Part 38

FROM THE GERMAN.

We should all endeavor and labor for a calmer spirit, that we may the better serve God in praying to Him and praising Him; and serve one another in love, that we may be fitted to do and receive good; that we may make our passage to heaven more easy and cheerful, without drooping and hanging the wing. So much as we are quiet and cheerful upon good ground, so much we live, and are, as it were, in heaven.

R. SIBBES.

Possess yourself as much as you possibly can in peace; not by any effort, but by letting all things fall to the ground which trouble or excite you. This is no work, but is, as it were, a setting down a fluid to settle that has become turbid through agitation.

MADAME GUYON.

May 21

The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long.--DEUT. xxxiii. 12.

Whate'er events betide, Thy will they all perform; Safe in Thy breast my head I hide, Nor fear the coming storm.

H. F. LYTE.

I have seemed to see a need of everything God gives me, and want nothing that He denies me. There is no dispensation, though afflictive, but either in it, or after it, I find that I could not be without it. Whether it be taken from or not given me, sooner or later God quiets me in Himself without it. I cast all my concerns on the Lord, and live securely on the care and wisdom of my heavenly Father. My ways, you know, are, in a sense, hedged up with thorns, and grow darker and darker daily; but yet I distrust not my good God in the least, and live more quietly in the absence of all by faith, than I should do, I am persuaded, if I possessed them.

JOSEPH ELIOT, 1664.

May 22

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.--PS. xci. I.

They who on the Lord rely, Safely dwell though danger's nigh; Lo! His sheltering wings are spread O'er each faithful servant's head. When they wake, or when they sleep, Angel guards their vigils keep; Death and danger may be near, Faith and love have nought to fear.

HARRIET AUBER.

"There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling," is a promise to the fullest extent verified in the case of all "who dwell in the secret place of the Most High." To them sorrows are not "evils," sicknesses are not "plagues;" the shadow of the Almighty extending far around those who abide under it, alters the character of all things which come within its influence.

ANON.

It is faith's work to claim and challenge loving-kindness out of all the roughest strokes of God.

S. RUTHERFORD.

MAY 23

Be content with such things as ye have.--HEB. xiii. 5.

I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content.--PHIL. iv. 11 ( R. V.).

No longer forward nor behind I look in hope or fear; But, grateful, take the good I find, The best of now and here.

J. G. WHITTIER.

If we wished to gain contentment, we might try such rules as these:--

1. Allow thyself to complain of nothing, not even of the weather.

2. Never picture thyself to thyself under any circumstances in which thou art not.

3. Never compare thine own lot with that of another.