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THOUGHTS FOR
EVERYDAY LIVING
H'
THOUGHTS FOR «
EVERY-DAY LIVING
FROM THE
SPOKEN AND WRITTEN WORDS
OF
MALTBIE DAVENPORT BABCOCK
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1902
i:;
9168 * 1.
L..
Copyright, 1901, by
CHAKLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
Published, November, 1901
TROW DIRECTORY
PRINTirtt AND BOOKBINOINQ COMPANY
NEW YORK
MALTBIE DAVENPORT BABCOCK, D.D.
1858 — 1901
Ftrst Presbyterian Church, Lockport, N. Y., 1882.
Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, Md., 1887.
Brick Presbyterian Church, New York City, 1900.
(Found, after Dr. Babcock's death, on the Jly-leaf of
his pocket Bible.)
RivERDALE, N. Y., November 7, 1899.
Gimmitted myself again with Christian brothers to
imreserved docility and devotion before my Master.
Many of those who looked to Dr. Babcock for
help and inspiration have asked that some of his
words might be put into permanent form ; this
book is the simple outgrowth of that request.
The soui'ces from which selection could be
made are few. Dr. Babcock's sermons were
preached from full, but intricate, notes, which no
one else could develop, and he had wTitten no
book.
Many of the selections have been already
printed in the Sunday-School Times, The Brown
Memorial Monthly, The Christian Endeavor
World, and Forward; and grateful acknowledg-
ment is due to these publications. Appreciation
and thanks are also due to those who have con-
tributed— from notes made at public services —
many of the most helpful phrases, and to those
who have shared personal letters.
The verses, which were written in moments of
recreation, are added ; and the resulting book is
printed in loving memory of one who lived what
he taught.
Katharine Taloian Babcock,
Mary R. Sanford.
CONTENTS
Thoughts for Every- Day Living :
PAGE
Silent Testimony ....
1
Indomitable Power of the Will
1
Wishing and Willing
1
Opportunity of Trouble .
. 2
Conscientiousness ....
. 2
To-Day and To-Morrow .
. 3
Opportunities .....
3
Self-Betrayal
4
Unimportance of Philosophy .
4
On the Watch
. 4
Amusement Only for the Workers
. 5
Dependableness ....
5
Assured Victory ....
5
Criticism
6
Good Intentions ....
6
Confessing Our Sins ,
. 7
No Place for Anxiety . , ' .
7
Living Stones . . . , .
7
Largeness ......
8
Joy in the Thorn . . . . ,
8
The Friendship of Christ
9
Christ is All
9
Making Things Sunshiny
10
Roots and Fruits . . . . .
10
No Harm in Loving the World . ,
10
CONTENTS
Thoughts for Every-Day Living — Continued:
Saved for this Life
When Life is of Small Account
Living Water
Possession
Possibilities
Thrift that Brings Beggary-
Second Sight
Excuses ....
Always Doing Better
Working with God
More Right than We Know
Life's Story
Living in a Castle of Love
Glory of the Commonplace
Something Better than Explanation
Feeble Faith is Better than None
Christ in All .
Obedience ....
Just Filling Our Own Place .
" The Uses of Adversity "
Being One's Self .
The Rod and the Child
Honesty in Prayer .
The Mission of Distance
Saying " Good-By "
Pain as a Friend .
Heroism Every Day
Wants and Needs .
'^ Things that are Behind "
Suffer Little Children
CONTENTS
Thoughts for Every-Day Living — Continued: paqe
Uncommon Service . . . .26
Forgiveness . . . . . .27
Making the Best of Things . . .27
Looking Down . . . . .28
Suggestion Rather than Definition . 28
Prejudgment ...... 29
Success or Failure . . . . .29
False Values 30
Letting Things Make the Best of Us . 30
Using Our Tools While We May . .31
Folly of Being Powerless . . .32
What is Honesty? 32
God's Machinery . . . . .33
When S}Tnpathy is Needed . . . SS
Good Listening . . . . . 34<
Is Death an Interruption ? . , .34
Showing Spirituality . . . .35
W^hat is Good Hearing ? . . .36
Why Does Your Tree Stand ? . .36
A Practical Way to Lay Down Your Life 37
Better than Worshipping the Bible . 37
Doing and Knowing . , . .38
Goodness and Usefulness . . .39
Merit of Concealing Troubles , . 39
Friend Necessity ..... 40
Up or Down Stream . . . .40
Securities Well Invested . , .41
Hope 42
Life's Arena ...... 42
Watching the Proportions . . .43
CONTENTS
Thoughts for Every-Day Living — Continued:
PAGE
Honesty in Consecration
43
Now the Only Time
44
Seeing the Good
45
Boundlessness of God's Purposes
45
Getting Ahead of Whom?
46
Faithfulness First .
47
Living Belief ....
47
Genuine Christianity
48
God's Knowledge of What We
Shall Be
49
Sin .....
49
Christlike ....
50
More than '' I Am Sorry "
50
Folly of Trifling with Trifles .
51
Holding in the Bad Bacilli .
52
Making Duty a Delight
52
Disposition ....
53
Contentment ....
•
54
To-Day
54
Obligation to Receive
55
Foggy Morning
5Q
Deathlessness . . : .
51
Principles Rather than Rules .
51
Working Out Salvation .
58
A Good World
59
The Ascension
59
A Habit Worth Forming
60
A Specialist ....
61
Looking Backward .
62
A Pattern for Us All .
62
Uselessness of Altruism Without
Christ .
63
CONTENTS
Thoughts for Every-Day Living—
-Continued : p^gj.
The Witness of Life
. 64
Speaking a Ship
. 65
"Either Pull, or Bail, or Cut
Bait" . 65
God's Love is Eternity .
. 66
Captivity
. 67
Acknowledging Mistakes
. 68
Transmutation
. 68
A Message
. 69
Disgrace of a Joyless Life
. 70
Business vs. Religion
. 71
Circumstances
. 72
Kinship in Kindness
. 73
The Ethics of Perfection
. 73
The Inevitable
. 74
Normal and Abnormal
. 15
Living Down Consequences
. 76
Alienating Power of Sin
. 77
Providence
. 77
Joy in All Things .
. 78
Over-Sensitiveness .
. 79
The Test of Possessions .
. 80
That Which Cannot be Taken
L Away . 81
God's Answer
. 82
Fitness ....
. 83
The Abundant Life
. 84
" Rejoice Evermore "
. 85
Stewardship .
. S6
Discouragement
. 87
Worth Believing
. 88
Friendship and Right
. 89
CONTENTS
Thoughts for Every-Day Living — Continued:
Doing and Discovering .
Why Complain ? . . .
The Beatitude of Endurance .
Common Days
Success .....
Blessedness of Eternal Service
Battlement-Building
A Lesson from Peter the Rock
Steadfastness ....
The Try-Square
Loyalty, Not Feeling
Encouragement
A Verse for the New Year
Our Business in the World
The Father of Lights
The Carpenter's Son
Written on Shipboard, February, 1901
Prayers :
At Communion Service
On Christmas Day .
On Easter Day
On Thanksgiving Day
After the Offering .
On Various Occasions
Passages from Letters :
On the Death of a Child
On the Death of a Husband
On the Death of a Husband
151
151
152
CONTENTS
PAGE
Passages from Letters — Contimied :
To One in Great Anxiety . . .152
Written at Bethel, April, 1901, on Hear-
ing of the Death of a Friend's
Mother 153
On Hearing of the Wounding of a
Friend at the Battle of El Caney . 154
To One in Great Distress . . .154
To a Young Woman in Special Tempta-
tion and Need . . . .155
To the Same . . . . . .156
To the Same . . . . .157
To a Friend on the Christian's Hope . 157
To a Friend on the Communion of
Saints . . . . . .158
To One Who Was Greatly Discouraged . 158
To a Harvard Freshman . . .158
Written to a Friend Over Seventy Years
of Age, Who Was in His Last Ill-
ness . . . . . .159
To the Same Friend a Month Later . 159
To the Same Friend Two Months Later,
in May ....
On the Death of a Child
On the Death of a Father
Poems :
"Give us this day our daily bread
O That I May Grow
In the Furrow
Be Strong .....
The All in All . . .
160
161
162
167
167
167
168
168
CONTENTS
Poems — Continued page
Love and Loyalty l69
In Many Parts
. 170
Not to Be Ministered Tc
)
. 170
Rest
. 171
I Am Thine .
. 172
Sonnet .
. 172
Companionship
. 173
Worship
. 174
SaiUng Westward .
. 175
The Moon
. 176
The Love of God .
. 177
The First Day of Spring
. 178
My Father's World
. 180
Surprise .
. 182
Thine
183
A Song .
. 184
Clear Skies
. 184
Memories
. 185
A W^inter Day
. 186
Autumn Hopes
. 186
The Trees in Winter
. 187
To the Dogwood .
. 188
School Days .
. 189
Emancipation . , ,
. 191
THOUGHTS FOR
EVERYDAY LIVING
THOUGHTS FOR
EVERY-DAY LIVING
Silent Testimony.
Men are convinced more quickly and certainly by
what they see than by what they hear. It is not,
" Let your lips speak,'' but, " Let your light shine."
The living epistle is not known and heard of all
men, but known and read.
Indomitable Power of the Will.
No man can ever estimate the power of the will.
It is a part of the divine nature, all of a piece
with the power of creation. We speak of God's
fiat. " Fiat lux et lux erat " (Let light be and
light was). Man has his fiat. The achievements
of history have been the choices, the determina-
tions, the creations of the human will.
Wishing and Willing,
Some men seem to think that when they have
praised virtue they have done their duty by it.
" How beautiful is goodness ! " we say. " O that
I were good ! " If this is only wistful, we are
I
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
wrong. If it expresses our decision to attain
that goodness, we are right. To praise a virtue
without determining to possess it is a first step
toward moral suicide. To wish and not to will is
spiritual collapse, a house on the sand.
Opportunity of Trouble.
The tests of life are to make, not break us.
Trouble may demolish a man's business but build
up his character. The blow at the outward man
may be the greatest blessing to the inner man.
If God, then, puts or permits anything hard in
our lives, be sure that the real peril, the real
trouble, is what we shall lose if we flinch or rebel.
Conscientiousness.
Although there is nothing so bad for con-
science as trifling, there is nothing so good for
conscience as trifles. Its certain discipline and
development are related to the smallest things.
Conscience, like gravitation, takes hold of atoms.
Nothing is morally indifferent. Conscience must
reign in manners as well as morals, in amusements
as well as work. He only who is " faithful in
that which is least" is dependable in all the
world.
THOUGHTS FOR EVEKY-DAY LIVING
To-Day and To-Morrow.
Part of to-day belongs to to-morrow, as the
seed belongs to the shoot, as the foundation be-
longs to the building. So to-day owes its best
to to-morrow, for not to do right to-day may
ruin to-morrow. But the reverse is not true.
To-morrow cannot ruin to-day. Time's wheel
does not run backward. Banish, then, fore-
boding and anxious forecast, and fill to-day with
faithful work, with kindness and courage and
hope ; and so you will keep to-morrow from being
a marplot, and make it a good, honest to-day
when it comes.
Opportunities.
Opportunities do not come with their values
stamped upon them. Everyone must be chal-
lenged. A day dawns, quite like other days; in
it a single hour comes, cjuite like other hours ;
but in that day and in that hour the chance of a
lifetime fjices us. To face every opportunity of
life thoughtfully and ask its meaning bravely and
earnestly, is the only way to meet the supreme
opportunities when they come, whether open«
faced or disguised.
THOUGHTS tOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Self-Betrayal.
" Ev^ery man imputes himself,"" — so Tennyson
once said. It is a startling thought. Judging
is self- betrayal. By the judgment with which Me
judge, we are ourselves judged. By our words
we are justified or condemned. We should be
more slow to judge, if we realized that the judg-
ment we utter transfers us instantly from the
judge's bench to the prisoner's bar.
Unimportance of Philosophy.
Men had bodies before they ever thought of
writing treatises on physiology. Life comes be-
fore letters, and experience before explanation.
Philosophy is the description of experience. The
Bible is not the cause of religion, but the record
of it. The thing of supreme importance is to
possess the facts of religion, a personal relation to
God, rather than a correct philosophy about the
facts. That will take care of itself.
On the Watch.
" Watch and pray.*" Being on the watch often
changes the character of our prayers. We blun-
der along, and fall, and have to pray for forgive-
ness. Had we been watchful, it would have been
4
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
a prayer for help, and then praise for victory. Is
not the prayer to be forearmed better than the
prayer to be forgiven ?
Amusement Only for the Workers.
The boy who does not go to school does not
know what Saturday is. If a man would know
what amusement means, let him earn it, and know
its re-creation. No man has a right to amuse-
ment, or knows the real joy of it, who has not
earned the right by work.
Dependableness.
" Surely the Captain may depend on me " may
not be the best thing to say before others, but,
rightly meant, it is a noble self-commitment.
Dependable people ! — their price is above rubies.
The world would be a dreary place if there were
not some Christians who need no prodding or
watching ; who can be told, and then trusted.
Assured Victory.
Most victories are secured in advance. He
who has absolutely decided goes easily through
the unsettling voices of earth, and because of a
private covenant with his God is safeguarded
a<>:ainst sinful attractions or distractions. Jesus
5
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
said, '' I have finished the work Thou gavest me
to do,'' though the death of the Cross was waiting.
The victory of Calvary was won in Gethsemane.
Criticism.
How good it would be if we could learn to be
rigorous in judgment of ourselves, and gentle in
our judgment of our neighbors ! In remedying
defects, kindness works best with others, sternness
with ourselves. It is easy to make allowances for
our faults, but dangerous ; hard to make allow-
ances for others' faults, but wise. " If thy hand
offend thee, cut it off," is a word for mir sins ; for
the sins of otJicrs, " Father, forgive them."
Good Intentions.
Many a good intention dies from inattention.
If, through carelessness or indolence, or selfish-
ness, a good intention is not put into effect, we
have lost an opportunity, demoralized ourselves,
and stolen from the pile of possible good. To be
born and not fed, is to perish. To launch a ship
and neglect it is to lose it. To have a talent and
bury it, is to be a " wicked and slothful servant."
For in the end we shall be judged, not alone by
what we have done, but by what we could have
done.
6
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Confessing Our Sins.
Unless we realize our sins enough to call them
by name, it is hardly worth while to say any-
thing about them at all. When we pray for
forgiveness, let us say, " my temper,"" or " un-
truthfulness," or " pride," " my selfishness, my
cowardice, indolence, jealousy, revenge, impurity."
To recognize our sins, we must look them in the
face and call them by their right names, however
hard. Honesty in confession calls for definiteness
in confession.
No Place for Anxiety.
Anxiety has no place in the life of one of God's
children. Christ's serenity was one of the most
unmistakable signs of his filial trust. He was
tired and hungry and thirsty and in pain ; but
we cannot imagine him anxious or fretful. His
mind was kept in perfect peace because it was
stayed on God. The life lived by the faith of
the Son of God will find his word kept : " My
peace give I unto you."
Living Stones.
If a man is to be a pillar in the temple of his
God by and by, he must be some kind of a prop
in God's house to-day. We are here to support,
7
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
not to be supported. No one can be a living
stone on the foundations of the Spiritual House,
which is God's habitation, without being a foun-
dation to the stones above him.
Largeness.
Littleness needs largeness. A cut on the finger
needs not a finger full of new blood for the day,
but all the refreshing and recreatmg of the red
life current. Are we thoughtless of others ? We
need not a little more thoughtfulness, but the
spirit of him who pleased not himself. Are we
hypersensitive to praise or blame ? We need to
dedicate ourselves once and again to the greater
glory of God. Let us get the stars in their
courses to fight against Sisera.
Joy in the Thorn.
Paul's thorn was not pleasant to him. He
prayed to be rid of it. But when he found it had
come to stay, he made friends with it swiftly. It
was no longer how to dismiss, but how to enter-
tain. He stopped groaning, and began glorying.
It was clear to him that it was God's will, and
that meant new opportunity, new victory, new
likeness to Christ. What God means is always too
good to be lost, and is worth all it costs to learn.
Let us learn as swiftly as we may. Time is short,
8
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVIN'J
The Friendship of Christ.
If a friend is the one who summons us to our
best, then is not Jesus Christ oui* best friend,
and should we not think of the Communion as
one of his chief appeals to us to be om- best ?
The Lord's Supper looks not back to our past
with a critical eye, but to our futm-e, with a hope-
ful one. The Master appeals from what we have
been to what we may be. He bids us come, not
because he sees we are better than we have been,
but because he wants us to be. To stay away
because our hearts are cold is to refuse to go to
the fire till we are warm.
Christ is All.
Is not the trouble with most of our witnessing
for God that it is inconstant and inconsistent,
lacking unity as well as continuity ? What is
our hope but the indwelling Spirit of Christ, to
bring every thought into captivity to the obedi-
ence of Christ, to inspire every word and deed by
his love ? Then will " broken lights " blend in
steady shining, the fractional be summed up in
the integral, and life, unified and beautified by
the central Christ, radiate God's glory, and shine
with divine effulgence.
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Making Things Sunshiny.
Have you ever had your day suddenly turn
sunshiny because of a cheerful word ? Have you
ever wondered if this could be the same w^orld,
because someone had been unexpectedly kind to
you ? You can make to-day the same for some-
body. It is only a question of a little imagina-
tion, a little time and trouble. Think nora,
" \ATiat can I do to-day to make someone hap-
py ? ^ — old persons, children, servants — even a
bone for the dog, or sugar for the bird ! Why
not ?
Roots and Fruits.
We are not created in Christ Jesus out of good
works, but unto good works. We do not make
ourselves Christians any more than we make our-
selves human beings. Works are the fruit of life,
not the root. The works of the flesh are unclean-
ness, hatred and their bad train ; the fruit of the
spirit is love, joy and their good train. Life
works from root to fruit ; logic argues from fruit
to root. We grow from our roots ; we are knowTi
by our fruits.
No Harm in Loving the World.
We cannot know or enjoy or love the world too
much, if God's will controls us. Has a mother
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
anything but joy in watching the little daughter's
devotion to her doll ? Not until the child is so
absorbed that she cannot hear her mother's voice.
Did anyone ever love the world more than Jesus
did ? Yet was anyone ever so loyal to the
Father's will ? Worldliness is not love of the
world, but slavishness to it.
Saved for this Life.
Salvation is not putting a man into Heaven,
but putting Heaven into a man. It is not putting
a sinful man into a law-abiding community,
but writing the law of God in his heart and
mind. The real question is not. What will we do
under outward compulsion ? but, What will we do
by inward choice ? Salvation is not the change
of circumstances, but that central change in us,
that change of the heart, of its attitude, its inten-
tions, of its choices, which will make it the con-
queror under all circumstances in life's battles.
When Life is of Small Account.
To do right is the only real obligation that
faces us. A thief, defending himself by saying.,
^' But a man must live," was met with the answer,
" I do not see that." There is no necessity to
live, but there is a supreme necessity to do right.
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Thousands of men and women have laid down
theii' lives rather than do wrong. Let us never
allow what are called the lower necessities of life
to say a word in the presence of the imperial
" ought."
Living Water.
If you have ever been driven to drink stale
water from a cistern, you have a good idea of
what Jesus meant when he spoke of " living
water." When the Christian life is real, in living
oneness with " Christ who is the fountain," there
is a joy and sparkle about it, which they never
know who are drinking the water of old experi-
ences and ancient memories. How does the
Christian life taste to you ? Is it " new every
morning " ?
Possession.
The only test of possession is use. The talent
that is buried is not owned. The napkin and the
hole in the gi-ound are far more truly the man"'s
property, because they are accomplishing some-
thing for him, slothful and shameful though it be.
And what is a lost soul ? Is it not one that
God cannot use, or one that cannot use God ?
Trustless, prayerless, fruitless, loveless — is it not
so far lost ? So may a man have a soul that is
lost and be dead while he lives.
12
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Possibilities.
Astronomy has opened the eyes of the devout
to the possibihties of the hfe of eternity. AVhen
it tells us of the worlds upon worlds that the
heavens contain, we catch our breath at the suf^-
gestion of the greatness of the future life. For
perhaps amid these other worlds of his, God has
for us larger work to do than ever we have im-
agined. Faithfulness, we know, leads to large
opportunities ; if we do well here, we shall do in-
conceivably better in the limitless life of eternity.
It is to be remembered, though, that God's future
plans for us depend largely on our present loyalty.
Thrift that Brings Beggary.
Life'*s real loss is life unlived. The strength we
pay out for a principle enriches us, though the
cause may seem a failure. The strength we save
through cowardice or selfishness impoverishes us.
The love that is given, though it be not half re-
turned, builds up the heart, while the love that is
withheld shrivels it. Prudence may be an enemy
of power, and thrift bring beggary behind it.
*' There is that withholdeth and tendeth to pov-
erty.^'
13
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Second Sight.
The most remarkable instance of second sight
in the Bible is given by Moses's choice where he
"had re-spect unto the re-compense of the re-
ward.*" Three times we are told he took a look
past the material and the visible over the shoulder
of things to the real values, imperishable, eternal,
to the face of God. Doubtless there were many
to call him short-sighted ; and so it would seem
at first sight, but second sight showed better
powers of vision. The invisible came into ken,
and a reward incorruptible, unde filed, and that
fadeth not away, was his.
Excuses.
An excuse for sin is a statement of the cir-
cumstances under which a man did wrong. AVhen
we say, " I could not help it ; circumstances were
too much for me," do our hearts believe it to be
true ? We say, " My temperament, my inherited
appetite, business exigencies, irresistible pressure,'^
as though we were compelled to do wrong. The
first man in the long line of apologetic succession
said, " The woman tempted me," but did not say,
" and made me eat."" Whatever he might wish
implied, he could only say, " And I did eat." No
unconsenting soul can be made to sin, and so sin
is inexcusable.
14
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Always Doing Better.
"Whenever we make a grateful review, let it
mean instant commitment to a better futm-e. If
the mercies of God have blessedly beset us, let us
not build " Three Tabernacles,'*' that we may
abide ; but rather, like Paul, call the places where
our mercies meet us " Three Taverns," then push
on, thank God, and take courage. Every attain-
ment is to be a footing for new attempts, and eveiy
goal a point of departure. " A man's reach should
exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for ? "
Working with God.
" My Father worketh hitherto, and I work
And I work ! Say that too. If you destroy the
sequence, life loses heart, and joy, and meaning,
and value. Swing into line with the eternal en-
ergy, be a force among forces, a toiler, a producer,
a factor, and life never loses its tone and flavor, its
bead or glamour. There is no real taste to bread
nor bliss in sleep for the idler. He is the doubter,
the skeptic, the unhappy man. His idleness pro-
claims him diseased and decaying.
n
More Right than We Know.
