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

all that call upon Him in truth_.--PS. cxlv. 18.

_I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears_.--PS. xxxiv. 4.

Be Thou, O Rock of Ages, nigh! So shall each murmuring thought be gone; And grief and fear and care shall fly, As clouds before the mid-day sun.

C. WESLEY.

Take courage, and turn your troubles, which are without remedy, into material for spiritual progress. Often turn to our Lord, who is watching you, poor frail little being as you are, amid your labors and distractions. He sends you help, and blesses your affliction. This thought should enable you to bear your troubles patiently and gently, for love of Him who only allows you to be tried for your own good. Raise your heart continually to God, seek His aid, and let the foundation stone of your consolation be your happiness in being His. All vexations and annoyances will be comparatively unimportant while you know that you have such a Friend, such a Stay, such a Refuge. May God be ever in your heart.

ST. FRANCIS DE SALES.

February 27

_Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed_.--PS. xxxvii. 3.

Build a little fence of trust Around to-day; Fill the space with loving work, And therein stay; Look not through the sheltering bars Upon to-morrow, God will help thee bear what comes, Of joy or sorrow.

MARY FRANVES BUTTS.

Let us bow our souls and say, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord!" Let us lift up our hearts and ask, "Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?" Then light from the opened heaven shall stream on our daily task, revealing the grains of gold, where yesterday all seemed dust; a hand shall sustain us and our daily burden, so that, smiling at yesterday's fears, we shall say, "This is easy, this is light;" every "lion in the way," as we come up to it, shall be seen chained, and leave open the gates of the Palace Beautiful; and to us, even to us, feeble and fluctuating as we are, ministries shall be assigned, and through our hands blessings shall be conveyed in which the spirits of just men made perfect might delight.

ELIZABETH CHARLES.

February 28

_Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God_.--I JOHN iv. 7.

So to the calmly gathered thought The innermost of life is taught, The mystery dimly understood, That love of God is love of good; That to be saved is only this,-- Salvation from our selfishness.

J. G. Whittler.

The Spirit of Love, wherever it is, is its own blessing and happiness, because it is the truth and reality of God in the soul; and therefore is in the same joy of life, and is the same good to itself everywhere and on every occasion. Would you know the blessing of all blessings? It is this God of Love dwelling in your soul, and killing every root of bitterness, which is the pain and torment of every earthly, selfish love. For all wants are satisfied, all disorders of nature are removed, no life is any longer a burden, every day is a day of peace, everything you meet becomes a help to you, because everything you see or do is all done in the sweet, gentle element of Love.

WM. LAW.

February 29

_Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings_.--MAL. iv. 2.

O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me.--PS. xliii. 3.

Open our eyes, thou Sun of life and gladness, That we may see that glorious world of Thine! It shines for us in vain, while drooping sadness Enfolds us here like mist; come, Power benign, Touch our chilled hearts with vernal smile, Our wintry course do Thou beguile, Nor by the wayside ruins let us mourn, Who have th' eternal towers for our appointed bourn.

J. KEBLE.

Because all those scattered rays of beauty and loveliness which we behold spread up and down over all the world, are only the emanations of that inexhausted light which is above; therefore should we love them all in that, and climb up always by those sunbeams unto the eternal Father of lights: we should look upon Him, and take from Him the pattern of our lives, and always eying Him, should, as Hierocles speaks, "polish and shape our souls into the clearest resemblance of Him;" and in all our behavior in this world (that great temple of His) deport ourselves decently and reverently, with that humility, meekness, and modesty that becomes His house.

DR. JOHN SMITH.

March 1

_Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on_.--MATT. vi. 25.

One there lives whose guardian eye Guides our earthly destiny; One there lives, who, Lord of all, Keeps His children lest they fall; Pass we, then, in love and praise, Trusting Him through all our days, Free from doubt and faithless sorrow,-- God provideth for the morrow.

R. HEBER.

It has been well said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when to-morrow's burden is added to the burden of to-day that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never load yourselves so, my friends. If you find yourselves so loaded, at least remember this: it is your own doing, not God's. He begs you to leave the future to Him, and mind the present.

