{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_39648/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_39648","id":"gutenberg_39648","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39648","summary":null,"tags":["Calendars","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Meditations"],"text":"E-text prepared by Chris Curnow, Liz Stead, Julia Neufeld, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)\n\n\n\nNote: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this\n      file which includes the original illustration.\n      See 39648-h.htm or 39648-h.zip:\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/39648/pg39648-images.html)\n      or\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/39648/39648-h.zip)\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\n      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).\n\n      Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.\n\n\n\n\n\nCHARACTER AND CONDUCT\n\n[Illustration: FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH\n\nSIR E. J. POYNTER, BART., P.R.A.\n\n_This picture represents a Roman Guard on duty at one of the palaces\nduring the destruction of Herculanaeum, who, although he might perhaps\nhave made his escape prefers to remain at his post, faithful unto\ndeath._]\n\n\nCHARACTER AND CONDUCT\n\nA Book of Helpful Thoughts by\nGreat Writers of Past and\nPresent Ages\n\nSelected and Arranged for Daily\nReading by the Author of\n\"Being And Doing\"\n\nWith a Frontispiece by\nSir E. J. Poynter, Bart., P.R.A.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLiverpool\nHenry Young & Sons\nLondon\nSimpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Ltd.\n1905\nFirst Edition, 2000 copies, printed November 1904\nSecond Edition, 1000 copies, printed December 1904\n\n\n\n\nTO\n\n_E. K._\n\n\n\n\n_\"It is more_ men _that the world wants, not more systems. It is\ncharacter that our modern life waits for, to redeem and transform it;\nand conduct as the fruitage of character.\"_\n\n             _The Citizen in his Relation to the Industrial\n                        Situation_, BISHOP POTTER.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThis collection of noble thoughts expressed by men and women of past and\npresent ages who have endeavoured to leave the world a little better\nthan they found it, is similar in arrangement and purpose to my former\nvolume \"Being and Doing\"; and has been compiled at the request of\nseveral readers who have found that book helpful.\n\nIt is obvious that without the kindly co-operation of many authors and\npublishers such books could not exist, and I tender sincere and hearty\nthanks to those who have made the work possible. All have treated me\nwith unfailing courtesy and generosity.\n\nWhere I have occasionally used short quotations without permission I ask\nforgiveness.\n\nIt would be impossible to name separately each one to whom I am a\ngrateful debtor, so special mention must only be made of the more\nheavily taxed, and of those who have asked for a formal acknowledgment,\nnamely:--\n\nThe Literary Executors of the late Mr. Ruskin, _per_ Mr. George Allen,\nfor extracts from Mr. Ruskin's works.\n\nMr. Edward Arnold for those from _Red Pottage_, by Mary Cholmondeley.\n\nCanon Barnett for those from _The Service of God_.\n\nMessrs. Deighton Bell & Co. for those from _Pastor Pastorum_, by the\nRev. Henry Latham.\n\nMr. James Drummond for those from the writings of Professor Henry\nDrummond.\n\nMessrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Truebner & Co. for those from Sir Edwin\nArnold's _Light of Asia_.\n\nMiss May Kendall for those from _Turkish Bonds_, &c.\n\nMessrs. Longmans, Green & Co. for those from the works of Bishop Paget,\nand from Canon MacColl's _Here and Hereafter_.\n\nProfessor MacCunn for those from _The Making of Character_.\n\nMessrs. Macmillan & Co. for those from the works of Bishop Westcott,\nMrs. Bernard Bosanquet; Tennyson's Poems; from the present Lord\nTennyson's Life of his father; from the _Mettle of the Pasture_, by\nJames Lane Allen; and from Mrs. Humphry Ward's translation of _Amiel's\nJournal_.\n\nMessrs. Methuen & Co. for one from the _Life of R. L. Stevenson_.\n\nMr. Lloyd Osbourne for those from R. L. Stevenson's works.\n\nMessrs. Wells, Gardner, Darton & Co. for those from Bishop Winnington\nIngram's _Under the Dome_ and _Friends of the Master_.\n\nDr. John Watson for those from his writings.\n\nPermission was kindly given me before by Messrs. Macmillan to quote from\nthe works of the late Archbishop Temple and of Matthew Arnold. By\nMessrs. Smith, Elder & Co. for quotations from Robert Browning. By Mr.\nC. Lewes for quotations from George Eliot; and from Lord Avebury and the\nRev. Stopford Brooke for those from their works.\n\nIn my experience the reading of extracts often leads to the reading of\nthe books from which they were taken, and I hope and believe many of\nthese gleanings will serve as introductions.\n\n                                                 CONSTANCE M. WHISHAW.\n\n  SUNNY BANK, ARNSIDE,\n     CARNFORTH.\n\n\nNew Year's Day\n\n\nJANUARY 1\n\n\"Here you stand at the parting of the ways; some road you are to take;\nand as you stand here, consider and know how it is that you intend to\nlive. Carry no bad habits, no corrupting associations, no enmities and\nstrifes into this New Year. Leave these behind, and let the Dead Past\nbury its Dead; leave them behind, and thank God that you are able to\nleave them.\"\n\n                                                     EPHRAIM PEABODY.\n\n  \"WOULD'ST shape a noble life? Then cast\n  No backward glances toward the past,\n  And though somewhat be lost and gone,\n  Yet do thou act as one new-born;\n  What each day needs, that shalt thou ask,\n  Each day will set its proper task.\"\n\n                                    GOETHE.\n\n\"No aim is too high, no task too great, no sin too strong, no trial too\nhard for those who patiently and humbly rest upon God's grace: who wait\non Him that He may renew their strength.\"\n\n                            _Faculties and Difficulties for Belief and\n                                  Disbelief_, BISHOP PAGET.\n\n\nPurpose\n\n\nJANUARY 2\n\n\"You did not come into this world by chance, you were not born by\naccident. You all came charged with a mission to use your best efforts\nto extend the frontier of your Master's Kingdom by purifying your own\nhearts and leavening for good the hearts of all who come within the\nsphere of your influence. Your business here is not to enjoy yourselves\nin those fleeting pleasures which perish in the using; not to sip as\nmany dainties as you can from the moments as they fly; not to gather as\nmany flowers as you can pluck from the garden of this perishing earth;\nnot even to rest in the enjoyment of those nobler delights which come\nfrom the exercise of the intellect in the investigation of the works of\nGod and man; but rather to do your best to fit yourselves and others for\nthe new heavens and new earth, which God has prepared for those who love\nHim.\"\n\n                             _Life Here and Hereafter_, CANON MACCOLL.\n\n\"Do not despise your situation; in it you must act, suffer, and conquer.\nFrom every point on earth we are equally near to heaven and to the\ninfinite.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\nA Noble Life\n\n\nJANUARY 3\n\n\"A man's greatness lies not in wealth and station, as the vulgar\nbelieve, nor yet in his intellectual capacity, which is often associated\nwith the meanest moral character, the most abject servility to those in\nhigh places, and arrogance to the poor and lowly; but a man's true\ngreatness lies in the consciousness of an honest purpose in life,\nfounded on a just estimate of himself and everything else, on frequent\nself-examination, and a steady obedience to the rule which he knows to\nbe right, without troubling himself about what others may think or say,\nor whether they do or do not do that which he thinks and says and does.\"\n\n                                                          GEORGE LONG.\n\n\"Whether a life is noble or ignoble depends not on the calling which is\nadopted, but on the spirit in which it is followed.\"\n\n                                _The Pleasures of Life_, LORD AVEBURY.\n\n\"Every noble life leaves the fibre of itself interwoven for ever in the\nwork of the world.\"\n\n                                                               TRENCH.\n\n\nHoliness\n\n\nJANUARY 4\n\n\"Jesus and His Apostles teach that the supreme success of life is not to\nescape pain but to lay hold on righteousness, not to possess but to be\nholy, not to get things from God but to be like God. They were ever\nbidding Christians beware of ease, ever rousing them to surrender and\nsacrifice.\"\n\n                                _The Potter's Wheel_, DR. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\"The end of life is not to deny self, nor to be true, nor to keep the\nTen Commandments--it is simply to do God's will. It is not to get good\nnor be good, nor even to do good--it is just what God wills, whether\nthat be working or waiting, or winning or losing, or suffering or\nrecovering, or living or dying.\"\n\n                                     _The Ideal Life_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\"Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death\nhangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.\"\n\n                                                      MARCUS AURELIUS.\n\n\nThe Power of the Holy Spirit\n\n\nJANUARY 5\n\n\"We are haunted by an ideal life, and it is because we have within us\nthe beginning and the possibility of it.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\"The power of the Holy Spirit!--an everlasting spiritual presence among\nmen. What but that is the thing we want? That is what the old oracles\nwere dreaming of, what the modern Spiritualists tonight are fumbling\nafter. The power of the Holy Ghost, by which every man who is in doubt\nmay know what is right, every man whose soul is sick may be made\nspiritually whole, every weak man may be made a strong man,--that is\nGod's one sufficient answer to the endless appeal of man's spiritual\nlife; that is God's one great response to the unconscious need of\nspiritual guidance, which He hears crying out of the deep heart of every\nman.--I hope that I have made clear to you what I mean. I would that we\nmight understand ourselves, see what we might be; nay, see what we are.\nWhile you are living a worldly and a wicked life, letting all sacred\nthings go, caring for no duty, serving no God, there is another self,\nyour possibility, the thing that you might be, the thing that God gave\nyou a chance to be.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\nA Symphony\n\n\nJANUARY 6\n\n\"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury,\nand refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and\nwealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act\nfrankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open\nheart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry\nnever; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow\nup through the common--this is to be my symphony.\"\n\n                                              WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING.\n\n\"Heed how thou livest. Do no act by day Which from the night shall drive\nthy peace away. In months of sun so live that months of rain Shall still\nbe happy.\"\n\n                                              WHITTIER, _Translation_.\n\n\nPatience with Ourselves\n\n\nJANUARY 7\n\n\"To be honest, to be kind--to earn a little and to spend a little less,\nto make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce\nwhen that shall be necessary and not be embittered, to keep a few\nfriends but these without capitulation--above all, on the same grim\ncondition, to keep friends with himself--here is a task for all that a\nman has of fortitude and delicacy.\"\n\n                                 _Across the Plains_, R. L. STEVENSON.\n\n\"People who love themselves aright, even as they ought to love their\nneighbour, bear charitably, though without flattery, with self as with\nanother. They know what needs correction at home as well as elsewhere;\nthey strive heartily and vigorously to correct it, but they deal with\nself as they would deal with some one else they wished to bring to God.\nThey set to work patiently, not exacting more than is practicable under\npresent circumstances from themselves any more than from others, and not\nbeing disheartened because perfection is not attainable in a day.\"\n\n                                                              FENELON.\n\n\"One is so apt to think that what works smoothest works to the highest\nends, having no patience for the results of friction.\"\n\n                                                           Mrs. EWING.\n\n\nThe Foot-path to Peace\n\n\nJANUARY 8\n\n\"To be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work\nand to play and to look up at the stars; to be satisfied with your\npossessions, but not contented with yourself until you have made the\nbest of them; to despise nothing in the world except falsehood and\nmeanness, and to fear nothing except cowardice; to be governed by your\nadmirations rather than by your disgusts; to covet nothing that is your\nneighbour's except his kindness of heart and gentleness of manners; to\nthink seldom of your enemies, often of your friends, and every day of\nChrist; and to spend as much time as you can, with body and with spirit,\nin God's out-of-doors--these are little guideposts on the foot-path to\npeace.\"\n\n                                                       HENRY VAN DYKE.\n\n\"O Lord, that lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.\"\n\n                                                          SHAKESPEARE.\n\n\nPurpose\n\n\nJANUARY 9\n\n\"He who lives without a definite purpose achieves no higher end than to\nserve as a warning to others. He is a kind of bell-buoy, mournfully\ntolled by the waves of circumstance, to mark the rocks or shoals which\nare to be avoided.\"\n\n\"Surely there is something to be done from morning till night, and to\nfind out _what_ is the appointed work of the onward-tending soul.\"\n\n                                                         FANNY KEMBLE.\n\n\"I ask you while hope is still fresh and enthusiasm unchilled to gain\nsome conception of the solemnity, the vastness, the unity, the purpose\nof life: to pause in the street or on the river bank and ask yourselves\nwhat that strange stream of pleasure and frivolity and sorrow and vice\nmeans, and means to you: to reflect that you are bound by intelligible\nbonds to every suffering, sinning man and woman: to learn, while the\nlesson is comparatively easy, the secret of human sympathy: to search\nafter some of the essential relationships of man to man: to interpret a\nlittle of the worth of even trivial labour: to grow sensitive to the\nfeelings of the poor: to grow considerate to the claims of the weak.\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\nLife, a School\n\n\nJanuary 10\n\n\"All life is a school, a preparation, a purpose: nor can we pass current\nin a higher college, if we do not undergo the tedium of education in\nthis lower one.\"\n\n                                     _Tennyson--a Memoir_, by his Son.\n\n\"Life is a succession of lessons, which must be lived to be understood.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"We never know for what God is preparing us in His schools, for what\nwork on earth, for what work in the hereafter. Our business is to do our\nwork well in the present place, whatever that may be.\"\n\n                                                         LYMAN ABBOTT.\n\n\nCharacter and Service\n\n\nJanuary 11\n\n\"Never should we forget the close connection between character and\nservice, between inward nobleness and outward philanthropy. We are not\nhere to dream, or even to build up in grace and beauty our individual\nlife; we are responsible, each in our own little way, for trying to\nleave this sad world happier, this evil world better than we found it.\nIn this way slackness is infamy, and power to the last particle means\nduty. Each of us, in some degree, must have the ambition to be an 'Alter\nChristus'--another Christ, shouldering with the compassionate Son of God\nto lift our shadowed world from the gates of death.\"\n\n\"What men want is not talent, it is purpose; not the power to achieve,\nbut the will to labour.\"\n\n                                                        BULWER LYTTON.\n\n\"'Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall\ngive thee light.' This is the principle with which we should look forth\nupon the world and our own life at the beginning of this year. We look\nupon the world; it seems as if it were sleeping still, like Rome, as if\nit needed as much as ever to hear the shout, 'Awake, thou that\nsleepest.'\"\n\n                                                      STOPFORD BROOKE.\n\n\nPresent Circumstances\n\n\nJANUARY 12\n\n\"Everywhere and at all times it is in thy power piously to acquiesce in\nthy present condition, and to behave justly to those who are about thee,\nand to exert thy skill upon thy present thoughts, that nothing shall\nsteal into them without being well examined.\"\n\n                                                      MARCUS AURELIUS.\n\n\"Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of\nthy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts. Dye it then with a\ncontinuous series of such thoughts as these: for instance, that where a\nman can live, there he can also live well. But he must live in a\npalace;--well then, he can also live well in a palace.\"\n\n                                                      MARCUS AURELIUS.\n\n\"Of nothing can we be more sure than this: that, if we cannot sanctify\nour present lot, we could sanctify no other.\"\n\n                                                            MARTINEAU.\n\n\nCircumstances\n\n\nJANUARY 13\n\n\"Occasion is the father of most that is good in us. As you have seen the\nawkward fingers and clumsy tools of a prisoner cut and fashion the most\ndelicate little pieces of carved work; or achieve the most prodigious\nunderground labours, and cut through walls of masonry, and saw iron bars\nand fetters; 'tis misfortune that awakens ingenuity, or fortitude or\nendurance, in hearts where these qualities had never come to life but\nfor the circumstance which gave them a being.\"\n\n                                            _Esmond_, W. M. THACKERAY.\n\n\"It always remains true that if we had been greater, circumstances would\nhave been less strong against us.\"\n\n                                                             G. ELIOT.\n\n\"A consideration of petty circumstances is the tomb of great things.\"\n\n                                                             VOLTAIRE.\n\n\nThe Ifs of Life\n\n\nJANUARY 14\n\n\"If it were--_if_ it might be--_if_ it could be--_if_ it had been. One\nportion of mankind go through life always regretting, always whining,\nalways imagining. _As_ it is--this is the way in which the other class\nof people look at the conditions in which they find themselves. I\nventure to say that if one should count the _ifs_ and the _ases_ in the\nconversation of his acquaintances, he would find the more able and\nimportant persons among them--statesmen, generals, men of\nbusiness--among the _ases_, and the majority of conspicuous failures\namong the _ifs_.\"\n\n                                     _Over the Teacups_, O. W. HOLMES.\n\n\"It is sad, indeed, to see how man wastes his opportunities. How many\ncould be made happy, with the blessings which are recklessly wasted or\nthrown away! Happiness is a condition of Mind, not a result of\ncircumstances; and, in the words of Dugald Stewart, the great secret of\nhappiness is to accommodate ourselves to things external, rather than to\nstruggle to accommodate external things to ourselves. Hume wisely said\nthat a happy disposition was better than an estate of L10,000 a year.\nTry to realise all the blessings you have, and you will find perhaps\nthat they are more than you suppose. Many a blessing has been recognised\ntoo late.\"\n\n                                                         Lord AVEBURY.\n\n\"The pleasure of life is according to the man that lives it, and not\naccording to the work or the place.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\nHarmony\n\n\nJANUARY 15\n\n                    \"... Have good will\n  To all that lives, letting unkindness die\n  And greed and wrath; so that your lives be made\n  Like soft airs passing by.\n\n                    ... Govern the lips\n  As they were palace-doors, the King within;\n  Tranquil and fair and courteous be all words\n  Which from that presence win.\n\n                    ... Let each act\n  Assoil a fault or help a merit grow:\n  Like threads of silver seen through crystal beads\n  Let love through good deeds show.\"\n\n  _The Light of Asia_, E. ARNOLD.\n\n  \"The Past is something, but the Present more;\n  Will It not, too, be past? Nor fail withal\n  To recognise the Future in your hopes;\n  Unite them in your manhood, each and all,\n  Nor mutilate the perfectness of life!--\n  You can remember; you can also hope.\"\n\n                                          A. H. CLOUGH.\n\n\nHarmony\n\n\nJANUARY 16\n\n          ... \"THIS is peace\n  To conquer love of self and lust of life,\n  To tear deep-rooted passion from the breast,\n  To still the inward strife;\n\n  For love to clasp Eternal Beauty close;\n  For glory to be Lord of self; for pleasure\n  To live beyond the gods; for countless wealth\n  To lay up lasting treasure\n\n  Of perfect service rendered, duties done\n  In charity, soft speech, and stainless days:\n  These riches shall not fade away in life,\n  Nor any death dispraise.\"\n\n                   _The Light of Asia_, E. ARNOLD.\n\n\"WE are all of us made more graceful by the inward presence of what we\nbelieve to be a generous purpose; our actions move to a hidden music--'a\nmelody that's sweetly played in tune.'\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\nIdeals\n\n\nJANUARY 17\n\n\"It is not the ideals of earlier years that are the most unattainable.\n'The petty done, the undone vast' is not the thought of the youth, but\nof those who, having done the most, yet count themselves unprofitable\nservants, because it is to them only that the experience, the knowledge,\nand the reflection of maturer years have opened up the far vistas of\nmoral possibility.\"\n\n                             _The Making of Character_, PROF. MACCUNN.\n\n  \"In doing is this knowledge won,\n  To see what yet remains undone.\n  With this our pride repress,\n  And give us grace, a growing store,\n  That day by day we may do more\n  And may esteem it less.\"\n\n                              TRENCH.\n\n  \"Comfort me not!--for if aught be worse than failure from over-stress\n  Of a life's prime purpose, it is to sit down content with a little\n  success.\"\n\n                                                               LYTTON.\n\n\nThe Celestial Surgeon\n\n\nJANUARY 18\n\nTHE CELESTIAL SURGEON\n\n  \"If I have faltered more or less\n  In my great task of happiness;\n  If I have moved among my race\n  And shown no glorious morning face;\n  If beams from happy human eyes\n  Have moved me not; if morning skies,\n  Books, and my food, and summer rain\n  Knocked on my sullen heart in vain:--\n  Lord, Thy most pointed pleasure take\n  And stab my spirit broad awake;\n  Or, Lord, if too obdurate I,\n  Choose Thou, before that spirit die,\n  A piercing pain, a killing sin,\n  And to my dead heart run them in.\"\n\n         _Underwoods_, R. L. STEVENSON.\n\n\nInfluence of Great Men\n\n\nJANUARY 19\n\n\"The thirst for memoirs and lives and letters is not all to be put down\nto the hero-worship which is natural to every heart. It means, perhaps,\na higher thing than that. It means, in the first place, that great\nliving is being appreciated for its own sake; and, in the second, that\ngreat living is being imitated. If it is true that any of us are\nbeginning to appreciate greatness for its own sake--greatness, that is\nto say, in the sense of great and true living--it is one of the most\nhopeful symptoms of our history. And, further, if we are going on from\nthe mere admiration of great men to try and live like them, we are\nobeying one of the happiest impulses of our being. There is indeed no\nfiner influence abroad than the influence of great men in great books,\nand all that literature can do in supplying the deformed world with\nworthy and shapely models is entitled to gratitude and respect.\"\n\n                                     _The Ideal Life_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\"Glimpses into the inner regions of a great soul do one good. Contact of\nthis kind strengthens, restores, refreshes. Courage returns as we gaze;\nwhen we see what has been, we doubt no more that it can be again. At the\nsight of a MAN we too say to ourselves, Let us also be men.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\nInfluence of Great Men\n\n\nJANUARY 20\n\n\"We cannot look, however imperfectly, upon a great man, without gaining\nsomething by him. He is the living life-fountain, which it is good and\npleasant to be near; the light which enlightens, which has enlightened,\nthe darkness of the world; and this not as a kindling lamp only, but\nrather as a natural luminary, shining by the gift of Heaven; a flowing\nlight-fountain, as I say, of native original insight, of manhood and\nheroic nobleness, in whose radiance all souls feel that it is well with\nthem.\"\n\n                                                              CARLYLE.\n\n\"My sole fear was the fear of doing an unrighteous or unholy thing.\"\n\n                                                             SOCRATES.\n\n\"The truly honest man, here and there to be found, is not only without\nthought of legal, religious, or social compulsion, when he discharges an\nequitable claim on him, but he is without thought of self-compulsion. He\ndoes the right thing with a simple feeling of satisfaction in doing it;\nand is, indeed, impatient if anything prevents him from having the\nsatisfaction of doing it.\"\n\n                                                      HERBERT SPENCER.\n\n\nThe Habit of Admiration\n\n\nJANUARY 21\n\n\"'We live by admiration, hope, and love,' Wordsworth tells us,--not,\ntherefore, by contempt, despondency, and hatred. These contract and\nnarrow the soul, as the others enlarge it. The more a man heartily\nadmires, the more he takes into his nature the goodness and beauty which\nexcite his admiration. His being grows up toward what thus evokes his\nenthusiasm. And the habit of admiration is the outcome of a moral\ndiscipline which represses peevish and fault-finding dispositions, and\nseeks the admirable in every situation and every person that life brings\nto us. 'Be ye enlarged' implies 'learn to admire and to praise.'\"\n\n\"Learn to admire rightly; the great pleasure of life is that. Note what\nthe great men admired; they admired great things: narrow spirits admire\nbasely, and worship meanly.\"\n\n                                                            THACKERAY.\n\n\nCharacter of Henry Drummond\n\n\nJANUARY 22\n\n_Of Henry Drummond._--\"He seemed to be invariably in good spirits, and\ninvariably disengaged. He was always ready for any and every office of\nfriendship. It should be said that though few men were more criticised\nor misconceived, he himself never wrote an unkind word about any one,\nnever retaliated, never bore malice, and could do full justice to the\nabilities and character of his opponents. I have just heard that he\nexerted himself privately to secure an important appointment for one of\nhis most trenchant critics, and was successful.... The spectacle of his\nlong struggle with a mortal disease was something more than impressive.\nThose who saw him in his illness saw that, as the physical life\nflickered low, the spiritual energy grew. Always gentle and considerate,\nhe became even more careful, more tender, more thoughtful, more\nunselfish. He never in any way complained. His doctors found it very\ndifficult to get him to talk of his illness. It was strange and painful,\nbut inspiring, to see his keenness, his mental elasticity, his universal\ninterest. Dr. Barbour says: 'I have never seen pain or weariness, or the\nbeing obliged to do nothing, more entirely overcome, treated, in fact,\nas if they were not. The end came suddenly from failure of the heart.\nThose with him received only a few hours' warning of his critical\ncondition.' It was not like death. He lay on his couch in the\ndrawing-room, and passed away in his sleep, with the sun shining in, and\nthe birds singing at the open window. There was no sadness nor farewell.\nIt recalled what he himself said of a friend's death--'putting by the\nwell-worn tools without a sigh, and expecting elsewhere better work to\ndo.'\"\n\n                             _Character Sketch by_ W. ROBERTSON NICOLL\n                                       _in \"The Ideal Life.\"_\n\n\nCharacter of R. L. Stevenson\n\n\nJANUARY 23\n\n\"I Have referred to his chivalry only to find that in reality I was\nthinking of every one of the whole group of attributes which are\nassociated with that name. Loyalty, honesty, generosity, courage;\ncourtesy, tenderness, and self-devotion; to impute no unworthy motives\nand to bear no grudge; to bear misfortune with cheerfulness and without\na murmur; to strike hard for the right and take no mean advantage; to be\ngentle to women and kind to all that are weak; to be very rigorous with\noneself and very lenient to others--these, and any other virtues ever\nimplied in 'chivalry,' were the traits that distinguished Stevenson.\"\n\n                        _The Life of R. L. Stevenson_, GRAHAM BALFOUR.\n\n\"Through life he did the thing he was doing as if it were the one thing\nin the world that was worth being done.\"\n\n                        _The Life of R. L. Stevenson_, GRAHAM BALFOUR.\n\n\nBeing and Doing\n\n\nJANUARY 24\n\n\"Upon the man who desired to be His disciple and a member of God's\nKingdom were laid the conditions of a pure heart, of a forgiving spirit,\nof a helpful hand, of a heavenly purpose, of an unworldly mind. Christ\ndid not ground His Christianity in thinking, or in doing, but, first of\nall, in being.\"\n\n                            _The Mind of the Master_, DR. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\"History and literature furnish many instances of men who have made\ntheir mark in virtue of a striking _personality_; whose reputation\nrests, not on any visible tokens,--not on kingdoms conquered,\ninstitutions founded, books written, or inventions perfected or anything\nelse that they _did_,--but mainly on what they _were_. Their merely\nhaving passed along a course on earth, and lived and talked and acted\nwith others, has left lasting effects on mankind.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n\nBeing and Doing\n\n\nJANUARY 25\n\n\"Perfection is being, not doing--it is not to effect an act, but to\nachieve a character. If the aim of life were to do something, then, as\nin an earthly business, except in doing this one thing the business\nwould be at a standstill. The student is not doing the one thing of\nstudent-life when he has ceased to think or read. The labourer leaves\nhis work undone when the spade is not in his hand, and he sits beneath\nthe hedge to rest. But in Christian life, every moment and every act is\nan opportunity for doing the one thing of _becoming_ Christ-like. Every\nday is full of a most expressive experience. Every temptation to evil\ntemper which can assail us to-day will be an opportunity to decide the\nquestion whether we shall gain the calmness and the rest of Christ, or\nwhether we shall be tossed by the restlessness and agitation of the\nworld. Nay, the very vicissitudes of the season, day and night, heat and\ncold, affecting us variably, and producing exhilaration or depression,\nare so contrived as to conduce towards the being which we become, and\ndecide whether we shall be masters of ourselves, or whether we shall be\nswept at the mercy of accident and circumstance, miserably susceptible\nof merely outward influences. Infinite as are the varieties of life, so\nmanifold are the paths to saintly character; and he who has not found\nout how directly or indirectly to make everything converge towards his\nsoul's sanctification, has as yet missed the meaning of this life.\"\n\n                                               FREDERICK W. ROBERTSON.\n\n\nLife-Giver, not Deed-Doer\n\n\nJANUARY 26\n\n\"Christ was not primarily the Deed-Doer or the Word-Sayer. He was the\nLife-Giver. He made men live. Wherever He went He brought vitality. Both\nin the days of His Incarnation and in the long years of His power which\nhave followed since He vanished from men's sight, His work has been to\ncreate the conditions in which all sorts of men should live.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\"Therefore with all the strength God has given us, let us be fulfillers.\nLet us try to make the life of the world more complete. What can we do?\nFirst, each of us can put one more healthy and holy life into the world,\nand so directly increase the aggregation of righteousness. That is much.\nTo fasten one more link, however small, in the growing chain that is\nultimately to bind humanity to God beyond all fear of separation, is\nvery much indeed. And besides that, we can, with sympathy and\nintelligence, patience and hope, bring up the lagging side in all the\nvitality around us, and assert for man the worth, the meaning, and the\npossibility of this his human life.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\nSeeing One's Life in Perspective\n\n\nJANUARY 27\n\n\"If we wish to cultivate our higher nature we must have solitude. It is\nvitally necessary at times that we should be able to get away from every\nother being on the face of the earth. What thoughtful person does not\nlove to be alone; to be surrounded with no objects but the fields and\nthe trees, the mountains and the waters, to hear nothing but the\nrustling of the foliage and the songs of the birds, and to feel the\nfresh breeze of heaven playing upon his cheeks? Moreover, when we are\nvery much in contact with human life, when we are mingling with it, we\nare liable to become too conscious of its turbid side, or drearily\noppressed with its commonplace features. To see human life, and weigh it\nin its many aspects, we need at times to go away and be as it were on a\npinnacle, where we can take it all in with one sweeping glance. Solitude\ncan affect us somewhat as religious worship does. It can take us out of\nthe consciousness of where we belong, away from the ordinary selfish\ninstincts by which we may be dominated.\n\n\"Too much solitude may be dangerous, just as too much of the sense of\nmystery may be. Yet something of it is essential to our advance in\nspiritual life. A man must go away where he can feel the mystery of his\nown being. Moreover, a certain degree of solitude seems necessary to the\nfull growth of the mind, and it is in solitude that great principles are\nfirst thought out, and the genius of eminent men formed, for solitude is\nthe nurse of enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is the real parent of genius.\nSolitude, moreover, is essential to any depth of meditation or of\ncharacter, and is the cradle of thoughts and aspirations.\"\n\n                                                          H. W. SMITH.\n\n\"One sees one's life in perspective when one goes abroad, and to be\nspectators of ourselves is very solemn.\"\n\n                                                       HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\nTriviality\n\n\nJANUARY 28\n\n\"Triviality is the modern equivalent for worldliness, the regard for the\noutward and the visible. The trivial mind is enmity with God, and it is\nof many kinds. There is the triviality which concerns itself with\n'nothing,' which gossips about 'him' and 'her,' and becomes serious over\na form, a phrase, a dress, a race or a show. There is the triviality to\nwhich the working people are forced by the cares of this life, who all\nday and every day have to think of the bread which perisheth, while\ntheir souls starve for lack of knowledge which endureth. The cares of\nlife as often choke the growth of the Word as the deceitfulness of\nriches. There is also that most insidious kind of triviality which tends\nto haunt the more serious circles, wrapping itself in talk about social\nschemes, Church progress, policies and philosophies, passing itself off\nas serious, when all the time the concern of the talker is to achieve a\nwordy success or to get notice for his little self or his little\nsystem.\"\n\n                                  _The Service of God,_ CANON BARNETT.\n\n\"I believe that the mind can be profaned by the habit of attending to\ntrivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with\ntriviality.\"\n\n                                                              THOREAU.\n\n\nTriviality\n\n\nJANUARY 29\n\n\"They that use to employ their Minds too much upon Trifles, commonly\nmake themselves incapable of any Thing that is Serious or Great.\"\n\n                                                     LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.\n\n\"Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit from thy own thoughts, and\nthen thou wilt feel the principle of God to turn thy mind to the Lord,\nfrom whom cometh life; whereby thou mayest receive the strength and\npower to allay all storms and tempests. That is it which works up into\npatience, innocency, soberness, into stillness, staidness, quietness up\nto God, with His power. Therefore mind; that is the word of the Lord God\nunto thee, that thou mayest feel the authority of God, and thy faith in\nthat, to work down that which troubles thee; for that is it which keeps\npeace, and brings up the witness in thee, which hath been transgressed,\nto feel after God with His power and life, who is a God of order and\npeace.\"\n\n                                                           GEORGE FOX.\n\n\"It is not sin so much as triviality which hides God.\"\n\n                                  _The Service of God_, CANON BARNETT.\n\n\nThe Art of being Quiet\n\n\nJANUARY 30\n\n\"It is only when we begin to _think_ about life, and how we should live,\nthat the art of being quiet assumes its real value; to the irrational\ncreature it is nothing, to the rational it is much. In the first place,\nit removes what De Quincey, with his usual grand felicity of expression,\ncalls 'the burden of that distraction which lurks in the infinite\nlittleness of details.' It is the infinite littleness of details which\ntakes the glory and the dignity from our common life, and which we who\nvalue that life for its own sake and for the sake of its great Giver\nmust strive to make finite.\n\n\"Since unconscious life is not possible to the intellectual adult, as it\nis to the child--since he cannot go on living without a thought about\nthe nature of his own being, its end and aim--it is good for him to\ncultivate a habit of repose, that he may think and feel like a man\nputting away those childish things--the carelessness, the thoughtless\njoy, 'the tear forgot as soon as shed,' which, however beautiful,\nbecause appropriate, in childhood, are not beautiful because not\nappropriate in mature age.\n\n\"The art of being quiet is necessary to enable a man to possess his own\nsoul in peace and integrity--to examine himself, to understand what\ngifts God has endowed him with, and to consider how he may best employ\nthem in the business of the world. This is its universal utility. It is\nunwholesome activity which requires not repose and thoughtful quiet as\nits forerunner, and every man should secure some portion of each day for\nvoluntary retirement and repose within himself.\"\n\n\nThe Art of being Quiet\n\n\nJANUARY 31\n\n\"One of the special needs of our day is more time for meditation and\nreflection.\"\n\n                             _Life Here and Hereafter_, Canon MACCOLL.\n\n\"We are too busy, too encumbered, too much occupied, too active! We read\ntoo much! The one thing needful is to throw off all one's load of cares,\nof preoccupations, of pedantry, and to become again young, simple,\nchild-like, living happily and gratefully in the present hour. We must\nknow how to put occupation aside, which does not mean that we must be\nidle. In an inaction which is meditative and attentive the wrinkles of\nthe soul are smoothed away, and the soul itself spreads, unfolds, and\nsprings afresh, and, like the trodden grass of the roadside or the\nbruised leaf of a plant, repairs its injuries, becomes new, spontaneous,\ntrue, and original. Reverie, like the rain of night, restores colour and\nforce to thoughts which have been blanched and wearied by the heat of\nthe day. With gentle fertilising power it awakens within us a thousand\nsleeping germs, and, as though in play, gathers round us materials for\nthe future, and images for the use of talent.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\nInward Stillness\n\n\nFebruary 1\n\n\"Let each of us sit still, and keep watch for awhile in the silent house\nof his spirit.... As near as is the light to one sleeping in the light,\nso near is Christ, the Awakener, to every Eternal man, deeply as he may\nbe asleep within his outer man.\"\n\n                                                        JOHN PULSFORD.\n\n  \"Let us then labour for an inward stillness,\n  An inward stillness and an inward healing;\n  That perfect silence where the lips and heart\n  Are still, and we no longer entertain\n  Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions,\n  But God alone speaks in us, and we wait\n  In singleness of heart that we may know\n  His will, and in the silence of our own spirits,\n  That we may do His will, and that only.\"\n\n                                        LONGFELLOW.\n\n\nCommune with your Own Heart and be Still\n\n\nFEBRUARY 2\n\n\"Perhaps one very simple, but alas too often neglected rule, may be\nsuggested to those who are indeed desirous of realising through all the\npetty vicissitudes and monotonous or trivial round of their daily life,\nthe Divine presence and power. 'Devotion early in the day _before the\nday's worries begin._ It is the _only_ way to keep the spirit Godward\nthrough them all.' Devotion, it is needless to add, is not 'saying\nprayers' in words either of our own or any one else's--nor is it only or\nchiefly 'making request.' It is pre-eminently _worship_, the deliberate\nhomage of the mind and heart--of the whole being to God who is its\nsource. And here steadfastness of will, showing itself in determined\nconcentration of attention, is the indispensable condition of success;\nfor such concentration is by no means always an easy matter to attain,\neven when the effort is 'made early in the day before the day's worries\nbegin.' Sometimes there are sleepless 'worries' which assert their\npresence with the first dawn of consciousness; sometimes we are mentally\nor physically lazy, inert or languid. Well, if we habitually give in to\nsuch difficulties in a way of which we should be utterly ashamed were\nany other object of mental effort in question, we must not be surprised\nif the entirely natural result ensues that we fail to 'realise' what we\nhave never honestly set ourselves to treat as real.... Amid the\nthronging duties, the ceaseless cares, the toilsome or pleasurable round\nof daily life, we must take and we must keep time to 'commune with our\nown hearts and in our own chamber, and be still.'\"\n\n                                                       E. M. CAILLARD.\n\n\nThe Receptive Side of Life\n\n\nFEBRUARY 3\n\n\"To all who are active in Christian work I would say, ever remember that\nthere must be fidelity to the receptive side of life if you are to\nexercise any real abiding influence. How often do we hear men say that\nthey have worked hard in their district, or their school, or their\nclass, and yet there is no result.\n\n\"Perhaps they have worked too hard. There are a multitude of Marthas in\nmodern English life; but it were good for such if, at times, they would\nfollow the example of the wiser Mary, and sit down quietly at Jesus'\nfeet, and draw in from Him that power which cannot by any possibility be\ngiven out, before it is taken in.\"\n\n                                                           Canon BODY.\n\n\"The problem set before us is to bring our daily task into the temple of\ncontemplation and ply it there, to act as in the presence of God, to\ninterfuse one's little part with religion. So only can we inform the\ndetail of life, all that is passing, temporary, and insignificant, with\nbeauty and nobility. So may we dignify and consecrate the meanest of\noccupations. So may we feel that we are paying our tribute to the\nuniversal work and the eternal will. So are we reconciled with life and\ndelivered from the fear of death. So are we in order and at peace.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\nRegulation of Time\n\n\nFEBRUARY 4\n\n\"No two things differ more than hurry and despatch. Hurry is the mark of\na weak mind, despatch of a strong one. A weak man in office, like a\nsquirrel in a cage, is labouring eternally, but to no purpose, and in\nconstant motion, without getting on a jot: like a turnstile, he is in\neverybody's way, but stops nobody: he talks a great deal, but says very\nlittle; looks into everything, but sees into nothing; and has a hundred\nirons in the fire, but very few of them are hot, and with these few that\nare he burns his fingers.\"\n\n                                                               COLTON.\n\n\"Hurry belongs to the mortal who wants to see the outcome of his work,\nwhile eternity is lavish of time.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n\"Unfaithfulness in the keeping of an appointment is an act of clear\ndishonesty. You may as well borrow a person's money as his time.\"\n\n                                                          HORACE MANN.\n\n\"Punctuality is the politeness of kings.\"\n\n                                                            LOUIS XIV.\n\n\nBusiness-like Habits\n\n\nFEBRUARY 5\n\n\"It is very important to cultivate business-like habits. An eminent\nfriend of mine assured me not long ago that when he thought over the\nmany cases he had known of men, even of good ability and high character,\nwho had been unsuccessful in life, by far the most frequent cause of\nfailure was that they were dilatory, unpunctual, unable to work\ncordially with others, obstinate in small things, and, in fact, what we\ncall unbusiness-like.\"\n\n                                                         LORD AVEBURY.\n\n\"A 'bustling' man is, to a man of business, what a monkey is to a man.\nHe is the shadow of despatch, or, rather, the echo thereof; for he\nmaketh noise enough for an alarm. The quickness of a true man of\nbusiness he imitateth, imitateth excellently well, but neither his\nsilence nor his method; and it is to be noted that he is ever most\nvehement about matters of no significance. He is always in such headlong\nhaste to overtake the next minute, that he loses half the minute in\nhand; and yet is full of indignation and impatience at other people's\nslowness, and wasteth more time in reiterating his love of despatch than\nwould suffice for doing a great deal of business. He never giveth you\nhis quiet attention with a mind centred on what you are saying, but\nhears you with a restless eye, and a perpetual shifting posture, and is\nso eager to show his quickness that he interrupteth you a dozen times,\nmisunderstands you as often, and ends by making you and himself lose\ntwice as much time as was necessary.\"\n\n                                                            H. ROGERS.\n\n\nTime and Method\n\n\nFEBRUARY 6\n\n\"The thrift of time will repay in after life with usury of profit beyond\nyour most sanguine dreams, and waste of it will make you dwindle alike\nin intellectual and moral stature beyond your darkest reckoning.\"\n\n                                                            GLADSTONE.\n\n\"One of the striking characteristics of successful persons is their\nfaculty of readily determining the relative importance of different\nthings. There are many things which it is desirable to do, a few are\nessential, and there is no more useful quality of the human mind than\nthat which enables its possessor at once to distinguish which the few\nessential things are. Life is so short and time so fleeting that much\nwhich one would wish to do must fain be omitted. He is fortunate who\nperceives at a glance what it will do, and what it will not do, to omit.\nThis invaluable faculty, if not possessed in a remarkable degree\nnaturally, is susceptible of cultivation to a considerable extent. Let\nany one adopt the practice of reflecting, every morning, what must\nnecessarily be done during the day, and then begin by doing the most\nimportant things first, leaving the others to take their chance of being\ndone or left undone. In this way attention first to the things of first\nimportance soon acquires the almost irresistible force of habit, and\nbecomes a rule of life. There is no rule more indispensable to\nsuccess.\"\n\n\nConcentration\n\n\nFEBRUARY 7\n\n\"The marked differences of working power among men are due chiefly to\ndifferences in the power of concentration. A retentive and accurate\nmemory is conditioned upon close attention. If one gives entire\nattention to what is passing before him, he is not likely to forget it,\nor to confuse persons or incidents. The book which one reads with eyes\nwhich are continually lifted from the page may furnish entertainment for\nthe moment, but cannot enrich the reader, because it cannot become part\nof his knowledge. Attention is the simplest form of concentration, and\nits value illustrates the supreme importance of that focussing of all\nthe powers upon the thing in hand which may be called the sustained\nattention of the whole nature.\n\n\"Here, as everywhere in the field of man's life, there enters that\nelement of sacrifice without which no real achievement is possible. To\nsecure a great end, one must be willing to pay a great price. The exact\nadjustment of achievement to sacrifice makes us aware, at every step, of\nthe invisible spiritual order with which all men are in every kind of\nendeavour. If the highest skill could be secured without long and\npainful effort, it would be wasted through ignorance of its value, or\nmisused through lack of education; but a man rarely attains great skill\nwithout undergoing a discipline of self-denial and work which gives him\nsteadiness, restraint, and a certain kind of character. The giving up of\npleasures which are wholesome, the turning aside from fields which are\ninviting, the steady refusal of invitations and claims which one would\nbe glad to accept or recognise, invest the power of concentration with\nmoral quality, and throw a searching light on the nature of genuine\nsuccess.\n\n\"To do one thing well, a man must be willing to hold all other interests\nand activities subordinate; to attain the largest freedom, a man must\nfirst bear the cross of self-denial.\"\n\n\nConcentration\n\n\nFEBRUARY 8\n\n\"Strive constantly to concentrate yourself; never dissipate your powers;\nincessant activity, of whatever kind, leads finally to bankruptcy.\"\n\n                                                               GOETHE.\n\n\"All impatience disturbs the circulation, scatters force, makes\nconcentration difficult if not impossible.\"\n\n                                                        C. B. NEWCOMB.\n\n\"They have great powers, and they waste them pitifully, for they have\nnot the greatest power,--the power to rule the use of their powers.\"\n\n                                                      F. W. ROBERTSON.\n\n\"Concentration is the secret of strength.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\nReadiness\n\n\nFEBRUARY 9\n\n\"To know how to be ready--a great thing--a precious gift,--and one that\nimplies calculation, grasp and decision. To be always ready, a man must\nbe able to cut a knot, for everything cannot be untied; he must know how\nto disengage what is essential from the detail in which it is enwrapped,\nfor everything cannot be equally considered; in a word, he must be able\nto simplify his duties, his business, and his life. To know how to be\nready, is to know how to start.\n\n\"It is astonishing how all of us are generally cumbered up with the\nthousand and one hindrances and duties which are not such, but which\nnevertheless wind us about with their spider threads and fetter the\nmovement of our wings. It is the lack of order which makes us slaves;\nthe confusion of to-day discounts the freedom of to-morrow.\n\n\"Confusion is the enemy of all comfort, and confusion is born of\nprocrastination. To know how to be ready we must be able to finish.\nNothing is done but what is finished. The things which we leave dragging\nbehind us will start up again later on before us and harass our path.\nLet each day take thought for what concerns it, liquidate its own\naffairs and respect the day which is to follow, and then we shall be\nalways ready. To know how to be ready, is at bottom to know how to die.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\nOrder\n\n\nFEBRUARY 10\n\n\"What comfort, what strength, what economy there is in _order_--material\norder, intellectual order, moral order. To know where one is going and\nwhat one wishes--this is order; to keep one's word and one's\nengagements--again order; to have everything ready under one's hand, to\nbe able to dispose of all one's forces, and to have all one's means of\nwhatever kind under command--still order; to discipline one's habits,\none's efforts, one's wishes; to organise one's life, to distribute one's\ntime, to take the measure of one's duties and make one's rights\nrespected; to employ one's capital and resources, one's talent and one's\nchances profitably;--all this belongs to and is included in the word\n_order_. Order means light and peace, inward liberty and free command\nover oneself; order is power. Aesthetic and moral beauty consist, the\nfirst in a true conception of order, and the second in submission to it,\nand in the realisation of it, by, in, and around oneself. Order is man's\ngreatest need and his true well-being.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"The commissioning of the Twelve imposed no particular form of rule; but\nit taught the lesson that organisation and order and the distribution of\nduty were essential in things spiritual as well as in things temporal,\nand that it was well for the children of light to be as 'wise in their\ngeneration' as the children of the world.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n\nThe Secret of Thrift\n\n\nFEBRUARY 11\n\n\"The secret of thriving is thrift; saving of force; to get as much work\nas possible done with the least expenditure of power, the least jar and\nobstruction, the least wear and tear. And the secret of thrift is\nknowledge. In proportion as you know the laws and nature of a subject,\nyou will be able to work at it easily, surely, rapidly, successfully,\ninstead of wasting your money or your energies in mistaken schemes,\nirregular efforts, which end in disappointment and exhaustion.\"\n\n                                                     CHARLES KINGSLEY.