The Optimist's Good Morning Part 39

MELVIN BRANDOW.

October 12

_If you really want to help your fellowmen, you must not merely have in you what would do them good if they should take it from you, but you must be such a man that they can take it from you. The snow must melt upon the mountain and come down in a spring torrent, before its richness can make the valley rich. And yet in every age there are cold, hard, unsympathetic wise men standing up aloof, like snow banks on the hill tops, conscious of the locked up fertility in them and wondering that their wisdom does not save the world._

PHILLIPS BROOKS.

O Thou, who hast kept us safely during the unconsciousness of our slumbering hours and brought us refreshed to this morning light, prepare us for the duties of this day by filling us with the a.s.surance that we are Thine, and that Thou lovest us. Help us to be more like Thee, to love Thee more and serve Thee better. May we manifest our love to Thee by our willingness to be of service to our fellowmen. Make us warm-hearted and true, helpful and kind, reflecting Thy love and doing Thy will. We are glad to live in this beautiful world. And we pray that we may be faithful co-laborers with Jesus Christ, in bringing light, love and joy to all lives. Amen.

EUGENE M. GRANT.

October 13

_A few more smiles of silent sympathy, a few more tender words, a little more restraint in temper, may make all the difference between happiness and half-happiness to those I live with._

STOPFORD A. BROOKE.

_Others shall sing the song, Others shall right the wrong, Finish what I begin, And all I fail to win, What matter, I or they, Mine or another's day, So the right word be said, And life the sweeter made?_

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.

Father, so little of the world in which we live is Thy world, so much our world, the petty, dwarfed world of our own small vision, that we lose heart and fail to do our share. Help us to see that, as in the densest swamps the sweetest flowers grow, so, even in our darkest hours, we still may be sweet at heart, saying the word, doing the deed, giving the sympathy, that will make the world sing and blossom. If there are times when pain and darkness obscure our vision of Thee, help us to look on to the sunset of our day, when the black pall is transfigured at the touch of Thy glory,--when sorrow and failure transcended by gentleness are our beauty and salvation. Amen.

JOHN M. DAVIDSON.

October 14

_There is not a man in the world who is not saved by hope every day of his life. Rob one of hope and you have robbed him of his power.

Nothing may so quickly unnerve a man and render him helpless as to take hope out of his heart. What is poverty? What is sickness? What is disaster? What are daily burdens? What signifies the desertion of friends, what of death itself so long as a man can hope? The man who hopes will brush every difficulty out of the way. He will put aside every suggestion of failure. Take hope out of a man's heart and you have taken all. Put hope into a man's heart and you have given all._

GEORGE L. PERIN.

We thank Thee, O G.o.d, for the light of another morning, for the privilege of entering upon another day. We shall meet with those who do not understand life nor the world in which we live. It is to them only a place to bear burdens, to toil, to endure. Give us, O Father, understanding minds and hearts. Teach us to know that life is a great opportunity, that Thy plans for each one are very broad, that the world is full of open doors; and inspired by this knowledge may no despondent soul cross our path without being helped and made to feel that every life through the love of G.o.d and the guidance of G.o.d may be made sublime. Amen.

ALEXANDER DIGHT.

October 15

_Ho! for the bending sheaves, Ho! for the crimson leaves Flaming in splendor!

Season of ripened gold, Plenty in crib and fold, Skies with a depth untold Liquid and tender._

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

Source Infinite and Eternal of Light and Life; Creator of being flowing on forever; Minister far and wide of unspeakable bounty; Through whose power rise the riches of Nature; From whose abundance descend all gifts to man; Soul of our souls and safeguard of the world; To whom all Intelligence looks through every dawn; And by whose support the heart of man is stayed; Let there be to our steps paths of brightness; to our lives laws of justice, kindness, and trust, that we may abound in doing good and by grace, mercy, and truth duly shown, may obtain grateful remembrance evermore. Amen.

EDWARD C. TOWNE.

October 16

_There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood Touch of manner, hint of mood; And my heart is like a rhyme, With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time._

_The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry Of bugles going by.

And my lonely spirit thrills To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills._

RICHARD HOVEY.

O Father, my heart is lonely till I feel Thy spirit near, and then the glory of the season brings a message to my soul. Help me now to see Thy master hand in the great beauty of the world. May my soul that feels the glad riot of color know that he who gives such beauty and bounty has for me far richer blessings in the great fields of the future. May this day, begun with Nature's rhythm be set with the music of holy purpose and n.o.ble service. And may the music sound not alone for me, but for others that we together may march forward in the spirit of Him who loved the lilies of the field and the fowls of the air. Amen.

CHARLES E. VARNEY.

October 17

_Thousands of years ago a leaf fell on the soft clay, and seemed to be lost. But last summer a geologist in his ramblings broke off a piece of rock with his hammer, and there lay the image of the leaf, with every line and every vein and all the delicate tracery preserved in the stone through those centuries. So the words we speak and the things we do today may seem to be lost, but in the great final revealing the smallest of them will appear._

JAMES RUSSELL MILLER.

Our Father we thank Thee for the light of this new day. Tenderly Thou hast withdrawn the curtain of the night and shown us the beauties and glories of Nature, reminding us of Thine own blessed verdict in the dawn of creation, "Behold they are very good." Good indeed, is it to live in such a world, and we thank Thee for our being. We ask this morning, dear Lord, not for the peris.h.i.+ng things of earth, but for continued power and disposition to enjoy Thee and Thy works, for a faith that never wavers and a hope that never grows dim, for such a portion of this world's goods as the wise may enjoy without harm and the righteous hold without wrong. Amen.

JAMES SALLAWAY.

October 18

_Nay, I wrong you, little flower, Reading mournful mood of mine In your looks, that give no sign Of a spirit dark and cheerless: You possess the heavenly power That rejoices in the hour, Glad, contented, free and fearless,-- Lifts a sunny face to heaven When a sunny day is given; Makes a summer of its own, Blooming late and all alone._

HENRY VAN d.y.k.e.

We thank Thee, O Father, that, to those who obey the command of Jesus to consider them, the flowers become prophets of G.o.d and preachers of righteousness. We thank Thee for the wors.h.i.+p which They render Thee, so pure, so brave, so glad, and so acceptable. They may not hinder Thee and Thou dost work Thy perfect will in them; O give us the wisdom and the grace to make Thee welcome to our hearts until in us also Thou shalt work Thy perfect will. So may we find our true use and felicity, and render unto Thee the praise that is Thy due. And this we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

CHARLES R. TENNEY.

October 19

_Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

Close bosom friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with Him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; To bend with apples the moss'd cottage trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel-sh.e.l.ls With a sweet kernel; to set to budding more And still more later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For summer has o'er brimmed their clammy cells._

JOHN KEATS.

Our dear Heavenly Father, Thou hast ever been wooing us by a thousand influences and voices to Thyself and our souls are ever restless till they rest in Thy love. The voices of nature everywhere speak to us of Thy goodness and Thy power and all verdure and blossom and fruitage is but the answer of the inanimate world to Thy call of life. Shall we do less than these, O G.o.d, when upon us Thou hast stamped Thine own image and made our being the house beautiful for Thine indwelling! We are Thy disciples indeed if we bear much fruit and have love one for the other.

Mould us, fas.h.i.+on us, mature us, dear Lord, till the angels, watching at the gates and on the towers, say we look like Thee. And this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

GEORGE M. SMILEY.