The folded hands seem idle:
If folded at His word,
'Tis a holy service, trust me,
In obedience to the Lord.
ANNA SHIPTON.
It is not the multitude of hard duties, it is not constraint and contention that advance us in our Christian course. On the contrary, it is the yielding of our wills without restriction and without choice, to tread cheerfully every day in the path in which Providence leads us, to seek nothing, to be discouraged by nothing, to see our duty in the present moment, to trust all else without reserve to the will and power of God.
FRANÇOIS DE LA MOTHE FÉNELON.
Godliness is the devotion of the soul to God, as to a living person whose will is to be its law, whose love is to be its life. It is the habit of living before the face of God, and not the simply doing certain things.
J. B. BROWN.
October 18
Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.—MATT. v. 20.
The freedom from all wilful sin,
The Christian's daily task,—
Oh these are graces far below
What longing love would ask!
Dole not thy duties out to God.