January 31

“No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when to-morrow’s burden is added to the burden of t-day that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never load yourselves so. If you find yourself so loaded, at least remember this: it is your doing, not God’s. He begs you to leave the future to him, and mind the present.”

GEORGE MACDONALD

“An element of weakness in much of our resolving is that we try to grasp too much of life at one time. We think of it as a whole, instead of taking the days one by one. Life is a mosaic, and each tiny piece must be cut and set with skill.”

“Because perseverance is so difficult, even when supported by the grace of God, thence is the value of new beginnings. For new beginnings are the life of perseverance.”

E. B. PUSEY

January 30

“You have a disagreeable duty to do at twelve o’clock. Do not blacken nine and ten and all between with the colour of twelve. Do the work of each and reap your reward in peace. So when the dreaded moment in the future becomes the present, you shall meet it walking in the light, and that light shall overcome its darkness.”

GEORGE MACDONALD

“In all our difficulties, perplexities, trials, it will help us to remember that we have to take but one step at a time. Let us ask God to help us to take that one step bravely and unfalteringly. Tomorrow’s strength is very largely the heritage of today’s patient striving.

“Live for today! To-morrow’s light
To-morrow’s cares shall bring to sight.
Go! Sleep like closing flowers at night,
And Heaven thy morn will bless.”

KEBLE

January 29

“Every day ought to be begun as a serious work, standing alone in itself, and yet connected with the past and the future, and more especially with the eternal future in the Kingdom of God.”

Baron BUNSEN

“Summe up at night what thou hast done by day;
And in the morning what thou hast to do.
Dresse and undresse thy soul,; mark the decay
And growth of it; if with thy watch that too
Be down, then winde up both, since we shall be
Most surely judg’d – make thy accounts agree.”

G. HERBERT

“In the morning fix thy good purpose; and at night examine thyself what thou hast done, how thou hast behaved thyself in word, deed, and thought; for in these perhaps thou hast oftentimes offended both God and thy neighbour.”

THOMAS à KEMPIS

January 28

“He (Kingsley) was what he was, not by virtue of his office, but by virtue of what God had made him in himself. He was, we might almost say, a layman in the guise or disguise of a clergyman – fishing with the fishermen, hunting with the huntsmen, able to hold his own in tent and camp, with courtier or with soldier; an example that a genial companion may be a Christian gentleman, that a Christian clergyman need not be a member of a separate caste, and a stranger to the common interests of his countrymen. Yet, human genial layman as he was, he still was not the less – nay, he was ten times more – a pastor than he would have been had he shut himself out from the haunts and walks of men. He was sent by Providence, as it were, ‘far off to the Gentiles’ – far off, not to other lands or other races of mankind, but far off from the usual sphere of minister or priest, to find fresh worlds of thoughts and wild tracts of character, in which he found a response to himself, because he gave a response to them.”

A. P. STANLEY, Funeral Sermon on Charles Kingsley

“I am made all things to all men. . . . And this I do for the Gospel’s sake.”

I COR. ix 22-23

January 27

“I am often struck by seeing how the loftiness of the life of Jesus altogether escaped the perplexity of many of the questions with which our lives are troubled, as the eagle flying through the sky is not worried how to cross the rivers. We debate whether self-culture or our brethren’s service is the true purpose of our life. We vacillate aimlessly. Now we shut ourselves up and meditate, and try to grow. Now we rush forth and make the wide world ring with what we call our work. The two so often have no connection with each other. We are so apt to live two lives. But Jesus knows but one. All culture of His soul is part of our salvation. All doing of His work is ripening His nature. . . . Not until the apostle of self-culture knows that no man can come to his best by selfishness, and the apostle of usefulness knows that no man can do much for other men who is not much himself; not until then shall men have fairly started on the broad road to the completeness of God their Father in the footsteps of the Son of Man.”

PHILLIPS BROOKS

“We must be more; and to be more we must more often think of our Ideal.”

A. S. BARNET

January 26

“What we have to learn therefore is proportion; the finding for everything its relative place and fitness in the kingdom of God. How much of your life should be taken up with religious duties, or other duties, is a matter of counsel; but a general harmony should exist between the natural side of your life and the spiritual, leaving neither side undeveloped. This will come from a true view of the Holy Spirit’s work in creation, and of the work which He has to do in us; taking of the glory of Christ, which He has poured out in creation, and shewing it unto us; revealing to us something of the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. We have to be so much on our guard in these days against that divorce between the religious and the secular life, which is one of the greatest dangers of the church. See to the true centre of your life; its unity first, and then its proportion.”