''When a man is wrong, he is more wi-ong
than he knows." Think of this the next time
you are on a through train that does not go
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
through, because it was late somewhere. Instead
of making up time, it continues to lose it. Local
trains have now its right of way, and block signals
hold it remorselessly. All things seem to con-
spire against it. Let the virtue of being on time
shine in a new light, and be glad that, " when you
are right, you are more right than vou know."
Life's Story.
How good it is that, though new chapters go
on with our life's story, and people drop out whom
we have loved, and incidents change so that it
seems quite like another tale, yet the real plot is
spiritual and eternal. The true friendships and
affections will all come in again, in the next vol-
ume. There is no " finis " at the end of Volume
One, nor yet of Volume Two. Always to be con-
tinued, never to be concluded, are the life and
love that are rooted in Jesus Christ.
Living in a Castle of Love.
" Keep yourselves in the love of God '" does not
mean keep yourselves loving God, but keep be-
lieving and rejoicing that God loves you. " Con-
viction "''' is a good word there, because it comes
from con and victum — ro?iquered, or vinculum —
a chain. Be conquered, be enchained, by the
i6
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
thought that God loves you. '^ Keep " means
guard, protect, as in a fortress. Live in this cas-
tle, and no enemy of doubt or fear can by any
means hurt you. " Keep yourselves in the love
of God."
Glory of the Commonplace.
\Vliy do we trifle with goodness and virtue till
we wake to their value through the bitterness of
their loss ? There may be nothing strikingly
dramatic about the rewards or consequences of
daily, steadfast obedience to God, but they shine
in " something of an angel light,"' where men look
back to them from the shame and misery of the
tragedy of disobedience. The value of doing right
is constant, whether men appreciate it at the time
or not. Locking a barn seems no longer com-
monplace when the horse is stolen, and the value
of taking care of furnaces comes out tremendously
in the light of a burning house.
Something Better than Explanation.
No explanation is of any value in matters
which do not grow out of experience. Until &
deaf man hears music, it is wasted breath to de-
scribe it, and there is no proof of color to the
blind. When Jesus spoke to the disciples the
words recorded in the fourteenth chapter of John,
17
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
he offered them truth for experience without ex-
planation. He promised them manifestation of
himself. He knew that the one who should enter
into this experience would never be perplexed by
divine reticence in explanation, or by the imper-
fection of human philosophy.
Feeble Faith is Better than None.
If God made no response except to perfect faith,
who could hope for help ? But God has regard
for beginnings, and his eye perceives greatness in
the germ. The hand of the woman in the crowd
trembled as it was stretched toward Jesus, and the
faith back of it was superstitiously reverent, trust-
ing in the virtue of the robe, rather than in the
One who wore it ; yet the genuineness of that
faith, feeble though it was, triumphed in God's
loving sight. Real trust is real power, though
the heart and hand both tremble.
Christ in All.
" And whatsoever ye do in word or deed — all
in the name of tha Lord Jesus."" " Do " does not
belong there. There is more than doing in life.
Thinking, speaking, hoping, planning, dreaming
— all are to be in the name of the Lord Jesus.
His love and life are to color and shape our am-
i8
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
bitions and accomplishments. In Him, as a plant
in soil, in rain and sunshine, we are to live, grow-
ing up by him and into him. In his name we are
to work, to pray, to suffer, to rejoice, and at last
to go home. It is only another way of saying,
*' For me to live is Christ."'"'
Obedience.
Men say, that when they know they will do ;
Jesus says, that when they do they will know.
He does not promise to manifest himself to the
man who dreams or debates, but to him who
keeps his commandments. The seeds of truth
sprout in the soil of obedience. The words of
Jesus in the mind of a disobedient man are no
more vital than wheat in the wrappings of a
mummy. To know the divinity of Jesus"'s teach-
ings, we must do his will with definite intention.
Moral disobedience is mental darkness, but to sub-
mit our wills in loyalty to his law is to open our
minds to the light of his truth.
Just Filling Our Own Place.
We often think that if we had that man's means
or that man"'s ability or that man"'s opportunity,
we could do something worth doing ; but, as we
ai-e, there is no possibility of any great thing.
19
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Yet God does not ^vant us to fill any other man's
place, or to do any other man's work. God wants
us to improve our own opportunity with the pos-
sessions and the powers that He has given us. It
is a very great thing for us to do the very best
we can do just where and as we are. God asks no
one of us to do more than this, nor has any one
of us a right to do less.
"The Uses of Adversity."
Present suffering is not enjoyable, but life would
be worth little without it. The difference be-
tween iron and steel is fire, but steel is worth all
it costs. Iron ore may think itself senselessly
tortm-ed in the furnace, but when the watch-
spring looks back, it knows better. David en-
joyed pain and trouble no more than we do, but
the time came when he admitted that they had
been good for him. Though the aspect of suffer-
ing is hard, the prospect is hopeful, and the retro-
spect will start a song, if we are *' the called ac-
cording to his purpose," in suffering.
Being One's Self.
To be our best selves should be our ambition —
not to be somebody else. A carver needs tools of
different sizes and temper and shapes of cutting
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
edge. The perfection of his work depends on
their not being all alike. So God may use us to
help conform humanity to the image of his son.
We owe it to that work to respect our individu-
ality, and to keep ourselves at the highest point
of efficiency. To be used in the perfecting of one
line in that work is reward enough for any tool's
being itself, and being worn out in the work.
The Rod and the Child.
Reproof or punishment should never be given
for the relief of the feelings of authority, but,
always and evidently, for the good of the diso-
bedient. To punish a child in anger cuts both
ways, and, unlike the twice blest droppings of
mercy, is doubly bad, cm-sing him that gives, and
him that takes. Punishment should be meted ac-
cording to the nature of the offence, and not ac-
cording to the degrees of annoyance. Justice is
not mercurial and explosive, or self-absorbed. Its
business is not to relieve its o\'iTi tension. It
should be serene and certain and quiet-eyed.
Think twice, and pray three times before punish-
ing a child.
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Honesty in Prayer.
Prayer must mean something to us, if it is to
mean anything to God. If the accustomed time
of prayer comes around, and we have nothing
that interests us enough to pray about definitely
and honestly, we would better frankly say so to
God than kill time in hollow, heartless formality.
To keep up the habit of prayer by saying thought-
less words is not worth while. It is a bad habit
of prayer, or it is a habit of bad prayer. It is
better not to pray than to pray and not be hon-
est. This prayer, however, at least might be al-
ways possible: "O God! show me my need of
Thee."
The Mission of Distance.
Life's features are so close to us that they often
seem out of proportion. But the day and dis-
tance will come, when we shall see how well bal-
anced were all God's thoughts of us. The eye
too close to a picture has no right to telegraph
criticism about the painter's purpose or skill.
Stand where the painter intended. Some views
of life are never understood except in a review,
some prospects or aspects never appreciated ex-
cept in retrospect. Reserve your judgment. Time
will vindicate God, and if it does not set you sing-
ing, eternity will.
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Saying "Good-By."
Why should we hesitate to say " good-by "' to
each other ? Are we not Pagans, to think that
a word has power over God's quiet purposes, and
that saying " good-by " smells of death ? Must
men die intestate because they think that mak-
ing their wills is cutting out their shrouds ? If
we were old Romans, who thought " vale ! ""' meant
" forever,*" we might be shy of such a word, but
" good-by," even if it should be for the last time
on earth, is only the difference between "good-
night " and " good-morning." Say it, then, like
a Christian, and, if it still comes hesitatingly,
stretch it out into the loveliest of wishes, " God
be with you."
Pain as a Friend.
Pain is a friend rather than a foe. It stands
between extremes of life and death, calling us
ever toward life. It ceases when its warnins; has
stirred the soul to thought and remedv, and
brought back health, or it ceases when the battle
is lost. Like a fire-bell, it stops when the fire is
put out or burned out. Let us not resent it. It
has a kind heart, though its hands hurt. An en-
gineer does not like to see a red flag, and yet he
is only too glad to see it. That we may know
23
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
the truth, and so be made free from ignorance
and peril, is part of the mission of pain.
Heroism Every Day.
We should all be heroic if our trials were on a
grand scale ! Should we ? Heroism in the least
is the only pledge of heroism in the greatest.
Unless we take the smallest trials as real trials of
us, and trifling tests as real tests of us, we give
promise of going down under great ones. Dig-
nify little troubles by the thought of the divine
purpose in them, and great troubles will have
dignified treatment. Let each small annoyance
or disappointment be one degree of heat in the
furnace, for the steel's sake, one gritty grain in
the grindstone, for the knife's sake, and the mak-
ing of heroism is here.
Wants and Needs.
Wants and needs are different things. We
often want what we do not need, and need what
we do not want. We distinguish between young
wants and needs, and " know how to give good
o-ifts to our children." Is not the infinite mind
wise enough, and the infinite love strong enough,
to subordinate our wants to our needs and disap-
point us in the short run, if need be, to develop
24
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
and delight us in the long one ? Real needs over-
ride incidental wants ; we cannot always have
what we please, if we are to have what God
pleases — and what is best for us. To want what
God wishes, is a swift way to have his wishes
come true, and to have our real needs amply sup-
plied.
"Things that are Behind."
Progress is marked by stations left behind. If
we follow Jesus, we go somewhere, which means
leaving some place. Journeying with the breast
to the East, means with the back to the West.
The disciples left their boats and nets when they
followed Jesus. What has our following cost us ?
What selfish plans, worldly projects, doubtful
amusements, dangerous companionships, are be-
hind us for the King's and the kingdom's sake ?
We sing, "Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to
leave and follow Thee,'' but another hymn brings
the thought to a sharp point, " Have I left aught
for Thee."
Suffer Little Children.
Dare we let children grow up with no vital
contact with the Saviour, never intentionally and
consciously put into his arms ? Not to bring
them to him, not to teach them to walk toward
25
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
him, as soon as they can walk toward anyone, is
wronging a child beyond words. The terrible in-
dictment uttered by the Lord, " Them that were
entering in ye hindered,"" and the millstone warn-
ing for offending little ones, are close akin to the
deserts of those who ruin a man's whole day of
life by wronging his morning hours. Not to help
a child to know the saving power of Christ is to
hold back a man from salvation.
Uncommon Service.
It is true, and it is a great comfort that it is
true, that the giving of a glass of water can please
God, and the sweeping of a room can glorify Him.
But woe be to us if we are content with small
service. Too much thought of little things be-
littles. We should "attempt great things for
God." Caleb said, " Give me this mountain "" ;
Mary broke the alabaster box that was exceeding
precious ; the disciples left all to follow Jesus,
and counted it joy to suffer for his sake. Let us
not be easily content. The note of heroism should
be in our battles with sin, in our speaking, in our
giving, in our serving. Our King deserves and
expects kingliness.
26
THOUGHTS FOR EVERYDAY LIVING
Forgiveness.
How sure we are of our own forgiveness from
God. How certain we are that we are made in
his image, wlien we forgive heartily and out of
hand one who has wronged us. Sentimentally we
may feel, and lightly we may say, "To err is
human, to forgive divine " ; but we never taste the
nobility and divinity of forgiving till we forgive
and know the victory of forgiveness over our sense
of being wronged, over mortified pride and wound-
ed sensibilities. Here we are in living touch
with Him who treats us as though nothing had
happened — who turns his back upon the past,
and bids us journey with Him into goodness and
gladness, into newness of life.
Making the Best of Things.
There is a making the best of things that is
noble. It is high philosophy, it is holy resigna-
tion and contentment, it is bravely greeting the
inevitable. Paul knew its secret, " I have learned
in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content.'"*
But there is a making the best of things that is
false and shameful. It is labelling that as best
which we deeply know is not the best. It is cow-
ardly contentment. It is " letting things go,''
in weak complaisance, or shallow optimism, when
27
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
they could be bettered, if we cared to better them.
We have no right to make the best of anything
that can in any way be made better.
Looking Down.
« Risen with Him." Seated with Him ! Then
our outlook in life is not an upward, but a down-
ward one. Here is the demand for Christian
imagination. How does life look from Heaven ?
Think of our discontent in lowly places, our fever-
ish longing for great work, our love of tinsel, our
chafing under discipline, our hard judgments, our
cherished grievances. How would they appear to
us, seen from above ? How do they look to
Jesus ? Put yourself in your true place, and
judge accordingly. Our citizenship is in Heaven ;
let our conversation be heavenly.
Suggestion Rather than Definition.
Suggestion is generally better than Definition.
There is a seeming dogmatism about Definition
that is often repellent, while Suggestion, on the
contrary, disarms suspicion and summons to co-
operation and experiment. Definition provokes
discussion. Suggestion provokes to love and
good works. Defining is limiting. Suggestion is
enlarging. Defining calls a halt ; Suggestion
28
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
calls for an advance. Defining involves the peril
of contentment : " I am here, I rest."" " Thus
far,'' says Definition, and draws a map. " \Vest-
ward,'"* cries Suggestion, and builds a boat.
Prejudgment.
Prejudge not lest ye be prejudiced. John the
Baptist had his idea of what Jesus ought to be,
and when Jesus did not conform to it, a doubt of
his iMessiahship was born. The Nazarite was
perplexed by the Man of Nazareth. The ascetic
could hardly believe that the friend of sinners and
little children could be the promised one of God.
The locust eater and camel-skin wearer had his
doubt about the man who ate and looked like
other people. "Judge nothing until the time
comes,'" which means suspend judgment until you
get at the kernel of the nut, whatever its burr ;
at the heart of man, whatever his exterior.
Success or Failure.
One of the commonest mistakes and one of the
costliest is thinking that success is due to some
genius, some magic, — something or other which
we do not possess. Success is generally due to
holding on, and failure to letting go. You decide
to learn a language, study nmsic, take a course
29
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
of reading, train yourself physically. Will it be
success or failure ? It depends upon how much
pluck and perseverance that word " decide " con-
tains. The decision that nothing can overrule,
the grip that nothing can detach, will bring suc-
cess. Kemember the Chinese proverb, " With
time and patience, the mulberry leaf becomes
satin."'
False Values.
When Abraham offered to Lot a choice of
pastures, it seemed to Lot that fortune's favors
had certainly come to him. So did it seem to
the Israelites when God gave them quails, and to
a later generation, when he let them have a king.
So did it to Jonah, doubtless, when he found
the ship going his way for Tarshish. But they
were all mistaken. The watered plains may have
looked pleasant to Lot, but they were the way to
Sodom. The quails, and the king, and the ship
for Tarshish would better have been let alone.
The real point is, not whether things are going
our way, but whether they are going God's way.
Letting Things Make the Best of Us.
To make the best of things in the right way
is to let things make the best of us. My next
duty may be one I do not enjoy; but for con-
30
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
science'' sake to do it, as though I enjoyed it, is to
be made a better man. Something that is a great
delight to me knocks at my door. To make the
best of it is not only to enjoy it heartily, but
" heartily as unto the Lord " who let me have it.
Then by my joys I am made a better Mian. So
with sorrows and disappointments — they are not
meant to disfigure, but to transfigure me. Live
with God, and all things shall be his servants,
and work together for our good and make the
best of us.
Using Our Tools While We May.
A Christian should hold his tools in general
with a loose hand, but in particular with a firm
hand. No man knows when he may be deprived of
his health, his money, his position, his friends ; he
must not set his heart on any one of them as a
final good, as an essential blessing. But upon the
tools he has, he must set his heart with great ap-
preciation and concentration, that he may learn
hew to use each one so as to get the best results
inside and out. Love not tools less but craftsman-
ship more. Work while you have your tools ; the
hour Cometh when you may not have them.
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Folly of Being Powerless.
If an electric car stands motionless on the
tracks, it is nothing against the power of elec-
tricity. If an invalid has no appetite, and cannot
go out of doors at night, it is no argument against
things to eat and the joy of starlit air. If a man
does not know a flower by name, or a poem by
heart, it is no indictment of the beauty of a rose,
or the charm of poetry. If we bear the name of
Christ but give no other sign of him, if we go
through the forms of godliness, but live powerless
lives, it is a thousand reproaches to us. To be
powerless when Christ has all power, and we can
have all we want, is an arraignment to which we
can make no answer that is not self- incriminating.
What is Honesty?
The root of honesty is an honest intention, the
distinct and deliberate purpose to be true, to han-
dle facts as they are, and not as we wish them to
be. Facts lend themselves to manipulation. Many
a butcher's hand is worth more than its weight in
gold. What we want things to be, we come to
see them to be ; and the tailor pulls the coat and
the truth into a perfect fit from his point of
view.
Oh, to get life out of our sinful and selfish
32
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
desires, and " walk in the light as he is in the
light," not wishing merely, but " willing to live
honestly ! ''
God's Machinery.
This w^orld is a machine shop to make me-
chanics of us. The machinery is not meant to
hurt us. There is nothing accidental about it,
though accidents occur while we are learning to
manage it. If we lose our balance, and get a
hand caught in the machinery, is it the fault of
our Father in heaven ? No. When we fall, it is
against God's machinery, but it is also against
God's will. Yet it is God's will that by that fall,
and from that machinery, we should learn not to
fall, learn how to use the machinery ; that we
should be expert through experience, workmen
that need not be ashamed though they carry scars.
When Sympathy is Needed.
Sympathy is often better than comfort. Tears
call for tears. "Jesus wept" by the grave of
Lazarus, though in a moment he was to turn
weeping into singing. Let us not tell a bumped
child to be more careful, and say, " You will
know better another time," but give the child our
kisses and sympathy, and postpone the calculation
33
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
about moral values. Let suffering know the
answering pain of our heart. The best sympathy
is often voiceless, — the pressure of a hand, the
tear-brimming look that says, " I cannot speak,
but I have heard.''' Tears before truth for sorrow,
otherwise truth may be wasted on unprofitable
soil.
Good Listening.
" Take heed how ye hear " is a genuine moni-
tion touching happy relations — a real injunction
under the law of love. Let us not think it applies
only to the way we hear sermons. How do you
listen to the conversation of your friends ? With
half-parted lips ready to break in with your own
opinions ? With the wandering eye of one evi-
dently uninterested ? Is this the love that helps
another to be his best ? Do you like to be well
listened to ? Mind, then, the give and take of
love, and be a good listener, and for truth''s sake
as well as love's. Thoreau says, " It takes two to
speak the truth — one to speak and another to
hear."
Is Death an Interruption ?
Death can never interrupt a faithful Christian
life. When we feel the touch upon our shoulder
and hear the word whispered in our ear, we may
34
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
be at our work or on a journey, walking the street
or asleep in our beds, praying at church or fishing
in the country. What difference does it make ?
^Ve are trying to please our God in what is our
business just then. Sacred places and times have
no superior advantage for the dying. Sacredness
is in the motive of the heart that would do every-
thing as unto the Lord, dying along with the rest.
As Heaven :s still the glad doing of God's will,
where is there any interruption ?
Showing Spirituality.
Spirituality is best manifested on the ground,
not in the air. Rapturous day-dreams, flights of
heavenly fancy, longings to see the Invisible, are
less expensive and less expressive than the plain
doing of duty. To have bread excite thankful-
ness and a drink of water send the heart to God
is better than sighs for the unattainable. To
plow a straight furrow on Monday or dust a room
well on Tuesday or kiss a bumped forehead on
Wednesday is worth more than the most ecstatic
thrill under Sunday eloquence. Spirituality is
seeing God in common things, and showing God
in common tasks.
8S
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
What is Good Hearing?
We hear most surely what we want to hear.
Out of the interests of the heart the ears hear.
" Take heed how ye hear "" is a by-law under our
moral constitution. What concerns us catches
our attention. If kindergarten or photography,
if recipes or servants or babies, are supreme in
our thoug-hts, we hear about them on all sides.
AVhat kind of things make our ears prick up most
quickly ? The old poet, Rogers, said, " I have a
veiy weak voice, and if I did not say ill-natured
things, no one would hear what I said." He
knew too well what interested most people.
Could he have counted on us ?
Why Does Your Tree Stand?
Ought not we who bear the name of Jesus, to
ask ourselves whether we are keeping pace in new
purposes and answering with devotion God's sum-
moning gifts and challenging mercies ? When
the year is old or the year is young, and we think
of the passing of life, it is a good thing to ask
whether our trees justify the room they take and
the nourishment they get in the Master's vine-
yard. Is your tree standing because " it brings
forth more fruit "' ? or is it because of the mercy,
the hope, the patience, of the Lord who inter-
-^6
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
cedes, — " Spare it yet another year ; it may be it
will bear fruit " ? Let the goodness of God lead
us to repentance and a better return in fruitful-
ness and fidelity for his loving care.
A Practical Way to Lay Down Your Life.
What does laying down of life mean to us ?
Are we willing to lay down our prejudices for the
good of some brother, or some self-indulgence,
that we may have some time and money to help
a struggler out of the mire, to put hope and
brightness into a darkened life ? How about the
dreadful things — things we can do without peril,
but which the weaker brother, emboldened by our
example, attempts to his utter demoralization and
destruction ? Let us specialize under the great
appeal to lay down our lives for the brethren,
and lay down some things much smaller, for the
hope of being worth som.ething. How else are
we to escape the condemnation of those who enjoy
pronouncing the Lord's name, but not doing his
will ?
Better than Worshipping the Bible.
The Bible is not a thing to be worshipped. A
savage might bow down to a telescope, but an
astronomer knows better. The way to know it
37
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
is to use it. It is not to be looked at, but to
look through. To bind a Bible beautifully, to
lift it reverently, to speak of it with admiration,
to guard it with all care, is not at all to the point.
Look through it. Find God with it. See what
God was to the men of the Bible, and then let
Him be the same to you. See the proofs of His
power, and prove that power for yourself in your-
self. Search the Scriptures for the testimony of
Jesus, and honor them by being an honor to the
one they reveal.
Doing and Knowing.
Doinop and knowing are blood relations.
" Obedience is the organ of spiritual vision " — so
Robertson re-issued the truth, that, if we would
know God's doctrine, we must do his will. Ex-
periment and experience spring from the same
root, and will not grow apart. Do you wish you
had a Christian's experience ? Will to make the
Christian experiment. Will you know who Christ
is, and what he can do for you ? Obey him ; do
as he directs. Do not expect experience without
experiment. " Follow me " was Christ's way of
saying "Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in him."
38
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Goodness and Usefulness.
Goodness conditions usefulness. A grimy hand
may do a gracious deed, but a bad heart cannot.
What a man says and what a man is must stand
together, — must con-sist. His life can ruin his
lips or fill them with power. It is what men see
that gives value to what we say. Paul had the
right order, " Take heed unto thyself y and unto
the doctrine." Being comes before saying or
doing. Well may we pray, " Search me, O God !
Reveal me to myself. Cleanse me from secret
faults, that those who are acquainted with me,
who know my down-sittings and my uprisings,
may not see in me the evil way that gives the lie
to my words."
