June 2

“Not only to say the right thing in the right place, but, far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”

SALA

“The ordinary recreation of ordinary persons very much resolves itself into conversation with friends or casual acquaintance; and there can be no doubt that, by taking a little pains with it, directing it into interesting channels, and by unselfish efforts to make it vivacious, conversation may be made to brighten the mind very considerably, and to relieve the pressure of the burden of life.”

GOULBURN

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be always acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”

Ps. xix. 14, 15

June 1

“I am not one who much or oft delight
To season my fireside with personal talk, -
Of friends who live within an easy walk,
Or neighbours daily, weekly, in my sight:
. . . . . .
Better than such discourse doth silence, long,
Long, barren silence, square with my desire;
. . . . and books we know,
Are a substantial world both pure and good;
Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow.
There do I find a never-failing store
Of personal themes, and such as I love best;
. . . . for thus I live remote
From evil-speaking; rancour, never sought,
Comes to me not; malignant truth, or lie.
Hence have I genial seasons, hence have I
Smooth passions, smooth discourse, and joyous thought.”

WORDSWORTH

"When with dear friends sweet talk I hold,
And all the flowers of life unfold;
Let not my heart within me burn,
Except in all I Thee discern.”

KEBLE

May 31

“Do not flatter yourself that your thoughts are under due control, your desires properly regulated, or your dispositions subject as they should be to Christian principle, if your intercourse with others consists mainly of frivolous gossip, impertinent anecdotes, speculations on the character of your neighbours, the repetition of former conversations, or a discussion of the current petty scandal of society; much less, if you allow yourself in careless exaggeration on all these points, and that grievous inattention to exact truth, which is apt to attend the statements of those whose conversation is made up of those materials.”

H. WARE, Junr.

“Let us all resolve: - First, to attain the grace of silence; Second, to deem all fault-finding that does no good a sin, and to resolve, when we are happy ourselves, not to poison the atmosphere for our neighbours, by calling on them to remark every painful and disagreeable feature of their daily life; Third, to practise the grace and virtue of praise.”

Mrs H. B. STOWE

May 30

“There is another kind of silence to be cultivated, besides that of the tongue as regards others. I mean silence as regards one’s self, - restraining the imagination, not permitting it to dwell overmuch on what we have heard or said, not indulging in the phantasmagoria of picture thoughts, whether of the past or future. Be sure that you have made no small progress in the spiritual life, when you can control your imagination, so as to fix it on the duty and occupation actually existing, to the exclusion of the crowd of thoughts which are perpetually sweeping across the mind. No doubt you cannot prevent those thoughts from arising, but you can prevent yourself from dwelling on them; you can put them aside, you can check the self complacency, or irritation, or earthly longings which feed them, and, by the practice of such control of your thoughts, you will attain that spirit of inward silence which draws the soul into a closer intercourse with God.”

JEAN N. GROU

“There are three kinds of silence. Silence from words is good, because inordinate speaking tends to evil. Silence, or rest from desires and passions, is still better, because it promotes quietness of spirit. But the best of all is silence from unnecessary and wandering thoughts, because that is essential to internal recollection, and because it lays a foundation for a proper regulation and silence in other respects.”

Madame GUYON

May 29

“Beware always of contending for words.”

RUSKIN

“We should continually examine ourselves whether we are arguing for the sake of truth or triumph.”

Archbishop WHATELY

“Men create oppositions which are not, and put them into new termes so fixed, as, whereas the meaning ought to govern the terme, the terme in effect governeth the meaning.”

BACON

“He always spoke to one’s meaning, not to one’s words.”

“To get people’s hearts right is of more importance than convincing their judgments; right judgment will follow.”

May 28

“Then again, there is that careless habit of ‘plain speaking’, and the way we have of pluming ourselves upon it, till it passes with some into overbearingness, and with others into acute disagreeability. We little think how much it jars persons more sensitive than ourselves, and how much suffering it gives! It is good to be plain spoken, but within the limits of charity. Still more mischievous is that looseness of tongue which proclaims everything that its owner has heard from another, without a thought whether the other may like what has been said, in a moment of abandon, to be proclaimed upon the house-tops, which seems to think that nothing is sacred to feeling, and that no seal of confession, though not exacted, ought to be laid upon the lips. That is abominable want of thought and love.”

STOPFORD BROOKE

“A constant governance of our speech, according to duty and reason, is a high instance and a special argument of a thoroughly sincere and solid goodness.”

BARROW

May 27

“For it strikes me that of all human dealings, satire is the very lowest, and most mean and common. It is the equivalent in words for what bullying is in deeds; and no more bespeaks a clever man, than the other does a brave one. These two wretched tricks exalt a fool in his own low esteem, but never in his neighbour’s, for the deep common-sense nature tells that no man of a genial heart, or of any spread of mind, can take pride in either. And though a good man may commit the one fault or the other, now and then by way of outlet, he is sure to have compunctions soon, and to scorn himself more than the sufferer.”