\n\n\"It is never enough for us simply to _know_. We must also _weigh_.\"\n\n                             _The Making of Character_, PROF. MACCUNN.\n\n\"Doing good, being so divine a privilege, is beset by its own dangers.\nLet us see that our good be not evil spoken of by want of thought,\nmethod, and self-denial in the doing of it. The world is waiting for us,\nwith our little store. Oh that we might economise it more, devote it\nmore thoroughly, and add to it! Every time we pray, or study, or work,\nwe are receiving to give away. Men are looking to us in faintness,\nweariness, and want, and a voice says to us, 'Give ye them to eat.' If\nit is but five loaves, we can offer them to Christ, and He will multiply\nthem.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\nEndurance\n\n\nFEBRUARY 12\n\n\"'A somewhat varied experience of men has led me, the longer I live,'\nsaid Huxley, 'to set less value on mere cleverness; to attach more and\nmore importance to industry and physical endurance. Indeed, I am much\ndisposed to think that endurance is the most valuable quality of all;\nfor industry, as the desire to work hard, does not come to much if a\nfeeble frame is unable to respond to the desire. No life is wasted\nunless it ends in sloth, dishonesty, or cowardice. No success is worthy\nof the name unless it is won by honest industry and brave breasting of\nthe waves of fortune.'\"\n\n\"Of all work producing results, nine-tenths must be drudgery. There is\nno work, from the highest to the lowest, which can be done well by any\nman who is unwilling to make that sacrifice. Part of the very nobility\nof the devotion of the true workman to his work consists in the fact\nthat a man is not daunted by finding that drudgery must be done, and no\nman can really succeed in any walk of life without a good deal of what\nin ordinary English is called pluck. That is the condition of all\nsuccess, and there is nothing which so truly repays itself as this\nperseverance against weariness.\"\n\n                                                     Bishop PHILPOTTS.\n\n\nPerseverance\n\n\nFEBRUARY 13\n\n\"Practise thyself even in the things which thou despairest of\naccomplishing. For even the left hand, which is ineffectual for all\nother things for want of practice, holds the bridle more vigorously than\nthe right hand; for it has been practised in this.\"\n\n                                                      MARCUS AURELIUS.\n\n\"'It is not the spurt at the start, but the continued, unresting,\nunhasting advance that wins the day.'\"\n\n\"The same law runs in ordinary life, and he only need expect to attain\nsuccess and win the honour of his fellow-men who is thorough. The reason\nwhy men fail is, in five cases out of six, not through want of influence\nor brains, or opportunity, or good guidance, but because they are slack;\nand the reason why certain men with few advantages succeed, is that they\nare diligent, concentrated, persevering and conscientious--because, in\nfact, they are thorough.\"\n\n                                _The Homely Virtues_, DR. JOHN WATSON.\n\n  \"Unto him who works, and feels he works,\n  This same grand year is ever at the doors.\"\n\n                                      TENNYSON.\n\n\nPleasure in Work\n\n\nFEBRUARY 14\n\n\"Joy or delight in what we are doing is not a mere luxury; it is a\nmeans, a help for the more perfect doing of our work. Indeed, it may be\ntruly said that no man does any work perfectly who does not enjoy his\nwork. Joy in one's work is the consummate tool without which the work\nmay be done indeed, but without which the work will always be done\nslowly, clumsily, and without its finest perfectness. Men who do their\nwork without enjoying it are like men carving statues with hatchets. The\nstatue gets carved perhaps, and is a monument for ever of the dogged\nperseverance of the artist; but there is a perpetual waste of toil, and\nthere is no fine result in the end.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\"Efforts to be permanently useful must be uniformly joyous,--a spirit\nall sunshine; graceful from very gladness, beautiful because bright.\"\n\n                                                              CARLYLE.\n\n\"Every joy is gain, and gain is gain, however small.\"\n\n                                              BROWNING.\n\n\nDuty\n\n\nFEBRUARY 15\n\n  \"In Life's small things be resolute and great\n  To keep thy muscle trained: know'st thou when Fate\n  Thy measure takes, or when she'll say to thee\n  'I find thee worthy; do this thing for me'?\"\n\n                                             LOWELL.\n\n\"Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires but according to\nour powers.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"I'll bind myself to that which, once being right, Will not be less\nright when I shrink from it.\"\n\n                                                             KINGSLEY.\n\n  \"There's life alone in duty done,\n  And rest alone in striving.\"\n\n                            WHITTIER.\n\n\nDuty\n\n\nFEBRUARY 16\n\n\"A duty is no sooner divined than from that very moment it becomes\nbinding upon us.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before\nyou, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will\nbe the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n        \"The toppling crags of duty scaled\n  Are close upon the shining table-lands\n  To which our God Himself is moon and sun.\"\n\n                                        TENNYSON.\n\n\nThe Iron Chains of Duty\n\n\nFEBRUARY 17\n\n\"... One conviction I have gained from the experience of the last\nyears--life is not jest and amusement; life is not even enjoyment ...\nlife is hard labour. Renunciation, continual renunciation--that is its\nsecret meaning, its solution. Not the fulfilment of cherished dreams and\naspirations, however lofty they may be--the fulfilment of duty, that is\nwhat must be the care of man. Without laying on himself chains, the iron\nchains of duty, he cannot reach without a fall the end of his career.\"\n\n                               _A Lear of the Steppes_, IVAN TURGENEV.\n\n\"Granted that life is tragic to the marrow, it seems the proper function\nof religion to make us accept and serve in that tragedy, as officers in\nthat other and comparable one of war. Service is the word, active\nservice, in the military sense; and the religious man is he who has a\nmilitary joy in duty--not he who weeps over the wounded.\"\n\n                                        _Lay Morals_, R. L. STEVENSON.\n\n\nPower\n\n\nFEBRUARY 18\n\n\"Oh, do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray\nfor tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks!\nThen the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a\nmiracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life\nwhich has come in you by the grace of God.\n\n\"THERE is nothing which comes to seem more foolish to us, I think, as\nyears go by, than the limitations which have been quietly set to the\nmoral possibilities of man. They are placidly and perpetually assumed.\n'You must not expect too much of him,' so it is said. 'You must remember\nthat he is only a man after all.' 'Only a man!' That sounds to me as if\none said, 'You may launch your boat and sail a little way, but you must\nnot expect to go very far. It is only the Atlantic Ocean.' Why, man's\nmoral range and reach is practically infinite, at least no man has yet\nbegun to comprehend where its limit lies. Man's powers of conquering\ntemptation, of despising danger, of being true to principle, have never\nbeen even indicated, save in Christ.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\"Virgil said of the winning crew in his boat-race, 'They can, because\nthey believe they can.'\"\n\n\nAn Ideal Level\n\n\nFEBRUARY 19\n\n\"No man who, being a Christian, desires the kingdom of God, can justly\nneglect giving his energy to the bettering of the social, physical, and\neducational condition of the poor, the diseased, and the criminal\nclasses. But he is not a Christian, or he has not realised the problem\nfully, if that is all he does. Social improvement is a work portions of\nwhich any one can do, in which all ought to share; but if we who follow\nChrist desire to do the best work in that improvement, and in the best\nway, we ought to strive--while we join in the universal movement towards\na juster society--to give a spiritual life to that movement; to keep it\nat an ideal level; to free it from mere materialism; to maintain in it\nthe monarchy of self-sacrifice; to fix its eyes on invisible and\nunworldly truths; to supply it with noble and spiritual faiths; to base\nall associations of men on the ground of their spiritual union--all\nbeing children of God, and brothers of one another, in the love and\nfaith by which Jesus lived; and to maintain the dignity of this\nspiritual communion of men in faith in their immortal union with God.\nThis is the fight of faith we, as fellow-workers with God, shall have to\nwage; and this not only binds us up with the poor, but with the rich,\nnot only with the ignorant, but the learned; for on these grounds all\nmen are seen as stripped of everything save of their humanity and their\ndivine kinship.... Improve, then, the material condition and the\nknowledge of all who are struggling for justice; it is part of your life\nwhich if you neglect, you are out of touch with the new life; but kindle\nin it, uphold and sanctify in it, the life which is divine, the\ncommunion with man of God, without union with whose character all effort\nfor social improvement will revert to new miseries and new despair.\"\n\n                                 _The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.\n\n\nWork\n\n\nFEBRUARY 20\n\n\"Idleness standing in the midst of unattempted tasks is always proud.\nWork is always tending to humility. Work touches the keys of endless\nactivity, opens the infinite, and stands awe-struck before the immensity\nof what there is to do. Work brings a man into the good realm of facts.\nWork takes the dreamy youth who is growing proud in his closet over one\nor two sprouting powers which he has discovered in himself, and sets him\nout among the gigantic needs and the vast processes of the world, and\nmakes him feel his littleness. Work opens the measureless fields of\nknowledge and skill that reach far out of sight. I am sure we all know\nthe fine, calm, sober humbleness of men who have really tried themselves\nagainst the great tasks of life. It was great in Paul, and in Luther,\nand in Cromwell. It is something that never comes into the character,\nnever shows in the face of a man who has never worked.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n  \"No man is born into the world, whose work\n   Is not born with him; there is always work,\n   And tools to work withal, for those who will;\n   And blessed are the horny hands of toil!\n   The busy world shoves angrily aside\n   The man who stands with arms akimbo set,\n   Until occasion tells him what to do;\n   And he who waits to have his task marked out\n   Shall die and leave his errand unfulfilled.\"\n\n                              JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.\n\n\nSpecial Work for Each\n\n\nFEBRUARY 21\n\n\"There is some particular work which lies to every one's hand which he\ncan do better than any other person. What we ought to be concerned about\nis not whether it be on a large scale or a small--about which we can\nnever be quite certain--nor whether it is going to bring us fame or\nleave us in obscurity--an issue which is in the hands of God--but that\nwe do it, and that we do it with all our might. Having done that, there\nis no cause to fret ourselves or ask questions which cannot be answered.\nWe may rest with a quiet conscience and a contented heart, for we have\nfilled our place and done what we could. The battle of life extends over\na vast area, and it is vain for us to inquire about the other wings of\nthe army; it is enough that we have received our orders, and that we\nhave held the few feet of ground committed to our charge. There let us\nfight and there let us die, and so fighting and so dying in the place of\nduty we cannot be condemned, we must be justified. Brilliant qualities\nmay never be ours, but the homely virtues are within our reach, and\ncharacter is built up not out of great intellectual gifts and splendid\npublic achievements, but out of honesty, industry, thrift, kindness,\ncourtesy, and gratitude, resting upon faith in God and love towards man.\nAnd the inheritance of the soul which ranks highest and lasts for ever\nis character.\"\n\n                                _The Homely Virtues,_ Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\nThe Sin of Idleness\n\n\nFEBRUARY 22\n\n\"There is a certain amount of work to be done in this world. If any of\nus does not take his full share, he imposes that which he does not take\non the shoulders of another; and the first cause of poverty, of disease,\nof misery in all States, is the overwork which is imposed on men and\nwomen by the idle and indifferent members of the nation. This is to\nsteal from the human race; to steal from them joy, leisure, health,\ncomfort and peace, and to impose on them sorrow and overwork, disease\nand homelessness, bitter anger and fruitless tears. This is the curse\nwhich the selfish dreamer leaves behind him. Many have been the fierce\noppressors and defrauders of the human race, but the evil they have done\nis less than that done by those who drop by drop and hour by hour drain\nthe blood of mankind by doing no work for the overworked. This is the\ncrime with which the idle and indifferent will be confronted when the\ngreat throne is set in our soul, and the books we have written on men's\nlives are opened, and God shall lay judgment to the line and\nrighteousness to the plummet. 'Lord, what hast Thou to do with it?' we\nwill say. 'I did not neglect Thee; I took my ease, it is true, but I\nkept Thy law. I was never impious, never an atheist. When was I not\nreligious?' Then He will answer: 'Inasmuch as ye never worked for the\nleast of these My brothers, ye never worked for Me!'\"\n\n                                 _The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.\n\n\"Let us start up and live: here come moments that cannot be had again;\nsome few may yet be filled with imperishable good.\"\n\n                                                         J. MARTINEAU.\n\n\nIdleness\n\n\nFEBRUARY 23\n\n\"It is not necessary for a man to be actively bad in order to make a\nfailure of life; simple inaction will accomplish it. Nature has\neverywhere written her protest against idleness; everything which ceases\nto struggle, which remains inactive, rapidly deteriorates. It is the\nstruggle towards an ideal, the constant effort to get higher and further\nwhich develops manhood and character.\"\n\n\"Shun idleness, it is the rust that attaches itself to the most\nbrilliant metals.\"\n\n                                                             VOLTAIRE.\n\n\"There is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works. In\nidleness alone is there perpetual despair.\"\n\n                                                              CARLYLE.\n\n  \"'Twere all as good to ease one breast of grief\n  As sit and watch the sorrows of the world.\"\n\n                       _The Light of Asia_, E. ARNOLD.\n\n\nFear of Failure\n\n\nFEBRUARY 24\n\n\"Who would ever stir a finger, if only on condition of being guaranteed\nagainst oversights, misinformation, mistakes, ignorance, loss, and\ndanger?\"\n\n                                                         H. MARTINEAU.\n\n\"The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he\ndecides, never decides.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"He who is too much afraid of being duped has lost the power of being\nmagnanimous.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first\novercome.\"\n\n                                                          DR. JOHNSON.\n\n\nFear of Failure\n\n\nFEBRUARY 25\n\n\"Extreme caution is no less harmful than its opposite.\"\n\n                                                         VAUVENARGUES.\n\n\"The men who succeed best in public life are those who take the risk of\nstanding by their own convictions.\"\n\n                                                             GARFIELD.\n\n  \"Our doubts are traitors,\n   And make us lose the good we oft might win,\n   By fearing to attempt.\"\n\n                                    SHAKESPEARE.\n\n\"IT is better by a noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to\nhalf of the evils which we anticipate, than to remain in cowardly\nlistlessness for fear of what may happen.\"\n\n                                                            HERODOTUS.\n\n\nFalterers\n\n\nFEBRUARY 26\n\n  \"Nay, never falter: no great deed is done\n  By falterers who ask for certainty.\n  No good is certain, but the steadfast mind,\n  The undivided will to seek the good:\n  'Tis that compels the elements, and wrings\n  A human music from the indifferent air.\n  The greatest gift the hero leaves his race\n  Is to have been a hero. Say we fail!--\n  We feed the high tradition of the world,\n  And leave our spirit in our children's breasts.\"\n\n                                      GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n  \"How dull it is to pause, to make an end,\n  To rest unburnish'd, not to shine in use!\n  As though to breathe were life.\"\n\n                                          TENNYSON.\n\n\"After all, depend upon it, it is better to be worn out with work in a\nthronged community, than to perish in inaction in a stagnant solitude:\ntake this truth into consideration whenever you get tired of work and\nbustle.\"\n\n                                   MRS. GASKELL'S _Life of C. Bronte_.\n\n\nCourage\n\n\nFEBRUARY 27\n\n\"Whether you be man or woman you will never do anything in the world\nwithout courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honour.\"\n\n                                                    JAMES LANE ALLEN.\n\n  \"The brave man is not he who feels no fear,\n   For that were stupid and irrational,\n   But he whose noble soul its fear subdues\n   And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.\"\n\n                                                       JOANNA BAILLIE.\n\n\"Heroism is the brilliant triumph of the soul over the flesh--that is to\nsay, over fear: fear of poverty, of suffering, of calumny, of sickness,\nof isolation, and of death. There is no serious piety without heroism.\nHeroism is the dazzling and glorious concentration of courage.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"Self-trust is the essence of heroism.\"\n\n                                  EMERSON.\n\n\nResponsibility\n\n\nFEBRUARY 28\n\n\"Thousands live and die in the dim borderland of destitution; that\nlittle children wail, and starve, and perish, and soak and blacken soul\nand sense, in our streets; that there are hundreds and thousands of the\nunemployed, not all of whom, as some would persuade us, are lazy\nimpostors; that the demon of drink still causes among us daily horrors\nwhich would disgrace Dahomey or Ashantee, and rakes into his coffers\nmillions of pounds which are wet with tears and red with blood; these\nare facts patent to every eye. Now, God will work no miracle to mend\nthese miseries. If we neglect them they will be left uncured, but He\nwill hold us responsible for the neglect. It is vain for us to ask, 'Am\nI my brother's keeper?' In spite of all the political economists, in\nspite of all superfine theories of chilly and purse-saving wisdom, in\nspite of all the critiques of the irreligious--still more of the\nsemi-religious, and the religious press, He will say to the callous and\nthe slothful, with such a glance 'as struck Gehazi with leprosy, and\nSimon Magus with a curse,' 'What hast thou done? Smooth religionist,\northodox Churchman, scrupulous Levite, befringed and bephylacteried\nPharisee, thy brother's blood crieth to Me from the ground!'\"\n\n                                                         F. W. FARRAR.\n\n                    \"The healing of the world\n  Is in its nameless saints. Each separate star\n  Seems nothing, but a myriad scattered stars\n  Break up the night, and make it beautiful.\"\n\n                                       BAYARD TAYLOR.\n\n\nThe Sin of Indifference\n\n\nMARCH 1\n\n\"They hear no more the cries of their brothers caught in the nets of\nmisery: 'Help us, we are perishing.' The curtains of their comfort are\nfast drawn; they sit at home wrapt in family ease. Outside, the sleet is\nfalling, the bitter wind is blowing, thousands of the children of sorrow\nare dying in the fierce weather. God Himself is knocking at the door,\ncalling 'Come forth and seek the lost with Jesus.' We hear nothing, the\ncotton of comfort stops our ears. For a time, till God Himself breaks in\non us with storm, and disperses our comfort to the winds, we can run no\nChristian race.... Therefore, lay aside, not all comfort--men have a\nright to that--but that excess of it which softens and enfeebles the\nsoul; which sends to sleep the longing for God's perfection; which makes\nour life too slothful to follow Christ, the Healer of the world!\"\n\n                                 _The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.\n\n                  \"All my soul is full\n  Of pity for the sickness of this world;\n  Which I will heal, if healing may be found\n  By uttermost renouncing and strong strife.\"\n\n                         _The Light of Asia_, E. ARNOLD.\n\n\nWasted Emotions\n\n\nMARCH 2\n\n\"Pity, indignation, love, felt and not made into acts of pity or of\nself-sacrifice, lose their very heart in our dainty dreaming, and are\nturned into their opposites. Our animation and activity of love,\nunexercised, becomes like the unused muscle, attenuated; and we are\ncontent to think with pleasure of the times when we were animated and\nactive--a vile condition. But the worst wretchedness of these losses\ndoes not consist in the damage we do ourselves, but in the loss of power\nto benefit mankind, in the loss of power to do God's work for the\nsalvation and the greater happiness of man. We are guilty to man, and\nguilty before God, when we lose our powers in inglorious ease. We owe\nourselves to men and women; no amount of work frees us from the duty of\nkeeping ourselves in the best possible trim, body and soul, mind and\nspirit, that we may nobly work the loving work of Him that sent us.\"\n\n                                 _The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.\n\n\"Opportunities are swarming around us all the time, thicker than gnats\nat sundown. We walk through a cloud of them.\"\n\n                                                             VAN DYKE.\n\n\n\"Doing\" more than \"Feeling\"\n\n\nMARCH 3\n\n\"Our Lord ... always brings back to mind that doing is more than\nfeeling.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n\"A maxim of Professor James 'never to suffer a single emotion to\nevaporate without exacting from it some practical service.'\"\n\n                        _The Making of Character_, Prof. JOHN MACCUNN.\n\n    \"But two ways are offered to our will--\n  Toil with rare triumph, Ease with safe disgrace:--\n    Nor deem that acts heroic wait on chance!\n  The man's whole life preludes the single deed\n    That shall decide if his inheritance\n  Be with the sifted few of matchless breed,\n  Or with the unnoticed herd that only sleep and feed.\"\n\n                                                    LOWELL.\n\n\nThe Sacredness of Work\n\n\nMARCH 4\n\n\"All true work is sacred; in all true work, were it but true\nhand-labour, there is something of divineness.\"\n\n                                                              CARLYLE.\n\n\"Some of the commonest faults of thought and work are those which come\nfrom thinking too poorly of our own lives, and of that which must\nrightly be demanded of us. A high standard of accuracy, a chivalrous\nloyalty to exact truth, generosity to fellow-workers, indifference to\nresults, distrust of all that is showy, self-discipline and\nundiscouraged patience through all difficulties,--these are among the\nfirst and greatest conditions of good work; and they ought never to seem\ntoo hard for us if we remember what we owe to the best work of bygone\ndays.\"\n\n                             _The Spirit of Discipline_, Bishop PAGET.\n\n\"Whether thy work be fine or coarse, planting corn or writing epics, so\nonly it be honest work, done to thine own approbation, it shall earn a\nreward to the senses as well as to the thought; no matter how often\ndefeated, you are born to victory. The reward of a thing well done is to\nhave done it.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\nDoing our Best\n\n\nMARCH 5\n\n\"It is not the quantity of our work that He regards, but the quality of\nit. He is less anxious that we should fulfil our task--for He can make\nup for our deficiencies--than that we should do our best; for what He\ndesires is the improvement of our characters, and that requires the\nco-operation of our own wills with His.\"\n\n                             _Life Here and Hereafter_, Canon MACCOLL.\n\n\"Experience shows that success is due less to ability than to zeal. The\nwinner is he who gives himself to his work, body and soul.\"\n\n                                                       CHARLES BUXTON.\n\n  \"Life is too short to waste,\n\n         *       *       *       *       *\n\n  'Twill soon be dark;\n  Up! mind thine own aim, and\n  God speed the mark!\"\n\n                            EMERSON.\n\n\nWork--Effective Reforms\n\n\nMARCH 6\n\n\"We must be careful not to undermine independence in our anxiety to\nrelieve distress. There is always the initial difficulty that whatever\nis done for men takes from them a great stimulus to work, and weakens\nthe feeling of independence; all creatures which depend on others tend\nto become mere parasites. It is important therefore, as far as possible,\nnot so much to give a man bread, as to put him in the way of earning it\nfor himself; not to give direct aid, but to help others to help\nthemselves. The world is so complex that we must all inevitably owe much\nto our neighbours; but, as far as possible, every man should stand on\nhis own feet.\"\n\n                                                         Lord AVEBURY.\n\n\"We are now generally agreed upon our aims: nobility of character and\nnot only outward prosperity; victory over evil at its source, and not in\nits consequences; reforms which shall regard the welfare of future\ngenerations, who are 'the greatest number.'\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\"We fall under the temptation of seeking material solutions for\nspiritual problems; material remedies for spiritual maladies. The\nthought of spiritual poverty, of spiritual destitution, is crowded out.\nWe treat the symptoms and neglect the disease itself.\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\nWork--Effective Reforms\n\n\nMARCH 7\n\n\"If you are moved with a vague desire to help men be better men, you\nmust know that you can do it not by belabouring the evil but by training\nthe good that there is in them.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\"The Christian, therefore, I repeat, as Christian, will take his full\npart in preparing for the amelioration of the conditions of men no less\nthan for their conversion. He will in due measure strive to follow,\nunder the limitations of his own labour, the whole example of his Lord,\nwho removed outward distresses and satisfied outward wants, even as He\nbrought spiritual strength and rest to the weak and weary. Moreover,\nthis effort based upon resolute thought, belongs to the completeness of\nthe religious life of the Christian.\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\"Reforms which are effective must develop and strengthen character.\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\nWork--\"To cure is the Voice of the Past\"\n\n\nMARCH 8\n\n\"All measures of reformation are effective in exact proportion to their\ntimeliness. Partial decay may be cut away and cleansed, incipient error\ncorrected: but there is a point at which corruption can no more be\nstayed, nor wandering recalled. It has been the manner of modern\nphilanthropy to remain passive until that precise period, and to leave\nthe sick to perish, and the foolish to stray, while it spent itself in\nfrantic exertions to raise the dead, and reform the dust.\"\n\n                                  _The Queen of the Air_, JOHN RUSKIN.\n\n\"THE real work of charity is not to afford facilities to the poor to\nlower their standard, but to step in when calamity threatens and prevent\nit from falling.\"\n\n                       _The Standard of Life_, MRS. BERNARD BOSANQUET.\n\n\"To cure is the voice of the past; to prevent, the divine whisper of\nto-day.\"\n\n                             _Children's Rights_, KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN.\n\n\nSatan's Opportunities\n\n\nMARCH 9\n\n\"Physiologists know as much about morality as ministers of the gospel.\nThe vices which drag men and women into crime spring as often from\nunhealthy bodies as from weak wills and callous consciences. Vile\nfancies and sensual appetites grow stronger and more terrible when a\nfeeble physique and low vitality offer no opposing force. Deadly vices\nare nourished in the weak diseased bodies that are penned, day after\nday, in filthy crowded tenements of great cities.\"\n\n                             _Children's Rights_, KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN.\n\n\"Man's unpitied misery is Satan's opportunity.\"\n\n\"Mould conditions aright, and men will grow good to fit them.\"\n\n                                                      HORACE FLETCHER.\n\n\n\"Evil is Wrought by want of Thought\"\n\n\nMARCH 10\n\n\"But evil is wrought by want of thought, As well as want of heart.\"\n\n                                                          THOMAS HOOD.\n\n\"It is clear that in whatever it is our duty to act, those matters also\nit is our duty to study.\"\n\n                                                           DR. ARNOLD.\n\n\"No alms-giving of money is so helpful as alms-giving of care and\nthought; the giving of money without thought is indeed continually\nmischievous; but the invective of the economist against indiscriminate\ncharity is idle if it be not coupled with pleading for discriminate\ncharity, and above all, for that charity which discerns the uses that\npeople may be put to, and helps them by setting them to work in those\nservices. That is the help beyond all others; find out how to make\nuseless people useful, and let them earn their money instead of begging\nit.\"\n\n                                   _Arrows of the Chace_, JOHN RUSKIN.\n\n      (From a letter published in the _Daily Telegraph_ of\n                         December 20, 1868.)\n\n\nThe Hallowing of Work\n\n\nMarch 11\n\n\"We shall not do much of that which is best worth doing in the world if\nwe only consecrate to it our gifts. We have something else to consecrate\nfor our work's sake, for our friend's sake, for the sake of all for whom\nin any way we are responsible. Beyond and above all that we may do, is\nthat which we may be. 'For their sakes I sanctify, I consecrate,\nMyself.' So our Blessed Lord spoke in regard to those whom He had drawn\nnearest to Himself--His friends; those whose characters He would fashion\nfor the greatest task that ever yet was laid upon frail men. And even\nwhen we have set apart all that was unique in the nature and results of\nHis Self-consecration, all that He alone could, once for all, achieve;\nstill, I think, the words disclose a principle that concerns every one\nof us--the principle of all that is highest and purest in the influence\nof one life upon the lives it touches: 'For their sakes I consecrate\nMyself.' There is the ultimate secret of power; the one sure way of\ndoing good in our generation. We cannot anticipate or analyse the power\nof a pure and holy life; but there can be no doubt about its reality,\nand there seems no limit to its range. We can only know in part the laws\nand forces of the spiritual world; and it may be that every soul that is\npurified and given up to God and to His work releases or awakens\nenergies of which we have no suspicion--energies viewless as the wind;\nbut we can be sure of the result, and we may have glimpses sometimes of\nthe process--surely, there is no power in the world so unerring or so\nirrepressible as the power of personal holiness. All else at times goes\nwrong, blunders, loses proportion, falls disastrously short of its aim,\ngrows stiff or one-sided, or out of date--'whether there be prophecies,\nthey shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether\nthere be knowledge, it shall vanish away;' but nothing mars or misleads\nthe influence that issues from a pure and humble and unselfish\ncharacter.\"\n\n                                _The Hallowing of Work_, Bishop PAGET.\n\n\nOne by One\n\n\nMARCH 12\n\n\"Nothing is more characteristic of Jesus' method than His indifference\nto the many--His devotion to the single soul. His attitude to the\npublic, and His attitude to a private person were a contrast and a\ncontradiction. If His work was likely to cause a sensation Jesus charged\nHis disciples to let no man know it: if the people got wind of Him, He\nfled to solitary places: if they found Him, as soon as might be He\nescaped. But He used to take young men home with Him, who wished to ask\nquestions: He would spend all night with a perplexed scholar: He gave an\nafternoon to a Samaritan woman. He denied Himself to the multitude: He\nlay in wait for the individual. This was not because He under-valued a\nthousand, it was because He could not work on the thousand scale: it was\nnot because He over-valued the individual, it was because His method was\narranged for the scale of one. Jesus never succeeded in public save\nonce, when He was crucified: He never failed in private save once, with\nPontius Pilate. His method was not sensation: it was influence. He did\nnot rely on impulses: He believed in discipline. He never numbered\nconverts, because He knew what was in man: He sifted them, as one\nwinnoweth the wheat from the chaff. Spiritual statistics are unknown in\nthe Gospels: they came in with St. Peter in the pardonable intoxication\nof success: they have since grown to be a mania. As the Church coarsens\nshe estimates salvation by quantity, how many souls are saved: Jesus was\nconcerned with quality, after what fashion they were saved. His mission\nwas to bring Humanity to perfection.\"\n\n                            _The Mind of the Master_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\nOne by One\n\n\nMARCH 13\n\n\"Our Lord ... does not, on entering a village, ordain that all the\nlepers in it shall be cleansed, or all the palsied restored to the use\nof their limbs. He condescends to take each case by itself.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n\"'One by one' is not only the safest way of helping, it is the only\npossible way of ensuring that any real good is done.\"\n\n                              _Rich and Poor_, Mrs. BERNARD BOSANQUET.\n\n\"Love cannot be content while any suffer,--cannot rest while any sin.\"\n\n\"I would not let one cry whom I could save.\"\n\n                                       _The Light of Asia_, E. ARNOLD.\n\n\nInterruptions\n\n\nMARCH 14\n\n\"So long as there is work to do there will be interruptions--breaks in\nits progress. The minister at work on his sermon, the merchant at his\ndesk, the woman in her household duties--all must expect these calls to\nturn aside from the work in hand. And it is a part of one's character\ngrowth to bear these timely or untimely interruptions without any break\nin good temper or courtesy. A young student who was privileged to call\noften upon Phillips Brooks in his study, told the writer that he could\nnever have learned from the Bishop's manner or words, that the\nbig-hearted, busy man was ever too busy to receive him. To bear\ninterruptions thus serenely is an opportunity for self-control not to be\noverlooked by any one who wants to do God's work in the right spirit.\"\n\n\"He threw himself spontaneously, apparently without effort and yet\nirresistibly, into the griefs and joys, the needs and interests of\nothers. He had the happy gift of taking everybody to his heart. He was\nnever inattentive. As you talked to him you always felt he was listening\nand really trying to understand your case. In the light of sympathy you\nsaw yourself reflected in the mirror of his heart. Nor did he forget you\nwhen you were gone from sight. His was not the cheap sympathy of an\noutward manner, but the true emotion of the inward self. To your\nsurprise, when you had left Bishop Fraser with a sense of shame at\nhaving occupied, in your interview, so much of his overcrowded time, you\nwould find the next morning a letter upon your table giving his fuller\nand more mature opinion of your plans or course of action.\"... \"Tender\nand loving, in sympathy with the lowliest, forbearing with the most\nunreasonable, often interrupted, but never resenting, the sacrifice of\nself crowning all.\"\n\n                 _Bishop Fraser's Lancashire Life_, Archdeacon DIGGLE.\n\n\nMechanical Work\n\n\nMARCH 15\n\n\"Miss Keane took but little heed of the presence of Rachel and Hester in\nher brother's house. Those who work mechanically on fixed lines seem as\na rule to miss the pith of life. She was kind when she remembered them,\nbut her heart was where her treasure was--namely, in her escritoire,\nwith her list of Bible classes, and servants' choral unions, and the\nlong roll of contributors to the guild of work which she herself had\nstarted.\"\n\n                                     _Red Pottage_, MARY CHOLMONDELEY.\n\n\"Any man seeking to be holy who does not set himself in close live\ncontact with the life about him, stands in great danger of growing pious\nor punctilious instead of holy.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\nAn Ideal Guest-chamber\n\n\nMARCH 16\n\n\"In Mrs. Charles' well-known book, 'Chronicles of the Schonberg-Cotta\nfamily,' there is a beautiful passage where Fritz and Eva, beginning\ntheir young life together, take into their house a penitent woman who\nwas thought to be near death. Eva writes: 'There is a little room over\nthe porch that we had set apart as a guest-chamber, and very sweet it\nwas to me that Bertha should be its first inmate; very sweet to Fritz\nand me that our home should be what our Lord's heart is, a refuge for\nthe outcast, the penitent, the solitary, and the sorrowful.'\"\n\n\"We all say we follow Christ, but most of us only follow Him and His\ncross--part of the way. When we are told that our Lord bore our sins,\nand was wounded for our transgressions, I suppose that meant that He\nfelt as if they were His own, in His great love for us. But when you\nshrink from bearing your fellow-creatures' transgressions, it shows that\nyour love is small.\"\n\n                                     _Red Pottage_, MARY CHOLMONDELEY.\n\n  \"Radiant with heavenly pity, lost in care\n  For those he knew not, save as fellow lives.\"\n\n                                       _The Light of Asia_, E. ARNOLD.\n\n\n\"To be Trusted is to be Saved\"\n\n\nMARCH 17\n\n\"No one can perish in whom any spark of the Divine life is still\nburning. No one can be plucked out of the Saviour's hands who still\nstruggles towards Him, however feebly and falteringly.\"\n\n                             _Life Here and Hereafter_, Canon MACCOLL.\n\n\"To be trusted is to be saved. And if we try to influence or elevate\nothers, we shall soon see that success is in proportion to their belief\nof our belief in them. For the respect of another is the first\nrestoration of the self-respect a man has lost; our ideal of what he is\nbecomes to him the hope and pattern of what he may become.\"\n\n                    _The Greatest Thing in the World_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\"Coarse treatment never wins souls.\"\n\n\nGod's Children\n\n\nMARCH 18\n\n\"Hallow the name of God, hallow His character, in all noble and good\nhumanity.\n\n\"That is not difficult. But to hallow God's character in men and women\nwho are not good, in sinful humanity--that is not so easy. Yet, if we\nwould be true to this prayer of Christ, this too is part of our duty.\nThe evil are also the children of God. They have not hallowed His\ncharacter, but abandoned its worship. Nevertheless they cannot get rid\nof it. That divine thing lies hid, ineradicably, beneath their evil\ndoing and evil thought. The truth, justice, love, piety, and goodness of\nGod are in abeyance in the wrong-doer, but they are not dead in him.\nThey cannot die; nothing can destroy them. And we, whose desire it\nshould be to save men, can, if we have faith in the indestructible God\nin men, pierce to this immortal good in the evil, appeal to it, and call\nit forth to light, like Lazarus, from the tomb. This we can do, if, like\nJesus, we love men enough; if our faith that the evil are still God's\nchildren be deep and firm enough. In this we can keep closest to Christ,\nfor it was His daily way of life; and divinely beautiful it was. He\nhallowed God's character in the criminal and the harlot. He saw the good\nbeneath the evil. At His touch it leaped into life, and its life\ndestroyed the death in the sinner's soul. It seems as if He said when He\nlooked into the face of the wrong-doer, 'Father, hallowed be Thy\ncharacter.' No lesson for life can be wiser or deeper than this. It\nought to rule all our doings with the weak and guilty. It is at the very\ncentre of the prayer, 'Hallowed be Thy name.'\"\n\n                                 _The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.\n\n                \"Always at the door\n  Of foulest hearts, the angel-nature yet\n  Knocks to return and cancel all its debt.\"\n\n                                J. R. Lowell.\n\n\nRaw Material\n\n\nMARCH 19\n\n\"One also is filled with _hope_ at the figure of the clay, because it\nsuggests the immense and unimagined possibilities of human nature. Upon\nfirst sight how poor a thing is this man, with his ignorances,\nprejudices, pettinesses, his envy, jealousy, evil temper. Upon second\nthoughts how much may be in this man, how much he may achieve, how high\nhe may attain. This dull and unattractive man must not be despised,\nwhether he be yourself or another: he is incalculable and unfathomable.\nHe is simply raw material, soul stuff, and one can no more anticipate\nhim than you could foresee a Turner from the master's colours--some of\nthem very strange--or a Persian rug from a heap of wool. Out of that\nunpromising face, that sleeping intellect, those awkward ways, this\ncrust of selfishness and a hundred faults, is going to be made a man\nwhom the world will admire and honour.\"\n\n                                _The Potter's Wheel_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\"To have faith is to create; to have hope is to call down blessing; to\nhave love is to work miracles.\"\n\n                                   _The Roadmender_, MICHAEL FAIRLESS.\n\n\"The faith which saves others is the enthusiasm of patience.\"\n\n                                  _The Service of God_, Canon BARNETT.\n\n\nPessimism\n\n\nMARCH 20\n\n\"The next thing to speak of is a tendency in the world which is the very\nopposite of that of which we have spoken, but which is equally\ncharacteristic of a time when a new life and spirit is on the verge of\ntaking its form. As part of the fight of faith is to support and direct\nthe first, so part of that battle is to weaken and oppose the doctrine\nthat the world is going from bad to worse, that there is no regeneration\nfor it, and that there ought to be none. On this doctrine I have\nfrequently spoken, but I do not hesitate to speak of it again. It is the\nfashion to praise it; it deserves no praise, it is detestable. This is a\nfavourite doctrine of the comfortable classes who are idle and luxurious\nor merely fantastic, and of a certain type of scientific men, both of\nwhom are profoundly ignorant of the working world and of the poor, who\nhate this doctrine and despise it. The sufferings of the poor and the\noppressed are used as an argument in its favour, but, curiously enough,\nyou scarcely ever find it held by the poor and the oppressed;--on the\ncontrary, these are the creators and builders of Utopias: out of this\nclass grow those who prophesy a golden year. Those who have most reason\nto despair never despair.\"\n\n                                 _The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.\n\n\"Of all bad habits despondency is among the least respectable, and there\nis no one quite so tiresome as the sad-visaged Christian who is\noppressed by the wickedness and hopelessness of the world.\"\n\n\nService\n\n\nMARCH 21\n\n\"Service implies self-giving. There is service which is just\nself-satisfaction, pleasing to the taste for doing and meddling, and\nthere is service which is exactly measured to its pay. True service\nimplies giving, the surrender of time or taste, the subjection of self\nto others, the gift which is neither noticed nor returned.\"\n\n                                  _The Service of God_, Canon BARNETT.\n\n\"Christian greatness is born of willingness to lay the lowliest duties\non yourself, and the way to be first is to be ready to remain last.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n\"Nobleness consists in a valiant suffering for others, not in making\nothers suffer for us. The chief of men is he who stands in the van of\nmen; fronting the peril which frightens back all others.... Every noble\ncrown is, and on earth will for ever be, a crown of thorns.\"\n\n                                          _Past and Present_, CARLYLE.\n\n\"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to any\none else.\"\n\n                                                              DICKENS.\n\n\nService\n\n\nMARCH 22\n\n\"They were to mortify the self-importance and vain dignity that will not\nrender commonplace kindness. 'If I then, your Lord and Master, have\nwashed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet.'\"\n\n                            _The Mind of the Master_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\"Nothing is degrading which a high and graceful purpose ennobles, and\noffices the most menial cease to be menial the moment they are wrought\nin love.\"\n\n                                                         J. MARTINEAU.\n\n\"And service will be the personal tribute to Jesus, whom we shall\nrecognise under any disguise, as his nurse detected Ulysses by his\nwounds, and whose Body, in the poor and miserable, will ever be with us\nfor our discernment. Jesus is the leper whom the saint kissed, and the\nchild the monk carried over the stream, and the sick man the widow\nnursed into health, after the legends of the ages of faith. And Jesus\nwill say at the close of the day, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one\nof the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.'\"\n\n                            _The Mind of the Master_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\nService\n\n\nMARCH 23\n\n\"We must not be perplexed or put out if we have to change our plans. God\nsends us hither and thither; we may think that we are wasting our\nspecial talents, when God has, after all, some particular need for our\nparticular work at a particular time. And equally we must learn to\nmeasure our strength; we cannot all do the same things, we are not all\nadapted to the same work, or charged with the same duties. Why should we\noverstrain ourselves in that which is beyond our strength, or neglect\nplain duties for others less obvious? Ah! God receives many a Corban now\nwhich He will never accept; self-chosen work done at the expense of\nduty; work outside done to the neglect of our own proper work; work done\nat the entire expense of our home and social duties; the clear\ncommandment of God shattered to pieces by some purely human tradition.\"\n\n                                                        Canon NEWBOLT.\n\n\"Every Christian is the servant of men, always and everywhere, without\nrespect to the distinctions of sex, or class, or nationality, or creed.\"\n\n                                                         Canon BODY.\n\n\nMens Sana in Corpore Sano\n\n\nMARCH 24\n\n\"As there is a will of God for our higher nature--the moral laws--as\nemphatically is there a will of God for the lower, the natural laws. If\nyou would know God's will in the higher, therefore, you must begin with\nGod's will in the lower: which simply means this--that if you want to\nlive the ideal life, you must begin with the ideal body. The law of\nmoderation, the law of sleep, the law of regularity, the law of\nexercise, the law of cleanliness,--this is the law or will of God for\nyou. This is the first law, the beginning of His will for you. And if we\nare ambitious to get on to do God's will in the higher reaches, let us\nrespect it as much in the lower; for there may be as much of God's will\nin minor things, as much of God's will in taking good bread and pure\nwater, as in keeping a good conscience or living a pure life. Whoever\nheard of gluttony doing God's will, or laziness, or uncleanness, or the\nman who was careless and wanton of natural life? Let a man disobey God\nin these, and you have no certainty that he has any true principle for\nobeying God in anything else: for God's will does not only run into the\nchurch and the prayer-meeting and the higher chambers of the soul, but\ninto the common rooms at home down to wardrobe and larder and cellar,\nand into the bodily frame down to blood and muscle and brain.\"\n\n                                     _The Ideal Life_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\nThe Duty of Physical Health\n\n\nMARCH 25\n\n\"Excess is not the only thing which breaks men in their health, and in\nthe comfortable enjoyment of themselves; but many are brought into a\nvery ill and languishing habit of body by mere sloth; and sloth is in\nitself both a great sin, and the cause of many more.\"\n\n                                                         Bishop SOUTH.\n\n\"There is no true care for the body which forgets the soul. There is no\ntrue care for the soul which is not mindful of the body.... The duty of\nphysical health and the duty of spiritual purity and loftiness are not\ntwo duties; they are two parts of one duty,--which is the living of the\ncompletest life which it is possible for man to live. And the two parts\nminister to one another. Be good that you may be well; be well that you\nmay be good. Both of those two injunctions are reasonable, and both are\nbinding on us all.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\nThe Duty of Physical Health\n\n\nMARCH 26\n\n\"Moreover, health is not only a great element of happiness, but it is\nessential to good work. It is not merely wasteful but selfish to throw\nit away.\n\n\"It is impossible to do good work,--at any rate, it is impossible to do\nour best,--if we overstrain ourselves. It is bad policy, because all\nwork done under such circumstances will inevitably involve an additional\nperiod of quiet and rest afterwards; but apart from this, work so done\nwill not be of a high quality, it will show traces of irritability and\nweakness: the judgment will not be good: if it involves co-operation\nwith others there will be great possibility of friction and\nmisunderstandings.\"\n\n                                                         Lord AVEBURY.\n\n\"When we are out of sorts things get on our nerves, the most trifling\nannoyances assume the proportions of a catastrophe. It is a sure sign\nthat we need rest and fresh air.\"\n\n                                                         Lord AVEBURY.\n\n\"O Almighty and most merciful God, of Thy bountiful goodness keep us, we\nbeseech Thee, from all things that may hurt us; that we, being ready\nboth in body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish those things that Thou\nwouldest have done; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.\"\n\n                                          _The Book of Common Prayer._\n\n\nPhysical Morality\n\n\nMARCH 27\n\n\"The preservation of health is a _duty_. Few men seem conscious that\nthere is such a thing as physical morality. Men's habitual words and\nacts imply the idea that they are at liberty to treat their bodies as\nthey please. Disorders entailed by disobedience to Nature's dictates\nthey regard simply as grievances, not as the effects of a conduct more\nor less flagitious. Though the evil consequences inflicted on their\ndependants, and on future generations, are often as great as those\ncaused by crime, yet they do not think themselves in any degree\ncriminal. It is true that in the case of drunkenness the viciousness of\nthis bodily transgression is recognised, but none appear to infer that\nif this bodily transgression is vicious, so, too, is every bodily\ntransgression. The fact is that all breaches of the laws of health are\n_physical sins_.\"\n\n                                                      HERBERT SPENCER.\n\n\"... Health is not merely a matter of the body. 'Anger, hatred, grief,\nand fear are among the influences most destructive of vitality.' And, on\nthe other hand, cheerfulness, good-humour, and peace of mind are\npowerful elements of health.\"\n\n                                                         Lord AVEBURY.\n\n\nInvalids\n\n\nMARCH 28\n\n\"If you are an invalid, do your best to get well; but, if you must\nremain an invalid, still strive for the unselfishness and serenity which\nare the best possessions of health. There are no sublimer victories than\nsome that are won on sick-beds.\"\n\n\"We have sometimes known some men or women, helpless so that their lives\nseemed to be all dependent, who yet, through their sickness, had so\nmounted to a higher life and so identified themselves with Christ that\nthose on whom they rested found the Christ in them and rested upon it.\nTheir sick-rooms became churches. Their weak voices spoke gospels. The\nhands they seemed to clasp were really clasping theirs. They were\ndepended on while they seemed to be most dependent. And when they died,\nwhen the faint flicker of their life went out, strong men whose light\nseemed radiant found themselves walking in the darkness; and stout\nhearts, on which theirs used to lean, trembled as if the staff and\nsubstance of their strength was gone.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\"Pain is no evil unless it conquers us.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\nInvalids\n\n\nMARCH 29\n\n\"It may be that God used to give you plentiful chances to work for Him.\nYour days went singing by, each winged with some enthusiastic duty for\nthe Master whom you loved.... You can be idle for Him, if so He wills,\nwith the same joy with which you once laboured for Him. The sick-bed or\nthe prison is as welcome as the harvest-field or the battle-field, when\nonce your soul has come to value as the end of life the privilege of\nseeking and of finding Him.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\"To be well enough to work is the wish of my natural heart; but if that\nmay not be, I know that 'they also serve who only stand and wait.' God\nwill not require healthy men's labour from you or me; and if we are poor\nin power and opportunity to serve Him, our widow's mite will weigh\nagainst the gold ingots of His chosen apostles.