February 27
Flame of the spirit, and dust of the earth,—
This is the making of man,
This is his problem of birth;
Born to all holiness, born to all crime,
Heir of both worlds, on the long slope of time
Climbing the path of God's plan;
Dust of the earth in his error and fear,
Weakness and malice and lust;
Yet, quivering up from the dust,
Flame of the spirit, unleaping and clear,
Yearning to God, since from God is its birth—
This is man's portion, to shape as he can,
Flame of the spirit, and dust of the earth—
This is the making of man.
Priscilla Leonard.
O God, Thou art the Father of our spirits, but our spirits have come to us through ways of flesh. We are both spiritual and carnal. Our spirits seek Thee evermore, but our flesh turns away from Thee and strives to drag us down. Between our best and our worst is bitter conflict. Help us to the discovery that all that lives is in like conflict, and that there can be no virtue and no glory except in overcoming. Make us see that the spirit is stronger than the flesh because it is of God, and that in the obedience and inspiration of Jesus, Thy Son and our Brother, we may at last be enthroned with Him. Amen.
February 28
Neither let mistakes nor wrong directions, of which every man, in his studies and elsewhere, falls into many, discourage you. There is precious instruction to be got by finding we were wrong. Let a man try faithfully, manfully, to be right; he will grow daily more and more right. It is at bottom the condition on which all men have to cultivate themselves.
Thomas Carlyle.
Almighty God, our heavenly Father,—in Thine own loving way Thou dost bless us when we do the right; when we fall into mistakes so teach us by Thy judgments that we become wise unto salvation. Help Thy children to recognize their proneness to blunder, that they learn to walk circumspectly. When we fall into the wrong, grant that we lie prone not long but arise undismayed to greater effort. Bring to bear upon us the influences of the Holy Spirit, that we strive earnestly and devoutly to be right at the centre of our being; that rightness be the fabric of our life. To Thee be all glory evermore. Amen.