Leaves of Life Part 2

Here a star, and there a star, Some lose their way, Here a mist, and there a mist, Afterwards--day!

--Emily d.i.c.kinson.

Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your resting-place.

--Micah 2. 10.

Lord G.o.d, give me the desire to be persistent in service, while I have health and strength. May I experience the sweetness that comes in doing the thing that I ought to have done, as well as that in which I took the most pleasure. Help me to so live that my days may be useful, and be recalled with bright and happy recollections. Amen.

JANUARY EIGHTH

John Earl of Stair died 1707.

Sir William Draper died 1787.

Alfred Russel Wallace born 1823.

William Wilkie Collins born 1824.

Sir Laurence Alma-Tadema born 1836.

A blue bird built his nest Here in my breast.

"O bird of Light! Whence comest thou?"

Said he, "From G.o.d above: My name is Love."

A mate he brought one day, Of plumage gray.

"O bird of Night! Why comest thou?"

Said she: "Seek no relief!

My name is Grief."

--Laurence Alma-Tadema.

It is not so much resolution as renunciation, not so much courage as resignation, that we need. He that has once yielded thoroughly to G.o.d will yield to nothing but G.o.d.

--John Ruskin.

Behold, G.o.d will not cast away a perfect man, Neither will he uphold the evildoers. He will yet fill thy mouth with laughter, And thy lips with shouting.

--Job 8. 20, 21.

Almighty G.o.d, help me to understand that peace does not come in rebellion or grieving, but is obtained through the calm of the soul.

Grant that if I may be perplexed or worried to-day, I may have the power to control myself and wait in thy strength. Amen.

JANUARY NINTH

Dr. Thomas Brown born 1778.

Elizabeth O. Benger died 1822.

Caroline Lucretia Herschel died 1848, aged ninety-seven.

Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness altogether past calculation its powers of endurance. Efforts to be permanently useful must be uniformly joyous--a spirit of all suns.h.i.+ne.

--Thomas Carlyle.

Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting.

--Was.h.i.+ngton Irving.

A laugh is worth a hundred groans in any market.

--Charles Lamb.

A glad heart maketh a cheerful countenance; But by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.

Better is a dinner of herbs, where love is, Than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.

--Proverbs 15. 13, 17.

Gracious Father, if I am sorrowing over disappointment and am forgetful, grant that I may see the things thou hast made, for which I should be thankful. Help me to so live that I may have a right to claim a cheerful heart. Amen.

JANUARY TENTH

Dr. George Birkbeck born 1776.

Michel or Marshal Ney born 1769.

Karl von Linne, Linnaeus, died 1778.

Ethan Allen born 1737.

Shall I hold on with both hands to every paltry possession? All I have teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The practical weakness of the vast ma.s.s of modern pity for the poor and the oppressed is precisely that it is merely pity; the pity is pitiful but not respectful. Men feel that the cruelty to the poor is a kind of cruelty to animals. They never feel that it is injustice to equals; nay, it is treachery to comrades.

--G.K. Chesterton.