Algernon Charles Swinburne.
Life is fuller and sweeter for every fulness and sweetness that we take knowledge of. And to him that hath, cannot help being given from everything.
Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney.
Infinite Love and Beauty, who stirrest in the tiniest seed that breaks its earthly shell to greet the light and warmth of thy beneficence and round its life in blade and flower and ripened fruit,—awake in us, we pray, that we may burst the casements of our dead selves and live to bear the fruits of completed lives. Be love alone our creed and service our crown; and in the sweetness and light of these twin ministers draw Thou us on, until having taken full knowledge of the fulness and sweetness of our Lord the Christ, we shall have measured in our spiritual stature, His perfect manliness and strength. Thus shall we have indeed and to us shall be given from everything. Amen.
June 14
He fails who climbs to power and place
Up the pathway of disgrace.
He fails not who makes truth his cause,
Nor bends to win the crowd's applause.
He fails not, he who stakes his all
Upon the right and dares to fall.
What though the living bless or blame,
For him the long success of fame!
Richard Watson Gilder.
Our Heavenly Father, help us when we fail to see and know the truth and its blessed influence for good. Help us to combat bravely the evil in the world and to look to Thee for encouragement and success. Help us, if we fail, to regain our footing and to reach the higher because of the effort which Thy love prompts. We gratefully accept the power which Thy wisdom gives and thank Thee for the opportunity to use its strength. Be Thou our guide and we shall fear no failure, nor overestimate the worth of success. So shall we "rejoice in the Lord always,"—in failure because of Thy help and in success because of Thine approval. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Redeemer. Amen.