November 29

“The Pharisees wanted not to serve God and man, but to gratify the petty pride of having done exactly what they had to do; a pardonable feeling in mere trifles, a mischievous feeling when it goes beyond trifles, and downright ruin when it takes possession of the whole life. Something of the same sort is very possible still. And the only way to avoid it is always to press the gaze of our consciences towards God and God’s will, rather than toward ourselves.”

Bishop TEMPLE

“History and experience are not without examples of a hard self-obliteration in most things, which makes a soul as cruel to others as it is to itself. Rigid in observation of rule, such souls fail utterly in the cultivation of the spirit and the temper, which alone is valuable. It may be the outcome of an obstinate nature, it may be the sad result of narrowness of mind, it may be a form of subtle self-pleasing. . . . but it has the deathly pallor of fanaticism, not the clear complexion of the religion of Christ.”

KNOX LITTLE