BLACKMORE

“Another side of public life is our life in society. After all, the best way in which we may there, in heart and mind, rise with Christ, is by the thoughtful watchfulness of love. Thoughtlessness of heart slides into insensibility of heart, and if encouraged in youth, makes the cruel man or woman of after life. How often do we ask ourselves before we speak whether our speech will do wrong or give unnecessary pain? We are fond sometimes of speaking roughly, or delight in the cleverness which makes another wince. It is a pride and pleasure which is base; for it is unhuman, and is as far removed from the sweetness and gentleness of Christ as heaven is from hell.”

STOPFORD BROOKE

May 26

“Worse still, as not only careless, but wicked, is the slander which gossips away a character in an afternoon, and runs lightly over a whole series of acquaintances, leaving a drop of poison on them all, some suspicion, or some ominous silence – ‘Have you not heard? – ‘No one would believe it, but - !’ and then silence; while the shake of the head, or the shrug of the shoulders, finishes the sentence with a mute meaning worse than words. Do you ever think of the irrevocable nature of speech? The things you say are often said for ever. You may find, years after your light word was spoken, that it has made a whole life unhappy, or ruined the peace of a household. It was well said by St. James, ‘If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, that man’s religion is vain’.”

STOPFORD BROOKE

“Beware of that bane of social life, evil speaking. Pray for the spirit of love, which is the spirit of truth – for you can never know anyone without sympathy or love, and take care how you speak of those you have not yet learned to love. Never talk of others’ faults, without necessity, and avoid those who do.”

“If there is any person to whom you feel dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak.”

R. CECIL

May 25

“Oh! That we all knew or remembered what words are! Surely they are the most terrible powers in this universe. No chemical combinations that I have ever heard of are like them for effects, good or mischievous, heavenly or diabolical.”

F. D. MAURICE

“Ah! Light words from those whom we love and honour, what a power ye are! and how carelessly wielded by those who can use you! Surely for these things also god will ask an account.”

TOM HUGHES

“Words are mighty, words are living;
Serpents with their venomous stings,
Or bright angels crowding round us;
With heaven’s light upon their wings;
Every word has its own spirit,
True or false, that never dies;
Every word man’s lips have uttered
Echoes in God’s skies.”

A. A. PROCTOR

“Human words, remember, do more than convey bare facts, they convey the tone of the mind from which they come.”

KNOX LITTLE

May 24

“I do not know that there is anything, except it be humility, which is so valuable as an incident of education as accuracy. And accuracy can be taught. Direct lies told to the world are as dust in the balance when weighed against the falsehoods of inaccuracy. These are the fatal things, and they are all-pervading. I scarcely care what is taught to the young if it will but implant in them the habit of accuracy.”

ARTHUR HELPS

“Nice distinctions are troublesome. It is so much easier to say a thing is black, than to discriminate the particular shade of brown, blue, or green, to which it really belongs. It is so much easier to make up your mind that your neighbour is good for nothing, than to enter into all the circumstances that would oblige you to modify that opinion.”

GEORGE ELIOT [pen-name of Mary Ann Evans]

“Lie not; but let thy heart be true to God.
Thy mouth to it, thy actions to them both;
Cowards tell lies and those that fear the rod;
The stormie-working soul spits lies and froth.
Dare to be true. Nothing can need a lie;
A fault, which needs it most, grows two thereby.”

GEORGE HERBERT

May 23

“I wish to be alive to all the little low and dark motives which are continually coming into the soul, and which, I believe, if they are not marked and continually carried up to a higher power to be prayed away, are ever liable to settle there, and thence to come out in some questionable and deceitful action. Truth, real inward truth, is the rarest, I think, of all things. Some little petty subterfuge, some verbal or acted dishonesty, we are continually surprised into; and against this neither a high code of honour nor an exact profession of religion is much preservation. Continued intercourse with the Father of Light, revealing our own darkness to us is, I am quite sure, the one safeguard, and a Christian who should lose this is in more danger of stumbling than an infidel.”

F. D. MAURICE

“Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult. . . . Examine your words well and you will find that even when you have a motive to be false, it is a very hard thing to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings – much harder than to say something about them which is not the exact truth.”

GEORGE ELIOT [pen-name of Mary Ann Evans]

May 22

“This above all, to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou can’st not then be false to any man.”

SHAKESPEARE

"Think truly, and thy thoughts
Shall the world’s famine feed;
Speak truly, and each word of thine
Shall be a fruitful seed;
Live truly, and thy life shall be
A great and noble creed.”

BONAR

“Every temptation to evil resisted and overcome – every sacrifice of worldly good or pleasure for conscience’ sake, makes the soul purer and stronger.
“It is of vast importance whether the soul, which is made to live for ever, is a truthful, pure and noble soul, made strong through the conquest of many and great temptations; with affections set upon all that is good and beautiful; with conscience that clearly sees the difference between right and wrong, and a firm will, resolute to choose the right.”

MARTINEAU

May 21

“Repentance is the relinquishment of any practice, from the conviction that it has offended God.
“Sorrow, fear, and anxiety are properly not parts, but adjuncts of repentance; yet they are too closely connected with it to be easily separated.”

ADDISON

“Repentance is heart’s sorrow,
And a clear life ensuing.”