G. MACDONALD.

Cast thy burdens upon the Lord,--hand it over, heave it upon Him,--_and He shall sustain thee_; shall bear both, if thou trust Him with both, both thee and thy burden: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

ROBERT LEIGHTON.

March 2

_But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased_.--HEB. xiii. 16.

_For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another_.--I JOHN iii. 11.

Be useful where thou livest, that they may Both want and wish thy pleasing presence still. ...Find out men's wants and will, And meet them there. All worldly joys go less To the one joy of doing kindnesses.

G. HERBERT.

Let the weakest, let the humblest remember, that in his daily course he can, if he will, shed around him almost a heaven. Kindly words, sympathizing attentions, watchfulness against wounding men's sensitiveness,--these cost very little, but they are priceless in their value. Are they not almost the staple of our daily happiness? From hour to hour, from moment to moment, we are supported, blest, by small kindnesses.

F. W. ROBERTSON.

Small kindnesses, small courtesies, small considerations, habitually practised in our social intercourse, give a greater charm to the character than the display of great talents and accomplishments.

M. A. KELTY.

March 3

I made haste, and delayed not to keep Thy commandments.--PS. cxix. 60.

Ye know not what shall be on the morrow.--JAMES iv. 14.

Never delay To do the duty which the hour brings, Whether it be in great or smaller things; For who doth know What he shall do the coming day?

ANON.

It is quite impossible that an idle, floating spirit can ever look up with clear eye to God; spreading its miserable anarchy before the symmetry of the creative Mind; in the midst of a disorderly being, that has neither centre nor circumference, kneeling beneath the glorious sky, that everywhere has both; and for a life that is all failure, turning to the Lord of the silent stars, of whose punctual thought it is, that "not one faileth." The heavens, with their everlasting faithfulness, look down on no sadder contradiction, than the sluggard and the slattern in their prayers.

J. MARTINEAU.

March 4

_But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, and their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace_.--WISDOM OF SOLOMON iii. 1-3.

But souls that of His own good life partake, He loves as His own self; dear as His eye They are to Him: He 'll never them forsake: When they shall die, then God Himself shall die; They live, they live in blest eternity.

HENRY MORE.

Though every good man is not so logically subtile as to be able by fit mediums to demonstrate his own immortality, yet he sees it in a higher light: his soul, being purged and enlightened by true sanctity, is more capable of those divine irradiations, whereby it feels itself in conjunction with God. It knows that God will never forsake His own life which He hath quickened in it; He will never deny those ardent desires of a blissful fruition of Himself, which the lively sense of His own goodness hath excited within it: those breathings and gaspings after an eternal participation of Him are but the energy of His own breath within us; if He had had any mind to destroy it, He would never have shown it such things as He hath done.

DR. JOHN SMITH.

March 5

_And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure_.--I JOHN iii. 3.

Now, Lord, what wait I for? On Thee alone My hope is all rested,-- Lord, seal me Thine own! Only Thine own to be, Only to live to Thee. Thine, with each day begun, Thine, with each set of sun, Thine, till my work is done.

ANNA WARNER.

Now, believe me, God hides some ideal in every human soul. At some time in our life we feel a trembling, fearful longing to do some good thing. Life finds its noblest spring of excellence in this hidden impulse to do our best. There is a time when we are not content to be such merchants or doctors or lawyers as we see on the dead level or below it. The woman longs to glorify her womanhood as sister, wife, or mother. Here is God,--God standing silently at the door all day long,--God whispering to the soul, that to be pure and true is to succeed in life, and whatever we get short of that will burn up like stubble, though the whole world try to save it.

ROBERT COLLYER.

March 6

The shadow of a great rock in a weary land.--ISA. xxxii. 2.

_In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength_.--ISA. xxx. 15.

O Shadow in a sultry land! We gather to Thy breast, Whose love, enfolding like the night, Brings quietude and rest, Glimpse of the fairer life to be, In foretaste here possessed.

C. M. PACKARD.

Strive to see God in all things without exception, and-acquiesce in His will with absolute submission. Do everything for God, uniting yourself to Him by a mere upward glance, or by the overflowing of your heart towards Him. Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inward peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset. Commend all to God, and then lie still and be at rest in His bosom. Whatever happens, abide steadfast in a determination to cling simply to God, trusting to His