Part 41

R. W. EMERSON.

Some say that the age of chivalry is past. The age of chivalry is never past, so long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth, or a man or woman left to say, "I will redress that wrong, or spend my life in the attempt." The age of chivalry is never past, so long as we have faith enough to say, "God will help me to redress that wrong; or, if not me, He will help those that come after me, for His eternal Will is to overcome evil with good."

C. KINGSLEY.

Thus man is made equal to every event. He can face danger for the right. A poor, tender, painful body, he can run into flame or bullets or pestilence, with duty for his guide.

R. W. EMERSON.

May 31

Let all those that put their trust in Thee rejoice: ... let them also that love Thy name be joyful in Thee.--PS. v. 11.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.--PS. xxiii. 2.

I can hear these violets chorus To the sky's benediction above; And we all are together lying On the bosom of Infinite Love.

Oh, the peace at the heart of Nature! Oh, the light that is not of day! Why seek it afar forever, When it cannot be lifted away?

W. C. GANNETT.

What inexpressible joy for me, to look up through the apple-blossoms and the fluttering leaves, and to see God's love there; to listen to the thrush that has built his nest among them, and to feel God's love, who cares for the birds, in every note that swells his little throat; to look beyond to the bright blue depths of the sky, and feel they are a canopy of blessing,--the roof of the house of my Father; that if clouds pass over it, it is the unchangeable light they veil; that, even when the day itself passes, I shall see that the night itself only unveils new worlds of light; and to know that if I could unwrap fold after fold of God's universe, I should only unfold more and more blessing, and see deeper and deeper into the love which is at the heart of all.

ELIZABETH CHARLES.

June 1

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple.--PS. xxvii. 4.

Thy beauty, O my Father! All is Thine; But there is beauty in Thyself, from whence The beauty Thou hast made doth ever flow In streams of never-failing affluence.

Thou art the Temple! and though I am lame,-- Lame from my birth, and shall be till I die,-- I enter through the Gate called Beautiful, And am alone with Thee, O Thou Most High!

J. W. CHADWICK.

Consider that all which appears beautiful outwardly, is solely derived from the invisible Spirit which is the source of that external beauty, and say joyfully, "Behold, these are streamlets from the uncreated Fountain; behold, these are drops from the infinite Ocean of all good! Oh! how does my inmost heart rejoice at the thought of that eternal, infinite Beauty, which is the source and origin of all created beauty!"

L. SCUPOLI.

June 2

We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.--2 COR. iii. 18.

Then every tempting form of sin, Shamed in Thy presence, disappears, And all the glowing, raptured soul The likeness it contemplates wears.

P. DODDRIDGE.

Then does a good man become the tabernacle of God, wherein the divine Shechinah does rest, and which the divine glory fills, when the frame of his mind and life is wholly according to that idea and pattern which he receives from the mount. We best glorify Him when we grow most like to Him: and we then act most for His glory, when a true spirit of sanctity, justice, and meekness, runs through all our actions; when we so live in the world as becomes those that converse with the great Mind and Wisdom of the whole world, with that Almighty Spirit that made, supports, and governs all things, with that Being from whence all good flows, and in which there is no spot, stain, or shadow of evil; and so being captivated and overcome by the sense of the Divine loveliness and goodness, endeavor to be like Him, and conform ourselves, as much as may be, to Him.

DR. JOHN SMITH.

June 3

The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in Him.--PS. lxiv. 10.