Teaching us how to seek the highest goal,
      To earn the true success;
      To live to love, to bless,
    And make death proud to take a royal soul.

    —­Louisa M. Alcott.

      Nor is it
    Wiser to weep a true occasion lost,
    But trim our sails, and let old bygones be.

    —­Alfred Tennyson.

    In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before
    times eternal.

    —­Titus 1. 2.

Heavenly Father, I pray that I may live in truth; and without fear of life or death live content in the faith of eternal life.  Amen.

NOVEMBER THIRTIETH

Peregrine White born New England 1620.

Jonathan Swift born 1687.

Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) born 1835.

Winston Churchill born 1874.

He gave it for his opinion that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.

    —­Jonathan Swift.

    That man may last, but never lives,
    Who much receives, but nothing gives;
    Whom none can love, whom none can thank,—­
    Creation’s blot, creation’s blank.

    —­Thomas Gibbons.

    Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down,
    shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom.  For
    with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again.

    —­Luke 6. 38.

My Father, preserve my soul from all selfishness.  May I delight in thy teaching as I trust in thy word.  I pray that I may not only speak truthfully, but that I may leave the door of my spirit open, that truth may always enter and abide continually.  Amen.

DECEMBER

    He comes—­he comes—­the Frost Spirit comes: 
      You may trace his footsteps now
    On the naked woods and the blasted fields,
      And the brown hill’s withered brow. 
    He has smitten the leaves of the gray old trees,
      Where their green came forth,
    And the winds, which follow wherever he goes,
      Have shaken them down to earth.

    He comes—­he comes—­the Frost Spirit comes! 
      Let us meet him as we may,
    And turn with the light of the parlor fire
      His evil power away;
    And gather closer the circle round,
      Where the firelight dances high,
    And laugh at the shriek of the baffled fiend,
      As his sounding wing goes by.

    —­John G. Whittier.

DECEMBER FIRST

Dr. George Birkbeck died 1841.

Queen Alexandra born 1844.

R.W.  Dale born 1829.