Merit of Concealing Troubles.
To play a part can be good or bad. It is
wrong for wickedness to try to pass itself off for
goodness, but it is not wrong for a sad heart to
try to hide itself behind a smiling face. The
disappointed man is not bound to fly storm sig-
nals. There is no law that requires pain to be
advertised. When locomotives can burn their
own smoke, travelling will be pleasanter. There
is no danger to the community from people carry-
ing concealed troubles. " A merry heart maketh
39
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
a cheerful countenance.'" That is pleasant, but
the credit comes in when a sad heart wears a
glad countenance, for the sake of a world that
needs more sunshine. " But thou, when thou
fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;
that thou appear not unto men to fast."*'
Friend Necessity.
What a friend Necessity is ! It stops our
standing on one foot, it ends our looking at our
watches, and wondering about three or four
things ; it moves the previous question ; it says,
" This one thing you do ! ""' It is good discipline
to conquer indecision, but it is better for us and
for the world, knowing " what must be," to be
about it. It saves time. Goethe spoke of the
" dear must."" Emerson calls a man''s task his
hfe-preserver. Let us recognize the purpose of
God in the inevitable, and accept it gracefully,
whether discipline or duty. Swift adjustment
means peace and power. Necessity will then be
but the iron band inside the golden crown.
Up or Down Stream.
Life and character tend either upward or down-
ward, but a single act or characteristic may not
indicate the tendency of a life as a whole. You
40
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
can make a saint out of the good qualities of bad
men ; you can make a devil out of the bad qual-
ities of good men. Esau eclipsed Jacob at first,
but his virtues were accidents, incidents, without
roots, and they withered before the hot tests of
life. Jacob outshone Esau at last. Day by day
he fought his natural badness, and won in the
hard struggle with himself. The mean supplant-
er Jacob became the hero Israel, a prince with
God. Is it thy will or my will be done ? Are we
living to please Christ or to please ourselves ? Our
answer to this question determines our life-current.
Securities Well Invested.
Success is not abundance of means, but of man-
hood. Heaven's beginnings are in us now, or the
outlook is bad. Heaven is knowledge of God,
loyalty to God, likeness to God, and joy and
peace and love in the bud. Heaven begins here
or nowhere. Jesus had no beatitudes for earthly
success, gold, political power, social influence, but
for meekness, hunger after righteousness, peace-
making, purity, patience. These are possessions
death cannot spoil. Seek ye first his kingdom,
and let things come and go as God wills. True
wealth is not what my estate amounts to, but
what I amount to. Thou art weighed is the time-
less test, and character is the only eternal security.
41
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Hope.
Failure will hurt but not hinder us. Disillu-
sion will pain but not dishearten us. Sorrows
will shake us but not break us. Hope will set
the music ringing and quicken our lagging pace.
We need hope for living far more than for dying.
Dying is easy work compared with living. Dying
is a moment's transition ; living, a transaction of
years. It is the length of the rope that puts the
sag in it. Hope tightens the cords and tunes up
the heart-strings. Work well, then ; suffer pa-
tiently, rejoicing in hope. God knows all, and
yet is the God of Hope. And when we have
hoped to the end here. He will give us something
to look forward to, for all eternity. For " hope
abideth.^'
Life's Arena.
How utterly opposed to the thought of Jesus
Christ is all asceticism, all religious isolation and
retreat from the world. His aim was not to get
his followers out of the world, but to get them
into the world. Society, not solitude, is the nat-
ural home of Christianity. The Christian is not
to flee from the contagion of evil, but to meet it
with the contact of health and holiness. The
church is not to be built on glass posts for moral
insulation, but among the homes of common men
42
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
for moral transformation. What use is a light
under a busliel ? It must shine vhere there is
darkness. The place of need is the field of duty,
and though we are not to be of the ^vorld, we are
to he first and last in the world and for the world.
Watching the Proportions.
A right relation is in wrong proportions when
God's kingdom is obscured or forgotten. Chris-
tians have a right to make money ; no one has a
better right. But when money-making means
such absorption of time and vitality, that Chris-
tian work and worship cannot be kept up, there
the line is crossed between right and wrong. The
making and beautifying of a home is work of a
high order, but where it leaves no interest in the
homes of the poor and degraded, and no time or
money for saving the homeless, it becomes down-
right selfishness. Flesh is good, but too much in
a iTinner balks the prize. Let us lay aside the
extra weight, and train ourselves that we may so
run as to obtain. The lawful must not lead to
the loveless.
Honesty in Consecration.
We are more apt to see the comfort in the
words " She hath done what she could," than the
solemnity of them. They are a tender recogni-
43
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
tion, but a tremendous challenge. " What she
could "" means all she could. The Master com-
pares us, not with others, but with ourselves.
There is the mercy. But with our best selves,
with our possible selves, there is the rub. What
I did, subtracted from what I might have done,
gives the bad remainder, the immoral debit, the
moral discredit.
" There's a kindness in his justice that is more
than liberty." Thank God for it, but let us not
misunderstand the truth and think we are at lib-
erty to do what we happen to feel like. Did the
Lord say of Sapphira, " She hath done what she
could".?
Now the Only Time.
God does not help his children now and then,
but now, always now. There is no " then " ; it
exists only in imagination. The only time we
ever actually need God is now. If " then "
troubles us in imagination and we wonder what
will become of us then, let us learn to live with
God now. Form the habit of using God and be-
ing used of God, and the imaginary and dreadful
" then " will be swallowed up in the stream of
now when the time comes. No clocks keep time
to-morrow. Springs push and hands point now.
Now is the appointed time for clocks as well as
44
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
people. God never helped anyone to-morrow.
He is a very present help. What is eternity, but
God's now ? Let us then live the eternal life with
God now.
Seeing the Good.
AVhy is it that the bad side of life seems so
much more conspicuous than the good ? Is it be-
cause predominance of evil makes it more com-
mon, or that we being evil see it more readily, or
that the abnormal, by its nature, stands out ex-
crescent and disfiguring ? AXTiatever the answer,
it should be the ambition of every lover of good-
ness to make much of goodness, to sound its
praises, to flavor his words with its appreciation.
Part of hating evil is ignoring it, neglecting it.
Thinking of things of good report and speaking
of th°m strengthens good. Shutting om- mouths
as well AS our ears against the bruit of evil, in the
scorn of silence, weakens its hold upon us. What
the redeemed of the Lord say should strengthen
the side of the Lord of the redeemed.
Boundlessness of God's Purposes.
Let us beware of limitin^^ God. Nothing is
more foolish than to bound his purposes, espe-
cially in the matter of tuition, of the divine in ten'
45
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
tion and discipline. What can iron ore in the
furnace know of its fine and final uses, or a soul
in affliction know of " the far-off interest of
tears "" ? We have the minnow's right, as Carlyle
puts it, to say what we find in our little creek,
but no right to bound the river and ocean beyond
our small ideas. Let us ever be subject to hope
in bur life's tasks, saying, " It is the Lord,""
strengthening ourselves with a cheerful faith that
His purpose is eternal, alive with love, overleap-
ing the last limit of what we ask or think.
Getting Ahead of Whom ?
Our business in life is not to get ahead of other
people, but to get ahead of ourselves. To break
our own record, to outstrip our yesterdays by to-
days, to bear our trials more beautifully than we
ever dreamed we could, to whip the tempter inside
and out as we never whipped him before, to give
as we never have given, to do our work with more
force and a finer finish than ever, — this is the true
idea, — to get ahead of ourselves. To beat some
one else in a game, or to be beaten, may mean
much or little. To beat our own game means a
great deal. Whether we win or not, we are play-
ing better than we ever did before, and that's
the point after all — to play a better game of
life.
46
THOUGHTS FOR EMERY-DAY LIVING
Faithfulness First.
Swift runs and short cuts, so characteristic of
our modern life, are great perils. We want
everything in a hurry, but most good things arc
shy with strangers. Children want pieces on the
piano before scales or training of that weak third
finger. The poet says, " Wait a while." Life
cries, " Work a long while."' The unerring light
of love and joy's security, of which Wordsworth
writes, belong to the Ode to Duty. You long for
perfection ? Its root is perficiency — proficiency.
Bury your conscientiousness in the field of your
daily labor, and some day there will be flowers
and fragrance fit for heaven. It has been said
that " grace is the lovely result of forgotten toil."
Living Belief.
To know one or two tiTiths deeply gives more
power than a speaking acquaintance with a score.
The living force in any man's creed is not in what
he has traditionally accepted, but what he has
made part of his daily life. Words that are
" spirit and life " are indubitable and iri'esistible.
Many tiniths, like things lawful, but not expedi-
ent, are true, but not indispensable. Whether
certain tilings were so or not did not concern the
man who knew one thing — " Whereas I was blind,
47
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
now I see." A veritable experience stands fire
and water, and, put into words, becomes a man''s
living belief. What others have known, he may
yet know ; but he has made his own beginning,
and is founded on a rock. If a man knows whom
he has believed, he has eternal life, and will be led
into all truth.
Genuine Christianity.
Christianity is not a voice in the wilderness,
but a life in the world. It is not an idea in the
air but feet on the ground, going God's way. It
is not an exotic to be kept under glass, but a
hardy plant to bear twelve manner of fruits in all
kinds of weather. Fidelity to duty is its root
and branch. Nothing we can say to the Lord,
no calling him by great or dear names, can take
the place of the plain doing of his will. We may
cry out about the beauty of eating bread with
him in his kingdom, but it is wasted breath and
a rootless hope, unless we plow and plant in his
kingdom here and now. To remember him at his
table and to forget him at ours, is to have invest-
ed in bad securities. There is no substitute for
plain, every-day goodness.
48
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
God's Knowledge of What We Shall Be.
Our heavenly Father has a way of looking at
us, his children, that ought to be a great comfort
and incentive to us. He sees, not merely what
we are, but what we shall be. And, for the joy
set before Him of the perfected work, He endures
the days of crudeness and mistake. He sees the
man in the child, the painting in the sketch, the
angel in the marble. If He saw us only in our-
selves. He would see us only as we are ; but, seeing
us in Christ, He sees beyond repentance and trust
and struggle, beyond justification and sanctifica-
tion and glorification, to the cap-stone of Christ-
likeness ; and " let every man that hath this hope
in him purify himself, even as he is pure."
Sin.
Sin is unnatural, abnormal. Wrong means
wrung ; sin means wide of the mark ; iniquity is
inequity. Deformity, disfigurement, disgrace, all
imply a falling away from the ideal. Jesus was
natural. His life was the kind of life we were
meant to live. He touched work and rest and
play and thought and the out-door world, friends
and children, and sickness and trouble, and every-
thing, in the divinely natural way. He was un-
sociable only in sin. He could not be unnatural
49
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
and cross his Father's good and holy will. He
gave the naturalness, the super-naturalness, of his
life to cure the unnaturalness of ours. He related
himself to sin only to remove it and redeem us
from its power, that God might again say, " Very
good " of all nature, and paradise be regained.
Christlike.
How easily and contentedly we speak of Jesus
Christ as our example. Do we realize what it
means ? If we did, it would revolutionize our
life. Do we begin to know our Bible as He did ?
Do we begin to pray as He did ? How thought-
ful He was for others, how patient toward dulness,
how quiet under insult ! Think of what it meant
for Him to take a basin and towel like a slave and
wash the disciples' feet ! Do we stoop to serve ?
Can any one say of us, as was said of Him, that
we go about " doing good " ? Think of his words,
servants of his, "I have given you an example,
that ye should do as I have done to you."
" Christlike " is a word often on our lips. Do
not speak it too lightly. It is the heart of God's
predestination. It is our high calling.
More than " I Am Sorry."
When Jesus said, " Repent," he meant more
than a changed attitude toward sins that are past.
50
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAt LIVING
He meant a change of mind toward sin itself. It
is not enough to say, " I am sorry I did those
things that were wrong."" We must see all that
is sinful or may be sinful in a different light,
llepentance means another way of thinking, a
pew attitude toward the future as well as the
past.
The Psalmist did not merely look back and say,
" I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and thou
forgavest its iniquity,'' but said, as he looked
ahead, " I am purposed that my mouth shall not
transgress. I will behave myself wisely in a per-
fect way."
Folly of Trifling with Trifles.
Trifles are trifles only to triflers. To the
thoughtful they are symptoms of peril, signs of
hope, opportunities of love. To ignore trifles is
to be ignorant of the spot where decisions are
made and destinies determined. Railroads figure,
not on dollars and cents, but on fractions of
mills ; and we have discovered of late that God
plows and harrows his fields with earth-worms,
and puts the burden of his creation on beasts that
can swarm through the eye of the needle. Awake
to the significance of the insignificant ! for you are
in a world that belongs, not alone to the God of
the Infinite, but to the God of the Infinitesimal.
51
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Holding in the Bad Bacilli.
A sure cure for gossip and slander is to breathe
through your nose — keep your mouth shut. A
certain amount of your dying body (for you die
daily, momentarily) floats off on your breath into
the air. And God has filled the world with plant
life to absorb such products, such effete and
poisonous material. But gossip and slander on
your outgoing breath have only people to absorb
them. The flowers, happily for their fragrance,
have no way of taking them in. Be good enough
to the air, good enough to people, to let all wick-
edness and malice remain inside you. Germs of
love, bacilli of brotherliness, will eat them up,
and you will be strong and beautiful and beloved.
Making Duty a Delight.
How deep rooted, how gloriously pathetic, is
the idea of moral order. Man has never been
without it ; it is part of his make-up, his stock
hi trade. Let him believe in no god, like the
Buddhist ; in two gods, like the Zoroastrian ; in
many gods, like the Greek ; or in one God, like
the Jew and Christian — he yet holds to a supreme
ideal of moral order. Rooted in the heart of
man is the sense of duty as profound within as
the starry heavens are exalted without. There is
52
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
something he owes himself, his fellows, and his
God, which becomes his " ought," something due
which is his " duty." He is " haunted forever by
the eternal mind." Appeal to this sense of right
in children, reverence and obey it in ourselves,
clarify, dignify, glorify it in the light of Jesus
Christ, and one day duty and delight will be one.
Disposition.
Have you ever said, " I wish I had a more
cheerful disposition " ? How much do you wish
it ? Enough to dispose yourself so as to be in the
way of getting it ? Your words are idle and
sinful unless you will to have it instead of wish-
ing to have it. You are not responsible for the
disposition you were born with, but you are re-
sponsible for the one you die with.
Everything you carelessly or seriously propose
to do affects what you are disposed to do. You
are disposed to look on the dark side, borrow
trouble, and say discouraging things. Suppose
you earnestly propose for one week to look for
pleasant things, and speak of them, and never
speak of what you dread or do not like. You
will be more cheerfully and happily disposed at
the end of the week, and you know it. " If ye
know these things, happy are ye if ye do
them."
53
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Contentment.
Contentment is not satisfaction. It is the
grateful, faithful, fruitful use of Trhat we have,
little or much. It is to take the cup of Provi-
dence, and call upon the name of the Lord.
What the cup contains is its contents. To get
all there is in the cup is the act and art of con-
tentment. Not to drink because one has but half
a cup, or because one does not like its flavor, or
because some one else has silver to one's own
glass, is to lose the contents ; and that is the
penalty, if not the meaning of discontent. No
one is discontented who employs and enjoys to
the utmost what he has. It is high philosophy
to say, we can have just what we like, if we like
what we have ; but this much at least can be
done, and this is contentment, — to have the most
and best in life, by making the most and best of
what we have.
To-Day.
No loving word was ever spoken, no good deed
ever done, " to-moiTOw.'*"' We cannot act in the
unborn future, nor in the dead past — only in the
living present. That is why "every day is a
dooms-day," for to-day holds life and death,
character and destiny, in its hands. Opportunity
says with Jesus, " Me ye have not always."'' We
54
THOUGHTS FOR EVSRY-DAY LIVING
say : " I will take my chances. There is plenty
of time/^ Ah, how often do we say, " some other
time,"" to find that there is no other time ! Some
things we can do " not always." How shall we
find out what things can be done any time, and
what things now or never ? Only by living in the
faith that to-day is the only day we have and
challenging every opportunity for its meaning.
Esau filled his life with regret for trifling one
day ; Esther's was full of glory for one day's cour-
age. Peter slept one hour, and lost a matchless
opportunity. Mary's name is fragrant forever
for the loving deed of a day. Do your best 7iow.
Obligation to Receive.
It is not so hard to receive as it is to have to re-
ceive. To be obliged to take a gift makes us agree
swiftly with the words of the Lord Jesus when he
said, " It is more blessed to give than to receive."
Then we see that it is harder to take gracefully
the kindnesses of our friends, than even their buffet-
ings for our faults. But when we must receive,
then that is the will of God for us, and just then
more beneficial to us than giving. Some one
must receive, if another is to give. We must be
willing, not only to serve, but to be served ; not
only to bear others' burdens, but let others bear
ours ; not only to minister to the sick, but to be
55
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
simply and thankfully ministered unto ; not only
give, but receive. It is sometimes the will of
God that we should let others do the will of God,
and ourselves be the occasions instead of the
authors of kindness.
Foggy Mornings.
Fog in one''s spiritual life need be no more last-
ing than that in nature. " It will burn off before
long." How often weather-wise people say this
when the gray mists of the sea- shore depress the
hearts that were longing for a bright day ; and
so it proves. A glow of silver in the sky near
the sun, a thinning out here and there of the
vapory shroud ; glimpses of blue, clean outlining
and swift sailing away of the clouds, and the fine
clear day is here long before noon. We might
oftener save ourselves from heavy hearts and
gloomy faces, when early morning shows gray in
our lives, or other lives about us. Mists are left
over from a storm yesterday. The day closed on
a misunderstanding. The morning is foggy and
depressing. Why talk about it ? Let the
weather alone. Fog is shallow. It will burn off
before long. There is a good warm sun of love
at work, and the blue sky will soon be over us.
. 56
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Deathlessness.
Death is a great preacher of deathlessness.
The protest of the soul against death, its rever-
sion, its revulsion, is a high instinct of life. Dis-
satisfaction in his world who satisfieth the desire
of every living thing has a grip on the future.
As far as this goes, he has the least assurance
of immortality who can be best satisfied with eat-
ing and drinking and " things " ; he has the surest
hope of ongoings and far distances who does not
live by bread alone, whose eye is looking over the
shoulder of things, whose ear hears mighty waters
rolling evermore, who has " hopes naught can
satisfy below." The limits of which death makes
us aware, make us aware of life's limitlessness.
The wing whose stretch touches the bars of its
cage knows it was meant for an " ampler ether
and diviner air."
Principles Rather than Rules.
Rules are good, but principles are better.
Rules may contradict, confuse ; principles are
constant, consistent. To live by rule is too often
to miss the nobler mastery, the mental and moral
developing of principle. To live by principle is
to be led to the best rules. When Jesus spoke
of going two miles with the one who asked for
57
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
one mile's companionship, of giving the extra
cloak, of turning the other cheek, he was not
laying down rules, but lifting up principles.
Washing the disciples' feet and bidding us do as
he did was not a rule, but a principle ; otherwise
it could only be an oriental idiom, whereas now it
is a universal idea. Given the idea, the idiom will
follow. The greater involves the less. Principle
is prophetic, genetic, dynamic. Love will take
care of politeness, for it is its heart, and the heart
vitalizes the hands ; but rules of etiquette and
deportment are no guarantee of love.
Working Out Salvation.
No man can work up his own salvation, but
every Christian who has received it must work it
out in his own life. " Work out your own salva-
tion with fear and trembling," was written, not to
unbelievers, but to " the saints who were in Christ
Jesus at Philippi." We work for Jesus, not for
salvation ; not in order to be saved, but because
we are saved. Salvation is not a property to be
bought, but to be developed, a talent to be traded
with, an idea to be realized, a theme to be worked
out, " with fear and trembling," not lest we should
not be saved, but lest we should misrepresent our
Saviour. And what cheer and what encourage-
ment in the words, " for it is God who woi^keth in
58
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
you." What in-spiration, en-ergy, en-thusiasm !
Work out God's thought, for God works with you,
and in you, both to will and to do of his good
pleasure.
A Good World.
This is the best possible world for one who is
called according to God's purpose, or purposes
accordini:^ to God's calling. We are infected with
infidelity when we sigh for the wings of a dove.
We sing, " God is wisdom, God is love." If we
believe it, we shall act as though we believe it,
and face our tasks with fidelity and our tests with
fortitude. God knows why we are here, and has
told us, — to learn and to do, for discipline and
duty. Can we imagine a world better fitted for
those ends than this world ? How long we are to
suffer or serve is for God to say. Let us not look
too much out of the school-room windows or too
impatiently at the clock. When God's time for
us comes, well and good. Till then, this world is
the best for us, and we must make the most of it,
and do our best for it.
The Ascension.
The ascension of Christ added distance to defi-
niteness in worship. Definiteness we must have,
as every craving for a theophany, every instinct
59
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
of idolatry proves. " Lord show us the Father
and it sufficeth us" is prompted by this feehng.
The Incarnation is God's response to this human
need. But imagine Jesus hving on indefinitely
after the resurrection, even under the earthly
conditions which obtained during those forty
days !
Worship demands the far distances of God ; it
protests against the little, the near, the material.
It must love but it must look up. It cannot live
without the note of spirituality and universality,
if not mystery. The ascension, the passing of
Christ within the veil, answers this need. So
does a full-robed Christianity add to definiteness
of knowledge the outreach of imagination and
home.
A Habit Worth Forming.
There is a quality about all we do to please
our Father that redeems the lowliest task from
insignificance, puts hope in the most monotonous
duty, and dignifies the smallest annoyance. If
we think of life as our opportunity in which to
form the habit of doing everything to please Him,
nothing is trivial. The care of our bodies, the
orderly arrangement of our clothes, books, papers,
tools, keeping accounts, meeting engagements,
politeness to strangers, kindness to servants,
60
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
thoughtfulness for the aged, gentleness to chil-
dren, our manners at home, abroad, in church, in
society, — all are opportunities of showing whose
we are, and whom we serve. Whether we eat or
drink, give or receive a cup of cold water, or what-
ever we do, we can strengthen the habit of pleasing
God. This is the habit best worth cultivating,
for it will outlive life, and keep pace with eter-
nity.
A Specialist.
No more ardent specialist than Paul ever lived.
For him to live was Christ. Every thought was
brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
His tent-making was that Christ's name should
bear no reproach ; his sickness and weakness were
Christ's opportunity ; his success was a wreath
for his Lord. Whatever grace of a Greek, dis-
cipline of a Roman, conscientiousness of a He-
brew, was his, he used it to lure Greeks,
Romans, Jews to Christ. It was universal sub-
ordination for one supreme purpose : " Christ
shall be magnified in me, whether it be by life
or by death."
