My Father, help me to avoid the critical spirit that leans toward injustice.  Grant that none may be made despondent waiting for my mercy; but through forgiveness may I inspire confidence in those who have made mistakes, and influence them to a better life.  Amen.

JULY ELEVENTH

Robert de Bruce born 1274.

Jean Marmontel born 1723.

John Quincy Adams, Massachusetts, sixth President
United States, born 1767.

Susan Warner (E.  Wetherell) born 1819.

    A friend to chide me when I’m wrong,
      My inmost soul to see: 
    And that my friendship prove as strong
      For him as his for me.

    —­John Quincy Adams.

    Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can: 
    this is the service of a friend.

    —­Ralph Waldo Emerson.

    It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear
    the song of fools.  For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is
    the laughter of the fool.

    —­Ecclesiastes 7. 5, 6.

My Father and Friend, who calleth me to check the progress of the wrong, make me submissive and eager for what is right, that I may learn and uphold to others thy purposes and desires.  Amen.

JULY TWELFTH

Caius Julius Caesar born B.C. 100.

Josiah Wedgwood born 1730.

Alexander Hamilton killed 1804.

Henry David Thoreau born 1817.

Clara Louise Kellogg born 1842.

Each reaching and aspiration is an instinct with which all nature consists and cooperates, and therefore it is not in vain.  If a man believes and expects great things of himself it makes no odds where you put him, he will be surrounded by grandeur.

    —­Henry David Thoreau.

    If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be
    lost—­that is where they should be:  now put foundations under them.

    —­Henry David Thoreau.

He is like a man building a house, who digged and went deep, and laid a foundation upon the rock:  and when a flood arose, the stream brake against that house, and could not shake it:  because it had been well builded.

    —­Luke 6. 48.

Lord of strength, I pray that while I may lay a strong foundation for my life, I may remember that I should not delay the building by neglecting to complete the plans.  May I look to-day and see if I am making my words stronger than my life.  With thy wisdom help me to realize that the test of life is made with the soul.  Amen.

JULY THIRTEENTH

Richard Cromwell died 1712.

Elijah Fenton died 1730.

Jean Paul Marat killed by Charlotte Corday 1793.