Daily Strength for Daily Needs, Mary W. Tileston [good book recommendations .TXT] 📗

present, "His work."

F. R. HAVERGAL.

April 24

Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.--GAL. vi. 2.

Is thy cruse of comfort wasting? Rise and share it with another, And through all the years of famine, It shall serve thee and thy brother. Is thy burden hard and heavy? Do thy steps drag heavily? Help to bear thy brother's burden; God will bear both it and thee.

ELIZABETH CHARLES.

However perplexed you may at any hour become about some question of truth, one refuge and resource is always at hand: you can do something for some one besides yourself. When your own burden is heaviest, you can always lighten a little some other burden. At the times when you cannot see God, there is still open to you this sacred possibility, to show God; for it is the love and kindness of human hearts through which the divine reality comes home to men, whether they name it or not. Let this thought, then, stay with you: there may be times when you cannot find help, but there is no time when you cannot give help.

GEORGE S. MERRIAM.

April 25

_Surely, I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child_.--PS. cxxxi. 2.

Quiet, Lord, my froward heart, Make me teachable and mild, Upright, simple, free from art, Make me as a weaned child; From distrust and envy free, Pleased with all that pleaseth Thee.

J. NEWTON.

Oh! look not after great things: small breathings, small desires after the Lord, if true and pure, are sweet beginnings of life. Take heed of despising "the day of small things," by looking after some great visitation, proportionable to thy distress, according to thy eye. Nay, thou must become a child; thou must lose thy own will quite by degrees. Thou must wait for life to be measured out by the Father, and be content with what proportion, and at what time, He shall please to measure.

I. PENINGTON.

"When Israel was a child, then I loved him" (Hosea xi. 1). Aim to be ever this little child, contented with what the Father gives of pleasure or of play; and when restrained from pleasure or from play, and led for a season into the chamber of sorrow, rest quiet on His bosom, and be patient, and smile, as one who is nestled in a sweet and secure asylum.

ANON.

April 26

_If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it_.--ROM. viii. 25.

_One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day_.--2 PETER iii. 8.

Lord! who Thy thousand years dost wait To work the thousandth part Of Thy vast plan, for us create With zeal a patient heart.

J. H. NEWMAN.

I believe that if we could only see beforehand what it is that our heavenly Father means us to be,--the soul beauty and perfection and glory, the glorious and lovely spiritual body that this soul is to dwell in through all eternity,--if we could have a glimpse of this, we should not grudge all the trouble and pains He is taking with us now, to bring us up to that ideal, which is His thought of us. We know that it is God's way to work slowly, so we must not be surprised if He takes a great many years of discipline to turn a mortal being into an immortal, glorious angel.

ANNIE KEARY.

April 27

Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor,--ZECH. viii. 16.

_For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity... we have had our conversation in the world_.--2 COR. i. 12.

Appear I always what I am? And am I what I am pretending? Know I what way my course is bending? And sound my word and thought the same?

ANON.

Am I acting in simplicity, from a germ of the Divine life within, or am I shaping my path to obtain some immediate result of expediency? Am I endeavoring to compass effects, amidst a tangled web of foreign influences I cannot calculate; or am I seeking simply to do what is right, and leaving the consequences to the good providence of God?

M. A. SCHIMMELPENNINCK.

Let it not be in any man's power to say truly of thee that thou art not simple, or that thou art not good; but let him be a liar whoever shall think anything of this kind about thee; and this is altogether in thy power. For who is he that shall hinder thee from being good and simple?

MARCUS ANTONINUS.

April 28

The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.--PS. cxxi. 5.

_Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them_.--PS. cxix. 165.

I rest beneath the Almighty's shade, My griefs expire, my troubles cease; Thou, Lord, on whom my soul is stayed, Wilt keep me still in perfect peace.

C. WESLEY.

One great sign of the practical recognition of the "divine moment," and of our finding God's habitation in it, is constant calmness and peace of mind. Events and things come with the moment; but God comes with them too. So that if He comes in the sunshine, we find rest and joy; and if He comes in the storm, we know He is King of the storms, and our hearts are not troubled. God Himself, though possessing a heart filled with the tenderest feelings, is, nevertheless, an everlasting tranquillity; and when we enter into His holy tabernacle, our souls necessarily enter into the tabernacle of rest.