\"\n\n                                            _Memoir of George Wilson._\n\n\"The widow's mite? Well, when they laughed at S. Theresa because she\nwanted to build a great orphanage and had only three ducats to begin\nwith, she answered, 'With three ducats Theresa can do nothing, but with\nGod and her three ducats there is nothing which Theresa cannot do.'\"\n\n                                                         F. W. FARRAR.\n\n\nLessons of Suffering\n\n\nMARCH 30\n\n\"To have suffered much is like knowing many languages. You have learnt\nto understand all, and to make yourself intelligible to all.\"\n\n\"We have all met some great sufferers, whose cheerfulness and\ngood-humour are not only a lesson to us who enjoy good health, but who\nseem to be, as it were, raised and consecrated by a life of suffering.\"\n\n                                                         Lord AVEBURY.\n\n\"What man goes worthily through sorrow and does not come out hating\nshams and pretences, hungering for truth; and also full of sympathy for\nhis fellow-man whose capacity for suffering has been revealed to him by\nhis own?\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\nHypochondriacs\n\n\nMARCH 31--APRIL 1\n\n\"There is a temperament called _Hypochondriac_, to which many persons,\nsome of them the brightest, the most interesting, the most gifted, are\nborn heirs,--a want of balance of the nervous powers, which tends\nconstantly to periods of high excitement and of consequent\ndepression,--an unfortunate inheritance for the possessor, though\naccompanied often with the greatest talents....\n\n\"People of this temperament are subject to fits of gloom and\ndespondency, of nervous irritability and suffering, which darken the\naspect of the whole world to them, which present lying reports of their\nfriends, of themselves, of the circumstances of their life, and of all\nwith which they have to do.\n\n\"Now the highest philosophy for persons thus afflicted is to understand\nthemselves and their tendencies, to know that these fits of gloom and\ndepression are just as much a form of disease as a fever or a\ntoothache,--to know that it is the peculiarity of the disease to fill\nthe mind with wretched illusions, to make them seem miserable and\nunlovely to themselves, to make their nearest friends seem unjust and\nunkind, to make all events appear to be going wrong and tending to\ndestruction and ruin.\n\n\"The evils and burdens of such a temperament are half removed when a man\nonce knows that he has it, and recognises it for a disease,--when he\ndoes not trust himself to speak and act in those bitter hours as if\nthere were any truth in what he thinks and feels and sees. He who has\nnot attained to this wisdom overwhelms his friends and his family with\nthe waters of bitterness; he stings with unjust accusations, and makes\nhis fireside dreadful with fancies which are real to him, but false as\nthe ravings of fever.\n\n\"A sensible person, thus diseased, who has found out what ails him, will\nshut his mouth resolutely, not to give utterance to the dark thoughts\nthat infest his soul.\n\n\"A lady of great brilliancy and wit, who was subject to these periods,\nonce said to me, 'My dear sir, there are times when I know I am\npossessed of the Devil, and then I never let myself speak.' And so this\nwise woman carried her burden about with her in a determined, cheerful\nreticence, leaving always the impression of a cheery, kindly temper,\nwhen, if she had spoken out a tithe of what she thought and felt in her\nmorbid hours, she would have driven all her friends from her, and made\nothers as miserable as she was herself. She was a sunbeam, a life-giving\npresence in every family, by the power of self-knowledge and\nself-control.\"\n\n                                _Little Foxes_, HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.\n\n\n\"Comfort's Art\"\n\n\nAPRIL 2\n\n\"It would be very petty of us who are well and can bear things, to think\nmuch of small offences from those who carry a weight of trial.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\"Trouble is so hard to bear, is it not? How can we live and think that\nany one has trouble--piercing trouble--and we could help them and never\ntry?\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\"Pity makes the world soft to the weak and noble for the strong.\"\n\n                                       _The Light of Asia_, E. ARNOLD.\n\n  \"Ask God to give thee skill\n      For comfort's art,\n  That thou may'st consecrated be,\n      And set apart\n  Unto a life of sympathy!\n  For heavy is the weight of ill\n      For every heart,\n  And comforters are needed much\n      Of Christlike touch.\"\n\n\nIrritability\n\n\nAPRIL 3\n\n\"Irritability is, more than most unlovely states, a sin of the flesh. It\nis not, like envy, malice, spite, revenge, a vice which we may suppose\nto belong equally to an embodied or a disembodied spirit: in fact, it\ncomes nearer to being physical depravity than anything I know of. There\nare some bodily states, some conditions of the nerves, such that we\ncould not conceive of even an angelic spirit, confined in a body thus\ndisordered, as being able to do any more than simply endure. It is a\nstate of nervous torture; and the attacks which the wretched victim\nmakes on others are as much a result of disease as the snapping and\nbiting of a patient convulsed with hydrophobia.... I think it is\nundeniable that the peace and happiness of the home-circle are very\ngenerally much invaded by the recurrence in its members of these states\nof bodily irritability. Every person, if he thinks the matter over, will\nsee that his condition in life, the character of his friends, his\nestimate of their virtues and failings, his hopes and expectations, are\nall very much modified by these things. Cannot we all remember going to\nbed as very ill-used, persecuted individuals, all whose friends were\nunreasonable, whose life was full of trials and crosses, and waking up\non a bright bird-singing morning to find all these illusions gone with\nthe fogs of the night? Our friends are nice people, after all; the\nlittle things that annoyed us look ridiculous by bright sunshine; and we\nare fortunate individuals.\"\n\n                                _Little Foxes_, HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.\n\n\nIrritability\n\n\nAPRIL 4\n\n\"The philosophy of life, then, as far as this matter is concerned, must\nconsist of two things: first, to keep ourselves out of irritable bodily\nstates; and, second, to understand and control these states, when we\ncannot ward them off. Of course, the first of these is the most\nimportant; and yet, of all things, it seems to be least looked into and\nunderstood. We find abundant rules for the government of the tongue and\ntemper; it is a slough into which, John Bunyan hath it, cartloads of\nwholesome instructions have been thrown; but how to get and keep that\nhealthy state of brain, stomach, and nerves which takes away the\ntemptation to ill-temper and anger is a subject which moral and\nreligious teachers seem scarcely to touch upon.... We have a common\nsaying, that this or that person is soon used up. Now most nervous,\nirritable states of temper are the mere physical result of a used-up\ncondition. The person has overspent his nervous energy,--like a man who\nshould eat up on Monday the whole food which was to keep him for a week,\nand go growling and faint through the other days; or the quantity of\nnervous force which was wanted to carry on the whole system in all its\nparts is seized on by some one monopolising portion, and used up to the\nloss and detriment of the rest.\"\n\n                                _Little Foxes_, HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.\n\n\nAccidie\n\n\nAPRIL 5\n\n\"... 'Accidie,' the spiritual sloth, which we rechristen 'depression'\nand 'low spirits,' and meet with sympathy! Dante met it by fixing its\nvictims in the mire beneath the water, where they keep gurgling in their\nthroats the confession--\n\n                            'We sullen were\n  In the sweet air, which by the sun is gladdened,\n  Bearing within ourselves the sluggish reek;\n  Now we are sullen in this sable mire.'\"\n\n                            _Stray Thoughts on Reading_, LUCY SOULSBY.\n\n\"A dull day need not be a depressing day; depression always implies\nphysical or moral weakness, and is therefore never to be tolerated so\nlong as one can struggle against it.\"\n\n                                                    HAMILTON W. MABIE.\n\n\nAccidie\n\n\nAPRIL 6\n\n\"... The sin of accidie, which is 'a sorrowfulness so weighing down the\nmind that there is no good it likes to do. It has attached to it as its\ninseparable comrade a distress and weariness of soul, and a sluggishness\nin all good works, which plunges the whole man into lazy languor, and\nworks in him a constant bitterness. And out of this vehement woe springs\nsilence and a flagging of the voice, because the soul is so absorbed and\ntaken up with its own indolent dejection, that it has no energy for\nutterance, but is cramped, and hampered, and imprisoned in its own\nconfused bewilderment, and has not a word to say.'\"\n\n  _The Spirit of Discipline_, Bishop PAGET.\n\n\"Try it for a day, I beseech you, to preserve yourself in an easy and\ncheerful frame of mind. Compare the day in which you have rooted out the\nweed of dissatisfaction with that on which you have allowed it to grow\nup, and you will find your heart open to every good motive, your life\nstrengthened and your breast armed with a panoply against every trick of\nfate; truly, you will wonder at your own improvement.\"\n\n                                                              RICHTER.\n\n\nAccidie\n\n\nAPRIL 7\n\n\"As one compares the various estimates of the sin, one can mark three\nmain elements which help to make it what it is--elements which can be\ndistinguished, though in experience, I think, they almost always tend to\nmeet and mingle; they are _gloom_ and _sloth_ and _irritation_.\"\n\n  _The Spirit of Discipline_, Bishop PAGET.\n\n\"You find yourself refreshed by the presence of cheerful people. Why not\nmake earnest effort to confer that pleasure on others? You will find\nhalf the battle is gained if you never allow yourself to say anything\ngloomy.\"\n\n                                                   LYDIA MARIA CHILDS.\n\n\"Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness; altogether past calculation\nits power of endurance.\"\n\n                                                              CARLYLE.\n\n\nAccidie\n\n\nAPRIL 8\n\n\"'It is a mood which severs a man from thoughts of God, and suffers him\nnot to be calm and kindly to his brethren. Sometimes, without any\nprovoking cause, we are suddenly depressed by so great sorrowfulness,\nthat we cannot greet with wonted courtesy the coming even of those who\nare dear and near to us, and all they say in conversation, however\nappropriate it may be, we think annoying and unnecessary, and have no\npleasant answer for it, because the gall of bitterness fills all the\nrecesses of our soul.' Those who are sad after this fashion have, as St.\nGregory says, anger already close to them; for from sadness such as this\ncome forth (as he says in another place) malice, grudging,\nfaint-heartedness, despair, torpor as to that which is commanded, and\nthe straying of the mind after that which is forbidden.\"\n\n                             _The Spirit of Discipline_, Bishop PAGET.\n\n\"Activity is the antidote to the depressions that lower our vitality,\nwhether they come from physical or psychical causes.\"\n\n\nAccidie\n\n\nAPRIL 9\n\n\"We may be somewhat surprised when we discover how precisely Pascal, or\nShakspeare, or Montaigne, can put his finger on our weak point, or tell\nus the truth about some moral lameness or disorder of which we, perhaps,\nwere beginning to accept a more lenient and comfortable diagnosis. But\nwhen a poet, controversialist and preacher of the Eastern Church, under\nthe dominion of the Saracens, or an anchoret of Egypt, an Abbot of Gaul,\nin the sixth century, tells us, in the midst of our letters, and railway\njourneys, and magazines, and movements, exactly what it is that on some\ndays makes us so singularly unpleasant to ourselves and to others--tells\nus in effect that it is not simply the east wind, or dyspepsia, or\noverwork, or the contrariness of things in general, but that it is a\ncertain subtle and complex trouble of our own hearts, which we perhaps\nhave never had the patience or the frankness to see as it really is;\nthat he knew it quite well, only too well for his own happiness and\npeace, and that he can put us in a good way of dealing with it--the very\nstrangeness of the intrusion from such a quarter into our most private\naffairs may secure for him a certain degree of our interest and\nattention.\"\n\n                             _The Spirit of Discipline_, Bishop PAGET.\n\n\nAccidie\n\n\nAPRIL 10\n\n\"And now, as ever, over against Accidie rises the great grace of\nFortitude; the grace that makes men undertake hard things by their own\nwill wisely and reasonably. There is something in the very name of\nFortitude which speaks to the almost indelible love of heroism in men's\nhearts; but perhaps the truest Fortitude may often be a less heroic, a\nmore tame and business-like affair than we are apt to think. It may be\nexercised chiefly in doing very little things, whose whole value lies in\nthis, that, if one did not hope in God, one would not do them; in\nsecretly dispelling moods which one would like to show; in saying\nnothing about one's lesser troubles and vexations; in seeing whether it\nmay not be best to bear a burden before one tries to see whither one can\nshift it; in refusing for one's self excuses which one would not refuse\nfor others. These, anyhow, are ways in which a man may every day be\nstrengthening himself in the discipline of Fortitude; and then, if\ngreater things are asked of him, he is not very likely to draw back from\nthem. And while he waits the asking of these greater things, he may be\ngaining from the love of God a hidden strength and glory such as he\nhimself would least of all suspect; he may be growing in the patience\nand perseverance of the saints. For most of us the chief temptation to\nlose heart, the chief demand upon our strength, comes in the monotony of\nour failures, and in the tedious persistence of prosaic difficulties; it\nis the distance, not the pace, that tries us. To go on choosing what has\nbut a look of being the more excellent way, pushing on towards a faintly\nglimmering light, and never doubting the supreme worth of goodness even\nin its least brilliant fragments,--this is the normal task of many\nlives; in this men show what they are like. And for this we need a quiet\nand sober Fortitude, somewhat like that which Botticelli painted, and\nMr. Ruskin has described.\"\n\n                             _The Spirit of Discipline_, Bishop PAGET.\n\n\nTemper\n\n\nAPRIL 11\n\n\"What is temper? Its primary meaning, the proportion and mode in which\nqualities are mingled, is much neglected in popular speech, yet even\nhere the word often carries a reference to an habitual state or general\ntendency of the organism in distinction from what are held to be\nspecific virtues and vices. As people confess to bad memory without\nexpecting to sink in mental reputation, so we hear a man declared to\nhave a bad temper and yet glorified as the possessor of every high\nquality. When he errs or in any way commits himself, his temper is\naccused, not his character, and it is understood that but for a brutal\nbearish mood he is kindness itself. If he kicks small animals, swears\nviolently at a servant who mistakes orders, or is grossly rude to his\nwife, it is remarked apologetically that these things mean nothing--they\nare all temper.\n\n\"Certainly there is a limit to this form of apology; and the forgery of\na bill, or the ordering of goods without any prospect of paying for\nthem, has never been set down to an unfortunate habit of sulkiness or of\nirascibility. But on the whole there is a peculiar exercise of\nindulgence towards the manifestations of bad temper which tends to\nencourage them, so that we are in danger of having among us a number of\nvirtuous persons who conduct themselves detestably, just as we have\nhysterical patients who, with sound organs, are apparently labouring\nunder many sorts of organic disease. Let it be admitted, however, that a\nman may be a 'good fellow' and yet have a bad temper, so bad that we\nrecognise his merits with reluctance, and are inclined to resent his\noccasionally amiable behaviour as an unfair demand on our admiration.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\nTemper\n\n\nAPRIL 12\n\n\"Jealousy, anger, pride, uncharity, cruelty, self-righteousness,\nsulkiness, touchiness, doggedness,--these are the staple ingredients of\nIll-Temper. And yet men laugh over it. 'Only temper,' they call it: a\nlittle hot-headedness, a momentary ruffling of the surface, a mere\npassing cloud. But the passing cloud is composed of drops, and the drops\nhere betoken an ocean, foul and rancorous, seething somewhere within the\nlife--an ocean made up of jealousy, anger, pride, uncharity, cruelty,\nself-righteousness, sulkiness, touchiness, doggedness, lashed into a\nraging storm.\n\n\"This is why temper is significant. It is not in what it is that its\nsignificance lies, but in what it reveals. But for this it were not\nworth notice. It is the intermittent fever which tells of\nun-intermittent disease; the occasional bubble escaping to the surface,\nbetraying the rottenness underneath; a hastily prepared specimen of the\nhidden products of the soul, dropped involuntarily when you are off your\nguard. In one word, it is the lightning-form of a dozen hideous and\nunchristian sins.\"\n\n                                     _The Ideal Life_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\"Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil,\nbut that you have increased a habit.\"\n\n                                                            EPICTETUS.\n\n\nTemper\n\n\nAPRIL 13\n\n\"Certainly if a bad-tempered man can be admirably virtuous, he must be\nso under extreme difficulties. I doubt the possibility that a high order\nof character can co-exist with a temper like Touchwood's. For it is of\nthe nature of such temper to interrupt the formation of healthy mental\nhabits, which depend on a growing harmony between perception,\nconviction, and impulse. There may be good feelings, good deeds--for a\nhuman nature may pack endless varieties and blessed inconsistencies in\nits windings--but it is essential to what is worthy to be called high\ncharacter, that it may be safely calculated on, and that its qualities\nshall have taken the form of principles or laws habitually, if not\nperfectly, obeyed. If a man frequently passes unjust judgments, takes up\nfalse attitudes, intermits his acts of kindness with rude behaviour or\ncruel words, and falls into the consequent vulgar error of supposing\nthat he can make amends by laboured agreeableness, I cannot consider\nsuch courses any the less ugly because they are ascribed to 'temper.'\nEspecially I object to the assumption that his having a fundamentally\ngood disposition is either an apology or a compensation for his bad\nbehaviour.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\nTemper\n\n\nAPRIL 14\n\n\"Consider how much more often you suffer from your anger and grief, than\nfrom those very things for which you are angry and grieved.\"\n\n                                                      MARCUS AURELIUS.\n\n\"The _difficult_ part of good temper consists in forbearance, and\naccommodation to the ill-humour of others.\"\n\n                                                               EMPSON.\n\n\"Do we not know that the storm of feeling can be checked, if only we can\nprevent the first word from being spoken, the first gesture from being\nmade. And is it not matter of common observation that persons who begin\nby being Stoics in demeanour end by becoming Stoics in reality?\"\n\n                         _The Making of Character_, Professor MACCUNN.\n\n\nTemper\n\n\nAPRIL 15\n\n\"If this be one of our chief duties--promoting the happiness of our\nneighbours--most certainly there is nothing which so entirely runs\ncounter to it, and makes it impossible, as an undisciplined temper. For\nof all things that are to be met with here on earth, there is nothing\nwhich can give such continual, such cutting, such useless pain. The\ntouchy and sensitive temper, which takes offence at a word; the\nirritable temper, which finds offence in everything whether intended or\nnot; the violent temper, which breaks through all bounds of reason when\nonce roused; the jealous or sullen temper, which wears a cloud on the\nface all day, and never utters a word of complaint; the discontented\ntemper, brooding over its own wrongs; the severe temper, which always\nlooks at the worst side of whatever is done; the wilful temper, which\nover-rides every scruple to gratify a whim,--what an amount of pain have\nthese caused in the hearts of men, if we could but sum up their results!\nHow many a soul have they stirred to evil impulses; how many a prayer\nhave they stifled; how many an emotion of true affection have they\nturned to bitterness! How hard they sometimes make all duties! How\npainful they make all daily life! How they kill the sweetest and warmest\nof domestic charities! The misery caused by other sins is often much\ndeeper and much keener, more disastrous, more terrible to the sight; but\nthe accumulated pain caused by ill-temper must, I verily believe, if\nadded together, outweigh all other pains that men have to bear from one\nanother.\"\n\n                                                        Bishop TEMPLE.\n\n\nQuarrels\n\n\nAPRIL 16\n\n\"Blow not into a flame the spark which is kindled between two friends.\nThey are easily reconciled, and will both hate you.\"\n\n                                                      From the German.\n\n\"Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.\"\n\n                                                     LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.\n\n\"He approaches nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent even\nthough he knows he is in the right.\"\n\n                                                                 CATO.\n\n\"When any one has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the\noffence cannot reach it.\"\n\n                                                            DESCARTES.\n\n\nQuarrels\n\n\nAPRIL 17\n\n\"The mind is often clouded by passion until it is incapable of clear\nthought. Harsh words, stinging words, cruel words are usually spoken\nwithout thought. Rash deeds which result in most serious consequences\nare performed without thought. The wrong-doer does not consider\nbeforehand the character of his deed, its effects on himself and others,\nand its ultimate consequences.\"\n\n\"We shall never be sorry afterwards for thinking twice before we speak,\nfor counting the cost before entering upon any new course, for sleeping\nover stings and injuries before saying or doing anything in answer, or\nfor carefully considering any business scheme presented to us before\nputting money or name into it. It will save us from much regret, loss,\nand sorrow, always to remember to do nothing rashly.\"\n\n\"Do nothing in a hurry. Nature never does. 'Most haste, worst speed,'\nsays the old proverb. If you are in doubt, sleep over it. But, above\nall, never quarrel in a hurry. Think it over well. Take time. However\nvexed you may be overnight, things will often look very different in the\nmorning. If you have written a clever and conclusive, but scathing\nletter, keep it back till the next day, and it will very often never go\nat all.\"\n\n                                                         Lord AVEBURY.\n\n\nRevenge\n\n\nAPRIL 18\n\n\"He that studieth revenge keepeth his own wounds green.\"\n\n                                                                BACON.\n\n\"Ill-temper and envy and revenge find here an arsenal of pious\ndisguises; this is the playground of inverted lusts. With a little more\npatience and a little less temper, a gentler and wiser method might be\nfound in almost every case; and the knot that we cut by some fine heady\nquarrel-scene in private life, or, in public affairs, by some\ndenunciatory act against what we are pleased to call our neighbour's\nvices, might yet have been unwoven by the hand of sympathy.\"\n\n                                 _Across the Plains_, R. L. STEVENSON.\n\n  \"Still in thy right hand carry gentle Peace\n  To silence envious tongues.\"\n\n                                                          SHAKESPEARE.\n\n\nTouchiness\n\n\nAPRIL 19\n\n\"Touchiness, when it becomes chronic, is a morbid condition of the\ninward disposition. It is self-love inflamed to the acute point.\"\n\n                                                       HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\"Purge out of every heart the lurking grudge. Give us grace and strength\nto forbear and to persevere. Offenders, give us the grace to accept and\nto forgive offences. Forgetful ourselves, help us to bear cheerfully the\nforgetfulness of others. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind.\nSpare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies. Bless us, if it may\nbe, in all our innocent endeavours. If it may not, give us the strength\nto encounter that which is to come, that we be brave in peril, constant\nin tribulation, temperate in wrath, and in all changes of fortune, and\ndown to the gates of death, loyal and loving one to another. As the clay\nto the potter, as the windmill to the wind--as children of their sire,\nwe beseech of Thee this help and mercy for Christ's sake.\"\n\n                                   _Vailima Prayers_, R. L. STEVENSON.\n\n\nUnbalanced Memory\n\n\nAPRIL 20\n\n\"It is so easy to forget a kindness, and to remember a kick. Yet\ncontrolling our recollections is almost as important as controlling our\ntemper. We are apt to forget completely a hundred little kindnesses and\ncourtesies which one has shown us, and to remember a single careless\nslight or thoughtless word. Often we hear it said of some wrong or\nfoolish deed, 'I have never thought so well of that man since then; it\nwas there he showed his real character,'--as if a man's real character\nappeared more in one separate deed to which, perhaps, he was sorely\ntempted, than in the striving and overcoming of many days and years.\"\n\n\"Our thoughts are often worse than we are, just as they are often better\nthan we are. And God sees us as we are altogether, not in separate\nfeelings or actions, as our fellow-men see us. We are always doing each\nother injustice, and thinking better or worse of each other than we\ndeserve, because we only hear and see separate words and actions. We\ndon't see each other's whole nature.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\"Enveloped in a common mist, we seem to walk in clearness ourselves, and\nbehold only the mist that enshrouds others.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\nUnbalanced Memory\n\n\nAPRIL 21\n\n\"Strange endurance of human vanity! a million of much more important\nconversations have escaped one since then, most likely--but the memory\nof this little mortification (for such it is, after all) remains quite\nfresh in the mind, and unforgotten, though it is a trifle, and more than\nhalf a score of years old. We forgive injuries, we survive even our\nremorse for great wrongs that we ourselves commit; but I doubt if we\never forgive slights of this nature put upon us, or forget circumstances\nin which our self-love has been made to suffer.\"\n\n                                                      W. M. THACKERAY.\n\n\"A past error may urge a grand retrieval.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\"Memory is not a pocket, but a living instructor, with a prophetic sense\nof the values which he guards; a guardian angel set there within you to\nrecord your life, and by recording it to animate you to uplift it.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\n\"Silence a great Peacemaker\"\n\n\nAPRIL 22\n\n\"Hard speech between those who have loved is hideous in the memory, like\nthe sight of greatness and beauty sunk into vice and rags.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\"I don't want to say anything nasty, because nasty words always leave a\nscar behind.\"\n\n                          _Isabel Carnaby_, ELLEN THORNEYCROFT FOWLER.\n\n\"Silence is a great peacemaker.\"\n\n                                                           LONGFELLOW.\n\n\"If bitterness has crept into the heart in the friction of the busy\nday's unguarded moments, be sure it steals away with the setting sun.\nTwilight is God's interval for peace-making.\"\n\n\nReconciliation\n\n\nAPRIL 23\n\n\"It is exceedingly noteworthy that in the rule laid down here by our\nLord, the responsibility of seeking reconciliation is laid primarily,\nnot upon the man who has done wrong, but upon the man who has received\nthe wrong. It is the injured man who is to take the initiative, to go\nafter the offender, to seek him out, and to exhaust all proper means of\nbringing him to a right state of mind, and of getting him reconciled to\nthe man whom he has wronged. It is only after all these proper means\nhave been exhausted, after the man who has been injured has done\neverything in his power--a great deal more than the law prescribed--it\nis then only that he is to regard the offender as 'a heathen man and a\npublican.' Is not this the exact opposite to the world's code of\nmorality upon that subject? Is it not the rule among men of the world--I\ndo not use the word in a bad sense--is it not the rule among Christian\nmen of the world, who live what we should call on the whole good honest\nlives, to wait until the offender has come to them with a confession and\nan apology? And if they then accept the apology and forgive the offence,\nthey probably think they have done something very magnanimous; nor would\nthey consider they had done anything very much amiss if they refused to\naccept the apology, especially if the offence had been a gross one. If\nthe offender did not apologise, even an otherwise good Christian would\nprobably think that he might treat the matter with indifference, take no\nnotice of it, and say to himself, 'He has offended me, I will take no\nnotice, I will leave him to himself.' Would not men of the\nworld--Christian men--consider that they had upon the whole discharged\nthe Christian duty of forgiveness if they treated the offender in that\nway? But the law which our Lord laid down in His answer to Peter, which\ngoverned His own conduct, the law which rules the dealing of Almighty\nGod with sinful man, is that the man who has been injured, to whom the\nwrong has been done, is to make the first move, is to take the first\nstep, is to go after the man who has done the wrong, and use his utmost\nmeans of persuasion to convince him of his guilt, and to bring him back\nfrom the error of his ways.\"\n\n                             _Life Here and Hereafter_, Canon MACCOLL.\n\n\nReconciliation and Forgiveness\n\n\nAPRIL 24\n\n\"Never forget, when you have been injured, that your duty is not only to\nrefrain from retaliating, not simply to retire upon your dignity and\nself-respect, not to leave the offender severely alone; but to seek him\nout, to reason with him, to pray for him, to exhaust all your powers of\npersuasion, all the resources of gentleness and love. It is only when\nall this has been done that your responsibility is ended, and you are\njustified in leaving him to be dealt with by Almighty God.\"\n\n                             _Life Here and Hereafter_, Canon MACCOLL.\n\n\"'Remember,' he said, ... 'that if you forgive him, you become changed\nyourself. You no longer see what he has done as you see it now. That is\nthe beauty of forgiveness: it enables us better to understand those whom\nwe have forgiven. Perhaps it will enable you to put yourself in his\nplace.'\"\n\n                        _The Mettle of the Pasture_, JAMES LANE ALLEN.\n\n\"Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each\nother's eyes for an instant?\"\n\n                                                              THOREAU.\n\n\nForgiveness\n\n\nAPRIL 25\n\n\"The little hearts that know not how to forgive!\"\n\n                                               TENNYSON.\n\n  \"Oh, make my anger pure--let no worst wrong\n  Rouse in me the old niggard selfishness.\n  Give me Thine indignation--which is love\n  Turned on the evil that would part love's throng;\n  Thy anger scathes because it needs must bless,\n  Gathering into union calm and strong\n  All things on earth, and under, and above.\n\n  \"Make my forgiveness downright--such as I\n  Should perish if I did not have from Thee;\n  I let the wrong go, withered up and dry,\n  Cursed with divine forgetfulness in me.\n  'Tis but self-pity, pleasant, mean and sly,\n  Low whispering bids the paltry memory live:--\n  What am I brother for, but to forgive?\n\n         *       *       *       *       *\n\n  Lord, I forgive--and step in unto Thee.\"\n\n                                       GEORGE MACDONALD.\n\n\nReparation\n\n\nAPRIL 26\n\n\"All high happiness has in it some element of love; all love contains a\ndesire for peace. One immediate effect of new happiness is to make us\nturn toward the past with a wish to straighten out its difficulties,\nheal its breaches and forgive its wrongs.\"\n\n                                                     JAMES LANE ALLEN.\n\n\"As long as we love, we can forgive.\"\n\n                                                     LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.\n\n\"When it is our duty to do an act of justice it should be done promptly.\nTo delay is injustice.\"\n\n                                                           LA BRUYERE.\n\n\"His heart was as great as the world, but there was no room in it to\nhold the memory of a wrong.\"\n\n                                          EMERSON (_said of Lincoln_).\n\n\nThe Unamiable\n\n\nAPRIL 27\n\n\"Of all mortals none are so awfully self-deluded as the unamiable. They\ndo not, any more than others, sin for the sake of sinning, but it may be\ndoubted whether, in the hour when all shall be uncovered to the eternal\nday, there will be revealed a lower depth than the hell which they have\nmade. They inflict torments with an unconsciousness almost worthy of\nspirits of light. The spirit sinks under the prospect of the retribution\nof the unamiable, if all that happens be indeed for eternity, if there\nbe, indeed, a record of every chilling frown, of every querulous tone,\nof every bitter jest, of every insulting word, of all abuses of that\ntremendous power which mind has over mind. The throbbing pulse, the\nquivering nerves, the wrung hearts that surround the unamiable; what a\ncloud of witnesses is here! The terror of innocents who should know no\nfear, the vindictive emotions of dependents who dare not complain, the\nfaintness of heart of lifelong companions, the anguish of those who\nlove; what an array of judges is here! The unamiable, the domestic\ntorturer, has heaped wrong upon wrong, woe upon woe, through the whole\nportion of time which was given into his power, till it would be rash to\nsay that any others are more guilty than he.\"\n\n                                                    HARRIET MARTINEAU.\n\n\nIll-Nature\n\n\nAPRIL 28\n\n\"HOW is ill-nature to be met and overcome? First, by humility: when a\nman knows his own weaknesses, why should he be angry with others for\npointing them out? No doubt it is not very amiable of them to do so, but\nstill, truth is on their side. Secondly, by reflection: after all we are\nwhat we are, and if we have been thinking too much of ourselves, it is\nonly an opinion to be modified; the incivility of our neighbours leaves\nus what we were before. Above all, by pardon: there is only one way of\nnot hating those who do us wrong, and that is by doing them good; anger\nis best conquered by kindness. Such a victory over feeling may not\nindeed affect those who have wronged us, but it is a valuable piece of\nself-discipline. It is vulgar to be angry on one's own account; we ought\nonly to be angry for great causes. Besides, the poisoned dart can only\nbe extracted from the wound by the balm of a silent and thoughtful\ncharity. Why do we let human malignity embitter us? Why should\ningratitude, jealousy--perfidy even--enrage us? There is no end to\nrecriminations, complaints, or reprisals. The simplest plan is to blot\neverything out. Anger, rancour, bitterness, trouble the soul. Every man\nis a dispenser of justice; but there is one wrong that he is not bound\nto punish--that of which he himself is the victim. Such a wrong is to be\nhealed, not avenged.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\nThe Science of Social Life\n\n\nAPRIL 29\n\n\"Every man has his faults, his failings, peculiarities, eccentricities.\nEvery one of us finds himself crossed by such failings of others, from\nhour to hour. And if he were to resent them all, or even notice all,\nlife would be intolerable. If for every outburst of hasty temper, and\nfor every rudeness that wounds us in our daily path, we were to demand\nan apology, require an explanation, or resent it by retaliation, daily\nintercourse would be impossible. The very science of social life\nconsists in that gliding tact which avoids contact with the sharp\nangularities of character, which does not argue about such things, does\nnot seek to adjust or cure them all, but covers them, as if it did not\nsee.\"\n\n                                               FREDERICK W. ROBERTSON.\n\n\"If you would have a happy family life, remember two things,--in matters\nof principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the\ncurrent.\"\n\n\nThe Science of Social Life\n\n\nAPRIL 30\n\n\"Much of the sorrow of life, however, springs from the accumulation, day\nby day and year by year, of little trials--a letter written in less than\ncourteous terms, a wrangle at the breakfast table over some arrangement\nof the day, the rudeness of an acquaintance on the way to the city, an\nunfriendly act on the part of another firm, a cruel criticism needlessly\nreported by some meddler, a feline amenity at afternoon tea, the\ndisobedience of one of your children, a social slight by one of your\ncircle, a controversy too hotly conducted. The trials within this class\nare innumerable, and consider, not one of them is inevitable, not one of\nthem but might have been spared if we or our brother man had had a grain\nof kindliness. Our social insolences, our irritating manners, our\ncensorious judgment, our venomous letters, our pinpricks in\nconversation, are all forms of deliberate unkindness, and are all\nevidences of an ill-conditioned nature.\"\n\n                                _The Homely Virtues_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\"Let us think, too, how much forbearance must have been shown us that we\nwere not even conscious of needing; how often, beyond doubt, we have\nwounded, or annoyed, or wearied those who were so skilful and\nconsiderate that we never suspected either our clumsiness or their\npain.\"\n\n                   _Studies in the Christian Character_, Bishop PAGET.\n\n\nThe Science of Social Life\n\n\nMAY 1\n\n\"Then, to be able, when we live with our brother men, not to remember\nwhat we wish for ourselves, but only their wants, their joy and their\nsorrow; to think, not of our own desires, but how to minister to the\ngreat causes and the great conceptions which help mankind; to be eager\nto give pity to men, and forgiveness to their wrong; to desire with\nthirst to bind up the broken heart of man, and to realise our desire in\nact--this is to thirst for God as Love. For this is self-forgetfulness,\nand in the abysmal depths of His Being, as well as in every surface-form\ninto which He throws Himself out of Himself, God is the absolute\nSelf-forgetfulness.\"\n\n                                 _The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.\n\n  \"If, in the paths of the world,\n  Stones might have wounded thy feet,\n  Toil or dejection have tried\n  Thy spirit, of that we saw\n  Nothing--to us thou wast still\n  Cheerful, and helpful, and firm!\n  Therefore to thee it was given\n  Many to save with thyself;\n  And, at the end of thy day,\n  O faithful shepherd! to come,\n  Bringing thy sheep in thy hand.\"\n\n                          MATTHEW ARNOLD.\n\n\nThe Science of Social Life\n\n\nMAY 2\n\n\"If you would be loved as a companion, avoid unnecessary criticism upon\nthose with whom you live. The number of people who have taken out\njudges' patents for themselves is very large in any society. Now it\nwould be hard for a man to live with another who was always criticising\nhis actions, even if it were kindly and just criticism. It would be like\nliving between the glasses of a microscope. But these self-elected\njudges, like their prototypes, are very apt to have the persons they\njudge brought before them in the guise of culprits.\n\n\"Let not familiarity swallow up old courtesy. Many of us have a habit of\nsaying to those with whom we live such things as we say about strangers\nbehind their backs. There is no place, however, where real politeness is\nof more value than where we mostly think it would be superfluous. You\nmay say more truth, or rather speak out more plainly to your associates,\nbut not less courteously than to strangers.\"\n\n                                                     Sir ARTHUR HELPS.\n\n  \"For manners are not idle, but the fruit\n  Of loyal nature, and of noble mind.\"\n\n                                       TENNYSON.\n\n\nSympathy\n\n\nMAY 3\n\n\"There is nothing which seems to try men's patience and good temper more\nthan feebleness: the timidity, the vacillation, the conventionality, the\nfretfulness, the prejudices of the weak; the fact that people can be so\nwell-meaning and so disappointing, these things make many men impatient\nto a degree of which they are themselves ashamed. But it is something\nfar more than patience and good temper towards weakness that is demanded\nhere. It is that the strong, in whatsoever sphere their strength may\nlie, should try in silence and simplicity, escaping the observation of\nmen, to take upon their own shoulders the burdens which the weak are\nbearing; to submit themselves to the difficulties amidst which the weak\nare stumbling on; to be, for their help's sake, as they are; to share\nthe fear, the dimness, the anxiety, the trouble and heart-sinking\nthrough which they have to work their way; to forego and lay aside the\nprivilege of strength in order to understand the weak and backward and\nbewildered, in order to be with them, to enter into their thoughts, to\nwait on their advance; to be content, if they can only serve, so to\nspeak, as a favourable circumstance for their growth towards that which\nGod intended them to be. It is the innermost reality of sympathy, it is\nthe very heart and life of courtesy, that is touched here: but like all\nthat is best in moral beauty, it loses almost all its grace the moment\nit attracts attention.\"\n\n                             _The Spirit of Discipline_, Bishop PAGET.\n\n\"Nothing but the Infinite pity is sufficient for the infinite pathos of\nhuman life.\"\n\n                                                        J. SHORTHOUSE.\n\n\nPatience\n\n\nMAY 4\n\n\"The example of our Lord, as He humbly and calmly takes the rebuff, and\nturns to go to another village, may help us in the ordinary ways of\nordinary daily life. The little things that vex us in the manner or the\nwords of those with whom we have to do; the things which seem to us so\ninconsiderate, or wilful, or annoying, that we think it impossible to\nget on with the people who are capable of them; the mistakes which no\none, we say, has any right to make; the shallowness, or conventionality,\nor narrowness, or positiveness in talk which makes us wince and tempts\nus towards the cruelty and wickedness of scorn;--surely in all these\nthings, and in many others like them, of which conscience may be ready\nenough to speak to most of us, there are really opportunities for thus\nfollowing the example of our Saviour's great humility and patience. How\nmany friendships we might win or keep, how many chances of serving\nothers we might find, how many lessons we might learn, how much of\nunsuspected moral beauty might be disclosed around us, if only we were\nmore careful to give people time, to stay judgment, to trust that they\nwill see things more justly, speak of them more wisely, after a while.\nWe are sure to go on closing doors of sympathy, and narrowing in the\ninterests and opportunities of work around us, if we let ourselves\nimagine that we can quickly measure the capacities and sift the\ncharacters of our fellow-men.\"\n\n                   _Studies in the Christian Character_, Bishop PAGET.\n\n\nSelfishness\n\n\nMAY 5\n\n\"Any man--with the heart of a man and not of a mouse--is more likely\nthan not to behave well at a pinch; but no man who is habitually selfish\ncan be _sure_ that he will, when the choice comes sharp between his own\nlife and the lives of others. The impulse of a supreme moment only\nfocusses the habits and customs of a man's soul. The supreme moment may\nnever come, but habits and customs mould us from the cradle to the\ngrave.... Vice and cowardice become alike impossible to a man who has\nnever--cradled in selfishness, and made callous by custom--learned to\npamper himself at the expense of others!\"\n\n                                         _A Happy Family_, Mrs. EWING.\n\n\"Sympathy is the safeguard of the human soul against selfishness.\"\n\n                                                              CARLYLE.\n\n\n\"Where Love is, God is\"\n\nMAY 6\n\n\"Where Love is, God is. He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God. God is\nLove. Therefore _love_. Without distinction, without calculation,\nwithout procrastination, love. Lavish it upon the poor, where it is very\neasy; especially upon the rich, who often need it most; most of all upon\nour equals, where it is very difficult, and for whom perhaps we each do\nleast of all. There is a difference between _trying to please_ and\n_giving pleasure_. Give pleasure. Lose no chance of giving pleasure. For\nthat is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of a truly loving spirit. 'I\nshall pass through this world but once. Any good thing therefore that I\ncan do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it\nnow. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way\nagain.'\"\n\n                    _The Greatest Thing in the World_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\"Let the weakest, let the humblest remember, that in his daily course he\ncan, if he will, shed around him almost a heaven. Kindly words,\nsympathising attentions, watchfulness against wounding men's\nsensitiveness--these cost very little, but they are priceless in their\nvalue. Are they not almost the staple of our daily happiness? From hour\nto hour, from moment to moment, we are supported, blest, by small\nkindnesses.\"\n\n                                                      F. W. ROBERTSON.\n\n\nOil and Wine\n\n\nMAY 7\n\n\"Whatever impatience we may feel towards our neighbour, and whatever\nindignation our race may rouse in us, we are chained one to another,\nand, companions in labour and misfortune, have everything to lose by\nmutual recrimination and reproach. Let us be silent as to each other's\nweakness, helpful, tolerant, nay, tender towards each other! Or, if we\ncannot feel tenderness, may we at least feel pity! May we put away from\nus the satire which scourges and the anger which brands; the oil and\nwine of the good Samaritan are of more avail. We may make the ideal a\nreason for contempt; but it is more beautiful to make it a reason for\ntenderness.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"It is always a mistake to paint people blacker than the facts warrant,\nboth because such exaggeration is pretty sure to cause a reaction to the\nopposite extreme, and also because we are likely to miss the lesson\nwhich the errors or misconduct of others should teach us, if we think\nthem so exceptionally wicked that we are ourselves in no danger of\nfollowing their example.\"\n\n                             _Life Here and Hereafter_, Canon MACCOLL.\n\n\nFamily Life--\"Without Jar or Jostle\"\n\n\nMAY 8\n\n\"Let us give everybody a right to live his own life, as far as possible,\nand avoid imposing our own peculiarities on another.\n\n\"If we were to picture a perfect family, it should be a union of people\nof individual and marked character, who, through love, have come to a\nperfect appreciation of each other, and who so wisely understand\nthemselves and one another, that each may move freely along his or her\nown track without jar or jostle,--a family where affection is always\nsympathetic and receptive, but never inquisitive,--where all personal\ndelicacies are respected,--and where there is a sense of privacy and\nseclusion in following one's own course, unchallenged by the\nwatchfulness of others, yet withal a sense of society and support in a\nknowledge of the kind dispositions and interpretations of all around.\n\n\"In treating of family discourtesies, I have avoided speaking of those\nwhich come from ill-temper and brute selfishness, because these are sins\nmore than mistakes. An angry person is generally impolite; and where\ncontention and ill-will are, there can be no courteousness. What I have\nmentioned are rather the lackings of good and often admirable people,\nwho merely need to consider in their family-life a little more of\nwhatsoever things are lovely. With such the mere admission of anything\nto be pursued as a duty secures the purpose; only in their somewhat\nearnest pursuit of the substantials of life, they drop and pass by the\nlittle things that give it sweetness and perfume.\"\n\n                                _Little Foxes_, HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.\n\n\nUngraciousness\n\n\nMAY 9\n\n\"We can recall occasions in which we have been impatient, inconsiderate,\nself-willed, self-asserting. We have sharply resented some want of good\ntaste: we have made light of a scruple or of a difficulty which weighed\nheavily on another: we have yielded ungraciously a service which may\nhave been claimed inopportunely: we have been exact in requiring\nconventional deference to our judgment: we have not checked the keen\nword, or the smile which might be interpreted to assert a proud\nsuperiority.\n\n\"In all this we may have been justifiable according to common rules of\nconduct; but we have given offence. We have not, that is, shewn, when we\nmight have shewn, that Christian sympathy, devotion, fellowship, come\ndown to little things; that the generosity of love looks tenderly, if by\nany means it may find the soul which has not revealed itself.\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\"Seek the graces of God with all your strength; but above all seek the\ngraces that specially belong to heaven. Try hard to be humble, to be\nfree from all conceit, to question your own opinions, to give up your\nown way, to put simplicity first among all excellences of character, to\nbe ready to think yourself in the wrong, to prefer others to yourself;\nfor this character is nearest to God's heart, and to babes who are of\nthis sort does God reveal His most secret mysteries.\"\n\n                                                        Bishop TEMPLE.\n\n\nThe Spectrum of Love\n\n\nMay 10\n\n\"The spectrum of Love has nine ingredients:--\n\n  _Patience_--'Love suffereth long.'\n\n  _Kindness_--'And is kind.'\n\n  _Generosity_--'Love envieth not.'\n\n  _Humility_--'Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.'\n\n  _Courtesy_--'Doth not behave itself unseemly.'\n\n  _Unselfishness_--'Seeketh not her own.'\n\n  _Good Temper_--'Is not easily provoked.'\n\n  _Guilelessness_--'Thinketh no evil.'\n\n  _Sincerity_--'Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in\n  the truth.'\n\nPatience; kindness; generosity; humility; courtesy; unselfishness; good\ntemper; guilelessness; sincerity--these make up the supreme gift, the\nstature of the perfect man. You will observe that all are in relation to\nmen, in relation to life, in relation to the known to-day and the near\nto-morrow, and not to the unknown eternity. We hear much of love to God;\nChrist spoke much of love to man. We make a great deal of peace with\nheaven; Christ made much of peace on earth. Religion is not a strange or\nadded thing, but the inspiration of the secular life, the breathing of\nan eternal spirit through this temporal world. The supreme thing, in\nshort, is not a thing at all, but the giving of a further finish to the\nmultitudinous words and acts which make up the sum of every common day.\"\n\n                    _The Greatest Thing in the World_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\n\"My Duty to my Neighbour\"\n\n\nMAY 11\n\n\"There is an idea abroad among moral people that they should make their\nneighbours good. One person I have to make good: myself. But my duty to\nmy neighbour is much more nearly expressed by saying that I have to make\nhim happy--if I may.\"\n\n                                 _Across the Plains_, R. L. STEVENSON.\n\n\"Of all the weapons we wield against wrong, there is none more effective\nthan pure and burning joy.\"\n\n                                 _The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.\n\n\"There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behaviour, like the\nwish to scatter joy and not pain around us.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\nDuty of giving Happiness\n\n\nMAY 12\n\n\"It is astonishing how large a part of Christ's precepts is devoted\nsolely to the inculcation of happiness. How much of His life, too, was\nspent simply in making people happy! There was no word more often on His\nlips than 'blessed,' and it is recognised by Him as a distinct end in\nlife, _the_ end for this life, to secure the happiness of others. This\nsimple grace, too, needs little equipment. Christ had little. One need\nscarcely even be happy one's self. Holiness, of course, is a greater\nword, but we cannot produce that in others. That is reserved for God\nHimself, but what is put in our power is happiness, and for that each\nman is his brother's keeper. Now society is an arrangement for producing\nand sustaining human happiness, and temper is an agent for thwarting and\ndestroying it. Look at the parable of the Prodigal Son for a moment, and\nsee how the elder brother's wretched pettiness, explosion of temper,\nchurlishness, spoiled the happiness of a whole circle. First, it\ncertainly spoiled his own. How ashamed of himself he must have been when\nthe fit was over, one can well guess. Yet these things are never so\nquickly over as they seem. Self-disgust and humiliation may come at\nonce, but a good deal else within has to wait till the spirit is tuned\nagain. For instance, prayer must wait. A man cannot pray till the\nsourness is out of his soul. He must first forgive his brother who\ntrespassed against him before he can go to God to have his own\ntrespasses forgiven.