Daily Strength for Daily Needs - Mary Wilder Tileston

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vexation arises, and our expressions of impatience hinder others from taking it patiently. Disappointment, ailment, or even weather depresses us; and our look or tone of depression hinders others from maintaining a cheerful and thankful spirit. We say an unkind thing, and another is hindered in learning the holy lesson of charity that thinketh no evil. We say a provoking thing, and our sister or brother is hindered in that day's effort to be meek. How sadly, too, we may hinder without word or act! For wrong feeling is more infectious than wrong doing; especially the various phases of ill temper—gloominess, touchiness, discontent, irritability—do we not know how catching these are?

      F. R. HAVERGAL.

      February 21

      If ye then, being evil, know bow to give good gifts unto your children, bow much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good gifts to them that ask Him?—MATT. vii. 11.

      For His great love has compassed

       Our nature, and our need

       We know not; but He knoweth,

       And He will bless indeed.

       Therefore, O heavenly Father,

       Give what is best to me;

       And take the wants unanswered,

       As offerings made to Thee.

      ANON.

      Whatsoever we ask which is not for our good, He will keep it back from us. And surely in this there is no less of love than in the granting what we desire as we ought. Will not the same love which prompts you to give a good, prompt you to keep back an evil, thing? If, in our blindness, not knowing what to ask, we pray for things which would turn in our hands to sorrow and death, will not our Father, out of His very love, deny us? How awful would be our lot, if our wishes should straightway pass into realities; if we were endowed with a power to bring about all that we desire; if the inclinations of our will were followed by fulfilment of our hasty wishes, and sudden longings were always granted. One day we shall bless Him, not more for what He has granted than for what He has denied.

      H. E. MANNING.

      February 22

      Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.—PHIL. iv. 6.

      We tell Thee of our care,

       Of the sore burden, pressing day by day,

       And in the light and pity of Thy face,

       The burden melts away.

      We breathe our secret wish,

       The importunate longing which no man may see;

       We ask it humbly, or, more restful still,

       We leave it all to Thee.

      SUSAN COOLIDGE.

      That prayer which does not succeed in moderating our wish, in changing the passionate desire into still submission, the anxious, tumultuous expectation into silent surrender, is no true prayer, and proves that we have not the spirit of true prayer. That life is most holy in which there is least of petition and desire, and most of waiting upon God; that in which petition most often passes into thanksgiving. Pray till prayer makes you forget your own wish, and leave it or merge it in God's will. The Divine wisdom has given us prayer, not as a means whereby to obtain the good things of earth, but as a means whereby we learn to do without them; not as a means whereby we escape evil, but as a means whereby we become strong to meet it.

      F. W. ROBERTSON.

      February 23

      Let the Lord do that which is good in His sight.—I CHRON. xix. 13.

      Let Thy mercy O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in Thee.—PS. XXXIII. 22.

      I cannot feel

       That all is well, when darkening clouds conceal

       The shining sun;

       But then, I know

       He lives and loves; and say, since it is so,

       Thy will be done.

      S. G. BROWNING.

      No felt evil or defect becomes divine until it is inevitable; and only when resistence to it is exhausted and hope has fled, does surrender cease to be premature. The hardness of our task lies here; that we have to strive against the grievous things of life, while hope remains, as if they were evil; and then, when the stroke has fallen, to accept them from the hand of God, and doubt not they are good. But to the loving, trusting heart, all things are possible; and even this instant change, from overstrained will to sorrowful repose, from fullest resistance to complete surrender is realized without convulsion.

      J. MARTINEAU.

      February 24

      These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.—JOHN xvi. 33.

      O Thou, the primal fount of life and peace,

       Who shedd'st Thy breathing quiet all around,

       In me command that pain and conflict cease,

       And turn to music every jarring sound.

      J. STERLING.

      Accustom yourself to unreasonableness and injustice. Abide in peace in the presence of God, who sees all these evils more clearly than you do, and who permits them. Be content with doing with calmness the little which depends upon yourself, and let all else be to you as if it were not.

      FRANÇOIS DE LA MOTHE FÉNELON.

      It is rare when injustice, or slights patiently borne, do not leave the heart at the close of the day filled with marvellous joy and peace.

      GOLD DUST.

      February 25

      But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.—ISA. xliii. I.

      Thou art as much His care as if beside

       Nor man nor angel lived in heaven or earth;

       Thus sunbeams pour alike their glorious tide,

       To light up worlds, or wake an insect's mirth.

      J. KEBLE.

      God beholds thee individually, whoever thou art. "He calls thee by thy name." He sees thee, and understands thee. He knows what is in thee, all thy own peculiar feelings and thoughts, thy dispositions and likings, thy strength and thy weakness. He views thee in thy day of rejoicing and thy day of sorrow. He sympathizes in thy hopes and in thy temptations; He interests himself in all thy anxieties and thy remembrances, in all the risings and fallings of thy spirit. He compasses thee round, and bears thee in His arms; He takes thee up and sets thee down. Thou dost not love thyself better than He loves thee. Thou canst not shrink from pain more than He dislikes thy bearing it, and if He puts it on thee, it is as thou wilt put it on thyself, if thou art wise, for a greater good afterwards.

      J. H. NEWMAN.

      February 26

      The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to 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,

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