Mary Wilder Tileston - Daily Strength for Daily Needs

January 20

The Lord taketh pleasure In His people: He will beautify the meek with salvation .—PS. cxlix. 4.

Long listening to Thy words,

My voice shall catch Thy tone,

And, locked in Thine, my hand shall grow

All loving like Thy own.

It is not in words explicable, with what divine lines and lights the exercise of godliness and charity will mould and gild the hardest and coldest countenance, neither to what darkness their departure will consign the loveliest. For there is not any virtue the exercise of which, even momentarily, will not impress a new fairness upon the features; neither on them only, but on the whole body the moral and intellectual faculties have operation, for all the movements and gestures, however slight, are different in their modes according to the mind that governs them—and on the gentleness and decision of right feeling follows grace of actions, and, through continuance of this, grace of form.

There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us.

January 21

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint .—ISA. xl. 30, 31.

Lord, with what courage and delight

I do each thing,

When Thy least breath sustains my wing!

I shine and move

Like those above,

And, with much gladness

Quitting sadness,

Make me fair days of every night.

Man, by living wholly in submission to the Divine Influence, becomes surrounded with, and creates for himself, internal pleasures infinitely greater than any he can otherwise attain to—a state of heavenly Beatitude.

By persisting in a habit of self-denial, we shall, beyond what I can express, increase the inward powers of the mind, and shall produce that cheerfulness and greatness of spirit as will fit us for all good purposes; and shall not have lost pleasure, but changed it; the soul being then filled with its own intrinsic pleasures.

January 22

Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord .—HOSEA vi. 3.

And, as the path of duty is made plain,

May grace be given that I may walk therein,

Not like the hireling, for his selfish gain,

With backward glances and reluctant tread,

Making a merit of his coward dread—

But, cheerful, in the light around me thrown,

Walking as one to pleasant service led;

Doing God's will as if it were my own,

Yet trusting not in mine, but in His strength alone!

It is by doing our duty that we learn to do it. So long as men dispute whether or no a thing is their duty, they get never the nearer. Let them set ever so weakly about doing it, and the face of things alters. They find in themselves strength which they knew not of. Difficulties which it seemed to them they could not get over, disappear. For He accompanies it with the influences of His blessed Spirit, and each performance opens our minds for larger influxes of His grace, and places them in communion with Him.

That which is called considering what is our duty in a particular case, is very often nothing but endeavoring to explain it away.

January 23

If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday; and the Lord shall guide thee continually .—ISA. lviii. 10, 11.

If thou hast Yesterday thy duty done,

And thereby cleared firm footing for To-day,

Whatever clouds make dark To-morrow's sun,

Thou shall not miss thy solitary way.

O Lord, who art our Guide even unto death, grant us, I pray Thee, grace to follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. In little daily duties to which Thou callest us, bow down our wills to simple obedience, patience under pain or provocation, strict truthfulness of word and manner, humility, kindness; in great acts of duty or perfection, if Thou shouldest call us to them, uplift us to self-sacrifice, heroic courage, laying down of life for Thy truth's sake, or for a brother. Amen.

January 24

I will bless the Lord, who bath given me counsel .—PS. xvi. 7.

Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord .—ROM. xii. 11.

Mine be the reverent, listening love

That waits all day on Thee,

With the service of a watchful heart

Which no one else can see.

Nothing is small or great in God's sight; whatever He wills becomes great to us, however seemingly trifling, and if once the voice of conscience tells us that He requires anything of us, we have no right to measure its importance. On the other hand, whatever He would not have us do, however important we may think it, is as nought to us.

How do you know what you may lose by neglecting this duty, which you think so trifling, or the blessing which its faithful performance may bring? Be sure that if you do your very best in that which is laid upon you daily, you will not be left without sufficient help when some weightier occasion arises. Give yourself to Him, trust Him, fix your eye upon Him, listen to His voice, and then go on bravely and cheerfully.

January 25

If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them .—JOHN xiii. 17.

Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin .—JAMES iv. 17.

We cannot kindle when we will

The fire that in the heart resides,

The spirit bloweth and is still,

In mystery our soul abides:

But tasks in hours of insight willed

Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled.

Hurt not your conscience with any known sin.

Deep-rooted customs, though wrong, are not easily altered; but it is the duty of all to be firm in that which they certainly know is right for them.

He often acts unjustly who does not do a certain thing; not only he who does a certain thing.

Every duty we omit obscures some truth we should have known.

January 26

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His—ways past finding out !—ROM. xi. 33.

It doth not yet appear what we shall be .—I JOHN iii. 2.

No star is ever lost we once have seen,

We always may be what we might have been.

Since Good, though only thought, has life and breath,

God's life—can always be redeemed from death;

And evil, in its nature, is decay,

And any hour can blot it all away;

The hopes that lost in some far distance seem,

May be the truer life, and this the dream.

St. Bernard has said: "Man, if thou desirest a noble and holy life, and unceasingly prayest to God for it, if thou continue constant in this thy desire, it will be granted unto thee without fail, even if only in the day or hour of thy death; and if God should not give it to thee then, thou shalt find it in Him in eternity: of this be assured." Therefore do not relinquish your desire, though it be not fulfilled immediately, or though ye may swerve from your aspirations, or even forget them for a time. … The love and aspiration which once really existed live forever before God, and in Him ye shall find the fruit thereof; that is, to all eternity it shall be better for you than if you had never felt them.