October 4

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love tee to the depth, and breadth, and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love the to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! And, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.”

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

“Love vaunteth not itself . . . seeketh not its own . . . beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. love never faileth.”

I Cor. xiii

October 3

“There are two kinds of love, confused together both in man’s nature and in our judgment on it – the love that desires to love, and the love that desires to be loved. The first is always a debtor to the world, the second always finds the world a debtor to him, and complains bitterly that the debt is unpaid. There is no more uncompromising creditor than the creditor for love, there is no avarice more grasping than his avarice. . . . Love that feeds on being loved, and not on loving, cannot conquer death; it turns traitor at the last, confessing its own baseness, that it served for the sake of the reward.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

“It is not love that hurts men. The craving for love, the turning earhly and heavenly affection into merchandise, these hurt, and suffering hurts that we make our own; but the love that brings pain is itself painless. In the midst of longing, heart-hunger, and all the forms of selfishness that we dignify with such high-sounding names, there is one thing at peace. That is love. And about it the passions sweep, grudging, exacting, contending with each other for their gains; but the prayer of love is not to receive joy, nor to escape from pain, only that it may give more, and give for ever.”

MAY KENDALL

“To love – that is the true revelation – the lifting up of the veil. It is as different from simply being loved, as night is from day.”

Mrs OLIPHANT

October 2

. . . “For fear of flattering, these dreadfully sincere people go on side by side with those they love and admire, giving them all the time, the impression of utter indifference. Parents are so afraid of exciting pride and vanity in their children, by the expression of their love and approbation, that a child sometimes goes sad and discouraged by their side, and learns with surprise, in some chance way, that they are proud and fond of him. There are times when the open expression of a father’s love would be worth more than church or sermon to a boy; and his father cannot utter it - will not show it.”

Mrs H. B. STOWE

“The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. ‘She never knew how I loved her!’ ‘He never knew what he was to me!’ ‘I always meant to make more of our friendship!’ “I did not know what he was to me till he was gone!’ Such words are the poisoned arrows which cruel death shoots back at us from the door of the sepulchre.

“How much more we might make of our family life, of our friendships, if every secret thought of love blossomed into a deed! There are words, and looks, and little observances, thoughtfulnesses, watchful little attentions, which make it manifest, and there is scarce a family that might not be richer in heart-wealth for more of them.”

Mrs H. B. STOWE

October 1

“The other thing that represses the utterances of love, is the characteristic shyness of the Anglo-Saxon blood. Oddly enough, a race born of two demonstrative, outspoken nations – the German and the French – has an habitual reserve which is like neither. There is a powerlessness of utterance in our blood that we should fight against, and struggle outwards towards expression. We can educate ourselves to it, if we know and feel the necessity; we can make it a Christian duty, not only to love, but to be loving – not only to be true friends, but to show ourselves friendly. We can make ourselves say the kind things that rise in our hearts and tremble on our lips – do the gentle and helpful deeds which we long to do and shrink back from; and, little by little, it will grow easier – the love spoken will bring back the answer of love – the kind deed will bring back a kind deed in return.”

Mrs H. B. STOWE

“A few more smiles of silent sympathy, a few more tender words, a little more restraint on temper, may make all the difference between happiness and half-happiness to those I live with.”

STOPFORD BROOKE

September 30

“Oh, my dear friends, you who are letting miserable misunderstandings run on from year to year, meaning to clear them up some day; you who are keeping wretched quarrels alive because you cannot quite make up your mind that now is the day to sacrifice your pride and kill them; you who are passing men sullenly upon the street, not speaking to them out of some silly spite, and yet knowing that it would fill you with shame and remorse if you heard that one of those men were dead tomorrow morning; you who are letting your neighbour starve, till you hear that he is dying of starvation; or letting your friend’s heart ache for a word of appreciation or sympathy, which you mean to give him some day – if you only could know and see and feel, all of a sudden, that ‘the time is short’, how it would break the spell! How you would go instantly and do the thing which you might never have another chance to do.”

