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

thou wilt have learned to live unto God above time and place. For every day will be Sunday to thee, and, wherever thou goest, thou wilt have a priest, a church, and an altar along with thee. For when God has all that He should have of thy heart, when thou art wholly given up to the obedience of the light and spirit of God within thee, to will only in His will, to love only in His love, to be wise only in His wisdom, then it is that everything thou dost is as a song of praise, and the common business of thy life is a conforming to God's will on earth as angels do in heaven.

WM. LAW.

November 6

_He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him: He also will hear their cry, and will save them_;--PS. cxlv. 19.

_Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart_.--PS. xxxvii. 4.

Though to-day may not fulfil All thy hopes, have patience still; For perchance to-morrow's sun Sees thy happier days begun.

P. GERHARDT.

His great desire and delight is God; and by desiring and delighting, he hath Him. _Delight thou in the Lord, and He shall give thee thy heart's desire,_--HIMSELF; and then surely thou shall have all. Any other thing commit it to Him, and He shall bring it to pass.

R. LEIGHTON.

All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired, although not in the hour or in the measure, or the very thing which they ask; yet they will obtain something greater and more glorious than they had dared to ask.

MARTIN LUTHER.

November 7

I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.--ACTS xxvi. 19.

The Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey.--JOSH. xxiv. 24.

I will shun no toil or woe, Where Thou leadest I will go, Be my pathway plain or rough; If but every hour may be Spent in work that pleases Thee, Ah, dear Lord, it is enough!

G. TERSTEEGEN.

All these longings and doubts, and this inward distress, are the voice of the Good Shepherd in your heart, seeking to call you out of all that is contrary to His will. Oh, let me entreat of you not to turn away from His gentle pleadings.

H. W. SMITH.

The fear of man brings a snare. By halting in our duty and giving back in the time of trial, our hands grow weaker, our ears grow dull as to hearing the language of the true Shepherd; so that when we look at the way of the righteous, it seems as though it was not for us to follow them.

J. WOOLMAN.

November 8

Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God.--HEB. x. 9.

Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God.--PS. cxliii. 10.

Lo! I come with joy to do The Father's blessed will; Him in outward works pursue, And serve His pleasure still. Faithful to my Lord's commands, I still would choose the better part; Serve with careful Martha's hands, And loving Mary's heart.

C. WESLEY.

A soul cannot be regarded as truly subdued and consecrated in its will, and as having passed into union with the Divine will, until it has a disposition to do promptly and faithfully all that God requires, as well as to endure patiently and thankfully all that He imposes.

T. C. UPHAM.

When we have learned to offer up every duty connected with our situation in life as a sacrifice to God, a settled employment becomes just a settled habit of prayer.

THOMAS ERSKINE.

"Do the duty which lies nearest thee," which thou knowest to be a duty. Thy second duty will already have become clearer.

T. CARLYLE.

November 9

_Say not thou, I will hide myself from the Lord: shall any remember me from above? I shall not be remembered among so many people: for what is my soul among such an infinite number of creatures_?--ECCLESIASTICUS xvi. 17.

Among so many, can He care? Can special love be everywhere? A myriad homes,--a myriad ways,-- And God's eye over every place?

I asked: my soul bethought of this;-- In just that very place of His Where He hath put and keepeth you, God hath no other thing to do!

A. D. T. WHITNEY.

Give free and bold play to those instincts of the heart which believe that the Creator must care for the creatures He has made, and that the only real effective care for them must be that which takes each of them into His love, and knowing it separately surrounds it with His separate sympathy. There is not one life which the Life-giver ever loses out of His sight; not one which sins so that He casts it away; not one which is not so near to Him that whatever touches it touches Him with sorrow or with joy.

PHILLIPS BROOKS.

November 10

In Him we live, and move, and have our being.--ACTS xvii. 28.

_Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence_?--PS. cxxxix. 7.

Yea! In Thy life our little lives are ended, Into Thy depths our trembling spirits fall; In Thee enfolded, gathered, comprehended, As holds the sea her waves--Thou hold'st us all.

