The Optimist's Good Morning Part 7

Our dear Heavenly Father, we would greet Thee as this morning greets us.

We thank Thee for the daily duty; that, amid this wondrous world, Thou hast set somewhat for our doing. May we appreciate the honor. May we not grudge our best, even in the humblest tasks, since Thou appointest them.

Strengthen us, we beseech Thee, if sometimes the heart fails, and the tired hands get laggard. Show us how the lowliest service becomes loftiest if done with the glorifying motive of pleasing Thee. Make us this day blithe in duty. When our heads find pillow may Thy peace enfold us; forgive our failures; and, for Jesus' sake, may we never cease endeavor. Amen.

WAYLAND HOYT.

February 22

GEORGE WASHINGTON. BORN 1732.

_Welcome to the day returning, Dearer still as ages flow, While the torch of faith is burning, Long as Freedom's altars glow!

See the hero whom it gave us Slumbering on a mother's breast; For the arm he stretched to save us, Be its morn forever blest._

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

Father of life, we thank Thee that Thou hast been with the Fathers; that Thou hast been with him whose birth this day we celebrate. Thou wert willing to speak to them, and they were willing to hear Thee and answer Thee, "Lo, here am I; send me." We thank Thee that the memory of this great man has come down to us; of him who was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen; and we ask Thee that Thou wilt be with our countrymen today; that Thou wilt teach us Thy law, that we may walk in Thy ways; that this may be that happy nation whose G.o.d is the Lord. In all time of our trial, if we have sought Thee we have found Thee,--in all time of our success Thou hast won for us our victories,--Thou hast been with our counsellors. Father, today, tomorrow, and in days to come, in our memories and in our hopes be with us still, Our Father, Who art in Heaven. Amen.

EDWARD EVERETT HALE.

February 23

_If you always remember that in all you do in soul or body G.o.d stands by as a witness, in all your prayers and your actions you will not err; and you shall have G.o.d dwelling with you._

EPICTETUS.

_Faith acts on our souls as a moral tonic; it takes the fret and fever out of our lives; it gives the appet.i.te and desire for n.o.ble living; it removes despondency; it gives energy, courage, hope, patience, and persistence; and in its highest manifestations it makes our lives a blending of power, sweetness, and peace._

JAMES M. PULLMAN.

Father of spirits! We yield ourselves to Thee. We will be afraid of neither sorrow nor death in a world where many saintly souls have sanctified them by a divine patience, and amid a Providence wherein no evil thing can dwell. Clinging unto Thee, we shall not perish with the fashion of this world that pa.s.seth away. As sparks falling on the river, so shall the glories of our strength go out. But the graces of the holy soul shall be as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars forever and ever. In Thee, O Lord, is our undying trust. Amen.

JAMES MARTINEAU.

February 24

_Be of good cheer, brave spirit; steadfastly serve that low whisper thou hast served; for know, G.o.d hath a select family of sons now scattered wide thro' earth, and each alone, who are thy spiritual kindred, and each one by constant service to that inward law, is weaving the sublime proportions of a true monarch's soul. Beauty and strength, the riches of a spotless memory, the eloquence of truth, the wisdom got by searching of a clear and loving eye that seeth as G.o.d seeth. These are their gifts, and time, who keeps G.o.d's word, brings on the day to seal the marriage of these minds with thine, thy everlasting lovers._

RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

O Thou, who makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice, help us to welcome this new day as Thy gift, to take up its duties with courage, and to follow the light which Thou shalt give. Conscious of the meaning and purpose of life, undismayed by the failures of past days, and ever remembering that Thy strength is made perfect in human weakness, may we consecrate ourselves anew to the glad service of life, knowing that in so doing we enter into fellowship with all who have been workers together with Thee, and into increasing likeness of soul to Thy holy Son. May the beauty of the Lord our G.o.d be upon us, and may life become stronger and sweeter and richer, until at last we receive through grace the "well done!" of the Master. Amen.

HENRY M. KING.

