Let me no wrong or idle word
          Unthinking say;
    Set thou a seal upon my lips
          Through all to-day. 
    Let me in season, Lord, be grave,
          In season gay;
    Let me be faithful to thy grace,
          Dear Lord, to-day.

    —­Ernest Wilberforce.

    And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure
    of his life?

    —­Matthew 6. 27.

My Lord, I pray that thou wilt control my life, and bless the going out of my work, be it ever so great or small.  Help me to realize the necessity of earnestness, that I may “work while it is to-day,” and I have the light, and not wait for the night, when it is too dark for work to be done.  May I be faithful in my work until it is completed.  Amen.

AUGUST TWENTY-SEVENTH

William Woollett born 1735.

James Thomson died 1748.

George W. F. Hegel born 1770.

    Who are thy playmates, boy? 
    “My favorite is joy,
    Who brings with him his sister Peace, to stay
    The livelong day. 
    I love them both; but he
    Is most to me!”

    And where are thy playmates now,
    O man of sober brow? 
    “Alas! dear joy, the merriest is dead,
    But I have wed
    Peace; and our babe, a boy
    Newborn, is joy.”

    —­John B. Tabb.

    Depart from evil, and do good;
    Seek peace, and pursue it.

    —­Psalm 34. 14.

Lord God, may I realize more my dependence on thee for the joys of life.  I pray that as I accept thy gifts I will not neglect to take the peace and happiness which thou dost give with them.  Grant that I may have the bright hope and cheerful courage that is the experience of power and truth.  Amen.

AUGUST TWENTY-EIGHTH

Johann W. von Goethe born 1749.

Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel born 1809.

Jones Very born 1813.

Count Lyoff (Leo) Tolstoy born 1828.

Sir Edward Burne-Jones born 1833.

Leigh Hunt died 1859.

    All truly wise thoughts have been already thought a thousand times;
    but to make them truly ours we must think them over again honestly,
    till they take firm root in our personal experience.

    —­Goethe.

    The light that fills thy house at morn
      Thou canst not for thyself retain;
    But all who with thee here are born
      It bids to share an equal gain.

    The wave, the blue encircling wave,
      No chain can bind, no fetter hold;
    Its thunders tell of Him who gave
      What none can ever buy for gold.

    —­Jones Very.

    And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them

    —­John 17. 22.