—­John Ruskin.

    Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, Neither will he uphold
    the evildoers.  He will yet fill thy mouth with laughter, And thy
    lips with shouting.

    —­Job 8. 20, 21.

Almighty God, help me to understand that peace does not come in rebellion or grieving, but is obtained through the calm of the soul.  Grant that if I may be perplexed or worried to-day, I may have the power to control myself and wait in thy strength.  Amen.

JANUARY NINTH

Dr. Thomas Brown born 1778.

Elizabeth O. Benger died 1822.

Caroline Lucretia Herschel died 1848, aged ninety-seven.

    Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness altogether past calculation
    its powers of endurance.  Efforts to be permanently useful must be
    uniformly joyous—­a spirit of all sunshine.

    —­Thomas Carlyle.

    Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting.

    —­Washington Irving.

    A laugh is worth a hundred groans in any market.

    —­Charles Lamb.

    A glad heart maketh a cheerful countenance; But by sorrow of heart
    the spirit is broken.

    Better is a dinner of herbs, where love is, Than a stalled ox and
    hatred therewith.

    —­Proverbs 15. 13, 17.

Gracious Father, if I am sorrowing over disappointment and am forgetful, grant that I may see the things thou hast made, for which I should be thankful.  Help me to so live that I may have a right to claim a cheerful heart.  Amen.

JANUARY TENTH

Dr. George Birkbeck born 1776.

Michel or Marshal Ney born 1769.

Karl von Linne, Linnaeus, died 1778.

Ethan Allen born 1737.

    Shall I hold on with both hands to every paltry possession?  All I
    have teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.

    —­Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The practical weakness of the vast mass of modern pity for the poor and the oppressed is precisely that it is merely pity; the pity is pitiful but not respectful.  Men feel that the cruelty to the poor is a kind of cruelty to animals.  They never feel that it is injustice to equals; nay, it is treachery to comrades.

    —­G.K.  Chesterton.

    Be ye all like-minded, compassionate, loving as brethren,
    tender-hearted, humble-minded:  not rendering evil for evil, or
    reviling for reviling; but contrariwise blessing.

    —­1 Peter 3. 8, 9.

God of justice, may I pause to remember that while I may do a mean act and keep it hidden from others, I cannot keep it hidden from myself, nor from thee.  Help me to have a nobler sense of the quality of life, and less anxiety for the quantity, that I may avoid harshness and selfishness, and be given to tenderness and justice.  Amen.