Mary Wilder Tileston - Daily Strength for Daily Needs

O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me .—PS. xliii. 3.

Open our eyes, thou Sun of life and gladness,

That we may see that glorious world of Thine!

It shines for us in vain, while drooping sadness

Enfolds us here like mist; come, Power benign,

Touch our chilled hearts with vernal smile,

Our wintry course do Thou beguile,

Nor by the wayside ruins let us mourn,

Who have th' eternal towers for our appointed bourn.

Because all those scattered rays of beauty and loveliness which we behold spread up and down over all the world, are only the emanations of that inexhausted light which is above; therefore should we love them all in that, and climb up always by those sunbeams unto the eternal Father of lights: we should look upon Him, and take from Him the pattern of our lives, and always eying Him, should, as Hierocles speaks, "polish and shape our souls into the clearest resemblance of Him;" and in all our behavior in this world (that great temple of His) deport ourselves decently and reverently, with that humility, meekness, and modesty that becomes His house.

March 1

Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on .—MATT. vi. 25.

One there lives whose guardian eye

Guides our earthly destiny;

One there lives, who, Lord of all,

Keeps His children lest they fall;

Pass we, then, in love and praise,

Trusting Him through all our days,

Free from doubt and faithless sorrow—

God provideth for the morrow.

It has been well said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when to-morrow's burden is added to the burden of to-day that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never load yourselves so, my friends. If you find yourselves so loaded, at least remember this: it is your own doing, not God's. He begs you to leave the future to Him, and mind the present.

Cast thy burdens upon the Lord —hand it over, heave it upon Him— and He shall sustain thee ; shall bear both, if thou trust Him with both, both thee and thy burden: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved .

March 2

But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased .—HEB. xiii. 16.

For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another .—I JOHN iii. 11.

Be useful where thou livest, that they may

Both want and wish thy pleasing presence still.

… Find out men's wants and will,

And meet them there. All worldly joys go less

To the one joy of doing kindnesses.

Let the weakest, let the humblest remember, that in his daily course he can, if he will, shed around him almost a heaven. Kindly words, sympathizing attentions, watchfulness against wounding men's sensitiveness—these cost very little, but they are priceless in their value. Are they not almost the staple of our daily happiness? From hour to hour, from moment to moment, we are supported, blest, by small kindnesses.

Small kindnesses, small courtesies, small considerations, habitually practised in our social intercourse, give a greater charm to the character than the display of great talents and accomplishments.

March 3

I made haste, and delayed not to keep Thy commandments .—PS. cxix. 60.

Ye know not what shall be on the morrow .—JAMES iv. 14.

Never delay

To do the duty which the hour brings,

Whether it be in great or smaller things;

For who doth know

What he shall do the coming day?

It is quite impossible that an idle, floating spirit can ever look up with clear eye to God; spreading its miserable anarchy before the symmetry of the creative Mind; in the midst of a disorderly being, that has neither centre nor circumference, kneeling beneath the glorious sky, that everywhere has both; and for a life that is all failure, turning to the Lord of the silent stars, of whose punctual thought it is, that "not one faileth." The heavens, with their everlasting faithfulness, look down on no sadder contradiction, than the sluggard and the slattern in their prayers.

March 4

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, and their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace .—WISDOM OF SOLOMON iii. 1–3.

But souls that of His own good life partake,

He loves as His own self; dear as His eye

They are to Him: He 'll never them forsake:

When they shall die, then God Himself shall die;

They live, they live in blest eternity.

Though every good man is not so logically subtile as to be able by fit mediums to demonstrate his own immortality, yet he sees it in a higher light: his soul, being purged and enlightened by true sanctity, is more capable of those divine irradiations, whereby it feels itself in conjunction with God. It knows that God will never forsake His own life which He hath quickened in it; He will never deny those ardent desires of a blissful fruition of Himself, which the lively sense of His own goodness hath excited within it: those breathings and gaspings after an eternal participation of Him are but the energy of His own breath within us; if He had had any mind to destroy it, He would never have shown it such things as He hath done.

March 5

And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure .—I JOHN iii. 3.

Now, Lord, what wait I for?

On Thee alone

My hope is all rested—

Lord, seal me Thine own!

Only Thine own to be,

Only to live to Thee.

Thine, with each day begun,

Thine, with each set of sun,

Thine, till my work is done.

Now, believe me, God hides some ideal in every human soul. At some time in our life we feel a trembling, fearful longing to do some good thing. Life finds its noblest spring of excellence in this hidden impulse to do our best. There is a time when we are not content to be such merchants or doctors or lawyers as we see on the dead level or below it. The woman longs to glorify her womanhood as sister, wife, or mother. Here is God—God standing silently at the door all day long—God whispering to the soul, that to be pure and true is to succeed in life, and whatever we get short of that will burn up like stubble, though the whole world try to save it.

March 6

The shadow of a great rock in a weary land .—ISA. xxxii. 2.

In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength .—ISA. xxx. 15.

O Shadow in a sultry land!

We gather to Thy breast,

Whose love, enfolding like the night,

Brings quietude and rest,

Glimpse of the fairer life to be,

In foretaste here possessed.

Strive to see God in all things without exception, and-acquiesce in His will with absolute submission. Do everything for God, uniting yourself to Him by a mere upward glance, or by the overflowing of your heart towards Him. Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inward peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset. Commend all to God, and then lie still and be at rest in His bosom. Whatever happens, abide steadfast in a determination to cling simply to God, trusting to His eternal love for you; and if you find that you have wandered forth from this shelter, recall your heart quietly and simply. Maintain a holy simplicity of mind, and do not smother yourself with a host of cares, wishes, or longings, under any pretext.