December 15

“You should make a special point of asking God every morning to give you, before all else, that true spirit of meekness which He would have His children possess. You must also make a firm resolution to practise yourself in this virtue, especially in your dealings with those persons to whom you chiefly owe it. You must make it your main object to conquer yourself in this matter; call it to mind a hundred times during the day, commending your efforts to God. It seems to me that no more than this is needed in order to subject your soul entirely to His will, and then you will become more gentle day by day, trusting wholly in His goodness. You will be very happy, my dearest child, if you can do this, for God will dwell in your heart; and where He reigns all is peace. But if you should fail, and commit some of your old faults, do not be disheartened, but rise up and go on again as though you had not fallen.”

ST. FRANCIS DE SALES

“We have only to be patient, to pray, and to do His will, according to our present light and strength, and the growth of the soul will go on. The plant grows in the mist and under clouds as truly as under sunshine. So does the heavenly principle within.”

CHANNING

December 14

. . . “Let us resolve to be satisfied with our own past doings, when at the time of doing we used all the light God gave us, and did all in our power.
“The backward action of ideality is often full as tormenting as its forward and prospective movements. The moment a thing is done and over, one would think that good sense would lead us to drop it like a stone into the ocean; but the morbid idealist cannot cut loose from the past. ‘Was that after all the best thing? Would it not have been better so, or so?’ And the self-tormented individual lies wakeful during weary night-hours, revolving a thousand possibilities, and conjuring up a thousand vague perhapses. ‘If only I had done so, now, perhaps this result would have followed, or that would not’; and as there is never any saying but that so it might have turned out, the labyrinth and the discontent are alike endless.
“Now there is grand good sense in the Apostle’s direction: - ‘Forgetting the things that are behind, press forward.’ The idealist should charge himself, as with an oath of God, to let the past alone as an accomplished fact, solely concerning himself with the enquiry, ‘Did I not do the best I then knew how?’
“The maxim of the quietists is, that when we have acted according to the best light we have, we have expressed the will of God under those circumstances – since, had it been otherwise, more and different light would have been given us; and with the will of God done by ourselves, as by Himself it is our duty to be content.”

H. B. STOWE

December 13

“Let us not be weary in well doing; for in due course we shall reap, if we faint not.”

GALATIANS vi, 9

“Say not, the struggle naught availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been they remain.

“If hopes weer dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke concealed,
Your comrades chase e’en now the fliers;
And, but for you, possess the field.

“For while the tired waves, vainly breakening,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

“And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light.
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
But westward, look, the land is bright.”

A. H. CLOUGH

December 12

“Do not hope you are to gain the victory in a day. It may take months, it may take years. Inch by inch, and step by step the battle must be fought. Over and over again you will be worsted and give ground, but do not therefore yield. Resolve never to be driven back quite so far as you have advanced.”

WHYTE-MELVILLE

“Did you ever hear of a person who had striven all his life faithfully and singly toward an object and in no measure obtained it? If someone constantly aspires, is he not elevated? Did anyone ever try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them, - that it was a vain endeavour?”

THOREAU

“A great effort may be made in a moment of excitement; but continual little efforts can only be made on principle.”

GOULBURN

December 11

“It is the one inspiring element of Christianity that it throws us in boundless hope upon the future, and forbids us to dwell in the poisonous shadows of the past. A new and better growth is before us, a fresher, a diviner, a more enthusiastic life awaits us. We are to wake up satisfied in the likeness of Christ, the ever-young Humanity. Therefore, ‘forgetting those things which are behind’, let us ‘press forward to the mark of our high calling in Christ Jesus’.”

STOPFORD BROOKE

“Whosoever may
Discern true ends here – shall grow pure enough
To love them, brave enough to strive for them,
And strong enough to reach them, though the roads be rough.”

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

“The past is a story told,
The future may be writ in gold.”

