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

come in contact with such in our daily life. Let us only take care, that, by the glance being turned inward, or strained onward, or lost in vacant reverie, we do not miss our turn of service, and pass by those to whom we might have been sent on an errand straight from God.

ELIZABETH CHARLES.

Look up and not down; look forward and not back; look out and not in; and lend a hand.

EDWARD E. HALE.

January 9

_And in every work that be began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered_.--2 CHRON. xxxi. 21.


What, shall we do, that we might work the works of God?--JOHN vi. 28.

Give me within the work which calls to-day, To see Thy finger gently beckoning on; So struggle grows to freedom, work to play, And toils begun from Thee to Thee are done.

J. F. CLARKE.

God is a kind Father. He sets us all in the places where He wishes us to be employed; and that employment is truly "our Father's business." He chooses work for every creature which will be delightful to them, if they do it simply and humbly. He gives us always strength enough, and sense enough, for what He wants us to do; if we either tire ourselves or puzzle ourselves, it is our own fault. And we may always be sure, whatever we are doing, that we cannot be pleasing Him, if we are not happy ourselves.

J. RUSKIN.

January 10

_Because Thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee_.--PS. lxiii. 3.


_Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it_.--LUKE xvii. 33.

O Lord! my best desires fulfil, And help me to resign Life, health, and comfort, to Thy will, And make Thy pleasure mine.

WM. COWPER.

What do our heavy hearts prove but that other things are sweeter to us than His will, that we have not attained to the full mastery of our true freedom, the full perception of its power, that our sonship is yet but faintly realized, and its blessedness not yet proved and known? Our consent would turn all our trials into obedience. By consenting we make them our own, and offer them with ourselves again to Him.

H. E. MANNING.

Nothing is intolerable that is necessary. Now God hath bound thy trouble upon thee, with a design to try thee, and with purposes to reward and crown thee. These cords thou canst not break; and therefore lie thou down gently, and suffer the hand of God to do what He please.

JEREMY TAYLOR.

January 11

_I will be glad, and rejoice in Thy mercy: for Thou hast considered my trouble; Thou hast known my soul in adversities_.--PS. xxxi. 7.

Nay, all by Thee is ordered, chosen, planned; Each drop that fills my daily cup Thy hand Prescribes, for ills none else can understand: All, all is known to Thee.

A. L. NEWTON.

God knows us through and through. Not the most secret thought, which we most hide from ourselves, is hidden from Him. As then we come to know ourselves through and through, we come to see ourselves more as God sees us, and then we catch some little glimpse of His designs with us, how each ordering of His Providence, each check to our desires, each failure of our hopes, is just fitted for us, and for something in our own spiritual state, which others know not of, and which, till then, we knew not. Until we come to this knowledge, we must take all in faith, believing, though we know not, the goodness of God towards us. As we know ourselves, we, thus far, know God.

E. B. PUSEY.


January 12

_Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer_.--PS. xix. 14.

The thoughts that in our hearts keep place, Lord, make a holy, heavenly throng, And steep in innocence and grace The issue of each guarded tongue.

T. H. GILL.

There is another kind of silence to be cultivated, besides that of the tongue as regards others. I mean silence as regards one's self,--restraining the imagination, not permitting it to dwell overmuch on what we have heard or said, not indulging in the phantasmagoria of picture-thoughts, whether of the past or future. Be sure that you have made no small progress in the spiritual life, when you can control your imagination, so as to fix it on the duty and occupation actually existing, to the exclusion of the crowd of thoughts which are perpetually sweeping across the mind. No doubt, you cannot prevent those thoughts from arising, but you can prevent yourself from dwelling on them; you can put them aside, you can check the self-complacency, or irritation, or earthly longings which feed them, and by the practice of such control of


your thoughts you will attain that spirit of inward silence which draws the soul into a close intercourse with God.

JEAN N. GROU.

January 13

Speak not evil one of another, brethren.--JAMES iv. 11.

_Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice_.--EPH. iv. 31.

If aught good thou canst not say Of thy brother, foe, or friend, Take thou, then, the silent way, Lest in word thou shouldst offend.

ANON.

If there is any person to whom you feel dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak.

