Chapter C: Wesley

It requires far more of the constraining love of Christ to love our cousins and neighbors as members of the heavenly family, than to feel the heart warm to our suffering brethren in Tuscany or Madeira. To love the whole Church is one thing; to love--that is, to delight in the graces and veil the defects--of the person who misunderstood me and opposed my plans yesterday, whose peculiar infirmities grate on my most sensitive feelings, or whose natural faults are precisely those from which my natural character most revolts, is quite another.

ELIZABETH CHARLES.

April 13

_In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us_.--ROM. viii. 37.

Thus my soul before her God
Lieth still, nor speaketh more,
Conqueror thus o'er pain and wrong,
That once smote her to the core;
Like a silent ocean, bright
With her God's great praise and light.

J. J. WINCKLER.

My mind is forever closed against embarrassment and perplexity, against uncertainty, doubt, and anxiety; my heart against grief and desire. Calm and unmoved, I look down on all things, for I know that I cannot explain a single event, nor comprehend its connection with that which alone concerns me. In His world all things prosper; this satisfies me, and in this belief I stand fast as a rock. My breast is steeled against annoyance on account of personal offences and vexations, or exultation in personal merit; for my whole personality has disappeared in the contemplation of the purpose of my being.

J. G. FICHTE.

April 14

_All thing are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's_.--I COR. iii. 21, 22, 23.

_As having nothing, and yet possessing all things_,--2 COR. vi. 10.

Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be,
As more of heaven in each we see:
Some softening gleam of love and prayer
Shall dawn on every cross and care.

J. KEBLE.

Out of love and hatred, out of earnings, and borrowings, and lendings, and losses; out of sickness and pain, out of wooing and worshipping; out of travelling, and voting, and watching, and caring; out of disgrace and contempt, comes our tuition in the serene and beautiful laws. Let him not slur his lesson; let him learn it by heart. Let him endeavor exactly, bravely, and cheerfully, to solve the problem of that life which is set before _him_. And this, by punctual action, and not by promises or dreams. Believing, as in God, in the presence and favor of the grandest influences, let him deserve that favor, and learn how to receive and use it, by fidelity also to the lower observances.

R. W. EMERSON.

April 15

_We know that all things work together for good to them that love God_.--ROM. viii. 28.

_As for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good_.--GEN. 1. 20.

Ill that He blesses is our good,
And unblest good is ill;
And all is right that seems most wrong,
If it be His sweet Will.

F. W. FABER.

To those who know themselves, all things work together for good, and all things seem to be, as they are to them, good. The goods which God gives seem "very good," and God Himself in them, because they know that they deserve them not. The evils which God allows and overrules seem also "very good," because they see in them His loving hand, put forth to heal them of what shuts out God from the soul. They love God intensely, in that He is so good to them in each, and every, the least good, because it is more than they deserve: how much more in the greatest! They love God for every, and each, the very greatest of what seem evils, knowing them to be, from His love, real goods. For He by whom "all the hairs of our head are numbered," and who "knoweth whereof we are made," directs everything which befalls us in life, in perfect wisdom and love, to the well-being of our souls.

E. B. PUSEY.

April 16

_The very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it_.--I THESS. v. 23, 24.

Be still, my soul!--the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief and pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide,--
In every change He faithful will remain.

HYMNS FROM THE LAND OF LUTHER.

It was no relief from temporal evils that the Apostle promised. No; the mercy of God might send them to the stake, or the lions; it was still His mercy, if it but kept them "unspotted from the world." It might expose them to insult, calumny, and wrong; they received it still as mercy, if it "established them in every good word and work." O brethren! how many of _you_ are content with _such_ faithfulness as this on the part of your heavenly Father? Is this, indeed, the tone and tenor of your prayers?

WM. ARCHER BUTLER.

The highest pinnacle of the spiritual life is not happy joy in unbroken sunshine, but absolute and undoubting trust in the love of God.

A. W. THOROLD.

April 17

_Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust_.--PS. xl. 4.

