August 5
The scenery around your house may be monotonous, without a mountain or sea or lake or hill; but an upward look at the clear sky will put you in instant communication with infinite beauty and majesty. No spot on earth is common or barren over which the skies bend in solemn silence. No human life need be barren or common which is connected by the great network of moral law with any other being.
J. H. Carlisle.
Our God and Father, the author of beauty, the rewarder of all them that seek Thee, we, Thy children, come to Thee at the opening of this new day. May we have hearts so pure that we shall see Thee; minds so open that we shall talk with Thee; and lives so true that we shall reveal Thee. Let toil become to us as a sacrament. Reveal to us the beauty of life as well as of holiness and help us to live with upturned faces, so that we may catch the glory of Thy presence, and reflect it to all around us. May we walk with Thee, thinking Thy thoughts, having Thy visions of beauty and of life. When life's evening shall come gather us in Thine arms of love to be with Thee in the home which Thou hast prepared for us and hast beautified with earth's fairest treasures through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
August 6
How good is man's life, the mere living! How fit to employ
All the heart and the soul and the senses forever in joy!
Robert Browning.
I am glad to think
I am not bound to make the world go right;
But only to discover and to do,
With cheerful heart, the work that God appoints.
I will trust in Him,
That He can hold His own; and I will take
His will, above the work He sendeth me,
to be my chiefest good.
Jean Ingelow.