R. CECIL.

To recognize with delight all high and generous and beautiful actions; to find a joy even in seeing the good qualities of your bitterest opponents, and to admire


those qualities even in those with whom you have least sympathy, this is the only spirit which can heal the love of slander and of calumny.

F. W. ROBERTSON.

January 14

_Thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint_.--2 SAM. xv. 15.

I love to think that God appoints My portion day by day; Events of life are in His hand, And I would only say, Appoint them in Thine own good time, And in Thine own best way.

A. L. WARING.

If we are really, and always, and equally ready to do whatsoever the King appoints, all the trials and vexations arising from any change in His appointments, great or small, simply do not exist. If He appoints me to work there, shall I lament that I am not to work here? If He appoints me to wait in-doors to-day, am I to be annoyed because I am not to work out-of-doors? If I meant to write His messages this morning, shall I grumble because He sends


interrupting visitors, rich or poor, to whom I am to speak them, or "show kindness" for His sake, or at least obey His command, "Be courteous?" If all my members are really at His disposal, why should I be put out if to-day's appointment is some simple work for my hands or errands for my feet, instead of some seemingly more important doing of head or tongue?

F. R. HAVERGAL.

January 15

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.--I THESS. iv. 3.

Between us and Thyself remove Whatever hindrances may be, That so our inmost heart may prove A holy temple, meet for Thee.

LATIN MSS. OF 15TH CENTURY.

Bear, in the presence of God, to know thyself. Then seek to know for what God sent thee into the world; how thou hast fulfilled it; art thou yet what God willed thee to be; what yet lacketh unto thee; what is God's will for thee now; what thing thou mayest now do, by His grace, to obtain His favor, and approve thyself unto


Him. Say to Him, "Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God," and He will say unto thy soul, "Fear not; I am thy salvation." He will speak peace unto thy soul; He will set thee in the way; He will bear thee above things of sense, and praise of man, and things which perish in thy grasp, and give thee, if but afar off, some glimpse of His own, unfading, unsetting, unperishing brightness and bliss and love.

E. B. PUSEY.

January 16

_Now our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work_.--2 THESS. ii. 16, 17.

When sorrow all our heart would ask, We need not shun our daily task, And hide ourselves for calm; The herbs we seek to heal our woe Familiar by our pathway grow, Our common air is balm.

J. KEBLE.

Oh, when we turn away from some duty or some fellow-


creature, saying that our hearts are too sick and sore with some great yearning of our own, we may often sever the line on which a divine message was coming to us. We shut out the man, and we shut out the angel who had sent him on to open the door. There is a plan working in our lives; and if we keep our hearts quiet and our eyes open, it all works together; and, if we don't, it all rights together, and goes on fighting till it comes right, somehow, somewhere.

ANNIE KEARY.

January 17

_Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings_.--I PETER iv. 12, 13.

We take with solemn thankfulness Our burden up, nor ask it less, And count it joy that even we May suffer, serve, or wait for Thee, Whose will be done!

J. G. WHITTIER.

Receive every inward and outward trouble, every


disappointment, pain, uneasiness, temptation, darkness, and desolation, with both thy hands, as a true opportunity and blessed occasion of dying to self, and entering into a fuller fellowship with thy self-denying, suffering Saviour. Look at no inward or outward trouble in any other view; reject every other thought about it; and then every kind of trial and distress will become the blessed day of thy prosperity. That state is best, which exerciseth the highest faith in, and fullest resignation to God.

WM. LAW.

January 18

_Thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee_.--DEUT. XXVI. 11.

Rejoice evermore. In everything give thanks.--I THESS. v. 16, 18.

Grave on thy heart each past "red-letter day"! Forget not all the sunshine of the way By which the Lord hath led thee; answered prayers, And joys unasked, strange blessings, lifted cares, Grand promise-echoes! Thus thy life shall be One record of His love and faithfulness to thee.

F. R. HAVERGAL.


Gratitude consists in a watchful, minute attention to the particulars of our state, and to the multitude of God's gifts, taken one by one. It fills us with a consciousness that God loves and cares for us, even to the least event and smallest need of life. It is a blessed thought, that from our childhood God has been laying His fatherly hands upon