\"\n\n                                     _The Ideal Life_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\nDuty of giving Happiness\n\n\nMAY 13\n\n\"The function of culture is not merely to train the powers of enjoyment,\nbut first and supremely for helpful service.\"\n\n                                                        Bishop POTTER.\n\n\"It was often in George Eliot's mind and on her lips that the only\nworthy end of all learning, of all science, of all life, in fact, is\nthat human beings should love one another better. Culture merely for\nculture's sake can never be anything but a sapless root, capable of\nproducing at best a shrivelled branch.... She was cheered by the hope\nand by the belief in gradual improvement of the mass; for in her view\neach individual must find the better part of happiness in helping\nanother. She often thought it wisest not to raise too ambitious an\nideal, especially in young people, but to impress on ordinary natures\nthe immense possibilities of making a small circle brighter and better.\nFew are born to do the great work of the world, but all are born to\nthis. And to the natures capable of the larger effort the field of\nusefulness will constantly widen.\"\n\n                              _The Life of George Eliot_, J. W. CROSS.\n\n\n\"Blessed are the Happiness Makers\"\n\n\nMAY 14\n\n\"Have you ever noticed how much of Christ's life was spent in doing kind\nthings--in _merely_ doing kind things? Run over it with that in view,\nand you will find that He spent a great proportion of His time simply in\nmaking people happy, in doing good turns to people.\"\n\n                    _The Greatest Thing in the World_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\"Take life all through, its adversity as well as its prosperity, its\nsickness as well as its health, its loss of its rights as well as its\nenjoyment of them, and we shall find that no natural sweetness of\ntemper, much less any acquired philosophical equanimity, is equal to the\nsupport of a uniform habit of kindness. Nevertheless, with the help of\ngrace, the habit of saying kind words is very quickly formed, and when\nonce formed it is not speedily lost. Sharpness, bitterness, sarcasm,\nacute observation, divination of motives--all these things disappear\nwhen a man is earnestly conforming himself to the image of Christ Jesus.\nThe very attempt to be like our dearest Lord is already a wellspring of\nsweetness within us, flowing with an easy grace over all who come within\nour reach.\"\n\n                                                          F. W. FABER.\n\n\"Blessed are the Happiness Makers. Blessed are they who know how to\nshine on one's gloom with their cheer.\"\n\n                                                   HENRY WARD BEECHER.\n\n\nCharacter--The Right Atmosphere\n\n\nMAY 15\n\n\"Character cannot be formed without action. Through it strength comes.\nBut every action must have its reaction upon the nature of the one who\nputs it forth. If it does not, it fails of that which is its highest\nresult; for the finest expression of a man's nature is not to be found\nin action, but in that very intangible thing which we call his\natmosphere. There are a great many people who are alert, energetic, and\ndecisive, but who give forth very little of this rare effluence--this\nquality which seems to issue out of the very recesses of one's nature.\nIt is, however, through this quality that the most constant influence is\nexercised; that influence which is not only put forth most steadily, but\nwhich penetrates and affects others in the most searching way. The air\nwe breathe has much to do with health; in a relaxing atmosphere it is\ndifficult to work; in an atmosphere of vitality it is easy to work. We\nnever meet some people without going away from them with our ideals a\nlittle blurred, or our faith in them a little disturbed. We can never\npart from others without a sense of increased hope. There are those who\ninvigorate us by simple contact; something escapes from them of which\nthey are not aware and which we cannot analyse, which makes us believe\nmore deeply in ourselves and our kind.\n\n\"So far as charm is concerned, there is no quality which contributes so\nmuch to it as the subtle thing we call atmosphere. There are some people\nwho do not need to speak in order not only to awaken our respect, but to\ngive us a sense of something rare and fine. In such an influence, all\nthat is most individual and characteristic flows together, and the woman\nreveals herself without being conscious that she is making herself\nknown. Such an atmosphere in a home creates a sentiment and organises a\nlife which would not be possible if one should attempt to fashion these\nthings by intention. The finest things, like happiness, must be sought\nby indirection and are the results of character, rather than objects of\nimmediate pursuit.\"\n\n\"It is always good to know, if only in passing, charming human beings.\nIt refreshes one like flowers, and woods, and clear brooks.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\nCharacter--Child-like-ness\n\n\nMAY 16\n\n\"Jesus afterwards focussed the new type of character in a lovely\nillustration which is not always appreciated at its full value, because\nwe deny it perspective. Every reader of the Gospels has marked the\nsympathy of Jesus with children. How He watched their games! How angry\nHe was with His disciples for belittling them! How He used to warn men,\nwhatever they did, never to hurt a little child! How grateful were\nchildren's praises when all others had turned against Him! One is apt to\nadmire the beautiful sentiment, and to forget that children were more to\nJesus than helpless gentle creatures to be loved and protected. They\nwere His chief parable of the Kingdom of Heaven. As a type of character\nthe Kingdom was like unto a little child, and the greatest in the\nKingdom would be the most child-like. According to Jesus, a\nwell-conditioned child illustrates better than anything else on earth\nthe distinctive features of Christian character. Because he does not\nassert nor aggrandise himself. Because he has no memory for injuries,\nand no room in his heart for a grudge. Because he has no previous\nopinions, and is not ashamed to confess his ignorance. Because he can\nimagine, and has the key of another world, entering in through the ivory\ngate and living amid the things unseen and eternal. The new society of\nJesus was a magnificent imagination, and he who entered it must lay\naside the world standards and ideals of character, and become as a\nlittle child.\"\n\n                            _The Mind of the Master_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\nCharacter--Negative Virtues\n\n\nMAY 17\n\n\"Some people seem to be here in the world just on their guard all the\nwhile, always so afraid of doing wrong that they never do anything\nreally right. They do not add to the world's moral force; as the man,\nwho, by constant watchfulness over his own health, just keeps himself\nfrom dying, contributes nothing to the world's vitality. All merely\nnegative purity has something of the taint of the impurity that it\nresists. The effort not to be frivolous is frivolous itself. The effort\nnot to be selfish is very apt to be only another form of selfishness.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\"Beware of making your moral staple consist of the negative virtues. It\nis good to abstain and teach others to abstain, from all that is sinful\nand hurtful. But making a business of it leads to emaciation of\ncharacter, unless one feeds largely also on the more nutritious diet of\nactive sympathetic benevolence.\"\n\n                                                         O. W. HOLMES.\n\n\"The seductions of life are strong in every age and station; we make\nidols of our affections, idols of our customary virtues; we are content\nto avoid the inconvenient wrong, and to forego the inconvenient right\nwith almost equal self-approval, until at last we make a home for our\nconscience among the negative virtues and the cowardly vices.\"\n\n                        _The Life of R. L. Stevenson_, GRAHAM BALFOUR.\n\n\nCharacter\n\n\nMAY 18\n\n\"The moments of our most important decisions are often precisely those\nin which nothing seems to have been decided; and only long afterwards,\nwhen we perceive with astonishment that the Rubicon has been crossed, do\nwe realise that in that half-forgotten instant of hesitation as to some\napparently unimportant side issue, in that unconscious movement which\nbetrayed a feeling of which we were not aware, our choice was made. The\ncrises of life come, like the Kingdom of Heaven, without observation.\nOur characters, and not our deliberate actions, decide for us; and even\nwhen the moment of crisis is apprehended at the time by the troubling of\nthe water, action is generally a little late. Character, as a rule,\nsteps down first.\"\n\n                                   _Diana Tempest_, MARY CHOLMONDELEY.\n\n\"Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards--they simply unveil them\nto the eyes of men. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we\ngrow and wax strong, or we grow and wax weak, and at last some crisis\nshows us what we have become.\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\nCharacter--\"Our Echoes roll from Soul to Soul\"\n\n\nMAY 19\n\n\"One of the main seats of our weakness lies in this very notion, that\nwhat we do at the moment cannot matter much; for that we shall be able\nto alter and mend and patch it just as we like by-and-by.\"\n\n                                                                 HARE.\n\n\"We sleep, but the loom of life never stops; and the pattern which was\nweaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up to-morrow.\"\n\n                                                              BEECHER.\n\n                      \"Let every soul\n  Heed what it doth to-day, because to-morrow\n  The same thing it shall find gone forward there\n  To meet and make and judge it.\"\n\n                                       _The Light of Asia_, E. ARNOLD.\n\n\"Our echoes roll from soul to soul, And grow for ever and for ever.\"\n\n                                                             TENNYSON.\n\n\nHabit\n\n\nMAY 20\n\n\"Like flakes of snow that fall unperceived upon the earth, the seemingly\nunimportant events of life succeed one another. As the snow gathers\ntogether, so are our habits formed: no single flake that is added to the\npile produces a sensible change; no single flake creates, however it may\nexhibit, a man's character; but as the tempest hurls the avalanche down\nthe mountain, and overwhelms the inhabitant and his habitation, so\npassion, acting upon the elements of mischief, which pernicious habits\nhave brought together by imperceptible accumulation, may overwhelm the\nedifice of truth and virtue.\"\n\n                                                       JEREMY BENTHAM.\n\n\"In the conduct of life, habits count for more than maxims, because\nhabit is a living maxim, become flesh and instinct. To reform one's\nmaxims is nothing: it is but to change the title of the book. To learn\nnew habits is everything, for it is to reach the substance of life. Life\nis but a tissue of habits.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\nHabit\n\n\nMAY 21\n\n\"The Hell to be endured hereafter which theology tells, is no worse than\nthe hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioning\nour characters the wrong way. Could the young realise how soon they will\nbecome mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to\ntheir conduct while in the plastic state. We are spinning our own fates,\ngood or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or\nof vice leaves its never-so-little scar.\"\n\n                                _Psychology_, Professor WILLIAM JAMES.\n\n\"Routine is a terrible master, but she is a servant whom we can hardly\ndo without. Routine as a law is deadly. Routine as a resource in the\ntemporary exhaustion of impulse and suggestion is often our salvation.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\"It is just as easy to form a good habit as it is a bad one. And it is\njust as hard to break a good habit as a bad one. So get the good ones\nand keep them.\"\n\n                                                             MCKINLEY.\n\n\nSin has its Pedigree\n\n\nMAY 22\n\n\"One false note will spoil the finest piece of music, and one little\nsin, as we deem it, may ruin the most promising character, involving it\nin a network of unforeseen consequences out of which there may be no\nescape.\"\n\n                             _Life Here and Hereafter_, Canon MACCOLL.\n\n\"There is a physical demonstration of sin as well as a religious; and no\nsin can come in among the delicate faculties of the mind, or among the\ncoarser fibres of the body, without leaving a stain, either as a\npositive injury to the life, or, what is equally fatal, as a\npredisposition to commit the same sin again. This predisposition is\nalways one of the most real and appalling accompaniments of the stain of\nsin. There is scarcely such a thing as an isolated sin in a man's life.\nMost sins can be accounted for by what has gone before. Every sin, so to\nspeak, has its own pedigree, and is the result of the accumulated force,\nwhich means the accumulated stain of many a preparatory sin.\"\n\n                                     _The Ideal Life_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\nTemptation\n\n\nMAY 23\n\n\"Two things a genuine Christian never does. He never makes light of any\nknown sin, and he never admits it to be invincible.\"\n\n                                                         Canon LIDDON.\n\n\"We always meet the temptation which is to expose us when we least\nexpect it.\"\n\n                                     _The Ideal Life_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\"It is of the essence of temptation that it should come on us unawares.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n\"If we cannot at once rise to the sanctities of obedience and faith, let\nus at least resist our temptations.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\nSin\n\n\nMAY 24\n\n\"We judge of sins, as we judge of most things, by their outward form. We\narrange the vices of our neighbours according to a scale which society\nhas tacitly adopted, placing the more gross and public at the foot, the\nslightly less gross higher up, and then by some strange process the\nscale becomes obliterated. Finally it vanishes into space, leaving\nlengths of itself unexplored, its sins unnamed, unheeded, and unshunned.\nBut we have no balance to weigh sins. Coarser and finer are but words of\nour own. The chances are, if anything, that the finer are the lower. The\nvery fact that the world sees the coarser sins so well is against the\nbelief that they are the worst. The subtle and unseen sin, that sin in\nthe part of the nature most near to the spiritual, ought to be more\ndegrading than any other. Yet for many of the finer forms of sin society\nhas yet no brand.\"\n\n                                     _The Ideal Life_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\"Tried by final tests, and reduced to its essential elements, sin is the\npreference of self to God, and the assertion of the human will against\nthe Will of God. With Jesus, from first to last, sin is selfishness.\"\n\n                            _The Mind of the Master_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\nSin\n\n\nMAY 25-26\n\n\"We deceive ourselves in another way, namely, by seeking for all manner\nof excuses and palliations. The strength of the temptation, or the\nsuddenness of it, or the length of it; our own weakness, our natural\ntendency to that particular sort of sin; our wishes to be better, the\nexcellence of our feelings, the excellence of our desires; the\npeculiarity of our circumstances, the special disadvantages which make\nus worse off than others; all these we put before our minds as excuses\nfor having done wrong, and persuade ourselves too often that wrong is\nnot really wrong, and that though the deed was sinful the doer of it was\nnot. I do not mean that these palliations are never worth anything, nor\ndo I mean that in every case the same deed is the same sin. There are no\ndoubt infinite varieties of guilt in what appears outwardly the same\ndeed, and God will distinguish between them and will judge justly. But\nthe habit of mind which leads us to palliate our sins and find good\nexcuses for them, has this dangerous tendency, that it blinds us to the\nevil of evil. We slip into the delusion that we are better than we\nseem, that our faults look worse than they are, that inside we have good\ndispositions, and good desires, and warm feelings, and religious\nemotions, and that it is only the outside that is marked by those evil\nstains. This _is_ a delusion and a grievous delusion. You cannot _be_\ngood and _do_ wrong. You cannot _be_ righteous and _do_ unrighteousness.\nGranted that you may slip once into a sin which notwithstanding is not\nreally a part of your nature. Still, this cannot happen several times\nover. Make no mistake. If you _do_ wrong the deed is a real part of your\nlife, and cannot be removed out of it by any fancy of yours that it is\non your circumstances, your temptations, your peculiar disadvantages\nthat the blame can be cast, still less by any wishes or emotions or\nfeelings even of the most religious kind.\"\n\n                                                        Bishop TEMPLE.\n\n\"The strength of a man's virtue is not to be measured by the efforts he\nmakes under pressure, but by his ordinary conduct.\"\n\n                                                               PASCAL.\n\n\nSins of the Spirit\n\n\nMAY 27\n\n\"We must remember that it is by the mercy of Christ that we are saved\nfrom being what we might have been. 'There goes John Bradford, but for\nthe grace of God,' said a good man when he saw a criminal being led to\nexecution. We are too apt to take the credit to ourselves for our\ncircumstances. Imagine that you were born of poor parents out of work in\nWhitechapel, and had to pick up your living in the docks, or that you\nwere a working girl in Bethnal Green, trying to keep your poor parents\nor nurse a sick brother out of making match-boxes at 2-1/4d. a gross,\nand then thank God you were spared the temptation to a bad life, which\nthey have to undergo. So, again, we must remember that sins of the\nspirit are quite as bad in the eyes of Christ as sins of the flesh; He\nnever spoke a hard word of the publican and sinner, but He lashed with\nHis scorn the 'Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.' The sins that we\nrespectable people commit lightly every day, of pride and indolence and\nindifference to the sufferings of the poor, may be worse in His sight\nthan the most flagrant sins of those who know no better.\"\n\n                    _Friends of the Master_, Bishop WINNINGTON INGRAM.\n\n\nSin\n\n\nMAY 28\n\n\"I have often observed in the course of my experience of human life,\nthat every man, even the worst, has something good about him; though\noften nothing else than a happy temperament of constitution, inclining\nhim to this or that virtue. For this reason, no man can say in what\ndegree any other person besides himself can be, with strict justice,\ncalled wicked. Let any one with the strictest character for regularity\nof conduct among us, examine impartially how many vices he has never\nbeen guilty of, not from any care or vigilance, but for want of\nopportunity, or some accidental circumstances intervening; how many of\nthe weaknesses of mankind he has escaped because he was out of the line\nof such temptation; and--what often, if not always, weighs more than all\nthe rest--how much he is indebted to the world's good opinion because\nthe world does not know all: I say, any man who can thus think will scan\nthe failings, nay, the faults and crimes of mankind with a brother's\neye.\"\n\n                                                                BURNS.\n\n\"Very late in life, and only after many experiences, does a man learn,\nat the sight of a fellow-creature's real failing or weakness, to\nsympathise with him, and help him without a secret self-congratulation\nat his own virtue and strength, but on the contrary, with every humility\nand comprehension of the naturalness, almost the inevitableness of sin.\"\n\n                                     _An Unhappy Girl_, IVAN TURGENEV.\n\n\nSin\n\n\nMAY 29\n\n\"Remove from us the protection, the encompassing safeguards and shelters\nwe enjoy; withdraw the influences for good that are daily and weekly\ndropped on us like gentle dew from heaven, and have dropped ever since\nwe had any being; deprive us of the comforts and interests, the innocent\nsubstitutes for forbidden pleasures; expose us to the loneliness, the\nvacancy, the dreary monotony, the hopeless struggle, the despair in\nwhich the majority of the men and women who fall find themselves\nimmersed; and bring before us, thus exposed and bereft, what temptation\nyou will--uncleanness, intemperance, theft, lying, blasphemy--and not\none in ten of ordinary Christian people, I believe, would stand before\nit.\"\n\n                                                        R. W. BARBOUR.\n\n  \"Looking within myself, I note how thin\n    A plank of station, chance, or prosperous fate,\n  Doth fence me from the clutching waves of sin;--\n    In my own heart I find the worst man's mate,\n    And see not dimly the smooth-hinged gate\n      That opes to those abysses\n    Where ye grope darkly,--ye who never knew\n    On your young hearts love's consecrating dew\n      Or felt a mother's kisses,\n  Or home's restraining tendrils round you curled;\n  Ah, side by side with heart's-ease in this world,\n    The fatal night-shade grows and bitter rue!\"\n\n                                                 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.\n\n\nConscience\n\n\nMAY 30\n\n  \"Conscience is harder than our enemies,\n  Knows more, accuses with more nicety,\n  Nor needs to question Rumour if we fall\n  Below the perfect model of our thought.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\"If a man has nothing to reproach himself with, he can bear anything.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\"Character is the ground of trust and the guarantee for good living, and\nthat character only is sound which rests upon a good conscience and a\nclean heart and a strong will.\"\n\n                                                      Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\nRepentance\n\n\nMAY 31\n\n\"What is true contrition? Sorrow for sin in itself, not for sin's\nconsequences.\"\n\n                                        _The Guided Life_, Canon BODY.\n\n\"Remorse and repentance are two very different things. Repentance leads\nback to life; but remorse ends often in the painless apathy and fatal\nmortification of despair.\"\n\n                                                          Dean FARRAR.\n\n\"Penitence is like the dawn.... It is the breaking of the light in the\nsoul,--dark enough sometimes no doubt, but a darkness giving place\nsteadily to the growing light.\"\n\n                                                   Bishop WALSHAM HOW.\n\n\nHeredity\n\n\nJUNE 1\n\n\"The father says of his profligate son whom he has never done one wise\nor vigorous thing to make a noble and pure-minded man: 'I cannot tell\nhow it has come. It has not been my fault. I put him into the world and\nthis came out.' The father whose faith has been mean and selfish says\nthe same of his boy who is a sceptic. Everywhere there is this cowardly\ncasting off of responsibilities upon the dead circumstances around us.\nIt is a very hard treatment of the poor, dumb, helpless world which\ncannot answer to defend itself. It takes us as we give ourselves to it.\nIt is our minister fulfilling our commissions for us upon our own souls.\nIf we say to it, 'Make us noble,' it does make us noble. If we say to\nit, 'Make us mean,' it does make us mean. And then we take the nobility\nand say, 'Behold, how noble I have made myself.' And we take the\nmeanness and say, 'See how mean the world has made me.'\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\"Speaking of ancestors--'What right have I to question them, or judge\nthem, or bring them forward in my life as being responsible for my\nnature? If I roll back the responsibility to them, had they not fathers?\nand had not their fathers fathers? and if a man rolls back his deeds\nupon those who are his past, then where will responsibility be found at\nall, and of what poor cowardly stuff is each of us?\"\n\n                        _The Mettle of the Pasture_, JAMES LANE ALLEN.\n\n\nHeredity\n\n\nJUNE 2\n\n\"This tracing of the sin to its root now suggests this further\ntopic--its cure. Christianity professes to cure anything. The process\nmay be slow, the discipline may be severe, but it can be done. But is\nnot temper a constitutional thing? Is it not hereditary, a family\nfailing, a matter of temperament, and can _that_ be cured? Yes, if there\nis anything in Christianity. If there is no provision for that, then\nChristianity stands convicted of being unequal to human need. What\ncourse then did the father take, in the case before us, to pacify the\nangry passions of his ill-natured son? Mark that he made no attempt in\nthe first instance to reason with him! To do so is a common mistake, and\nutterly useless both with ourselves and others. We are perfectly\nconvinced of the puerility of it all, but that does not help us in the\nleast to mend it. The malady has its seat in the affections, and\ntherefore the father went there at once. Reason came in its place, and\nthe son was supplied with valid arguments--stated in the last verse of\nthe chapter--against his conduct, but he was first plied with love.\"\n\n                                     _The Ideal Life_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\nHeredity\n\n\nJUNE 3\n\n\"Any insistence on heredity would have depreciated responsibility, and\nJesus held every man to his own sin. Science and theology have joined\nhands in magnifying heredity and lowering individuality, till a man\ncomes to be little more than the resultant of certain forces, a\nprojectile shot forth from the past, and describing a calculated course.\nJesus made a brave stand for each man as the possessor of will-power,\nand master of his life. He sadly admitted that a human will might be\nweakened by evil habits of thought, He declared gladly that the Divine\nGrace reinforced the halting will: but, with every qualification,\ndecision still rested in the last issue with the man. 'If Thou wilt,\nThou canst make me clean,' as if his cure hinged on the Divine Will. Of\ncourse, I am willing, said Jesus, and referred the man back to his\ninalienable human rights. Jesus never diverged into metaphysics, even to\nreconcile the freedom of the human will with the sovereignty of the\nDivine. His function was not academic debate, it was the solution of an\nactual situation. Logically, men might be puppets; consciously, they\nwere self-determinating, and Jesus said with emphasis, 'Wilt thou?'\"\n\n                            _The Mind of the Master_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\"Even natural disposition, of which we make so much when we speak of\nheredity, is only a tendency till habit takes it and sets it and hardens\nit and drives it to a settled goal.\"\n\n                                                           HUGH BLACK.\n\n\nBearing Criticism\n\n\nJUNE 4\n\n\"When people detect in us what are actually imperfections and faults, it\nis clear that they do us no wrong, since it is not they who cause them;\nand it is clear, too, that they do us a service, inasmuch as they help\nus to free ourselves from an evil, namely, the ignorance of these\ndefects. We should not be angry because they know them and despise us,\nfor it is right that they should know us for what we are, and that they\nshould despise us if we are despicable.\n\n\"Such are the feelings which would rise in a heart filled with equity\nand justice. What then should we say of our own heart when we see in it\na quite contrary frame of mind? For is it not a fact that we hate the\ntruth and those who tell it us, that we love those who deceive\nthemselves in our favour, and that we wish to be esteemed by them as\nother than we really are?\"\n\n                                                               PASCAL.\n\n\"A man should never be ashamed to say he has been in the wrong, which is\nbut saying, in other words, that he is wiser to-day than he was\nyesterday.\"\n\n                                                                 POPE.\n\n\nFaults\n\n\nJUNE 5\n\n\"Too many take the ready course to deceive themselves; for they look\nwith both eyes on the failings and defects of others, and scarcely give\ntheir good qualities half an eye: on the contrary, in themselves they\nstudy to the full their own advantages, while their weaknesses and\ndefects (as one says) they skip over, as children do the hard words in\ntheir lessons that are troublesome to read; and making this uneven\nparallel, what wonder if the result be a gross mistake of themselves.\"\n\n                                                  Archbishop LEIGHTON.\n\n\"To hide a fault with a lie is to replace a blot by a hole.\"\n\n\"It is a great folly not to part with your own faults, which is\npossible, but to try instead to escape from other people's faults, which\nis impossible.\"\n\n                                                      MARCUS AURELIUS.\n\n\"The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.\"\n\n                                                              CARLYLE.\n\n\nObstinacy\n\n\nJUNE 6\n\n\"Obstinacy is will asserting itself without being able to justify\nitself. It is persistence without a plausible motive. It is the tenacity\nof self-love substituted for the tenacity of reason or conscience.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"If any man is able to convince me and show me that I do not think or\nact right, I will gladly change; for I seek the truth by which no man\nwas ever injured. But he is injured who abides in his error and\nignorance.\"\n\n                                                      MARCUS AURELIUS.\n\n\"It is never too late to give up our prejudices.\"\n\n                                                              THOREAU.\n\n\"When one's character is naturally firm, it is well to be able to yield\nupon reflection.\"\n\n                                                         VAUVENARGUES.\n\n\nCalumny\n\n\nJUNE 7\n\n\"Any man of many transactions can hardly expect to go through life\nwithout being subject to one or two very severe calumnies. Amongst these\nmany transactions, some few will be with very ill-conditioned people,\nwith very ignorant people, or, perhaps, with monomaniacs; and he cannot\nexpect, therefore, but that some narrative of a calumnious kind will\nhave its origin in one of these transactions. It may be fanned by any\naccidental breeze of malice or ill-fortune, and become a very serious\nelement of mischief to him. Such a thing is to be looked upon as pure\nmisfortune coming in the ordinary course of events; and the way to treat\nit is to deal with it as calmly and philosophically as with any other\nmisfortune. As some one has said, the mud will rub off when it is dry,\nand not before. The drying will not always come in the calumniated man's\ntime, unless in favourable seasons, which he cannot command.\"\n\n                                                                HELPS.\n\n\"If any one tells you such a one has spoken ill of you, do not refute\nthem in that particular; but answer, had he known all my vices, he had\nnot spoken only of that one.\"\n\n                                                            EPICTETUS.\n\n\nCalumny\n\n\nJUNE 8\n\n\"I am beholden to calumny that she hath so endeavoured and taken pains\nto belie me. It shall make me set a surer guard on myself, and keep a\nbetter watch upon my actions.\"\n\n                                                           BEN JONSON.\n\n\"As to people saying a few idle words about us, we must not mind that,\nany more than the old church-steeple minds the rooks cawing about it.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\"The power men possess to annoy me I give them.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"Assailed by scandal and the tongue of strife, His only answer was--a\nblameless life.\"\n\n                                                               COWPER.\n\n\nFlattery\n\n\nJUNE 9\n\n\"Flattery is a false coinage which would have no currency but for our\nvanity.\"\n\n                                                     LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.\n\n\"If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could do us no\nharm.\"\n\n                                                     LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.\n\n\"Self-love is the greatest Flatterer in the World.\"\n\n                                                     LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.\n\n\"The Devil has no stauncher ally than want of perception.\"\n\n                                                  PHILIP H. WICKSTEAD.\n\n\nPride\n\n\nJUNE 10\n\n\"There are two states or conditions of pride. The first is one of\nself-approval, the second one of self-contempt. Pride is seen probably\nat its purest in the last.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"The foundation of pride is the wish to respect one's self, whatever\nothers may think; the mainspring of vanity is the craving for the\nadmiration of others, no matter at what cost to one's self-respect.\"\n\n                              _The Heart of Rome_, F. MARION CRAWFORD.\n\n\"Any revelation of greatness overwhelms petty thoughts.... The presence\nof death turns enemies into friends. In the same way the petty feelings\nof pride and vanity would lose much of their power if people had the\noverwhelming feeling which comes from the contemplation of Almightiness,\nAll-goodness, and All-love. There would be a marked change in all human\nrelations if men turned from the presence of the Thrice Holy to face one\nanother; if thoughts of self and for self were driven out of their minds\nby worship.\"\n\n                                  _The Service of God_, Canon BARNETT.\n\n\nConceit\n\n\nJUNE 11\n\n\"It is indeed a desirable thing to be well descended, but the glory\nbelongs to our ancestors.\"\n\n                                                             PLUTARCH.\n\n\"Conceit spoils many an excellency. Some persons are so proud of their\ngoodness, or of their attainments, or of their position, or of their\ncharacter, or of their family, that they become offensive to many who\nwould otherwise be won by their merit. Pride mars, blights, and withers\nwhatever it touches. It begets assumptions that are very belittling as\nwell as hard to bear. A man weakens his influence and retards his\npersonal and public interests by giving it full control. Its exhibition\nmay be natural; but noble manhood, high moral character, regard to the\nfeelings of others and Christianity all demand its suppression.\"\n\n\nHumility\n\n\nJUNE 12\n\n\"What hypocrites we seem to be, whenever we talk of ourselves! Our words\nsound so humble, while our hearts are so proud.\"\n\n                        _Guesses at Truth_, edited by Archdeacon HARE.\n\n\"By despising himself too much a man comes to be worthy of his own\ncontempt.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"Just as criticism alone ministers to pride and then to death, so\ncreation, even of the smallest kind, ministers to humility. And that\nstands to reason: the slightest act of shaping instantly opens before\nyou an ever-expanding sea, and the vision of the infinite is the death\nof vanity and pride.\"\n\n                                 _The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.\n\n\"Humility is the hall-mark of wisdom.\"\n\n                                                       JEREMY COLLIER.\n\n\nEgotism\n\n\nJUNE 13\n\n\"We ought to have this measure of charity for egotistical people--a\nwillingness to suppose that they actually believe themselves to be what\nthey assume to be. It is quite possible for a person to be in such a fog\nof misapprehension that everything about him--his little world, his\npersonal interest--will loom abnormally large. When the fog is\ndispelled, he will see things as they are, and estimate them and himself\naccordingly.\n\n\"Egotism of this kind is pardonable; and there is a great deal of it\nwhich is peculiar to the mists and strange refractions of youth. When\nthe sun of a clearer and larger knowledge chases away the fog, a\nright-minded young person emerges from this egotistical, too\nself-conscious period of his life, and finds a new adjustment for\nhimself in the great and serious world.\"\n\n\"He who is always enquiring what people will say, will never give them\nopportunity to say anything great about him.\"\n\n\"Reputation is in itself only a farthing candle, of wavering and\nuncertain flame, and easily blown out; but it is the light by which the\nworld looks for and finds merit.\"\n\n                                                               LOWELL.\n\n\nThe Code of Society\n\n\nJUNE 14\n\n\"'Freedom' is not the power to do what we like, but to be what we ought\nto be.\"\n\n                                                         CHARLES GORE.\n\n\"There is no commoner danger than that of accepting the code of the\nsociety in which you live as the rule of right.\"\n\n                                                        Bishop TEMPLE.\n\n\"Strive all your life to free men from the bondage of custom and self,\nthe two great elements of the world that lieth in wickedness.\"\n\n                                                     CHARLES KINGSLEY.\n\n\"What I _must_ do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.\nThis rule ... is harder, because you will always find those who think\nthey know what is your duty better than _you_ know it.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\nPublic Opinion\n\n\nJUNE 15\n\n\"It is not the many who reform the world; but the few who rise superior\nto that Public Opinion which crucified our Lord many years ago.\"\n\n                                                     CHARLES KINGSLEY.\n\n\"We are tempted to measure ourselves by others, to acquiesce in an\naverage standard and an average attainment. We forget that while we are\nnot required to judge our neighbours, we are required to judge\nourselves.\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\"Moral courage is obeying one's conscience, and doing what one believes\nto be right in face of a hostile majority; and moral cowardice is\nstifling one's conscience, and doing what is less than right to win\nother people's favour.\"\n\n                                                      Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\nPublic Opinion\n\n\nJUNE 16\n\n\"Opinion has its value and even its power: to have it against us is\npainful when we are among friends, and harmful in the case of the outer\nworld. We should neither flatter opinion nor court it; but it is better,\nif we can help it, not to throw it on to a false scent. The first error\nis a meanness; the second an imprudence.... Be careful of your\nreputation, not through vanity, but that you may not harm your life's\nwork, and out of love for truth. There is still something of\nself-seeking in the refined disinterestedness which will not justify\nitself, that it may feel itself superior to opinion. It requires ability\nto make what we seem agree with what we are,--and humility to feel that\nwe are no great things.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"Suppose any man shall despise me. Let him look to that himself. But I\nwill look to this, that I be not discovered doing or saying anything\ndeserving of contempt.\"\n\n                                                      MARCUS AURELIUS.\n\n\nSpiritual Balance and Proportion\n\n\nJUNE 17\n\n\"A well-governed mind learns in time to find pleasure in nothing but the\ntrue and the just.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"Not only does sympathy lead us to see the opinions of others in a truer\nlight, it enables us to form a sounder judgment on our own; for as long\nas a man looks only 'on his own things,' he fails to see them in true\nproportion.\"\n\n                                                         LUCY SOULSBY.\n\n\"If we can live in Christ and have His life in us, shall not the\nspiritual balance and proportion which were His become ours too? If He\nwere really our Master and our Saviour, could it be that we should get\nso eager and excited over little things? If we were His, could we\npossibly be wretched over the losing of a little money which we do not\nneed, or be exalted at the sound of a little praise which we know that\nwe only half deserve and that the praisers only half intend? A moment's\ndisappointment, a moment's gratification, and then the ocean would be\ncalm again and quite forgetful of the ripple which disturbed its bosom.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\nTemperance\n\n\nJUNE 18\n\n\"(Of Training...) its aim must be to bring into human character more of\nthat unity, consistency, harmony, proportion, upon which the Greek\nphilosophers were never weary of insisting as the essence of virtue.\"\n\n                         _The Making of Character_, Professor MACCUNN.\n\n\"_Temperance._--The original term describes that sovereign self-mastery,\nthat perfect self-control, in which the mysterious will of man holds in\nharmonious subjection all the passions and faculties of his nature.\n\n\"Self-will is to mind what self-indulgence is to sense, the usurpation\nby a part of that which belongs to the whole.\n\n\"_In Knowledge temperance._--The Apostle counsels temperance, the just\nand proportionate use of every faculty and gift, and not the abolition\nor abandonment of any.\n\n\"It is easier in many cases to pluck out the right eye or to cut off the\nright hand than to discipline and employ them.\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\nBalance\n\n\nJUNE 19\n\n\"Temperance is reason's girdle and passion's bridle.\"\n\n                                                        JEREMY TAYLOR.\n\n\"Be wary and keep cool. A cool head is as necessary as a warm heart. In\nany negotiations, steadiness and coolness are invaluable; while they\nwill often carry you in safety through times of danger and difficulty.\"\n\n                                                         Lord AVEBURY.\n\n\"Place a guard over your strong points! Thrift may run into\nniggardliness, generosity into prodigality or shiftlessness. Gentleness\nmay become pusillanimity, tact become insincerity, power become\noppression. Characters need sentries at their points of weakness, true\nenough, but often the points of greatest strength are, paradoxically,\nreally points of weakness.\"\n\n\nBalance\n\n\nJUNE 20\n\n\"Culture implies all which gives a mind possession of its powers.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"There are very, very few from whom we get that higher, deeper, broader\nhelp which it is the prerogative of true excellence in judgment to\nbestow: help to discern, through the haste and insistence of the\npresent, what is its real meaning and its just demand; help to give due\nweight to what is reasonable, however unreasonably it may be stated or\ndefended; help to reverence alike the sacredness of a great cause and\nthe sacredness of each individual life, to adjust the claims of general\nrules and special equity; help to carry with one conscientiously, on the\njourney towards decision, all the various thoughts that ought to tell\nupon the issue; help to keep consistency from hardening to obstinacy,\nand common sense from sinking into time-serving; help to think out one's\nduty as in a still, pure air, sensitive to all true signs and voices of\nthis world, and yet unshaken by its storms.\"\n\n                   _Studies in the Christian Character_, Bishop PAGET.\n\n\nSound Judgment\n\n\nJUNE 21\n\n\"We are all inclined to judge of others as we find them. Our estimate of\na character always depends much on the manner in which the character\naffects our own interests and passions. We find it difficult to think\nwell of those by whom we are thwarted or depressed, and we are ready to\nadmit every excuse for the vices of those who are useful or agreeable to\nus.\"\n\n                                                             MACAULAY.\n\n\"To judge is to see clearly, to care for what is just, and therefore to\nbe impartial,--more exactly, to be disinterested,--more exactly still,\nto be impersonal.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"Of all human faculties there is none which more enriches our lives than\na sound moral judgment. Genius is rarer and more wonderful. But this\nsurpasses even genius in the fact that it is not only in itself a\nvirtue, but the fruitful mother of virtues. It is as Aristotle said,\n'Given a sound judgment and all the virtues will follow in its train.'\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"If the moral judgment is to be sound it must presuppose character,\nfaculty to deliberate, and enlightenment.\"\n\n                         _The Making of Character_, Professor MACCUNN.\n\n\nSound Judgment\n\n\nJUNE 22\n\n\"That is a penetrating sarcasm of George Eliot's in 'Amos Barton': 'It\nis so much easier to say that a thing is black, than to discriminate the\nparticular shade of brown, blue, or green to which it really belongs. It\nis so much easier to make up your mind that your neighbour is good for\nnothing, than to enter into all the circumstances that would oblige you\nto modify that opinion.' Everybody needs the suggestion that is embodied\nin the above remark. Our judgments of men are always more or less\ndefective. But it is the man who prides himself on his outspokenness,\nthe man who thinks it would be cowardice to withhold an opinion of men\nand things, particularly if he is charged with the duty of public\nutterance, that needs to learn that blue or brown or green is not black,\nand that in nothing is so much discrimination needed as in the diagnosis\nof character.\"\n\n\"Never does a man portray his own character more vividly than in his\nmanner of portraying another.\"\n\n                                                              RICHTER.\n\n\nSound Judgment\n\n\nJUNE 23\n\n\"It hardly can seem strange that excellence in judgment is thus rare if\nwe go on to think of the manifold discipline that it needs.\n\n\"For we cannot deny that even physical conditions tend at least to tell\non it; and most of us may have to own that there are days on which we\nknow that we had better distrust the view we take of things. It is good\ncounsel that a man should, if he has the chance, reconsider after his\nholiday any important decision that he was inclined to make just before\nit; that he should appeal from his tired to his refreshed self; and men\nneed to deal strictly with the body, and to bring it into subjection,\nnot only lest its appetites grow riotous, but also lest it trouble, with\nmoods and miseries of its own, the exercise of judgment.\n\n\"And then, with the calmness of sound health, or the control that a\nstrong and vigilant will can sometimes gain over the encroachments of\nhealth that is not sound, there must also be the insight and\nresourcefulness of learning; that power to recognise, and weigh, and\nmeasure, and forecast, which comes of long watching how things move; the\npower that grows by constant thoughtfulness in study or in life; the\ndistinctive ability of those who, in Hooker's phrase, are 'diligent\nobservers of circumstances, the loose regard whereof is the nurse of\nvulgar folly.'\"\n\n                   _Studies in the Christian Character_, Bishop PAGET.\n\n\nHarsh Judgment\n\n\nJUNE 24\n\n\"How often we judge unjustly when we judge harshly. The fret and temper\nwe despise may have its rise in the agony of some great unsuspected\nself-sacrifice, or in the endurance of unavowed, almost intolerable\npain. Whoso judges harshly is sure to judge amiss.\"\n\n                                                   CHRISTINA ROSSETTI.\n\n  \"We meet and mingle, we mark men's speech;\n  We judge by a word or a fancied slight;\n  We give our fellows a mere glance each,\n  Then brand them for ever black or white.\n\n  \"Meanwhile God's patience is o'er us all,\n  He probes for motives, He waits for years;\n  No moment with Him is mean or small,\n  And His scales are turned by the weight of tears.\"\n\n\nJudging\n\n\nJUNE 25\n\n\"Perhaps it were better for most of us to complain less of being\nmisunderstood, and to take more care that we do not misunderstand other\npeople. It ought to give us pause at a time to remember that each one\nhas a stock of cut-and-dry judgments on his neighbours, and that the\nchances are that most of them are quite erroneous. What our neighbour\nreally is we may never know, but we may be pretty certain that he is not\nwhat we have imagined, and that many things we have thought of him are\nquite beside the mark. What he does we have seen, but we have no idea\nwhat may have been his thoughts and intentions. The mere surface of his\ncharacter may be exposed, but of the complexity within we have not the\nfaintest idea. People crammed with self-consciousness and self-conceit\nare often praised as humble, while shy and reserved people are judged to\nbe proud. Some whose whole life is one subtle studied selfishness get\nthe name of self-sacrifice, and other silent heroic souls are condemned\nfor want of humanity.\"\n\n                                _The Potter's Wheel_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\"To weigh other minds by our own is the false scale by which the greater\nnumber of us miscalculate all human actions and most human characters.\"\n\n                                                   JOHN OLIVER HOBBES.\n\n\nBiassed Judgments\n\n\nJUNE 26\n\n\"How difficult it is to submit anything to the opinion of another person\nwithout perverting his judgment by the way in which we put the matter to\nhim. If one says, 'For my part I think it beautiful,' or 'I think it\nobscure,' or the like, one inclines the hearer's imagination to that\nopinion, or incites it to take the contrary view.\"\n\n                                                               PASCAL.\n\n\"Human speech conveys different meanings to differently biassed minds.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n\"We judge of others by what we see in them: and, what is more perilous\nstill, we are tempted to judge of ourselves by what others can see in\nus.\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\nJudging\n\n\nJUNE 27\n\n  \"The sinner's own fault? So it was.\n  If every own fault found us out,\n  Dogged us and hedged us round about,\n  What comfort should we take because\n  Not half our due we thus wrung out?\n\n  \"Clearly his own fault. Yet I think\n  My fault in part, who did not pray\n  But lagged and would not lead the way.\n  I, haply, proved his missing link.\n  God help us both to mind and pray.\"\n\n                       CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI.\n\n\"She had the clear judicial mind which must inevitably see the tragic\npitifulness of things. She had thought too much to be able to indulge in\nthe primitive luxury of unqualified condemnation.\"\n\n                         _In Connection with the De Willoughby Claim_,\n\n                                     Mrs. HODGSON BURNETT.\n\n\"She was one of those lowly women who apply the severity born of their\ncreed to themselves, and spend only the love born of the indwelling\nSpirit upon their neighbour.\"\n\n                                                         G. MACDONALD.\n\n\nJustice and Mercy\n\n\nJUNE 28\n\n\"It is not even, amongst men, the best and purest who are found to be\nthe severest censors and judges of others. Quickness to detect and\nexpose the weakness and frailties of a fellow-man, harshness in\ncondemning them, mercilessness in punishing them, are not the\ncharacteristics which experience would lead us to expect in a very high\nand noble nature.... To be gentle, pitying, forbearing to the fallen, to\nbe averse to see or hear of human faults and vices, and when it is\nimpossible not to see them to be pained and grieved by them, to be\nconsiderate of every extenuating circumstance that will mitigate their\nculpability, to delight in the detection of some redeeming excellence\neven in the vilest.... Is not all this the sort of conduct which, as\nexperience teaches us, betokens, not moral apathy or indifference, but\nthe nature which is purest and most elevated beyond all personal\nsympathy with vice.... If, then, human goodness is the more merciful in\nproportion as it approaches nearer to perfection ... might we not\nconclude that when goodness becomes absolutely perfect, just then will\nmercy reach its climax and become absolutely unlimited?\"\n\n                                                      Principal CAIRD.\n\n  \"Search thine own heart. What paineth thee\n  In others, in thyself may be;\n  All dust is frail, all flesh is weak;\n  Be thou the true man thou dost seek.\"\n\n                                                             WHITTIER.\n\n\nJudging\n\n\nJUNE 29\n\n\"It is my way when I observe any instance of folly, any queer or absurd\nillusion, straightway to look for something of the same type in myself,\nfeeling sure that amid all differences there will be a certain\ncorrespondence; just as there is more or less correspondence in the\nnatural history even of continents widely apart, and of islands in\nopposite zones....\n\n\"Introspection which starts with the purpose of finding out one's own\nabsurdities is not likely to be very mischievous, yet of course it is\nnot free from dangers any more than breathing is, or the other functions\nthat keep us alive or active. To judge of others by oneself is in its\nmost innocent meaning the briefest expression for our only method of\nknowing mankind; yet, we perceive, it has come to mean in many cases\neither the vulgar mistake which reduces every man's value to the very\nlow figure at which the valuer himself happens to stand; or else, the\namiable illusion of the higher nature misled by a too generous\nconstruction of the lower. One cannot give a recipe for wise judgment:\nit resembles appropriate muscular action, which is attained by the\nmyriad lessons in nicety of balance and of aim that only practice can\ngive.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\nContemptuousness\n\n\nJUNE 30\n\n\"Our Lord not only _told_ men that they were the children of God, that\nthey should strive after their Father's likeness, and that they might\napproach nearer and nearer to being perfect as He is perfect: but, what\nwas more than this, in every word He spake,--whether of teaching, or\nreproof, or expostulation, or in His passing words to those who received\nHis mercies,--He _treated_ them as God's children. Man, as man, has in\nHis eyes a right to respect. Anger we find with our Lord often, as also\nsurprise at slowness of heart, indignation at hypocrisy, and at the\nRabbinical evasions of the Law; but never in our Lord's words or looks\ndo we find personal disdain. Towards no human being does He show\ncontempt. The scribe would have trodden the rabble out of existence; but\nthere is no such thing as rabble in our Lord's eyes. The master, in the\nparable, asks concerning the tree, which is unproductively exhausting\nthe soil, why cumbers it the ground; but it is not to be rooted up, till\nall has been tried. There it stands, and mere existence gives it claims,\nfor all that exists is the Father's.