Leaves of Life Part 91

Richard Baxter born 1615.

Amelia Opie born 1769.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton born 1815.

Thomas Lord Fairfax died 1671.

In life it is difficult to say who do you the most mischief--enemies with the worst intentions or friends with the best.

--Edward Bulwer.

The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel.

--William Shakespeare.

Where persons who ought to esteem and love each other are kept asunder, as often happens, by some cause which three words of frank explanation would remove, they are fortunate if they possess an indiscreet friend who blurts out the whole truth.

--Thomas B. Macaulay.

Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, Who did eat of my bread, Hath lifted up his heel against me.

--Psalm 41. 9.

Lord G.o.d, help me to consider more carefully what I offer to my friends; and may I not be critical of what I receive from my friends.

May I not be a hindrance instead of a help to those who would have my companions.h.i.+p. Amen.

NOVEMBER THIRTEENTH

Sir John Moore born 1761.

Robert Louis Stevenson born 1850.

Sir John Forbes died 1861.

Little do we know our own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the True Success is to labor.

--Robert Louis Stevenson.

Whether thy work be fine or coa.r.s.e, planting corn or writing epics, so only it be honest work, done to thine own approbation, it shall earn a reward to sense as well as to the thought.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Nature gives to labor; and to labor alone. In a very garden of Eden a man would starve but for human exertion.

--Henry George.

But let each man prove his own work, and then shall he have his glorying in regard of himself alone, and not of his neighbor.

--Galatians 6. 4.

My Father, make pure living clear to me, that I may not be deceived in my work; and may I not use my working hours searching for more suitable work, but may I be sure in what I am that I may feel secure in what I undertake to do. Amen.

NOVEMBER FOURTEENTH

Bishop Hoadley born 1676.

f.a.n.n.y Mendelssohn-Hensel born 1805.

Robert Smythe Hichens born 1864.

Give us, O give us, the man who sings at his work! Be his occupation what it may, he is better than any of those who follow the same pursuit in silent sullenness.

--Thomas Carlyle.

What doctor possesses such curative resources as those latent in a single ray of hope? The mainspring of life is in the heart. Joy is the vital air of the soul, and grief is a kind of asthma complicated by atony.

--Amiel.

I will sing unto Jehovah as long as I live: I will sing praise to my G.o.d while I have any being.

--Psalm 104. 33.

Loving Father, restore the spirit of gentleness and meekness if it may be withered within me, that I may be contented. May I make it a habit to be happy over my work and cheerful about my duties. May I never lose the view of the glory of thy kingdom. Amen.

NOVEMBER FIFTEENTH

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, born 1708.

William Cowper born 1731.

Sir William Herschel born 1738.

Johann Lavater born 1741.

Richard Henry Dana born 1787.

Ida Tarbell born 1857.

The parting sun sends out a glow Across the placid bay, Touching with glory all the show-- A breeze! Up helm! Away!