December 10

“Standing still. . . . I mean being content with yourself; content to struggle no more against the evil within you; content with the poor victory you have already gained, and making no effort to lift yourself higher and higher, nearer and nearer to the pattern of Christ. This is a sin, and you may not plead that you have done much; for much is not enough if you could do more. While there is left in you a trace of ill-temper, or of vanity, or of pride, or of selfishness; while there is left in you a single sin or germ of sin, you must not rest from the battle. God does not require from you to be sinless when you come before Him, but He does require you to be unceasing in your perseverance. He does not require that you shall never have fallen, but He does require unwearied efforts. He does not require you to win, but He does require you to fight. . . . In return for the love which brought the Son of Man down from heaven, in return for the love which led Him to die for us upon the cross, we cannot give Him holy lives, for our lives are not holy; we cannot give Him pure souls, for our souls are not pure; but this one thing we can give, and this is what He asks, hearts that shall never cease, from this day forward till we reach the grave, to strive to be more like Him; to come nearer to Him; to root out from within us the sin that keeps us from Him.”

Bishop TEMPLE

“Do not stand still, even for a moment; for to stand still in the way of holiness and perfection is, not to take breath or courage, but, to fall back and become weaker than before.”

SCUPOLI

December 9

“We make our victory a great deal more difficult than it ought to be by want of courage. There are many faults and many weaknesses which require nothing more than a decisive effort, a determined push to overcome them at once and for ever. If you want to live a Christian life, do not dally with your purpose; do not fancy that you will find it easier to win your way by degrees, and that by a gradual change you may attain to the same end with less pain than you fear will be given by a sudden wrench. Nothing can be a greater mistake. Press into the enemy’s citadel at once; do not wait outside till he has had time to shoot you down.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
“Be assured that God will help you. Be assured that Christ will give you strength.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
“I know you will meet with many failures between this and the grave; but I am sure that you will meet with fewer failures in proportion to your courage, for this kind of courage is but another form of faith, and faith can work any miracle whatever, even the greatest miracle of all, bringing your soul to God.”

Bishop TEMPLE

“Fallen threads I will not search for – I will weave.”

G. MACDONALD

December 8

“The most cowardly of all temptations is that of discouragement. When the enemy has made us lose courage for making progress in goodness, he has easy work with us, and soon pushes us towards the precipice of evil.

“Have patience with everybody, but especially with yourself. Do not trouble yourself about your imperfections, but always have the courage to rise out of them. It is right that you should begin again every day. There is no better way to finish the spiritual life than to be ever beginning it over again, and never to think you have done enough.”

ST FRANCIS DE SALES

“Never let mistakes or wrong directions, of which every man, in his studies and elsewhere falls into many, discourage you. There is precious instruction to be got by finding we were wrong. Let a man try faithfully, manfully to be right; he will grow daily more and more right.”

CARLYLE

December 7

“Do not be discouraged at your faults; bear with yourself in correcting them, as you would with your neighbour. Lay aside this ardour of mind, which exhausts your body, and leads you to commit errors. Accustom yourself gradually to carry prayer into all your daily occupations. Speak, move, work in peace, as if you were in prayer, as indeed you ought to be. Do everything without excitement, by the spirit of grace. As soon as you perceive your natural impetuosity gliding in, retire quietly within, where is the Kingdom of God. Listen to the leadings of grace, then say and do nothing but what the Holy Spirit will put in your heart. You will find that you will become more tranquil, that your words will be fewer and more effectual, and that, with less effort, you will accomplish more good.”

FÉNÉLON

“Discouragement is an inclination to give up all attempts after the devout life, in consequence of the difficulties by which it is beset, and our already numerous failures in it. We lose heart; and partly in ill-temper, partly in real doubt of our own ability to persevere, we first grow querulous and peevish with God, and then relax in our efforts to mortify ourselves and please Him. It is a sort of shadow of despair, and will lead us into numberless venial sins the first half-hour we give way to it.”

