Daily Strength for Daily Needs Part 17

W. D. HOWELLS.

What an amazing, what a blessed disproportion between the evil we do, and the evil we are capable of doing, and seem sometimes on the very verge of doing! If my soul has grown tares, when it was full of the seeds of nightshade, how happy ought I to be! And that the tares have not wholly strangled the wheat, what a wonder it is! We ought to thank G.o.d daily for the sins we have not committed.

F. W. FABER.

We give thanks often with a tearful, doubtful voice, for our spiritual mercies _positive_; but what an almost infinite field there is for mercies negative! We cannot even imagine all that G.o.d has suffered us _not_ to do, _not_ to be.

F. R. HAVERGAL.

You are surprised at your imperfections--why? I should infer from that, that your self-knowledge is small. Surely, you might rather be astonished that you do not fall into more frequent and more grievous faults, and thank G.o.d for His upholding grace.

JEAN NICOLAS GROU.

April 4

_Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord_.--MATT. xxv. 23.

O father! help us to resign Our hearts, our strength, our wills to Thee; Then even lowliest work of Thine Most n.o.ble, blest, and sweet will be.

H. M. KIMBALL.

Nothing is too little to be ordered by our Father; nothing too little in which to see His hand; nothing, which touches our souls, too little to accept from Him; nothing too little to be done to Him.

E. B. PUSEY.

A soul occupied with great ideas best performs small duties; the divinest views of life penetrate most clearly into the meanest emergencies; so far from petty principles being best proportioned to petty trials, a heavenly spirit taking up its abode with us can alone sustain well the daily toils, and tranquilly pa.s.s the humiliations of our condition.

J. MARTINEAU.

Whoso neglects a thing which he suspects he ought to do, because it seems to him too small a thing, is deceiving himself; it is not too little, but too great for him, that he doeth it not.

E. B. PUSEY.

April 5

_Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him_.--I KINGS xix.

18.

He went down to the great school with a glimmering of another lesson in his heart,--the lesson that he who has conquered his own coward spirit has conquered the whole outward world; and that other one which the old prophet learnt in the cave in Mount h.o.r.eb, when he hid his face, and the still small voice asked, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" that however we may fancy ourselves alone on the side of good, the King and Lord of men is nowhere without His witnesses; for in every society, however seemingly corrupt and G.o.dless, there are those who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

THOMAS HUGHES.

So, then, Elijah's life had been no failure, after all. Seven thousand at least in Israel had been braced and encouraged by his example, and silently blessed him, perhaps, for the courage which they felt. In G.o.d's world, for those who are in earnest there is no failure. No work truly done, no word earnestly spoken, no sacrifice freely made, was ever made in vain.

F. W. ROBERTSON.

April 6

_In the mult.i.tude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my soul_.--PS. xciv. 19.

_Perplexed, but not in despair; cast down, but not destroyed_.--2 COR. iv.

8, 9.

Discouraged in the work of life, Disheartened by its load, Shamed by its failures or its fears, I sink beside the road;-- But let me only think of Thee, And then new heart springs up in me.

S. LONGFELLOW.

Discouragement is an inclination to give up all attempts after the devout life, in consequence of the difficulties by which it is beset, and our already numerous failures in it. We lose heart; and partly in ill-temper, partly in real doubt of our own ability to persevere, we first grow querulous and peevish with G.o.d, and then relax in our efforts to mortify ourselves and to please Him. It is a sort of shadow of despair, and will lead us into numberless venial sins the first half-hour we give way to it.

F. W. FABER.

Never let us be discouraged with ourselves; it is not when we are conscious of our faults that we are the most wicked; on the contrary, we are less so.

We see by a brighter light; and let us remember, for our consolation, that we never perceive our sins till we begin to cure them.

FRANcOIS DE LA MOTHE FeNELON.

April 7

_That ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of G.o.d_.--ROM. xii. 2.

Thou knowest what is best; And who but Thee, O G.o.d, hath power to know?

In Thy great will my trusting heart shall rest; Beneath that will my humble head shall bow.

T. C. UPHAM.

To those who are His, all things are not only easy to be borne, but even to be gladly chosen. Their will is united to that will which moves heaven and earth, which gives laws to angels, and rules the courses of the world. It is a wonderful gift of G.o.d to man, of which we that know so little must needs speak little. To be at the centre of that motion, where is everlasting rest; to be sheltered in the peace of G.o.d; even now to dwell in heaven, where all hearts are stayed, and all hopes fulfilled. "Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee."

H. E. MANNING.

Study to follow His will in all, to have no will but His. This is thy duty, and thy wisdom. Nothing is gained by spurning and struggling but to hurt and vex thyself; but by complying all is gained--sweet peace. It is the very secret, the mystery of solid peace within, to resign all to His will, to be disposed of at His pleasure, without the least contrary thought.

R. LEIGHTON.

April 8