SARA ANDREW SHAFER.

Father in Heaven, we love Thee, we cannot help it. Thy blessings around us on every side tell us of Thy love. Our love leaps involuntarily from our hearts responsive to these numberless delights. We thank Thee for the rich harvests that burden the fields, for the acres of beauty that reach over hill and through meadow, for the stars that make cheerful the night. Help us to bless Thee when the storms come to disappoint and destroy. May we realize that the tempest comes from the Good Father, that He has sent it, a great blessing in disguise. Great Father, help us to know and feel that everything coming from Thee is good. So may Thy Kingdom come to Thy children of earth. Amen.

CHARLES EDWARD DAVIS.

September 15

_Once, out of all the anguish and the sorrow of my heart, I wrote a song, and put my pent-up pa.s.sion in its art.

And the great world never heeded this soulful human groan, For it bore a burden infinitely heavy of its own._

_Once, out of all the happiness and joy within my breast, I made a little song and blithely sent it on its quest.

And the great world, with its infinitely many joys, divine, Still had room and instant welcome for this little song of mine._

WILLIAM F. DIX.

O G.o.d, I thank Thee that Thou hast numbered me with the children of the day. O Immanuel, make Thy Presence to be a sun within me this day. May I dispel clouds or reveal the rainbows ever half-hidden in robes of mists.

May I melt snows and bring spring-time freshets of joy. May I shed light that shall turn groans into songs. May I shine on till I shall stand before the Great White Throne that is encompa.s.sed with an unbroken rainbow, and take up the angelic music among that starry host of souls who have found the true "music of the spheres," and are:

"Forever singing as they shine, 'The hand that made us is divine.'"

Amen.

ELLIOTT F. STUDLEY.

September 16

_All is best, though we oft doubt What the unsearchable dispose Of highest wisdom brings about, And ever best found in the close.

Oft He seems to hide His face, But unexpectedly returns, And to his faithful champion hath in place Bore witness gloriously._

JOHN MILTON.

Our Father, we have ever dwelt in Thee, though sometimes we have forgotten it. While our eyes slept, it may be that to our spirit's sight a ladder was set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven, and on it Thy angels were ascending and descending to help us. Now again, O Father, comes to us from Thy hand of love the food and the tasks of a new day. Help us then to put away the error from which we fled or should have fled yesterday. This morning let us set up the stone of our Bethel that through the day we may be reminded in all we do, that Thou art in this place with us. Whether we see Thee or not, let us take courage and make this a day nearer Thee. Fill us with Jesus' own large sympathies for others, with Jesus' purpose to seek and to serve the right, and especially grant us Jesus' complete trust in Thy perfect goodness. In His name, we ask it. Amen.

MERRILL C. WARD.

September 17

_As far as earth is from the sky, So Love is high.

Where Alpine lakes their vigils keep Is Love more deep._

_In Nature there no boundaries are That tell how far Love goes; Love's measure, as each countless star, G.o.d knows._

_One only thing we know: Love comes to stay; Though G.o.d's to give, it is not even His To take away._

MARIAN ALDEN.

O G.o.d, our Heavenly Father, we recognize our dependence upon Thee for the bounties of Thy never-failing Providence, and as we enter upon this new day to which Thou has safely brought us, we ask Thy help that we may receive it as a gift from Thee and may consecrate ourselves more perfectly in the least things as well as in the greatest, to Thy service. Help us to be faithful to all the duties and responsibilities of our lot. Deliver us from all useless discontent, all idle doubts and foolish fears. In all our dealings may we be simple and sincere.

Strengthen us to do at every moment that which we feel to be right and good in Thy sight, and through loyal obedience to Thy will may we rise into a clearer vision of the things that belong to Thy heavenly kingdom.

Amen.

WILLIAM H. FISH.

September 18

_Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns. I am thankful that thorns have roses._

ALPHONSE KARR.

_There are those who want to get away from all their past; who if they could, would fain begin all over again. Their life seems one long failure. But you must learn, you must let G.o.d teach you, that the only way to get rid of your past is to get a future out of it._

PHILLIPS BROOKS.

Our Heavenly Father, the remembrance of Thee fills life with all that is most beautiful and bright. Our deepest sorrows, our most bitter experiences come when we forget Thee. No life can be a failure which strives to do Thy will. Sorrow may come to us, but just as an artist may darken a flower, in painting, before retouching it to make its color all the brighter, so we know that Thou, who givest color to the flowers, may for a season permit sorrow to darken our lives; but Thou art only in the midst of Thy work. At Thy retouch, life becomes the more beautiful. Help us to pray, not simply, "Lord, remember me," for it is not possible for Thee to forget Thy children; we pray "a.s.sist us to be always mindful of Thee." Amen.

E. MCP. AMEE.

September 19

_The sooner we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest a little Eastern apothegm of Howard Hinton's the better: Two b.a.l.l.s were together in a box, a gold and a gilt ball. The gilt ball was carefully done up in tissue paper, and securely wedged into one corner; but the gold ball was loose, and went rolling about with every movement of the box. "Oh, please, do take care of yourself!"

said the gilt ball, peeping out apprehensively from the folds of the tissue paper. "Why, where's the harm?" answered the gold ball, as it took a fresh lurch to an opposite corner. "Oh, how can you?"

cried the other; "you'll rub it off." "Rub what off?" asked the gold ball.... The gold won't rub off.... Only the gingerbread gilt._

ELLICE HOPKINS.

Heavenly Father, we hear the loving call of this new day and on the wings of the morning we would speed to the work and worship of the beautiful hours Thou hast given us. We thank Thee that Thou hast made us for the hurry of the market place as well as for the quiet of the home.

May our own lives be brightened by contact with our fellowmen. May the pure gold of the Spirit of Christ be ours in purity of personal thought, in the benediction of words of strength and sweetness and in the varied service we may render our neighbors in the name of Jesus our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

JAMES F. ALLEN.

September 20

_O heart of mine, we shouldn't worry so!

What we've missed of calm we couldn't have, you know!

What we've met of stormy pain, And of sorrow's driving rain, We can better meet again, If it blow!_

_For we know, not every morrow can be sad; So, forgetting all the sorrow We have had, Let us fold away our fears, And put by our childish tears, And through all the coming years, Just be glad._

JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY.

Heavenly Father, Thy very name fills our hearts with confidence and peace. For we know that out of Thy Fatherly goodness all earthly providences are bestowed and administered for our good. So, for our unwilling submission, when Thou hast led us into hard and th.o.r.n.y pathways, we ask Thy generous forgiveness; and for our ingrat.i.tude when pleasure and prosperity have attended us, we entreat Thy tender patience. As Thou hast commanded us to rejoice in Thy salvation, may our hearts be filled with gladness to-day; and, as Thou hast counselled us that when we lack wisdom, we may ask of Thee, we beseech Thee to bestow upon us now and evermore the wisdom of cheerfulness and joy. In the name of Jesus, Amen.