T. C. UPHAM.

My soul was not only brought into harmony with itself and with God, but with God's providences. In the exercise of faith and love, I endured and performed whatever came in God's providence, in submission, in thankfulness, and silence.

MADAME GUYON.

April 29

I will arise and go to my Father.--LUKE xv. 18.

O my God, my Father! hear, And help me to believe; Weak and weary I draw near; Thy child, O God, receive. I so oft have gone astray; To the perfect Guide I flee; Thou wilt turn me not away, Thy love is pledged to me.

HYMNS OF THE SPIRIT.

O child, hast thou fallen? arise, and go, with childlike trust, to thy Father, like the prodigal son, and humbly say, with heart and mouth, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son; make me as one of Thy hired servants." And what will thy heavenly Father do but what that father did in the parable? Assuredly He will not change His essence, which is love, for the sake of thy misdoings. Is it not His own precious treasure, and a small thing with Him to forgive thee thy trespasses, if thou believe in Him? for His hand is not shortened that it cannot make thee fit to be saved.

JOHN TAULER.

April 30

Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.--EX. xiv. 15.

_No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God_.--LUKE ix. 62.

Be trustful, be steadfast, whatever betide thee, Only one thing do thou ask of the Lord,-- Grace to go forward wherever He guide thee, Simply believing the truth of His word.

ANON.

The soul ceases to weary itself with planning and foreseeing, giving itself up to God's Holy Spirit within, and to the teachings of His providence without. He is not forever fretting as to his progress, or looking back to see how far he is getting on; rather he goes steadily and quietly on, and makes all the more progress because it is unconscious. So he never gets troubled and discouraged; if he falls he humbles himself, but gets up at once, and goes on with renewed earnestness.

JEAN NICOLAS GROU.

May 1

_I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth_.--PS. xxxiv. I.

_I will praise Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all Thy marvellous works_.--PS. ix. I.

Thrice blest will all our blessings be, When we can look through them to Thee; When each glad heart its tribute pays Of love and gratitude and praise.

JANE COTTERILL.

That which befits us, embosomed in beauty and wonder as we are, is cheerfulness, and courage, and the endeavor to realize our aspirations. Shall not the heart which has received so much, trust the Power by which it lives? May it not quit other leadings, and listen to the Soul that has guided it so gently, and taught it so much, secure that the future will be worthy of the past?

R. W. EMERSON.

I have experienced that the habit of taking out of the hand of our Lord every little blessing and brightness on our path, confirms us, in an especial manner, in communion with His love.

M. A. SCHIMMELPENNINCK.

May 2

_The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price_.--I PETER iii. 4.

_To present you holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in His sight_.--COL. i. 22.

Thy sinless mind in us reveal, Thy spirit's plenitude impart! Till all my spotless life shall tell The abundance of a loving heart.

C. WESLEY.

Holiness appeared to me to be of a sweet, pleasant, charming, serene, calm nature. It seemed to me, it brought an inexpressible purity, brightness, peacefulness, and ravishment to the soul; and that it made the soul like a field or garden of God, with all manner of pleasant flowers, that is all pleasant, delightful, and undisturbed; enjoying a sweet calm, and the gently vivifying beams of the sun. The soul of a true Christian appeared like such a little white flower, as we see in the spring of the year, low and humble on the ground, opening its bosom to receive the pleasant beams of the sun's glory; rejoicing, as it were, in a calm rapture; diffusing around a sweet fragrancy; standing peacefully and lovingly in the midst of other flowers round about, all in like manner opening their bosoms to drink in the light of the sun.

JONATHAN EDWARDS.

May 3

_The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him_.--NAHUM i. 7.

Leave God to order all thy ways, And hope in Him, whate'er betide; Thou 'It find Him in the evil days Thy all-sufficient strength and guide; Who trusts in God's unchanging love, Builds on the rock that nought can move.

G. NEUMARK.

Our whole trouble in our lot in this world rises from the disagreement of our mind therewith. Let the mind be brought to the lot, and the whole tumult is instantly hushed; let it be kept in that disposition, and the man shall stand at ease, in his affliction, like a rock unmoved with waters beating upon it.

T. BOSTON.

How does our will become sanctified? By conforming itself unreservedly to that of God. We will all that He wills, and will nothing that He does not will; we attach our feeble will to that all-powerful will which performs everything. Thus, nothing can ever come to pass against our will; for nothing can happen save that which God wills, and we find