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n\"Tennyson was very grand on contemptuousness. It was, he said, a sure\nsign of intellectual littleness. Simply to despise, nearly always meant\nnot to understand. Pride and contempt were specially characteristic of\nbarbarians. Real civilisation taught human beings to understand each\nother better, and must therefore lessen contempt. It is a little or\nimmature or uneducated mind which readily despises. One who has\ntravelled and knows the world in its length and breadth, respects far\nmore views and standpoints other than his own.\"\n\n                                     _Tennyson--A Memoir_, by his Son.\n\n\nFalse Impressions\n\n\nJULY 1\n\n\"There are thousands and thousands of little untruths that hum and buzz\nand sting in society, which are too small to be brushed or driven away.\nThey are in the looks, they are in the inflections and tones of the\nvoice, they are in the actions, they are in reflections rather than in\ndirect images that are represented. They are methods of producing\nimpressions that are false, though every means by which they are\nproduced is strictly true. There are little unfairnesses between man and\nman, that are said to be minor matters and that are small things; there\nare little unjust judgments and detractions; there are petty violations\nof conscience; there are ten thousand of these flags of passions in men\nwhich are called foibles or weaknesses, but which eat like moths. They\ntake away the temper, they take away magnanimity and generosity, they\ntake from the soul its enamel and its polish. Men palliate and excuse\nthem, but that has nothing to do with their natural effect on us. They\nwaste and destroy us, and that, too, in the soul's silent and hidden\nparts.\"\n\n                                                   HENRY WARD BEECHER.\n\n  \"A lie which is half a truth\n  Is ever the blackest of lies.\"\n\n                               TENNYSON.\n\n\nTruth\n\n\nJULY 2\n\n\"Truth is the great mark at which we ought to aim in all things--truth\nin thought, truth in expression, truth in work. Those who habitually\nsacrifice truth in small things will find it difficult to pay her the\nrespect they should do in great things.\"\n\n                                                      Lord IDDESLEIGH.\n\n  \"Stand upright, speak thy thought, declare\n  The truth thou hast that all may share.\n  Be bold, proclaim it everywhere,\n  They only live who dare.\"\n\n                                                     Sir LEWIS MORRIS.\n\n\"The mind can only repose upon the stability of truth.\"\n\n                                                          Dr. JOHNSON.\n\n\nTruthfulness\n\n\nJULY 3\n\n\"Be profoundly honest. Never dare to say ... through ardent excitement\nor conformity to what you know you are expected to say, one word which\nat the moment when you say it, you do not believe. It would cut down the\nrange of what you say, perhaps, but it would endow every word that was\nleft with the force of ten.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\"Be honest with yourself, whatever the temptation; say nothing to others\nthat you do not think, and play no tricks with your own mind. Of all the\nevil spirits abroad at this hour in this world, insincerity is the most\ndangerous.\"\n\n                                                         J. A. FROUDE.\n\n\"Truthfulness is the foundation of all personal excellence. It exhibits\nitself in conduct. It is rectitude, truth in action, and shines through\nevery word and deed.\"\n\n                                                        SAMUEL SMILES.\n\n\nAccuracy\n\n\nJULY 4\n\n\"We always weaken what we exaggerate.\"\n\n                                      LA HARPE.\n\n\"It is no great advantage to have a lively wit if exactness be wanting.\nThe perfection of a clock does not consist in its going fast, but in its\nkeeping good time.\"\n\n                                                         VAUVENARGUES.\n\n\"After much vehement talk about 'the veracities,' will come utterly\nunveracious accounts of things and people--accounts made unveracious by\nthe use of emphatic words where ordinary words alone are warranted:\npictures of which the outlines are correct, but the lights and shades\nand colours are doubly and trebly as strong as they should be.\"\n\n                                                      HERBERT SPENCER.\n\n\nTruthfulness\n\n\nJULY 5\n\n\"It takes two to speak truth--one to speak and another to hear.\"\n\n                                                              THOREAU.\n\n\"Truth of intercourse is something more difficult than to refrain from\nopen lies. It is possible to avoid falsehood and yet not tell the truth.\nIt is not enough to answer formal questions. To reach the truth by yea\nand nay communications implies a questioner with a share of inspiration,\nsuch as is often found in mutual love. _Yea_ and _nay_ mean nothing; the\nmeaning must have been related in the question. Many words are often\nnecessary to convey a very simple statement; for in this sort of\nexercise we never hit the gold; the most that we can hope is by many\narrows, more or less far off on different sides, to indicate, in the\ncourse of time, for what target we are aiming, and after an hour's talk,\nback and forward, to convey the purport of a single principle or a\nsingle thought.\"\n\n                              _Virginibus Puerisque_, R. L. STEVENSON.\n\n\nTruthfulness\n\n\nJULY 6\n\n\"In very truth lying is a hateful and accursed vice. It is words alone\nthat distinguish us from the brute creation, and knit us to each other.\nIf we did but feel proper horror of it, and the fearful consequences\nthat spring from such a habit, we would pursue it with fire and sword,\nand with far more justice than other crimes. I observe that parents take\npleasure in correcting their children for slight faults, which make\nlittle impression on the character, and are of no real consequence.\nWhereas lying, in my opinion, and obstinacy, though in a less degree,\nare vices, the rise and progress of which ought to be particularly\nwatched and counteracted; these grow with their growth, and when once\nthe tongue has got a _wrong set, it is impossible to put it straight\nagain_. Whence we see men, otherwise of honourable natures, slaves to\nthis vice. If falsehood had, like truth, only one face, we should be on\nmore equal terms with it, for we should consider the contrary to what\nthe liar said as certain; but the reverse of truth has a hundred\nthousand forms, and is a field of boundless extent.\"\n\n                                                            MONTAIGNE.\n\n\"Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but\nis a stab at the health of human society.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\nTruthfulness\n\n\nJULY 7\n\n\"The cruellest lies are often told in silence. A man may have sat in a\nroom for hours and not opened his teeth, and yet come out of that room a\ndisloyal friend or a vile calumniator. And how many loves have perished\nbecause, from pride, or spite, or diffidence, or that unmanly shame\nwhich withholds a man from daring to betray emotion, a lover, at the\ncritical point of the relation, has but hung his head and held his\ntongue? And, again, a lie may be told by a truth, or a truth conveyed\nthrough a lie. Truth to facts is not always truth to sentiment; and part\nof the truth, as often happens in answer to a question, may be the\nfoulest calumny. A fact may be an exception; but the feeling is the law,\nand it is that which you must neither garble nor belie. The whole tenor\nof a conversation is a part of the meaning of each separate statement;\nthe beginning and the end define and travesty the intermediate\nconversation. You never speak to God; you address a fellow-man, full of\nhis own tempers: and to tell truth, rightly understood, is not to state\nthe true facts, but to convey a true impression; truth in spirit, not\ntruth to letter, is the true veracity.\"\n\n                              _Virginibus Puerisque_, R. L. STEVENSON.\n\n\"Truth is violated by falsehood, and it may be equally outraged by\nsilence.\"\n\n                                                                AMMAN.\n\n\nGossip\n\n\nJULY 8\n\n\"Gossip is a beast of prey that does not wait for the death of the\ncreature it devours.\"\n\n                                _Diana of the Crossways_, G. MEREDITH.\n\n    \"Give to a gracious message\n  A host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell\n    Themselves when they be felt.\"\n\n                                                          SHAKESPEARE.\n\n\"Let evil words die as soon as they're spoken.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\"If there is much art in speaking, there is no less in keeping silence.\nThere is an eloquent silence; it serves to praise and to condemn: there\nis a scornful silence: and there is a respectful silence.\"\n\n                                                     LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.\n\n\nBack-biting\n\n\nJULY 9\n\n\"Hear as little as you possibly can to the prejudice of others; believe\nnothing of the kind unless you are forced to believe it; never\ncirculate, nor approve of those who circulate, loose reports; moderate\nas far as you can the censure of others; always believe that if the\nother side were heard a very different account would be given of the\nmatter.\"\n\n                               _Everyday Christian Life_, Dean FARRAR.\n\n\"We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are\nwilling to give the advantage of a good light.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"Refrain your tongue from back-biting; for there is no word so secret\nthat shall go for nought, and the mouth that belieth, slayeth the soul.\"\n\n                                                          WISDOM i. 2.\n\n\nGossip\n\n\nJULY 10\n\n\"When people run about to disseminate some scrap of news which they\nalone possess, the result is not usually beneficial either to character\nor to mind.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n  \"Slander meets with no regard from noble minds,\n  Only the base believe what the base only utter.\"\n\n  \"No word, once spoken, returneth\n  Even if uttered unwillingly--\n  Shall God excuse our rashness?\n  That which is done, that abides.\"\n\n                                                     CHARLES KINGSLEY.\n\n\nEgotism\n\n\nJuly 11\n\n\"Above all things, let us avoid speaking too often about ourselves, and\nreferring to our own experiences. Nothing is more disagreeable than a\nman who is constantly quoting himself.\"\n\n                                                     LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.\n\n\"The pest of society is egotists.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"Avoid the personal view, the small view, the critical and fault-finding\nview. Run away from gossip as from a pestilence, and keep in your soul\ngreat ideals and ideals to solace your solitude. They will drive out\npetty worries, conceits and thoughts of carking care.\"\n\n                                                         ADA C. SWEET.\n\n\nConversation\n\n\nJULY 12\n\n\"The etiquette of conversation consists as much in listening politely as\nin talking agreeably.\"\n\n                                                                 H. A.\n\n\"The reason why so few persons are agreeable in conversation is that\nevery one thinks more about what he shall say than about what others are\nsaying, and because one cannot well be a good listener when one is eager\nto speak.\"\n\n                                                     LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.\n\n\"I am an enemy to long explanations; they deceive either the maker or\nthe hearer, generally both.\"\n\n                                                               GOETHE.\n\n\nConversation\n\n\nJULY 13\n\n\"The tone of good conversation is flowing and natural; it is neither\nheavy nor frivolous; it is learned without pedantry, lively without\nnoise, polished without equivocation. It is neither made up of lectures\nnor epigrams. Those who really converse, reason without arguing, joke\nwithout punning, skilfully unite wit and reason, maxims and sallies,\ningenious raillery and severe morality. They speak of everything in\norder that every one may have something to say: they do not investigate\ntoo closely, for fear of wearying: questions are introduced as if\nby-the-bye, and are treated with rapidity; precision leads to elegance,\neach one giving his opinion, and supporting it with few words. No one\nattacks wantonly another's opinion, no one supports his own obstinately.\nThey discuss in order to enlighten themselves, and leave off discussing\nwhere dispute would begin: every one gains information, every one\nrecreates himself, and all go away contented; nay, the sage himself may\ncarry away from what he has heard matter worthy of silent meditation.\"\n\n\nArgument\n\n\nJULY 14\n\n\"Argument is always a little dangerous. It often leads to coolness and\nmisunderstandings. You may gain your argument and lose your friend,\nwhich is probably a bad bargain. If you must argue, admit all you can,\nbut try to show that some point has been overlooked. Very few people\nknow when they have had the worst of an argument, and if they do, they\ndo not like it. Moreover, if they know they are beaten, it does not\nfollow that they are convinced. Indeed it is perhaps hardly going too\nfar to say that it is very little use trying to convince any one by\nargument. State your case as clearly and concisely as possible, and if\nyou shake his confidence in his own opinion it is as much as you can\nexpect. It is the first step gained.\"\n\n                                                         Lord AVEBURY.\n\n\"Speak fitly, or be silent wisely.\"\n\n                                                       GEORGE HERBERT.\n\n\"After speech silence is the greatest power in the world.\"\n\n                                                           LACORDAIRE.\n\n\"It is better to remain silent than to speak the truth ill-humouredly,\nand so spoiling an excellent dish by covering it with bad sauce.\"\n\n                                                 ST. FRANCIS DE SALES.\n\n\nArgument\n\n\nJULY 15\n\n\"When opposition of any kind is necessary, drop all colour of emotion\nout of it and let it be seen in the white light of truth.\"\n\n\"Nothing does reason more right than the coolness of those that offer\nit: For truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than from\nthe arguments of its opposers.\"\n\n                                                         WILLIAM PENN.\n\n  \"Be calm in arguing: for fierceness makes\n  Error a fault, and truth discourtesy.\"\n\n                                                       GEORGE HERBERT.\n\n\"To speak wisely may not always be easy, but not to speak ill requires\nonly silence.\"\n\n\nArgument\n\n\nJULY 16\n\n\"Prejudice is opinion without judgment.\"\n\n\"When a positive Man hath once begun to dispute anything, his Mind is\nbarred up against all Light and better Information. Opposition provokes\nhim, though there be never so good Ground for it, and he seems to be\nafraid of nothing more, than lest he should be convinced of the Truth.\"\n\n                                                     LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.\n\n\"In proportion as we love truth more and victory less, we shall become\nanxious to know what it is which leads our opponents to think as they\ndo. We shall begin to suspect that the pertinacity of belief exhibited\nby them must result from a perception of something we have not\nperceived. And we shall aim to supplement the portion of truth we have\nfound with the portion found by them.\"\n\n                                                      HERBERT SPENCER.\n\n\nAn Open Mind\n\n\nJULY 17\n\n\"He often thought that Dr. Arnold's maxim of being prepared each morning\nto consider everything an open question a good working rule. Not that\none should readily change one's opinions, but should always have an open\nmind, never a closed one, on any question outside exact knowledge.\"\n\n\"He that never changed any of his opinions, never corrected any of his\nmistakes; and he who was never wise enough to find out any mistakes in\nhimself, will not be charitable enough to excuse what he reckons\nmistakes in others.\"\n\n                                                            WHICHCOTE.\n\n\"Narrow-mindedness is a cause of self-sufficiency. We are slow to\nbelieve what is beyond the scope of our vision.\"\n\n                                                     LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.\n\n\nTolerance\n\n\nJULY 18\n\n\"Nothing, in our Lord's wisdom, strikes me more than His moderation with\nregard to error. What seems false to one man's mind may be true to that\nof another.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n\"A genuine universal tolerance is most surely attained, if we do not\nquarrel with the peculiar characteristics of individual men and races,\nbut only hold fast to the conviction, that what is truly excellent is\ndistinguished by its belonging to all mankind.\"\n\n                                                  GOETHE _to_ CARLYLE.\n\n\"New ideas want a little time to grow into shape: we know how easily a\nman is startled into shutting his mind against novelty when it is\nsuddenly presented.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n\nRight Use of Speech\n\n\nJULY 19\n\n\"There is no better way, I believe, in which to test the reality of our\nculture than by the self-discipline it teaches us to use in talk; and it\nmay be that the chief service we can render, the chief outcome that God\nlooks for from our higher education, is that in our homes, in the\nsociety around us, we should set a higher example of the right use of\nspeech; the right tone and temper and reticence in conversation; the\nabhorrence of idle words. Neither let us think that this ever will be\neasy to us. We must not be affected or pedantic, we must not be always\nsetting other people right; but we must be careful; we must keep our\nwishes and passions from colouring our view of things; we must take\ngreat pains to enter into the minds and feelings of others, to\nunderstand how things look to them, and we must remember that, whatever\npains we take in that regard, the result is still sure to be imperfect;\nwe must rule our moods, our likes and dislikes, with a firm hand; we\nmust distrust our general impressions till we have frankly, faithfully\nexamined them; we must resist the desire to say clever or surprising\nthings; we must be resolute not to overstate our case; we must let\nnothing pass our lips that charity would check; we must be always ready\nto confess our ignorance, and to be silent.--Yes, it is a hard and long\ntask; but it is for a high end, and in a noble service. It is that we\nmay be able to help others; to possess our souls in days of confusion\nand vehemence and controversy; to grow in the rare grace of judgment; to\nbe such that people may trust us, whether they agree with us or not. It\nis that we may somewhat detach ourselves from the stream of talk, and\nlearn to listen for the voice of God, and to commit our ways to Him.\"\n\n                   _Studies in the Christian Character_, Bishop PAGET.\n\n\nThoughts\n\n\nJULY 20\n\n\"If we are not responsible for the thoughts that pass our doors, we are\nat least responsible for those we admit and entertain.\"\n\n                                                   CHARLES B. NEWCOMB.\n\n\"The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts, and the\ngreat art in life is to have as many of them as possible.\"\n\n                                                                BOVEE.\n\n\"We lose vigour through thinking continually the same set of thoughts.\nNew thought is new life.\"\n\n                                                     PRENTICE MULFORD.\n\n\nCulture\n\n\nJULY 21\n\n\"Culture is not an accident of birth, although our surroundings advance\nor retard it; it is always a matter of individual education.\"\n\n                                                    HAMILTON W. MABIE.\n\n\"The secret of culture is to learn that a few great points steadily\nreappear, alike in the poverty of the obscurest farm, and in the\nmiscellany of metropolitan life, and that these few are alone to be\nregarded:--the escape from all false ties; courage to be what we are;\nand the love of what is simple and beautiful,--these, and the wish to\nserve, to add somewhat to the well-being of men.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"The highest we can attain to is not knowledge, but sympathy with\nintelligence.\"\n\n                                                              THOREAU.\n\n\nCourtesy\n\n\nJULY 22\n\n\"Courtesy is really doing unto others as you would be done unto, and the\nheart of it lies in a careful consideration for the feelings of other\npeople. It comes from putting one's self in his neighbour's place, and\ntrying to enter into his mind, and it demands a certain suppression of\none's self, and a certain delicate sympathy with one's neighbour.\"\n\n                                                      Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\"Even as one tries thus to think out the quality and work of courtesy,\nto understand the skill and power which it wields so quietly, to see the\nissues upon which it tells in the lives that are affected by it, one may\nbegin to feel that its place is really with the great forces of\ncharacter that ennoble and redeem the world; that, simply and lightly as\nit moves, it rests on deep self-discipline and deals with a real task;\nthat it is far more than a decoration or luxury of leisurely excellence.\nBut it is in contact with those who are growing perfect in it, those who\nnever fail in it, that one may more nearly realise its greatness. In\nseeing how every part of life is lit and hallowed by it; how common\nincidents, daily duties, chance meetings, come to be avenues of\nbrightness, and even means of grace; how points of light come quivering\nout upon the dull routine of business, or the conventionality of\npleasure; how God is served through every hour of the day;--it is in\nseeing this that one may come to think it far from strange that for His\nbeginning of miracles our Saviour chose an act of courtesy.\"\n\n                   _Studies in the Christian Character_, Bishop PAGET.\n\n\nCourtesy\n\n\nJULY 23\n\n\"Courtesy. This is Love in society, Love in relation to etiquette. 'Love\ndoth not behave itself unseemly.' Politeness has been defined as love in\ntrifles. Courtesy is said to be love in little things. And the one\nsecret of politeness is to love. Love _cannot_ behave itself unseemly.\"\n\n                    _The Greatest Thing in the World_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\"The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do\ntact and courtesy become.\"\n\n                                                         O. W. HOLMES.\n\n\"Kindness is the principle of tact, and respect for others the condition\nof 'savoir-vivre.'\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for\ncourtesy.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\nCourtesy\n\n\nJULY 24\n\n\"True politeness arises from the heart, not the head.\"\n\n\"... The machinery of life is so apt to be heated, one keenly\nappreciates those who are ever deftly pouring in the cooling oil, by\ntheir patience and their tact, their sweetness and their sympathy. And\none resents keenly that class of people who are honest and well meaning,\nbut who are persistently discourteous and are not ashamed--I mean the\nman who is credited with what is called a bluff, blunt manner, and who\ncredits himself with a special quality of downrightness and\nstraightforwardness. He considers it far better to say what he thinks,\nand boasts that he never minces his words, and people make all kinds of\nexcuses for him, and rather talk as if he were a very fine fellow,\nbeside whom civil-spoken persons are little better than hypocrites. As a\nmatter of fact, no one can calculate the pain this outspoken gentleman\ncauses in a single day, both in his family and outside.\"\n\n                                                      Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\"There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From it springs\nthe purest courtesy in the outward behaviour.\"\n\n                                                               GOETHE.\n\n\nManners\n\n\nJULY 25\n\n\"Manners are the happy ways of doing things. If they are superficial, so\nare the dew-drops, which give such a depth to the morning meadows.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n  \"Love's perfect blossom only blows\n  Where noble manners veil defect.\"\n\n                                                           C. PATMORE.\n\n  \"The gentle minde by gentle deeds is knowne;\n  For a man by nothing is so well bewrayed\n  As by his manners.\"\n\n                                                              SPENSER.\n\n\"True politeness is perfect ease and freedom. It simply consists in\ntreating others just as you love to be treated yourself.\"\n\n                                                    Lord CHESTERFIELD.\n\n\nManners\n\n\nJULY 26\n\n\"Manners aim to facilitate life, to get rid of all impediments. They aid\nour dealings and conversation, as a railway aids travelling, by getting\nrid of all the obstructions on the road.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"Defect in manners is usually the defect of fine perceptions.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"He is beautiful in face, in port, in manners, who is absorbed in\nobjects which he truly believes to be superior to himself.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"Familiar acts are beautiful through love.\"\n\n\nManners\n\n\nJULY 27\n\n\"Manners impress as they indicate real power. A man who is sure of his\npoint, carries a broad and contented expression, which everybody reads.\nAnd you cannot rightly train one to an air and manner, except by making\nhim the kind of man of whom that manner is the natural expression.\nNature forever puts a premium on reality.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"A man's own good breeding is the best security against other people's\nill manners.\"\n\n                                                         CHESTERFIELD.\n\n\"Manners are the ornament of action, and there is a way of speaking a\nkind word, or of doing a kind thing, which greatly enhances its value.\nWhat seems to be done with a grudge, or as an act of condescension, is\nscarcely accepted as a favour.\"\n\n                                                            S. SMILES.\n\n\nManners\n\n\nJULY 28\n\n\"There are many tests by which a gentleman may be known;--but there is\none that never fails--How does he exercise power over those subordinate\nto him? How does he conduct himself towards women and children?... He\nwho bullies those who are not in a position to resist, may be a snob,\nbut cannot be a gentleman. He who tyrannises over the weak and helpless\nmay be a coward, but no true man.\"\n\n                                                            S. SMILES.\n\n\"Our servants never seem to leave us; they are paid what many people\nwould call absurdly high wages, but I do not think that is the\nattraction. My mother does not see very much of them, and finds fault,\nwhen rarely necessary, with a simple directness which I have in vain\ntried to emulate; but her displeasure is so impersonal that there seems\nto be no sting in it. It is not that they have failed in their duty to\nherself, but they have been untrue to the larger duty to which she is\nherself obedient.\"\n\n                                                 _The House of Quiet._\n\n\nInfluence\n\n\nJULY 29\n\n\"And just as we may ruin our own characters without knowing it, so we\nmay ruin the characters of others. We are always influencing each\nother--a truth which I have often impressed upon you, because I feel its\ndeep importance. We cannot help ourselves. And this influence, which we\nthus unconsciously exercise by our mere presence, by look, gesture,\nexpression of face, is probably all the more potent for being\nunconscious. There are germs of moral health or disease continually\npassing from us and infecting for good or ill those about us. We read\nthat when our Lord was on earth virtue went out of Him sometimes, and\nhealed the bodies of those who came in contact with it. His Divine\nhumanity was always diffusing a spiritual atmosphere of purity around\nHim, which attracted, they knew not how, those who came within the\nsphere of His influence. So it must be with us in so far as our\ncharacters are pure and unselfish and Christlike. Our very presence will\ninfluence for good all who are near us, making them purer and nobler and\nmore unselfish, and shaming what is mean and base out of them. If, on\nthe other hand, our characters are ignoble and impure, we shall exude,\nwithout knowing or intending it, a poisonous influence on all who come\nnear us. Have we not sometimes felt this mysterious influence--a\npresence attracting, perhaps awing, us by some sort of spiritual\nmagnetism; or, on the other hand, repelling us as by the presage of\nimpending danger? Let us endeavour to keep this inalienable\nresponsibility of ours always in our thoughts. And it will be a great\nhelp to test ourselves now and then by the example of our Divine\nMaster.\"\n\n                             _Life Here and Hereafter_, Canon MACCOLL.\n\n\nInfluence\n\n\nJULY 30\n\n\"Let us reflect that the highest path is pointed out by the pure Ideal\nof those who look up to us, and who, if we tread less loftily, may never\nlook so high again. Remembering this, let it suggest one generous motive\nfor walking heedfully amid the defilements of earthly ways.\"\n\n                                                         N. HAWTHORNE.\n\n\"Others are affected by what I am, and say, and do. And these others\nhave also their sphere of influence. So that a single act of mine may\nspread in widening circles through a nation or humanity.\"\n\n                                                             CHANNING.\n\n\"A man who lives right, and is right, has more power in his silence than\nanother has by his words. Character is like bells which ring out sweet\nmusic, and which, when touched accidentally even, resound with sweet\nmusic.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\n\"Quench not the Smoking Flax\"\n\n\nJULY 31\n\n\"Make a great deal more of your right to praise the good than of your\nright to blame the bad. Never let a brave and serious struggle after\ntruth and goodness, however weak it may be, pass unrecognised. Do not be\nchary of appreciation. Hearts are unconsciously hungry for it. There is\nlittle danger that appreciation shall be given too abundantly. Here and\nthere, perhaps, in your shops and schools and households, there is some\none who has too lazily sunk down upon the praise he has received for\nsome good work, and rested in sluggish satisfaction on it; but such\ndisasters hardly count among the unfulfilled lives which have lived\nmeagrely and stuntedly for the lack of some simple cordial human\napproval of what they have honestly, however blunderingly, tried to do.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\"It is a great sign of mediocrity to be always praising moderately.\"\n\n                                                         VAUVENARGUES.\n\n\"'Quench not the smoking flax'--to which I add, 'Never give unnecessary\npain.' The cricket is not the nightingale; why tell him so? Throw\nyourself into the mind of the cricket--the process is newer and more\ningenious; and it is what charity commands.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\n\"Quench not the Smoking Flax\"\n\n\nAUGUST 1\n\n\"Christians are very often liable not, perhaps, to put obstacles into\nthe way of efforts to do right so much as to refuse them the needful\nhelp, without which they have little chance of succeeding. To look\ncoldly on while our fellows are struggling in the waves of this evil sea\nand never to hold out a hand or to say a word of encouragement, is very\noften most cruelly to depress all energy of repentance. The strong\nvirtue that can go on its own way without being shaken by any ordinary\ntemptation too often forgets the duty due to the weakness close to its\nside. By stern treatment of faults which were yet much struggled\nagainst, by cold refusal to acknowledge any except plainly successful\nefforts, by rejecting the approaches of those who have not yet learnt\nthe right way, but are really wishing in their secret hearts to learn\nit, those who are strong not unfrequently do much harm to those who are\nweak.\"\n\n                                                        Bishop TEMPLE.\n\n\"The best we can do for each other is to remove unnecessary obstacles,\nand the worst--to weaken any of the motives which urge us to strive.\"\n\n                       _The Standard of Life_, Mrs. BERNARD BOSANQUET.\n\n\nInfluence\n\n\nAUGUST 2\n\n\"Even in ordinary life, contact with nobler natures arouses the feeling\nof unused power and quickens the consciousness of responsibility.\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\"Do we not all know how apt we are to become like those whom we see,\nwith whom we spend our hours, and, above all, like those whom we admire\nand honour? For good and for evil, alas! For evil--for those who\nassociate with evil or frivolous persons are too apt to catch not only\ntheir low tone, but their very manner, their very expression of face,\nspeaking and thinking and acting.... But thank God, ... just in the same\nway does good company tend to make them high-minded.... I have lived\nlong enough to see more than one man of real genius stamp his own\ncharacter, thought, even his very manner of speaking, for good or for\nevil, on a whole school or party of his disciples. It has been said, and\ntruly, I believe, that children cannot be brought up among beautiful\npictures,--I believe, even among any beautiful sights and\nsounds--without the very expression of their faces becoming more\nbeautiful, purer, gentler, nobler.\"\n\n                                                     CHARLES KINGSLEY.\n\n\nInfluence\n\n\nAUGUST 3\n\n\"Throw a stone into the stream, and the circles that propagate\nthemselves are the beautiful type of all influence.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"It requires but little knowledge of society and history to assure us of\nthe strong permeating invisible influence upon society at large of any\nbody of men of clear thought, strong conviction, and disciplined\nconduct. At once many things respond to the magnetism; many are put on\ntheir mettle who would not for the world own it: many recognise their\nown best things more clearly in the new light shed upon them; there is\ninstinctive moral competition. Such influences travel fast and far.... I\nhave always myself believed that the later thought of the Roman\nworld--the mellow stoicism of Aurelius and Epictetus in the second\ncentury, with its strong unexplained instinct for a personal and\nfatherly God, with its gentle and self-denying ethics, shews the\ntincture of the influence diffused through the thoughts and prayers, the\nquiet conversations or the dropped words and overheard phrases--or the\nbearing and countenance of a slave here or a friend there, known or\nperhaps not known to belong to that strange new body of people with\ntheir foolish yet arresting faith, with their practices everywhere\nspoken against yet of such pure and winning charm--who bore the name of\nthe Nazarene.\"\n\n        _The Church's Failures and the Work of Christ_, Bishop TALBOT.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 4\n\n\"We should ever have it fixed in our memories, that by the characters of\nthose whom we choose for our friends, our own is likely to be formed,\nand will certainly be judged of by the world. We ought, therefore, to be\nslow and cautious in contracting intimacy; but when a virtuous\nfriendship is once established, we must ever consider it as a sacred\nengagement.\"\n\n                                                                BLAIR.\n\n\"Might I give counsel to any young hearer, I would say unto him: Try to\nfrequent the company of your betters. In books and life is the most\nwholesome society; learn to admire rightly; the great pleasure of life\nis that. Note what the great men admired--they admired great things;\nnarrow spirits admire basely, and worship meanly.\"\n\n                                                            THACKERAY.\n\n\"Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm\nand constant.\"\n\n                                                             SOCRATES.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 5\n\n\"There is nothing so bad for man or woman as to live always with their\ninferiors. It is a truth so important, that one might well wish to turn\naside a moment and urge it, even in its lower aspects, upon the young\npeople who are just making their associations and friendships. Many a\ntemptation of laziness or pride induces us to draw towards those who do\nnot know as much or are not in some way as strong as we are. It is a\nsmaller tax upon our powers to be in their society. But it is bad for\nus. I am sure that I have known men, intellectually and morally very\nstrong, the whole development of whose intellectual and moral life has\nsuffered and been dwarfed, because they have only accompanied with their\ninferiors, because they have not lived with men greater than themselves.\nWhatever else they lose, they surely must lose some culture of humility.\nIf I could choose a young man's companions, some should be weaker than\nhimself, that he might learn patience and charity; many should be as\nnearly as possible his equals, that he might have the full freedom of\nfriendship; but most should be stronger than he was, that he might for\never be thinking humbly of himself and be tempted to higher things.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 6\n\n\"For good or evil a man's moral and spiritual outlook is altered by the\noutlook of his comrade. It is inevitable, and in all true comradeship it\nmakes for truth, and generosity, and freedom. It is an incalculable\nenlargement of human responsibility, because it constitutes us, in a\nmeasure, guardians each of the other's soul. And yet, it is never the\nsuppression of a weak individuality by a strong one. That is not even\ntrue discipleship, but spiritual tyranny. What the play of two\npersonalities brings about is a fuller, deeper self-realisation on\neither side. The experience of comradeship, with all the new knowledge\nand insight that it brings into a life, can leave no ideal unchanged,\nbut the change is not of the nature of a substitution, but of continuous\ngrowth. It is not mental or moral bondage, but deliverance from both.\n\n\"And it is the deliverance from bondage to ourselves. It is our refuge\nfrom pride. More than all else, comradeship teaches us to walk humbly\nwith God. For while God's trivial gifts may allow us to grow vain and\nself-complacent, His great gifts, if we once recognise them, make us own\nour deep unworthiness, and bow our heads in unspeakable gratitude. We\nmay have rated our deserts high, and taken flattery as our just due; we\nmay have competed for the world's prizes, and been filled with gratified\nambition at securing them. But however high we rate ourselves, in the\nhour in which the soul is conscious of its spiritual comrades, we know\nthat God's great infinite gift of human love is something we have never\nearned, could never earn by merit or achievement, by toil, or prayer, or\nfasting. It has come to us straight out of the heart of the eternal\nFatherhood; and all our pride and vanity fall away, and our lives come\nagain to us as the lives of little children.\"\n\n                                           _Comradeship_, MAY KENDALL.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 7\n\n\"Friendship is a plant which cannot be forced. True friendship is no\ngourd, springing in a night and withering in a day.\"\n\n                                                     CHARLOTTE BRONTE.\n\n\"Blessed are they who have the gift of making friends, for it is one of\nGod's best gifts. It involves many things, but, above all, the power of\ngoing out of one's self, and appreciating whatever is noble and loving\nin another.\"\n\n                                                        THOMAS HUGHES.\n\n\"Friendship cannot be permanent unless it becomes spiritual. There must\nbe fellowship in the deepest things of the soul, community in the\nhighest thoughts, sympathy with the best endeavours.\"\n\n                                                           HUGH BLACK.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 8\n\n\"Our chief want in life is, somebody who shall make us do what we can.\nThis is the service of a friend.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"The end of friendship is for aid and comfort through all the passages\nof life and death.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"Every man rejoices twice when he has a partner of his joy. A friend\nshares my sorrow, and makes it but a moiety; but he swells my joy, and\nmakes it double.\"\n\n                                                        JEREMY TAYLOR.\n\n  \"He that is thy friend indeed,\n  He will help thee in thy need.\n  If thou sorrow, he will weep.\n  If thou wake, he cannot sleep.\n  Thus in every grief in heart\n  He with thee doth bear a part.\"\n\n                            SHAKESPEARE.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 9\n\n\"To begin with, how can life be worth living, to use the words of\nEnnius, which lacks that repose which is to be found in the mutual\ngood-will of a friend? What can be more delightful than to have some one\nto whom you can say everything with the same absolute confidence as to\nyourself? Is not prosperity robbed of half its value if you have no one\nto share your joy? On the other hand, misfortunes would be hard to bear\nif there were not some one to feel them even more acutely than\nyourself.\"\n\n                                                               CICERO.\n\n\n\"Comradeship is one of the finest facts, and one of the strongest forces\nin life.\"\n\n                                                           HUGH BLACK.\n\n\"... All I can do is to urge on you to regard friendship as the greatest\nthing in the world; for there is nothing which so fits in with our\nnature, or is so exactly what we want in prosperity or adversity.\"\n\n                                                               CICERO.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAugust 10\n\n\"Beware lest thy friend learn to tolerate one frailty of thine, and so\nan obstacle be raised to the progress of thy love.\"\n\n                                                              THOREAU.\n\n\"That he had 'a genius for friendship' goes without saying, for he was\nrich in the humility, the patience and the powers of trust, which such a\ngenius implies. Yet his love had, too, the rarer and more strenuous\ntemper which requires 'the common aspiration,' is jealous for a friend's\ngrowth, and has the nerve to criticise. It is the measure of what he\nfelt friendship to be, that he has defined religion in the terms of it.\"\n\n                               _Of Henry Drummond_, GEORGE ADAM SMITH.\n\n\"All men have their frailties, and whoever looks for a friend without\nimperfection will never find what he seeks. We love ourselves\nnotwithstanding our faults, and we ought to love our friends in like\nmanner.\"\n\n                                                                CYRUS.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 11\n\n\"... For instance, it often happens that friends need remonstrance and\neven reproof. When these are administered in a kindly spirit they ought\nto be taken in good part. But somehow or other there is truth in what my\nfriend Terence says in his Andria: 'Compliance gets us friends, plain\nspeaking hate.'\n\n\"Plain speaking is a cause of trouble, if the result of it is\nresentment, which is poison to friendship; but compliance is really the\ncause of much more trouble, because by indulging his faults it lets a\nfriend plunge into headlong ruin. But the man who is most to blame is he\nwho resents plain speaking and allows flattery to egg him on to his\nruin.... If we remonstrate, it should be without bitterness; if we\nreprove, there should be no word of insult.... But if a man's ears are\nso closed to plain speaking that he cannot bear to hear the truth from a\nfriend, we may give him up in despair. This remark of Cato's, as so many\nof his did, shews great acuteness: 'There are people who owe more to\nbitter enemies than to apparently pleasant friends: the former often\nspeak the truth, the latter never.' Besides, it is a strange paradox\nthat the recipients of advice should feel no annoyance where they ought\nto feel it, and yet feel so much where they ought not. They are not at\nall vexed at having committed a fault, but very angry at being reproved\nfor it.\"\n\n                                                               CICERO.\n\n\"Men of character like to hear of their faults; the other class do not.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"Before giving advice we must have secured its acceptance, or rather,\nhave made it desired.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 12\n\n\"The friendship of Jesus was not checked or foiled by the discovery of\nfaults or blemishes in those whom He had taken into His life. Even in\nour ordinary human relations we do not know what we are engaging to do\nwhen we become the friend of another. 'For better for worse, for richer\nfor poorer, in sickness and in health,' runs the marriage covenant. The\ncovenant in all true friendship is the same. We pledge our friend\nfaithfulness, with all that faithfulness includes. We know not what\ndemands upon us this sacred compact may make in years to come.\nMisfortune may befall our friend, and he may require our aid in many\nways. Instead of being a help he may become a burden. But friendship\nmust not fail, whatever its cost may be. When we become the friend of\nanother, we do not know what faults and follies in him closer\nacquaintance may disclose to our eyes. But here, again, ideal friendship\nmust not fail.\"\n\n                        _Personal Friendships of Jesus_, J. R. MILLER.\n\n  \"For he that wrongs his friend\n  Wrongs himself more, and ever bears about\n  A silent court of justice in his breast,\n  Himself the judge and jury, and himself\n  The prisoner at the bar, ever condemned.\"\n\n                                                             TENNYSON.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 13\n\n\"Treat your friends for what you know them to be. Regard no surfaces.\nConsider not what they did, but what they intended.\"\n\n                                                              THOREAU.\n\n\"What makes us so changeable in our friendships, is our difficulty to\ndiscern the qualities of the soul, and the ease with which we detect\nthose of the intellect.\"\n\n\"Judge not thy friend until thou standest in his place.\"\n\n                                                         RABBI HILLEL.\n\n\"Criticism often takes from the tree caterpillars and blossoms\ntogether.\"\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 14\n\n\"There are two elements that go to the composition of friendship, each\nso sovereign that I can detect no superiority in either, no reason why\neither should be first named. One is Truth ... the other is Tenderness.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"The essence of friendship is entireness, a total magnanimity and\ntrust.... A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I\nmay think aloud.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"People do not sufficiently remember that in every relation of life, as\nin the closest one of all, they ought to take one another 'for better\nfor worse.' That, granting the tie of friendship, gratitude, esteem, be\nstrong enough to have existed at all, it ought, either actively or\npassively, to exist for ever. And seeing we can at best know our\nneighbour, companion, or friend as little, as alas! we often find he\nknoweth of us, it behoveth us to trust him with the most patient\nfidelity, the tenderest forbearance; granting unto all his words and\nactions that we do not understand, the utmost limit of faith that common\nsense and Christian justice will allow. Nay, these failing, is there not\nleft Christian charity? which being past believing and hoping, still\nendureth all things.\"\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 15\n\n\"Mutual respect implies discretion and reserve even in love itself; it\nmeans preserving as much liberty as possible to those whose life we\nshare. We must distrust our instinct of intervention, for the desire to\nmake our own will prevail is often disguised under the mask of\nsolicitude.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"Everything that is mine, even to my life, I may give to one I love, but\nthe secret of my friend is not mine to give.\"\n\n                                                        PHILIP SIDNEY.\n\n\"When true friends part they should lock up one another's secrets and\nchange the keys.\"\n\n                                                              FELTHAM.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 16\n\n\"So true it is that nature abhors isolation, and ever leans upon\nsomething as a stay and support; and this is found in its most pleasing\nform in our closest friend.\"\n\n                                                               CICERO.\n\n\"And great and numerous as are the blessings of friendship, this\ncertainly is the sovereign one, that it gives us bright hopes for the\nfuture and forbids weakness and despair. In the face of a true friend a\nman sees as it were a second self. So that where his friend is he is; if\nhis friend be rich, he is not poor; though he be weak, his friend's\nstrength is his; and in his friend's life he enjoys a second life after\nhis own is finished.\"\n\n                                                               CICERO.\n\n                \"In distress a friend\n  Comes like a calm to the toss'd mariner.\"\n\n                                      EURIPIDES.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 17\n\n\"A man only understands what is akin to something already existing in\nhimself.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"There are some to whom we speak almost in a language of our own, with\nthe confidence that all our broken hints are recognised with a thrill of\nkinship, and our half-uttered thoughts discerned and shared: some with\nwhom we need not cramp our meaning into the dead form of an explicit\naccuracy, and with whom we can forecast that we shall walk together in\nundoubting sympathy even over tracks of taste and belief which we may\nnever yet have touched.\"\n\n  _Faculties and Difficulties for Belief and Disbelief_, Bishop PAGET.\n\n\"Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.\"\n\n                                                              ADDISON.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 18\n\n\"And though Aristotle does well to warn us that absence dissolves\nfriendship, it is happily none the less true that friend may powerfully\ninfluence friend though the two be by no means constant associates. Even\nfar removal in place, or in occupation, or in fortunes, cannot arrest\ninfluence. For once any man has true friends, he never again frames his\ndecisions, even those that are most secret, as if he were alone in the\nworld. He frames them habitually in the imagined company of his friends.\nIn their visionary presence he thinks and acts; and by them, as\nvisionary tribunal, he feels himself, even in his unspoken intentions\nand inmost feelings, to be judged. In this aspect friendship may become\na supreme force both to encourage and restrain. For it is not simply\nwhat our friends expect of us that is the vital matter here. They are\noften more tolerant of our failings than is perhaps good for us. It is\nwhat in our best moments we believe that they expect of us. For it is\nthen that they become to us, not of their own choice but of ours, a kind\nof second conscience, in whose presence our weaknesses and backslidings\nbecome 'that worst kind of sacrilege that tears down the invisible altar\nof trust.'\"\n\n                         _The Making of Character_, Professor MACCUNN.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 19\n\n\"Few things are more fatal to friendship than the stiffness which cannot\ntake a step towards acknowledgment.\"\n\n                              _Life of F. W. Crossley_, RENDEL HARRIS.\n\n\"Do not discharge in haste the arrow which can never return: it is easy\nto destroy happiness; most difficult to restore it.\"\n\n                                                               HERDER.\n\n\"Discord harder is to end than to begin.\"\n\n                                                              SPENSER.\n\n\"Think of this doctrine--that reasoning beings were created for one\nanother's sake; that to be patient is a branch of justice, and that men\nsin without intending it.\"\n\n                                                      MARCUS AURELIUS.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 20\n\n\"We should learn from Jesus that the essential quality in the heart of\nfriendship is not the desire to have friends, but the desire to be a\nfriend; not to get good and help from others, but to impart blessing to\nothers. Many of the sighings for friendship which we have are merely\nselfish longings,--a desire for happiness, for pleasure, for the\ngratification of the heart, which friends would bring. If the desire\nwere to be a friend, to do others good, to serve and to give help, it\nwould be a far more Christlike longing, and would transform the life and\ncharacter.\"\n\n                        _Personal Friendships of Jesus_, J. R. MILLER.\n\n\"To love is better, nobler, more elevating, and more sure, than to be\nloved. To love is to have found that which lifts us above ourselves;\nwhich makes us capable of sacrifice; which unseals the forces of another\nworld. He who is loved has gained the highest tribute of earth; he who\nloves has entered into the spirit of heaven. The love which comes to us\nmust always be alloyed with the sad sense of our own unworthiness. The\nlove which goes out from us is kept bright by the ideal to which it is\ndirected.\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 21\n\n\"Friendships that have been renewed require more care than those that\nhave never been broken off.\"\n\n                                                     LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.\n\n\"Broken friendship may be soldered, but never made sound.\"\n\n                                                      Spanish Proverb.