Bishop WEBB

“Who keeps one end in view makes all things serve.”

BROWNING

January 25

“As regard the two lives, I do not think you would be the better for withdrawing from all society; another set of temptations would arise, and perhaps what are quite as dangerous though more subtle. But what we all have to do in our vocation, whatever it is, is to be quite sure we stand on God’s side, - and doing this will always cause us to use God’s gifts without abusing them and as for His Glory. How rightly to mix in this world’s life, even in a moderate degree, needs much inward self-discipline and self-restraint, much watchfulness to be true to god, and a fixed rule as to what one will or will not do, all this needs a very true conscientious dealing with oneself . . . I am far from thinking it is possible to serve God and the world, but living in the world is not serving the world.”

H. MONSELL

“It has been too much the fashion to divide the service of God from the work on the world, to call on men to leave all to follow Christ, as if Christ meant, when he called Peter and Matthew away for a special missionary work, that no one should remain to do the needful works of life and that no one who did not leave these works could follow Him. By this mistaking of a special call of special men to a particular work, for a universal law for all men, the fatal division was made of sacred and profane work. The true lesson of His teaching was that all work was given to man by God, and was to be done divinely with love and faith and joy.”

STOPFORD BROOKE

January 24

“We are always tempted to break up life into little fractions; and separate routine and effort; and contrast secular and spiritual; to assign thispart to the duties of the world, and that to the service of God. But such a division is faithless and vain. As the body is one so also is the life . . .

“The same spirit which leads us to isolate parts of our life as alone religious, leads us also to construct one type of religious work, so that all action which does not fall within this narrow boundary is left out of account.”

Bishop WESTCOTT

“Surely the truth must be, that whatsoever in our daily life is lawful and right for us to be engaged in, is in itself a part of our obedience to God; a part, that is, of our very religion. Whensoever we hear people complaining of obstructions and hindrances put by the duties of life in the way of devoting themselves to God, we may be sure they are under some false view or other.
“They do not look upon their daily work as the task God has set them, and as obedience due to him. We may go farther; and say, not only that the duties of life, be they never so toilsome and distracting, are no obstructions to a life of any degree of inward holiness; but that they are even direct means, when rightly used, to promote our sanctification.”

H. E. MANNING

January 23

“He was diligently watchful over the use of time, but more careful to do each thing well rather than to perform large quantities of work . . . Whatever he did and whatever business he undertook, always received his whole attention, as though he had nothing else to think of, or that it were the last act he had to perform in this world . . . Amidst the incessant duties and claims of so busy a life, the secret of his great power and of his unruffled calmness and sweetness, was that he never allowed himself to be hurried . . . There was no lack of energy and eagerness of life and verve, such as we are prone to make the excuse for hurry and bustle. ‘He took up the matters of business which came before him, one by one,’ says one of his biographers, ‘as though there had been nothing before it, and nothing more were to be done after it; accepting all contradictions with perfect serenity.”

From Life of St. Francis de Sales

“We ought never voluntarily so to extend our sphere of labour, that our activity becomes an unharmonious disorderly struggle, in which we constantly lose that power of calm reflection and clear mastery over our life, on which so much of our own best happiness and usefulness to others depends. In the golden rule of moderation lies undoubtedly the essential condition of all stable human happiness.”

A. SIEVERING

January 22

“We shall never know what it is to live in peace, until we know what it is to love thoroughly in the present . . . We need all our energies for the fulfilment of present duties.”

GOULBURN

“There is no distinction between haste and hurry – hurry adding to rapidity the element of confusion.”

A. K. H. B.

“Unhasting, unresting diligence was the strong impression which a day’s visit at Rugby [a famous English public school] left on one of the keenest observers among English authors – and he was one of a class who, however engaged, whether in business, in writing or in travelling, was emphatically never in a hurry.”

From Life of Dr. Arnold

January 21

“If men from their youth were weaned from that sauntering humour, wherein some, out of custom, let a good part of their life run uselessly away, without either business or recreation, they would find time enough to acquire dexterity and skill in hundreds of things, which, though remote from their proper callings, would not at all interfere with them. And therefore, I think, for this as well as for other reasons, a lazy, listless humour which idly dreams away the days, is of all others the least to be indulged or permitted in young people; it is the proper state of one sick or out of order in his health, and is tolerable in nobody else of what age or condition whatsoever.”