PHILLIPS BROOKS

“Why will you defer your good purpose from day to day? Arise and begin in this very instant, and say, Now is the time to be doing, now is the time to be striving, now is the fit time to amend myself.”

THOMAS à KEMPIS

September 29

“Nothing is sweeter than Love, nothing more courageous, nothing higher, nothing wider, nothing more pleasant, nothing fuller nor better in heaven and earth, because love is born of God, and cannot rest but in God, above all created things.
“He that loves flies, runs and rejoices; he is free, and not bound. He gives all for all, and has all in all; because he rests in One highest above things, from whom all that is good flows and proceeds. Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility; for it thinks all things lawful for itself, and all things possible. It is therefore able to undertake all things, and it completes many things and brings them to a conclusion, where he who does not love faints and lies down. Love watches; and sleeping, slumbers not. Though weary, love is not tired; though pressed, it is not straitened; though alarmed, it is not confounded; but as a lively flame and burning torch, it forces its way upwards, and securely passes through all.”

THOMAS à KEMPIS

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”

I COR. xiii 13

September 26

“By friendship I mean, the greatest love and the greatest usefulness, and the most open communication, and the noblest sufferings, and the most exemplary faithfulness, and the severest truth, and the heartiest counsel, and the greatest union of mind, of which brave men and women are capable.”

JEREMY TAYLOR

“I love to think that Christian friendships may be part of the business of eternity.”

Dr ARNOLD

“Beyond all wealth, honour, or even health, is the attachment we form to noble souls; because to become one with the good, generous, and true, is to become in a measure, good, generous, and true ourselves.”

Dr ARNOLD

September 25

“But still higher in Him was that intense sensibility to human feeling which made Him by instinct know, without the necessity of speech, the feelings of those He met.
“This is the highest touch of beauty in a character. What is it that most charms us in a friend? It is that he can read the transient expression in our face, and modify himself to suit the feeling we are ourselves but half conscious of possessing; it is that he knows when to be silent and when to speak; it is that he never mistakes, but sees us true, when all the world is wrong about us; it is that he can distinguish the cynicism of tenderness from that of malice, and believe our love though we try to mask our heart. Such a friend has not only power of character, but beauty of character.”

STOPFORD BROOKE

“We are over-hasty to speak – as if God did not manifest Himself by our silent feeling, and make His love felt through ours.”

GEORGE ELIOT [pen-name of Mary Ann Evans]

September 28

“Then, in such hour of need
Of your fainting, dispirited race,
Ye, like angels, appear
Radiant with ardour divine!
Beacons of hope, ye appear!
Langour is not in your heart,
Weakness is not in your word,
Weariness not on your brow.
Ye alight in our van! at your voice
Panic, despair flee away.
Ye move through the ranks, recall
The stragglers, refresh the outworn,
Praise, re-inspire the brave!
Order, courage, return.
Eyes rekindling, and prayers,
Follow your steps as ye go.
Ye fill up the gaps in our files,
Strengthen the wavering line,
Stablish, continue our march,
On, to the bound of the waste,
On, to the City of God.”

MATTHEW ARNOLD

“There are no bounds to the help which spirit can give spirit in the intercourse of a noble life.”

Bishop TEMPLE

September 27

“And so now and then in our lives, when we learn to love a sweet and noble character, we all feel happier and better for the goodness and charity which is not ours, and yet which seem to belong to us while we are near it. Just as some people and states of mind affect us uncomfortably, so we seem to be true to ourselves with a truthful person, generous-minded with a generous nature, the world seems less disappointing and self-seeking when we think of the just and sweet and unselfish spirits, moving untroubled among dinning and distracting influences. These are our friends in the best and noblest sense. We are happier for their existence – it is so much gain to us. They may have lived at some distant time, we may never have met face to face, or we may have known them and been blessed by their love; but in either case their light shines from afar; distant are their graves, green in some foreign land; their life is for us and with us – its generous example; their song is for our ears, and we hear it and love it still, though the singer may be lying dead.”

Miss THACKERAY

“Honour to those whose words or deeds
Thus help us in our daily needs –
And by their overflow
Raise us from what is low.”

LONGFELLOW