E. SCUDDER.

Where then is our God? You say, He is everywhere: then show me anywhere that you have met Him. You declare Him everlasting: then tell me any moment that He has been with you. You believe Him ready to succor them that are tempted, and to lift those that are bowed down: then in what passionate hour did you subside into His calm grace? in what sorrow lose yourself in His "more exceeding" joy? These are the testing questions by which we may learn whether we too have raised our altar to an "unknown God" and pay the worship of the blind; or whether we commune with Him "in whom we live, and move, and have our being."

J. MARTINEAU.

November 11

_Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness_.--COL. i. 10, ii.

To be the thing we seem, To do the thing we deem Enjoined by duty; To walk in faith, nor dream Of questioning God's scheme Of truth and beauty.

ANON.

To shape the whole Future is not our problem; but only to shape faithfully a small part of it, according to rules already known. It is perhaps possible for each of us, who will with due earnestness inquire, to ascertain clearly what he, for his own part, ought to do; this let him, with true heart, do, and continue doing. The general issue will, as it has always done, rest well with a Higher Intelligence than ours. This day thou knowest ten commanded duties, seest in thy mind ten things which should be done for one that thou doest! Do one of them; this of itself will show thee ten others which can and shall be done.

T. CARLYLE.

November 12

_I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work_.--JOHN ix. 4.

Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task?--EX. v. 14.

He who intermits The appointed task and duties of the day Untunes full oft the pleasures of the day; Checking the finer spirits that refuse To flow, when purposes are lightly changed.

W. WORDSWORTH.

By putting off things beyond their proper times, one duty treads upon the heels of another, and all duties are felt as irksome obligations,--a yoke beneath which we fret and lose our peace. In most cases the consequence of this is, that we have no time to do the work as it ought to be done. It is therefore done precipitately, with eagerness, with a greater desire simply to get it done, than to do it well, and with very little thought of God throughout.

F. W. FABER.

Sufficient for each day is the good thereof, equally as the evil. We must do at once, and with our might, the merciful deed that our hand findeth to do,--else it will never be done, for the hand will find other tasks, and the arrears fall through. And every unconsummated good feeling, every unfulfilled purpose that His spirit has prompted, shall one day charge us as faithless and recreant before God.

J. H. THOM.

November 13

_Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of Thy law_.--PS. xciv

Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.--JER. x. 19.

Hold in thy murmurs, heaven arraigning! The patient see God's loving face; Who bear their burdens uncomplaining, 'Tis they that win the Father's grace.

ANON.

Do not run to this and that for comfort when you are in trouble, but bear it. Be uncomfortably quiet--be uneasily silent--be patiently unhappy.

J.P. GREAVES.

Hard words will vex, unkindness will pierce; neglect will wound; threatened evils will make the soul quiver; sharp pain or weariness will rack the body, or make it restless. But what says the Psalmist? "When my heart is vexed, I will complain." To whom? Not of God, but to God.

E.B. PUSEY.

Surely, I have thought, I do not want to have a grief which would not be a grief. I feel that I shall be able to take up my cross in a religious spirit soon, and then it will be all right.

JAMES HINTON.

November 14

_Thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me_.--ISA. xliv. 21.

Oh, give Thy servant patience to be still, And bear Thy will; Courage to venture wholly on the arm That will not harm; The wisdom that will never let me stray Out of my way; The love, that, now afflicting, knoweth best When I should rest.

J. M. NEALE.

Supposing that you were never to be set free from such trials, what would you do? You would say to God, "I am Thine--if my trials are acceptable to Thee, give me more and more." I have full confidence that this is what you would say, and then you would not think more of it--at any rate, you would not be anxious. Well, do the same now. Make friends with your trials, as though you were always to live together; and you will see that when you cease to take thought for your own deliverance, God will take thought for you; and when you cease to help yourself eagerly, He will help you.

ST. FRANCIS DE SALES.

Ah, if you knew what peace there is in an accepted sorrow!

MADAME GUYON.

November 15

_Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness_.--ISA. xli. 10.

Lord, be Thou near and cheer my lonely way; With Thy sweet peace my aching bosom fill; Scatter my cares and fears; my griefs allay, And be it mine each day To love and please Thee still.

P. CORNEILLE.

What if the wicked nature,