Daily Strength for Daily Needs Part 55

The battle of our life is won, And heaven begun, When we can say, "Thy will be done!"

But, Lord, until These restless hearts in Thy deep love are still, We pray Thee, "Teach us how to do Thy will!"

LUCY LARCOM.

"You are seeking your own will, my daughter. You are seeking some good other than the law you are bound to obey. But how will you find good? It is not a thing of choice; it is a river that flows from the foot of the Invisible Throne, and flows by the path of obedience. I say again, man cannot choose his duties. You may choose to forsake your duties, and choose not to have the sorrow they bring. But you will go forth, and what will you find, my daughter? Sorrow without duty--bitter herbs, and no bread with them."

GEORGE ELIOT.

However dark and profitless, however painful and weary, existence may have become, life is not done, and our Christian character is not won, so long as G.o.d has anything left for us to suffer, or anything left for us to do.

F. W. ROBERTSON.

October 24

_The Lord is my strength, and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise Him_.--PS. xxviii. 7.

Well may Thy happy children cease From restless wishes, p.r.o.ne to sin, And, in Thy own exceeding peace, Yield to Thy daily discipline.

A. L. WARING.

Talk of hair-cloth shirts, and scourgings, and sleeping on ashes, as means of saintship! There is no need of them in our country. Let a woman once look at her domestic trials as her hair-cloth, her ashes, her scourges,--accept them,--rejoice in them,--smile and be quiet, silent, patient, and loving under them,--and the convent can teach her no more; she is a victorious saint.

H. B. STOWE.

Perhaps it is a greater energy of Divine Providence, which keeps the Christian from day to day, from year to year--praying, hoping, running, believing--against all hindrances--which maintains him as a _living martyr_, than that which bears him up for an hour in sacrificing himself at the stake.

R. CECIL.

October 25

_For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor princ.i.p.alities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of G.o.d, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord_.--ROM. viii. 38, 39.

I know not what the future hath Of marvel or surprise, a.s.sured alone that life and death His mercy underlies.

J. G. WHITTIER.

Be of good faith, my dear Friends, look not out at any thing; fear none of those things ye may be exposed to suffer, either outwardly or inwardly; but trust the Lord over all, and your life will spring, and grow, and refresh you, and ye will learn obedience and faithfulness daily more and more, even by your exercises and sufferings; yea, the Lord will teach you the very mystery of faith and obedience; the wisdom, power, love, and goodness of the Lord ordering _every_ thing for you, and ordering _your_ hearts in every thing.

I. PENINGTON.

October 26

_Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope_.--ZECH. ix. 12.

O power to do; O baffled will!

O prayer and action! ye are one.

Who may not strive, may yet fulfil The harder task of standing still, And good but wished with G.o.d is done.

J. G. WHITTIER.

That G.o.d has circ.u.mscribed our life may add a peculiar element of trial, but often it defines our way and cuts off many tempting possibilities that perplex the free and the strong; whilst it leaves intact the whole body of spiritual reality, with the Beat.i.tude thereon, "that if we know these things, happy are we if we do them." We know that G.o.d orders the lot; and to meet it with the energies it requires and permits, neither more nor less,--to fill it at every available point with the light and action of an earnest and spiritually inventive mind, though its scene be no wider than a sick chamber, and its action narrowed to patient suffering, and gentle, cheerful words, and all the light it can emit the thankful quiet of a trustful eye,--without chafing as though G.o.d had misjudged our sphere, and placed us wrong, and did not know where we could best serve Him,--this is what, in that condition, we _have to do_.

J. H. THOM.

October 27

_Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong_.--2 COR. xii. 10.

Whatever G.o.d does is well!

In patience let us wait; He doth Himself our burdens bear, He doth for us take care, And He, our G.o.d, knows all our weary days.

Come, give Him praise.

B. SCHMOLCK.

Nothing else but this seeing G.o.d in everything will make us loving and patient with those who annoy and trouble us. They will be to us then only the instruments for accomplishing His tender and wise purposes towards us, and we shall even find ourselves at last inwardly thanking them for the blessings they bring us. Nothing else will completely put an end to all murmuring or rebelling thoughts.

H. W. SMITH.

The subjection of the will is accomplished by calmly resigning thyself in everything that internally or externally vexes thee; for it is thus only that the soul is prepared for the reception of divine influences. Prepare the, heart like clean paper, and the Divine Wisdom will imprint on it characters to His own liking.

M. DE MOLINOS.

October 28

_I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end_.--JER. xxix. 11.

Thy thoughts are good, and Thou art kind, E'en when we think it not; How many an anxious, faithless mind Sits grieving o'er its lot, And frets, and pines by day and night, As G.o.d had lost it out of sight, And all its wants forgot.

P. GERHARDT.

You are never to complain of your birth, your training, your employments, your hardships; never to fancy that you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere a.s.signed you. G.o.d understands His own plan, and He knows what you want a great deal better than you do. The very things that you most deprecate, as fatal limitations or obstructions, are probably what you most want. What you call hindrances, obstacles, discouragements, are probably G.o.d's opportunities. Bring down your soul, or, rather, bring it up to receive G.o.d's will and do His work, in your lot, in your sphere, under your cloud of obscurity, against your temptations, and then you shall find that your condition is never opposed to your good, but really consistent with it.

H. BUSHNELL.