January 27
Beloved, let us love so well,
Our work shall still be better for our love
And still our love be sweeter for our work.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
If your name is to live at all, it is so much more to have it live in people's hearts than only in their brains! I don't know that one's eyes fill with tears when he thinks of the famous inventor of logarithms, but a song of Burns or a hymn of Charles Wesley goes straight to your heart and you can't help loving both of them, the sinner as well as the saint.
Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Our Father, who art in heaven, help us to hold Thee in our hearts this day, that we may live for Thee, from the love of Thee. Forgive us that we have not always a thankful spirit. Strengthen our wills to do good work, as in Thy sight, with clean hands and heart. Help us now as we pray, and flood the morning with the sunshine of Thy face, that we may be glad all the day long, and bring other lives into the brightness of Thy light. Save us from a partial mind, that we may love all Thy little ones with the same love of Him who said "Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Amen.
January 28
All thoughts of ill; all evil deeds.
That have their root in thoughts of ill;
Whatever hinders or impedes
The noble action of the will;—
All these must first be trampled down
Beneath our feet if we would gain
In the bright fields of fair renown
The right of eminent domain.
We have not wings, we cannot soar;
But we have feet to scale and climb
By slow degrees, by more and more,
The cloudy summits of our time.