Daily Strength for Daily Needs, Mary W. Tileston [good book recommendations .TXT] 📗
- Author: Mary W. Tileston
Book online «Daily Strength for Daily Needs, Mary W. Tileston [good book recommendations .TXT] 📗». Author Mary W. Tileston
it. "The Lord will provide."
E. B. PUSEY.
May 24
_Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby_.--HEB. xii. I1.
I cannot say, Beneath the pressure of life's cares to-day, I joy in these; But I can say That I had rather walk this rugged way, If Him it please.
S. G. BROWNING.
The particular annoyance which befell you this morning; the vexatious words which met your ear and "grieved" your spirit; the disappointment which was His appointment for to-day; the slight but hindering ailment; the presence of some one who is "a grief of mind" to you,--whatever this day seemeth not joyous, but grievous, is linked in "the good pleasure of His goodness" with a corresponding afterward of "peaceable fruit," the very seed from which, if you only do not choke it, this shall spring and ripen.
F. R. HAVERGAL.
May 25
_O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt_.--MATT. xxvi. 39.
O Lord my God, do Thou Thy holy will,-- I will lie still. I will not stir, lest I forsake Thine arm, And break the charm Which lulls me, clinging to my Father's breast, In perfect rest.
J. KEBLE.
Resignation to the will of God is the whole of piety; it includes in it all that is good; and is a source of the most settled quiet and composure of mind. Our resignation to the will of God may be said to be perfect, when our will is lost and resolved up into His; when we rest in His will as our end, as being itself most just, and right, and good. And where is the impossibility of such an affection to what is just and right and good, such a loyalty of heart to the Governor of the universe, as shall prevail over all sinister indirect desires of our own?
JOSEPH BUTLER.
There are no disappointments to those whose wills are buried in the will of God.
F. W. FABER.
Lord, Thy will be done in father, mother, child, in everything and everywhere; without a reserve, without a BUT, an IF, or a limit.
ST. FRANCIS DE SALES.
May 26
The Lord beareth your murmurings, which ye murmur against Him.--EX. xvi. 8.
Without murmur, uncomplaining In His hand, Leave whatever things thou canst not Understand.
K. R. HAGENBACH.
One great characteristic of holiness is never to be exacting--never to complain. Each complaint drags us down a degree, in our upward course. If you would discern in whom God's spirit dwells, watch that person, and notice whether you ever hear him murmur.
GOLD DUST.
When we wish things to be otherwise than they are, we lose sight of the great practical parts of the life of godliness. We wish, and wish--when, if we have done all that lies on us, we should fall quietly into the hands of God. Such wishing cuts the very sinews of our privileges and consolations. You are leaving me for a time; and you say that you wish you could leave me better, or leave me with some assistance: but, if it is right for you to go, it is right for me to meet what lies on me, without a wish that I had less to meet, or were better able to meet it.
R. CECIL.
May 27
_He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much_.--LUKE xvi, 10.
The Lord preserveth the faithful.--PS. xxxi. 23
The trivial round, the common task, Would furnish all we ought to ask; Room to deny ourselves; a road To bring us, daily, nearer God.
J. KEBLE.
Exactness in little duties is a wonderful source of cheerfulness.
F. W. FABER.
The unremitting retention of simple and high sentiments in obscure duties is hardening the character to that temper which will work with honor, if need be, in the tumult or on the scaffold.
R. W. EMERSON.
We are too fond of our own will. We want to be doing what we fancy mighty things; but the great point is, to do small things, when called to them, in a right spirit.
R. CECIL.
It is not on great occasions only that we are required to be faithful to the will of God; occasions constantly occur, and we should be surprised to perceive how much our spiritual advancement depends on small obediences.
MADAME SWETCHINE.
May 28
_Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness_.--COL. I. 11.
God doth not need Either man's works or His own gifts; who best Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best; His state Is kingly; thousands at His bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest; They also serve who only stand and wait.
J. MILTON.
We cannot always be doing a great work, but we can always be doing something that belongs to our condition. To be silent, to suffer, to pray when we cannot act, is acceptable to God. A disappointment, a contradiction, a harsh word, an annoyance, a wrong received and endured as in His presence, is worth more than a long prayer; and we do not lose time if we bear its loss with gentleness and patience, provided the loss was inevitable, and was not caused by our own fault.
