Leaves of Life

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY SIXTEENTH

Edmund Spenser died 1599.
Johann August Neander born 1789.
Edward Gibbon died 1794.
Sir John Moore died 1809.

But lovely concord, and most sacred peace,
Doth nourish vertue, and fast friendship breeds;
Weake she makes strong, and strong thing does increase,
Till it the pitch of highest praise exceeds.
--Edmund Spenser.

Perfect good-breeding is the result of nature and not of education; for it may be found in a cottage, and may be missed in a palace. 'Tis the genial regard for the feeling of others that springs from an absence of selfishness.
--Disraeli.

Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither can salt water yield sweet.
--James 3. 12.

Heavenly Father, help me to value my thoughts, words, and deeds. If at the close of the day, there may be one who has been wounded by my injustice, may I be willing to make quick atonement. May I avoid the ways and words that hurt; and not only wish rightly and work rightly, but speak to enrich others with tenderness. Amen.

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY SEVENTEENTH

John Ray died 1705.
Benjamin Franklin born 1706.
George Bancroft died 1891.

Employ thy time well if thou meanest to gain leisure; and since thou art not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour! Leisure is time for doing something useful; this leisure the diligent man will obtain, but the lazy man never; a life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things.
--Benjamin Franklin.

There is nothing to gain and everything to lose by despising the example of nature, and making arbitrary rules for oneself. Our liberty wisely understood is but a voluntary obedience to the universal laws of life.
--Amiel.

I will meditate on thy precepts,
And have respect unto thy ways.
--Psalm 119. 15.

My Father, help me to understand the power of nature, that I may be willing to obey her laws. I pray that I may so live that my life will proclaim itself without need of boasting or deception. Forbid that I should spend my life in perfecting trifles, and have no leisure to enjoy thy great gifts. Amen.

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY EIGHTEENTH

Charles de Montesquieu born 1689.
John Gillies born 1747.
Daniel Webster born 1782.

We would leave for the consideration of those who shall occupy our places some proof that we hold the blessings transmitted from our fathers in just estimation; some proof of our attachment to the cause of good government and of civil and religious liberty; some proof of a sincere and ardent desire to promote every thing which may enlarge the understanding and improve the hearts of men.
--Daniel Webster.

Brother and friend, the world is wide,
But I care not whether there be
The soothing song of a summer tide
Or the thrash of a wintry sea,
If but through shimmer and storm you bide,
Brother and friend, with me.
--Percy C. Ainsworth.

Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the King.
--1 Peter 2. 17.

Almighty God, I thank thee for all the tender influences of life; for all the gentleness and strength that may be given and received through friendship. Help me to be careful of what I do, for my sake, and for the sake of those who may follow me. Amen.

[Judy Harder]

NINETEENTH

Hans Sachs died 1576.
William Congreve died 1729.
James Watt born 1736.
Robert E. Lee born 1807.
Edgar Allan Poe born 1809.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand--
How few! Yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep--while I weep!
O God, can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
--Edgar Allan Poe.

Do not train up your children in hostility to the government of the United States. Remember that we are one country now. Dismiss from your mind all sectional feeling, and bring them up to be Americans.
--Robert E. Lee.

Wait for Jehovah: Be strong, and let thy heart take courage; Yea, wait thou for Jehovah.
--Psalm 27. 14.

Lord God, I pray that if I have struggled for the wrong, and have worked with weak hands, thou wilt forgive me for my lost strength. Give me more light to shine upon my work, upon thy promises, and upon my duties; and with thy wisdom may I search for the truth that is behind every wrong, and for the purpose that is beyond all journeyings. Amen.

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY TWENTIETH

Eve of Saint Agnes.
David Garrick died 1779.
John Howard died 1790.
John Ruskin died 1900.
Nathaniel P. Willis born 1806.

How like a mounting devil in the heart
Rules the unreigned ambition! Let it once
But play the monarch, and its haughty brow
Glows with a beauty that bewilders thought
And unthrones peace forever. Putting on
The very pomp of Lucifer, it turns
The heart to ashes.
--Nathaniel P. Willis.

Temperance, in the nobler sense, does not mean a subdued and imperfect energy; it does not mean a stopping short in any good thing, as love or in faith; but it means the power which governs the most intense energy, and prevents its acting in any way but as it ought.
--John Ruskin.

And thy gentleness hath made me great.
--Psalm 18. 35.

