Leaves of Life Part 52

To overdo is to undo.

--John Wesley.

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.

--James 1. 22.

Lord G.o.d, I pray for a desire to work. May I not be deceived in my convictions, and work for that of which I may afterward be ashamed.

Lead me into a clear conception of right and wrong. Help me to see as thou dost see, that I may walk with confidence in thy steps. Amen.

JUNE TWENTY-NINTH

Paul Rubens born 1577.

Baron John De Kalb born 1721.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning died 1861.

Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, Ere the sorrow comes with years?

They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, And they cannot stop their tears.

The young lambs are bleating in the meadows; The young birds are chirping in the nests; The young fawns are playing with the shadows; The young flowers are blowing toward the west: But the young, young children, O my brothers!

They are weeping bitterly.

They are weeping in the playtime of the others, In the country of the free.

--Elizabeth B. Browning.

Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured.

--Ezekiel 16. 20.

Father of all, I pray that I may always love children. May I never forget that I wanted things and needed things when I was a child, and that the help and neglect which I received then told in my life. Make me interested in the purposes that will help the progress of the child to-day, and may I realize that the child does not need my casual charity as much as it needs my permanent justice. Amen.

JUNE THIRTIETH

Alexander Brome died 1666.

Archibald Campbell beheaded 1685.

Sir Thomas Pope Blount died 1697.

Be useful where thou livest, that they may Both want and wish thy pleasing presence still; Kindness, good parts, great places are the way To compa.s.s this. Find out men's wants and will, And meet them there. All worldly joys go less To the one joy of doing kindnesses.

--George Herbert.

Thrice happy he, who by some shady grove, Far from the clamorous world, doth live his own; Though solitary, who is not alone, But doth converse with that eternal love

--William Drummond.

Seek, and ye shall find.

--Matthew 7. 7.

My Father, help me to draw from the wisdom of life, that my soul may grow in knowledge and power. May I have the quiet confidence that comes in trusting thee. May I help others to think on the uplifting things of life. Amen.

JULY

Then came hot July, boiling like to fire, That all his garments he had cast away; Upon a lion raging yet with ire He boldly rode, and made him to obey.

--Edmund Spenser.

A pleasing land of drowsyhead it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye; And of gay castles in the clouds that pa.s.s, For ever flus.h.i.+ng round a summer sky.

--James Thomson.

JULY FIRST

Comte de Rochambeau born 1725.

Gideon Welles born 1802.

George Frederick Watts died 1904.

There is no unbelief!

Whoever plants a seed beneath a sod, And waits to see it push away the clod, He trusts in G.o.d.

There is no unbelief!

And day by day, and night, unconsciously, The heart lives by that faith the lips deny-- G.o.d knoweth why.

--Bulwer Lytton.

More and more I see that nothing is so necessary for the religious condition of the mind as absolute simplicity. We know what we have got to do, and the only thing is to ask ourselves whether we are doing it as well as we can.

--George Frederick Watts.

Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with G.o.d.