FRANÇOIS DE LA MOTHE FÉNELON.
May 29
_Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises_.--HEB. vi. 12.
Where now with pain thou treadest, trod The whitest of the saints of God! To show thee where their feet were set, The light which led them shineth yet.
J. G. WHITTIER.
LET us learn from this communion of saints to live in hope. Those who are now at rest were once like ourselves. They were once weak, faulty, sinful; they had their burdens and hindrances, their slumbering and weariness, their failures and their falls. But now they have overcome. Their life was once homely and common-place. Their day ran out as ours. Morning and noon and night came and went to them as to us. Their life, too, was as lonely and sad as yours. Little fretful circumstances and frequent disturbing changes wasted away their hours as yours. There is nothing in your life that was not in theirs; there was nothing in theirs but may be also in your own. They have overcome, each one, and one by one; each in his turn, when the day came, and God called him to the trial. And so shall you likewise.
H. E. MANNING.
May 30
_And thus this man died, leaving his death for an example of a noble courage, and a memorial of virtue, not only unto young men, but unto all his nation_.--2 MAC. vi. 31.
_Zebulon and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field_.--JUDGES v. 18.
Though Love repine, and Reason chafe, There came a voice without reply,-- 'Tis man's perdition to be safe, When for the truth he ought to die.
R. W. EMERSON.
Some say that the age of chivalry is past. The age of chivalry is never past, so long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth, or a man or woman left to say, "I will redress that wrong, or spend my life in the attempt." The age of chivalry is never past, so long as we have faith enough to say, "God will help me to redress that wrong; or, if not me, He will help those that come after me, for His eternal Will is to overcome evil with good."
C. KINGSLEY.
Thus man is made equal to every event. He can face danger for the right. A poor, tender, painful body, he can run into flame or bullets or pestilence, with duty for his guide.
R. W. EMERSON.
May 31
_Let all those that put their trust in Thee rejoice: ... let them also that love Thy name be joyful in Thee_.--PS. v. 11.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.--PS. xxiii. 2.
I can hear these violets chorus To the sky's benediction above; And we all are together lying On the bosom of Infinite Love.
Oh, the peace at the heart of Nature! Oh, the light that is not of day! Why seek it afar forever, When it cannot be lifted away?
W. C. GANNETT.
What inexpressible joy for me, to look up through the apple-blossoms and the fluttering leaves, and to see God's love there; to listen to the thrush that has built his nest among them, and to feel God's love, who cares for the birds, in every note that swells his little throat; to look beyond to the bright blue depths of the sky, and feel they are a canopy of blessing,--the roof of the house of my Father; that if clouds pass over it, it is the unchangeable light they veil; that, even when the day itself passes, I shall see that the night itself only unveils new worlds of light; and to know that if I could unwrap fold after fold of God's universe, I should only unfold more and more blessing, and see deeper and deeper into the love which is at the heart of all.
ELIZABETH CHARLES.
June 1
_One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple_.--PS. xxvii. 4.
Thy beauty, O my Father! All is Thine; But there is beauty in Thyself, from whence The beauty Thou hast made doth ever flow In streams of never-failing affluence.
Thou art the Temple! and though I am lame,-- Lame from my birth, and shall be till I die,-- I enter through the Gate called Beautiful, And am alone with Thee, O Thou Most High!
J. W. CHADWICK.
Consider that all which appears beautiful outwardly, is solely derived from the invisible Spirit which is the source of that external beauty, and say joyfully, "Behold, these are streamlets from the uncreated Fountain; behold, these are drops from the infinite Ocean of all good! Oh! how does my inmost heart rejoice at the thought of that eternal, infinite Beauty, which is the source and origin of all created beauty!"
L. SCUPOLI.
June 2
_We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord_.--2 COR. iii. 18.
Then every tempting form of sin, Shamed in Thy presence, disappears, And all the glowing, raptured soul The likeness it contemplates wears.
P. DODDRIDGE.
Then does a good man become the tabernacle of God, wherein the divine Shechinah does rest, and which the divine glory fills, when the frame of his mind and life is wholly according to that idea and pattern which he receives from the mount. We best glorify Him when we grow most like to Him: and we then act most for His glory, when a true spirit of sanctity, justice, and meekness, runs through all our actions; when we so live in the world as becomes those that converse with the great Mind and Wisdom of the whole
E. B. PUSEY.
May 24
_Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby_.--HEB. xii. I1.
