Where persons who ought to esteem and love each other are kept asunder, as often happens, by some cause which three words of frank explanation would remove, they are fortunate if they possess an indiscreet friend who blurts out the whole truth.

    —­Thomas B. Macaulay.

    Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted,
    Who did eat of my bread,
    Hath lifted up his heel against me.

    —­Psalm 41. 9.

Lord God, help me to consider more carefully what I offer to my friends; and may I not be critical of what I receive from my friends.  May I not be a hindrance instead of a help to those who would have my companionship.  Amen.

NOVEMBER THIRTEENTH

Sir John Moore born 1761.

Robert Louis Stevenson born 1850.

Sir John Forbes died 1861.

    Little do we know our own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a
    better thing than to arrive, and the True Success is to labor.

    —­Robert Louis Stevenson.

    Whether thy work be fine or coarse, planting corn or writing epics,
    so only it be honest work, done to thine own approbation, it shall
    earn a reward to sense as well as to the thought.

    —­Ralph Waldo Emerson.

    Nature gives to labor; and to labor alone.  In a very garden of Eden
    a man would starve but for human exertion.

    —­Henry George.

    But let each man prove his own work, and then shall he have his
    glorying in regard of himself alone, and not of his neighbor.

    —­Galatians 6. 4.

My Father, make pure living clear to me, that I may not be deceived in my work; and may I not use my working hours searching for more suitable work, but may I be sure in what I am that I may feel secure in what I undertake to do.  Amen.

NOVEMBER FOURTEENTH

Bishop Hoadley born 1676.

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel born 1805.

Robert Smythe Hichens born 1864.

    Give us, O give us, the man who sings at his work!  Be his occupation
    what it may, he is better than any of those who follow the same
    pursuit in silent sullenness.

    —­Thomas Carlyle.

What doctor possesses such curative resources as those latent in a single ray of hope?  The mainspring of life is in the heart.  Joy is the vital air of the soul, and grief is a kind of asthma complicated by atony.

    —­Amiel.

    I will sing unto Jehovah as long as I live: 
    I will sing praise to my God while I have any being.

    —­Psalm 104. 33.

Loving Father, restore the spirit of gentleness and meekness if it may be withered within me, that I may be contented.  May I make it a habit to be happy over my work and cheerful about my duties.  May I never lose the view of the glory of thy kingdom.  Amen.