Life is made sweeter,
      Truly worth living;
    Love is completer,
      Trusting, forgiving.

    —­M.B.S.

    In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another; in
    honor preferring one another.

    —­Romans 12. 10.

Loving Father, I thank thee that every morn breaks in a new day without the sadness of yesterday or the gladness of to-morrow.  I pray that I may not lose the love and joy that it brings to-day.  Amen.

DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD

Michael Drayton died 1631.

Robert Barclay born 1648.

James Sargent Storer died 1854.

    When heaven endows you with all gifts, you are an incomplete being
    if you stay still in your corner instead of taking advantage of your
    real value.

    —­Marie Bashkirtseff.

Life, which ought to be a thing complete in itself, and ought to be spent partly in gathering materials, and partly in drawing inferences, is apt to be a hurried accumulation lasting to the edge of the tomb.  We are put into the world, I cannot help feeling, to be rather than do.

    —­Arthur C. Benson.

    Jehovah is the strength of my life.

    —­Psalm 27. 1.

Heavenly Father, I pray that thou wilt reverse my standards of life if I may be striving only for selfish gain.  May I care for all that I could be, and may I care for where I should be found, but, most of all, may I care for what I really am.  Help me to keep my mind on thee that I may find delight in doing thy will.  Amen.

DECEMBER TWENTY-FOURTH

George Crabbe born 1754.

Kit Carson born 1809.

Matthew Arnold born 1822.

John Morley born 1838.

William Makepeace Thackeray died 1863.

    Ah, friend, let us be true
      To one another!  For the world, which seems
      To lie before us like a land of dreams,
    So various, so beautiful, so new,
    Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
      Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain,
      And we are here as on a darkling plain
    Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
    Where ignorant armies clash by night.

    —­Matthew Arnold.

    We take care of our health, we lay up money, we make our roof tight
    and our clothing sufficient, but who provides wisely that we shall
    not be wanting in the best property of all—­friends?

    —­Ralph Waldo Emerson.

    Faithful are the wounds of a friend.

    —­Proverbs 27. 6.

Gracious Lord, fill my life with the spirit of love and sacrifice.  I bless thee for the deep fellowships and tender intimacies; and on the eve of this Christmas ask thy blessing for all, as my heart rings with joy for those whom I love.  Amen.