Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty! early in the morning we approach unto Thee. The whole round of creation is burdened with the exuberance of Thy life, and everywhere is hallowed ground. We come with unshod feet. The sun, mighty minister of Thy great goodness, flooding the world with light and piercing all things with his fiery arrows, calls back to life the sleeping earth, and assures us that we are partakers of Thy light and Thy love and Thy life. O most glorious God! may these Thy mercies, fresh every morning, be with us through the day to strengthen us to do Thy will, we ask in the name of Him who came that we may have life and have it abundantly. Amen.
June 21
Man hath much need of courage; and need to brace
His spiritual nerve in solitude;
Self-trusting, self-sustained, and self-imbued;
Seeking God in his own heart's secret place.
To perfect self, and in that self embrace
The triune essence of truth, beauty, and good;
This is fulfilment, this beatitude
Throned high above base fears and hopes more base.
What shall it profit us, if, gaining all
The privilege of priest-made paradise,
We lose therewith our self which is the soul?
And wherefore should we shrink from even the fall,
If haply we should fail with steadfast eyes
Fixed only on so bright, so pure a goal?
John Addington Symonds.
Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the gift of a new day, for the tasks which it brings, and for the strength with which we rise to its requirements. Help us, through all this day, to remember Thee. Thou art our strength, our guide, our inspiration. Fill us with the courage born of faith. Let us feel that, seeking to do right, we shall be moved and aided by an unseen Power. In all our experiences this day, help us to speak the truth, to be loyal to friendship, to be steadfast in principle, to fight the good fight and to keep the faith. Bless our endeavors to give heart and hope to other souls; and grant them the presence of Thy loving spirit. Amen.
June 22
Let a man start out at breakneck speed in the morning, pushing and driving and hurrying as if it were a matter of life and death to accomplish a given task before noon, and he will generally end by working himself into a fever of anxiety and harassing care before night, and the man who, under any pretext whatsoever, whether for the sake of wealth or learning or pleasure, has pursued this mad, rushing, whirling method of life for fifteen or twenty years, will find himself thoroughly disqualified for the normal enjoyment of life thenceforward to the end of his days.
George L. Perin.