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

November 28

“To a young girl who had just left school, she wrote – ‘I think this is such an important year of your life, and such a difficult one; the getting into regular employment when you have to plan it for yourself. I used always to be getting more to do than I could manage; there is great fret and worry running after work, it is not good, spiritually or intellectually. I wish I could help you; but I am so often in this state myself that I hardly know how. I think I find most help in trying to look on all interruptions and hindrances, to work that one has planned out for oneself, as discipline, trials sent by God to help one against getting selfish over one’s work. One’s work for God consists in doing some trifling, haphazard thing that has been thrown into one’s day. It is not waste of time, as one is tempted to think. It is the most important part of the work of the day – the part one can best offer to God. After such a hindrance do not rush after planned work, trust that the time to finish it well will be given some time, and keep a quiet heart above it.’”

ANNIE KEARY

“Perhaps there is nothing so irritating to others as a morbid passion for order. Dis-ordered order is the most active cause of disorder. Over-restless activity is the parent of a despairing in-activity in others.”

STOPFORD BROOKE