Character and Conduct Part 39

Jealousy

AUGUST 26

"What state of mind can be so blest, As love that warms the gentle brest; Two souls in one; the same desire To grant the bliss, and to require?

If in this heaven a h.e.l.l we find, 'Tis all from thee, O Jealousie!

Thou tyrant, tyrant of the mind.

"All other ills, tho' sharp they prove, Serve to refine a perfect love; In absence, or unkind disdain Sweet hope relieves the lover's pain; But O! no cure but death we find To sett us free From Jealousie, Thou tyrant, tyrant of the mind.

"False in thy gla.s.s all objects are, Some set too near, and some too far: Thou art the fire of endless might, The fire that burns and gives no light.

All torments of the d.a.m.ned, we find In only thee, O Jealousie; Thou tyrant, tyrant of the mind."

DRYDEN.

Love and Remorse

AUGUST 27

"We should get a lesson in friends.h.i.+p's ministry. Too many wait until those they love are dead, and then bring their alabaster boxes of affection and break them. They keep silent about their love when words would mean so much, would give such cheer, encouragement, and hope, and then, when the friend lies in the coffin, their lips are unsealed and speak out their glowing tribute on ears that heed not the laggard praise. Many persons go through life, struggling bravely with difficulty, temptation, and hards.h.i.+p, carrying burdens too heavy for them, pouring out their love in unselfish serving of others, and yet are scarcely ever cheered by a word of approval or commendation, or by delicate tenderness of friends.h.i.+p; then, when they lie silent in death, a whole circle of admiring friends gathers to do them honour. Every one remembers a personal kindness received, a favour shown, some help given, and speaks of it in grateful words. Letters full of appreciation, commendation, and grat.i.tude are written to sorrowing friends. Flowers are sent and piled about the coffin, enough to have strewn every hard path of the long years of struggle. How surprised some good men and women would be, after lives with scarcely a word of affection to cheer their hearts, were they to awake suddenly in the midst of their friends, a few hours after their death, and hear the testimonies that are falling from every tongue, the appreciation, the grateful words of love, the rememberings of kindness! They had never dreamed in life that they had so many friends, that so many had thought well of them, that they were helpful to so many."

_Personal Friends.h.i.+ps of Jesus_, J. R. MILLER.

Love and Remorse

AUGUST 28

"When our indignation is borne in submissive silence, we are apt to feel twinges of doubt afterwards as to our own generosity, if not justice; how much more when the object of our anger has gone into everlasting silence, and we have seen his face for the last time in the meekness of death."

GEORGE ELIOT.

"All about us move, these common days, those who would be strengthened and comforted by the good cheer that we could give. Let us not reserve all the flowers for coffin-lids. Let us not keep our alabaster boxes sealed and unbroken till our loved ones are dead. Let us show kindness when kindness will do good. It will make sorrow all the harder to bear if we have to say beside our dead, 'I might have brightened the way a little, if only I had been kinder.'"

_Personal Friends.h.i.+ps of Jesus_, J. R. MILLER.

"I like not only to be loved, but to be told I am loved. The realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave."

GEORGE ELIOT.

Love and Remorse

AUGUST 29

"Oh! do not let us wait to be just or pitiful or demonstrative towards those we love until they or we are struck down by illness or threatened with death! Life is short, and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh, be swift to love, make haste to be kind!"

_Amiel's Journal._

"Too soon, too soon comes Death to show We love more deeply than we know!

The rain that fell upon the height Too gently to be called delight, Within the dark vale reappears As a wild cataract of tears; And love in life should strive to see Sometimes what love in death would be!"

COVENTRY PATMORE.

Dissension

AUGUST 30

"Alas! how light a cause may move Dissension between hearts that love!

Hearts that the world in vain had tried, And sorrow but more closely tied; That stood the storm when waves were rough, Yet in a sunny hour fall off, Like s.h.i.+ps that have gone down at sea, When heaven was all tranquillity!

A something, light as air--a look, A word unkind or wrongly taken-- Oh! love that tempests never shook, A breath, a touch like this has shaken; And ruder words will soon rush in To spread the breach that words begin; And eyes forget the gentle ray They wore in courts.h.i.+p's smiling day; And voices lose the tone that shed A tenderness round all they said; Till fast declining, one by one, The sweetnesses of love are gone, And hearts, so lately mingled, seem Like broken clouds--or like the stream That smiling left the mountain's brow, As though its waters ne'er could sever, Yet, ere it reach the plain below, Breaks into floods, that part for ever.

O you that have the charge of Love, Keep him in rosy bondage bound!"

_Lalla Rookh_, T. MOORE.

Love

AUGUST 31

"Love is the first and the last and the strongest bond in experience. It conquers distance, outlives all changes, bears the strain of the most diverse opinions."

_The Mind of the Master_, Dr. JOHN WATSON.

"Say never, ye loved once!

G.o.d is too near above, the Grave, beneath: And all our moments breathe Too quick in mysteries of life and death, For such a word. The eternities avenge Affections light of range; There comes no change to justify that change, Whatever comes,--Loved _once_."

E. B. BROWNING.

Unrequited Love

September 1

"It was the old problem, of love that may not even spend itself for those it loves. Some hold that the purpose of such privation--as bitter to the spirit as the loss of light, and warmth, and air to the body--is to teach men to love G.o.d, and not their fellow-men. Rather, it is to teach them to love human beings more, with love not separate from the love of G.o.d, but near to His own heart. Such love is never fruitless, though it may seem to be. Our longing to serve personally is often only longing for the personal reward of service; and love that serves in finite fas.h.i.+on often misses the mark. We hurt where we desire to heal: we bind a greater burden on the life whose load we only strive to lighten. G.o.d's cross is always a crown: our crowns are often crosses.

The cup of water that we put to our friend's lips is from a poisoned spring. Only the cup that we give G.o.d to bear to him, is always pure and cool."

_Turkish Bonds_, MAY KENDALL.