Leaves of Life Part 47

What have you done with your soul, my friend?

Where is the ray you were wont to send, Glancing bright through the outer night, Touching with hope what was dark before, Glimmering on to the further sh.o.r.e?

--Arthur C. Benson.

G.o.d suffers the light to know eclipse, Dashes the cup from the eager lips; You perchance would have drunk too deep.

--Arthur C. Benson.

Lift where you stand.

--Edward Everett Hale.

A friend is the first person who comes in when the whole world has gone out.

--Unknown.

Who comforteth us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of G.o.d.

--2 Corinthians 1.4.

Almighty G.o.d, help me to correct my mistakes, and to be more careful of what I take in my life. May I always stretch out a hand of love to inspire others with confidence to care more for themselves and more for thee. Amen.

JUNE ELEVENTH

Roger Bacon died 1292.

George Wither born 1588.

John Constable born 1776.

Exceeding gifts from G.o.d are not blessings, they are duties. They do not always increase a man's happiness; they always increase his responsibilities.

--Charles Kingsley.

Make a rule and pray for help to keep it. Once a day spare room for a thought that will pursue a strong purpose. Help in some way the progress of a weary soul who cannot repay you.

--M. B. S.

There is no true potency, remember, but that of help; nor true ambition, but ambition to save.

--John Ruskin.

And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then shall thy light rise in darkness, and thine obscurity be as the noon day.

--Isaiah 58. 10.

Heavenly Father, when I think of how little I have given away my heart burns with shame, as I recall what thou hast given to me. May I from this day be more thoughtful of thy tender compa.s.sion by being less selfish with what I have. Amen.

JUNE TWELFTH

Harriet Martineau born 1802.

Charles Kingsley born 1819.

Dr. Thomas Arnold (Arnold of Rugby) died 1842.

Sir Oliver Lodge born 1851.

Do to-day's duty, fight to-day's temptation, and do not weaken and distract yourself by looking-forward to things which you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them.

--Charles Kingsley.

Genuine religion has its roots deep down in the heart of humanity.... The actions of the Deity make no appeal to any special sense. We are deaf and blind, therefore, to the imminent grandeur around us unless we have insight enough to appreciate the whole and to recognize the woven fabric of existence flowing steadily from the loom of an infinite progress toward perfection.

--Sir Oliver Lodge.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning.

--James 1. 17.

Gracious Father, forbid that I should make thee regret thy gifts to me; and if I have failed to appreciate them, look upon me with pity, for I have cheated myself more than I have thee. Give me a deeper appreciation, that I may be strengthened day by day in the veriest duties of life. Amen.

JUNE THIRTEENTH

Dr. Thomas Young born 1773.

General Winfield Scott born 1786.

Dr. Thomas Arnold (Arnold of Rugby) born 1795.

William Butler Yeats born 1865.

Beyond all wealth, honor, or even health, is the attachment we form to n.o.ble souls, because to become one with the good, generous, and true is to become, in a measure, good, generous, and true ourselves.

--Thomas Arnold.

Open thy bosom, set thy wishes wide, and let in manhood--let in happiness; admit the boundless theater of thought from nothing up to G.o.d ... which makes a man.

--Thomas Young.