Leaves of Life Part 19

--Unknown.

Behold now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

--2 Corinthians 6. 2.

Lord G.o.d, teach me this day to know that the veriest trifle often keeps happiness alive, and that the smallest trifle often may kill it.

I pray that now thou wilt put within my heart that touch of love, which brings consideration for others, and the care that brings the greatest happiness. Amen.

MARCH SIXTH

Michael Angelo Buonarroti born 1475.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning born 1806.

George du Maurier born 1831.

Beloved, let us love so well Our work shall still be better for our love, And still our love be sweeter for our work: And both commended for the sake of each By all true workers and true lovers born.

--Elizabeth B. Browning.

Earth saddens, never shall remove, Affections purely given; And e'en that mortal grief shall prove The immortality of love, And heighten it with heaven.

--Elizabeth B. Browning.

And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.

--1 Corinthians 13. 3.

Loving Father, I pray that I may not try to change the standard of love by grafting on my own selfishness and infirmities. May I remember that it is mostly for gratification that love is held to the base in life; may I follow it to the summits, where it is divine. Amen.

MARCH SEVENTH

Sir Thomas Wilson died 1755.

Sir Edwin Landseer born 1802.

Luther Burbank born 1849.

Earth gets its price for what it gives us; The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in, The priest has his fee who comes and shrives us, We bargain for the graves we lie in; At the devil's booth are all things sold, Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; For a cap and bells our lives we pay, Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking; 'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 'Tis only G.o.d may be had for the asking.

--James Russell Lowell.

We are our own fates. Our own deeds Are our doomsmen. Man's life was made Not for men's creeds, But men's actions.

--Owen Meredith.

The free gift of G.o.d is eternal life.

--Romans 6. 23.

Gracious Father, may the world speak to me of thy love, and of thy gifts of peace and power, which it freely offers. May I not pa.s.s by its great values, and prefer to purchase at a great cost my indolence and dissipation.

--Amen.

MARCH EIGHTH

Dr. John Fothergill born 1712.

C.P. Cranch born 1813.

Anna Let.i.tia Barbauld died 1825.

O boundless self-contentment voiced In flying air-born bubbles!

O joy that mocks our sad unrest, And frowns our earth-born troubles!

The life that floods the happy fields With song and light and color, Will shape our lives to richer states And heap our measures fuller.

--C.P. Cranch.

One may secure and preserve that repose in the turbulence of a great city--as Shakespeare surely found and preserved it in the London of the sixteenth century. For repose does not depend on external conditions; it depends on sound adjustment to tasks, opportunities, pleasures, and the general order of life.

--Hamilton Mabie.

That we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in G.o.dliness and gravity.

--1 Timothy 2.2.

Gracious Father, help me to understand that peace cannot abide in misery, nor can it stay with every mood. May I be able to overcome the depression that may keep me in sadness and isolation, and have delight in the gladness of friends, and live in the peace of strong resolutions. Amen.

MARCH NINTH

Americus Vespucius born 1451.

Lewis Gonzaga born 1568.