George MacDonald.
Our Father, in the gratitude of loved and loving children we thank Thee for life and all the faith and hope and love Thy goodness has awakened in our souls. For the splendors of the world and the greater splendor of the mind radiant with Thy love, we bow in rapture and adoration. Overwhelmed at times by the mysteries and vicissitudes of life, we will trust Thy will to lead us out of darkness into the light of Thine informing spirit of truth and wisdom. Conscious of our weakness and needs, we rejoice that strength and supply are assured to us in the permanence of Thy Fatherhood. Lead us more and ever more to realize that in Thee we live and move and have our being. Amen.
June 6
When a feller goes a-huntin' for a rose
He shouldn't be a-thinkin' of the thorn;
He must woo it, he must win it—
Where his heart beats he must pin it
An' breathe the breath that's in it
Every morn!
When a feller goes a-huntin' for a rose
He shouldn't see the thorn beneath its breast,
But for all its thorny foes.
Red and reckless,—one poor rose
Is sweet enough, God knows,
For the best.
Frank L. Stanton.
O Lord, our God, so great is our life we may find that for which we look,—the good or the bad. Send us into this day with eyes searching for the good. Beholding it may we admire it and admiring it we shall become like it changed into the same image from character to character by the Spirit. May we be more concerned to do right than not to do wrong. Save us from a humility that is weakness and give us largeness of life without pride. May we want nothing so much as opportunity,—opportunity to be, to do, to suffer. May we not strive for bigness but for fitness and may our reception of the Christ be our forgiveness and our salvation for His name's sake. Amen.
June 7
The beauty of work depends upon the way we meet it,—whether we arm ourselves each morning to attack it as an enemy that must be vanquished before night comes, or whether we open our eyes with the sunrise to welcome it as an approaching friend who will keep us delightful company all day, and who will make us feel at evening, that the day was well worth its fatigues.