March 22
Scarce tangible may be the first glad sign,
Yet how it shakes us with a vernal thrill!
The voice of the south wind behind the hill;
Or an elusive bird-note faint and fine;
A flush at dawn along the wan sky-line;
A lyrical exuberance in the rill;
A something working its mysterious will
Both in majestic hole and tenuous vine!
It is the vernal spirit. In the earth
It throbs and pulses; quickens in the air;
And permeates all nature thro' and thro'.
In the expectant poignancy of birth
What raptures, what rare ecstasies we share—
Old,—ah, how old!—and yet forever new!
Clinton Scollard.
O God, how good Thou art! All Thy works praise Thee. The world is filled with Thy glory. This dawning Springtime brings Thee very near every responsive heart. Thou art the fountain of life. We see Thee in bursting bud and incipient bloom. We hear Thee in the rapture of birds and in the new-found gladness of sun-kissed rivulets. May we, the children of Thy love, be new born into a deeper spirituality,—a richer life! May the beauty of the Spirit breathing through our hearts call forth the latent goodness that slumbers there! Speak through us the music of Thy love. Perfume us with the odors of Thy heavenly grace, and may we walk this day in tune with Thee! Amen.
March 23
Work is the grand cure of all the maladies and miseries that ever beset mankind—honest work, which you intend getting done.
Thomas Carlyle.
Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do which must be done whether you like it or not. Being forced to work and forced to do your best will breed in you temperance, self-control, diligence, strength of will, content and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know.
Charles Kingsley.