Leaves of Life Part 9

--Edmund Spenser.

FEBRUARY FIRST

Ben Jonson born 1574.

John Philip Kemble born 1757.

Arthur Henry Hallam born 1811.

George Cruikshank died 1878.

It is not growing like a tree In bulk, doth make man better be; Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere: A lily of a day Is fairer far in May, Although it fall and die that night-- It was the plant and flower of Light.

In small proportions we just beauties see; And in short measure life may perfect be.

--Ben Jonson.

There are four things which are little upon the earth, But they are exceeding wise: The ants are a people not strong, Yet they provide their food in the summer; The conies are but a feeble folk, Yet make they their houses in the rocks; The locusts have no king, Yet go they forth all of them by bands; The lizard taketh hold with her hands, Yet is she in king's palaces.

--Proverbs 30. 24-28.

Creator of all, lead me to see the light, and instruct me that I may be able to reason. Guard me against spectacular endeavors, that I may be genuine. Amen.

FEBRUARY SECOND

Candlemas Day.

Nell Gwynn born 1650.

Hannah More born 1745.

William Henry Burleigh born 1812.

'Twas doing nothing was his curse-- Is there a vice can plague us worse?

The wretch who digs the mine for bread, Or plows, that others may be fed, Feels less fatigue than that decreed To him who cannot think, or read.

Not all the peril of temptations, Not all the conflict of the pa.s.sions, Can quench the spark of Glory's flame, Or quite extinguish Virtue's name.

--Hannah More.

Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife!

To all the sensual world proclaim, One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name.

--Sir Walter Scott.

He went out, and found others standing; and he saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard.

--Matthew 20. 6, 7.

Eternal G.o.d, who hath weighed the mountains and measured the seas, I pray that I may not be satisfied to wait in idleness, and let thy wisdom pa.s.s away from me as the days. Steady me in my weakness, and reveal to me my strength as I draw near and ask of thee. Amen.

FEBRUARY THIRD

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy born 1809.

Horace Greeley born 1811.

Frederick William Robertson born 1816.

Sidney Lanier born 1842.

My soul is sailing through the sea, But the past is heavy and hindereth me.

The past hath crusted c.u.mbrous sh.e.l.ls That hold the flesh of cold sea-mells About my soul.

The huge waves wash, the high waves roll, Each barnacle clingeth and worketh dole And hindereth me from sailing.

--Sidney Lanier.

To stand with a smile upon your face, against a stake from which you cannot get away--that no doubt is heroic. True glory is resignation to the inevitable. But to stand unchained, with perfect liberty to go away held only by the higher chains of duty, and let the fire creep up to the heart--that is heroism.

--F.W. Robertson.

We are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed.

--2 Corinthians 4. 8, 9.

Gracious Father, thou knowest what I am and the condition of my life.

May I seek thy will for me. Grant that I may never struggle for consolation through indulgence and indolence, but in my sorrow and failure may I reach out for thy enduring comfort. Amen.

FEBRUARY FOURTH

Mark Hopkins born 1802.

W. Harrison Ainsworth born 1805.

Jean Richepin born 1849.

Thomas Carlyle died 1881.

Life is not a May-game, but a battle and a march, a warfare with princ.i.p.alities and powers. No idle promenade through fragrant orange groves and green flowery s.p.a.ces, waited on by coral muses, and the rosy hours; it is a stern pilgrimage through the rough, burning, sandy solitudes, through regions of thick-ribbed ice.