Such a life to-day, bearing in every part the
seal of the Lord Jesus, each one of us who seeks
to glorify the Lord in working or witnessing,
doing or bearing, can live.
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Looking Backward.
The pain, the unnaturalness, the seeming cru-
elty of early death, would be mitigated, if we
could get a larger perspective and a better sense
of proportion. If we are all going abroad, and
the steamer sails at five o'clock, some of us may
go aboard at nine in the morning, and some at
noon, some at three o'clock in the afternoon, and
some at the last moment, just as the plank is be-
ing drawn. That day, the time of embarking
may seem of much importance, but when we are
all out and the land-line has dipped below the
horizon, will it seem of great importance that
some went aboard a little earlier, or some a little
later ? Should we not comfort ourselves with the
thought that, after all, the real life is so great
that the distances and delays and waitings of this
life will be closed up in the far-away shore line,
and sorrow and sighing flee away forever when
the redeemed of the Lord get home ?
A Pattern for Us All.
Science is teaching us lessons concerning the
physical structure of the universe. The same
stuff is ablaze in Sirius and the Sun and the flam-
ing heart of the earth, and so Jesus Christ gives
us the moral unity of all the worlds. The setting
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
of the next life we can little imagine, but this we
know, that God\s ideal of life is Jesus Christ. We
are to be like him. That is the real predestina-
tion. He who in both worlds delighted to do his
Father's will, suffered with brave hope, obeyed
with changeless fidelity, served with supreme, un-
failing love, is the universal type. God tells us
that it is enough to be like him. The v/ords he
uttered " Good and faithful " are negotiable in
both worlds. Character and capacity are all of
life that we can take with us when death swings
open the door from this into the next room in
our Father's house.
Uselessness of Altruism Without Christ.
Altruism means other-ism. " Do unto others
as you would that men should do unto you.""
"I^ook not every man on his own things, but
every man also on the things of others." " Let
every man seek not his own welfare, but the wel-
fare of another." " Bear ye one another's bur-
dens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." Altruism
announces itself to-day as though it were an in-
dependent system, a new discovery. It is but a
cutting from the Christian plant. There is no
hope for any abiding life apart from its Christian
root. Altiniism without Christ is a Christian
after-glow, a spent Christian bullet. It is to say,
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
" Cut down the tree ; all we want is the shadow,""
or, " I do not need the sun ; the twilight is suffi-
cient."' Christ alone is the power of God and the
power of a goodness which can realiz? and sustain
itself in service or sacrifice for others.
The Witness of Life.
Christ's life was a more substantial and effectual
self-revelation to mankind than his teachings.
We can hardly doubt that the influence of his life
was more powerful than that of his words in lead-
ing his disciples to believe in him. ^\niat the dis-
ciples saw must have led them quite as certainly
to recognize his divinity as ^vhat they heard.
His attitude toward sin and hypocrisy, trouble
and bereavement ; his behavior with open ene-
mies and deceitful friends ; his bearing under
falsehood and insults and suffering — all constitute
a divine testimony, without which his teachings
would have lacked their divinest authority. He
chose the twelve " to be with him." "WTien they
had learned to know, not his doctrines, but him-
self, then he could send them forth. Knowing
him, they could not be moved. What emphasis
this puts upon Paul's words to Timothy and to
us : " Take heed unto thyself and unto the doc-
trine."
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Speaking a Ship.
How interesting the meeting and greetmg and
passing of those ships in the desert — PhiHp and
the Ethiopian officer ! Only a look and a voice,
then light, brotherhood and joy. Philip had
something to give, and there was something the
officer longed for. One had the joy of giving,
the other of receiving ; each Avent on his way re-
joicing, a better man.
Does the Providence of God often bring us
within hailing distance of each other ? Are you
seeking the light, conscious of a want ? Remem-
ber God's promises, if you are in earnest, " Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst," " Every one
that seeketh findeth." Or are you a Philip, an
expert in the way of Christ ? If so, should you
meet one who is groping for light and hungry
for the true bread, you can tell him straightway
of Christ. Do you know the way so well that
you can show it to some one else and send him
away rejoicing ?
"Either Pull, or Bail, or Cut Bait."
AVork is a privilege, and work is a duty. This
is true in every sphere of life and in all spheres.
No sphere is so exalted as to lift its members
above the importance and gain of earnest toil, and
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
no sphere is so low as to bring its members below
the possibility of this blessing. Paul said of
Christian brethren in his day, " If any will not
wDrk, neither let him eat." That is sound and
sensible counsel for any day. "Either pull, or
bail, or cut bait," was the imperative order in a
leaky fishing boat at a distance from the shore.
All were to work in some way. Wherever we are,
there is something for us to do for ourselves and
our fellows. Let us help to make progress, or try
to fight leaks, or, at all events, help those who are
working. " Either pull, or bail, or cut bait." If
we refuse to do one of them, we have no claim on
the limited supply of rations.
God's Love is Eternity.
It is the " where I am " that makes heaven.
The life after death might become through its
very endlessness a burden to our spirits, if it were
not to be filled with the infinite variety and fresh-
ness of God'*s love. Some have shrunk from its
very infinitude, because they have not realized
what God's love can make of it. Human love
helps us to understand this. When we have
come to love any one with all our power of affec-
tion, then there is no monotony or weariness in
the days and hours we spend with them. We be-
gin to look with jealousy on anything that may
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
interrupt our intercourse witli them, and to look
forward with joyfuhiess to the prospect of having
long and happy days with them. It is God's
presence which will make the life after death one
of endless joy. "That where I am, ye may be
also,"** He has said.
Captivity.
Did the Jews have to lose their home and go
into captivity because God decided that it would
be a good way to punish them ? AVas it a deci-
sion of God's j ust then ? Was it not rather the
working out of laws and penalties which concern
all times and all peoples ? Was it persecution, —
a personal intent to hurry them, to punish them
at that point in their history, or certain timeless
con-secutions, consequences, which in God's world
belong to the violated moral order ? Both ele-
ments were present, personal and legal, because
God is in the carrying out of his laws. God and
his laws work together and any nation will find
as did the Jews, that obedience and freedom, dis-
obedience and captivity, still travel together in
His train. If we are to be glad in this or any
world, we must make His ways our ways, and His
will our will, " whose service is perfect liberty."
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Acknowledging Mistakes.
It is hard to admit that we are wrong. How
easy to say, " The woman, the serpent, my tem-
perament, my circumstances ! " Few things more
surely reveal our self-love and pride than this
instinctive, automatic excuse-making. We thor-
oughly understand the lawyer who asked the ques-
tion, "And who is my neighbor?" wishing to
"justify himself." There is little hope for our
growth in virtue, unless we make up our minds
frankly to admit the truth about ourselves, no
matter how it hurts. No man can afford to play
ostrich. Self-deception is seldom genuine, ana
conscious duplicity ruins. " We can do nothing
against the truth, but for the truth." To ac-
knowledge our mistakes is not only wise, and
marks an advance in self-knowledge, but it means
self-mastery, spiritual victory. When we pull up
a w^eed, we leave a clean place for a flower.
Transmutation.
Can we include our mistakes and sins in the
"all things" that work together for good ? Cer-
tainly, if we belong to God, if love and loyalty
to Him are our heart's determination, if we are
purposed to press toward the mark of His high
calling in Christ Jesus. The pride and self-
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
confidence of Peter were weakness, and were
breaking him down as a disciple, but when he
yielded himself to the spirit of Christ, the}' be-
came self-knowledge, self-distrust, self-hatred, and
the occasion and demands for divine power. The
lives of St. Augustine, of John Newton, of Jerry
McAuley, prove that the God of transmutation,
who taught us to bring brilliant dyes, healing
remedies, exquisite perfumes, from waste coal-tar,
can transform the character that is put in his
hands and make a repudiated past thrillingly vital
in the sympathy and pity, fidelity and love, of a
beautiful and fruitful future.
A Message.
If a telegraph messenger comes to your door, do
you shut it in his face, or run away ? What is
the use ? You cannot change the fact of the
message he brings. You take the despatch with
a steady or unsteady hand, and read it, and do
what «eems best. So should we treat our sorrows.
They are messengers. What have they to tell
us ? There is no use in running away or in get-
ting angry. ]\Ieet them frankly, quietly, bravely.
Ask them what word they have for you. Say :
" So you have come, my sorrow. ^A'Tiat is your
errand ? WTiat message do you bring from my
Father ? What new lesson does He wish me to
69
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
learn ? " Or look over the errand boy''s slioulder,
and say to your Heavenly Father, " Speak, Lord,
for thy servant heareth."" Not to do this is to be
doubly impoverished, for we lose our happiness,
and then lose the sorrow too. Let us not frustrate
the grace of God, who would even by our woes
lead us nearer to Himself.
Disgrace of a Joyless Life.
Many men fail to realize that joy is distinctly
moral. It is a fruit of the spiritual life. We
have no more right to pray for joy, if we are not
doing the things that Jesus said would bring it,
than we would have to ask interest in a savings
bank in which we had never deposited money.
Joy does not happen. It is a flower that springs
from roots. It is the inevitable result of certain
lines followed and laws obeyed, and so a matter
of character. Therefore, we cannot say that joy
is like a fine complexion, a distinct addition to
the charm of the face, which yet would be struct-
urally perfect without this charm. Joy is a feat-
ure, and the face that does not have it is disfig-
ured. The Christian life that is joyless is a dis-
credit to God, and a disgrace to itself. " These
things have I spoken unto you,"" said Jesus, " that
my joy might remain in you, and that your joy
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
might be full.""* Study these words. Beheve them.
Attempt them. Steadily accomphsh them, and
the joy of the Lord will enter you before you
hear the word, " Come, ye blessed, enter into the
joy of your Lord."
Business vs. Religion.
Business is religion, and religion is business.
The man who does not make a business of his
religion has a religious life of no force, and the
man who does not make a religion of his business
has a business life of no character. The circle of
business activity is not tangent to the circle of
God's service, but concentric, a little circle in a
great one. The word : " AAliatsoever ye do in
word and deed, do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus," is the death of the secular. If the earth
is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, and the body
is the Lord's and the spirit thereof, no activit}'
(sin excluded) can be profane, that is — " outside
the shrine." The world is God's workshop ; the
raw materials are His ; the ideals and patterns
are His ; our hands are " the members of
Christ," our reward His recognition. Blacksmith
or banker, draughtsman or doctor, painter or
preacher, ser\ant or statesman, must work as
unto the Lord, not merely making a living, but
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
devoting a life. This makes life sacramental,
turning its water into wine. This is twice
blessed, blessing both the worker and the work.
Circumstances.
There is more cause for joy than for complaint
in the hard and disagreeable circumstances of life.
Browning said, "I count life just a stuff to try
the souFs strength on.""* Spell the word "dis-
cipline " with a final g^ — " discipling." We are
here to learn Time's lesson for Eternity's business.
AVhat does it signify if the circumstances about
us are not of our choice, if by them we can be
trained, learning the lessons of patience, fortitude,
perseverance, self-denying service, acquiescence
with God's will, and the hearty doing of it. Cir-
cumstances do not make character. The noblest
character can emerge from the worst surround-
ings, and moral failures come out of the best.
Just where you are, take the things of life as
tools, and use them for God's glory ; so you will
help the kingdom come, and the Master will use
the things of life in cutting and polishing you so
that there shall some day be seen in you a soul
conformed to his likeness.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Kinship in Kindness.
Kindness is recognizing another's kinship. It
is first kinned-ness to our own, and then kinned-
ness to everyone. When we recognize God's rela-
tion to us, we all become relatives, and iiuist be
kindred to each other, even as God in Christ is re-
vealed kinned to us. The kind man does not say
merely what he feels like saying ; that would be
adaptation to his own moods, and only self-love.
He says what he thinks another needs to hear.
Kindness relates you not to your own mood, but
to the mood of the other man. To say a pleasant
thing because you feel pleasant may be an acci-
dental kindness, for it may meet another''s need,
but, though good, it is not highly virtuous. Genu-
ine kindness oftenest comes from self-repression, —
a cheerful message from a sad soul, a brave v.ord
from a trembling heart, a generous gift from a
slender purse, a helping hand from a tired man.
It is not your mood, but the other man''s need/
that determines kindness.
The Ethics of Perfection.
Perfection is not so much reaching, as " reach-
ing forth." It is an attitude more than an attain-
mento Its hope is attainment, but its heart is
intention. Attempt to-day and accomplish ; but,
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
succeed or fail, to-day or to-moiTow, still attempt.
You may not accomplish your purpose, but you
are a more accomplished man for the attempt,
and that was God's purpose. To do your best
every day betters your best. That is the perfect-
ing God seeks.
The child's patchwork blocks may be " over and
overed" with stitches that call up a rail fence,
and show no lack of honest soil ; but, if the block
to-day is bounded by a steadier fence than yester-
day's, and knows a little "more freedom from earth
stains," then perfection is in the air : Per-ficiency
is the root of proficiency. Goodness and faithful-
ness are the hands and feet of attainment, for
perfection in God's sight is not the opposite of
defects, but of defection.
The Inevitable.
To face the inevitable is to confront something
sacred. As long as anything is uncertain, the
roads are open in more than one direction, and
right and wrong may have many aspects. But
let the issue be determined, let the die be cast,
and acceptance and adjustment become our im-
mediate duty. Until God's will is known, we
may work and wrestle and pray to carry our
point, to save the day, to win the prize, spurred
only the more by the uncertainty of the result.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
But let the result be known, however dark and
disappointing, and we should view it in the light
of God's plan to make us his evident children,
and ask what we are to learn, what next we are
to do. Chafing, fretting and complaining are
more than a waste of time and energy. End that
episode with an amen. Refer the inevitable to
God, and face the future, not only with knowl-
edge born of new experience, but with the courage
born of the fliith, that God's will is always best,
and sooner or later will seem best to us.
Normal and Abnormal.
There is no virtue in being miserable. Things
are not necessarily our duty because they are dis-
agreeable. Religion ought not to wear mourning
nor should spirituality be depressing.
If Christ came to destroy the works of the
devil, root and shoot, flower and fruit, are we to
perpetuate or sanctify any of them ? No ; we
are to protest, repudiate, eradicate. Learn any
lesson of fortitude or patience during the struggle,
but push on to wholeness.
Stunjp-pulling can develop muscle, but who
would praise or preserve the stumps in a field
as a home gymnasium ? Crops are what we want.
Joy, soundness, power, are normal. ^Ve are to
" worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness "" —
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
wholeness. Pain and sickness, shadows and sor-
rows, are meant to flee away. Let us hurry them
all we can by hastening His coming, who is our
life and light, the health of our countenance, and
our God.
Living Down Consequences.
The natural consequences of sin or the conse-
quences of an unnatural life are not obliterated
by God's forgiveness. The world in which we
live is planned as an immense demonstration of
the value of virtue and tlie folly and danger of
vice. The results of sin, the scars of fire, the
consequences of dishonesty, impurity, intemper-
ance, unkindness, survive the moment of forgive-
ness, and breed their brood, — how long, who
shall say ? But forgiveness, which is a changed
relation to God, begins a changed relation to his
law. We start afresh with Him, loved, regarded
as though nothing had happened, and a new set
of consequences begins. The new life Mhich God
gives fights the consequences of the old. Weeds
are pulled up, and stop seeding themselves.
Broken relations are repaired, old debts paid, and
wrongs righted. Moral degeneration is arrested.
The demonstration of God's law is made on the
side of obedience, through good, instead of bad,
consequences.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Alienating Power of Sin.
Sin brings separation from God. The word
" depart '"' uttered to the workers of iniquity is
not an arbitrary one. It voices a law of God
that runs through all his moral realm. Sin
pushes the prodigal away from his home and
friends, his property, his pleasures, his reputation,
his character, even his clothes and his food. The
law of the word " depart " has driven him away
from everything that was beautiful and of good
report. Behold him in his rags and loneliness —
feeding swine. Think it not strange, if that man
is driven from God and goodness who yields him-
self to sin. By a changeless law of moral repul-
sion, he is pushed away. Is it hopeless ? Yes, as
long as his back is turned toward God. But let
him " come to himself," let him feel his sin and
degradation, let him long for home, for forgive-
ness, for his Father's face, and the law of change-
less love takes hold of him. The law of divine
attraction draws him then to God and goodness.
Providence.
The word " providential "" should be associated
more in its interpretation with the world of grace
than the world of law. We are in a world of
laws, God's laws, living between the two old
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
mountains, Ebal and Gerizim. Obedience and
blessing go hand in hand. Disobedience and
trouble are indissolubly linked. We must not
interpret providences so that the consequences of
our mistakes and sins are thought of as original
choices of God, then and there ; that death, for
example, from pneumonia, is a " mysterious dis-
pensation of providence." It is not to be thought
that God is constantly interfering with the proc-
esses of law. But this is to be thought, and is
blessedly true, that this is God's world and our
school-house, our training ground ; that all things
are providential in the sense that they are in the
scope of God's immediate knowledge — from the
fall of a sparrow to the tower of Siloam ; and,
best of all, that all things can become " means of
grace " and lead us toward God-likeness.
Joy in All Things.
" Joy "" is a larger word than " happiness '" or
'* amusement "" or " diversion." It includes all of
these, but much else, — trials, tests and tasks.
Happiness is a thing of happenings. Amusement
is turning aside to muse, or cultivating the Muses
after work. Diversion is being put on another
track for a little while. But joy belongs to all
that happens, and to work as well as to amuse-
ment or diversion. It is like a good appetite and
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
a good stomach, it likes and digests everything.
Everything is kindhng for its fire, wheat for its
barns, fish for its net. It finds in work co-opera-
tion with God, however lowly or monotonous the
task. It suffers and endures for that which is to
be when the work is done, when the iron becomes
steel, and rough marble a thing of beauty. In
temptation, it finds the warrior's delight ; in vic-
tory and in defeat, if an honorable one, the com-
fort of knowing that God understands every cam-
paign ; if a dishonorable one, the sad but hopeful
joy of honest repentance and a new determina-
tion.
Over-Sensitiveness.
Hyper-Sensitiveness may come from overwork
or illness, or from plain selfishness. To be easily
annoyed is to be sick or selfish. When we are
played out or worked out, our nerves are worn to
the quick, and writhe at the touch of trifles.
Then — rest for our lives. We cannot afford not
to. But there is an irritability that is not physi-
cal. It is moral — or immoral. It comes from
being self-centred. We live, but Avill not let live.
We want our way any way. If we are inter-
rupted, we are visibly annoyed. Interference,
corrections, suggestions, light our fire-crackers,
and we explode. Other people''s pleasures and
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
pains, their children, cats and dogs and canary
birds, are impertinences. Why ? Because they
do not pertain to us. This is plain selfishness.
Let us beware. It is the spirit, the essence of
evil. Let us go to the cross of Jesus and learn
to love. We shall always be in relations in the
world. Let us make them loving relations. Let
us look out for hyper-sensitiveness. It means
peril for body and soul.
The Test of Possessions.
The young ruler went away sorrowful, " for he
had great possessions." Yes ; but he went away
sorrowful because he did not possess them — they
possessed him. Jesus did not ask all rich men to
give up their riches. The test that he put upon
this one was to open his eyes that he might see
that God was not supreme in his life. He thought
and went away, how unhappy ! He had thought
he was within a step of perfection, for he had
been keeping all the commandments. Had he
kept them because God was first in his life ?
Gold, not God, mastered him. But he may have
been a conqueror finally. He did not know Je-
sus then as he may have known him later at Cal-
vary. After Pentecost, many who had lands sold
them, and laid the price at the Apostles'* feet.
" And you must love him ere to you he will seem
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
worthy of your love."' And you must know him
and be helped by his spirit ere you can make the
supreme renunciation. When you know Jesus
better, as you can if you wish, you will be able to
do anything he asks you to do. " I can do all
things through Christ, which strengtheneth me."
It is Jesus who can make us live, having all things
and yet possessing nothing — pleasing him first
and always, with or without great possessions.
That Which Cannot be Taken Away.
"\ATien the soldiers cast lots for Jesus's garments,
why did they not do so for his goodness and wis-
dom and gentleness ? Because such things are
not detachable, nor transferable. His garment
was a thing material, made by hand. It could
be taken away and destroyed by hand. The
character of Jesus was not a thing. It was
spiritual, woven of ideas, choices, emotions, vic-
tories. It was vital, not material ; it was spirit-
ual, indestructible. Men took everything that
Jesus had, his liberty, his legal rights, his physi-
cal beauty, his reputation, his life, — but they
could not take away what he was. Even on the
cross he proved his infinite love in the thought
for his mother, in opening the kingdom of heaven
to that first believer, in praying for the men who
crucified him. Without power or friends or
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
money, or even a garment, the centurion cried
out, " Truly this man is the Son of God ! "'"' So
the real values of life are internal, not exter-
nal ; and \vhat counts with God — and sooner or
later with men — is, not what a man has, but
what he is.
God's Answer.
Let us not forget the emphasis and miss the
comfort of the words " know how "" in the verse :
" If ve then, being evil, know how to give good
gifts unto your children.'' Are the honest, ear-
nest prayers of God's children always heard ?
Always. Are they always answered ? Always.
In the way we expect ? Not always. If a hun-
gry child asks for a scorpion, will his father give
him a scorpion ? Not if he knows how to give
his children good things to eat. If he is asked
for a stone, for " that which is not bread," by a
child driven by hunger, but deceived by appear-
ances, will he mistake the child's inner need and
real meaning ?
Because our Heavenly Father knows how to
give good gifts, we may ask with perfect confi-
dence for what we want. He will give what is
best. We often know how to ask more intelli-
gently the next time because of the answer we get.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
The promise is kept, and we have learned some-
thing new about God's purposes and resources.
Fitness.
When James and John asked Jesus for the
best places in his kingdom, they were told in his
gentle, gracious way that the main point was not
wanting the best places but being worth them.
It is a question of preparation — " For whom
they are prepared " is only another way of saying
for those who are prepared.
We are so used to favoritism in public life
that we turn every way for enough influence to
get ourselves appointed. But perfect govern-
ments are officered, not by official favorites, but
by qualified men. " God is no respecter of per-
sons." He does not look twice at a man's peti-
tion and signatures. It is wholly a question of
personal fitness. Let us put the emphasis of our
life, then, in the right place. It is not wanting
something, but being worth something. God
has plenty of time in which to make discoveries,
but we have none too much time in which to
become worth discovering. We should care, not
so much about being recognized as about being
worth recognition. The real values of life are
spiritual and eternal, and the fit man will some
day succeed the favorite.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
The Abundant Life.