I cannot say, Beneath the pressure of life's cares to-day, I joy in these; But I can say That I had rather walk this rugged way, If Him it please.
S. G. BROWNING.
The particular annoyance which befell you this morning; the vexatious words which met your ear and "grieved" your spirit; the disappointment which was His appointment for to-day; the slight but hindering ailment; the presence of some one who is "a grief of mind" to you,--whatever this day seemeth not joyous, but grievous, is linked in "the good pleasure of His goodness" with a corresponding afterward of "peaceable fruit," the very seed from which, if you only do not choke it, this shall spring and ripen.
F. R. HAVERGAL.
May 25
_O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt_.--MATT. xxvi. 39.
O Lord my God, do Thou Thy holy will,-- I will lie still. I will not stir, lest I forsake Thine arm, And break the charm Which lulls me, clinging to my Father's breast, In perfect rest.
J. KEBLE.
Resignation to the will of God is the whole of piety; it includes in it all that is good; and is a source of the most settled quiet and composure of mind. Our resignation to the will of God may be said to be perfect, when our will is lost and resolved up into His; when we rest in His will as our end, as being itself most just, and right, and good. And where is the impossibility of such an affection to what is just and right and good, such a loyalty of heart to the Governor of the universe, as shall prevail over all sinister indirect desires of our own?
JOSEPH BUTLER.
There are no disappointments to those whose wills are buried in the will of God.
F. W. FABER.
Lord, Thy will be done in father, mother, child, in everything and everywhere; without a reserve, without a BUT, an IF, or a limit.
ST. FRANCIS DE SALES.
May 26
The Lord beareth your murmurings, which ye murmur against Him.--EX. xvi. 8.
Without murmur, uncomplaining In His hand, Leave whatever things thou canst not Understand.
K. R. HAGENBACH.
One great characteristic of holiness is never to be exacting--never to complain. Each complaint drags us down a degree, in our upward course. If you would discern in whom God's spirit dwells, watch that person, and notice whether you ever hear him murmur.
GOLD DUST.
When we wish things to be otherwise than they are, we lose sight of the great practical parts of the life of godliness. We wish, and wish--when, if we have done all that lies on us, we should fall quietly into the hands of God. Such wishing cuts the very sinews of our privileges and consolations. You are leaving me for a time; and you say that you wish you could leave me better, or leave me with some assistance: but, if it is right for you to go, it is right for me to meet what lies on me, without a wish that I had less to meet, or were better able to meet it.
R. CECIL.
May 27
_He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much_.--LUKE xvi, 10.
The Lord preserveth the faithful.--PS. xxxi. 23
The trivial round, the common task, Would furnish all we ought to ask; Room to deny ourselves; a road To bring us, daily, nearer God.
J. KEBLE.
Exactness in little duties is a wonderful source of cheerfulness.
F. W. FABER.
The unremitting retention of simple and high sentiments in obscure duties is hardening the character to that temper which will work with honor, if need be, in the tumult or on the scaffold.
R. W. EMERSON.
We are too fond of our own will. We want to be doing what we fancy mighty things; but the great point is, to do small things, when called to them, in a right spirit.
R. CECIL.
It is not on great occasions only that we are required to be faithful to the will of God; occasions constantly occur, and we should be surprised to perceive how much our spiritual advancement depends on small obediences.
MADAME SWETCHINE.
May 28
_Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness_.--COL. I. 11.
God doth not need Either man's works or His own gifts; who best Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best; His state Is kingly; thousands at His bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest; They also serve who only stand and wait.
J. MILTON.
We cannot always be doing a great work, but we can always be doing something that belongs to our condition. To be silent, to suffer, to pray when we cannot act, is acceptable to God. A disappointment, a contradiction, a harsh word, an annoyance, a wrong received and endured as in His presence, is worth more than a long prayer; and we do not lose time if we bear its loss with gentleness and patience, provided the loss was inevitable, and was not caused by our own fault.
FRANÇOIS DE LA MOTHE FÉNELON.