LOCKE

“It is generally the idle who complain that they cannot find time to do that which they fancy they wish. In truth, people can generally find time for what they choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is wanting; and the advantage of leisure is mainly that we have the power of choosing our own work; not certainly that it confers any privilege of idleness.”

Sir JOHN LUBBOCK

January 20

“What is meant by redeeming time? It is to fill the hours full of the richest freight, to fill them with the life of thought, feeling, action, as they pass by. One moment of self-conquest, one good action really done, yes, one effort to do right, really made, has the seal of time put on it.”

J. F. CLARK

“It is astonishing that anyone can squander away in absolute idleness one single moment of that small portion of time which is allotted to us in the world . . . Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it.”

“Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute,
What you can do, or think you can, begin it.”

LORD CHESTERFIELD

“Time indeed is a sacred gift, and each day is a little life.”

Sir JOHN LUBBOCK

January 19

“Redeeming the time.”

COL. iv. 5

RESOLVED: - “Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can.”
RESOLVED: - “To live with all my might while I do live.”

JON. EDWARDS

“The future does not come from before to meet us, but comes streaming up from behind over our heads.”

RAHEL LEVIN

“If we know the love of God, we cannot look back upon even a wasted hour without sorrow, even here.”

Bishop WILKINSON

January 18

“It always seems as if the Spirit of the River were speaking to me, and telling me how in its rapid continuous course, it is setting and example to man how he can most wisely and happily regulate his life. The water is so wise, when it comes to little banks and uneven places in its bed, it gently flows over them without making any bother about it, and this, says the river, is is just the way in which men should treat the little unpleasantnesses and smaller misfortunes of life instead of allowing such things to distract and worry them, and perhaps alter the whole course of their lives. Then when huge boulders of rock stand out into the stream, the river glides quietly round them, accepting them as necessary evils which must be endured since they cannot be cured, which is the way in which men should treat the greater difficulties and the hardships of their lives, instead of fuming and fretting, or sitting down in despair. ‘These are the things that rivers never do,’ says the Spirit, ‘and, moreover, as they constantly move forward they explore with their water every hole and corner within their reach, neglecting nothing, and giving a kindly wash to everything that comes in their way, and holding a pleasant conversation with all objects with which they come in contact.’ So a wise man, and one who desires to make his life useful and pleasant to himself and to others, will always seek for information as he goes along through the world, will have a cheery word for his fellow-travellers, and be ready to do a kind and friendly action to any that requires it. And if he does so, just as the river grows broader and wider as it reaches the ocean in which it finally loses itself, and merges its waters in the greater infinite space of the sea, so the man’s life will become grander and more noble as it approaches its close, and he will have gained the affection and respect of all whose affection and respect are worth gaining, before the straem of his life, too, floats out on the ocean of eternity.”

KNATCHBULL HUGESSEN

January 17

“Prosperity, enjoyment, happiness, comfort, peace, whatever be the name by which we designate that state in which life is to our own selves pleasant and delightful, as long as they are sought or prized as things essential, so far they have a tendency to disennoble our nature, and are a sign that we are still in servitude to selfishness. Only when they lie outside us, as ornaments merely to be worn or laid aside as God pleases – only then may such things be possessed with impunity.”

FROUDE

“Oh! Righteous doom, that they who make
Pleasure their only end,
Ordering their whole life for its sake,
Miss that whereto they tend.

“While they who bid stern duty lead,
Content to follow, they,
Of duty only taking heed,
Find pleasure by the way.”

Archbishop TRENCH

January 16

“Endless controversies have stormed, and are still storming, around that name which He so significantly and emphatically appropriated – ‘The Son of Man’. But from amid all the controversy that veils it, one fact, clear, sharp, and unchallenged, stands out as the very life and seal of His human greatness – ‘He pleased not Himself.’ By every act He did, and every word He spoke, and every pain He bore, He put away from Him happiness and the aim and end of man. He reduced it to its true position, of a possible accessory and issue of man’s highest fulfilment of life - an issue, the contemplation of which might be of some avail as the being first awoke to its nobler capabilities, but which, the more the life went on towards realisation, passed the more away from conscious regard.”

J. C. BROWN, from Ethics of George Eliot

“God has ordained that happiness, like every other good thing, should cost us something: He has willed that it should be a moral achievement, and no an accident.”