Christ said, " I am come that ye might have
hfe.^' Life is back of love, back of beheving,
back of hoping, back of everything. Ezekiel in
his vision of the " River of Life,"" miderstood
hfe ; he knew what it meant — at first a httle
stream to the ankles, then, as he went fm-ther on,
it came to the knees, and then to the loins, and
finally a wide, mighty river. That is life. Do
you know what life is ? No ; neither does any-
body else. Life is indefinable ; life is an ulti-
mate ; life is God ; life is effectiveness ; life is
power. Adjustment to the things around you
— correspondence to environment — that is life.
The plodding man does not live. He goes out
in the morning and hears the birds, the heralds
of the spring, sweetly singing in the trees. The
flowers are blooming in the fields, the whole
world is full of music, it is everywhere ; but the
sweet primrose growing on the bank does not for
him contain life and beauty and music — it
remains a primrose still. Life is measured by
the number of things you are alive to. The ful-
ness of our life means what we are about to do.
i must have a life that is more abundant than
my own poor nature. I must take the power of
Jesus and have inside fellowship with him.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
*' Rejoice Evermore.
Joy is an instinct as well as a duty. Nature
enjoys her struggles ; all her ways of conflict,
work, and rest betray a spirit of alacrity, of glad-
ness. " In reason's ear they all rejoice." Nature
groans and travails, but rejoices as a strong man
to run a race, struggling toward her highest and
best. Paul tells us to rejoice, and we know we
ought to, and want to, but it seems a challenge
to powerlessness. There is too much to make us
miserable. But when he tells us to rejoice in the
Lord, he gives us a new idea. Hope comes to
the rescue, — and hope is not a fancy, but a proph-
ecy, a force, with power for its own realization.
An artist may be depressed as he sees how poorly
he embodies his vision, but there is an unspeak-
able joy in the work ; he glories in his dream.
A musician with his heart full of inaudible har-
mony is beaten down with disappointment at his
failure to give voice to his conceptions, but he
knows, as he strives, the joy of the hope set
before him. So, however much there is about
me and in me to provoke despair, when I look to
Jesus and see God's thought of me, see what He
means me to be, and what I mean to be, I cannot
but rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Stewardship.
Property is a divine trust. Things are tools,
not prizes. Life is not for self-indulgence, but
for self-devotion. Wlien, instead of saying,
" The world owes me a living,'' men shall say, " I
owe the world a life," then the kingdom will
come in power. We owe everything to God but
our sins. Fatherland, pedigree, home-life, school-
ing. Christian training, — all are God's gifts.
Every member of the body or faculty of mind is
ours providentially. There is no accomplishment
in our lives thai is not rooted in opportunities
and powers we had nothing to do with in achiev-
ing. " What hast thou that thou didst not
receive ? " If God gives us the possibilities and
the powder to get wealth, to acquire influence, to
be forces in the world, what is the true concep-
tion of life but divine ownership and human
administration ? " Of Thine own we render
Thee." All there is of " me " is God's estate, and
I am his tenant and agent. On the day of our
birth a new lease is signed. On the day of
our death, accounts are closed. Our fidelity is the
interest on God's principal. " That I may re-
ceive mine own with interest," is the divine inten-
tion. So live, that when thy summons comes to
give an account of thy stewardship, it may be
done with joy, and not with grief!
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Discouragement.
Disappointing facts do not warrant discourag-
ing conclusions. It is not likely that Caleb and
Joshua were delightfully exhilarated by the sight
of the giants and the walled cities, any more than
the ten other spies were. The giants were actu-
ally no bigger, and the walls actually no higher
to the ten than to the two. The facts were the
s'ame, but Caleb and Joshua concluded differently.
AVhy ? Because they included differently. The
ten faced the situation by themselves, the two
faced it with God. The ten judged God in sight
of their difficulties, and said, " It cannot be done."
The two judged the difficulties in the sight of
God and said, " We are well able." If, in the
bright lexicon of youth, there is no such word as
fail, so, in the records of our lives as Christians
who trust in the living God, there never should
be MTitten, " And they brought back a dis-
couraging report." Let the odds be against us,
and obstacles seem insurmountable, we have but
to include the Almighty in faith, and ourselves
in fidelity, and let God draw conclusions. " He
shall not fail, nor be discouraged," is the divine
intention concerning every soul, trustful and
true.
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Worth Believing.
Words carry little weight without a life back
of them. What would have been the use of
Andrew's saying to his brother Simon, " We ha\e
found the Christ," if Andrew had not been a man
whose hfe was evidently and unmistakably bent
toward o;ood ? Peter believed in Christ because
he believed in Andrew. Was Andrew thought-
less ? Far from it. But there was a trend in his
life, an evident determination to know and be the
best, which made it likely that what he found
was worth finding, and what he said worth be-
lieving. If Andrew's temper had blazed and no
apology followed ; if he had been selfish and com-
plaining, with no evidence of shame and struggle ;
if the whole emphasis of his life had been on
things, eating, drinking, dressing, visiting, play-
ing, gossiping, what likelihood of Peter's paying
attention to his words ? But Andrew hungered
and thirsted for righteousness. He heard of John
the Baptist, and followed him. He heard of a
greater than John, and found in him the Promised
One. Andrew's life turned toward God, and so
his words had power. Does your brother believe you
when you say anything about Jesus Christ ? If he
does, it is because you are evidently his follower.
Only by the force of his life can a man say, " You
believe in me, believe therefore in Jesus Christ."
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Friendship and Right.
Many a sin is committed that friendship is
expected to justify. It is not exactly what we
would have done if we had been left to ourselves
to decide, but, under the circumstances, we could
not see what else to do. Rather than to be dis-
obliging, rather than to be thought puritanical or
"righteous over much,"" we yield, waive the obli-
gation to conscience in favor of the desire to
oblige a friend, and charge the debt of conscience
to the score of kind feeling. But it is at bottom
a question of allegiance. The Master asks an un-
divided heart, and we have no right to betray him
in the home of our friends. To hate father and
mother and friends for his sake is ethical, not
emotional. It is a question of loyalty. To
please them would we displease him ? If so, we
are not his followers, but theirs. No man can
obey two masters. Solomon's building a heathen
shrine to oblige a heathen wife was heathenism
pure and simple, idolatry, root and branch. To
neglect a duty, to compromise a principle, to pull
down colors, to do a little wrong rather than be
thought a religious prig, bigoted, or, at least,
peculiar, is a great temptation ; but then is the
time for the uncompromising, "the everlasting
No ! " to ring from us, and firm loyalty to God
to be seen without. Friendship that calls for
So
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
disloyalty to God needs destruction or recon-
struction.
Doing and Discovering.
Obedience does not stop for mystery, but, going
on, sees twilight brighten into day. How can
wheat and corn become energy to think, and love,
and work ? Who can tell, but who can doubt ?
When we obey God's laws, it is as if an angel
troubled the water, and instantly life and power
emerge. Loyalty discovers. It is not merely the
illumination, but the transfiguration of life ; a
brave departure, and then a discovery ; " West-
ward-ho,'' and then a new world.
At the point of faith in Jesus Christ, a man
becomes a new creature ; it is another birth from
above. It is inexplicable, but it is indubitable.
The memorials on the table of the Lord are the
simplest, — bread that perisheth, a cup that pass-
eth ; yet to the trusting heart, in the obedient
hand, they become the food of the soul, the energy
of divine life. The promise of the Father awaits
our claiming. We take Him at His word, and
the epoch of power dawns for a " Spirit-filled
life." We know not how it is, but we know that
it is. Let faith that trusts, and loyalty that
obeys, stop at no mystery, but ever follow on to
know the Lord, and we shall see that much which
go
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
is past finding out is not past following out ; that
a new earth of obedience will mean a new heaven
of experience.
Why Complain?
There are, after all, but two explanations of
human life, — Father and Fate, and there is only
the difference of two letters there. All philoso-
phies come in the day of trouble to this alterna-
tive. If there is no loving Father, why should
we complain ? We might as well save our breath.
Let us be sensible. There is no use beating our
soreheads against stone walls. " What are you
going to do about it ?" is a question the unbe-
liever may well ask himself. If you cannot be a
Christian, be a Stoic ; if you cannot live in Jeru-
salem, live in Sparta. To rebel is useless.
In our Father's school are many benches. This
life is school-time. AVhatever the word God
writes on the top of your page, — Patience, Cour-
age, Forgiveness, Resignation, — copy it over and
over till He gives you another word. Never mur-
mur. Do your best to solve your problems. If
they are hard, try hard. If you are in the dark,
say : " Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth."
When you feel like complaining, listen. Be still
before God. David said, " I was dumb, I opened
not my mouth ; because thou didst it.'' That is
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better than moaning and lamenting ; but let us
leap from David to Jesus, and say, " The cup
which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink
it ? " " Father, glorify thy name." So shall we
be made perfect through suffering, and the trial
of our faith be found to praise and honor and
glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ in us now,
and in the day of triumph by and by.
The Beatitude of Endurance.
'' Blessed is the man that endureth temptation,
for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of
life, which the Lord hath promised to them that
love him.*" It is a verse of climbing power. It
begins with man, it ends with God. It begins
with earth, it ends with heaven. It begins with
struggle, it ends with a crown.
Not, Blessed is the man who is never tempted.
That would mean to be out of the world. The
Lord wants us to be in the world, though not of
it. Ignorance is not strength, innocence is not
virtue.
Not, Blessed is the man who seeks temptation.
"Lead us not into temptation." Unnecessary
risk is fool -hardiness, not courage. Sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof. Enough tempt-
ing will come without our seeking it.
Not, Cursed is the man who is tempted. Temp-
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tation cannot make us sinful. Our consent alone
can. A note does not bind, until we endorse it.
It is not feeling the temptation, but yielding, that
is sinful.
Blessed is the man that endureth, stands up
under it, resists, conquers. " Blessed,'"' for it
means new wisdom, new strength, new joy, — •
" the crown of life."
Common Days.
One of the chief dangers of life is trusting oc-
casions. We think that conspicuous events, strik-
ing experiences, exalted moments have most to do
with our character and capacity. We are wrong.
Common days, monotonous hours, wearisome
paths, plain old tools, and every-day clothes tell
the real storv. Good habits are not made on
birthdays, nor Christian character at the new
year. The vision may dawn, the dream may
waken, the heart may leap with a new inspiration
on some mountain-top, but the test, the triumph,
is at the foot of the mountain, on the level plain.
The workshop of character is every-day life.
The uneventful and commonplace hour is where
the battle is won or lost. Thank God for a new
truth, a beautiful idea, a glowing experience ;
but remember that unless we bring it down to
the ground and teach it to walk with feet, work
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
with hands, and stand the strain of daily Ufe, we
have worse than lost it, we have been hurt by it.
A new light in our heart makes an occasion ; but
an occasion is an opportunity, not for building a
tabernacle and feeling thankful and looking back
to a blessed memory, but for shedding the new
light on the old path, and doing old duties with
new inspiration. The uncommon life is the child
of the common day, lived in an uncommon way.
Success.
Salvation is the only real success. Men are
called successful who succeed in a section or two.
What if three air-tight compartments keep dry,
when the bulkheads break and the ship sinks ?
What if a man wins a boat race, a horse race, a
lottery prize, and cannot speak grammatically,
and does not know one good book nor one star
nor tune nor flower from another, nor ever had a
real friend ? Is that success ?
Salvation is soundness. To have a splendid
digestion, but a feeble mind ; to have muscles
standing out like whip-cords, but lungs that are
affected ; to have perfect sight and hearing, but a
weak heart, is this success ? Is this soundness ?
Salvation is health, wholeness, holiness. It is to
be right all round. I may miss perfect success in
the world of business and in the world of health ;
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I need not in the real world — the moral, — in
the real life — the spiritual. God's holiness is
expressed in his love. Therefore love is whole-
ness, and to love is to fulfil — to fill full — God's
law, and be right all round. Learn then to love
God and your brother and all things great and
small. Life is our " chance of learning love.'"*
To make money, to win academic degi'ees, to lead
political armies, and not to love up and down,
right and left, is to have missed success. Men
suspect it now. They will know it by and by.
Blessedness of Eternal Service.
How much we have to thank our Saviour for,
in what he told us about our future life ! We
often wonder that he did not say more. But the
words, " If it were not so, I would have told
you,*" are a sufficient answer to any feeling of
insufficiency. Whenever our minds range up and
down the words, " Well done, thou good and
faithful servant — enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord,'' we may find comfort of the most substan-
tial order. In the words, " Well done, good and
faithful servant "" we discover that character and
capacity — what we are and what we can do —
are coins that ring true on both counters, are
characteristics of the eternal life, which is ours to
live in all the worlds. Let busy men and women
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
who sometimes recoil from those descriptions of
heaven in books and poems and sermons that
dwell too exclusively on psalms and harps and
music and rest and peace, rejoice that the teach-
ings of Jesus are so full of service and activity.
"My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," is
the enfranchisement and ennoblement of labor.
How often from the lips of Jesus fall the words,
" husbandman,"" " vineyard,'" " laborer,"' " mas-
ter,"" "servant,"" "ruler,"" "talents,"" "pounds,"'
" steward,"" " interest,"' " wages "" ! However
lonely and obscure and seemingly unimportant
our life-work may be, let us remember that it is
only our novitiate, our apprenticeship, and that
to be good and faithful in a few things, even in
that which is least, — is to make as good a begin-
ning as God asks of any one, and will be as cer-
tain of recognition in the day of account as
though we Avere kings or princes.
Battlement-Building.
" Prophylaxis " may be a technical term, but it
stands for practical truth. To guard against
perils is better than subsequent attempts at
remedy or consequent pains of remorse. God
told his people of old that when they built their
flat-roofed houses, on which many an hour would
be spent, they must build a battlement. If they
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
did not, and any one fell off, his blood would be
on the owner's head.
Ought we not to put guards at points of
peril in our lives, — not for others alone, but for
our own exceptional moments ? We are not
always at our best. AVe are not always safe
where ordinarily we move without peril. Every
deepened conviction, every outward commitment,
every vow and pledge and new act of consecra-
tion is putting a guard at the point of possible
personal danger. Should we not learn the les-
son, too, in our city life, that railings are better
than ambulances, and building parapets than set-
ting bones ? Looking for the springs of evil is
a better investment of time than groaning at
the muddy mouth of the river ; and preventing
the sowing of seeds of sin, than taking care of
harvests of shame. How much better to guard
lives with new hopes and opportunities, new
interests and outlooks, to fortify them in advance
against danger, than to attempt the restoration
and reformation of lives that have suffered
remediless !
And who shall dare refuse, though he be
strong and steady, to build battlements at dan-
gerous edges of his life, lest a weaker brother
may fall where he stood safe ? Can any pleasure
of " uncharted freedom," any pride of personal
self-indulgence, justify the moral catastrophe
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which our self-confidence may provoke, our
example encourage ? Better any barrier of lov-
ing self-denial than another's blood through our
loveless self-assertion. Let the brotherhood of
Jesus Christ remember the weak brother, and
interpret Christian liberty in the light of
Christian love.
A Lesson from Peter the Rock.
Thousands of pages have been written on
Christ's words to Peter: "On this rock I will
build my church." May not Peter's own writings
about the " Living Rock," the " sure foundation,"
throw some light on the meaning ? Peter says
nothing of himself as being more than any other
Christian. Quite humbly he refers to the word,
*' stone of stumbling " which Jesus used so sharply
on that memorable day, but writing to Christians
he says : " To whom coming as to a living
stone, ye also as living stones are built." Was
not Peter the first stone on the foundation, upon
whom the next living stones rested ? Was not
Peter the one who led thousands to Christ on the
day of Pentecost, the first to open the door of
faith to the Gentiles ? Let us not deny him this
primacy. But let us learn this from him : that
we, who through some Christian have learned of
Christ, must so live that another can learn Christ
98
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
through us, — that we, who have rested the
weight of our faith and hope on the testimony
and hfe of another and so have been built upon
the true foundation, must ourselves be living
stones, able to win the confidence and support of
some one else. Each living stone that is built
upon another must in its turn become the founda-
tion for another. Supported myself by another,
I must myself support another.
" Now therefore ye are no more strangers and
foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints and
of the household of God ; and are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in
whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord."
Every stone in a growing temple stands in this
double relation, — laid on the course below in
trust, and bearing up in trustworthiness the
course above it.
Steadfastness.
The business of a river is to flow. Its banks
may be beautiful or unpleasing ; its current
strong: or slua;o;ish : its skies blue or clouded ; its
waters may mirror flowers in spring and ferns in
summer ; may float the dead leaves of fall, or be
hemmed in and pressed by the ice in winter —
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
it must flow on. A noisy brook in its youth, a
noble river at last, so deep that men say, " There
go the ships," majestically entering the ocean ;
but from its birth to its bourne its business is to
flow. Here eddies may seem to be turning it back,
there the current may be checked by a resisting
arm of land, but the central stream moves stead-
ily onward as though led by the hand of destiny.
Is not this steadfastness to mark, to make, the
character of your lives ? Is it not God's will
that we should press steadily on to our goal in
obedience to Him, in channels of his choosing,
whether in sunshine or shadow, in the cheer of
spring or in the chill of winter, neither detained
by pleasure nor deterred by pain ?
The hosannas of the children rang about Jesus
and gladdened his heart, the palm branches were
strewn in his path and gave him joy, but he
would not build a tabernacle of the branches,
good as it was to be there. The agony of Geth-
semane confronted Jesus, but it could not turn
his steadfast face.
His life moved unfalteringly onward, neither
beguiled by pleasures nor daunted by perils. He
felt both, but would not let them determine any-
thing for him. They must be incidental ; to
please his Father was fundamental. " It is
enough for the disciple that he be as his Master,
and the servant as his lord."
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Remember, then, amid the joys of hfe, the
glad but steadftist face of our Master, and amid
the sorrows of hfe, the sad but steadfast face of
our Lord. How strong, how peaceful, how
deeply joyful our lives may be, if they are sacra-
mental, lived in memory of Jesus, the central
stream of their deep determination, like his —
doing the will of om* Father.
The Try-Square.
Most religions are meant to be straight lines,
connecting two points — God and man. If man
can be right with God, if he can please and pacify
Him, all will be well. But Christianity has three
points — God and man and his brother, with two
lines that make a right angle. Each one of us is
at the point of the angle, looking up to God and
out to our brother. AVhat God sends down the
perpendicular line we must pass on along the
horizontal. If one hand goes up to God, the
other must go out to our brother.
That was the way Jesus stood, the Son of God
and the Brother of men. What God gave him,
he gave us. " All things that I have heard of my
Fattier I have made known unto you." So He
expects us to do. " As my Father hath sent me,
even so send I you."
Let us, then, live as our Master lived and bids
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
US live, giving our hearts to God, our hands to
men. Even when I am alone in prayer, Jesus
bids me say, " Our Father," remembering my
brother. If God send me riches, I must bless my
brothers ; if poverty, I must set an example of
rich faith. If He sends me health, I must divide
my strength with others ; if sickness, my patience
must be a signal for God. If I am tempted, I
must look both ways, and consider my brother
as well as my God. If I only looked to God, I
might spend more money on myself, and drink
wine and ride my bicycle Sunday afternoon, for in
themselves these things may not be sinful ; but
when I look at my brothers, some poor, some
weak, some worldly, I hesitate. The law of lib-
erty would let me as I look up, but not the law
of love as I look out.
Let us put this try-square on our lives and
look both ways, doing that only which is both
filial and fraternal. Then men who see our good
works will look to see where the light comes from
that blesses and brightens them, and through us
they will learn to glorify God.
Loyalty, Not Feeling.
God accepts obedience without emotion, but
cannot accept emotion without obedience. To
advise generosity and be selfish, to praise heroism
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
and be a coward, to say, " Lord, Lord," and not
do the things the Lord says, — this is self-decep-
tion and self-destruction. Obedience God will
have, and there is no substitute for it. So essen-
tial is it to life, so important is it in all physical,
intellectual, and spiritual development, that God
is willing to wait for grace and beauty, the high
color of feeling, the glow of enthusiasm, if he gets
plain obedience. He is not afraid for the flower,
if he can get the root. Even knowledge, the ap-
preciation of what the commandments are, He is
not jealous over, if only we will do our best to
keep his commandments as far as we do under-
stand them. He knows- that light comes through
doing, not through dreaming ; that the best way
to understand his will is not to try to understand
it, but to try to do it. So it is a thousand times
better to do God's will without knowing it than
to know it without doing it. It is right to say,
" I wish I knew God's will more perfectly." It is
better to pray, " O God, help me to do thy will,
as I know it, more perfectly than ever."
" A\'hen saw we thee and fed and clothed and
comforted thee ? " cried the astonished ones on the
right of the judge. They did not realize what
they had been doing, but they had done the will
of God. Whatever they on the left may have
thought or known or hoped or planned, they did
not do the will of God. God classified them
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on this basis. " By thy fruits ye shall l)e
known."
We must put the emphasis of living where God
will make his tests of life. " Why call ye me
Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say ? ""
Interest yourself in the interesting, be entertained
by the entertaining, be absorbed in the absorb-
ing, but do not forget for one day that study,
business, pains, pleasures, are only incidental.
Loyalty to God is alone fundamental. Feelings,
words, deeds, must be beads strung on the string
of duty. Let the world tell you in a hundred
ways what your life is for. Say you ever and
only, " Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God.""
Out of that dutiful root grows the beautiful life,
the life radically and radiantly true to God, — the
only life that can be lived in both worlds.
Encouragement.
Nowhere is the tenderness of the friendship of
Jesus to be seen more beautifully and affectingly
than in the words uttered in the upper room,
which Luke records in chapter xxii., 28-32.
The disciples must have been ashamed when their
Lord discovered them still disputing who should
be first, who should be greatest. Could they
help being rebuked, when he took the place of
the missing servant and did the lowly office no
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
one of them — aspirants for greatness — would
humble his pride or risk his official chance by
doing? How easily and naturally must depres-
sion and discourageinent have come on them !
How far away from him they must have felt
themselves ! What had they amounted to, or
what were their hopes worth ?
See how Jesus treats them. Three ways he
encourages them, touching their past, their fut-
ure, and their present. " Ye are they which
ha^■e continued with me in my temptation," the
ones who have stood by me. You have been my
friends in the day of small things. I do not for-
get it, and will not. Then he looks forward.
" I appoint you a kingdom." Do not get things
in false proportion. The real kingdom is there.
This life is apprenticeship. This is drill, train-
ing, testing. Things are not rewards, but tools.
Stand by me faithfully in temptation, be faithful
in that which is least, and I will reward you with
heavenly appointments that will make you forget
any earthly disappointments. " I appoint you
a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed me a
kingdom."
Thus, having looked backward and recognized
what they had been to him, and looked forward
and told them what they had to hope for. He
looks about and tells them that, though they are
to be terribly tested, He is praying for them.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Who shall say what that encouragement did for
them ? Their faith was shaken, but not broken.