May 29
_Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises_.--HEB. vi. 12.
Where now with pain thou treadest, trod The whitest of the saints of God! To show thee where their feet were set, The light which led them shineth yet.
J. G. WHITTIER.
LET us learn from this communion of saints to live in hope. Those who are now at rest were once like ourselves. They were once weak, faulty, sinful; they had their burdens and hindrances, their slumbering and weariness, their failures and their falls. But now they have overcome. Their life was once homely and common-place. Their day ran out as ours. Morning and noon and night came and went to them as to us. Their life, too, was as lonely and sad as yours. Little fretful circumstances and frequent disturbing changes wasted away their hours as yours. There is nothing in your life that was not in theirs; there was nothing in theirs but may be also in your own. They have overcome, each one, and one by one; each in his turn, when the day came, and God called him to the trial. And so shall you likewise.
H. E. MANNING.
May 30
_And thus this man died, leaving his death for an example of a noble courage, and a memorial of virtue, not only unto young men, but unto all his nation_.--2 MAC. vi. 31.
_Zebulon and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field_.--JUDGES v. 18.
Though Love repine, and Reason chafe, There came a voice without reply,-- 'Tis man's perdition to be safe, When for the truth he ought to die.
R. W. EMERSON.
Some say that the age of chivalry is past. The age of chivalry is never past, so long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth, or a man or woman left to say, "I will redress that wrong, or spend my life in the attempt." The age of chivalry is never past, so long as we have faith enough to say, "God will help me to redress that wrong; or, if not me, He will help those that come after me, for His eternal Will is to overcome evil with good."
C. KINGSLEY.
Thus man is made equal to every event. He can face danger for the right. A poor, tender, painful body, he can run into flame or bullets or pestilence, with duty for his guide.
R. W. EMERSON.
May 31
_Let all those that put their trust in Thee rejoice: ... let them also that love Thy name be joyful in Thee_.--PS. v. 11.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.--PS. xxiii. 2.
I can hear these violets chorus To the sky's benediction above; And we all are together lying On the bosom of Infinite Love.
Oh, the peace at the heart of Nature! Oh, the light that is not of day! Why seek it afar forever, When it cannot be lifted away?
W. C. GANNETT.
What inexpressible joy for me, to look up through the apple-blossoms and the fluttering leaves, and to see God's love there; to listen to the thrush that has built his nest among them, and to feel God's love, who cares for the birds, in every note that swells his little throat; to look beyond to the bright blue depths of the sky, and feel they are a canopy of blessing,--the roof of the house of my Father; that if clouds pass over it, it is the unchangeable light they veil; that, even when the day itself passes, I shall see that the night itself only unveils new worlds of light; and to know that if I could unwrap fold after fold of God's universe, I should only unfold more and more blessing, and see deeper and deeper into the love which is at the heart of all.
ELIZABETH CHARLES.
June 1
_One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple_.--PS. xxvii. 4.
Thy beauty, O my Father! All is Thine; But there is beauty in Thyself, from whence The beauty Thou hast made doth ever flow In streams of never-failing affluence.
Thou art the Temple! and though I am lame,-- Lame from my birth, and shall be till I die,-- I enter through the Gate called Beautiful, And am alone with Thee, O Thou Most High!
J. W. CHADWICK.
Consider that all which appears beautiful outwardly, is solely derived from the invisible Spirit which is the source of that external beauty, and say joyfully, "Behold, these are streamlets from the uncreated Fountain; behold, these are drops from the infinite Ocean of all good! Oh! how does my inmost heart rejoice at the thought of that eternal, infinite Beauty, which is the source and origin of all created beauty!"
L. SCUPOLI.
June 2
_We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord_.--2 COR. iii. 18.
Then every tempting form of sin, Shamed in Thy presence, disappears, And all the glowing, raptured soul The likeness it contemplates wears.
P. DODDRIDGE.
Then does a good man become the tabernacle of God, wherein the divine Shechinah does rest, and which the divine glory fills, when the frame of his mind and life is wholly according to that idea and pattern which he receives from the mount. We best glorify Him when we grow most like to Him: and we then act most for His glory, when a true spirit of sanctity, justice, and meekness, runs through all our actions; when we so live in the world as becomes those that converse with the great Mind and Wisdom of the whole
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