\n\n\"A friend once won need never be lost, if we will be only trusty and\ntrue ourselves. Friends may part, not merely in body, but in spirit for\na while. In the bustle of business and the accidents of life, they may\nlose sight of each other for years; and more, they may begin to differ\nin their success in life, in their opinions, in their habits, and there\nmay be, for a time, coldness and estrangement between them, but not for\never if each will be trusty and true. For then they will be like two\nships who set sail at morning from the same port, and ere night-fall\nlose sight of each other, and go each on its own course and at its own\npace for many days, through many storms and seas, and yet meet again,\nand find themselves lying side by side in the same haven when their long\nvoyage is past.\"\n\n                                                     CHARLES KINGSLEY.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 22\n\n\"The most fatal disease of friendship is gradual decay or dislike,\nhourly increased by causes too slender for complaint and too numerous\nfor removal. Those who are angry may be reconciled, those who have been\ninjured may receive a recompense; but when the desire of pleasing, and\nwillingness to be pleased, is silently diminished, the renovation of\nfriendship is hopeless: as when the vital powers sink into languor,\nthere is no longer any use for the physician.\"\n\n                                                          _The Idler._\n\n\"... There is such a disaster, so to speak, as having to break off\nfriendship.... In such cases friendships should be allowed to die out\ngradually by an intermission of intercourse. They should, as I have been\ntold that Cato used to say, rather be unstitched than torn in twain....\nFor there can be nothing more discreditable than to be at open war with\na man with whom you have been intimate.... Our first object then should\nbe to prevent a breach; our second to secure that if it does occur, our\nfriendship should seem to have died a natural rather than a violent\ndeath.\"\n\n                                                               CICERO.\n\n\nFriendship\n\n\nAUGUST 23\n\n\"Friends--those relations that one makes for one's self.\"\n\n                                                            DESCHAMPS.\n\n\"Some one asked Kingsley what was the secret of his strong joyous life;\nand he answered, 'I had a friend.'\"\n\n\"The years have taught some sweet, some bitter lessons--none wiser than\nthis: to spend in all things else, but of old friends to be most\nmiserly.\"\n\n                                                               LOWELL.\n\n\"The best wish for us all is, that when we grow old, as we must do, the\nfast friends of our age may be those we have loved in our youth.\"\n\n                                                                MASON.\n\n\nJealousy\n\n\nAUGUST 24\n\n\"Jealousy is a terrible thing. It resembles love, only it is precisely\nlove's contrary. Instead of wishing for the welfare of the object loved,\nit desires the dependence of that object upon itself, and its own\ntriumph. Love is the forgetfulness of self; jealousy is the most\npassionate form of egotism, the glorification of a despotic, exacting,\nand vain _ego_, which can neither forget nor subordinate itself. The\ncontrast is perfect.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"Jealousy is a secret avowal of inferiority.\"\n\n                                                            MASSILLON.\n\n\nJealousy\n\n\nAUGUST 25\n\n\"We are not jealous of what we give up, but of what is wrested from our\nunwilling hands. The first is always ours, the second never can be.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"Jealousy is not love, but it is the two-edged sword that parts true\nlove from counterfeit. At its touch, the knowledge of what it is to love\nwithout reward, thrills heart and brain, sharp and clear, almost a\nvision of hell. Then if we are base, we die to love; but if we are\nnoble, it is to ourselves we die.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"It is only what we surrender willingly that is ours always, as the wave\nnever loses what it surrenders to the sea.\"\n\n  _Turkish Bonds_, MAY KENDALL.\n\n\nJealousy\n\n\nAUGUST 26\n\n  \"What state of mind can be so blest,\n  As love that warms the gentle brest;\n  Two souls in one; the same desire\n  To grant the bliss, and to require?\n    If in this heaven a hell we find,\n          'Tis all from thee,\n          O Jealousie!\n  Thou tyrant, tyrant of the mind.\n\n  \"All other ills, tho' sharp they prove,\n  Serve to refine a perfect love;\n  In absence, or unkind disdain\n  Sweet hope relieves the lover's pain;\n    But O! no cure but death we find\n          To sett us free\n          From Jealousie,\n  Thou tyrant, tyrant of the mind.\n\n  \"False in thy glass all objects are,\n  Some set too near, and some too far:\n  Thou art the fire of endless might,\n  The fire that burns and gives no light.\n    All torments of the damned, we find\n          In only thee,\n          O Jealousie;\n  Thou tyrant, tyrant of the mind.\"\n\n                                   DRYDEN.\n\n\nLove and Remorse\n\n\nAUGUST 27\n\n\"We should get a lesson in friendship's ministry. Too many wait until\nthose they love are dead, and then bring their alabaster boxes of\naffection and break them. They keep silent about their love when words\nwould mean so much, would give such cheer, encouragement, and hope, and\nthen, when the friend lies in the coffin, their lips are unsealed and\nspeak out their glowing tribute on ears that heed not the laggard\npraise. Many persons go through life, struggling bravely with\ndifficulty, temptation, and hardship, carrying burdens too heavy for\nthem, pouring out their love in unselfish serving of others, and yet are\nscarcely ever cheered by a word of approval or commendation, or by\ndelicate tenderness of friendship; then, when they lie silent in death,\na whole circle of admiring friends gathers to do them honour. Every one\nremembers a personal kindness received, a favour shown, some help given,\nand speaks of it in grateful words. Letters full of appreciation,\ncommendation, and gratitude are written to sorrowing friends. Flowers\nare sent and piled about the coffin, enough to have strewn every hard\npath of the long years of struggle. How surprised some good men and\nwomen would be, after lives with scarcely a word of affection to cheer\ntheir hearts, were they to awake suddenly in the midst of their friends,\na few hours after their death, and hear the testimonies that are falling\nfrom every tongue, the appreciation, the grateful words of love, the\nrememberings of kindness! They had never dreamed in life that they had\nso many friends, that so many had thought well of them, that they were\nhelpful to so many.\"\n\n                        _Personal Friendships of Jesus_, J. R. MILLER.\n\n\nLove and Remorse\n\n\nAUGUST 28\n\n\"When our indignation is borne in submissive silence, we are apt to feel\ntwinges of doubt afterwards as to our own generosity, if not justice;\nhow much more when the object of our anger has gone into everlasting\nsilence, and we have seen his face for the last time in the meekness of\ndeath.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\"All about us move, these common days, those who would be strengthened\nand comforted by the good cheer that we could give. Let us not reserve\nall the flowers for coffin-lids. Let us not keep our alabaster boxes\nsealed and unbroken till our loved ones are dead. Let us show kindness\nwhen kindness will do good. It will make sorrow all the harder to bear\nif we have to say beside our dead, 'I might have brightened the way a\nlittle, if only I had been kinder.'\"\n\n                        _Personal Friendships of Jesus_, J. R. MILLER.\n\n\"I like not only to be loved, but to be told I am loved. The realm of\nsilence is large enough beyond the grave.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\nLove and Remorse\n\n\nAUGUST 29\n\n\"Oh! do not let us wait to be just or pitiful or demonstrative towards\nthose we love until they or we are struck down by illness or threatened\nwith death! Life is short, and we have never too much time for\ngladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with\nus. Oh, be swift to love, make haste to be kind!\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n  \"Too soon, too soon comes Death to show\n  We love more deeply than we know!\n  The rain that fell upon the height\n  Too gently to be called delight,\n  Within the dark vale reappears\n  As a wild cataract of tears;\n  And love in life should strive to see\n  Sometimes what love in death would be!\"\n\n                               COVENTRY PATMORE.\n\n\nDissension\n\n\nAUGUST 30\n\n  \"Alas! how light a cause may move\n  Dissension between hearts that love!\n  Hearts that the world in vain had tried,\n  And sorrow but more closely tied;\n  That stood the storm when waves were rough,\n  Yet in a sunny hour fall off,\n  Like ships that have gone down at sea,\n  When heaven was all tranquillity!\n  A something, light as air--a look,\n  A word unkind or wrongly taken--\n  Oh! love that tempests never shook,\n  A breath, a touch like this has shaken;\n  And ruder words will soon rush in\n  To spread the breach that words begin;\n  And eyes forget the gentle ray\n  They wore in courtship's smiling day;\n  And voices lose the tone that shed\n  A tenderness round all they said;\n  Till fast declining, one by one,\n  The sweetnesses of love are gone,\n  And hearts, so lately mingled, seem\n  Like broken clouds--or like the stream\n  That smiling left the mountain's brow,\n    As though its waters ne'er could sever,\n  Yet, ere it reach the plain below,\n    Breaks into floods, that part for ever.\n\n  O you that have the charge of Love,\n  Keep him in rosy bondage bound!\"\n\n                            _Lalla Rookh_, T. MOORE.\n\n\nLove\n\n\nAUGUST 31\n\n\"Love is the first and the last and the strongest bond in experience. It\nconquers distance, outlives all changes, bears the strain of the most\ndiverse opinions.\"\n\n  _The Mind of the Master_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n  \"Say never, ye loved once!\n  God is too near above, the Grave, beneath:\n  And all our moments breathe\n  Too quick in mysteries of life and death,\n  For such a word. The eternities avenge\n  Affections light of range;\n  There comes no change to justify that change,\n  Whatever comes,--Loved _once_.\"\n\n                                        E. B. BROWNING.\n\n\nUnrequited Love\n\n\nSeptember 1\n\n\"It was the old problem, of love that may not even spend itself for\nthose it loves. Some hold that the purpose of such privation--as bitter\nto the spirit as the loss of light, and warmth, and air to the body--is\nto teach men to love God, and not their fellow-men. Rather, it is to\nteach them to love human beings more, with love not separate from the\nlove of God, but near to His own heart. Such love is never fruitless,\nthough it may seem to be. Our longing to serve personally is often only\nlonging for the personal reward of service; and love that serves in\nfinite fashion often misses the mark. We hurt where we desire to heal:\nwe bind a greater burden on the life whose load we only strive to\nlighten. God's cross is always a crown: our crowns are often crosses.\nThe cup of water that we put to our friend's lips is from a poisoned\nspring. Only the cup that we give God to bear to him, is always pure and\ncool.\"\n\n                                         _Turkish Bonds_, MAY KENDALL.\n\n\nUnrequited Love\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 2\n\n  \"Infancy? What if the rose-streak of morning\n  Pale and depart in a passion of tears?\n  Once to have hoped is no matter for scorning:\n  Love once: e'en love's disappointment endears,\n  A moment's success pays the failure of years.\"\n\n                                                          R. BROWNING.\n\n\"It looks like a waste of life, that mowing down of our best years by a\nrelentless passion which itself falls dead on the top of them. But it is\nnot so. Every year I live I am more convinced that the waste of life\nlies in the love we have not given, the powers we have not used, the\nselfish prudence which will risk nothing, and which, shirking pain,\nmisses happiness as well. No one ever yet was the poorer in the long run\nfor having once in a lifetime 'let out all the length of the reins.'\"\n\n                                     _Red Pottage_, MARY CHOLMONDELEY.\n\n\nBereavement\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 3\n\n\"If we still love those we lose, can we altogether lose those we love?\"\n\n                                            _The Newcomes_, THACKERAY.\n\n\"They that love beyond the World cannot be separated by it.\n\n\"Death cannot kill what never dies. Nor can Spirits ever be divided that\nlove and live in the same Divine Principle; the Root and Record of their\nFriendship.\n\n\"If Absence be not Death, neither is it theirs.\n\n\"Death is but Crossing the World, as Friends do the Seas; they live in\none another still.\n\n\"For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is\nomnipresent.\n\n\"In this Divine Glass they see Face to Face; and their converse is Free\nas well as Pure.\n\n\"This is the Comfort of Friends, that though they may be said to Die,\nyet their Friendship and Society are, in the best Sense, ever present,\nbecause Immortal.\"\n\n                                                         WILLIAM PENN.\n\n\nBereavement\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 4\n\n\"Parting and forgetting? What faithful heart can do these? Our great\nthoughts, our great affections, the Truths of our life, never leave us.\nSurely they cannot separate from our consciousness; shall follow it\nwhithersoever that shall go; and are of their nature divine and\nimmortal.\"\n\n                                                            THACKERAY.\n\n\"I can only say that I sympathise with your grief, and if faith means\nanything at all it is trusting to those instincts, or feelings, or\nwhatever they may be called, which assure us of some life after this.\"\n\n                                     _Tennyson--a Memoir_, by his Son.\n\n\"What is it when a child dies? It is the great head-master calling that\nchild up into his own room, away from all the under-teachers, to finish\nhis education under his own eye, close at his feet. The whole thought of\na child's growth and development in heaven instead of here on earth, is\none of the most exalting and bewildering on which the mind can rest.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\nDeath of Young Children\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 5\n\n    \"Nothing is left or lost, nothing of good\n    Or lovely; but whatever its first springs\n  Has drawn from God, returns to Him again.\"\n\n                                          _On an Early Death_, TRENCH.\n\n\"When one comes to the loss of young children--a sad perplexity--let it\nnot be forgotten that they were given. If in the hour of bitterest grief\nit were asked of a bereaved mother whether she would prefer never to\nhave possessed in order that she might never have lost--her heart would\nbe very indignant. No little child has ever come from God and stayed a\nbrief while in some human home--to return again to the Father--without\nmaking glad that home and leaving behind some trace of heaven. A family\nhad counted themselves poorer without those quaint sayings, those\ncunning caresses, that soft touch, that sudden smile. This short visit\nwas not an incident: it was a benediction. The child departs, the\nremembrances, the influence, the associations remain. If one should\nallow us to have Sarto's Annunciation for a month, we would thank him:\nwhen he resumed it for his home he would not take everything, for its\nloveliness of maid and angel is now ours for ever. And if God recalls\nthe child He lent, then let us thank Him for the loan, and consider that\nwhat made that child the messenger of God--its purity, modesty,\ntrustfulness, gladness--has passed into our soul.\"\n\n                                _The Potter's Wheel_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\nThe Dead\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 6\n\n  \"The dead abide with us! Though stark and cold\n  Earth seems to grip them, they are with us still:--\n  They have forged our chains of being for good or ill\n  And their invisible hands these hands yet hold.\n  Our perishable bodies are the mould\n  In which their strong imperishable will--\n  Mortality's deep yearning to fulfil--\n  Hath grown incorporate through dim time untold.\n\n  \"Vibrations infinite of life in death,\n  As a star's travelling light survives its star!\n  So may we hold our lives, that when we are\n  The fate of those who then will draw this breath,\n  They shall not drag us to their judgment bar,\n  And curse the heritage which we bequeath.\"\n\n                                                       MATHILDE BLIND.\n\n\"We are learning, by the help of many teachers, the extent and the\nauthority of the dominion which the dead exercise over us, and which we\nourselves are shaping for our descendants.\n\n\"We feel, as perhaps it was impossible to feel before, how at every\nmoment influences from the past enter our souls, and how we in turn\nscatter abroad that which will be fruitful in the distant future. It is\nbecoming clear to us that we are literally parts of others and they of\nus.\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\nThe Dead\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 7\n\n      \"I with uncovered head\n      Salute the sacred dead,\n  Who went and who return not. Say not so!\n\n         *       *       *       *       *\n\n  We rather seem the dead that stayed behind.\n  Blow, trumpets, all your exaltations blow!\n  For never shall their aureoled presence lack:\n  I see them muster in a gleaming row,\n  With ever-youthful brows that nobler show;\n  We find in our dull road their shining track:\n      In every nobler mood\n  We feel the orient of their spirit glow,\n  Part of our life's unalterable good,\n  Of all our saintlier aspiration:\n      They come transfigured back,\n  Secure from change in their high-hearted ways,\n  Beautiful evermore, and with the rays\n  Of morn on their white Shields of Expectation.\"\n\n                                   JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.\n\n\nThe Dead\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 8\n\n  \"And yet, dear heart! remembering thee,\n    Am I not richer than of old?\n  Safe in thy immortality,\n    What change can reach the wealth I hold?\n  What chance can mar the pearl and gold\n    Thy love hath left in trust for me?\n  And while in life's long afternoon,\n    Where cool and long the shadows grow,\n  I walk to meet the night that soon\n    Shall shape and shadow overflow,\n  I cannot feel that thou art far,\n  Since near at need the angels are;\n  And when the sunset gates unbar,\n    Shall I not see thee waiting stand,\n  And, white against the evening star,\n    The welcome of thy beckoning hand?\"\n\n                               JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.\n\n\nThe Dead\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 9\n\n  \"Lord, make me one with Thine own faithful ones,\n    Thy Saints who love Thee, and are loved by Thee;\n    Till the day break and till the shadows flee,\n  At one with them in alms and orisons;\n  At one with him who toils and him who runs,\n    And him who yearns for union yet to be;\n    At one with all who throng the crystal sea,\n  And wait the setting of our moons and suns.\n  Ah, my beloved ones gone on before,\n    Who looked not back with hand upon the plough!\n    If beautiful to me while still in sight,\n  How beautiful must be your aspects now;\n    Your unknown, well-known aspects in that light,\n  Which clouds shall never cloud for evermore!\"\n\n                                         CHRISTINA ROSSETTI.\n\n\nDeath\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 10\n\n\"Most persons have died before they expire--died to all earthly\nlongings, so that the last breath is only, as it were, the locking of\nthe door of the already deserted mansion. The fact of the tranquillity\nwith which the great majority of dying persons await this locking of\nthose gates of life through which its airy angels have been coming and\ngoing from the moment of the first cry, is familiar to those who have\nbeen often called upon to witness the last period of life. Almost always\nthere is a preparation made by Nature for unearthing a soul, just as on\nthe smaller scale there is for the removal of a milk tooth. The roots\nwhich hold human life to earth are absorbed before it is lifted from its\nplace. Some of the dying are weary, and want rest, the idea of which is\nalmost inseparable, in the universal mind, from death. Some are in pain,\nand want to be rid of it, even though the anodyne be dropped, as in the\nlegend, from the sword of the Death-Angel. And some are strong in faith\nand hope, so that, as they draw near the next world, they would fain\nhurry toward it, as the caravan moves faster over the sands when the\nforemost travellers send word along the file that water is in sight.\nThough each little party that follows in a foot-track of its own will\nhave it that the water to which others think they are hastening is a\nmirage, not the less has it been true in all ages, and for human beings\nof every creed which recognised a future, that those who have fallen,\nworn out by their march through the Desert, have dreamed at least of a\nRiver of Life, and thought they heard its murmurs as they lay dying.\"\n\n                 _The Professor at the Breakfast Table_, O. W. HOLMES.\n\n\nCrossing the Bar\n\n\nSeptember 11\n\n  \"Sunset and evening star,\n    And one clear call for me!\n  And may there be no moaning of the bar,\n    When I put out to sea.\n\n  \"But such a tide as moving seems asleep,\n    Too full for sound and foam,\n  When that which drew from out the boundless deep\n    Turns again home.\n\n  \"Twilight and evening bell,\n    And after that the dark!\n  And may there be no sadness of farewell\n    When I embark;\n\n  \"For, tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place\n    The flood may bear me far,\n  I hope to see my Pilot face to face\n    When I have crost the bar.\"\n\n                                                  TENNYSON.\n\n\nLife after Death\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 12\n\n\"If the immediate life after death be only sleep, and the spirit between\nthis life and the next should be folded like a flower in a night\nslumber, then the remembrance of the past might remain, as the smell and\ncolour do in the sleeping flower; and in that case the memory of our\nlove would last as true, and would live pure and whole within the spirit\nof my friend until after it was unfolded at the breaking of the morn,\nwhen the sleep was over.\"\n\n                                     _Tennyson--a Memoir_, by his Son.\n\n  \"Life! I know not what thou art,\n  But know that thou and I must part;\n  And when, or how, or where we met,\n  I own to me's a secret yet.\n\n  \"Life! we have been long together,\n  Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;\n  'Tis hard to part when friends are dear;\n  Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear;--\n  Then steal away, give little warning,\n      Choose thine own time;\n  Say not Good Night, but in some brighter clime\n      Bid me Good Morning!\"\n\n                                     A. L. BARBAULD.\n\n\nBearing Sorrow\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 13\n\n\"It is dangerous to abandon oneself to the luxury of grief; it deprives\none of courage, and even of the wish for recovery.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"Its way of suffering is the witness which a soul bears to itself.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n  \"We must bury our dead joys\n  And live above them with a living world.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\nBearing Sorrow\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 14\n\n\"Sorrow brings also a temptation to exactingness. It may be that friends\nare very helpful to us. Let us take care that no selfishness mingles\nwith our love for their companionship, with our claims for their\nsympathy.\n\n\"What, for the time, at any rate, is all the world to us, can only be a\nsmall part of another's life.\n\n\"And one must struggle, as time goes on, to take what comes in one's way\nof sympathy, of kindness, of companionship, but one must also try never\nto exact sympathy, to allow ourselves to feel neglected, or slighted, or\nforgotten.\n\n\"This is a hard lesson--sometimes.\n\n\"The whole of one's nature becomes sensitive, easily wounded, easily\ndepressed.\"\n\n                                                  Canon SCOTT HOLLAND.\n\n\nBearing Sorrow\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 15\n\n\"Selfishness in Sorrow is another temptation. One is so apt to become\nabsorbed in one's Sorrow.\n\n\"It is quite possible to become almost selfish in one's spiritual life\nunder the stress of great Sorrow.\n\n\"To see everything, every lesson, every allusion, solely from one's own\npoint of view, to grow too fond of thinking of one's burden....\n\n\"The hard path of daily duty is the only path to tread, not because one\nis thinking of oneself, but because one wishes to forget oneself, and to\nthink only of God, and of those that remain.\n\n\"Self-denial: to put self last, not out of sight, but last, that is what\none is always called to do, and it is a sad bit of disloyalty to God's\ngrace if one becomes more selfish in Sorrow.\"\n\n                                                  Canon SCOTT HOLLAND.\n\n\nBearing Sorrow\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 16\n\n\"A great Sorrow which changes life altogether is apt to produce a\ncertain irritability, a sort of nervous jar.\n\n\"Very often this is an affair of nerves, of physical health, but it is\nwell to watch--'watch and pray.'\n\n\"All sorts of things will jar and hurt us. People will do and say things\nwith perfect unconsciousness that they are wounding us to the quick.\nSome careless allusion, some chance speech, will set our nerves\nquivering.... The worries, the jarring incidents, the introduction of\ndiscordant topics in the very presence of death, the disappointments,\nare all to lead us upwards. It is a rough bit of road on which we are\nset to walk, and the sharp stones cut our feet, but every step brings us\nnearer God.\n\n\"Do not let _temper_ mar the days of Sorrow.\n\n\"There most probably will be something to try our temper. Who does not\nknow the trials which seem peculiar to a break-up, a change in our\noutward life? Who has not seen real Christians giving way to\npeevishness, fretfulness, petty dislikes, petty jealousies of near\nrelations, of those who may be taking the place of the one they mourn?\nPerhaps there is nothing which so mars and spoils the religious life as\nbad temper and selfishness.\n\n\"Nothing which is so apt to make outsiders shrug their shoulders at\nthose who make frequent Communions, and go much to Church, and who,\nespecially in dark hours, give way to crossness. There is no better\nname.\"\n\n                                                  Canon SCOTT HOLLAND.\n\n\nThe Meaning of Religion\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 17\n\n\"The meaning of religion is a rule of life; it is an obligation to do\nwell; if that rule, that obligation, is not seen, your thousand texts\nwill be to you like the thousand lanterns to the blind man. As he goes\nabout the house in the night of his blindness, he will only break the\nglass and burn his feet and fingers: and so you, as you go through life\nin the night of your ignorance, will only break and hurt yourselves on\nbroken laws.\n\n\"Before Christ came, the Jewish religion had forbidden many evil things;\nit was a religion that a man could fulfil, I had almost said, in\nidleness; all he had to do was to pray and to sing psalms, and to\nrefrain from things forbidden. Do not deceive yourselves; when Christ\ncame, all was changed. The injunction was then laid upon us not to\nrefrain from doing, but to do. At the last day He is to ask us not what\nsins we have avoided, but what righteousness we have done, what we have\ndone for others, how we have helped good and hindered evil: what\ndifference has it made to this world and to our country and our family\nand our friends, that we have lived. The man who has been only pious and\nnot useful will stand with a long face on that great day, when Christ\nputs to him His questions.\n\n\"But this is not all that we must learn: we must beware everywhere of\nthe letter that kills, seek everywhere for the spirit that makes glad\nand strong. For example, these questions that we have just read are\nagain only the letter. We must study what they mean, not what they are.\nWe are told to visit them that are in prison. A good thing, but it were\nbetter if we could save them going there. We are told to visit the sick;\nit were better still, and we should so better have fulfilled the law, if\nwe could have saved some of them from falling sick.\"\n\n                        _The Life of R. L. Stevenson_, GRAHAM BALFOUR.\n\n\nPure Religion\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 18\n\n\"Righteousness in the Old Testament is not a theological, but an ethical\nword, and has to do not with a person's creed, but with a person's\ncharacter.\"\n\n                                                      Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\"In those days men were working their passage to Heaven by keeping the\nTen Commandments, and the hundred and ten other commandments which they\nhad manufactured out of them. Christ said, I will show you a more simple\nway. If you do one thing, you will do these hundred and ten things,\nwithout ever thinking about them. If you love, you will unconsciously\nfulfil the whole law.... Love is the rule for fulfilling all rules, the\nnew commandment for keeping all the old commandments, Christ's one\nsecret of the Christian life.\"\n\n                    _The Greatest Thing in the World_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\"Pure religion as taught by Jesus Christ is a life, a growth, a divine\nspirit within, coming out in love and sympathy, and helpfulness to our\nfellow-men.\"\n\n                                                         H. W. THOMAS.\n\n\nThe Christian Law\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 19\n\n\"We are often reminded that Christ left no code of commandments. It is\nin Him--in His Person and His work--the Law lies. He has given indeed\nfor our instruction some applications of the negative precepts of the\nDecalogue to the New Order. He has added some illustrations of positive\nduties, almsgiving, prayer, fasting. He has set up an ideal and a motive\nfor life; and, at the same time, He has endowed His Church with\nspiritual power, and has promised that the Paraclete, sent in His Name,\nshall guide it into all the Truth.\n\n(The fundamental principle of the Christian Social Union is \"to claim\nfor the Christian Law the ultimate authority to rule social practice.\")\n\n\"The Christian Law, then, is the embodiment of the Truth for action in\nforms answering to the conditions of society from age to age. The\nembodiment takes place slowly, and it can never be complete. It is\nimpossible for us to rest indolently in the conclusions of the past. In\neach generation the obligation is laid on Christians to bring new\nproblems of conduct and duty into the Divine light, and to find their\nsolution under the teaching of the Spirit. The unceasing effort to\nfulfil the obligation establishes the highest prerogative of man, and\nmanifests the life of the Church. From this effort there can be no\nrelease; and the effort itself becomes more difficult as human relations\ngrow fuller, wider, more complex.\"\n\n                  _Christian Social Union Addresses_, Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\nThe Christian Law\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 20\n\n\"The sanction of this Law (the Christian Law) is not fear of punishment,\nbut that self-surrender to an ever-present Lord, of those who are His\nslaves at once and His friends, which is perfect freedom. This Law\nanimates the heart of him who receives it with the invigorating truth\nthat character is formed rather by what we do than by what we refrain\nfrom doing. It requires that every personal gift and possession should\nminister to the common welfare, not in the way of ransom, or as a forced\nloan, but as an offering of love. It reaches to the springs of action,\nand gives to the most mechanical toil the dignity of a divine service.\nIt makes the strong arm co-operate in one work with the warm heart and\nthe creative brain. It constrains the poet and the artist to concentrate\ntheir magnificent powers on things lovely and of good report, to\nintroduce us to characters whom to know is a purifying discipline, and\nto fill the souls of common men with visions of hidden beauty and\nmemories of heroic deeds. It enables us to lift up our eyes to a pattern\nof human society which we have not yet dared to contemplate, a pattern\nwhich answers to the constitution of man as he was made in the Divine\nimage to gain the Divine likeness. It forbids us to seek repose till, as\nfar as lies in us, all labour is seen to be not a provision for living,\nbut a true human life; all education a preparation for the vision of God\nhere and hereafter; all political enterprise a conscious hastening of\nthe time when the many nations shall walk in the light of the holy city,\nand the kings of the earth bring their glory into it.\"\n\n                  _Christian Social Union Addresses_, Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\nTrustees\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 21\n\n\"For the Christian there can be but one ideal, the perfect development\nof every man for the occupation of his appointed place, for the\nfulfilment of his peculiar office in the 'Body of Christ'; and as a\nfirst step towards this, we are all bound as Christians to bring to our\ncountry the offering of our individual service in return for the\nopportunities of culture and labour which we receive from its\norganisation. We are all as Christians trustees and stewards of\neverything which we possess, of our time, our intellect, our influence,\nno less than of our riches. We ourselves are not our own: still less can\nwe say of that which we inherit or acquire, 'It is my own.' We all\nbelong, in the fulness of life 'in Christ,' to our fellow-citizens, and\nour nation belongs to mankind. What we hold for a time is to be\nadministered for the relief of distresses, and for the elevation of\nthose among whom we are placed. Personal and social egoism are equally\nat variance with this conception of humanity. The repression of\nindividuality and the individual appropriation of the fruits of special\nvigour and insight equally tend to impoverish the race. Service always\nready to become sacrifice is the condition of our growth, and the\ncondition of our joy.\"\n\n                  _Christian Social Union Addresses_, Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\n\"Not to Destroy, but to Fulfil\"\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 22\n\n\"Christ took the world as He found it, He left it as it was. He had no\nquarrel with existing institutions. He did not overthrow the Church--He\nwent to Church. He said nothing against politics--He supported the\ngovernment of the country. He did not denounce society--His first public\naction was to go to a marriage. His great aim, in fact, outwardly, and\nall along, was to be as normal, as little eccentric as possible. The\ntrue fanatic always tries the opposite. The spirit alone was singular in\nJesus; a fanatic always spoils his cause by extending it to the letter.\nChrist came not to destroy, but to fulfil. A fanatic comes not to\nfulfil, but to destroy. If we would follow the eccentricity of our\nMaster, let it not be in asceticism, in denunciation, in\npunctiliousness, and scruples about trifles, but in largeness of heart,\nsingleness of eye, true breadth of character, true love to men, and\nheroism for Christ.\"\n\n                                     _The Ideal Life_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\"Religion has been treated as if it were a special exercise of a special\npower, not as if it were the possible loftiness of everything that a man\ncould think or be or do.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\nReligion in Daily Life\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 23\n\n\"If we want to get religion into life, or anything whatever in us into\nlife, we are bound to have no contentment, no rest, no dreaming, no\ndelays, till we get thought into shape, feeling into labour, some\nconviction, some belief, some idea, into form without us, among the\nworld of men. This is the main principle, and it applies to every sphere\nof human effort. So much for the habit whereby we gain power to bring\nreligion into daily life.\n\n\"Righteousness, shaped from within to without in the world of men, is\njustice, and the doing of justice. This is the first need of\ncommonwealths, the first duty of individuals, and the practical religion\nof both. A still higher form into which we may put our religion in life\nis in doing the things which belong to love; and love is the higher form\nbecause it secures justice. These are the things we should shape into\nlife because we love them. To be faithful always to that which we\nbelieve to be true; to be faithful to our principles and our conscience\nwhen trial comes, or when we are tempted to sacrifice them for place or\npelf; to be faithful to our given word; to keep our promises when we\nmight win favour by eluding or breaking them; to cling to intellectual\nas well as to moral truth; to so live among men that they may know where\nwe are; to fly our flag in the storm as well as in the calm. It is to\npass by with contempt the dark cavern where men worship Mammon; to fix\nour thought and effort on the attainment of righteousness in public and\nin private homes, to have the courage to attempt what seems impossible\nthrough love of the ideals of truth and beauty, and to prefer to die on\nthe field of work and self-devotion rather than to live in idleness and\nluxury.\"\n\n                                                      STOPFORD BROOKE.\n\n\nUnfelt Creeds\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 24\n\n\"There are also some who forget that the laws of the spiritual world are\nno less inflexible and inviolable than those of the physical world; that\nconduct is everything; and that the faith which saves, and which,\nworking by love, makes conduct, is something much deeper and more\nsubstantial than the muttering of an unfelt creed, or than the\nmelancholy presumption that to think ourselves saved is by itself a\npassport into the everlasting habitations.\"\n\n                                                       Bishop THOROLD.\n\n\"Holiness is an infinite compassion for others: Greatness is to take the\ncommon things of life and walk truly among them: Happiness is a great\nlove and much serving.\"\n\n\"Heaven does not make holiness, but holiness makes heaven.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\nFasting\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 25\n\n\"It makes me half afraid, half angry, to see the formal, mechanical way\nin which people do what they call their 'Lenten Penances,' and then rush\noff, only with increased ardour, to their Easter festivities. Literal\nfasting does not suit me--it makes me irritable and uncomfortable, and\ncertainly does not spiritualise me; so I have always tried to keep my\nLents in the nobler and more healthful spirit of Isaiah lviii. I have\nkept them but poorly, after all; still, I am sure _that_ is the true way\nof keeping them.\"\n\n  _Letters from_ Bishop Fraser's _Lancashire Life_, Archdeacon DIGGLE.\n\n\"God does not call us to give up some sin or some harmful\nself-indulgence in Lent that we may resume it at Easter.\"\n\n                                        _The Guided Life_, Canon BODY.\n\n\nFasting\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 26\n\n\"Fasting comes by nature when a man is sad, and it is in consequence the\nnatural token of sadness: when a man is very sad, for the loss of\nrelations or the like, he loses all inclination for food. But every\noutward sign that can be displayed at will is liable to abuse, and so\nmen sometimes fasted when they were not really sad, but when it was\ndecorous to appear so. Moreover a kind of merit came to be attached to\nfasting as betokening sorrow for transgressions; and at last it came to\nbe regarded as a sort of self-punishment which it was thought the\nAlmighty would accept in lieu of inflicting punishment Himself. Our Lord\ndoes not decry stated fasts or any other Jewish practices, they had\ntheir uses and would last their times; only He points men to the\nunderlying truth which was at the bottom of the ordinance.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n\nThe Great Law of Love\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 27\n\n\"Those who go to Christ and not to custom for their view of that which\nis essential in religion, know the infinitesimal value of profession and\nceremonies, beside the great law of love to our neighbour.\"\n\n                                                         F. W. FARRAR.\n\n\"Not only the happiness but the efficiency of the passive virtues, love\nas a power, as a practical success in the world, is coming to be\nrecognised. The fact that Christ led no army, that He wrote no book,\nbuilt no church, spent no money, but that He loved, and so conquered,\nthis is beginning to strike men. And Paul's argument is gaining\nadherents, that when all prophecies are fulfilled, and all our knowledge\nis obsolete, and all tongues grow unintelligible, this thing, Love, will\nabide and see them all out one by one into the oblivious past. This is\nthe hope for the world, that we shall learn to love, and in learning\nthat, unlearn all anger and wrath and evil-speaking and malice and\nbitterness.\"\n\n                                     _The Ideal Life_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\nSoldiers of the same Army\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 28\n\n\"To him, as to so many, truth is so infinitely great that all we can do\nwith our poor human utterances is to try and clothe it in such language\nas will make it clear to ourselves, and clear to those to whom God sends\nus with a message; but meanwhile above us and our thoughts--above our\nbroken lights--God in His mercy, God in His love, God in His infinite\nnature is greater than all.\"\n\n                                     _Tennyson--a Memoir_, by his Son.\n\n\"Are not all true men that live, or that ever lived, soldiers of the\nsame army, enlisted under heaven's captaincy, to do battle against the\nsame enemy--the empire of darkness and wrong? Why should we mis-know one\nanother, fight not against the enemy, but against ourselves, from mere\ndifference of uniform?\"\n\n                                                              CARLYLE.\n\n\nBy their Works\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 29\n\n  \"Call him not heretic whose works attest\n  His faith in goodness by no creed confessed.\n  Whatever in love's name is truly done\n  To free the bound and lift the fallen one\n  Is done to Christ. Whoso in deed and word\n  Is not against Him labours for our Lord.\n  When He, who, sad and weary, longing sore\n  For love's sweet service, sought the sisters' door,\n  One saw the heavenly, one the human guest,\n  But who shall say which loved the Master best?\"\n\n                                                WHITTIER.\n\n  \"Hast thou made much of words, and forms, and tests,\n  And thought but little of the peace and love,--\n  His Gospel to the poor? Dost thou condemn\n  Thy brother, looking down, in pride of heart,\n  On each poor wanderer from the fold of Truth?...\n                    Go thy way!--\n  Take Heaven's own armour for the heavenly strife,\n  Welcome all helpers in thy war with sin ...\n  And learn through all the future of thy years\n  To form thy life in likeness of thy Lord's!\"\n\n                                                PLUMPTRE.\n\n\nFaith\n\n\nSEPTEMBER 30\n\n\"Faith is the communication of the Divine Spirit by which Christ as the\nrevealed God dwells in our heart. It is the awakening of the Spirit of\nAdoption whereby we cry, 'Abba Father.'\"\n\n                                                          T. H. GREEN.\n\n\"He thought with Arthur Hallam, that 'the essential feelings of religion\nsubsist in the utmost diversity of forms,' that 'different language does\nnot always imply different opinions, nor different opinions any\ndifference in _real_ faith.' 'It is impossible,' he said, 'to imagine\nthat the Almighty will ask you, when you come before Him in the next\nlife, what your particular form of creed was; but the question will\nrather be, \"Have you been true to yourself and given in My name a cup of\ncold water to one of these little ones?\"'\"\n\n                                     _Tennyson--a Memoir_, by his Son.\n\n\"Religion consists not in knowledge, but in a holy life.\"\n\n                                                        Bishop TAYLOR.\n\n\nA New Creed\n\n\nOctober 1\n\n\"Imagine a body of Christians who should take their stand on the Sermon\nof Jesus, and conceive their creed on His lines. Imagine how it would\nread, 'I believe in the Fatherhood of God; I believe in the words of\nJesus; I believe in the clean heart; I believe in the service of love; I\nbelieve in the unworldly life; I believe in the Beatitudes; I promise to\ntrust God and follow Christ, to forgive my enemies, and to seek after\nthe righteousness of God.' Could any form of words be more elevated,\nmore persuasive, more alluring? Do they not thrill the heart and\nstrengthen the conscience? Liberty of thought is allowed; liberty of\nsinning is alone denied.\"\n\n                            _The Mind of the Master_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n                     THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT\n\n                        has been called\n\n\"The text-book of duty.\"\n\n                                             PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\"The Magna Charta of the Kingdom of God.\"\n\n                                                     NEANDER.\n\n\"Christ's manifesto, and the constitution of Christianity.\"\n\n                                             Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\"The great proclamation, which by one effort lifted mankind on to that\nnew and higher ground on which it has been painfully struggling ever\nsince, but on the whole with sure but slow success, to plant itself, and\nmaintain sure foothold.\"\n\n                                                            T. HUGHES.\n\n\nThe Programme of Christianity\n\n\nOCTOBER 2\n\n\"There may be Worship without Words.\"\n\n                                                           LONGFELLOW.\n\n\"All the world is the temple of God. Its worship is ministration. The\ncommonest service is Divine service.\"\n\n                                                     GEORGE MACDONALD.\n\nTHE PROGRAMME OF CHRISTIANITY.\n\n  \"To preach good tidings unto the meek:\n\n  To build up the broken-hearted:\n\n  To proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening\n  of the prison to them that are bound:\n\n  To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and\n  the day of vengeance of our God:\n\n  To comfort all that mourn:\n\n  To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give\n  unto them--\n\n  Beauty for Ashes,\n\n  The Oil of Joy for Mourning,\n\n  The Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness.\"\n\n                                                       HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\nThe Lord's Supper\n\n\nOCTOBER 3\n\n\"The Lord's Supper, the right and need of every man to feed on God, the\nbread of divine sustenance, the wine of divine inspiration offered to\nevery man, and turned by every man into what form of spiritual force the\nduty and the nature of each man required, how grand and glorious its\nmission might become! No longer the mystic source of unintelligible\ninfluence; no longer, certainly, the test of arbitrary orthodoxy; no\nlonger the initiation rite of a selected brotherhood; but the great\nsacrament of man!... There is no other rallying place for all the good\nactivity and worthy hopes of man. It is in the power of the great\nChristian Sacrament, the great human sacrament, to become that rallying\nplace. Think how it would be, if some morning all the men, women, and\nchildren in this city who mean well, from the reformer meaning to meet\nsome giant evil at the peril of his life to the school-boy meaning to\nlearn his day's lesson with all his strength, were to meet in a great\nhost at the table of the Lord, and own themselves His children, and\nclaim the strength of His bread and wine, and then go out with calm,\nstrong, earnest faces to their work. How the communion service would\nlift up its voice and sing itself in triumph, the great anthem of\ndedicated human life! Ah, my friends, that, nothing less than that, is\nthe real Holy Communion of the Church of the living God.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\nNominal Christians\n\n\nOCTOBER 4\n\n\"The bane of the Church of God, the dishonour of Christ, the\nlaughing-stock of the world, is in that far too numerous body of\nhalf-alive Christians who choose their own cross, and shape their own\nstandard, and regulate their own sacrifices, and measure their own\ndevotions; whose cross is very unlike the Saviour's, whose standard is\nnot that of as much holiness as they can attain, but of as little\nholiness as they can safely be content with to be saved; whose\nsacrifices do not deprive them from one year's end to another of a\nsingle comfort, or even a real luxury, and whose devotions can never\nmake their dull hearts burn with love of Christ.\"\n\n                                                       Bishop THOROLD.\n\n\"Men find Christ through their fellow-men, and every glimpse they get of\nHim is a direct message from Himself.\"\n\n                                                       HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\nManifestations of God\n\n\nOCTOBER 5\n\n\"The distinguishing mark of religion is not so much liberty as\nobedience, and its value is measured by the sacrifices which it can\nextract from the individual.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"There is perhaps no human soul which never hungers after God. Men's\nunbelief in lies is often quoted against them, by the liar especially.\nBut we believe--not when we are told about, but when we are\nshown--Christ.\"\n\n                                         _Turkish Bonds_, MAY KENDALL.\n\n\"Let your lives preach.\"\n\n                     GEORGE FOX.\n\n\nManifestations of God\n\n\nOCTOBER 6\n\n\"For how, as a matter of fact, do we grow to know God? Let me refer you\nto Professor Flint's book on Theism for the best answer I know. We begin\nto know God as we begin to know our fellow-man--through His\nmanifestations. We may be tempted to think that we cannot know what we\ncannot see, but in a perfectly true sense we never see our fellow-man:\nwe see his manifestations; we see his outward appearance. We hear what\nhe says; we notice what he does, and we infer from all this what his\nunseen character is like, what the man is in himself; so similarly and\nas surely we learn to know God. We see what He has done in nature and in\nhistory; we see what He is doing to-day; we read what He has conveyed to\nus for our instruction 'in sundry times and in divers manners'; and so\nwe learn to listen for and to love 'the still small voice' in which He\nspeaks to our hearts. One knowledge is as gradual and yet as sure and\ncertain and logical as the other.\"\n\n                     _Work in Great Cities_, Bishop WINNINGTON INGRAM.\n\n\nManifestations of God\n\n\nOCTOBER 7\n\n\"It is human character or developed humanity that conducts us to our\nnotion of the character Divine.... In proportion as the mysteries of\nman's goodness unfold themselves to us, in that proportion do we obtain\nan insight into God's.\"\n\n                                                         J. B. MOZLEY.\n\n\"If you want your neighbour to know what the Christ spirit will do for\nhim, let him see what it has done for you.\"\n\n                                                   HENRY WARD BEECHER.\n\n\"When a man lives with God, his voice shall be as sweet as the murmur of\nthe brook and the rustle of the corn.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\nPrayer\n\n\nOCTOBER 8\n\n\"'We do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousness,\nbut for Thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord,\nhearken and do.'--Dan. ix. 18, 19.\n\n\"Every true prayer has its background and its foreground. The foreground\nof prayer is the intense, immediate desire for a certain blessing which\nseems to be absolutely necessary for the soul to have; the background of\nprayer is the quiet earnest desire that the will of God, whatever it may\nbe, should be done. What a picture is the perfect prayer of Jesus in\nGethsemane! In front burns the strong desire to escape death and to\nlive; but, behind, there stands, calm and strong, the craving of the\nwhole life for the doing of the will of God.... Leave out the\nforeground--let there be no expression of the wish of him who prays--and\nthere is left a pure submission which is almost fatalism. Leave out the\nbackground--let there be no acceptance of the will of God--and the\nprayer is only an expression of self-will, a petulant claiming of the\nuncorrected choice of him who prays. Only when the two, foreground and\nbackground, are there together,--the special desire resting on the\nuniversal submission, the universal submission opening into the special\ndesire,--only then is the picture perfect and the prayer complete!\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\nPrayer\n\n\nOCTOBER 9\n\n\"About prayer he said: 'The reason why men find it hard to regard prayer\nin the same light in which it was formerly regarded is that _we_ seem to\nknow more of the unchangeableness of Law. But I believe that God reveals\nHimself in each individual soul. Prayer is, to take a mundane simile,\nlike opening a sluice between the great ocean and our little channels\nwhen the great sea gathers itself together and flows in at full tide.'\n'Prayer on our part is the highest aspiration of the soul.'\"\n\n  \"A Breath that fleets beyond this iron world\n  And touches Him who made it.\"\n\n  \"Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet--\n  Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.\"\n\nAnd\n\n  \"More things are wrought by prayer\n  Than this world dreams of.\"\n\n                                     _Tennyson--a Memoir_, by his Son.