They were shattered by their enemy''s attacks,
shattered and scattered, but the day came when they
had learned the weakness of self and the strength
of their Lord. Then the day of small things
passed on to the day of things great, heroic things
done and borne for Christ. Strife for places gave
way to zeal for usefulness, and they who once for-
sook their master and fled now counted it all joy
to suffer for his name's sake, and counted not
their lives dear unto themselves if they could help
the kingdom to come. Was the encouragement
of Jesus lost upon these men ?
A Verse for the New Year.
Phil. 4 : 6. — " Be careful for nothing ; but in
everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made known to
God." " Careful *" means full of unnecessary care
— crossing rivers before we reach them, dreading
troubles that never come, expecting evil of the
Lord instead of good ; in a word — worrying.
Do not worry is a hard word, but it is a plain
command. The anxious Christian hurts more
than himself; he hurts the faith of those who
know him and the good name of his Lord who
has promised to supply all his needs.
io6
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Go deeper into the text: ''But in everytliing
by prayer and supplication let your requests be
made known unto God."" That means there is
nothing we cannot pray about. Why do we not
believe it and act upon it?
What we can take to God we can trust to
God. What we put our fidelity into, He will
perfect by his faithfulness. While we work for
the best, He works the best for us. We may
not succeed as we hoped ; we may have discipline
we little expected, but the Father knows what
his child needs.
AMiat God has for us to do we can do, or to
bear we can bear. When He says " My grace is
sufficient for thee," dare we doubt it ? Is there
not enough in his ocean to fill our pitcher ?
With the need of every day will come his prom-
ised supply.
And do not forget the words, " with thanks-
giving." Be on the lookout for mercies. The
more we look for them the more of them will we
see. Blessings brighten when we count them.
Out of the determination of the heart the eyes
see. If you want to be gloomy, there''s gloom
enough to keep you glum ; if you want to be
glad, there's gleam enough to keep you glad. Say
" Bless the Lord, O mv soul, and forget not all
his benefits." Better lose count in enumerating
your blessings than lose your blessings in telling
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
over your troubles. " Be thankful unto him, and
bless his name. For the Lord is good, his mercy
is everlasting."
Unbraid the verse into three cords and bind
yourself to God with them in trustful, prayerful,
thankful bonds, — Anxious for nothing. Prayerful
for everything, Thankful for anything — " and
the peace of God which passeth all understanding
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus."
Our Business in the World.
One of the first questions we ask when we con-
front a new and strange piece of machinery is,
" What is it for ? " It is a child's constant ques-
tion. The soundest common sense is in it, the
surest proof of a sound natural philosophy. We
believe without being told that there is a purpose
back of everything. Nothing happens. Even
accidents betray a purpose to prove the value of
the laws that have been broken. It is a fateful
moment when the habit of asking " why ? " has
brought the question to us about ourself — What
am I for ? One thing is clear on general princi-
ples— all things ideally, and therefore intention-
ally, are for the best possible uses. A knife is
not meant to be a baby's plaything, nor a watch
to prop up the leg of an uneven table. Perhaps
in some swift emergency a lower than the highest
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
use can be made of something, but not for long,
without doing violence to reason.
Tell me that my business in life is to eat, and
drink and be merry, and I admit at once that it is
true at times, but not all the time. Nothing can
so perfectly eat, drink and be merry, as a kitten,
but to say that that exhausts the possibilities of
a man, or even of a little child, is to say what we
do not believe. Hundreds of things are included
in my life. They have their place, and a claim
not to be denied, but when I am told that they
are what I am for, I know better. They are to
be subjected, to be put under me. They are
subsidiary and must subserve the supreme interest
of my life. And what is that ? To find pleas-
ure and to avoid pain ? That cannot be, unless
life is to be called a failure, for every life misses
some pleasures and meets some pain.
If success in life means all sunshine, then
failure is the lot of everybody. But there is
something higher than pleasure and pain, than
sunshine and storm, to which these are only inci-
dental, and that is doing God's w^ill. That is
supreme. That touches everything in life and
makes the best of it, and in making the best of
things makes the best of us. That is what we
are for, to glorify God — to make him glorious
in the doing of his will in every relation of life.
" Life,'' says de Tocqueville, " is not pleasure
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nor pain, but an earnest business with which we
are entrusted, which we are to carry on and to
carry out with honor." " Lo, I come to do thy
will, O my God," is an utterance of the soul that
gives life at once the highest unity and consist-
ency, power and joy, peace and fruitfulness. The
smallest task feels its dignity, the noblest calling
becomes the more ennobled. The trying and
disagreeable and wearisome things are seen in a
new light and borne with a high hope. It is like
work on a splendid building. Digging and cart-
ing, cutting and trimming, stone and mortar and
scaffolding, all belong to a great purpose and
push its fulfilment.
The will of God ! To do my share of it — -
where I live, with my tools, with my opportuni-
ties, with my enlargement or limitations — that
is what I am for. It is a life of self-surrender, as
I look up, — of constant trust in my Father's
love, of the growing intimacy of a devoted child,
of the longing to know him better and please
him more perfectly. It is a life of self-mastery,
as I look in, — of steady determination to keep
my senses under the rule of my spirit, to bring
every thought even into captivity to the obedi-
ence of Jesus Christ ; and a life of self-develop-
ment in the training of every power. It is the
enlarging and enriching of every faculty ; the
enlightening and ennobling of tastes and sympa-
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
thies. It is a life of self-devotion, of putting my
best self at the point of need, striving in all
sacred and sacrificial uses of life to bless the
world, to uplift and redeem, and fill up in my
body that which is lacking of the afflictions of
Christ.
Let a man try to live with no sky, no God in
his thoughts, no aspiration, nor adoration, nor
awe of soul ; let him throw the reins on the back
of his body, and let the senses do as they please ;
let him live for himself alone and stay unmoved
in bed with his children when his neighbor lacks
bread, or warm in his purple and luxuriating at
his feast when Lazarus lies cold and hungry at
his gate, and is there any one who will doubt,
long before the end of things, that that is not
what a man is for ?
To do the will of God — that is the chief end
and glory of man. No other aim can stand in
the test of time, to say nothing of eternity. No
other aim can bring every note in the gamut of
our being into play and make a genuine psalm of
life. No other can take every fragment of our
being, every word and deed, every thought and
longing, every task and trial, every test and sor-
row, and fit it into a mosaic whose pattern is the
one shown on the mount, whose clear image is
the predestined likeness of Jesus Christ.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
The Father of Lights.
Every bad thing and every demoralizing thing
is from below, and cometh up from the heart of
self-will, where there is all restlessness and incon-
stancy ; but " every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above, and cometh down from the
Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning."
What the sun in the heavens is to the earth,
that the Father is to us. Was there ever an act of
unenlightened worship more dignified and exalted
than his who, from his silent hilltop, watched the
flushing east, and bowed before the great day-
bringing, life-giving sun ? How fine, how true
the Apostle's comparison ! What light that
brightens a human face or lightens a page or a
pathway but springs from the sun ? The blaze
of a pine knot, the shining lamp, the glowing
of coals or their reduction and refinement in jets
of light, all are only the release of imprisoned sun-
shine. The gentle beauty of the rainbow, the
blue of si<:y and sea, the endless joy of the flowers,
the witchery of spring, the luxury of summer, the
wealth of autumn, the flashing splendor of a snowy
field, all bless the sun for their being.
Now past the figure of speech, we have reached
the glorious matter of fact : that God is the true
Father of Lights ; the Author of every good and
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
perfect gift. But pride awakens and airs itself
on the city walls, saying : " Is not this great
Babylon that I have built ? Should I thank God
for the health and wealth, the education, the
social position, the political influence, which by
my care and skill, by my judgment and perse-
verance and pluck I possess to-day ? Why should
I not put the crown on my own head when I dug
the gold and cut and fitted the jewels ? It is
mine."
Steady, brother ; listen : A voice is sounding
across the years and over the graves of a hundred
generations. " Beware that thou forget not the
Lord thy God . . . and say in thine heart,
' My power and the might of mine hand hath
gotten me this wealth.' But thou shalt remember
the Lord thy God : for it is He that giveth thee
power to get wealth."
All any of us amounts to is the interest on
entrusted capital. Who could wish otherwise ?
If we owed everything to ourselves, no one could
live with us. Dependence upon God means asso-
ciation with God, and that is life's supreme op-
portunity and noblest hope. Every gift is from
above to take our thoughts and thanks above.
God's gifts are to lift up our faces to His, to
awaken us to love Him. Every bad and imper-
fect thing drags us down to darkness ; every good
and perfect gift woos us into the light. The
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
birds and flowers are His appeal to trust ; the
stately order of the heavens, to symmetry and
steadiness ; the beauty of nature, to the beauty
of holiness ; the affections of earth, to the perfect
love of which they are but dear fragments. And
God be thanked for his supreme appeal — that
good and perfect gift, the gift unspeakable : His
life. His love. His very self in Jesus Christ.
But a heart cries out in the darkness : " God's
gifts have been anything but good and perfect to
me. He has instead robbed me of health and
hopes and loved ones. Faith is a mockery, and
providence a fooFs dream." Steady, brother.
Look at the text again : " Every good gift and
every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down
from the Father of Lights, with whom is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning." Won-
derful words ! The apostle James might have
studied astronomy to-day. The word for " vari-
ableness " is parallax, and that means a difference
due to a change in the point of view. " But that
is just what I mean," you say ; " God has changed
toward me. See how He treated me once ; see
my happy young days, my glorious buds and
blossoms, and now see my luxuriance cut away,
my exuberance gone ; my branches bleeding from
his knife." Wait and see, and trust while you
wait. God's love is immutable.
Every gift of God is a perfecting gift. The
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
plow and the harrow and the pruning-knife are as
much liis gifts as the sun and the rain. Grapes
are better than hixuriant leaves and a tangle of
twiners. Character is worth all it costs, and since
God is ceaselessly, changelessly bent upon char-
acter, the denial or trial that helps bring it is as
much a tool of his invariable purpose as the gift
that makes you laugh for joy.
The shadow on your life came not from his
turning, but from yours. Is night the turning
away of the sun ? No ; night is the shadow cast
by the turning away of our little earth from its
great bright sun. And what is winter but the
tipping away of om' Northland from the sun, till
we shiver in slant, scant rays ? The sun does not
bank his fires nor grudge his radiance in Decem-
ber. Our bent is the trouble. When we turn
again, our springtime comes with the singing of
birds and the leap of life. Turn back. With
your face toward the Father of Lights, all shadows
fall behind you.
In the light that streams from the face of
Christ — God's human face — your sorrows shall be
seen as lessons in God's school, your discipline as
discipling, your cutting back as the husbandman's
hope of more fruit and better. God has never
changed his mind of love toward you, and never
a shadow falls because He has turned his face
away. Every good gift and every perfecting gift
"5
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
is from above. Some day the gold will be thank-
ful for the crucible, the steel for the furnace of
pain, the purple clusters for the knife that cuts.
Child of God, say " Thank you " now to your
Father for all the bitter and the sweet ; now,
when it means something ; now, by a heroic faith
that trusts his perfecting love, and the day will
come when you will bless Him for every gift that
lifted you up from littleness and selfishness and
sin, to a life like his, large, loving, sympathizing,
good and true — beautiful with his beauty, and
joyful with his joy.
The Carpenter's Son.
" Is not this the carpenter ? '' As though no
words of wisdom or works of power could come
from a carpenter ! If Jesus had been a rabbi,
in a scholar's robe, it would have been another
thing. Yes; and what another thing for us, and
for all the world's workers ! Celsus sneered at
the carpenter, and said that word proved he was
an impostor. How could God so demean him-
self? But the world has left Celsus behind,
along with the critics of Nazareth, and blesses
God for the gentleness and comfort, the sym-
pathy and hope, which were given to us by the
hands of the carpenter.
It suits our best sense that the one w ho spoke
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
of " putting the hand to the plow,"'' and " taking
the yoke upon us," should have made plows and
yokes himself, and people do not think his words
less heavenly for not smelling of books and lamps.
Let us not make the mistake of those Nazarenes. t
That Jesus was a carpenter, was to them poor
credentials of divinity, but it has been divine
credentials to the poor ever since. Let us not be
deceived by social ratings and badges of the
schools. Hundreds of doors are not to be
opened by Phi Beta Kappa keys.
Carey was a cobbler, but he had a map of the
world on his shop wall, and outdid Alexander the
Great in dreaming and doing. Many a tinker
and weaver and stonecutter and hand worker has
had open windows and a sky and a mind with
wings. What thoughts were in the mind of
Jesus at his work-bench ? One of them was that
the kingdoms of this world should become the
kingdoms of God — at any cost ! Let us go into
the carpenter's shop and learn some lessons :
1. The dignity of toil. — The Architect of the
universe, by whom all things were created, when
for love's sake he became a man, made plows and
yokes. The loftiest soul did lowliest work.
Hard hands belonged to the gentlest heart. The
Son of God would not have an exceptional lot,
but a common one. He must know how most
men feel, and so he became a wage-earner and a
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
day-laborer. Now let all men know that work,
the duty of Eden, the condition of health, the
law of progress, the salt of manhood, the safe-
guard of virtue, bears forever the sign manual of
God. Now let all men feel the disgrace of idle-
ness, and hail the infinite dignity of the words
that came from the heart of the Creator, and the
lips of the Carpenter : " My Father worketh
hitherto and I work."
2. Divine sympathij in toil. — AVhat this means
to men, may mean to us, is beyond words.
" ^^^lat does the unseen Framer of the world
know or care about my daily tasks ? "" Dare you
look the Carpenter of Nazareth in the face and
say that again ? The words, " He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father,"" bring to us
immediately the assurance of the divine sympa-
thy. Of course, the Omniscient knows every-
thing, but now we know that He knows with a
new certainty and nearness. See the lack-lustre
eye of the worker who knows not the love of God
as Christ revealed it. Now see him after he has
known Christ. He is resting at noon in his shop,
reading the words Mark 6:3: "Is not this the
carpenter ? "
** Yes, yes, a carpenter, same trade as mine.
It warms my heart as I read that line,
I can stand the hard work, I can stand the poor pay,
For I'll see that Carpenter at no distant day."
IlS
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
How like the Lord are the words of the
" Logia,'' lately found in Egypt : " Lift the
stone, and thou shalt find me ; cleave the wood,
and there am I!'" Lift up your head, lift up
your heart, toiler of the common day, your Sav-
iour has drunk the cup you are drinking. He
knows how it tastes. Let the thought of his
loving sympathy stir your heart to new hope and
love and loyalty.
A friend of Cardinal Manning reports these
words of his : " I was going down that street
once," pointing to a row of houses, just finished,
" and I met a boy in plain dress, with a pale, but
lovely, thoughtful face, and I stopped him for the
pleasure of speaking to him. ' Well, my little
man, where are you going with your bundle ? "*
He said, ' There,' pointing to one of the houses
being built, ' to my father." ' What is your
father? ' I asked. ' A carpenter, sir.' " " Then,"
the cardinal added slowly, " I was awed and
startled. I had met a carpenter's son ! My
Lord was once a little servant like that boy.
Oh," he said, with swimming eyes, " what depths
of love were in Christ ! "
3. The discipline of toil. — But the end of
sympathy and comfort is one with the end of toil
itself, our character and capacity. One of this
life's capital truths is that the worker is more
than the work. The work accomplished is less
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
than the accomplished worker. The workshop
was part of the schoohng of Jesus. Those eigh-
teen years were bounden days of apprenticeship.
The Master himself had to be a disciple and learn
by heart what he should one day teach. He
knew what monotony meant, and fidelity without
applause ; the sight of the trader's wealth and
the rabbi's recognition, the patience of the plow
and the constraint of the yoke. How hard it
must have been to work and wait in obscurity all
those years after the vision that came to him,
when he went up to the temple and viewed the
world from the portals of his Father's house.
Nazareth must have been dull enough after the
brilliant city of the great King.
Is the disciple above his master ? Shall we
count it a " strange thing " if we have to know
" discipling " in weary days of unrecognized faith-
fulness among uncongenial surroundings, the task
so dull, the hope so remote, the heart so tired of
the low and little, so hungry for the lofty and
glorious ? Be patient. Life is not wages, but
worth ; not what we have, but what we are.
Present tests are for future trusts. If we cannot
be depended on in that which is least, how dare
we dream about great commissions ? If we are
faithless and worthless in the shop, can we expect
an opening heaven and the words, " This is my
beloved child"? If we flinched from the plow
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
and the yoke, what would become of us if we
faced a cross ? Let us steady ourselves, then, to
be and do our best just now and here, and leave
all thoughts of wages and promotion and honors
with God. " Be thou faithful,"' is the word for
us to-day. To-morrow is God's and its glorious
hope of " the crown of life."
Written on Shipboard, February, 1901.
There is a certain border-land in which we
must live no small part of our time. It is not
the country of compromise, but of give and take.
We are bound by deep conscientiousness to be
truthful, but that does not mean brutally truth-
ful. Truth need not be a ragged edge of rock,
but, while profoundly structural, it can be grass-
gi'own and fragrant through gentle arts of culti-
vation. We are bound to be polite and self-
sacrificing, but bound also to let others deny
themselves for us. We are bound to give, but
no less to receive. We may have a right to be
annoyed, but we need not wholly live up to it.
We may be obliged to reprove, but we can
instantly plan some scheme of kindness. Life
demands a firm hand, but there is no law against
wearing a velvet glove.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVmG
Thy will be done means more than thy will be
borne. No matter what sorrow invades our life,
we are still to do God's will. We shall see after-
v/ards that the sorrow rightly accepted fitted us
to do some new duty, or to do our old duty more
effectively. " Speak, Lord, for thy servant hear-
eth,'' is the right cry in the hour of bewildering
grief. " What wilt thou have me to learn and
do ? " It is not how we like our new lesson, but
how we learn it that is of highest importance,
not how we feel at the loss of an old tool, but
can we make more faithful and fruitful use of the
tools that are left. Life can never be the same,
we say, but it ought not to be, and what it costs
to make it better we can well afford to pay.
Instead, then, of a resignation, which passionately
or passively, defiantly or despairingly, lets go the
prized possession, let there be the heroism of re-
nunciation which says, " Now that I know God''s
will, / laf/ this doivn of myself to live a better life
— more blessed and more blessing without it,
than I could have lived with it." How certainly
will the future justify such faith, and a braver
bearing of God's will lead to a better doing of
God's will.
There is nothing possible to a human soul
gi-eater than simple faithfulness. And the word
faithful stands out as the hopeful, possible thing
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
about our lives. Faithful — faith in God, fidel-
ity to God — it means both. Faitliful to-day,
faithful to-moiTow, will mean faithful unto death
— and that will mean " a crown of life."
Jesus is not the door into a little life. He
leads us into the largest, fullest life. The Chris-
tian sees the King in his beauty in the land of
the far distances. And what is our life for, but
to make it sacred to Jesus, a life like his, laid
down for the good of men ? To live for our-
selves is to die. To make life an end in itself is
to end life ; to love youi' life is to lose it. But
lose youi* life, and you save it ; lay it down all at
once, if God should so will, or a little at a time
every day, for Jesus'^s sake and the GospePs, and
you will find it lifted up in power to draw men
to Jesus.
Many of God's angels come to us in veiled
blackness ; often his choicest messengers meet us
thus. The angels in black are coming to you
from way off over the plain — nearer and nearer
they come, up to the very door of the tent —
welcome them courteously — receive them not
unwillingly, not inhospitably, for so you receive
the God of peace. So meet his veiled angels,
that you can take the gift they bring, — a new
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
sense of God, the Father Almighty — and travel
the rest of the pilgrimage with Him whom your
soul has learned to know as its lover, and whom
you bless because He afflicted you.
This is the liberty wherewith Christ makes us
free — when He gives us the inspiration, the de-
sire, and the power to choose God's will ; to say
with Paul, " The love of Christ constrains me to
live no longer for myself, but for Him who died
for me ; though I be free from all men, yet have
I made myself servant unto all ; " to say with
Jesus, " I lay down my life of myself' This is
divine freedom, to choose of our own accord,
and by the spirit's enabling the life of loving ser-
vice.
Goodness outranks goods. A bursting barn
and a godless heart proclaim a fool without
hope. Life is more than meat, and the body
than raiment, and a soul outweighs the world.
So character must come before comforts, and God
before bread. " Seek ye first the Kingdom of
God and his righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you."
Christian possession means stewardship. Ad-
mission to God's loving favor means commission
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
to divide it with others. To be obliged to God
for his goodness, means that we are obHged to
be good to those about us. " As my Father hath
sent me, even so send I you.*" What does that
mean, but that, as Jesus revealed God to us, so
must we reveal Him to others.
No one can do anything to-morrow. If I live
until to-morrow and do anything, it will have
been done to-day ; then, if it is right, do it to-day.
To-moiTOw may not come. Fly your flag to-day
for Jesus Christ, if you have given yourself to
Him. You will be stronger to fight a good fight
and keep the faith to-moiTow, if to-morrow ever
becomes to-day.
How it would revolutionize life if we could
agree to have one day a year for murmuring and
complaining, for letting out the floods of pent-up
annoyances and grudges and slights, and be
thankful the rest of the time ! How much bet-
ter than to try to be thankful one day by law
and grumble by impulse for three hundred and
sixty-four ! Let to-day sound a thankful note to
ring through the year.
The true way to increase any Christlike trait
of character is to deliberately and tirelessly prac-
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
tice it. Like a muscle, it grows by stress and
strain. Practice patience and cheerfulness, for
example, regularly, and they will grow stronger,
whether you enjoy the exercise or not.
God has promised to satisfy — but He did not
promise when. God has time enough, and so
have you. God has boundless resources, and His
resources are yours. Can you not trust him ?
Trust and wait. He knows what is best for you.
He has reasons for denying you now, but in the
end He will satisfy.
It is not wrong for a shadowed heart to prompt
sunny words. Even a cat will curl up in the only
spot of sunshine in the room. If our life is
clouded and the clouds have a silver lining, let us
w^ear our clouds ^^Tong side out, or bright side out.
Life is what w^e are alive to. It is not leng-th.
but breadth. To be alive only to appetite,
pleasure, pride, money-making, and not to good-
ness and kindness, purity and love, history, poetry,
music, flowers, stars, God and eternal hopes, it is
to be all but dead.
Look out for the beginnings of sin. The thin
edge of the wedge always comes first, and, like
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
the cameFs nose, seems insignificant, but it is not
insignificant. Now is our time to resist. A little
later, and we have lost our chance. Resist be-
ginnings.
