surprised at your imperfections why? I should infer from that, that your selfknowledge is small. Surely, you might rather be astonished that you do not fall into more frequent and more grievous faults, and thank God for His upholding grace. JEAN NICOLAS GROU Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast en faithful over a few things, I will make the ler over many things: enter thou into the joy of y Lord. - MATT. XXV. 23. O FATHER! help us to resign Our hearts, our strength, our wills to Thee; Then even lowliest work of Thine Most noble, blest, and sweet will be. H. M. KIMBALL. JOTHING is too little to be ordered by our Father; nothing too little in which to see is hand; nothing, which touches our souls, too le to accept from Him; nothing too little to done to Him. E. B. PUSEY. A SOUL Occupied with great ideas best performs all duties; the divinest views of life penetrate Ost clearly into the meanest emergencies; so from petty principles being best proportioned petty trials, a heavenly spirit taking up its ode with us can alone sustain well the daily Is, and tranquilly pass the humiliations of our ndition. J. MARTINEAU. WHOSO neglects a thing which he suspects he ght to do, because it seems to him too small a ng, is deceiving himself; it is not too little, too great for him, that he doeth it not. E. B PUSEY Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. -I KINGS Xix. 18. BACK then, complainer; loathe thy life no more, Because the rocks the nearer prospect close. HE went down to the great school with a glim mering of another lesson in his heart, the lesson that he who has conquered his own coward spirit has conquered the whole outward world; and that other one which the old prophet learnt in the cave in Mount Horeb, when he hid his face, and the still small voice asked, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" that however we may fancy ourselves alone on the side of good, the King and Lord of men is nowhere without His witnesses; for in every society, however seemingly corrupt and godless, there are those who have not bowed the knee to Baal. THOMAS HUGHES. So, then, Elijah's life had been no failure, after all. Seven thousand at least in Israel had been braced and encouraged by his example, and silently blessed him, perhaps, for the courage which they felt. In God's world, for those who are in earnest there is no failure. No work truly done, no word earnestly spoken, no sacrifice freely made, was ever made in vain. F. W. ROBERTSON. In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy mforts delight my soul. Ps. xciv. 19. Perplexed, but not in despair; cast down, but not stroyed. - 2 COR. iv. 8, 9. DISCOURAGED in the work of life, Disheartened by its load, Shamed by its failures or its fears, I sink beside the road; But let me only think of Thee, And then new heart springs up in me. S. LONGFELLOW DISCOURAGEMENT is an inclination to give up all attempts after the devout life, consequence of the difficulties by which it is set, and our already numerous failures in it. e lose heart; and partly in ill-temper, partly in I doubt of our own ability to persevere, we t grow querulous and peevish with God, and n relax in our efforts to mortify ourselves and lease Him. It is a sort of shadow of despair, I will lead us into numberless venial sins the half-hour we give way to it. F. W. FABER. NEVER let us be discouraged with ourselves; s not when we are conscious of our faults that are the most wicked ; on the contrary, we are so. We see by a brighter light; and let us ember, for our consolation, that we never perFe our sins till we begin to cure them. That ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. - ROM. xii. 2. THOU knowest what is best; And who but Thee, O God, hath power to know? In Thy great will my trusting heart shall rest; Beneath that will my humble head shall bow. Το T. C. UPHAM. O 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. STUDY to follow His will in all, to have no will but His. This is thy duty, and thy wisdom. Nothing is gained by spurning and struggling but to hurt and vex thyself; but by complying all is gained sweet peace. It is the very secret, the mystery of solid peace within, to resign all to His will, to be disposed of at His pleasure, without the least contrary thought. R. LEIGHTON. |