F. W. FABER

December 6

“The true act of moral culture is to balance extravagant tendencies by quickening those that are languid. Growth is a safer means of producing harmony in character than repression. . . . The lower is subdued not by repression, but by making it simply an instrument of the higher. No fasting, for instance, will make the soul pure, but a noble attachment will keep all baser feelings in check and ennoble them.”

STOPFORD BROOKE

“The great way of resisting evil is by allowing the Holy Spirit to pour into your heart the love of your true Lord. Inordinate love of the creature, or love of what is evil in itself, cannot be effectually resisted by particular and direct antagonism. The love of evil is to be expelled by the love of that which is good. The way to overcome evil is to trust to ‘the expulsive power of a new affection’, the love of Christ your Lord.”

Bishop WEBB

December 5

“Infinite toil would not enable you to sweep away a mist, but by ascending a little, you may afterwards look over it altogether. So it is with our moral improvements; we wrestle fiercely with a vicious habit which would have no hold upon us if we ascended into a higher moral atmosphere. It is by adding to our good purposes and nourishing the affections which are rightly placed, that we shall be able to combat the bad ones.”

A. HELPS

“If we wish to overcome evil, we must overcome it by good. There are doubtless many ways of overcoming the evil in our own hearts, but the simplest, easiest, most universal, is to overcome it by active occupation in some good word or work. The best antidote against evil of all kinds, against the evil thoughts which haunt the soul, against the needless perplexities which distract the conscience, is to keep hold of the good we have. Impure thoughts will not stand against pure words, and prayers, and deeds. Little doubts will not avail against great certainties. Fix your affections on things above, and then you will be less and less troubled by the cares, the temptations, the troubles of things on earth.”

A. P. STANLEY

December 4

“If you wish not to be of an angry temper, do not feed the habit, throw nothing on it which will increase it; at first, keep quiet, and count the days on which you have not been angry. I used to be in a passion every day; now every second day; then every third; then every fourth. But if you have intermitted thirty days, make a sacrifice to God. For the habit at first begins to be weakened, and then is completely destroyed. When you can say, ‘I have not been vexed today, nor the day before, nor yet on any succeeding day during two or three months; but I took care when some exciting things happened,’ be assured that you are in a good way.”

EPICTETUS

“The difficult part of good temper consists in forbearance, and accommodation to the ill-humour of others.”

EMPSON

“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that rules his spirit, better than he that takes a city.”

PROVERBS 16, 32

December 3

“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God.”

St. JAMES i, 20

“The Christian will have to remember that one of the very first duties he owes to his neighbour is the thorough subjugation of his own temper. The sins of the temper produce the worst results at once in our neighbour and in ourselves. They have a peculiar power of thwarting and injuring God’s work in the world, and of giving pain to our fellow-creatures. They hurt more than anything the right working of the body of Christ.”

“Anger is not to be suppressed but by something as inward as itself, and more habitual.”

“Resolved: - When I am most conscious of provocation to ill-nature and anger, that I will strive most to feel and act good-naturedly.”
“Resolved: - Never to suffer the least motions of anger towards irrational beings.”

JON. EDWARDS

December 2

“Time is spent in lamenting past sins, which ought to be spent in attending to present duties; the heart is given up to fears which ought to be given up to God; weak regret takes the place of vigorous resolution; longings for a sense of God’s presence, or for a sense of our own love, fill up our souls when we ought to be proving our love by the proof which He has named, that is, keeping His commandments.”

Bishop TEMPLE

“The full employment of all powers, physical, mental, and spiritual, is the true secret of happiness, so that no time may be left for morbid self-analysis.”

TOM HUGHES

“To watch one’s soul all the time, seeking for moral disease, is as bad as to watch one’s body all the time, seeking for physical disease. Do not look within to see whether your feelings are right; but look without to see what you are doing for others; what you are saying; what your temper and spirits are to those about you. Look up, also, for higher light and more life.”

J. F. CLARKE