The deeper men go into life, the deeper is their
conviction that this life is not all. It is an " un-
finished symphony." A day may round out an
insect's life, and a bird or a beast needs no to-
morrow. Not so with him who knows that he is
related to God and has felt " the power of an
endless life."
The kindness of Christmas is the kindness of
Christ. To know that God so loved us as to give
us his Son for our dearest Brother, has brought
human affection to its highest tide on the day of
that Brother's birth. If God so loved us, how
can we help loving one another ?
There is no better way to show our trust than
to busy ourselves with the things He asks us to
do. Trusting Him to take care of his share
leaves us, " at leisure from ourselves " to do our
share of the " Father s business."
We must live as the Saviour did ; his sorrows he
divided with his Father — his life with the world.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
The business of life is to be moving God-wards,
happy or unhappy. Yet happiness is most hkely
to come to those who are so moving.
Do not let the good things of life rob you of
the best things.
Mystery is God's allurement along the path of
knowledge ; it is his challenge to a human soul.
Decide what it is your duty to do, do it, and
never regret anything that comes in its train.
"If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy
strength is small,"" — too small to be worth talking
about, for the day of adversity is its first real
opportunity.
Christianity is not an invention, but a dis-
covery. Its central message is the life and love
of God revealed, unveiled, in Christ.
If men cannot believe in the Christians whom
they have seen, why should they believe in Christ
whom they have not seen ?
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Evening meditation is less impoi*tant than
morning preparation. " Well begun is half done."
Life is coiTespondence to an infinite environ-
ment, touching God and true to God at every
point of feeling, thinking, willing, loving.
" Try it any way " is a good motto. There is
a chance that you might succeed. Even if you
do not, vou will be no worse off than before.
Faint-hearted refusal is the worst kind of failure.
No lot in life is small enough to stunt a soul.
Lowly circumstances are no bar to high thoughts.
The Christian who lives by the power of Chrisfs
indwelling Spirit, becomes a " demonstration of
the Spirit in power," a visible and indubitable
proof of v.hat God can do in a human life.
With your God-given will you may dispose
yom-self in opposition to your disposition.
If we show the Lord's death at Communion,
we must show the Lord's life in the world. If it
is a Eucharist on Sunday, it must prove on Mon-
day that it was also a Sacrament.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
May the tasks of my life be accepted as tests
of my fidelity and accomplished for Thy glory,
and the smallest duties be done well to give Thee
pleasm-e.
There are no mile posts among the stars.
Light and space quite sweep away our little
measurements. So some day will our years be
caught up in the Eternity to which we belong.
How glorious to be forever the Lord's !
To be happy is after all but an incident. To
be good and to do good, to know God and to
serve him, are the important things.
We shall be glad — really glad — of everything
that has come to us, no matter if it is sorrow or
pain, when we find that our experience fits some
one else's need — that some one else can build on
our lives.
We are here to represent Christ — to present
him again, to re-present him.
Take care that your profession does not outrun
your possession. Artificiality and hypocrisy tear
character to shreds eventually.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Salvation is going to Jesus for what he can
give us — adoption, forgiveness, strength — and
then going into the world with what he gives, to
live his life and do his work.
If you do fall, if you are overcome, He is
faithful and just to forgive, and to cleanse every
day from all unrighteousness.
The man who never makes any mistakes never
makes anything. Many chips, broken instru-
ments, cuts and bruises, belong to the history of
any beautiful statue. Persist in spite of every-
thing.
Prayer is a breath of fresh air — much else, of
course, but certainly this. It is inspiration on a
hill-top for new toiling on the plain.
When I want to speak let me think first. Is it
true ? Is it kind ? Is it necessary ? If not, let
it be left unsaid.
How can we redeem society if we do not
everywhere put ourselves on the constructive side
of moral questions ? If all people did as we do
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in politics, amusements, temperance. Sabbath-
observance, would the day be won for God or
lost ?
Look out for choices. They run into habit,
character, destiny.
Death is only the shadow on the river of this
life, where it meets the great sea of eternal life.
We have no outside, distant, occasional Sav-
iour, as the disciples had long ago ; but his
Spirit, his other self, to abide with us, in us, to-
day, to-moiTow, forever.
For what of the ape and tiger there is in man
he is not responsible, but for petting and pam-
pering it when he should be chaining and starv-
ing it.
We are like children learning to walk. We
fall again and again. Sometimes we cry out ;
sometimes we look up and try to smile ; but we
do get up again and try to go on.
Accidents are consequences. Cause and effect
are mother and child. Hands, human or divine,
are back of coincidences.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Size is not strength. Reputation is not char-
acter. Outward success is not God's gauge.
God holds you responsible for your nature plus
your nurture, for yourself plus your possibilities.
The late breakfast, the morning paper that did
not come, the rainy day, the contradiction, the
snub, the slight — these are the termites that eat
out our character, the little foxes that spoil the
grapes.
If God made no response except to perfect faith,
who could hope for help ? He is the God of
sprouting seeds, and little vital beginnings.
God's love is not rounded out until I respon4
to it.
^Vhen you can't have your own way, don't pose
as a martyr at the stake, earning a halo.
Individual transformation, rather than social
conformation, sounds the note of advance.
What have you done to-day that nobody but
a Christian would do ?
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Disappointment feeds development in earnest
souls.
Live with the light of God's love shining into
your common day. Take old gifts and joys con-
tinued as though they were fresh gifts. So we
can sing a new song unto the Lord every day.
Temperament is wax before the human will
and God. Natural traits are powerless before
moral decisions.
134
PRAYERS
PRAYERS
At Communion Service.
Let us so live to-morrow, that we and others may
be conscious where we have lingered to-day.
We come to Thee, thy sorrowing, sinning, de-
feated, careless, struggling, but ever-returning
children. May these signs signify not so much
thy love as our response to that love. We keep
this feast " till he come ; " then it, too, shall fade
back into the memories of earth because of the
marriage-supper of the Lamb. We accept thine
invitation. Lord, — unworthy enough, but not un-
worthily, because in obedience to thy command
and in love to Thee. If to-morrow om* plans are
broken, may we be patient, and, thinking of that
Broken Life, may we offer the parts of our broken
plans as a sacrament, a sacred thing, to Thee.
Holy Spirit, take of the things of Christ, and
show them to us, and show them through us, that
the world may know Thee.
On Christmas Day.
We see Jesus in the manger. We adore him ;
we worship him ; we glorify him. We stand op-
pressed before such love — a love stronger than
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
death — a love so strong that it did die that we
might Hve. We thank Thee for the sweetness of
human love, but how could we ever have dared to
think that such love was in the heart of God for
us ! We look on nature and see thy beauty and
thy majesty, but we are afraid, for we have
sinned. And then we learn that thou hast sent
thy Son, to be bone of our bone, flesh of our
flesh ; and before such inconceivable love we can
only worship and adore. We are so weary of our
failures and our slow growth toward Thee.
Cleanse us deeply from sin, strengthen our moral
pm'poses.
On Easter Day.
At Christmas time we looked on the face of
the Babe, and wondered with the shepherds and
adored with the angels ; we have followed him
through the years as he went in and out of his
mother's house ; we do not know when the con-
sciousness of his real Father came to him, but we
have seen him thrilling under it ; we have traced
him through his years of ministry ; we have sor-
rowed with him in Gethsemane ; we have stood
before his Cross, but there our sympathy failed,
when, oh wonder of wonders, we found that we
had died with him and risen again ! Death hath
no more dominion over us. We are sons and
daughters of the Resurrection.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
On Thanksgiving Day.
Thou art better to the worst of us than the
best of us deserve. Help us to realize how good
a thing it is to bear pain and weariness for Thee
— like a keen knife sharpened down to the han-
dle. Teach us to be fair, fair in the distribution
of what is, after all, not our own. May our faith
get into our hands and feet, into our tongues and
tempers, so that the world may see how warm is
our solicitude for thy good name. May the
man who is deliberately doing wrong have our
pity and rebuke and, if it may be, our sympathy
and help. May we pass in well-used tools, that
we may know how to use the new set when we
get them — our own, and as well fitted to their
use as were these we lay aside. May we be stern,
stringent, remorseless, toward our own sins and
wrong-doings. Show us where the evil in us is,
where the wild beasts of passion lurk. May we
set our faces steadfastly to go to our Jerusalem.
May we have an abundant entrance on that great
Thanksgiving Day. We thank Thee for past
mercies and present blessings and future hopes, so
bright, so winsome, so dazzling. And they are
sure to come true. By thy forgiveness we hope
to live lives needing less forgiveness — lives that
shall ring with victory. May we give ourselves to
Thee in a consecration so complete that we shall
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
be fitted for the rest of our lives here and for the
never-ending eons of our true Hfe there. Bless
every one who is doing even one self-sacrificing
piece of work for Thee. Win to Thyself from
our glad and spontaneous hearts new recognition
of thy goodness, for Thou art good.
After the Offering.
It was Thy gift to us — we give it back to
Thee. May those who receive it be blessed by it
and use it wisely. We who give it are blessed,
for it is more blessed to give than to receive.
May the men who distribute this money to those
who know the bitterness of being compelled to
receive, be men of nicest feeling and tenderest
tact. May rich and poor meet together. May
the Lord be visibly their Maker, evidently their
Father.
On Various Occasions.
Help us to live so that our lives will be worth
while. May the dominion of the Spirit harness
the senses. See our beginnings, and cairy us on
to perfection.
May every man serve his city with inconvenient
devotion, and even though he see no result, may
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
he faithfully do what he can to prepare the way
for the workers who will follow him.
We thank Thee for our daily bread. Let us
not miss the food for our souls. May our souls
be stronger than our bodies. May we feed daily
on Jesus Christ, the living bread, and by him be
strengthened to live his kind of a life.
Help us to reach out past the things we cannot
understand, to the God we trust. We thank
Thee for the passing of what changes, and the
changelessness of that which passes not.
What we ask faithfully may we receive effect-
ually. Help us to spell the words " Thou hast
given us,'' in the common deeds of our common
life. Comfort and heal those who have hurt
themselves with their tools. Make our lives
types of the divine life. Keep us from despond-
ency ; may despondency be over-powered of
faith. Though the vision tarry, may we wait for
it — He knows how to take care of the work we
have done.
May we meet ordinary duty with extraordi-
nary beauty — ordinary trial with extraordinary
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
fortitude — may ordinary tests be in our hands
as clay which we break with superhuman power.
We thank Thee for Thy great gift ; may we go
on some unusual errand for Thee. May what we
receive to-day influence what we do to-morrow,
and make some one yearn for Thy gift. Teach
us the infinite significance of the opportunities
of life, and infinite insignificance of the setting
of life.
Spirit of Jesus, help me to enter by this door,
by this new and living way, into the life of a
child of God. Let me accept the eternal life as
my Father's gift to me through Jesus Christ.
Let me know its power and pleasures more and
more abundantly. Help me to-day and every day
to think of my life as belonging to Jesus, and to
use it as he would have me, — for his glory and
the good of those about me. Hear me for his
sake, to whom I belong, whose service is perfect
freedom. Amen.
May we not suffocate our souls in the world's
atmosphere, but go up to the mountain-top,
where the air is fresher and purer.
May all our work have a finer finish, and may
we put into it a nobler and more exalted purpose,
because it is done for Thee.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Thou hast encouraged every confidence by tell-
ing us to call Thee "Father/"
Increase our intimacy so that we may tell Thee
what we could tell to no other — yes, even what
we could not express to our selves.
We have seen in Jesus, and in some Christians
whom we know, the life we want to live. And
yet we do not want to — we are hypocrites. O
Spirit of Jesus, of power, of cleanliness, Thou
madest fickle Peter a steadfast martyr. Thou
canst do as much for us. Give us power to lay
aside convenience for loving service — power to
keep on with work, however monotonous. May
the reserves of our unsun-endered lives be given
up. Let us go into the next life, having learned
how to be faithful.
We know Thou art infinite, yet Thou dost
come close to us ; Thou art eternal and unchange-
able, yet Thou dost transform us into thine own
image. We know Thee as a God of wisdom and
power, but a God of tenderness, too. Thy jus-
tice we have seen, but Thou art very gentle to
us, and dost show us thy goodness and truth.
Thou hast given us thy Spirit, but in our own
human bodies ; therefore that Spirit must find
expression through these bodies. We must be
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
feet and hands and channels of activity for the
Life that hves within us. Forgive us for what-
ever we have done that has hurt Thee. We
ask thy pardon in the name of Thy Son, our
Brother.
Our hearts afflict us when we think of what we
are, but our hearts leap for joy when we think
of what Thou art. Make us wary before the
approach of insinuating temptations. From this
feast we hope to receive exhilaration of heart
and exultation of spirit. Wherever we go, help
us to remember that we are all in the Father's
house, in different rooms of the mansion, it may
be, but all in the Father's house, — and help us to
be faithful to its noblest traditions, and its sim-
plest duties. We thank Thee for the body of
Christ upon earth. May it be more full of Thy
Spirit. May the spur of Thy love push our feet
into some new path of service for Thee, before we
give out and break down, and pass away.
Fill us with Thy love that forgives, and sum-
mons, and empowers, and send us out into the
world under this Thy summoning and challeng-
ing call. Help us to meet the next temptation
in the expectation of victory ; — to expect to be
able to bring to the next trouble fortitude and
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
patience. This can be done. By the God-given
power of will that is within us, may we create a
new future out of the inspiration of this hour.
Thou canst give Thy love to all of us, and all
Thy love to each of us. Help us not to feel left
out and forgotten when we think of Thee. Help
each one to say, " Thou canst easily remember
me and know me by name, for in my particular
place thou hast no one else to look after but me.''
May we say to Thee, " Take all I have — it may
be much or little, according to the world's esti-
mate, but it is all there is of me^ and it is
Thine."
Shall we dwell on our soitows when we remem-
ber that Thou didst not spare Thine own Son,
but deliveredst him up for us all ? How can we
but believe that Thou wilt do what is best for
us ? Thou wilt not withhold the best even if it
hurt us to receive it. If we have borne adversity
well, Thou wilt let us have the clear sunlight, if
that be best for us ; but Thou wilt not refuse to
us the shadow, if we have been long in the sun,
and now need shadow. If we are of high degi'ee,
we will rejoice in that we are exalted ; if we are
low, we will try to rejoice that we are cast down.
We thank Thee that we have seen the light. If
we see only the daybreak and no more, we are
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
glad — it is so beautiful ! But if it go on to the
perfect day, how can we speak of its glory ? And
the fullest life here is only the daybreak, the be-
ginning of that perfect day Thou wilt yet reveal
to us. Thou dost not expect perfection from us;
Thou dost not look for the workman's finished
powers, but only for a faithful apprenticeship —
and that we have tried to give Thee.
Help me, O my God, to see the proof of thy
love and the pattern of thy life in Jesus Christ.
Help me to yield myself to the spirit of Jesus,
that he may shed abroad thy love, and form thy
life in me. Help me to make the things of life
the tools of my spirit, and not its prizes ; and to
regard circumstances as only the scaffolding on
which I stand while I build. May the tasks of
my life be accepted as tests of my fidelity and
accomplished for thy glory. Let me not regard
temptations as solicitations to evil, or opportuni-
ties for self-indulgence, but as occasions for moral
victory. Let troubles teach me sympathy and
discipline make me a more intelligent disciple.
Let human love make me more aware of the
divine love. Let showers and sunbeams, summer
and winter, day and night, send my grateful
heart to Thee. May every opportunity for ser-
vice or sacrifice be associated with Jesus, and be
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
accomplished by the aid of his Spirit, and may
death be no more than the bell that sounds when
school is over, and going home, may I find that I
had laid up my treasure in the right place. In
the name of my Redeemer and friend. Amen.
147
PASSAGES FROM LETTERS
PASSAGES FROM LETTERS
On the Death of a Child.
It will be hard for you not to ask why this
must be.
God knows why, and that may be as good to
us as though we knew a thousand reasons. I
pray God to hold you quiet and patient and
uncomplaining, and help you bear the weight of
this seemingly unintelligible sorrow. I hope you
will remember that this is the only world in which
a Christian can suffer, and suffer patiently and
meekly. We cannot suffer by and by. God
helps us to glorify Him now, when we can.
On the Death of a Husband.
I wish I knew how to help you just now.
Live all you can for others — looking out, not in.
" O blest are they who learn to make the joys of
others cure their own heart-ache" — if not cure^
at least quiet for a little. Some day you will see,
now bravely trust, lovingly live — and "quietly
wait for the salvation of our Lord." May the
One who promises, "As thy day, so shall thy
strength be," — keep that promise to your faith
151
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
and fortitude, and make your life, whatever its
inward pain, an outward blessing.
On the Death of a Husband.
During these days of strain and suspense I
have wished I could be a little help to you. I
can tell you this at least, and pray that you may
have, from God and your friends and your own
heart, strength enough to get through a day at a
time. I do not see what else you can do but just
live, now. You cannot understand, or explain,
but you know as well as I, that back of every-
thing is God, and God is light, — we shall see.
And God is love — we shall be satisfied. It may
be a long while, but it will be worth waiting for.
Trust Him all you can — you will be glad you
did. I wish I could help you.
To One in Great Anxiety.
I have just heard of the new burden of sym-
pathy and suffering the Father has laid on your
heart.
More and more it comes to me, that as in the
Father's home above there are many rooms, so in
his school below there are many benches. No
two of us are taught just alike. Just why you
should be led as you have been and are being led
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
— ^just why you should have .such hard lessons to
learn, and so much tension on your heart strings,
no one knows but God : but He knoics — and
that is worth everything to a child. " My
Father knows, and I can wait for His explana-
tion." " Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good
in thy sight."
In the meantime, say over to yourself again
and again, " seventy times seven " times a day, if
need be, the blessed words of the sure promise,
"My Grace is sufficient for thee." It has been —
It is — It will be.
Written at Bethel, April, 1901, on Hearing of
the Death of a Friend's Mother.
I heard yesterday that God had called your
mother home to heaven. It will seem more than
ever like Home to you now. Remember to think
of your mother always as living, just away in
another room of our Father's house. Jesus does
not want us to say, " dead," for, as He said, " all
live unto him," though they may seem dead to us.
We had the Lord's Supper together Thursday
evening in an "upper room " in Jerusalem, and
walked to Gethsemane. Good Friday we had
prayers on Calvary by moonlight. Thank God
for his love and our living hopes. God bless
you all.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
On Hearing of the Wounding of a Friend at
the Battle of El Caney.
Your letter has stirred me deeply, for the
strain under which you have all been and still are
is a peculiarly hard and harrowing one. But
that word harrow is not " harry ; " it does not
mean the tormenting of the field, but its prepara-
tion for larger, or better, or different yield. The
will of God is best always, and hurts so much less
when we go with it. What God means, we can-
not always see, but if we wait trustingly, He will
show us, and we shall be satisfied.
To One in Great Distress.
Push happiness out of your life as an intention
or expectation, and settle down as simply and
earnestly as you can to usefulness ; then God will
send you what further happiness He sees best.
You are building character fast nowadays, laying
deep foundations of patience, courage, and brav-
ery; building much under gloomy skies, where no
sun and stars appear for many days. But re-
member God knows all about you, and will some
day satisfy you. God bless you by making you a
blessing.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
To a Young Woman in Special Temptation and
Need.
It seems a long time since I saw you. How
are you getting on, and where are you ? I wish
some time you would come to see me.
Has it been just as hard, up-hill fighting as it
was before ? A\Tiether or no, we come sooner or
later to find out that life is a good deal of a
battle — with temptation inside and out, with
cowardice and pride and weakness and everything
bad. But that is why -we are here — to learn to
fight a good Jight and keep the faith. God is so
good and patient with us, that He helps us to
fight on and fight better, no matter how many
times we have been whipped. You know the
Chinese government cuts off the head of a general
if he is defeated — and so they never have any
good generals. Men learn from failure^ and if we
never make mistakes, -we never make anijthing.
" Neither do I condemn thee," says Jesus, our
Saviour. " Go and do better, I will help you. I
will never leave you nor forsake you."
This life is only a little beginning anyway. We
are just learning to walk and talk and work. We
must keep on trying. We must get up when we
tumble do^vn, and take oui* bumps to our Heavenly
Father, from whom all mothers get their love.
Just as mothers kiss black and blue spots, and,
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
dry tears, and hug us, and send us away to be
more careful, so God does. Tell Him everything.
Don't ever give up, or lose heart or hope. " Be
thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a
crown of Ufe.''^ Please think of me as a real
friend.
To the Same.
You did just right to send me word about
yourself again. I want you to think of me as
your fi-iend, and treat me as a friend — that means,
let me know once in a while how things go with
you. Do not bother yourself too much with
longings for happiness and friendship and the
" may he's." Take stout hold of the joy and
glory of being a little useful to some one — some
way. Usefulness is splendid. If you can help
anybody even a little, be glad. Up the steps of
usefulness and kindness, God will lead you to
friendship and happiness. If you wish and
dream, and regret and wonder, you will degen-
erate and be discouraged ; if you can add any
joy, strength, comfort, rest, pleasure, to lives about
you, your own life will be refreshed, will be more
interesting, and better worth the living. Turn
your back on the past, for God forgives every-
thing, and turn your face to a useful future in
which God recognizes anything done in kindness,
even the giving of a drink of water. Look bright
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
to everyone, speak gently and cheerfully, hum
little tunes to youi'self (and to the Lord) when
you are working. Plan surprises for people.
Jesus " went about doing good.''^ So can you in
your way, with his spirit. If you fill well the
place where you are now, be sure he will give you
another place, growing larger as you grow larger.
Whenever you feel blue, remember God loves you,
and think up some kindness — if no more than
sending a flower to some one or writing a note to
Henry Street, or Mulberry Street, or to me.
To the Same.
I hope you will not hesitate, when these books
are read, to come to me again, for books standing
idle are talents in a napkin. I am glad you are
fighting so brave a fight. Never lower youi'
ideals a particle, but every day do your very best,
and you will build up a useful life, which is the
best any one can do at this stage of our exist-
ence. And to your usefulness, God will now add
as much happiness as is good for you.
To a Friend on the Christian's Hope.
I know no reason why we should limit our
Christian hopes ; for the God who satisfieth the
desire of every living thing — an Old Testament
1S7
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
promise — cannot, having revealed his love in
Jesus Christ, withhold from us any good thing.
To a Friend on the Communion of Saints.
I agree with you that the communion with the
invisible saints must be more of a dream than a real-
ity. But we have a right to dream dreams, if
they are not contradicted by the evident laws of
God's word, or God's world.
To One Who Was Greatly Discouraged.
Pay as little attention to discouragements as
possible. Plough ahead as a steamer does, rough
or smooth — rain or shine. To carry your cargo
and make your port is the point.
To a Harvard Freshman.
