All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto
    you, even so do ye also unto them.

    —­Matthew 7. 12.

My Lord and my strength, I pray that I may possess that expectancy which comes in joyous hope and have the endurance that is controlled by courage and energy.  Grant in the future that I may be less concerned about my living and more anxious for what I make of my life.  Amen.

JULY EIGHTEENTH

William Makepeace Thackeray born 1811.

Jane Austen died 1817.

Jean Antoine Watteau died 1721.

    Learn to admire rightly:  the great pleasure of life is that.  Note
    what great men admired; they admired great things; narrow spirits
    admire basely and worship meanly.

    —­W.M.  Thackeray.

Our thoughts are often more than we are, just as they are often better than we are.  And God sees us as we are altogether, and not in separate feelings or actions, as our fellow men see us.  We are always doing each other injustice, and thinking better or worse of each other than we deserve, because we only hear separate feelings or actions.  We don’t see each other’s whole nature.

    —­George Eliot.

    The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; and the desert shall
    rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

    —­Isaiah 35. 1.

Eternal God, may I become more like thee.  Give me the desire to associate myself with people and places where the divine spirit is supreme.  May my soul breathe in the influence of all that is good and true; and may I use my life for thy honor and praise.  Amen.

JULY NINETEENTH

John Martin born 1789.

Samuel Colt born 1814.

Charles Victor Cherbuliez born 1829.

    In love, if love be love, if love be ours,
    Faith and unfaith can ne’er be equal powers: 
    Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.

    It is the little rift within the lute
    That by and by will make the music mute,
    And ever widening slowly silence all. 
    The little rift within the lover’s lute,
    Or little pitted speck in garner’d fruit,
    That rotting inward slowly molders all.

    It is not worth the keeping:  let it go: 
    But shall it?  Answer, darling, answer no. 
    And trust me not at all or all in all.

    —­Alfred Tennyson.

    Take us the foxes, the little foxes,
    That spoil the vineyards;
    For our vineyards are in blossom.

    —­Song of Solomon 2. 15.

Loving Father, help me to put away the distractions and cares that make me discontented.  Grant that I may not set myself in “gilded pride” and keep out the precious things of life.  Help me to abandon doubt and suspicion, and keep the faith that is happy to believe and willing to forgive.  Amen.