Daily Strength for Daily Needs - Mary Wilder Tileston

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ye fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well.—JAMES ii. 8.

      Come, children, let us go!

       We travel hand in hand;

       Each in his brother finds his joy

       In this wild stranger land.

       The strong be quick to raise

       The weaker when they fall;

       Let love and peace and patience bloom

       In ready help for all.

      G. TERSTEEGEN.

      It is a sad weakness in us, after all, that the thought of a man's death hallows him anew to us; as if life were not sacred too—as if it were comparatively a light thing to fail in love and reverence to the brother who has to climb the whole toilsome steep with us, and all our tears and tenderness were due to the one who is spared that hard journey.

      GEORGE ELIOT.

      Would we codify the laws that should reign in households, and whose daily transgression annoys and mortifies us, and degrades our household life—we must learn to adorn every day with sacrifices. Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices. Temperance, courage, love, are made up of the same jewels. Listen to every prompting of honor.

      R. W. EMERSON.

      February 16

      Serve Him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind.—I CHRON. xxviii. 9.

      And if some things I do not ask,

       In my cup of blessing be,

       I would have my spirit filled the more

       With grateful love to Thee—

       More careful—not to serve Thee much,

       But to please Thee perfectly.

A. L. WARING.

      Little things come daily, hourly, within our reach, and they are not less calculated to set forward our growth in holiness, than are the greater occasions which occur but rarely. Moreover, fidelity in trifles, and an earnest seeking to please God in little matters, is a test of real devotion and love. Let your aim be to please our dear Lord perfectly in little things, and to attain a spirit of childlike simplicity and dependence. In proportion as self-love and self-confidence are weakened, and our will bowed to that of God, so will hindrances disappear, the internal troubles and contests which harassed the soul vanish, and it will be filled with peace and tranquillity.

      JEAN NICOLAS GROU.

      February 17

      My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations [or "trials"], knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.—JAMES i. 2, 3.

      For patience, when the rough winds blow!

       For patience, when our hopes are fading—

       When visible things all backward go,

       And nowhere seems the power of aiding!

       God still enfolds thee with His viewless hand,

       And leads thee surely to the Fatherland.

      N. L. FROTHINGHAM, from the German.

      We have need of patience with ourselves and with others; with those below, and those above us, and with our own equals; with those who love us and those who love us not; for the greatest things and for the least; against sudden inroads of trouble, and under our daily burdens; disappointments as to the weather, or the breaking of the heart; in the weariness of the body, or the wearing of the soul; in our own failure of duty, or others' failure toward us; in every-day wants, or in the aching of sickness or the decay of age; in disappointment, bereavement, losses, injuries, reproaches; in heaviness of the heart; or its sickness amid delayed hopes. In all these things, from childhood's little troubles to the martyr's sufferings, patience is the grace of God, whereby we endure evil for the love of God.

      E. B. PUSEY.

      February 18

      It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes.—PS. cxix. 71.

      But though He cause grief yet will He have compassion, according to the multitude of His mercies.—LAM. iii. 32.

      And yet these days of dreariness are sent us from above;

       They do not come in anger, but in faithfulness and love;

       They come to teach us lessons which bright ones could not yield,

       And to leave us blest and thankful when their purpose is fulfilled.

      ANON.

      Heed not distressing thoughts when they rise ever so strongly in thee; nay, though they have entered thee, fear them not, but be still awhile, not believing in the power which thou feelest they have over thee, and it will fall on a sudden. It is good for thy spirit, and greatly to thy advantage, to be much and variously exercised by the Lord. Thou dost not know what the Lord hath already done, and what He is yet doing for thee therein.

      I. PENINGTON.

      Why should I start at the plough of my Lord, that maketh deep furrows on my soul? I know He is no idle husbandman, He purposeth a crop.

      S. RUTHERFORD.

      February 19

      My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work.—JOHN iv. 34.

      I am glad to think

       I am not bound to make the world go right;

       But only to discover and to do,

       With cheerful heart, the work that God appoints.

       I will trust in Him,

       That He can hold His own; and I will take

       His will, above the work He sendeth me,

       To be my chiefest good.

      J. INGELOW.

      Don't object that your duties are so insignificant; they are to be reckoned of infinite significance, and alone important to you. Were it but the more perfect regulation of your apartments, the sorting-away of your clothes and trinkets, the arranging of your papers—"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might," and all thy worth and constancy. Much more, if your duties are of evidently higher, wider scope; if you have brothers, sisters, a father, a mother, weigh earnestly what claim does lie upon you, on behalf of each, and consider it as the one thing needful, to pay them more and more honestly and nobly what you owe. What matter how miserable one is, if one can do that? That is the sure and steady disconnection and extinction of whatsoever miseries one has in this world.

      T. CARLYLE.

      February 20

      Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling-block, or an occasion to fall, in his brother's way.—ROM. xiv. 13.

      Them that were entering in, ye hindered.—LUKE xi. 52.

      My mind was ruffled with small cares to-day,

       And I said pettish words, and did not keep

       Long-suffering patience well, and now how deep

       My trouble for this sin! in vain I weep

       For foolish words I never can unsay.

      H. S. SUTTON.

      A

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