DE GASPARIN

January 15

“It should be kept clearly before the mind that human life is not intended for joy, or for softly moving with the current of events, but for manly effort, for the exercising of faculty; that is to say, for the application of will-power, under the guidance of conscience. And no one has ever striven to do thoroughly the commonest duty of life, but he has added to the moral forces of the world. And in the words of Professor Mason: ‘No heroic deed ever perishes, no human soul was ever moved to the transcendent test of death for the poorest shred of supposed truth, but there passed a thrill of new power into the whole will and thought of the world’. For it is personal virtues that enkindle virtues in others, heroic example that most surely rouses heroic emulation in the souls of men . . . True heroism is spiritual energy, force of conscience, strength of affection.”

WILLIAM MITCHELL

“Man is fit to have some higher raison d’etre [reason for being] than simply to be happy, even with the most refined sense of happiness. There must be something for him to do, something for him to suffer, something for him to sacrifice himself for, if he is to attain to his fullest development, as well as something for him to have and enjoy. Mere happiness is in itself an insufficient aim. Devotion to some cause gives us a motive beyond this, and raises us to a means, which (in a world where there is so much to be done) is far nobler than to be an end.”

JAMES RAM

January 14

“He would consider over what he knew, what he could do, and would determine to make all his studies, all his self-training, bear upon the peculiar situation in which God had put him; not fanatically reprobating, but still considering as of less importance, whatsoever did not bear upon that situation. In all things, in short, he would do the duty that lay nearest him, believing that God had put it nearest him.”

From The Life of C. Kingsley

It is a fine notion of life to liken it to the loom. God puts on the warp in those circumstances in which we find ourselves, and which we cannot change. The weft is wrought by the shuttle of every-day life. It is made of very homely threads sometimes, common duties, unpromising and unwelcome tasks. But whoever tries to do each day’s work in the spirit of patient loyalty to God, is weaving the texture whose other side is fairer than the one he sees.”

January 13

If on our daily course our mind
Be set to hallow all we find,
New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.

We need not bid for cloistered cell,
Our neighbour and our work farewell;
Nor strive to wind ourselves too high
For sinful man beneath the sky.

The trivial round, the common task,
Would furnish all we need to ask; -
Room to deny ourselves; a road
To bring us daily nearer God.

Seek we no more; content with these
Let present rapture, comfort, ease,
As heaven shall bid them, come and go;
The secret this of rest below.

Only O Lord, in Thy dear love
Fit us for perfect rest above;
And help us, this and every day,
To live more nearly as we pray.”

KEBLE

January 12

“When we wish things to be otherwise than they are, we lose sight of the great practical parts of the life of godliness. We wish and wish, when, if we have done all that lies in us, we should fall quietly into the hands of God. Such wishing cuts the very sinews of our privileges and consolations. You are leaving me for a time; you say that you wish you could leave me better or leave me with some assistance: but if it is right for you to go, it is right for me to meet what lies on me, without a wish that I had less to meet, or were better able to meet it.”

R. CECIL

It is not by seeking more fertile regions where toil is lighter – happier circumstances, free from difficult complications and troublesome people – but by bringing the high courage of a devout soul, clear in principle and aim, to bear upon what is given to us, that we brighten our inward light, lead something of a true life, and introduce the Kingdom of Heaven into the midst of our earthly day. If we cannot work out the Will of God where God has placed us, then why has He placed us there?”

J. H. THOM

January 11

“How can you live sweetly amid the vexatious things, the irritating things, the multitude of little worries and frets, which lie all along your way, and which you cannot evade? You cannot at present change your surroundings. Whatever kind of life you are to live must be lived amid precisely the experiences in which you are now moving. Here you must win your victories or suffer your defeats. No restlessness or discontent can change your lot. Others may have other circumstances surrounding them, but here are yours. You had better make up your mind to accept what you cannot alter. You can live a beautiful life in the midst of your present circumstances.”

J. R. MILLER

“Thou cam’st not to thy place by accident,
It is the very place God made for thee,
And should’st thou there small scope for action see,
Do not for this give room to discontent
Nor let the time thou owest to God be spent
In idly dreaming how thou mightest be,
In what concerns thy spiritual life, more free
From outward hindrance or impediment,
For presently, this hindrance thou shalt find
That, without which all goodness were a task
So slight that virtue never could grow strong;
And would’st thou do one duty to His mind –
The Imposer’s – over-burdened thou shalt ask
And own thy need of grace or help ere long.”