I send you a small package in the interest of
financial accuracy. I hope you will plug up that
cavity in your person. Your aunts seem anxious
that you should develop into a punctilious book-
keeper. Keep this in your side-pocket as a daily
scratch-book for memoranda of engagements as
well as expenses. At night, or every day or two,
enter them up. The habit of impersonating
Captain Cuttle and "making a note on't" will
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
save you many a broken engagement, if not a
broken head ; and, even if you are " dead broke "
in the end, you will know where you stand.
Written to a Friend Over Seventy Years of
Age, Who Was in His Last Illness.
I have thought of you more than once lately,
and wondered how things were going. It is a
comfort to look back through the years and think
what good friends we have been, and then to
make a jump into the future and know that there
the real summer season of friendship comes. The
best things we have known on earth can be but
small beginnings, little eyes and buds on the tree
of life that look on to the real unfolding of all
that life and love can mean. I have no doubt
that life is rather a wearisome thing for you now-
adays, but comfort yourself by knowing that you
are a man of great pluck and patience and will
fight the fight bravely, and keep the faith loyally.
With changeless affection —
To the Same Friend a Month Later.
I hope that the fight is not too hard, and that
the good Father gives to you, his son, daily
strength for daily needs. It is no joke for a
man so accustomed to good, honest, out-door
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
dirt, and birds and beasts and everything fi-esh
and breezy to be shut up in the house hke a bird
in a cage. But it is part of the schooHng, and
until the bell rings, we must he good children.
To the Same Friend Two Months Later, in
May.
I know just how the old place looks, with
everything in full bloom, and wish I could hear
the orioles and the ^^Tens and even the chattering
of the black- birds. It is a comfort to think that
the spring-time comes because of the Living God,
and that, past our summer sunshine and autumn's
ripening and winter's decay and bareness and out-
ward death, there lies the immortal hope of the
souPs spring-time. " Because I live ye shall live
also."
I hope you are fairly comfortable, though I
hardly dare to, for it is no joke letting go of our
tools as they wear out. But you are God's
workman, and some fine day He will give you
a new kit and set you at tasks in which and of
v^hich you w^ill never weary. I love to think of
our unchanged friendship and that, though we
may not be cronies on the back piazza, or in the
garden much more, if any more in this world, we
shall be in paradise, which, after all, is God's
garden, with no serpent.
1 60
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
On the Death of a Child.
My heart goes out to you — twice over — for
the sorrow that has come to you, and for the
thought that I could perhaps be a help to you.
That shows that you see already one reason why
sorrow comes — you turn to me, because I have
tasted the same cup. Some day someone will
come to you, and you will " comfort with the com-
fort wherewith you yourself have been comforted.'^
Perfect sympathy cannot spring from the imag-
ination. Only they who have suffered can really
sympathize. I am sure you are saying, like the
little child in the dark, " Speak, Lord, for Thy
servant heareth."" The worst of all losses is a
lost soiTow, for then all is lost. Your little
child is safe, and I believe your sorrow is safe,
too, for you are your Father's child, and you want
to please Him. I would not ask " why " if I
were you. " How " is a better word — how can
I glorify Thee, how well can I show those who
know me how the Father can help His child. God's
will is not to be boiiie, but ever to be done.
Now you are to do His will under new, hard, dis-
tressing and depressing circumstances. If we
were pagans, we might hide ourselves and our
despair, but we are Christians who say " Our
Father " and hear our Saviour's words, " Because
I live ye shall live also." Heirs then of eternal
i6i
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
life and love — our own, ours forever, sleeping
or waking — here or there — with uplifted faces,
brave hearts and faithful hands, we must do our
work, help lift others' burdens, scatter kindnesses,
following him who said, knowing it would lead to
the Cross, " Follow me." I did not mean to
wi'ite all this. I only meant to tell you how
sorry I am for you. Enter the door of a brave
and patient trust. " Blessed are they zcho have
not seen., and yet have believed."*"* This is the
only world in which you can suffer, so do it per-
fectly, trustingly, unselfishly^ seeking through
your grief to be better fitted to serve in Chrisfs
name and way those who need. Always think of
me as your friend, and take any advantage of my
friendship. What are we for, but to love and
help one another ?
On the Death of a Father.
Not a day has passed, since God called your
father from the home here to the home there,
that I have not thought of you and prayed for
you. I thought I would wait a little while
before writing — it takes quite a while to get
one\s breath and be able to think straight.
I have no comfort to give you. God has given
you all possible comfort. All I can do is to try
to help you to take it. I know you do. God
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
has been at great pains to tell you — to prove to
you — that He loves you. " He that spared not
His own son," but gave him freely for you, has
done that which, if fully understood, if fully
appreciated, would make a doubt of His goodness,
of His kindness impossible. Pillow your head,
rest your heart in the thought — true now — true
for ever and for ever — God loves you. " I am
poor and needy, but the Lord thinketh upon me.*"
Some day you will see what this thought of you
that has found expression in this sorrow means,
and that it was another proof of God's love.
Glorify God, and get His peace by believing it,
though you cannot see it. " Blessed are they
that have not seen, and yet have believed." Trust
God now in the dark, when it means something.
It will be so easy to see it all, and to be thankful,
when the perfect day dawns.
Perhaps the richest of God's earthly gifts is an
accepted sorrow. Do not lose this one. Accept
it. Say " Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth,"'
and He will tell you some things worth all it cost
to hear them. I cannot say what — but you will
know. You will be more heavenly minded —
more patient — more kind and gentle — more con-
secrated to the good you can do. I am sure of
this much ; for these are some of " the peace-
able fruits of righteousness" that come after-
wards, in those whom God loves and chastens.
163
POEMS
POEMS
"Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread."
Back of the loaf is the snowy flour,
And back of the flour the mill ;
And back of the mill is the wheat, and the
shower,
And the sun, and the Father's will.
O That I May Grow.
O that I may grow !
I see the leaves out-pushing hour by hour.
With steady joy the buds bui'st out aflower
Urged gladly on by Nature's waking power.
O that I may grow.
O that I may grow !
A\Tiat though Time cuts his fun'ows in my face,
My heart may ever add grace unto grace,
Graces with added days still keeping pace.
O that I may grow.
In the Furrow.
The dark brown mould's upturned
By the sharp-pointed plow.
And Fve a lesson learned.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
My life is but a field
Stretched out beneath God's sky,
Some harvest rich to yield.
Where grows the golden grain,
Where faith, — where sympathy ?
In a furrow cut by pain.
Be Strong.
Be strong !
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift.
We have hard work to do, and loads to lift.
Shun not the struggle ; face it. 'Tis God's gift
Be strong !
Say not the days are evil, — Who's to blame ?
And fold the hands and acquiesce — O shame !
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God's name.
Be strong !
It matters not how deep intrenched the wrong.
How hard the battle goes, the day, how long.
Faint not, fight on ! To-morrow comes the song.
The All in All.
What light of earth but springeth from the sun ?
What human love but from the Father's heart ?
Then let my thanks be given to God, the One
Above, and you below, to each a part.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
You are not robbed, and doubly rich am I ;
For love of God, through you, I love you
more.
Nor is God robbed by thanks to you, and why ?
For your dear sake I newly Him adore.
Love and Loyalty.
Thou hast not asked me. Lord,
To first of all love Thee,
But simply to believe the word
That tells Thy love to me.
Thou dost not bid me feel
An ardent love for Thee,
And fear affection is not real
That does not burn in me.
But Thou hast said, " My friend
Is he who keeps My word."
This I can do even to the end i
I can be faithful, Lord.
Then will the loyal heart
Find its reward above ;
For when I see Thee as Thou art
I cannot help but love.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
In Many Parts,
God of the Dew,
In gentlest ministry.
As silently
Would I some soul refresh anew,
God of the Sun,
Far flaming heat and light,
Be my delight
On radiant errands swift to run.
God of the Star,
To its stern orbit true,
My soul imbue
With dread, lest I Thine order mar.
God of the Sea,
Majestic, vast, profound,
Enlarge my bound, —
Broader and deeper let me be.
Not to Be Ministered To.
O Lord, I pray
That for this day
I may not swerve
By foot or hand
From Thy command.
Not to be served, but to serve.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
This, too, I pray,
That for this day
No love of ease
Nor pride prevent
My good intent,
Not to be pleased, but to please.
And if I may,
I'd have this day
Strength from above
To set my heart
In heavenly art.
Not to be loved, but to love.
Rest.
Rest in the Lord, my soul ;
Commit to Him thy way.
WTiat to thy sight seems dark as night,
To Him is bright as day.
Rest in the Lord, my soul ;
He planned for thee thy life,
Brings fruit from rain, brings good from pain,
And peace and joy from strife.
Rest in the Lord, my soul ;
This fretting weakens thee.
Why not be still ? Accept His will ;
Thou shalt His glory see.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
I Am Thine.
A fragrance of a flower
That fills unseen the air.
As at the twilight hour
There stealeth unaware
The sound of music sweet
And gently in accord ;
So when my lips repeat
Thy name, O Christ, my Lord,
There warms a sudden glow
Within this heart of mine —
A joy, as well, I know.
That tells me I am Thine.
Sonnet.
The sun had hardly risen on my sight
And given me fairest promise for the day,
Ere clouds began to drive my hopes away,
And bring back to the air the chill of night.
" Ah, me," I cried, " my day that dawned so
bright,
Why must it thus be clouded in an hour ;
AVhy, ere the bud had time to burst aflower,
Must it be checked, and never see the light ? "
And then an answer came. It was the sight
Of One who, tho' He suffered, doubted not ;
Who, tho"* a Man of Sorrows, ne'er forgot
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
His Father^s will, but made it his delight,
And perfected thro"* suffering, looked at me.
Saying, " My child, wouldst thou not perfect be ?'
Companionship.
No distant Lord have I,
Loving afar to be ;
Made flesh for me. He cannot rest
Until He rests in me.
Brother in joy and pain,
Bone of my bone was He,
Now, — intimacy closer still, ■
He dwells Himself in me.
I need not journey far
This dearest friend to see,
Companionship is always mine, '
He makes His home with me.
I envy not the twelve.
Nearer to me is He ;
The life He once lived here on earth
He lives again in me.
Ascended now to God,
My witness there to be,
His witness here am I, because
His spirit dwells in me.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
0 Glorious Son of God,
Incarnate Deity,
1 shall forever be with Thee
Because Thou art with me.
Worship.
When the great sun sinks to his rest.
His golden glories thrilling me,
And voiceless longings stir my breast,
Then teach me, Lord, to worship Thee.
And when the stars — the daylight fled—
In serried, shining ranks, I see.
Filling the splendid vault overhead.
Then teach me. Lord, to worship Thee.
If roaming by the ocean's shore,
The murmuring waves sing low to me,
Or thundering billows hoarsely roar,
Then teach me, Lord, to worship Thee.
Or if in solemn forest shades,
The calm of nature steals o'er me,
And silence all my soul pervades,
Then teach me. Lord, to worship Thee.
Not in the sacred shrines alone.
Which chime their summons unto me,
Would I look to Thy heavenly throne,
But everywhere would worship Thee.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Sailing Westward.
(Written on the Gei'manic, September, 1898.)
How stoutly and grimly our iron prow
Pushes its way to the West,
Like the sharp, steel point of a shining plow
That cleaves the green field''s breast.
How glorious the sun in the sky to-day ;
TVTiy rush with such haste along,
And lose the bright hours as we speed away,
And the gleam of the waves, and their song ?
But the heart of the ship still throbs away,
It never dreams of rest ;
How joyous, how winsome soe''er the day,
On, steadily on, to the West !
Now thunders the gale in its awful might,
'Tis madness to face such a sea.
Why brave such risks in a hopeless fight ?
About ship ! And off for the lea !
But the good ship will not flinch from her foe.
She has set herself for the fray.
Her orders are Westward, come weal, come woe.
And she cannot but obey.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Then onward through sunshine, and storm and
night,
No tarrying here, my soul ;
Thou must, if thou read thy chart aright,
Push steadily on to thy goal.
Let pleasures delight thee, but not detain,
Let courage in storms rise higher.
And thy Pilot will bring thee thro"* joy and pain
To the haven of thy desire.
The Moon.
I watched a boy who looked with wondering eyes
At the young JMoon clear in the Western skies,
Shining with slender crescent, silver bright.
Upon the spellbound child's enraptm*ed sight.
" What is it that you see, my child ? " said I.
" The j\Ioon so beautiful,"' was his reply.
"But tell me what the Moon is. Do you
know ? ''
" It's beautiful ! " he said, — his face aglow.
I turned away and thought, " Do I know more ?
What is the Moon ? A dead world, cold to the
core.
What else ? A planet, circling 'round the earth.
What else ? Why nothing else of any worth
176
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
" Except that it is beautiful f Ah, me.
What wish I more, so long as I can see
With kindling eye its beauty, and can feel
Its endless charm through all my being steal ?
" Oh, God, I pray Thee for the childlike heart
That can enjoy — all vexing thoughts apart —
The beauties Thou in Heaven and Earth dost
show.
Nor fret myself with things I do not know."
The Love of God.
God's boundless Love and arching sky
Above us when we wake or sleep,
Above us when we smile or weep,
Above us when we live or die.
God's tireless Love ! Beside the cot
Of her sick child the mother sleeps.
The Heavenly Father ever keeps
Unweary watch— He slumbers not.
God's patient Love ! Misunderstood
By hearts that suffer in the night.
Doubted — yet waiting till Heaven's light
Shall show how all things work for good.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
God's mighty Love ! On Calvary's height,
Suffering to save us from our sin,
To bring the Heavenly Kingdom in,
And fiU our lives with joy and light.
God's changeless Love ! The wandering one
Forsakes, forgets, dishonors ; yet.
Repenting, going home, is met
With no reproach — " Welcome, my son ! "
God's endless Love ! What will it be
When earthly shadows flee away,
For all Eternity's bright day
The unfolding of that Love to see !
The First Day of Spring.
My heart in tumult, thro* the woods I fare,
The chill of Winter lingering in the air,
The dead leaves rustling on the trees o'erhead,
And dead leaves crackling underneath my tread.
The harsh, discordant rooks incessant call,
The wood dove moans, and sighing thro' it all.
The wind that seems to make more sad each
sound
Soothes not, but aggravates my grief profound.
O memory, what pangs thou bringest me,
As I recall the joys that used to be,
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
My summertime when brightest dreams came
true,
When hopes fulfilled taught me to hope anew.
But now — the flowers have faded, birds have
fled,
My tears have spent themselves, and hope is
dead.
O cruel Winter, naught survives thy blight.
Naught but my graves, my grieving and the
night.
What fragrance of the softening earth is this ?
'Tis Nature, waking 'neath the sun's warm kiss,
And here's a blade of gi-ass, fresh-sprung and
green.
And there's a budding twig — the first I've seen.
My heart, look up ! The blessed Spring is
near —
The Spring, the Resm-rection of the year.
Is near ? Is here — for there's a bluebird's note
Purling and gurgling fi-om his tawny throat.
Thank God for the return of this sweet Spring,
For the new life that throbs in everything.
It tells me that the Winter meant not death,
'Twas Nature resting — Nature taking breath.
My soiTow chilled me like the snow and frost,
I doubted God, but now my doubts are lost.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
After the storm and chill and waiting long,
Shall come the time of birds and flowers and
song.
My Father's World.
This is my Father's world.
On the day of its wondrous birth
The stars of light in phalanx bright
Sang out in Heavenly mirth.
This is my Father's world.
E'en yet to my listening ears
All nature sings, and around me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world.
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas.
His hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father's world.
The birds that their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white.
Declare their Maker's praise.
This is my Father's world.
He shines in all that's fair.
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass.
He speaks to me everywhere.
i8o
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
This is my Father's world.
From His eternal throne,
He watch doth keep when I'm asleep.
And I am not alone.
This is my Father's world.
Dreaming, I see His face.
I ope my eyes, and in glad surprise
Cry, " The Lord is in this place."
This is my Father's world.
I walk a desert lone.
In a bush ablaze to my wondering gaze
God makes His glory known.
This is my Father's world.
Among the mountains drear,
'Mid rending rocks and earthquake shocks,
The still, small voice I hear.
This is my Father's world.
From the shining courts above,
The Beloved One, His only Son,
Came — a pledge of deathless love.
This is my Father's world.
Now closer to Heaven bound.
For dear to God is the earth Christ trod.
No place but is holy ground.
i8i
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
This is my Father's world.
His love has filled my breast,
I am reconciled, I am His child, ^
My soul has found His rest.
This is my Father's world.
A wanderer I may roam,
Whatever my lot, it matters not,
My heart is still at home.
This is my Father's world.
O let me ne'er forget
That tho' the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father's world.
The battle is not done.
Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heaven be one.
This is my Father's world.
Should my heart be ever sad ?
The Lord is King — let the Heavens ring
God reigns — let the earth be glad.
Surprise.
O little bulb, uncouth,
Ragged and rusty bro^^^^,
Have you some dew of youth ?
Have you a crimson gown ?
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Plant me and see
What I shall be,—
God's fine surprise
Before your eyes !
O fuzzy ugliness,
Poor, helpless, crawling worm,
Can any loveliness
Be in that sluggish form ?
Hide me and see
What I shall be,—
God's bright surprise
Before your eyes !
A body wearing out,
A crumbling house of clay !
O agony of doubt
And darkness and dismay !
Trust God and see
What I shall be,—
His best surprise
Before your eyes !
Thine.
Whose eye foresaw this way ?
Not mine.
Whose hand marked out this day ?
Not mine.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
A clearer eye than mine,
Twas Thine.
A wiser hand than mine,
'Twas Thine !
Then let my hand be still
In Thine,
And let me find my will
In Thine !
A Song.
A gloomy day in early March — a day
Of chilling gusts and whirls of snow, a day
That makes the longed-for Spring seem far away.
But sweetest melody, O sudden cheer !
The first song-sparrow's note rings on my ear,
And Winter's clean forgot, and Spring is here !
Clear Skies.
A fallen leaf on a flowing stream, and on the
water a moment's gleam
Of sunshine, — and the chilling gray overspreads
more coldly the Autumn day.
And once this had brought a pang to me, a sense
of pain in my heart to see
The leafless trees and the stubble sear, and the
darkening face of the dying year.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
It is not so now. My heart is glad, tho' every
sight and sound is sad,
For I have come to realize that joy depends not
on the skies.
The path of my duty holds along thro' Winter's
storm, and Springtime's song.
And cloudy the day or stormy the night, the sky
of my heart is always bright.
Memories,
Past the city's whirl and heat.
In a garden walking,
Walking 'mid the flowers sweet,
With the flowers talking.
Felt I Natui-e's gentle hand
In the breeze caressing.
Felt me in a happy land.
Felt me full of blessing.
Yet a pang was in my joy —
In my joy a sadness.
Something of the careless boy
Missed I from my gladness.
Till the fragrance of a rose
Blew from out the years,
How can Heaven so swift disclose
T'hro' a rush of tears !
185
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
A Winter Day.
'Tis Fairyland this winter day,
The sunlight flashes back a ray
Of glory from each ice-clad spray.
It had been sleeting all the night,
But now with flash of morning light
The earth is sparkling silver bright.
The sun shines warm. It cannot last ;
The transient gleam will soon be past,
But not the spell upon me cast.
The vision dawns on me again
Of brightness sprung from frost and rain,
Of beauty born of grief and pain —
A beauty brief, — but true the while,
O, troubled one, you shall beguile
Some midnight gloom, if you will smile.
Autumn Hopes.
Blaze out in red, and glow, ye dying leaves,
And flaunt your flag before his eyes who grieves.
Stir the slow pulse of him who dreads the Fall,
And warm the heart that fears a snowy pall.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
No bitter wind, no cloud enshrouding wraith,
Nor frost, nor storms, can daunt your cheerful
foith.
Your flaming signals spring from hidden roots
That through the AVinter nurse their Springtide
shoots.
The Trees in Winter.
'Mid the Summer's countless beauties
Lurketh many a hidden one.
As we cannot see the stars shine
For the splendor of the sun.
So, the exuberance of foliage
Blinds us to the wondrous charms
Of the trees, till Winter strips them —
Gives the sight of their bare arms.
Now behold the Master's drawing
Clear against the cold, gray sky ;
Not a trace of warmth or color.
But fine feasting for the eye.
For we see the vertebration,
All the lines of radiation,
All the graceful interlacing
Of the frost-like, fairy tracing.
187
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Have thy Summer leaves been smitten,
Beaten off in storm and strife ?
Stand up bravely ! Show in Winter,
Strength, grace, symmetry of life.
To the Dogwood.
How fi-esh, and pure, and beautiful thou art.
Thou blossoming Dogwood. When the air of
Spring
Seems palpitating with the Summer'^s warmth,
Too early come, thou stretchest forth thine arms
To cool the air with flowers white as snow —
Arms bending low, as though with weight of
snow.
Now Autumn's here, but still thou cheerest me
With thy red glory, warming all the air
Achill with fi-ost, — as though the Summer's glow
And splendors of the sunset thou hadst drunk,
To blush and flush along thy leafy veins,
And fire my heart to brave the Winter's storm.
i88
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
School Days.
Lord, let me make this rule.
To think of life as school.
And try my best
To stand each test,
And do my work,
And nothing shirk.
Should someone else outshine
This dullard head of mine.
Should I be sad ?
I will be glad.
To do my best
Is Thy behest.
If weary with my book
I cast a wistful look
Where posies grow,
0 let me know
That flowers within
Are best to win.
Dost take my book away
Anon to let me play.
And let me out
To run about ?
1 grateful bless
Thee for recess.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Then recess past, alack,
I turn me slowly back,
On my hard bench,
My hands to clench.
And set my heart
To learn my part.
These lessons Thou dost give
To teach me how to live,
To do, to bear,
To get and share.
To work and play,
And trust alway.
What though I may not ask
To choose my daily task ?
Thou hast decreed
To meet my need.
What pleases Thee,
That shall please me.
Some day the bell will sound,
Some day my heart will bound.
As with a shout
That school is out
And lessons done,
I homeward run.
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THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
Emancipation.
Why be afraid of Death as though your hfe were
breath !
Death but anoints youi* eyes with clay. O glad
sui'prise !
Why should you be forlorn ? Death only husks
the corn.
Why should you fear to meet the thresher of the
wheat ?
Is sleep a thing to dread ? Yet sleeping, you are
dead
Till you awake and rise, here, or beyond the
skies.
WTiy should it be a wi-ench to leave your wooden
bench,
Why not with happy shout run home when school
is out ?
The dear ones left behind ! O foolish one and
blind.
A day — and you will meet, — a night — and you
will greet !
This is the death of Death, to breathe away a
breath
And know the end of strife, and taste the death-
less life.
191
THOUGHTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIVING
And joy without a fear, and smile without a
tear,
And work, nor care, nor rest, and find the last the
best.
192
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