\n\n\nPrayer\n\n\nOCTOBER 10\n\n\"There can be no objection to praying for certain special things. God\nforbid! I cannot help doing it, any more than a child in the dark can\nhelp calling for its mother. Only it seems to me that when we pray,\n'Grant this day that we run into no kind of danger,' we ought to lay our\nstress on the 'run' rather than on the 'danger,' to ask God not to take\naway the danger by altering the course of nature, but to give us light\nand guidance whereby to avoid it.\"\n\n                                                     CHARLES KINGSLEY.\n\n\"Special prayer is based upon a fundamental instinct of our nature. And\nin the fellowship which is established in prayer between man and God, we\nare brought into personal union with Him in Whom all things have their\nbeing.\n\n\"In this lies the possibility of boundless power; for when the\nconnection is once formed, who can lay down the limits of what man can\ndo in virtue of the communion of his spirit with the Infinite Spirit?\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\nPrayer\n\n\nOctober 11\n\n\"It is abundantly clear that answered prayer encourages faith and\npersonal relations in a way which broad principles only cannot effect.\nAs the _Spectator_ put it many years ago, much that would be positively\nbad for us if given without prayer, is good if sent in answer. We feel\n(do we not?) that all the evil of the world springs from mistrust of\nGod. Nothing can recover us from this state of alienated unrest like\nanswered prayer.\"\n\n                              _Life of F. W. Crossley_, RENDEL HARRIS.\n\n\"Prayer will in time make the human countenance its own divinest altar;\nyears upon years of true thoughts, like ceaseless music shut up within,\nwill vibrate along the nerves of expression until the lines of the\nliving instrument are drawn into correspondence, and the harmony of\nvisible form matches the unheard harmonies of the mind.\"\n\n                              _The Choir Invisible_, JAMES LANE ALLEN.\n\n\nPrayer\n\n\nOCTOBER 12\n\n\"Pray, till prayer makes you forget your own wish, and leave it or merge\nit in God's will. The divine wisdom has given us prayer, not as a means\nwhereby to obtain the good things of earth, but as a means by which we\nlearn to do without them; not as a means whereby we escape evil, but as\na means whereby we become strong to meet it. 'There appeared an angel\nunto Him from heaven, strengthening Him.' This was the true reply to the\nprayer of Christ.\"\n\n                                                      F. W. ROBERTSON.\n\n\"Never let us get into the common trick of calling\nunbelief--resignation; of asking, and then because we have not faith to\nbelieve, putting in a 'Thy will be done' at the end. Let us make God's\nWill our will, and so say 'Thy will be done.'\"\n\n                                                     CHARLES KINGSLEY.\n\n\nPrayer\n\n\nOCTOBER 13\n\n\"Accustom yourself gradually to let your mental prayer spread over all\nyour daily external occupations. Speak, act, work quietly, as though you\nwere praying, as indeed you ought to be.\n\n\"Do everything without excitement, simply in the spirit of grace. So\nsoon as you perceive natural activity gliding in, recall yourself\nquietly into the Presence of God. Hearken to what the leadings of grace\nprompt, and say and do nothing but what God's Holy Spirit teaches. You\nwill find yourself infinitely more quiet, your words will be fewer and\nmore effectual, and while doing less, what you do will be more\nprofitable. It is not a question of a hopeless mental activity, but a\nquestion of acquiring a quietude and peace in which you readily advise\nwith your Beloved as to all you have to do.\"\n\n                                                              FENELON.\n\n  \"A blessing such as this our hearts might reap,\n  The freshness of the garden they might share,\n  Through the long day an heavenly freshness keep,\n  If, knowing how the day and the day's glare\n  Must beat upon them, we would largely steep\n  And water them betimes with dews of Prayer.\"\n\n                                              TRENCH.\n\n\nSelf-examination\n\n\nOCTOBER 14\n\n\"It is my custom every night to run all over the words and actions of\nthe past day; for why should I fear the sight of my errors when I can\nadmonish and forgive myself? I was a little too hot in such a dispute:\nmy opinion might have been as well spared, for it gave offence, and did\nno good at all. The thing was true; but all truths are not to be spoken\nat all times.\"\n\n                                                               SENECA.\n\nRESOLVES.\n\n\"To try to be thoroughly poor in spirit, meek, and to be ready to be\nsilent when others speak.\n\n\"To learn from every one.\n\n\"To try to feel my own insignificance.\n\n\"To believe in myself and the powers with which I am entrusted.\n\n\"To try to make conversation more useful, and therefore to store my mind\nwith facts, but to guard against a wish to shine.\n\n\"To try to despise the principle of the day 'every man his own\ntrumpeter,' and to feel it a degradation to speak of my own doings, as a\npoor braggart.\n\n\"To speak less of self and to think less.\n\n\"To contend one by one against evil thoughts.\n\n\"To try to fix my thoughts in prayer without distraction.\n\n\"To watch over a growing habit of uncharitable judgment.\"\n\n                                             _F. W. Robertson's Life._\n\n\nConfession of Sin\n\n\nOCTOBER 15\n\n\"An immense quantity of modern confession of sin, even when honest, is\nmerely a sickly egotism which will rather gloat over its own evil than\nlose the centralisation of its interest in itself.\"\n\n                                    _Ethics of the Dust_, JOHN RUSKIN.\n\n\"The fit of low spirits which comes to us when we find ourselves\novertaken in a fault, though we flatter ourselves to reckon it a certain\nsign of penitence, and a set-off to the sin itself which God will surely\ntake into account, is often nothing more than vexation and annoyance\nwith ourselves, that, after all our good resolutions and attempts at\nreformation, we have broken down again.\"\n\n                                     _The Ideal Life_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\"And be you sure that sorrow without resolute effort at amendment is one\nof the most contemptible of all human frailties; deserving to be\ndespised by men, and certain to be rejected by God.\"\n\n                                                        Bishop TEMPLE.\n\n\nMorbid Introspectiveness\n\n\nOCTOBER 16\n\n\"Plainly there is one danger in all self-discipline which has to be most\ncarefully watched and guarded against, that, namely, of valuing the\nmeans at the expense of the end, and so falling into either\nself-righteousness or formalism, and very probably into uncharitableness\nalso. If we esteem our obedience to rule, and self-imposed restraints,\nfor their own sake, we effectually destroy their power to train and\nelevate. I suppose this is the real mistake of a false asceticism, which\nsees the merit rather in the amount of discipline undergone than in the\ncharacter and self-conquest to be gained by it.\"\n\n                                                   Bishop WALSHAM HOW.\n\n\"... It is a clear view of higher motives, which at once reveals and\ndefeats our meaner impulses; which assists the discipline of _proper_\nself-searching, by making it healthy and hopeful; and resists any habit\nof morbid introspectiveness with its fatal tendency to paralyse activity\nof character.\"\n\n                                                    Canon KNOX LITTLE.\n\n\nIntrospection\n\n\nOCTOBER 17\n\n\"Beware of despairing about yourself.\"\n\n                                 ST. AUGUSTINE.\n\n\"Any man who is good for anything, if he is always thinking about\nhimself, will come to think himself good for nothing very soon. It is\nonly a fop or a fool who can bear to look at himself all day long,\nwithout disgust. And so the first thing for a man to do, who wants to\nuse his best powers at their best, is to get rid of self-consciousness,\nto stop thinking about himself and how he is working, altogether.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n            \"On somehow. To go back\n  Were to lose all.\"\n\n                              TENNYSON.\n\n\nOur True Selves and Our Traditional Selves\n\n\nOCTOBER 18\n\n\"I have sometimes thought that this facility of men in believing that\nthey are still what they once meant to be--this undisturbed\nappropriation of a traditional character which is often but a melancholy\nrelic of early resolutions, like the worn and soiled testimonial to\nsoberness and honesty carried in the pocket of a tippler whom the need\nof a dram has driven into peculation--may sometimes diminish the\nturpitude of what seems a flat, barefaced falsehood. It is notorious\nthat a man may go on uttering false assertions about his own acts till\nhe at last believes in them: is it not possible that sometimes in the\nvery first utterance there may be a shade of creed-reciting belief, a\nreproduction of a traditional self which is clung to against all\nevidence? There is no knowing all the disguises of the lying serpent.\n\n\"When we come to examine in detail what is the sane mind in the sane\nbody, the final test of completeness seems to be a security of\ndistinction between what we have professed and what we have done; what\nwe have aimed at and what we have achieved; what we have invented and\nwhat we have witnessed or had evidenced to us; what we think and feel in\nthe present and what we thought and felt in the past.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\nUn-self-consciousness\n\n\nOCTOBER 19\n\n\"An unconscious, easy, selfish person shocks less and is more easily\nloved than one who is laboriously and egotistically unselfish. There is\nat least no fuss about the first; but the other parades his sacrifices,\nand so sells his favours too dear. Selfishness is calm, a force of\nnature: you might say the trees are selfish. But egoism is a piece of\nvanity; it must always take you into its confidence; it is uneasy,\ntroublesome, searching; it can do good, but not handsomely; it is\nuglier, because less dignified, than selfishness itself.\"\n\n\"If a man has self-surrender pressed incessantly upon him, this keeps\nthe idea of self ever before his view. Christ does not cry down _self_,\nbut He puts it out of a man's sight by giving him something better to\ncare for, something which shall take full and rightful possession of his\nsoul. The Apostles, without ever having any consciousness of sacrificing\nself, were brought into a habit of self-sacrifice by merging all\nthoughts for themselves in devotion to a Master and a cause, and in\nthinking what they could do to serve it themselves.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n\nUn-self-consciousness\n\n\nOCTOBER 20\n\n\"Think as little as possible about any good in yourself; turn your eyes\nresolutely from any view of your acquirement, your influence, your plan,\nyour success, your following: above all, speak as little as possible\nabout yourself. The inordinateness of our self-love makes speech about\nourselves like the putting of the lighted torch to the dried wood which\nhas been laid in order for the burning. Nothing but duty should open our\nlips upon this dangerous theme, except it be in humble confession of our\nsinfulness before our God. Again, be specially upon the watch against\nthose little tricks by which the vain man seeks to bring round the\nconversation to himself, and gain the praise or notice which the thirsty\nears drink in so greedily; and even if praise comes unsought, it is\nwell, whilst men are uttering it, to guard yourself by thinking of some\nsecret cause for humbling yourself inwardly to God; thinking into what\nthese pleasant accents would be changed if all that is known to God, and\neven to yourself, stood suddenly revealed to man.\"\n\n                                                   Bishop WILBERFORCE.\n\n\"Those who have never sought to attain true humility ... have yet to\nlearn how it lies at the root of all our dear Lord's teaching.... The\nfirst step towards the inner life is to attain a childlike spirit in\nHeavenly things.... It is solely God's gift.\"\n\n                                                                 GROU.\n\n\nLove the Destroyer of Sin\n\n\nOCTOBER 21\n\n\"It is quite idle, by force of will, to seek to empty the angry passions\nout of our life. Who has not made a thousand resolutions in this\ndirection, only and with unutterable mortification to behold them dashed\nto pieces with the first temptation? The soul is to be made sweet not by\ntaking the acidulous fluids out, but by putting something in--a great\nlove, God's great love. This is to work a chemical change upon them, to\nrenovate and regenerate them, to dissolve them in its own rich fragrant\nsubstance. If a man let this into his life, his cure is complete; if\nnot, it is hopeless.\"\n\n                                     _The Ideal Life_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\"The secret of success consists not in the habit of making numerous\nresolutions about various faults and sins, but in one great, absorbing,\ncontrolling purpose to serve God and do His will! If this be the\ncontrolling motive of life, all other motives will be swept into the\nforce of its mighty current and guided aright.\"\n\n\nLove the Destroyer of Sin\n\n\nOCTOBER 22\n\n\"For the most of us the more hopeful plan is to overcome our passions by\nthinking of something else. This something else need by no means be a\nserious thing. For it happens sometimes that ideas that do not soar\nabove trivialities may nevertheless have sent down such roots into a\nman's life, and become so fruitful of suggestion, that they prove more\neffective allies than more imposing and pretentious resources. Whence it\ncomes that a sport, or a pastime, have before now weaned many from cares\nand sorrows which seemed proof against even the consolations of\nreligion. Be it granted that, severely construed, this is a proof of the\nfrivolity of human nature. But it is none the less an illustration of\nthe expulsive power of ideas.\"\n\n                         _The Making of Character_, Professor MACCUNN.\n\n\"He proposed to make sin impossible by replacing it with love. If sin be\nan act of self-will, each person making himself the centre, then Love is\nthe destruction of sin, because Love connects instead of isolating. No\none can be envious, avaricious, hard-hearted; no one can be gross,\nsensual, unclean, if he loves. Love is the death of all bitter and\nunholy moods of the soul, because Love lifts the man out of himself and\nteaches him to live in another.\"\n\n                            _The Mind of the Master_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\nMental Hygiene\n\n\nOCTOBER 23\n\n\"It is poor strategy to wage against evil feelings or propulsions a war\nof mere repression. We have seen that this is so in educational control\nof others. It is not less so in control of ourselves. If we would really\noust our evil proclivities, we must cultivate others that are positively\ngood. It is not enough to hate our failings or our vices with a perfect\nhatred. We must love something else. In other words, we must contrive to\nopen mind and heart to tenants in whose presence unwelcome intruders,\nunable to find a home, will torment us only for a season and at last\ntake their departure. 'There is a mental just as much as a bodily\nhygiene.'\"\n\n                         _The Making of Character_, Professor MACCUNN.\n\n\"Moses said, 'Do this or do that.' Jesus refrained from regulations--He\nproposed that we should love. Jesus, while hardly mentioning the word,\nplanted the idea in His disciples' minds, that Love was Law. For three\nyears He exhibited and enforced Love as the principle of life, until,\nbefore He died, they understood that all duty to God and man was summed\nup in Love. Progress in the moral world is ever from complexity to\nsimplicity. First one hundred duties; afterwards they are gathered into\nten commandments; then they are reduced to two: love of God and love of\nman; and, finally, Jesus says His last word: 'This is My commandment,\nthat ye love one another, as I have loved you.'\"\n\n                            _The Mind of the Master_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\n\"As Night Enters, Darkness Departs\"\n\n\nOCTOBER 24\n\n\"If sin be a principle in a man's life, then it is evident that it\ncannot be affected by the most pathetic act in history exhibited from\nwithout; it must be met by an opposite principle working from within. If\nsin be selfishness, as Jesus taught, then it can only be overcome by the\nintroduction of a spirit of self-renunciation. Jesus did not denounce\nsin: negative religion is always impotent. He replaced sin by virtue,\nwhich is a silent revolution. As the light enters, the darkness departs,\nand as soon as one renounced himself, he had ceased from sin.\"\n\n  _The Mind of the Master_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\"'Why could not we cast him out?'\n\n\"Let His love fill you with love, and then the conquering of your sins\nby His help shall be in its course one long enthusiasm and at the end a\nglorious success. That is your hope; and that hope, if you will, you may\nseize to-day.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\nStepping-stones\n\n\nOCTOBER 25\n\n\"The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak,\nbecomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.\"\n\n                                                              CARLYLE.\n\n\"Out of difficulties grow miracles.\"\n\n  \"I hold it truth with him who sings\n      To one clear harp in divers tones,\n      That men may rise on stepping stones\n  Of their dead selves to higher things.\"\n\n                                                             TENNYSON.\n\n\"Why wilt thou defer thy good purpose from day to day? Arise and begin\nthis very instant, and say, 'Now is the time to be doing, now is the\ntime to be striving, now is the fit time to amend myself.'\"\n\n                                                      THOMAS A KEMPIS.\n\n\nNever Lose a Battle\n\n\nOCTOBER 26\n\n\"A fourth maxim is 'never if possible to lose a battle.' And none can be\nsounder. For it is always to be remembered that a single lapse involves\nhere something worse than a simple failure. The alternative is not\nbetween good habit or no habit, but between good habit and bad. For, as\nProfessor Bain points out, the characteristic difficulty here lies in\nthe fact that in the moral life rival tendencies are in constant\ncompetition for mastery over us. The loss of a battle here is therefore\nworse than a defeat. It strengthens the enemy, whether this enemy be\nsome powerful passion, or nothing more than the allurements of an easy\nlife. It has worse effects still. For if by persistence in well-doing we\nall of us create a moral tradition for our individual selves, so do we\nby every failure hang in the memory a humiliating and paralysing record\nof defeat.\"\n\n                         _The Making of Character_, Professor MACCUNN.\n\n\"If one surrender himself to Jesus, and is crucified on His cross, there\nis no sin he will not overcome, no service he will not render, no virtue\nto which he will not attain.\"\n\n                            _The Mind of the Master_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.\n\n\nLiving in the Present\n\n\nOCTOBER 27\n\n\"Be not anxious about to-morrow. Do to-day's duty, fight to-day's\ntemptation, and do not weaken and distract yourself by looking forward\nto things which you cannot see, and could not understand, if you saw\nthem.\"\n\n                                                     CHARLES KINGSLEY.\n\n\"Do not disturb thyself by thinking of the whole of thy life. Let not\nthy thoughts at once embrace all the various troubles which thou mayest\nexpect to befall thee: but on every occasion ask thyself, What is there\nin this which is intolerable and past bearing? for thou wilt be ashamed\nto confess. In the next place remember that neither the future nor the\npast pains thee, but only the present. But this is reduced to a very\nlittle, if thou only circumscribest it, and chidest thy mind, if it is\nunable to hold out against even this.\"\n\n                                                      MARCUS AURELIUS.\n\n\"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could.\nSome blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as\nyou can. To-morrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too\nhigh a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all\nthat is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations,\nto waste a moment on the yesterdays.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\nDay by Day\n\n\nOCTOBER 28\n\n\"By trying to take in the idea of life as a whole we only give ourselves\nmental indigestion; a day at a time is as much as a man can healthily\nswallow.\"\n\n                                                           EDNA LYALL.\n\n  \"Think that this day will never dawn again.\n  The heavens are calling you and wheel around you,\n  Displaying to you their eternal beauties,\n  And still your eye is looking on the ground.\"\n\n                                           _The Divine Comedy_, DANTE.\n\n\"To-Day is a king in disguise: let us unmask the king as he passes.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\nDay by Day\n\n\nOCTOBER 29\n\n  \"Lo, here hath been dawning\n    Another blue day;\n  Think, wilt thou let it\n    Slip useless away!\"\n\n                          CARLYLE.\n\n\"The perfection of moral character consists in this, in passing every\nday as the last, and in being neither violently excited, nor torpid, nor\nplaying the hypocrite.\"\n\n                                                      MARCUS AURELIUS.\n\n  \"When night comes, list thy deeds; make plain the way\n  'Twixt heaven and thee; block it not with delays:\n  But perfect all before thou sleep'st; then say,\n  'There's one Sun more strung on my Bead of days.'\n  What's good store up for Joy, the bad, well scann'd,\n  Wash off with tears, and get thy Master's hand.\"\n\n                                                        HENRY VAUGHAN.\n\n\nGaining or Losing Ground\n\n\nOCTOBER 30\n\n\"Gaining or losing all the time is our condition, morally and\nspiritually. We cannot stand utterly still. If we are not improving we\nare losing ground. Outside forces compel that, in addition to the forces\nthat are working within. We are pressing forward and being helped in\nthat direction, or we are being pressed backward and are yielding to\nthat pressure. Let us not deceive ourselves with the idea that even\nthough we are making no progress we are at least holding our own. We can\nno more stand still than time can.\"\n\n  \"Whose high endeavours are an inward light,\n  That makes the path before him always bright.\n\n  \"And through the heat of conflict, keeps the law\n  In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw.\n\n  \"Who, not content that former worth stand fast,\n  Looks forward persevering to the last,\n  From well to better, daily self-surpassed.\"\n\n                                      _The Happy Warrior_, WORDSWORTH.\n\n\nPressing Forward\n\n\nOCTOBER 31\n\n\"Plutarch records that when Simonides offered to teach Themistocles the\nart of memory the latter said: 'Teach me rather the art of forgetting.'\nHow much the world needs to learn that art. Paul spoke of forgetting the\nthings that are behind. We should forget our mistakes and failures, so\nfar as these cause discouragement. We should forget our successes if\nthey cause pride or preoccupy the mind. We should forget the slights\nthat have been put upon us or the insults that have been given us. To\nremember these is to be weak and miserable, if not worse. He who says he\ncan forgive but he cannot forget is deceived by the sound of words.\nForgiveness that is genuine involves forgetfulness of the injury. True\nforgiveness means a putting away of the wrong behind the back and\nremembering it no more. That is what God does when He forgives, and that\nis what we all must do if we truly forgive.\"\n\n\"... It is wise to forget past errors. There is a kind of temperament\nwhich, when indulged, greatly hinders growth in real godliness. It is\nthat rueful, repentant, self-accusing temper, which is always looking\nback, and microscopically observing how that which is done might have\nbeen better done. Something of this we ought to have. A Christian ought\nto feel always that he has partially failed, but that ought not to be\nthe only feeling. Faith ought ever to be a sanguine, cheerful thing; and\nperhaps in practical life we could not give a better account of faith\nthan by saying, that it is, amidst much failure, having the heart to\n_try again_. Our best deeds are marked by imperfection; but if they\nreally were our best, 'forget the things that are behind'--we shall do\nbetter next time.\"\n\n                                                      F. W. ROBERTSON.\n\n\nThe Evil of Brooding\n\n\nNOVEMBER 1\n\n\"Throughout the Gospel history we discern our Lord's care to keep men in\na fit condition to serve God by active work. All that would impair their\nefficiency is to be shunned. Now, to repine and brood over some past\nerror cuts the sinews of action; from this the Apostles therefore are\nalways diverted, and they are to be watchful to prevent others from\nsinking into dejection and folding their hands in despair. A man who is\nhopeless has no heart for work, but when he is so far encouraged as to\nbe able to exert himself his despondency soon disappears.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n\"Disappointment should always be taken as a stimulant, and never viewed\nas a discouragement.\"\n\n                                                        C. B. NEWCOMB.\n\n\"I always loved 'At evening time it shall be light,' and I am sure it\ncomes true to many a young troubled soul, which in its youthful zeal and\nimpatience cannot help eating its heart out over its own and other\npeople's failings and imperfections, and has not yet learnt the patience\nwhich comes from realising that in this world we see but the beginning\nof things.\"\n\n\nAspiration\n\n\nNOVEMBER 2\n\n\"If a man constantly aspires, is he not elevated?\"\n\n                                                THOREAU.\n\n  \"The thing we long for,--That we are\n    For one transcendent moment!\n  Before the Present, poor and bare,\n    Can make its sneering comment!\n\n         *       *       *       *       *\n\n  Longing is God's fresh heavenward will\n    With our poor earthward striving;\n  We quench it that we may be still\n    Content with merely living;\n  But would we learn that heart's full scope\n    Which we are hourly wronging,\n  Our lives must climb from hope to hope\n    And realise our longing!\n\n         *       *       *       *       *\n\n  Ah! let us hope that to our praise\n    Good God not only reckons\n  The moments when we tread His ways,\n    But when the spirit beckons--\n  That some slight good is also wrought\n    Beyond self-satisfaction,\n  When we are simply good in thought,\n    Howe'er we fail in action.\"\n\n                                       LOWELL.\n\n\nThere shall never be one Lost Good\n\n\nNOVEMBER 3\n\n  \"Therefore to whom turn I but to Thee, the ineffable Name?\n    Builder and Maker, Thou, of houses not made with hands!\n  What, have fear of change from Thee Who art ever the same?\n    Doubt that Thy power can fill the heart that Thy power expands?\n  There shall never be one lost good! What was shall live as before;\n    The evil is null, is nought, is silence implying sound;\n  What was good, shall be good, with, for evil, so much good more;\n    On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven a perfect round.\n\n  All we have willed or hoped or dreamed of good, shall exist,\n    Not its semblance, but itself; no beauty, nor good, nor power\n  Whose voice has gone forth, but each survives for the melodist,\n    When eternity confirms the conception of an hour.\n  The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too hard,\n    The passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky,\n  Are music sent up to God by the lover and the bard;\n    Enough that He heard it once; we shall hear it by-and-bye.\"\n\n                                        _Abt Vogler_, ROBERT BROWNING.\n\n\nStruggling\n\n\nNOVEMBER 4\n\n  \"If what shone afar so grand\n  Turn to nothing in thy hand,\n  On again, the virtue lies\n  In the struggle, not the prize.\"\n\n                            R. M. MILNES.\n\n\"One would like one's own failures to be one's friends' stepping\nstones.... I am trying to teach myself that if one _has_ been working,\none has not necessarily been working to good purpose, and that one may\nwaste strength and forces of all sorts, as well as time.\"\n\n                                               _Mrs. Ewing's Letters._\n\n  \"Rise ... as children learn, be thou\n  Wiser for falling.\"\n\n                                                             TENNYSON.\n\n\nTrue Patience\n\n\nNOVEMBER 5\n\n\"There are those who think it is Christian patience to sit down by the\nwayside to endure the storm, crying in themselves, 'God is hard on me,\nbut I will bear His smiting'; but their endurance is only idleness which\nis ignoble, and hiding from the battle which is cowardice. Or they cry,\n'I am the victim of Fate, but I will be patient'--as if any one could be\na victim if God be love, or as if there were such a thing as blind fate,\nwhen the order of the world is to lead men into righteousness; when to\nbe victor and not victim is the main word of that order. No, the\nseverity of the battle is to force us into self-forgetfulness; and this\nlazy resignation, this wailing patience, is mere self-remembrance. The\ntrue patience is activity of faith and hope and righteousness in the\ncause of men for the sake of God's love of them; is in glad proclamation\nof the gospel; is in wielding the sword of the Truth of God against all\nthat injures mankind.\"\n\n                                 _The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.\n\n  \"Wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss,\n  But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.\n  What though the mast be now blown overboard,\n  The cable broke, the holding anchor lost,\n  And half our sailors swallowed in the flood--\n  Yet lives our Pilot still.\"\n\n                                                          SHAKESPEARE.\n\n\nThe Appetite for Condolence\n\n\nNOVEMBER 6\n\n\"It is right to exercise a great deal of self-restraint in speaking of\nour troubles, and not to let the appetite for condolence grow on us.\"\n\n                   _Studies in the Christian Character_, Bishop PAGET.\n\n\"Carlyle says, 'My father had one virtue which I should try to\nimitate--he never spoke of what was disagreeable and past,' and my\nmother was the same; she turned her back at once upon the last months,\nwhich she put away for ever like a sealed volume.\"\n\n                                _The Story of my Life_, AUGUSTUS HARE.\n\n\"Hacket's motto, 'Serve God and be cheerful.'\"\n\n\n\"The Sharp Ferule of Calamity\"\n\n\nNOVEMBER 7\n\n\"It is to keep a man awake, to keep him alive to his own soul and its\nfixed design of righteousness, that the better part of moral and\nreligious education is directed; not only that of words and doctors, but\nthe sharp ferule of calamity under which we are all God's scholars till\nwe die.\"\n\n                        _The Life of R. L. Stevenson_, GRAHAM BALFOUR.\n\n\"The best help is not to bear the troubles of others for them, but to\ninspire them with courage and energy to bear their burdens for\nthemselves and meet the difficulties of life bravely.\"\n\n                                                         Lord AVEBURY.\n\n\nThe Essentials of Happiness\n\n\nNOVEMBER 8\n\n\"We weigh ourselves down with burdens of sorrow which are the results of\nour selfish thoughts and selfish desires; and every one of these burdens\nlessens our power to live righteously in ourselves, and to live usefully\nfor others.\"\n\n                                 _The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.\n\n\"When you find yourself overpowered, as it were by melancholy, the best\nway is to go out, and do something kind to somebody or other.\"\n\n                                _Letters of Spiritual Counsel_, KEBLE.\n\n\"The grand essentials of happiness are, something to do, something to\nlove, and something to hope for.\"\n\n                                                             CHALMERS.\n\n\"Happiness is easy when we have learnt to renounce.\"\n\n                                                        MME. DE STAEL.\n\n\nUnrest\n\n\nNOVEMBER 9\n\n\"Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only\nbegins for man with self-surrender.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"What are the chief causes of _Unrest_? If you know yourself, you will\nanswer Pride, Selfishness, Ambition. As you look back upon the past\nyears of your life, is it not true that its unhappiness has chiefly come\nfrom the succession of personal mortifications and almost trivial\ndisappointments which the intercourse of life has brought you? Great\ntrials come at lengthened intervals, and we rise to breast them; but it\nis the petty friction of our everyday life with one another, the jar of\nbusiness or of work, the discord of the domestic circle, the collapse of\nour ambition, the crossing of our will, the taking down of our conceit,\nwhich make inward peace impossible. Wounded vanity, then, disappointed\nhopes, unsatisfied selfishness--these are the old, vulgar, universal\nsources of man's unrest.\"\n\n                                       _Pax Vobiscum_, HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\nRest\n\n\nNOVEMBER 10\n\n\"Now, what is the first step towards the winning of that rest? It is the\ngiving up of self-will and the receiving of God's will as our own--and\nwhat that means is clear. It is to make our life at one with God's\ncharacter, with justice and purity, with truth and love, with mercy and\njoy. It is the surrender of our own pleasure and the making of God's\ndesire for us the master of our life. That is the first step--a\ndirection of the soul to God. The second has to do with mankind. It is\nthe replacing of all self-love by the love of our fellow-men; a\ndirection of the soul to God through man.\n\n\"These two ways are in reality one; and there is no other way, if we\nsearch the whole world over, in which we may attain rest. Simple as it\nsounds, it is the very last way many of us seek. We fight against this\ntruth, and it has to be beaten into us by pain. Clear as it seems, it is\na secret which is as difficult to discover as the Elixir of Life, but it\nis so difficult because we do not will to discover it.\"\n\n                                 _The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.\n\n\nThe Duty of Happiness\n\n\nNOVEMBER 11\n\n\"I cannot think but that the world would be better and brighter if our\nteachers would dwell on the Duty of Happiness as well as the Happiness\nof Duty.\"\n\n                                                         Lord AVEBURY.\n\n\"Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not\non your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.\"\n\n                                                              DICKENS.\n\n\"Half the world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of happiness. They\nthink it consists in having and getting, and in being served by others.\nIt consists in giving and in serving others.\"\n\n                                                       HENRY DRUMMOND.\n\n\nDiscontent\n\n\nNOVEMBER 12\n\n\"He or she that is idle, be they of what condition they will, never so\nrich, so well allied, fortunate, happy--let them have all things in\nabundance and felicity that heart can wish and desire,--all\ncontentment--so long as he, or she, or they are idle, they shall never\nbe pleased, never well in mind or body, but weary still, sickly still,\nvexed still, loathing still, weeping, sighing, grieving, suspecting,\noffended with the world, with every object, wishing themselves gone or\ndead, or else carried away with some foolish phantasy or other.\"\n\n                                                               BURTON.\n\n\"We are never more discontented with others than when we are\ndiscontented with ourselves. The consciousness of wrong-doing makes us\nirritable, and our heart in its cunning quarrels with what is outside\nit, in order that it may deafen the clamour within.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble\nup, if thou wilt ever dig.\"\n\n                                                      MARCUS AURELIUS.\n\n\nSelf-centred People\n\n\nNOVEMBER 13\n\n\"It is self-centred people that are lonely--the richer the gift, the\nricher the giver. No one was ever the worse for giving.\"\n\n                                                      F. F. MONTRESOR.\n\n\"Misanthropy is always traceable to some vicious experience or\nimperception--to some false reading in the lore of right and wrong, or\nit proceeds from positive defects in ourselves, from a departure from\nthings simple and pure, whereby we forfeit happiness without losing the\nsense of the proper basis on which it rests; yet even thus perverted by\nthe prejudices of the world, we still find a soothing pleasure in\ncontemplating that happiness which belongs to simplicity and virtue.\"\n\n                                                                ACTON.\n\n\"The largest and most comprehensive natures are generally the most\ncheerful, the most loving, the most hopeful, the most trustful. It is\nthe wise man, of large vision, who is the quickest to discern the moral\nsunshine gleaming through the darkest cloud.\"\n\n\nContentment\n\n\nNOVEMBER 14\n\n\"Contentment comes neither by culture nor by wishing; it is\nreconciliation with our lot, growing out of an inward superiority to our\nsurroundings.\"\n\n                                                         J. K. MCLEAN.\n\n\"If you wish to be miserable, think about yourself, about what you want,\nwhat you like, what respect people ought to pay you; and then to you\nnothing will be pure. You will spoil everything you touch, you will make\nmisery for yourself out of everything which God sends you: you will be\nas wretched as you choose.\"\n\n                                                     CHARLES KINGSLEY.\n\n\"Do not let your head run upon that which is none of your own, but pick\nout some of the best of your circumstances, and consider how eagerly you\nwould wish for them, were they not in your possession.\"\n\n                                                      MARCUS AURELIUS.\n\n\nContentment\n\n\nNOVEMBER 15\n\n\"Man seeks pleasure and self--great unforeseen results follow. Man seeks\nGod and others--and there follows pleasure.\"\n\n                                                       ARNOLD TOYNBEE.\n\n\"The true felicity of life is to be free from perturbations; to\nunderstand our duties towards God and man; to enjoy the present without\nany serious dependence upon the future. Not to amuse ourselves with\neither hopes or fears, but to rest satisfied with what we have. The\ngreat blessings of mankind are within our reach; but we shut our eyes,\nand, like people in the dark, we fall foul upon the very thing we search\nfor, without finding it. Tranquillity is the state of human perfection,\nit raises us as high as we can go, and makes every man his own\nsupporter; whereas he that is borne up by anything else may fall. He\nthat judges right and perseveres in it, enjoys a perpetual calm; he\ntakes a true prospect of things; he observes an order, measure, a\ndecorum in all his actions; he has a benevolence in his nature; and\nsquares his life according to reason, and draws to himself love and\nadmiration. Without a certain and unchangeable judgment, all the rest is\nbut fluctuation. Liberty and serenity of mind must necessarily ensue\nupon the mastering of those things which either allure or affright us,\nwhen, instead of those flashy pleasures we shall find ourselves\npossessed of joys transporting and everlasting.\"\n\n                                                               SENECA.\n\n\"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself, nothing can bring you peace\nbut the triumph of principle.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\nDiscontent\n\n\nNOVEMBER 16\n\n\"Discontent is want of self-reliance; it is infirmity of will.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"To repel one's cross is to make it heavier.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"She had that rare sense which discerns what is unalterable; and submits\nto it without murmuring.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n                        \"But for me,\n  What good I see, humbly I seek to do,\n  And live obedient to the Law, in trust\n  That what will come and shall come, must come well.\"\n\n                                       _The Light of Asia_, E. ARNOLD.\n\n\nMagnifying Troubles\n\n\nNOVEMBER 17\n\n\"Another weight is the cares of life. We keep so many which we might\nshake off, that it is more than pitiful. We encourage fears for our\nlife, our future, our wealth, till all our days are harassed out of\npeace, till the very notion of trust in God is an absurdity. We waste\nlife away in petty details, spending infinite trouble on transient\nthings, magnifying the gnats of life into elephants, tormenting\nourselves and others over household disturbances, children, servants,\nlittle losses, foolish presentiments, our state of health, our\nfinances,--till every one around us is infected with our disease of fret\nand worry. This is indeed to weight our soul. Our life with God, our\nwork for man, are dragged to earth.\"\n\n                                 _The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.\n\n\"I pack my troubles in as little compass as I can for myself, and never\nlet them annoy others.\"\n\n                                                              SOUTHEY.\n\n\nBearing Trouble\n\n\nNOVEMBER 18\n\n\"Once open the door to trouble, and its visits are three-fold; first,\nanticipation; second, in actual presence; third, in living it over\nagain. Therefore never anticipate trouble, make as little of its\npresence as possible, forget it as soon as past.\"\n\n\"It is better to employ our minds in bearing the ills we have, than in\nproviding against those which may never befall us.\"\n\n                                                     LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.\n\n\"Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to\nbear are those which never come.\"\n\n                                                               LOWELL.\n\n\"If you want to be cheerful, jes' set yer mind on it an' do it. Can't\nnone of us help what traits we start out in life with, but we kin help\nwhat we end up with. When things first got to goin' wrong with me, I\nsays, 'Oh, Lord, whatever comes, keep me from gettin' sour.'... Since\nthen I've made it a practice to put all my worries down in the bottom of\nmy heart, then set on the lid an' smile.\"\n\n                                       _Lovey Mary_, ALICE HEGAN RICE.\n\n\nThe Secret of the Joy of Living\n\n\nNOVEMBER 19\n\n  \"We live not in our moments or our years--\n  The Present we fling from us like the rind\n  Of some sweet Future, which we after find\n  Bitter to taste, or bind that in with fears,\n  And water it beforehand with our tears--\n  Vain tears for that which never may arrive:\n  Meanwhile the joy whereby we ought to live,\n  Neglected or unheeded, disappears.\n  Wiser it were to welcome and make ours\n  Whate'er of good, tho' small, the present brings--\n  Kind greetings, sunshine, song of birds, and flowers,\n  With a child's pure delight in little things;\n    And of the griefs unborn to rest secure,\n    Knowing that mercy ever will endure.\"\n\n                                                    Archbishop TRENCH.\n\n\"The secret of the joy of living is the proper appreciation of what we\nactually possess.\"\n\n\nCauses of Thankfulness\n\n\nNOVEMBER 20\n\n\"I sleep, I eat and drink, I read and meditate, I walk in my neighbour's\npleasant fields, and see the varieties of natural beauties, and delight\nin all that in which God delights--that is, in virtue and wisdom, in the\nwhole creation, and in God Himself. And he that hath so many causes of\njoy, and so great, is very much in love with sorrow and peevishness, who\nloses all these pleasures, and chooses to sit down upon his little\nhandful of thorns.\"\n\n                                                        JEREMY TAYLOR.\n\n\"Where much is given, much shall be required. There are never privileges\nto enjoy without corresponding duties to fulfil in return.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n  \"Thou that hast given so much to me,\n  Give one thing more--a grateful heart.\"\n\n                                                       GEORGE HERBERT.\n\n\nCauses of Thankfulness\n\n\nNOVEMBER 21\n\nON LEAVING A HOME FOR INCURABLES\n\n\"It didn't seem much to be able to walk away, to look back, to remember\nwhat we had seen; and yet how is it that we are not on our knees in\ngratitude and thankfulness for every active motion of the body, every\nword we speak, every intelligent experience and interest that passes\nthrough our minds?\"\n\n                                                       Miss THACKERAY.\n\n\"Nothing raises the price of a blessing like its removal; whereas, it\nwas its continuance which should have taught us its value.\"\n\n                                                          HANNAH MORE.\n\n\"O God, animate us to cheerfulness! May we have a joyful sense of our\nblessings, learn to look on the bright circumstances of our lot, and\nmaintain a perpetual contentedness.\"\n\n                                                             CHANNING.\n\n\nGrumbling\n\n\nNOVEMBER 22\n\n\"His eyes were bright with intelligence and trained powers of\nobservation; and they were beautiful with kindliness, and with the\nwell-bred habit of giving complete attention to other people and their\naffairs when he talked with them. He had a rare smile ... but the real\nbeauty of such mouths as his comes from the lips being restrained into\nfirm and sensitive lines, through years of self-control and fine\nsympathies.... Under-bred and ill-educated women are, as a general rule,\nmuch less good-looking than well-bred and highly-educated ones,\nespecially in middle life; not because good features and pretty\ncomplexions belong to one class more than to another, but because nicer\npersonal habits and stricter discipline of the mind do.... And if, into\nthe bargain, a woman has nothing to talk about but her own and her\nneighbour's everyday affairs, and nothing to think about to keep her\nfrom continually talking, life, my dear child, is so full of little\nrubs, that constant chatter of this kind must almost certainly be\nconstant grumbling. And constant grumbling makes an ugly under-lip, a\nforehead wrinkled with frowning, and dull eyes that see nothing but\ngrievances.\"\n\n                                            _A Bad Habit_, Mrs. EWING.\n\n\nGrumbling\n\n\nNOVEMBER 23\n\n\"Cultivate the habit of never putting disagreeables into words, even if\nit be only the weather which is in question; also of never drawing other\npeople's attention to words or things which will irritate them.\"\n\n                                                         LUCY SOULSBY.\n\n\"A cucumber is bitter--Throw it away.--There are briars in the\nroad--Turn aside from them.--This is enough. Do not add, And why were\nsuch things made in the world?\"\n\n                                                      MARCUS AURELIUS.\n\n\"Patience under adverse circumstances will often bring about favourable\nresults, while complaint only accentuates and fixes the cause of\ncomplaint. Avoid mention of the disagreeable things that may come into\nyour life. If you cannot be patient you can at least be silent. The\nsecret of success lies not so much in knowing what to say as in what to\navoid saying.\"\n\n\nGrumbling\n\n\nNOVEMBER 24\n\n\"If you have not slept, or if you have slept, or if you have a headache,\nor sciatica, or leprosy, or thunder-stroke, I beseech you by all the\nangels to hold your peace, and not pollute the morning, to which all the\nhousemates bring serene and pleasant thoughts, by corruptions and\ngroans.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n  \"Walk thy way greatly! So do thou endure\n  Thy small, thy narrow, dwarfed and cankered life,\n  That soothing Patience shall be half the cure\n  For ills that lesser souls keep sore with strife.\"\n\n                                                            C. GREENE.\n\n\"Our personal interests, by the force of their importunity, exclude all\nlarger sympathies if these are not already matured before the conflict\nbegins. In the press of the world we lose sight of life, if the life is\nnot within us.\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\nGrumblers\n\n\nNOVEMBER 25\n\n\"There is a sect, unfortunately known to most in this land, under the\ndenomination of Grumblers, whose fundamental maxim is--whatever is, is\nwrong. Wherever they are found, and they are found almost everywhere,\nthey operate as a social poison; and though they contrive to embitter\nthe enjoyments of everybody about them, they perpetually assume that\nthemselves are the only aggrieved persons, and with such art as to be\nbelieved, till thoroughly known. They have often some excellent\nqualities, and the appearance of many amiable ones; but rank selfishness\nis their chief characteristic, accompanied by inordinate pride and\nvanity. They have a habit of laying the consequences of their own sins,\nwhether of omission or of commission, upon others; and, covered with\nfaults, they flatter themselves they 'walk blameless.' Where their\nselfishness, pride, or vanity are interested, they exhibit signs of\nboundless zeal, attention, and affection, to which those who are not\naware of their motives, are the dupes; but the very moment their\npredominant feelings are offended, they change from April to December.\nThey have smiles and tears at command for their holiday humour; but in\n'the winter of their discontent,' there is no safety from the bitterest\nblasts. Their grievances are seldom real, or if real, are grossly\nexaggerated, and are generally attributed to themselves; for, absorbed\nin their own feelings, they are wonderful losers of opportunities. In\nconclusion, I think it would be for their advantage, as it certainly\nwould be for that of the rest of the world, if they were made subject to\nsome severe discipline; and I would suggest for the first, second, and\nthird offence, bread and water and the treadmill, for one, two, and\nthree months respectively; for the fourth offence, transportation for\nseven years to Boothia Felix, or some such climate; and any subsequent\ndelinquency I would make capital, and cause the criminal to be shut up\nwith some offender in equal degree, there to grumble each other to\ndeath.\"\n\n                                         _The Original_, THOMAS WALKER.\n\n\nCheerfulness\n\n\nNOVEMBER 26\n\n\"'Tis a Dutch proverb that 'paint costs nothing,' such are its\npreserving qualities in damp climates. Well, sunshine costs less, yet is\nfiner pigment. And so of cheerfulness, or a good temper, the more it is\nspent, the more of it remains.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"Mirth is like a flash of lightning that breaks through a gloom of\nclouds and glitters for a moment. Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of\ndaylight in the mind and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.\"\n\n                                                              ADDISON.\n\n\"Always laugh when you can; it is a cheap medicine. Merriment is a\nphilosophy not well understood. It is the sunny side of existence.\"\n\n                                                                BYRON.\n\n\"Fortune will call at the smiling gate.\"\n\n                                                     Japanese Proverb.\n\n\nHumour\n\n\nNOVEMBER 27\n\n\"The sense of humour is the oil of life's engine. Without it, the\nmachinery creaks and groans. No lot is so hard, no aspect of things is\nso grim, but it relaxes before a hearty laugh.\"\n\n                                                        G. S. MERRIAM.\n\n\"It was a novel with a purpose, and its purpose was to show that it is\nonly by righteousness that men and nations prevail; also that there is\nmuch that is humorous in life as well as much that is holy, and that\nhealing virtue lies in laughter as well as in prayers and tears.\"\n\n                          _Isabel Carnaby_, ELLEN THORNEYCROFT FOWLER.\n\n\"I dare not tell you how high I rate humour, which is generally most\nfruitful in the highest and most solemn human spirits. Dante is full of\nit, Shakespeare, Cervantes, and almost all the greatest have been\npregnant with this glorious power. You will find it even in the Gospel\nof Christ.\"\n\n                                     _Tennyson--a Memoir_, by his Son.\n\n\nHumour\n\n\nNOVEMBER 28\n\n\"Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober.\"\n\n                                     1 PETER i. 13.\n\n\"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.\"\n\n                                    PROV. xvii. 22.\n\n\"Gravity ... I mean simply that grave and serious way of looking at life\nwhich, while it never repels the true light-heartedness of pure and\ntrustful hearts, welcomes into a manifest sympathy the souls of men who\nare oppressed and burdened, anxious and full of questions which for the\ntime at least have banished all laughter from their faces.... Gravity\nhas a delicate power of discrimination. It attracts all that it can\nhelp, and it repels all that could harm it or be harmed by it. It admits\nthe earnest and simple with a cordial welcome. It shuts out the\nimpertinent and insincere inexorably.\n\n\"The gravity of which I speak is not inconsistent with the keenest\nperception of the ludicrous side of things. It is more than consistent\nwith--it is even necessary to--humour. Humour involves the perception of\nthe true proportions of life.... It has softened the bitterness of\ncontroversy a thousand times. You cannot encourage it too much. You\ncannot grow too familiar with the books of all ages which have in them\nthe truest humour, for the truest humour is the bloom of the highest\nlife. Read George Eliot and Thackeray, and, above all, Shakespeare. They\nwill help you to keep from extravagances without fading into insipidity.\nThey will preserve your gravity while they save you from pompous\nsolemnity.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n\nBeauties of Nature\n\n\nNOVEMBER 29\n\n\"There are few of us that are not rather ashamed of our sins and follies\nas we look out on the blessed morning sunlight, which comes to us like a\nbright-winged angel beckoning us to quit the old path of vanity that\nstretches its dreary length behind us.\"\n\n                                                         GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\"That man is blessed who every day is permitted to behold anything so\npure and serene as the western sky at sunset, while revolutions vex the\nworld.\"\n\n                                                              THOREAU.