January 10

“Our present circumstances are to be looked upon as advantages which the Great Disposer has afforded us, and not, as we are apt to think, impediments which He has thrown in our way. They are the materials with which we are to begin to build, and not a heap of rubbish that must be cleared out of the way before we lay the first stone in the edifice of our lives.”

HERRON

“Never fancy you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned to you. The very things that you most deprecate, as fatal limitations or obstructions, are probably what you most want. What you call hindrances, obstacles, discouragements, are probably God’s opportunities.”

“Despise not thou small things,
The soul that longs for wings
To soar to some great height of sacrifice too oft
Forgets the daily round,
Where little cares abound,
And shakes off little duties while she looks aloft.”

January 9

“There is so much to be set right in the world, there are so many to be led and helped and comforted, that we must continually come in contact with such in our daily life. Let us only take care that we do not miss our turn of service, and pass by those to whom we might have been sent on an errand straight from God.”

“The common problem, yours, mine, every one’s,
Is not to fancy what were fair in life
Provided it could be – but finding first
What may be, then find how to make it fair
Up to our means – a very different thing.”

R. BROWNING

“Instead of saying that man is the creature of circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstance. It is character which builds an existence out of circumstance. From the same material one man builds palaces, another hovels, one warehouses, another villas. Bricks and mortar are mortar and bricks until the architect can make them something else.”

January 8

“What is the will of God? Every morning and evening we pray, ‘Thy Will be done;’ and it would seem to be little to pray for that the meaning of which we have no conception . . . The will of God is righteous dealing, and love, and forbearance, and hope, - forward-looking, - and joy. You know what these words mean. They are not shadows. You know that, in proportion as you follow after these things, the sky is brighter above you, and in your dwellings is fulness of joy. You know that the common day-light is transfigured, that the daily task is hallowed, that the familiar faces of those with whom you live shine with a lustre of beauty and of peace; and why? Because you have entered into the will of God. Try it; try it only for a week.
“For, as you try it, you will realise this fact above all others, that not only is every single act of self-sacrifice, of love, of kindliness, blessed in itself, in its immediate result, - not only on others, but on yourself – but that every single act, however trivial and small, is not isolated and alone, but is part of a higher life, of a more perfect existence, of a loftier intellect, and a diviner love. Every single act of sacrifice is part of the great sacrifice that

‘Hallowed earth and fills the skies.’

Every act of love and kindliness is only possible because it is part of the divine love; nothing can exist save as the result of the existence of its perfect ideal, and the ideal of perfect existence is God . . .
“The will of God is an emerging power in every heart that submits to the guidance of its gentle influences.”

SHORTHOUSE

January 7

“It takes us all a long time and a sharp discipline to learn that he who would keep his life must first lose it, and that to empty oneself is the sure way to be filled. The heart of man is so constituted that its fulness comes of spending. In the great things of life Christianity teaches us this sublime lesson, but it is equally applicable to the lesser things of life, even to its veriest trifles. When we serve we rule. When we give we have. When we surrender ourselves we are victors. We are most ourselves when we lose sight of ourselves. He is most certain to have his own way and to find pleasure in it, who deliberately chooses to resign his preference in favour of others . . . We know not what we are or might be. As the seed has a tree within it, so men have within them – angels.”

J. H. NEWMAN

“It is the abnegation of self which has wrought out all that is noble, all that is good, all that is useful, nearly all that is ornamental in the world.”

WHYTE-MELVILLE

January 6

January 6

“This is not the mere being good, it is the definite surrender of oneself and one’s life at any cost. I feel God has been calling you to the highest point of union with His Divine Life, and you must aim to be very true in following. And that following is not in the outer sections of your life, though they are the bulwarks and stays of it, but it is in the inner surrender of the soul, the willingness that self should suffer, be buffeted, cut down, cease to exist; - no longer ‘I like,’ but that God wills it. – that life has no will but to respond unhesitatingly to the Divine Will. One by one everything must be offered to God. The dying self offeres it to God a thousand times, and then shrinks back and takes to itself that which it has offered.
“But God loves us too well, and is too true with us, not to oblige us to be true with him.”

H. MONSELL

“Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination to me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood.
“Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.”

ISAIAH i. 13 – 17

January 5

January 5

“Take the principle, take the idea. Give up the world and self, and all that is of them, that you may serve God and man with all you have and are: let that principle work in your life, till self is wholly lost.”