Gracious Father, I pray that I may be willing to profit by the experience of great teachers, and appreciate the value of strong principles. May I too live for the higher ideals of life, and through a sympathetic response add power and virtue to other lives, while gaining strength for my own. Amen.

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY TWENTY-FIRST

Miles Coverdale died 1568.
John Fitch born 1743.
John C. Fremont born 1813.
Thomas Erskine born 1750.
Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson born 1824.

So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend.
--Robert L. Stevenson.

So to the calmly gathered thought
The innermost of life is taught,
The mystery dimly understood,
That love of God is love of good:
That to be saved is only this--
Salvation from our selfishness.
--John Greenleaf Whittier.

Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: love therefore is the fulfillment of the law. And this, knowing the season, that already it is time for you to awake out of sleep: for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed.
--Romans 13. 10, 11.

Tender Father, may I not attempt to serve life for my own gratification. May I not interpret love through vanity, but from reality. Make me worth while, that I may be relied upon for my pledges, and needed for my services. Amen.

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY TWENTY-SECOND

Andrea del Sarto died 1531.
Francis Bacon born 1561.
Lord George Byron born 1788.
Queen Victoria died 1901.

Father of light! to thee I call,
My soul is dark within:
Thou who canst mark the sparrow's fall,
Avert the death of sin,
Thou who canst guide the wandering star,
Who calm'st the elemental war,
Whose mantle is yon boundless sky,
My thoughts, my words, my crimes forgive;
And since I soon must cease to live,
Instruct me how to die.
--Lord Byron.

Knowledge, whether it descend from divine inspiration or spring from human sense, would soon perish and vanish to oblivion if it were not preserved in books, traditions, conferences, and places appointed.
--Francis Bacon.

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein.
--Revelation 1. 3.

Almighty God, I would have thy counsel as I read the words and follow the deeds of helpful lives, that I may be inspired to nobler activities. Give me the desire to know more of thy holy word, that I may have a better knowledge of life. Amen.

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY TWENTY-THIRD

John Hancock born 1737.
William Pitt died 1806.
Charles Kingsley died 1875.
Paul Gustave Doré died 1883.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful. Welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower, and thank Him for it, who is the fountain of all loveliness.
--Charles Kingsley.

Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege
Through all the years of this life, to lead,
From joy to joy; for she can so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
      *      *      *      *      *
Nor all the dreary intercourse of daily life,
Shall e'er prevail against us or disturb
    Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
Is full of blessings.
--William Wordsworth.

Is not God in the height of heaven?
And behold the height of the stars, how high they are!
And thou sayest, What doth God know?
Can he judge through the thick darkness?
--Job 22. 12, 13.

Lord God, I pray that I may not overlook thy blessings of beauty while endeavoring to perform my duties. Guide me that I may not struggle to be where thou wouldst not have me go. Amen.

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY TWENTY-FOURTH

Charles Earl of Dorset born 1637.
Frederick the Great born 1712.
Charles James Fox born 1749.

The great Gods pass through the great Time-hall,
Stately and high;
The little men climb the low clay wall
To gape and spy;
"We wait for the Gods," the little men cry,
"But these are our brothers passing by."
The great Gods pass through the great Time-hall;
Who can see?
The little men nod by the low clay wall,
So tired they be;
'"Tis weary waiting for Gods," they yawn,
"There's a world o' men, but the Gods are gone."
--A.H. Begbie.

But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. --Luke 24. 16.

My Father, may I be careful of getting weary and missing the best through the need of rest. Intensify my desire for the songs and glorious ways, that I may not settle into dullness and slumber, while others pass on in the light. I pray for a keener sense of the possessions made possible by the deeds and cares of noble men and women. Amen.

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY TWENTY-FOURTH

Charles Earl of Dorset born 1637.
Frederick the Great born 1712.
Charles James Fox born 1749.

The great Gods pass through the great Time-hall,
Stately and high;
The little men climb the low clay wall
To gape and spy;
"We wait for the Gods," the little men cry,
"But these are our brothers passing by."
The great Gods pass through the great Time-hall;
Who can see?
The little men nod by the low clay wall,
So tired they be;
'"Tis weary waiting for Gods," they yawn,
"There's a world o' men, but the Gods are gone."
--A.H. Begbie.

But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. --Luke 24. 16.

My Father, may I be careful of getting weary and missing the best through the need of rest. Intensify my desire for the songs and glorious ways, that I may not settle into dullness and slumber, while others pass on in the light. I pray for a keener sense of the possessions made possible by the deeds and cares of noble men and women. Amen.