\n\n  \"So then believe that every bird that sings,\n    And every flower that stars the elastic sod,\n  And every thought the happy summer brings\n    To the pure spirit is a word of God.\"\n\n                                                            COLERIDGE.\n\n\nSense of the Beautiful\n\n\nNOVEMBER 30\n\n\"No man receives the true culture of a man in whom the sensibility to\nthe beautiful is not cherished; and I know of no condition in life from\nwhich it should be excluded. Of all luxuries this is cheapest and the\nmost to hand; and it seems to me to be the most important to those\nconditions where coarse labour tends to give a grossness to the mind.\nFrom the diffusion of the sense of beauty in ancient Greece, and of the\ntaste for music in modern Germany, we learn that the people at large may\npartake of refined gratifications which have hitherto been thought to be\nnecessarily restricted to a few.\"\n\n                                                             CHANNING.\n\n\"Music--there is something very wonderful in music. Words are wonderful\nenough, but music is more wonderful. It speaks not to our thoughts as\nwords do, it speaks straight to our hearts and spirits, to the very core\nand root of our souls. Music soothes us, stirs us up; it puts noble\nfeelings into us; it melts us to tears, we know not how; it is a\nlanguage by itself, just as perfect, in its way, as speech, as words;\njust as divine, just as blessed. Music has been called the speech of\nangels; I will go farther, and call it the speech of God Himself.\n\n\"The old Greeks, the wisest of all the heathen, made a point of teaching\ntheir children music, because, they said, it taught them not to be\nself-willed and fanciful, but to see the beauty of order, the usefulness\nof rule, the divineness of law.\"\n\n                         _Good News of God Sermons_, CHARLES KINGSLEY.\n\n\nThe Gospel of Beauty\n\n\nDECEMBER 1\n\n\"Beauty is far too much neglected. It never belongs to criticism; it\nought by right to be always bound up with creation. What it is, is hard\nto define; but, whenever anything in nature or in the thoughts and\ndoings of man awakens a noble desire of seeing more of it; kindles pure\nlove of it; seems to open out before us an infinite of it which allures\nus into an endless pursuit; stimulates reverence, and makes the heart\nleap with joy--there is beauty, and with it always is imagination, the\nshaping power.\n\n\"The capacity for seeing beauty with the heart is one of the first\nnecessities for such a life in a living world as I now urge upon you.\nWhen you see it, you always see more and more of it. And the more you\nsee it, the more love and reverence you will feel in your heart; and the\nless you will care to criticise, and the more you will care to create.\nThe world needs it now, and the glory of it, more almost than anything\nelse, for nearly all the world has lost the power of seeing it. The\nmonied men want it; the scientific men want it; the artists themselves\nhave of late betrayed it; the business men want it. The middle-class and\nthe aristocracy are almost destitute of it; the working men abide in\nconditions in which its outward forms are absent. To give them the power\nto see all that is lovely in nature, in human thought, in art, and in\nthe noble acts of men--that is a great part of your work, and you should\nrealise it, and shape it day by day.\"\n\n                                 _The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.\n\n\nNature\n\n\nDECEMBER 2\n\n\"To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or\ncompany, nature is medicinal, and restores their tone. The tradesman,\nthe attorney, comes out of the din and craft of the street, and sees the\nsky and the woods, and is a man again. In their eternal calm, he finds\nhimself.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"Nature is loved by what is best in us.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees\non a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the\nclouds float across the sky, is by no means waste of time.\"\n\n                                                         Lord AVEBURY.\n\n\nNature\n\n\nDECEMBER 3\n\n\"The unobtrusive influences of earth, sea, and sky do their work. They\npass imperceptibly and unsought into the soul.\"\n\n          \"... Outdoor sights\n  Sweep gradual gospels in.\"\n\n  \"Bid me work, but may no tie\n  Keep me from the open sky\" (Barnes).\n\n                         _The Making of Character_, Professor MACCUNN.\n\n\"The cheerfulness of heart which springs up in us from the survey of\nNature's works, is an admirable preparation for gratitude. The mind has\ngone a great way towards praise and thanksgiving that is filled with\nsuch a secret gladness: a grateful reflection on the Supreme Cause who\nproduces it, sanctifies the soul, and gives it its proper value. Such an\nhabitual disposition of mind consecrates every field and wood, turns an\nordinary walk into a morning or evening sacrifice, and will improve\nthose transient gleams of joy, which naturally brighten up and refresh\nthe soul on such occasions, into an inviolable and perpetual state of\nbliss and happiness.\"\n\n                                                              ADDISON.\n\n\nHolidays\n\n\nDECEMBER 4\n\n\"There are only two rules for a successful holiday; the first is to earn\nit, the second is to have just enough holiday to make the prospect of\nwork pleasant. Periods of rest we all need, but labour and not rest is\nthe synonym of life. From these periods of rest we should return with a\nnew appetite for the duties of common life. If we return dissatisfied,\nenervated, without heart for work, we may be sure our holiday has been a\nfailure. If we return with the feeling that it is good to plunge into\nthe mid-stream of life again, we may know by this sign that we are\nmorally braced and strengthened by our exodus. The wise man will never\nallow his holiday to be a time of mere idleness. He will turn again to\nthe books that interest him, he will touch the fringe of some science\nfor which his holiday gives him opportunity, or he will plunge into\nphysical recreation, and shake off the evil humours of the body in\nactive exercise. The failure of holidays lies very much in the fact that\nnothing of this sort is attempted. The holiday is simply a series of\naimless days, and the natural result is _ennui_. The supreme purpose of\na holiday should be to regain possession of ourselves. He who does this\ncomes back from his holiday as from a sanctuary.\"\n\n                                                         W. J. DAWSON.\n\n\nBooks\n\n\nDECEMBER 5\n\n  \"But what strange art, what magic can dispose\n  The troubled mind to change its native woes?\n  Or lead us willing from ourselves, to see\n  Others more wretched, more undone than we?\n  This, Books can do;--nor this alone, they give\n  New views to life, and teach us how to live;\n  They soothe the grieved, the stubborn they chastise,\n  Fools they admonish, and confirm the wise:\n  Their aid they yield to all: they never shun\n  The man of sorrow, nor the wretch undone:\n  Unlike the hard, the selfish and the proud,\n  They fly not sullen from the suppliant crowd;\n  Nor tell to various people various things,\n  But show to subjects, what they show to kings.\"\n\n                                     _The Library_, CRABBE.\n\n\nBooks\n\n\nDECEMBER 6\n\n\"Narrowness may be met by recourse to the larger life revealed in\nLiterature. There is no stronger plea for Biography, Drama, or Romance,\nor for any imaginative expansion of interests, than that founded upon\nthe need for them as counteractives of the pitiable contractedness of\noutlook begotten of Division of Labour.\"\n\n                         _The Making of Character_, Professor MACCUNN.\n\n\"When I consider what some books have done for the world, and what they\nare doing, how they keep up our hope, awaken new courage and faith,\nsoothe pain, give an ideal life to those whose hours are cold and hard,\nbind together distant ages and foreign lands, create new worlds of\nbeauty, bring down truth from heaven; I give eternal blessings for this\ngift, and thank God for books.\"\n\n                                                 JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE.\n\n\nReading\n\n\nDECEMBER 7\n\n\"Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is\nthinking makes what we read ours. We are of the ruminating kind, and it\nis not enough to cram ourselves with a great load of collections; unless\nwe chew them over again they will not give us strength and nourishment.\"\n\n                                                                LOCKE.\n\n\"In the course of our reading we should lay up in our minds a store of\ngoodly thoughts in well-wrought words, which should be a living treasure\nof knowledge always with us, and from which, at various times, and\namidst all the shifting of circumstances, we might be sure of drawing\nsome comfort, guidance, and sympathy.\"\n\n                                                                HELPS.\n\n\nThe Object of Education\n\n\nDECEMBER 8\n\n\"We shall be agreed, I assume, that the object of Education is to train\nfor life, and not for a special occupation; to train the whole man for\nall life, for life seen and unseen, for the unseen through the seen and\nin the seen; to train _men_ in a word and not _craftsmen_, to train\ncitizens for the Kingdom of God. As we believe in God and the world to\ncome, these must be master thoughts.\n\n\"We shall be agreed further that with this object in view, education\nmust be so ordered as to awaken, to call into play, to develop, to\ndirect, to strengthen powers of sense and intellect and spirit, not of\none but of all: to give alertness and accuracy to observation: to supply\nfulness and precision to language: to arouse intelligent sympathy with\nevery form of study and occupation: to set the many parts and aspects of\nthe world before the growing scholar in their unity: to open the eyes of\nthe heart to the eternal of which the temporal is the transitory sign.\n\n\"We shall be agreed again that the elements of restraint alike and of\npersonal development which enter into education will be used to\nharmonise the social and individual instincts, and to inspire the young,\nwhen impressions are most easy and most enduring, with the sense of\nfellowship and the passion for service.\n\n\"We shall be agreed once more that the noblest fruit of education is\ncharacter, and not acquirements: character which makes the simplest life\nrich and beneficent, character which for a Christian is determined by a\ntrue vision of God, _of whom, through whom, unto whom, are all things_.\"\n\n                  _Christian Social Union Addresses_, Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\nThe Object of Education\n\n\nDECEMBER 9\n\n\"The entire object of true education is to make people not merely _do_\nthe right things, but enjoy the right things--not merely industrious,\nbut to love industry--not merely learned, but to love knowledge--not\nmerely pure, but to love purity--not merely just, but to hunger and\nthirst after justice.\"\n\n                               _The Crown of Wild Olive_, JOHN RUSKIN.\n\n\"Our great mistake in education is, as it seems to me, the worship of\nbook-learning--the confusion of instruction and education. We strain the\nmemory instead of cultivating the mind.... The important thing is not so\nmuch that every child should be taught, as that every child should be\ngiven the wish to learn.... If we succeed in giving the love of\nlearning, the learning itself is sure to follow.\"\n\n                                                         Lord AVEBURY.\n\n\nA Happy Childhood\n\n\nDECEMBER 10\n\n\"A happy childhood is one of the best gifts that parents have it in\ntheir power to bestow; second only to implanting the habit of obedience\nwhich puts the child in training for the habit of obeying himself, later\non.\"\n\n                                   _Diana Tempest_, MARY CHOLMONDELEY.\n\n\"The main duty of those who care for the young is to secure their\nwholesome, their entire growth; for health is just the development of\nthe whole nature in its due sequences and proportions: first the\nblade--then the ear--then, and not till then, the full corn in the ear;\nand thus, as Dr. Temple wisely says, 'not to forget wisdom in teaching\nknowledge.' If the blade be forced, and usurp the capital it inherits;\nif it be robbed by you, its guardian, of its birthright, or squandered\nlike a spendthrift, then there is not any ear, much less any corn; if\nthe blade be blasted or dwarfed in our haste and greed for the full\nshock and its price, we spoil all three. It is not easy to keep this\nalways before one's mind, that the young 'idea' is in a young body, and\nthat healthy growth and harmless passing of the time are more to be\ncared for than what is vainly called accomplishment.\"\n\n                                                       Dr. JOHN BROWN.\n\n\nMoral Education\n\n\nDecember 11\n\n\"Remember that the aim of your discipline should be to produce a\n_self-governing_ being, not to produce a being to be _governed by\nothers_. Were your children fated to pass their lives as slaves, you\ncould not too much accustom them to slavery during their childhood; but\nas they are by-and-by to be free men, with no one to control their daily\nconduct, you cannot too much accustom them to self-control while they\nare still under your eye. This is it which makes the system of\ndiscipline by natural consequences so especially appropriate to the\nsocial state which we in England have now reached. In feudal times, when\none of the chief evils the citizen had to fear was the anger of his\nsuperiors, it was well that during childhood parental vengeance should\nbe a chief means of government. But now that the citizen has little to\nfear from any one--now that the good or evil which he experiences is\nmainly that which in the order of things results from his own conduct,\nhe should from his first years begin to learn, experimentally, the good\nor evil consequences which naturally follow this or that conduct. Aim,\ntherefore, to diminish the parental government, as fast as you can\nsubstitute for it in your child's mind that self-government arising from\na foresight of results....\n\n\"All transitions are dangerous; and the most dangerous is the transition\nfrom the restraint of the family circle to the non-restraint of the\nworld. Hence the importance of pursuing the policy we advocate, which,\nby cultivating a boy's faculty of self-restraint, by continually\nincreasing the degree in which he is left to his self-restraint, and by\nso bringing him, step by step, to a state of unaided self-restraint,\nobliterates the ordinary sudden and hazardous change from\nexternally-governed youth to internally-governed maturity. Let the\nhistory of your domestic rule typify, in little, the history of our\npolitical rule. At the outset, autocratic control, where control is\nreally needful; by-and-by an incipient constitutionalism, in which the\nliberty of the subject gains some express recognition; successive\nextensions of this liberty of the subject, gradually ending in parental\nabdication.\"\n\n                                         _Education_, HERBERT SPENCER.\n\n\nMoral Education\n\n\nDECEMBER 12\n\n\"Self-government with tenderness,--here you have the condition of all\nauthority over children. The child must discover in us no passion, no\nweakness of which he can make use; he must feel himself powerless to\ndeceive or to trouble us; then he will recognise in us his natural\nsuperiors, and he will attach a special value to our kindness, because\nhe will respect it. The child who can rouse in us anger, or impatience,\nor excitement, feels himself stronger than we, and a child only respects\nstrength. The mother should consider herself as her child's sun, a\nchangeless and ever radiant world, whither the small restless creature,\nquick at tears and laughter, light, fickle, passionate, full of storms,\nmay come for fresh stores of light, warmth and electricity, of calm and\nof courage. The mother represents goodness, providence, law; that is to\nsay, the divinity under that form of it which is accessible to\nchildhood. If she is herself passionate, she will inculcate on her child\na capricious and despotic God, or even several discordant gods. The\nreligion of a child depends on what its mother and its father are, and\nnot on what they say. The inner and unconscious ideal which guides their\nlife is precisely what touches the child; their words, their\nremonstrances, their punishments, their bursts of feeling, even, are for\nhim merely thunder and comedy; what they worship--this it is which his\ninstinct divines and reflects.\n\n\"The child sees what we are, behind what we wish to be. Hence his\nreputation as a physiognomist. He extends his power as far as he can\nwith each of us; he is the most subtle of diplomatists. Unconsciously he\npasses under the influence of each person about him, and reflects it\nwhile transforming it after his own nature. He is a magnifying mirror.\nThis is why the first principle of education is: train yourself; and the\nfirst rule to follow if you wish to possess yourself of a child's will\nis: master your own.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\nMoral Education\n\n\nDECEMBER 13\n\n\"All wise teachers, I believe, recognise now that the best way of\ndealing with naughty children is to absorb their whole attention with\nsome _interest_, which will not only leave no energy to spare for\nnaughtiness, but will of itself tend to organise their minds, to\nsubordinate mental elements to a _purpose_, and so to develop\ncharacter.\"\n\n                       _The Standard of Life_, Mrs. BERNARD BOSANQUET.\n\n\"Discipline, like the bridle in the hand of a good rider, should\nexercise its influence without appearing to do so, should be ever\nactive, both as a support and as a restraint, yet seem to lie easily in\nhand. It must be always ready to check or to pull up, as occasion may\nrequire; and only when the horse is a runaway, should the action of the\ncurb be perceptible.\"\n\n                        _Guesses at Truth_, edited by Archdeacon HARE.\n\n\"If 'Pas trop gouverner' is the best rule in politics, it is equally\ntrue of discipline.\"\n\n                             _Children's Rights_, KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN.\n\n\nPunishment\n\n\nDECEMBER 14\n\n\"Punishments, then, must in the first place be proportionate to the\noffence, lest, by an undiscriminating severity or an undiscriminating\nleniency, distinctions of moral desert be blurred or effaced.\n\n\"_Secondly_, they must be analogous to the offence. The greedy must be\nstarved, the insolent humbled, the idle compelled to work. Otherwise the\nimposition will not effectually go home to the offender.\n\n\"_Thirdly_, punishments ought to be exemplary. Since they needs must\ncome, it is not enough that they should simply open the eyes of the\nculprit, by giving him his deserts. They must be utilised as\nobject-lessons for the behoof of that large class, the culprits in\npotentiality.\n\n\"_Fourthly_, they ought to be economical. 'It is good that they should\nsuffer,' we sometimes say; and so it is, so long as suffering, in itself\nalways an evil, do not exceed the quantum that is lamentably needful,\nneedful, that is, to vindicate authority, to stigmatise the offence, and\nto impress the offender.\n\n\"_Fifthly_, punishments ought to be reformatory. Not only must they\nnever, by vindictiveness in him who gives, and degradation in him who\nreceives, impair the instincts and resolves for a better life; they must\nbe devised in the belief, or at least in the hope, that these instincts\nand resolves exist, though they may be inhibited by the evil\nproclivities which punishment is meant to crush. The killing of what is\nbad must always look to the liberation of what is good.\n\n\"_Finally_, punishments ought to insist upon, and to define indemnity,\nso that the wrong-doer, in things small or great, may be forced to\nrepair, so far as this is possible, the irreparable mischief which\noffence implies.\"\n\n                         _The Making of Character_, Professor MACCUNN.\n\n\nRebuking\n\n\nDECEMBER 15\n\n\"The gentleness of our Lord in rebuking, has an effect which gentleness\noften has, it awakens compunctions in those to whom it is shown. A\nchild, who by severity is set on its defence or drawn into falsehood, is\noften melted into full confession by being loved and trusted more than\nit deserves.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n\"Our Lord's reply is again gentle; to be hard on a fault that was\nconfessed would have dried up that confidence which flowed so freely.\"\n\n                                      _Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.\n\n\"Better make penitents by gentleness than hypocrites by severity.\"\n\n                                                  S. FRANCIS DE SALES.\n\n\nExample\n\n\nDECEMBER 16\n\n\"Children have more need of models than of critics.\"\n\n                                                              JOUBERT.\n\n\"It is by imitation, far more than by precept, that we learn everything;\nand what we learn thus we acquire not only more effectually, but more\npleasantly. This forms our manners, our opinions, our lives.\"\n\n                                                                BURKE.\n\n\"Meanwhile there is much that we can do. It need not be said that home\nis the most effective school of character. On the duties of home I\ncannot dwell now. But there is a more general influence of common tone\nand habits of which serious account ought to be taken. We are at all\ntimes unconsciously educating others by our own example. Our standard of\nduty in the discharge of business and in the use of leisure necessarily\ninfluences the desires and the actions of those who look to us for\nguidance. The young are quick-eyed critics, and the sight of quiet\ndevotion to work, of pleasure sought in common things--and all truly\nprecious things are common--will enforce surely and silently some great\nlessons of school. We do not, as far as I can judge, rate highly enough\nour responsibility for the customary practices of society. Not\ninfrequently we neutralise our teaching through want of imagination by\nfailing to follow out the consequences of some traditional custom. We\nseem to be inconsiderate when we are only ignorant.\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\nWealth\n\n\nDECEMBER 17\n\n\"Christ did not denounce wealth any more than He denounced pauperism. He\ndid not abhor money; He used it. He did not abhor the company of rich\nmen; He sought it. He did not invariably scorn or even resent a certain\nprofuseness of expenditure. With a fine discrimination, He, while\nhabitually discouraging it, yet recognised that, here and there, there\nwas place for it. What he denounced was the _love_ of, the _lust_ of\nriches; the vulgar snobbishness that chose exclusively the fellowship or\nthe ways of rich men; the habit of extravagance; in one word, greed and\nluxury and self-indulgence. He taught men, first of all and last of all,\nthat they were stewards, that in the final analysis of men and things\nneither they nor theirs were their own.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe must not only affirm the brotherhood of man: we must live it. For\nthen the State, and in the State, the home, the Church, and the\nindividual shall become the incarnation of a regenerated humanity, and\nearth, this earth, our earth, here and to-day, the vestibule of heaven!\"\n\n                _The Citizen in Relation to the Industrial Situation_,\n                                 Bishop POTTER.\n\n\nThe Limit of Luxury\n\n\nDECEMBER 18\n\n\"The expenditure of money is no easy matter. It is wrong to let the poor\nwant. It is wrong to starve the nature which asks for other things than\nfood. There is only one principle of guidance. Whatever is done must be\ndone in thought for others, and not in thought for ourselves. Money on\nluxuries which end in ourselves is wrongly spent; money spent on\nluxuries--on scents, sounds and sights--which directly or indirectly\npass on to others is rightly spent. The limit of luxury is the power of\nsharing.\"\n\n                                  _The Service of God_, Canon BARNETT.\n\n\"All that depends on individual choice--our recreations, our\nexpenditure--can be brought to one test, which we are generally able to\napply: Does this or that help me to do my work more effectively? To us\nmost literally, even if the confession overwhelms us with shame,\nwhatsoever is not of faith is sin.\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\"Imitate a little child.... While you gather and use this world's goods\nwith one hand, always let your other be fast in your Heavenly Father's\nhand, and look round from time to time, and make sure that He is\nsatisfied.\"\n\n                                                  S. FRANCIS DE SALES.\n\n\nExpenditure\n\n\nDECEMBER 19\n\n\"I will take heart to lay down what I hold to be a fundamental rule,\nthat, while we endeavour to gain the largest and keenest power of\nappreciating all that is noblest in nature and art and literature, we\nmust seek to live on as little as will support the full vigour of our\nlife and work. The standard cannot be fixed. It will necessarily vary,\nwithin certain limits, according to the nature and office of each man.\nBut generally we shall strive diligently to suppress all wants which do\nnot tend through their satisfaction to create a nobler type of manhood,\nand individually we shall recognise no wants which do not express what\nis required for the due cultivation of our own powers and the fulfilment\nof that which we owe to others. We shall guard ourselves against the\ntemptations of artificial wants which the ingenuity of producers offers\nin seductive forms. We shall refuse to admit that the caprice of fashion\nrepresents any valuable element in our constitution, or calls into play\nany faculties which would otherwise be unused, or encourages industry.\nOn the contrary, we shall see in the dignity and changelessness of\nEastern dress a typical condemnation of our restless inconstancy. We\nshall perceive, and act as perceiving, that the passion for novelty is\nmorally and materially wasteful: that it distracts and confuses our\npower of appreciating true beauty: that it tends to the constant\ndisplacement of labour: that it produces instability both in the\nmanufacture and in the sale of goods to the detriment of economy. We\nshall, to sum up all in one master-principle, estimate value and costs\nin terms of life, as Mr. Ruskin has taught us; and, accepting this\nprinciple, we shall seek nothing of which the cost to the producer so\nmeasured exceeds the gain to ourselves.\"\n\n                  _Christian Social Union Addresses_, Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\nMoney\n\n\nDECEMBER 20\n\n\"If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man\ncannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that wealth may be said\nto possess him.\"\n\n                                                                BACON.\n\n\"The covetous man is like the camel, with a great haunch on his back;\nheaven's gate must be made higher and broader, or he will hardly get\nin.\"\n\n                                                                ADAMS.\n\n  \"Who shuts his hand hath lost his gold,\n  Who opens it hath it twice told.\"\n\n                                                       GEORGE HERBERT.\n\n\"Wealth in every form, material, intellectual, moral, has to be\nadministered for the common good. God only can say of any possession 'My\nown.'\"\n\n                                                      Bishop WESTCOTT.\n\n\nCourage to be Poor\n\n\nDECEMBER 21\n\n\"How the sting of poverty, or small means, is gone when one keeps house\nfor one's own comfort, and not for the comfort of one's neighbours.\"\n\n                                                   DINAH MARIA MULOCH.\n\n\"I wish that more of us had the courage to be poor; that the world had\nnot gone mad after fashion and display; but so it is, and the blessings\nwe might have are lost in the effort to get those which lie outside the\npossible.\"\n\n                                                          ALICE CAREY.\n\n\"To have what we want is riches; but to be able to do without is power.\"\n\n                                                     GEORGE MACDONALD.\n\n\nHospitality\n\n\nDECEMBER 22\n\n\"The truest hospitality is shown not in the effort to entertain, but in\nthe depth of welcome. What a guest loves to come for, and come again,\nis not the meal, but those who sit at the meal. If we remembered this,\nmore homes would be habitually thrown open to win the benedictions\nupon hospitality. It is our ceremony, not our poverty, it is\nself-consciousness oftener than inability to be agreeable that makes us\nwilling to live cloistered. Seldom is it that pleasantest homes to visit\nare the richest. The real compliment is _not_ to apologise for the\nsimple fare. That means trust, and trust is better than fried oysters.\"\n\n                                                        W. C. GANNETT.\n\n\"Hospitality must be for service, and not for show, or it pulls down the\nhost.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\nHospitality\n\n\nDECEMBER 23\n\n\"I pray you, O excellent wife, not to cumber yourself and me to get a\nrich dinner for this man or this woman who has alighted at our gate, nor\na bedchamber made ready at too great a cost. These things, if they are\ncurious in, they can get for a dollar at any village. But let this\nstranger, if he will, in your looks, in your accent and behaviour, read\nin your heart and earnestness, your thought and will, which he cannot\nbuy at any price in any village or city, and which he may well travel\nfifty miles and dine sparely and sleep hard in order to behold.\nCertainly, let the board be spread and let the bed be dressed for the\ntraveller; but let not the emphasis of hospitality lie in these things.\nHonour to the house where they are simple to the verge of hardship, so\nthat there the intellect is awake and reads the laws of the universe.\"\n\n                                                              EMERSON.\n\n\"I should count myself fortunate if my home were remembered for some\ninspiring quality of faith, charity and aspiring intelligence.\"\n\n                                                    HAMILTON W. MABIE.\n\n\nChristmas Eve\n\n\nDECEMBER 24\n\nA CHRISTMAS CAROL\n\n  \"It chanced upon the merry, merry Christmas Eve,\n  I went sighing past the church across the moorland dreary--\n  'Oh! never sin and want and woe this earth will leave,\n  And the bells but mock the wailing rounds, they sing so cheery.\n  How long, O Lord! how long before Thou come again!\n  Still in cellar, and in garret, and on moorland dreary\n  The orphans moan, and widows weep, and poor men toil in vain,\n  Till earth is sick of hope deferred, though Christmas bells be cheery.'\n\n  \"Then arose a joyous clamour from the wild-fowl on the mere,\n  Beneath the stars, across the snow, like clear bells ringing,\n  And a voice within cried,--'Listen! Christmas carols even here!\n  Tho' thou be dumb, yet o'er their work the stars and snows are singing.\n  Blind! I live, I love, I reign; and all the nations through,\n  With the thunder of my judgments even now are ringing;\n  Do thou fulfil thy work but as yon wild-fowl do,\n  Thou wilt heed no less the wailing, yet hear through it angels singing.'\"\n\n                                                     CHARLES KINGSLEY.\n\n\nChristmas Day\n\n\nDECEMBER 25\n\n\"And now once more comes Christmas Day. Once more, borne abroad on the\nwords of simple-minded shepherds, runs the story. God and man have met,\nin visible, actual union, in a life which is both human and divine....\nLift up yourselves to the great meaning of the Day, and dare to think of\nyour Humanity as something so sublimely precious that it is worthy of\nbeing made an offering to God. Count it a privilege to make that\noffering as complete as possible, keeping nothing back, and then go out\nto the pleasures and duties of your life, having been truly born anew\ninto His Divinity, as He was born into our Humanity, on Christmas Day.\"\n\n                                                      PHILLIPS BROOKS.\n\n  \"Let not the hearts, whose sorrow cannot call\n    This Christmas merry, slight the festival;\n  Let us be merry that may merry be,\n    But let us not forget that many mourn;\n  The smiling Baby came to give us glee,\n    But for the weepers was the Saviour born.\"\n\n                                                            COLERIDGE.\n\n\nMile-marks\n\n\nDECEMBER 26\n\n\"But Christmas is not only the mile-mark of another year, moving us to\nthoughts of self-examination: it is a season, from all its associations,\nwhether domestic or religious, suggesting thoughts of joy. A man\ndissatisfied with his endeavours is a man tempted to sadness. And in the\nmidst of the winter, when his life runs lowest and he is reminded of the\nempty chairs of his beloved, it is well he should be condemned to this\nfashion of the smiling face. Noble disappointment, noble self-denial,\nare not to be admired, not even to be pardoned, if they bring\nbitterness. It is one thing to enter the kingdom of heaven maimed;\nanother to maim yourself and stay without. And the kingdom of heaven is\nof the childlike, of those who are easy to please, who love and who give\npleasure.\"\n\n                                 _Across the Plains_, R. L. STEVENSON.\n\n\nGrowing Old\n\n\nDECEMBER 27\n\n\"To grow old is more difficult than to die, because to renounce a good\nonce and for all, costs less than to renew the sacrifice day by day and\nin detail. To bear with one's own decay, to accept one's own lessening\ncapacity, is a harder and rarer virtue than to face death. There is a\nhalo round tragic and premature death; there is but a long sadness in\ndeclining strength. But look closer: so studied, a resigned and\nreligious old age will often move us more than the heroic ardour of\nyoung years. The maturity of the soul is worth more than the first\nbrilliance of its faculties, or the plenitude of its strength, and the\neternal in us can but profit from all the ravages made by time. There is\ncomfort in this thought.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\"To know how to grow old is the master-work of wisdom, and one of the\nmost difficult chapters in the great art of living.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\nOld Age\n\n\nDECEMBER 28\n\n\"We must not take the faults of our youth into our old age; for old age\nbrings with it its own faults.\"\n\n                                                               GOETHE.\n\n\"It is only to the finest natures that age gives an added beauty and\ndistinction; for the most persistent self has then worked its way to the\nsurface, having modified the expression, and to some extent, the\nfeatures, to its own likeness.\"\n\n                                                       MATHILDE BLIND.\n\n\"The most beautiful existence, it seems to me, would be that of a river\nwhich should get through all its rapids and waterfalls not far from its\nrising, and should then in its widening course form a succession of rich\nvalleys, and in each of them a lake equally but diversely beautiful, to\nend, after the plains of age were past, in the ocean where all that is\nweary and heavy-laden comes to seek for rest.\"\n\n                                                    _Amiel's Journal._\n\n\nThe Love and Grace and Tenderness of Life\n\n\nDECEMBER 29\n\n\"Neither toil, nor the end of toil in oneself or in the world, is all\nvanity, in spite of the preacher; but there is enough vanity in both to\nmake one sit loose to them. What seems to grow fairer to me as life goes\nby is the love and grace and tenderness of it; not its wit and\ncleverness and grandeur of knowledge--grand as knowledge is--but just\nthe laughter of little children and the friendship of friends, the cosy\ntalk by the fireside, the sight of flowers and the sound of music.\"\n\n                                                          J. R. GREEN.\n\n\"Life is sweet, brother.... There's night and day, brother, both sweet\nthings; sun, moon and stars, brother, all sweet things; there's likewise\nthe wind on the heath. Life is very sweet, brother; who would wish to\ndie?\"\n\n                                                               BORROW.\n\n\nA Prayer\n\n\nDECEMBER 30\n\n\"Be patient still; suffer us yet a while longer; with our broken\npurposes of good, with our idle endeavours against evil, suffer us a\nwhile longer to endure, and (if it may be) help us to do better. Bless\nto us our extraordinary mercies; if the day come when these must be\ntaken, brace us to play the man under affliction. Be with our friends;\nbe with ourselves. Go with each of us to rest; if any dream, be their\ndreams quiet; if any awake, temper to them the dark hours of watching;\nand when the day returns, return to us our sun and comforter, and call\nus up with morning faces and with morning hearts--eager to labour--eager\nto be happy, if happiness shall be our portion--and if the day be marked\nfor sorrow, strong to endure it.\"\n\n                                   _Vailima Prayers_, R. L. STEVENSON.\n\n\nNew Year's Eve\n\n\nDECEMBER 31\n\n  \"Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky\n  The flying cloud, the frosty light:\n  The year is dying in the night;\n  Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.\n\n  \"Ring out the old, ring in the new,\n  Ring, happy bells, across the snow:\n  The year is going, let him go;\n  Ring out the false, ring in the true.\n\n  \"Ring out the grief that saps the mind,\n  For those that here we see no more;\n  Ring out the feud of rich and poor,\n  Ring in redress to all mankind.\n\n  \"Ring out a slowly dying cause,\n  And ancient forms of party strife;\n  Ring in the nobler modes of life,\n  With sweeter manners, purer laws.\n\n  \"Ring out the want, the care, the sin,\n  The faithless coldness of the times;\n  Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,\n  But ring the fuller minstrel in.\n\n  \"Ring out false pride in place and blood,\n  The civic slander and the spite;\n  Ring in the love of truth and right,\n  Ring in the common love of good.\n\n  \"Ring out old shapes of foul disease;\n  Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;\n  Ring out the thousand wars of old,\n  Ring in the thousand years of peace.\n\n  \"Ring in the valiant man and free,\n  The larger heart, the kindlier hand;\n  Ring out the darkness of the land,\n  Ring in the Christ that is to be.\"\n\n                                    TENNYSON.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX OF SUBJECTS\n\n\n  Accidie, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100\n\n  Accuracy, 185\n\n  Age, 361, 362\n\n  Appetite for Condolence, The, 310\n\n  Argument, 195, 196, 197\n\n  Art of Being Quiet, The, 30, 31\n\n  As Light enters Darkness departs, 297\n\n  Aspiration, 306\n\n\n  Back-biting, 190\n\n  Balance, 170, 171\n\n  Bearing Criticism, 155\n\n  Bearing Sorrow, 256, 257, 258, 259\n\n  Bearing Trouble, 322\n\n  Beauties of Nature, 333\n\n  Beautiful, Sense of, 334\n\n  Beauty, The Gospel of, 335\n\n  Being and Doing, 24, 25\n\n  Bereavement, 246, 247\n\n  Blessed are the Happiness-makers, 134\n\n  Books, 339, 340\n\n  Business-like Habits, 36\n\n  By their Works, 272\n\n\n  Calamity, Sharp Ferule of, 311\n\n  Calumny, 158, 159\n\n  Causes of Thankfulness, 324, 325\n\n  Celestial Surgeon, The, 18\n\n  Character, 138\n\n  Character--\n    Childlike-ness, 136\n    Negative Virtues, 137\n    Our Echoes roll from Soul to Soul, 139\n    The Right Atmosphere, 135\n\n  Character and Service, 11\n\n  Character of Henry Drummond, 22\n    ---- R. L. Stevenson, 23\n\n  Cheerfulness, 330\n\n  Childhood, A Happy, 344\n\n  Christian Law, The, 262, 263\n\n  Christianity, Programme of, 275\n\n  Christmas Day, 359\n\n  Christmas Eve, 358\n\n  Circumstances, 12, 13\n\n  Code of Society, The, 165\n\n  Comfort's Art, 92\n\n  Commune with your own Heart and be Still, 33\n\n  Conceit, 162\n\n  Concentration, 38, 39\n\n  Condolence, Appetite for, 310\n\n  Confession of Sin, 288\n\n  Conscience, 150\n\n  Contemptuousness, 181\n\n  Contentment, 318, 319\n\n  Conversation, 193, 194\n\n  Courage, 58\n\n  Courage to be Poor, 355\n\n  Courtesy, 203, 204, 205\n\n  Creed, A New, 274\n\n  Creeds, 267\n\n  Criticism, 155\n\n  Crossing the Bar, 254\n\n  Culture, 202\n\n\n  Day by Day, 301, 302\n\n  Dead, The, 249, 250, 251, 252\n\n  Death, 253\n\n  Death of Young Children, 248\n\n  Discontent, 316, 320\n\n  Dissension, 242\n\n  Doing more than Feeling, 62\n\n  Doing our Best, 64\n\n  Duty, 46, 47, 48\n\n  Duty of Giving Happiness, 132, 133\n\n  Duty of Happiness, The, 315\n\n  Duty of Physical Health, The, 84, 85\n\n  Duty to my Neighbour, 131\n\n\n  Education, The Object of, 342, 343\n    ---- Moral, 345, 346, 347\n\n  Egotism, 164, 192\n\n  Endurance, 43\n\n  Essentials of Happiness, The, 312\n\n  Evil is Wrought by Want of Thought, 69\n\n  Evil of Brooding, The, 305\n\n  Example, 350\n\n  Expenditure, 353\n\n\n  Faith, 273\n\n  False Impressions, 182\n\n  Falterers, 57\n\n  Family Life, 128\n\n  Fasting, 268, 269\n\n  Faults, 156\n\n  Fear of Failure, 55, 56\n\n  Flattery, 160\n\n  Foot-path to Peace, The, 8\n\n  Forgiveness, 115\n\n  Friendship, 216-235\n\n\n  Gaining or Losing Ground, 303\n\n  God, Manifestations of, 278, 279, 280\n\n  God's Children, 77\n\n  Gossip, 189, 191\n\n  Growing Old, 361\n\n  Grumblers, 329\n\n  Grumbling, 326, 327, 328\n\n\n  Habit, 140, 141\n\n  Habit of Admiration, The, 21\n\n  Hallowing of Work, The, 70\n\n  Happiness, 132, 133, 134, 312, 315\n\n  Happiness Makers, 134\n\n  Harmony, 15, 16\n\n  Health, Duty of, 84, 85\n\n  Heart, Commune with, 33\n\n  Heredity, 152, 153, 154\n\n  Holidays, 338\n\n  Holiness, 4\n\n  Holy Spirit, 5\n\n  Hospitality, 356, 357\n\n  Humility, 163\n\n  Humour, 331, 332\n\n  Hypochondriacs, 90, 91\n\n\n  Ideal Guest-chamber, An, 75\n\n  Ideal Level, An, 50\n\n  Ideals, 17\n\n  Idleness, 53, 54\n\n  Ifs of Life, The, 14\n\n  Ill-nature, 118\n\n  Indifference, Sin of, 60\n\n  Influence, 210, 211, 214, 215\n\n  Influence of Great Men, 19, 20\n\n  Interruptions, 73\n\n  Introspection, 290\n\n  Introspectiveness, 289\n\n  Invalids, 87, 88\n\n  Inward Stillness, 32\n\n  Iron Chains of Duty, The, 48\n\n  Irritability, 93, 94\n\n\n  Jealousy, 236, 237, 238\n\n  Judging, 176, 178, 180\n\n  Judgment, Biassed, 177\n\n  Judgment, Harsh, 175\n\n  Judgment, Sound, 172, 173, 174\n\n  Justice and Mercy, 179\n\n\n  Law of Love, The Great, 270\n\n  Lessons of Suffering, 89\n\n  Life, Ifs of, 14\n\n  Life a School, 10\n\n  Life after Death, 255\n\n  Life-giver, not Deed-doer, 26\n\n  Limit of Luxury, The, 352\n\n  Living in the Present, 300\n\n  Lord's Supper, The, 276\n\n  Love, 126, 130, 243\n\n  Love, Grace, and Tenderness of Life, The, 363\n\n  Love and Remorse, 239, 240, 241\n\n  Love Unrequited, 244, 245\n\n  Love, Law of, 270\n\n  Luxury, 352\n\n\n  Magnifying Troubles, 321\n\n  Manifestation of God, 278, 279, 280\n\n  Manners, 206, 207, 208, 209\n\n  Mechanical Work, 74\n\n  Memory, 110, 111\n\n  Mens Sana in Corpore Sano, 83\n\n  Mental Hygiene, 296\n\n  Mercy, 179\n\n  Method, 37\n\n  Mile-marks, 360\n\n  Money, 354\n\n  Morality, Physical, 86\n\n  Morbid Introspectiveness, 289\n\n  My Duty to my Neighbour, 131\n\n\n  Nature, 333, 336, 337\n\n  Never Lose a Battle, 299\n\n  New Year's Day, 1\n\n  New Year's Eve, 365\n\n  Noble Life, A, 3\n\n  Nominal Christians, 277\n\n  \"Not to Destroy, but to Fulfil,\" 265\n\n\n  Obstinacy, 157\n\n  Oil and Wine, 127\n\n  Old Age, 362\n\n  One by One, 71, 72\n\n  Open Mind, An, 198\n\n  Order, 41\n\n  Our true Selves and our traditional Selves, 291\n\n\n  Patience, 124, 309\n\n  Patience with Ourselves, 7\n\n  Peace, 8\n\n  Perseverance, 44\n\n  Pessimism, 79\n\n  Physical Morality, 86\n\n  Pleasure in Work, 45\n\n  Poverty, 355\n\n  Power, 49\n\n  Power of the Holy Spirit, The, 5\n\n  Prayer, 281-286\n\n  Prayer, A, 364\n\n  Present Circumstances, 12\n\n  Pressing Forward, 304\n\n  Pride, 161\n\n  Programme of Christianity, The, 275\n\n  Public Opinion, 166, 167\n\n  Punishment, 348\n\n  Purpose, 2, 9\n\n\n  Quarrels, 106, 107\n\n  \"Quench not the Smoking Flax,\" 212, 213\n\n  Quiet, 30, 31\n\n\n  Raw Material, 78\n\n  Readiness, 40\n\n  Reading, 341\n\n  Rebuking, 349\n\n  Receptive Side of Life, The, 34\n\n  Reconciliation, 113, 114\n\n  Regulation of Time, 35\n\n  Religion--\n    The Meaning of, 260\n    Pure, 261\n    In Daily Life, 266\n    Reparation, 116\n\n  Repentance, 151\n\n  Resolves, 287\n\n  Responsibility, 59\n\n  Rest, 314\n\n  Revenge, 108\n\n  Right Use of Speech, 200\n\n\n  Sacredness of Work, The, 63\n\n  Satan's Opportunities, 68\n\n  Science of Social Life, The, 119, 120, 121, 122\n\n  Secret of the Joy of Living, The, 323\n\n  Secret of Thrift, The, 42\n\n  Seeing one's Life in Perspective, 27\n\n  Self-centred People, 317\n\n  Self-examination, 287\n\n  Selfishness, 125\n\n  Sense of the Beautiful, 334\n\n  Sermon on the Mount, 274\n\n  Service, 80, 81, 82\n\n  Sharp Ferule of Calamity, The, 311\n\n  Silence a great Peacemaker, 112\n\n  Sin, 144, 145, 146, 148, 149, 288\n\n  Sin has its Pedigree, 142\n\n  Sin of Idleness, The, 53\n\n  Sin of Indifference, The, 60\n\n  Sins of the Spirit, 147\n\n  Sociability, 122\n\n  Society, 165\n\n  Soldiers of the Same Army, 271\n\n  Sorrow, 256, 257, 258, 259\n\n  Spectrum of Love, The, 130\n\n  Spiritual Balance and Proportion, 168\n\n  Stepping-Stones, 298\n\n  Struggling, 308\n\n  Sympathy, 123\n\n  Symphony, A, 6\n\n\n  Temper, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105\n\n  Temperance, 169\n\n  Temptation, 143\n\n  Thankfulness, 324, 325\n\n  There shall never be one lost Good, 307\n\n  Thoughts, 201\n\n  Thrift, 42\n\n  Time, 35\n\n  Time and Method, 37\n\n  To be Trusted is to be Saved, 76\n\n  Tolerance, 199\n\n  Touchiness, 109\n\n  Triviality, 28, 29\n\n  Trouble, 321, 322\n\n  True Patience, 309\n\n  Trustees, 264\n\n  Truth, 183\n\n  Truthfulness, 184, 186, 187, 188\n\n\n  Unamiable, The, 117\n\n  Unbalanced Memory, 110, 111\n\n  Unfelt Creeds, 267\n\n  Ungraciousness, 129\n\n  Unrest, 313\n\n  Un-self-consciousness, 292, 293\n\n\n  Wasted Emotions, 61\n\n  Wealth, 351\n\n  Where Love is, God is, 126\n\n  Work, 45, 51\n\n  Work--\n    Effective Reforms, 65, 66\n    Special, For each, 52\n    To Cure is the Voice of the Past, 67\n    Sacredness of, 63\n\n  Works, 272\n\n\n\n\nINDEX OF AUTHORS\n\n\n  A. H., 193\n\n  Abbott, Lyman, 10\n\n  Acton, 317\n\n  Adams, 354\n\n  Addison, 229, 330, 337\n\n  Allen, James Lane, 58, 114, 116, 152, 284\n\n  _Amiel's Journal_ (translated by Mrs. Humphry Ward), 2, 19, 31, 34,\n        40, 41, 46, 47, 55, 58, 118, 127, 140, 157, 161, 163, 167, 168,\n        172, 204, 212, 223, 227, 229, 236, 241, 256, 278, 313, 316, 320,\n        346, 361, 362\n\n  Ammian, 188\n\n  Arnold, Dr., 69\n\n  Arnold, Sir Edwin, 15, 16, 54, 60, 72, 75, 92, 139, 320\n\n  Arnold, Matthew, 121\n\n  Augustine, Saint, 290\n\n  Avebury, Lord, 3, 14, 36, 65, 85, 86, 89, 107, 170, 195, 311, 315,\n        336, 343\n\n\n  Bacon, 108, 354\n\n  Baillie, Joanna, 58\n\n  Balfour, Graham, 23\n\n  Barbauld, Mrs. A. L., 255\n\n  Barbour, R. W., 149\n\n  Barnes, 337\n\n  Barnett, Canon, 28, 29, 78, 80, 161, 352\n\n  Beecher, Henry Ward, 134, 139, 182, 280\n\n  Bentham, Jeremy, 140\n\n  Black, Hugh, 154, 219, 221\n\n  Blair, 216\n\n  Blind, Mathilde, 249, 362\n\n  Body, Canon, 34, 82, 151, 268\n\n  Book of Common Prayer, 85\n\n  Borrow, G., 363\n\n  Bosanquet, Mrs. Bernard, 67, 72, 213, 347\n\n  Bovee, 201\n\n  Bronte, Charlotte, 219\n\n  Brooke, Stopford, 11, 50, 53, 60, 61, 77, 79, 121, 131, 163, 266,\n        309, 312, 314, 321, 335\n\n  Brooks, Bishop Phillips, 5, 26, 42, 45, 49, 51, 66, 74, 84, 87, 88,\n        89, 137, 141, 150, 152, 168, 184, 211, 212, 217, 247, 265, 267,\n        274, 276, 281, 290, 297, 324, 332, 359\n\n  Brown, Dr. John, 344\n\n  Browning, E. B., 243\n\n  Browning, Robert, 45, 245, 307\n\n  Bruyere, La, 116\n\n  Bulwer-Lytton, 11, 17\n\n  Burke, 350\n\n  Burnett, Mrs. Hodgson, 178\n\n  Burns, 148\n\n  Burton, 316\n\n  Buxton, Charles, 64\n\n  Byron, 330\n\n\n  Caillard, E. M., 33\n\n  Caird, Principal, 179\n\n  Carey, Alice, 355\n\n  Carlyle, Thomas, 20, 45, 54, 63, 80, 97, 125, 156, 271, 298, 302\n\n  Cato, 106\n\n  Chalmers, 312\n\n  Channing, W. E., 6, 211, 325, 334\n\n  Chesterfield, Lord, 206, 208\n\n  Childs, Lydia M., 97\n\n  Cholmondeley, Mary, 74, 75, 138, 245, 344\n\n  Cicero, 221, 223, 228, 234\n\n  Clarke, J. Freeman, 340\n\n  Clough, Arthur Hugh, 15\n\n  Coleridge, 333, 359\n\n  Collier, Jeremy, 163\n\n  Colton, 35\n\n  Cowper, 159\n\n  Crabbe, 339\n\n  Crawford, F. Marion, 161\n\n  Cross, J. W., 133\n\n  Cyrus, 222\n\n\n  Dante, 301\n\n  Dawson, Rev. W. J., 338\n\n  De Stael, Madame, 312\n\n  Descartes, 106\n\n  Deschamps, 235\n\n  Dickens, Charles, 80, 315\n\n  Diggle, Archdeacon, 73, 268\n\n  Drummond, Professor Henry, 4, 19, 27, 76, 83, 102, 109, 126, 130, 132,\n        134, 142, 143, 144, 153, 204, 261, 265, 270, 275, 277, 288, 294,\n        313, 315\n\n  Dryden, 238\n\n\n  Eliot, George, 13, 16, 57, 87, 92, 101, 103, 110, 111, 112, 135, 150,\n        159, 180, 189, 240, 256, 291, 320, 333\n\n  Emerson, R. W., 10, 14, 39, 47, 58, 63, 64, 111, 116, 131, 143, 159,\n        165, 171, 187, 190, 192, 202, 204, 206, 207, 208, 215, 220, 223,\n        226, 280, 300, 301, 319, 320, 328, 330, 336, 356, 357\n\n  Empson, 104\n\n  Epictetus, 102, 158\n\n  Euripides, 228\n\n  Ewing, Mrs., 7, 125, 308, 326\n\n\n  Faber, F. W., 134\n\n  Fairless, Michael, 78\n\n  Farrar, Dean, 59, 88, 151, 190, 270\n\n  Feltham, 227\n\n  Fenelon, 7, 286\n\n  Fletcher, Horace, 68\n\n  Fowler, Ellen Thorneycroft, 112, 331\n\n  Fox, George, 29, 278\n\n  Froude, J. A., 184\n\n\n  Gannett, W. C., 356\n\n  Garfield, 56\n\n  Gaskell, Mrs., 57\n\n  Gladstone, W. E., 37\n\n  Goethe, 1, 39, 193, 199, 205, 362\n\n  Gore, Bishop, 165\n\n  Green, T. H., 273\n\n  Green, J. R., 363\n\n  Greene, C., 328\n\n  Grou, 293\n\n\n  Hacket, 310\n\n  Hare, 139, 310\n\n  Hare, Archdeacon, 163, 347\n\n  Harpe, La, 185\n\n  Harris, Rendel, 231, 284\n\n  Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 211\n\n  Helps, Sir Arthur, 122, 158, 341\n\n  Herbert, George, 195, 196, 324, 354\n\n  Herder, 231\n\n  Herodotus, 56\n\n  Hillel, Rabbi, 225\n\n  Hobbes, John Oliver, 176\n\n  Holland, Canon Scott, 257, 258, 259\n\n  Holmes, O. W., 14, 137, 204, 253\n\n  Hood, Thomas, 69\n\n  How, Bishop Walsham, 151, 289\n\n  Hughes, T., 219\n\n\n  Iddesleigh, Lord, 183\n\n  _Idler, The_, 234\n\n  Ingram, Bishop Winnington, 147, 279\n\n\n  James, Professor William, 141\n\n  Japanese Proverb, 330\n\n  Johnson, Dr., 55, 183\n\n  Jonson, Ben, 159\n\n  Joubert, 350\n\n\n  Keble, 312\n\n  Kemble, Fanny, 9\n\n  Kempis, Thomas a, 298\n\n  Kendall, May, 218, 237, 244, 278\n\n  Kingsley, Charles, 42, 46, 165, 166, 191, 214, 233, 283, 285, 300,\n        318, 334, 358\n\n\n  Lacordaire, 195\n\n  Latham, The Rev. Henry, 24, 35, 41, 62, 72, 80, 143, 177, 181, 191,\n        199, 269, 292, 305, 349\n\n  Leighton, Archbishop, 156\n\n  Liddon, Canon, 143\n\n  Little, Canon Knox, 289\n\n  Locke, 341\n\n  Long, George, 3\n\n  Longfellow, H. W., 32, 112, 275\n\n  Louis XIV., 35\n\n  Lowell, James Russell, 46, 51, 62, 77, 149, 164, 235, 250, 257, 306, 322\n\n  Lyall, Edna, 301\n\n  Lytton, 11, 17\n\n\n  Mabie, Hamilton W., 95, 202, 357\n\n  Macaulay, 172\n\n  MacColl, Canon, 2, 31, 64, 76, 113, 114, 127, 142, 210\n\n  MacCunn, Professor John, 17, 42, 62, 104, 169, 172, 230, 295, 296,\n        299, 337, 340, 348\n\n  MacDonald, George, 115, 178, 275, 355\n\n  Mann, Horace, 35\n\n  Marcus Aurelius, 4, 12, 44, 104, 156, 157, 167, 300, 302, 316, 318,\n        327\n\n  Martineau, 12\n\n  Martineau, H., 55, 117\n\n  Martineau, J., 53, 81\n\n  Mason, 235\n\n  Massillon, 236\n\n  McKinley, 141\n\n  McLean, Rev. J. K., 318\n\n  Meredith, George, 189\n\n  Merriam, G. S., 331\n\n  Miller, The Rev. J. R., 224, 232, 239, 240\n\n  Milnes, R. M., 308\n\n  Montaigne, 187\n\n  Montresor, F. F., 317\n\n  Moore, T., 242\n\n  More, Hannah, 325\n\n  Morris, Sir Lewis, 183\n\n  Mozley, J. B., 280\n\n  Mulford, Prentice, 201\n\n  Muloch, Dinah M., 355\n\n\n  Neander, 274\n\n  Newbolt, Canon, 82\n\n  Newcomb, C. B., 39, 201, 305\n\n  Nicoll, W. Robertson, 22\n\n\n  Paget, Bishop, 1, 63, 70, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 120, 123, 124, 171,\n        174, 200, 203, 229, 310\n\n  Pascal, 146, 155, 177\n\n  Patmore, Coventry, 206, 241\n\n  Peabody, Ephraim, 1\n\n  Penn, William, 196, 246\n\n  Philpotts, Bishop, 43\n\n  Plumptre, 272\n\n  Plutarch, 162\n\n  Pope, 155\n\n  Potter, Bishop, 123, 351\n\n  Pulsford, John, 32\n\n\n  Rice, Alice Hegan, 322\n\n  Richter, 96, 173\n\n  Robertson, The Rev. F. W., 25, 39, 119, 126, 285, 304\n\n  _Robertson, Life of the Rev. F. W._, 287\n\n  Rochefoucauld, La, 29, 106, 116, 160, 189, 192, 193, 197, 198, 233, 322\n\n  Rogers, H., 36\n\n  Rossetti, Christina, 175, 178, 252\n\n  Ruskin, John, 67, 69, 288, 343\n\n\n  Sales, S. Francis de, 195, 349, 352\n\n  Seneca, 287, 319\n\n  Shakespeare, 8, 56, 108, 189, 220, 309\n\n  Shorthouse, John, 123\n\n  Sidney, Philip, 227\n\n  Smiles, Samuel, 184, 208, 209\n\n  Smith, George Adam, 222\n\n  Smith, H. W., 27\n\n  Socrates, 20, 216\n\n  Soulsby, Lucy, 95, 168, 327\n\n  South, Bishop, 84\n\n  Southey, 321\n\n  Spanish Proverb, 233\n\n  Spencer, Herbert, 20, 86, 185, 197, 345\n\n  Spenser, 206, 231\n\n  Stael, Madame de, 312\n\n  Stevenson, R. L., 7, 18, 48, 108, 109, 131, 137, 186, 188, 260,\n        311, 360, 364\n\n  Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 90, 91, 93, 94, 128\n\n  Sweet, Ada C., 192\n\n\n  Talbot, Bishop, 215\n\n  Taylor, Bayard, 59\n\n  Taylor, Bishop, 273\n\n  Taylor, Jeremy, 170, 220, 324\n\n  Temple, Archbishop, 105, 129, 145, 146, 165, 213, 288\n\n  Tennyson, Lord, 44, 47, 57, 115, 122, 139, 182, 224, 254, 290, 298,\n        308, 365\n\n  _Tennyson--A Memoir_, by his Son, 10, 181, 247, 256, 271, 273, 282, 331\n\n  Thackeray, Miss, 325\n\n  Thackeray, W. M., 13, 21, 111, 216, 246, 247\n\n  Thomas, Dr. H. W., 261\n\n  Thoreau, 28, 114, 157, 186, 202, 222, 225, 306, 333\n\n  Thorold, Bishop, 267, 277\n\n  Toynbee, Arnold, 319\n\n  Trench, Archbishop, 3, 17, 248, 286, 323\n\n  Turgenev, Ivan, 48, 148\n\n\n  Van Dyke, 8, 61\n\n  Vaughan, Henry, 302\n\n  Vauvenargues, 56, 157, 185, 212\n\n  Virgil, 49\n\n  Voltaire, 13, 54\n\n\n  Walker, Thomas, 329\n\n  Watson, Dr. John, 4, 24, 44, 52, 71, 78, 81, 120, 136, 144, 150, 154,\n        166, 176, 203, 205, 243, 248, 261, 274, 295, 296, 297, 299\n\n  Westcott, Bishop, 9, 65, 66, 129, 138, 166, 169, 177, 214, 232, 249,\n        262, 263, 264, 283, 328, 342, 350, 352, 353, 354\n\n  Whichcote, 198\n\n  Whittier, John Greenleaf, 6, 46, 179, 251, 272\n\n  Wickstead, Philip H., 160\n\n  Wiggin, Kate D., 67, 68, 347\n\n  Wilberforce, Bishop, 293\n\n  Wilson, 88\n\n  Wisdom, Book of, 190\n\n  Wordsworth, 303\n\n\n\n  Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.\n  Edinburgh & London\n\n\n\n\n         *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\nVariations in spelling have been preserved except in obvious cases\nof typographical error and inconsistency. These have been corrected\nwithout comment.","title":"Character and conduct : $b A book of helpful thoughts by great writers of past and present ages","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":69071}