STOPFORD BROOKE


“. . . . . . . . . . True glory
Lies in the silent conquest of ourselves.”

THOMPSON

“But all through life I see a Cross
Where sons of God yield up their breath;
There is no gain except by loss,
There is no life except by death.”

WALTER C. SMITH

January 4

"At any moment we may turn from the poor reality to the great ideal of our own lives, which is in Christ, with one earnest question, 'Lord, what would'st Thou have me to be?' We may pierce through the clouds and reach the summit, and there, seeing His vision of our possibilities . . . set to work to fulfil God's image of our lives, to be all that He has shown us that it is possible for us to be."

PHILLIPS BROOKS

"Some high or humble enterprise of good
Contemplate, till it shall possess thy mind,
Become thy study, rest and food,
And kindle in thy breast a flame refined;
Pray Heaven for firmness thy whole soul to bind
To this thy purpose, to begin, pursue,
With thoughts all fixed, and feelings purely kind,
Strength to complete and with delight review,
And grace to give the praise where all the praise is due."

MRS. SIGOURNEY

January 3

"It is by believing in, loving and following illimitable ideals that man grows great. Their very impossibility is their highest virtue. They live before us as the image of that unto which we are to grow for ever."
STOPFORD BROOKE

"Nay, falter not - 'tis an assured good
To seek the noblest - 'tis your only good
Now you have seen it; for that higher vision
Poisons all meaner choice for evermore."

GEORGE ELIOT (Pen-name of Mary Ann Evans)

"He preached, very solemnly, on the divided allegiance: wealth, position, clothes, on one side, and on the other, the eternal kingdom and glory of Christ. Which weighed most with those before him in their estimate of their neighbours - the dress, the equipage, the very baubles round their necks, or holiness, and truth, and meekness?"

E. B. BAYLY

January 2

"A sacred burden is the life ye bear,
Look on it, lift it, bear it solemnly;
Stand up and walk beneath it steadfastly;
Fail not for sorrow, falter not for sin,
But onward, upward, till the goal ye win."
KEMBLE

"For what we see in that life is not only a purpose and a work passing man's understanding; but that purpose followed and that work done in a way which man can understand. It is life governed by its end and purpose, in which shows or illusions have no place; founded on unshrinking unexaggerated truth, facing everything as it is without disguise or mistake; and further, a life in which its purpose is followed, with absolute indifference to whatever sacrifice it may cost.'
DEAN CHURCH

January 1

"It is only a poor sort of happiness that could ever come by caring very much about our own narrow pleasures. We can only have the highest happiness, such as goes along with being great, by having wide thoughts, and much feeling for the rest of the world as well as ourselves; and this sort of happiness often brings so much pain with it, that we can only tell it from pain by its being what we would choose before anything else, because our souls see it is good. There are so many things wrong and difficult in the world, that no man can be great - he can hardly keep himself from wickedness - unless he gives up thinking much about pleasure or rewards, and gets strength to endure what is hard and painful . . . . And so, if you mean to act nobly and seek to know the best things God has put within the reach of men, you must learn to fix your mind on that end, and not on what will happen to you because of it. And, remember, if you were to choose something lower, and make it the rule of your life to seek your own pleasure and escape from what is disagreeable, calamity might come just the same; and it would be calamity falling on a base mind, which is the one form of sorrow that has no balm in it, and that may well make a man say, - 'It would have been better for me if I had never been born.' "

GEORGE ELIOT (the pen-name of Mary Ann Evans, a prominent English writer of the nineteenth century)

Introduction - every day, read the page for that date.

This is a reproduction, page by page, of a book that was popular in the early twentieth century. This is the 1935 edition. It was a Christmas present from my grandmother to my mother in 1942. My mother gave it to me in April 1958 and I read a page every night until 1966. It guided me through a difficult adolescence and early adulthood, as a bearer of Asperger's syndrome, a condition which wasn't identified and labelled until decades later.

The book has one page for every day of the year. Just read the page for that date, every day. The pieces are quotes from poets, thinkers, ministers of religion, prominent people and literary figures going back from the early twentieth century to classical times. There are quotes from the Christian bible as well as sacred texts from other religions. Women feature more than you would expect, because this book had among its compilers, women who worked for emancipation and voting rights for women in the early twentieth century.

The pieces have been reproduced here exactly as they appeared in the 1935 book. Some of the language might be gender-specific and politically incorrect, and God is referred to often, in the natural way that people did in former days.