SHAKESPEARE

“Remember two things: First, that one may get into the habit of saying ‘I am sorry’, and thinking that all is healed, presume on forgiveness, and go on expressing repentance and creating new matter for repentance. This is not uncommon, and should be vigilantly guarded against. Secondly, when even the shadow of repentance is expressed, come half-way to meet it. Beware of throwing back into dead silence the small penitence of life, by keeping up what is called your own dignity – the most pitiable thing in the world.”

STOPFORD BROOKE

May 20

“Though sins of thought are not so bad as sins of act, for they can still be repented of, yet to nurse a sin in thought is to make it easy to commit in act. Cherish hate, and you know not when you may be swept into murder. Cherish any guilt in thought, and one touch sets the repressed waters into a headlong torrent of act. Care, then, for your thoughts, and the acts will take care of themselves.”

STOPFORD BROOKE

“Every man is open to commit the fault of which he is least capable.”

G. MACDONALD

“Sins of surprise have given rise to the remark that almost every great saint in the Bible is recorded to have fallen into the very sin from which his character seemed likely to guard him.”

Bishop TEMPLE

May 19

“Seldom in any case, and never save by the special grace of God, do guilty thoughts end in guilty thoughts; they are but the serpent’s egg, from which breaks forth the cockatrice. On us, as on Eve, at some unguarded moment, the temptation springs, ‘terrible and with tiger’s leap’, and then we fall; we fall and we pity ourselves because we fall in a moment, but that fall is the fall not of a moment but of all the previous life; it was but the ‘sign manual of deed’ which sooner or later the powers of evil demand from him who in heart has long been their own.”

“A little seed
Of sin was grown that grew with little heed.
By door or window little sins will win
A way that widens for the larger sin.
As tiniest lichens, climbing up the wall,
May lend a hand to help the ivy crawl
That is to tower a conqueror over all
The house in ruin, crumbling by the fall.
Once life is set in motion there upspring
Infinite issues to the smallest thing.”

GERALD MASSEY

May 18

“A single sin, however apparently trifling, however hidden in some obscure corner of our consciousness, - a sin which we do not intend to renounce, - is enough to render real prayer impracticable. A course of action not wholly upright and honourable, feelings not entirely kind and loving, habits not spotlessly chaste and temperate, - any of these are impassable obstacles. If we know of a kind act which we might, but do not intend to perform, - if we be aware that our moral health requires the abandonment of some pleasure which yet we do not intend to abandon – here is cause enough for the loss of all spiritual power.”

F. P. COBBE

“There are many things that appear trifles, which greatly tend to enervate the soul, and hinder its progress in the path to virtue and glory. The habit of indulging in things which our judgment cannot thoroughly approve grows stronger and stronger by every act of self gratification, and we are led on by degrees to all excess of luxury which must greatly weaken our hands in the spiritual warfare. If we do not endeavour to do that which is right in every particular circumstance, though trifling, we shall be in great danger of letting the same negligence take place in matters more essential.”

MARGARET WOODS

May 17

“We ought to cherish the small virtues which grow at the foot of the Cross, for they are watered with the blood of the Son of God. These virtues are humility, patience, sweet-temper, kindness, helpfulness to our neighbours, graciousness, good will, heartiness, sympathy, readiness to forgive, simplicity, truthfulness, and others like them. The virtues are like the violets which love the coolness of the shade, which are fed with dew, and which, though they have no brilliancy, cease not to shed fragrance around. There are great virtues on the top of the Cross, which have great splendour, especially when they are accompanied with love; such are wisdom, justice, zeal, liberality, and such like; and everyone wishes to have these virtues because they are the most esteemed and make us the most thought of. But we should not judge of the greatness or littleness of a virtue by that which it appears to the outward eye; for a virtue that is very small in appearance may be practiced with great love to God, while one that is more shining may go along with very little love; yet this is the measure of their true value before God. I put more value on prayer, which is the torch of all the virtues; on devotion, which consecrates all our actions to the service of God; on humility, which makes us have a low esteem of ourselves and of our actions; on sweet temper, which makes us kind to all the world; on patience, which makes us bear all things; than on heroism, magnanimity, liberality, virtues which do not cover so much ground and are more seldom in use. And these more splendid virtues are a little dangerous, because their brilliancy gives more occasion for vain glory, which is the true poison of all the virtues.”

ST. FRANCIS DE SALES

May 16

“There is no action so slight or so mean but it may be done to a great purpose and ennobled thereby, nor is any purpose so great but that it may be helped by slight actions and may be so done as to be helped much, most especially, the chief of all purposes, the pleasing of God. His is not the finest authority or intelligence which cannot be troubled with small things. There is nothing so small but that we may honour God by asking His guidance of it, or insult Him by taking it into our own hands.”

RUSKIN

“Exactness in little duties is a wonderful source of cheerfulness.”

F. W. FABER

“It matters nothing what the particular duties are to which the individual is called – how minute or obscure in their outward form. Greatness in God’s sight lies, not in the extent of the sphere which is filled, or of the effect which is produced, but altogether in the power of virtue in the soul, in the energy with which God’s will is chosen, with which trial is borne, and goodness loved and pursued.”

CHANNING