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