February 25

_There is no music in a rest, but there is the making of music in it. In our whole life melody, the music is broken off here and there by "rests," and we foolishly think we have come to the end of time. G.o.d sends a time of forced leisure--sickness, disappointed plans, frustrated efforts--and makes a sudden pause in the choral hymn of our lives, and we lament that our voices must be silent, and our part missing in the music which ever goes up to the ear of the Creator. How does the musician read the rest? See him beat time with unvarying count and catch up the next note true and steady, as if no breaking place had come in between. Not without design does G.o.d write the music of our lives. But be it ours to learn the time, and not be dismayed at the "rests." They are not to be slurred over, nor to be omitted, nor to destroy the melody, nor to change the key-note. If we look up, G.o.d Himself will beat the time for us.

With the eye on Him we shall strike the next note full and clear._

JOHN RUSKIN.

O G.o.d, help us to trust where we cannot see, and to feel that life is not necessarily a failure because we are shut out from its activities.

Grant us in sickness such visions and such communion with Thee that disease of the body shall be transformed into a healer of the soul; and, as the crushed rose the sweeter fragrance emits, so may our sorrows chasten and refine us.

O Heavenly Father, grant that all our sickness and pain and disappointment may so sweeten our dispositions, purify our character and strengthen our souls that we shall bring heaven's sunlight into the lives of all whom we meet. Amen.

MYRON W. HAYNES.

February 26

_Love is the greatest thing that G.o.d can give us, for Himself is love; and it is the greatest thing we can give to G.o.d, for it will also give ourselves, and carry with it all that is ours._

JEREMY TAYLOR.

_High thoughts and n.o.ble in all lands Help me, my soul is fed by such; But ah, the touch of lips and hands, The human touch!

Warm, vital, close, life's symbols dear, These need I most and now and here._

RICHARD BURTON.

Our Father in Heaven, we bless Thee this morning for all Thy care and love; Thou hast made our houses homes, sweet, quiet dwelling-places. We thank Thee for sleep, for communion with one another in all holy and tender speech. We thank Thee for all our hopes; the worlds are nearer than we thought, heaven's fragrance attempers the winds of earth, we almost hear the upper song: may we listen for it, may our souls delight in sweet antic.i.p.ations of immortal fellowship, and may we come out of these high reveries determined to work more, suffer more patiently, to accept every discipline more willingly, and to do all our little day's work as men whose citizenship is in heaven. Amen.

JOSEPH PARKER.

February 27

_Flame of the spirit, and dust of the earth,-- This is the making of man, This is his problem of birth; Born to all holiness, born to all crime, Heir of both worlds, on the long slope of time Climbing the path of G.o.d's plan; Dust of the earth in his error and fear, Weakness and malice and l.u.s.t; Yet, quivering up from the dust, Flame of the spirit, unleaping and clear, Yearning to G.o.d, since from G.o.d is its birth-- This is man's portion, to shape as he can, Flame of the spirit, and dust of the earth-- This is the making of man._

PRISCILLA LEONARD.

O G.o.d, Thou art the Father of our spirits, but our spirits have come to us through ways of flesh. We are both spiritual and carnal. Our spirits seek Thee evermore, but our flesh turns away from Thee and strives to drag us down. Between our best and our worst is bitter conflict. Help us to the discovery that all that lives is in like conflict, and that there can be no virtue and no glory except in overcoming. Make us see that the spirit is stronger than the flesh because it is of G.o.d, and that in the obedience and inspiration of Jesus, Thy Son and our Brother, we may at last be enthroned with Him. Amen.

CEPHAS B. CRANE.

February 28

_Neither let mistakes nor wrong directions, of which every man, in his studies and elsewhere, falls into many, discourage you. There is precious instruction to be got by finding we were wrong. Let a man try faithfully, manfully, to be right; he will grow daily more and more right. It is at bottom the condition on which all men have to cultivate themselves._

THOMAS CARLYLE.

Almighty G.o.d, our heavenly Father,--in Thine own loving way Thou dost bless us when we do the right; when we fall into mistakes so teach us by Thy judgments that we become wise unto salvation. Help Thy children to recognize their p.r.o.neness to blunder, that they learn to walk circ.u.mspectly. When we fall into the wrong, grant that we lie p.r.o.ne not long but arise undismayed to greater effort. Bring to bear upon us the influences of the Holy Spirit, that we strive earnestly and devoutly to be right at the centre of our being; that rightness be the fabric of our life. To Thee be all glory evermore. Amen.

EDWARD A. PERRY.