_That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life_.--I TIM. ii. 2.

Just to let thy Father do
What He will;
Just to know that He is true,
And be still;
Just to trust Him, this is all!
Then the day will surely be
Peaceful, whatsoe'er befall,
Bright and blessed, calm and free.

F. R. HAVERGAL.

Every morning compose your soul for a tranquil day, and all through it be careful often to recall your resolution, and bring yourself back to it, so to say. If something discomposes you, do not be upset, or troubled; but having discovered the fact, humble yourself gently before God, and try to bring your mind into a quiet attitude. Say to yourself, "Well, I have made a false step; now I must go more carefully and watchfully." Do this each time, however frequently you fall. When you are at peace use it profitably, making constant acts of meekness, and seeking to be calm even in the most trifling things. Above all, do not be discouraged; be patient; wait; strive to attain a calm, gentle spirit.

ST. FRANCIS DE SALES.

April 18

_What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul_?--DEUT. x. 12.

What asks our Father of His children save
Justice and mercy and humility,
A reasonable service of good deeds,
Pure living, tenderness to human needs,
Reverence, and trust, and prayer for light to see
The Master's footprints in our daily ways?
No knotted scourge, nor sacrificial knife,
But the calm beauty of an ordered life
Whose every breathing is unworded praise.

J. G. WHITTIER.

Give up yourself to God without reserve; in singleness of heart meeting everything that every day brings forth, as something that comes from God, and is to be received and gone through by you, in such an heavenly use of it, as you would suppose the holy Jesus would have done in such occurrences. This is an attainable degree of perfection.

WM. LAW.

We ought to measure our actual lot, and to fulfil it; to be with all our strength that which our lot requires and allows. What is beyond it, is no calling of ours. How much peace, quiet, confidence, and strength, would people attain, if they would go by this plain rule.

H. E. MANNING.

April 19

_The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him_.--EZRA viii. 22.

_Into Thy hand I commit my spirit_.--PS. xxxi. 5.

Thou layest Thy hand on the fluttering heart,
And sayest, "Be still!"
The silence and shadow are only a part
Of Thy sweet will;
Thy presence is with me, and where Thou art
I fear no ill.

F. R. HAVERGAL.

Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit from thy own thoughts, and then thou wilt feel the principle of God, to turn thy mind to the Lord God, from whom life comes; whereby thou mayest receive His strength, and power to allay all blustering storms and tempests. That is it which works up into patience, into innocency, into soberness, into stillness, into stayedness, into quietness, up to God with His power. Therefore be still awhile from thy own thoughts, searching, seeking, desires, and imaginations, and be stayed in the principle of God in thee, that it may raise thy mind up to God, and stay it upon God; and thou wilt find strength from Him, and find Him to be a God at hand, a present help in the time of trouble and need.

GEORGE FOX.

April 20

_I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry_.--PS. xl. 1.

_Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope,_--ROM. v. 3, 4.

Lord, we have wandered forth through doubt and sorrow,
And Thou hast made each step an onward one;
And we will ever trust each unknown morrow,--
Thou wilt sustain us till its work is done.

S. JOHNSON.

It is possible, when the future is dim, when our depressed faculties can form no bright ideas of the perfection and happiness of a better world,--it is possible still to cling to the conviction of God's merciful purpose towards His creatures, of His parental goodness even in suffering; still to feel that the path of duty, though trodden with a heavy heart, leads to peace; still to be true to conscience; still to do our work, to resist temptation, to be useful, though with diminished energy, to give up our wills when we cannot rejoice under God's mysterious providence. In this patient, though uncheered obedience, we become prepared for light. The soul gathers force.

WM. E. CHANNING.

April 21

_Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect_.--MATT. v. 48.

_As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness_.--PS. xvii. 15.

The righteousness he marks in Thee
His will to right doth win;
Delighting in Thy purity,
He deeply drinks it in.

T. H. GILL.

To love God is to love His character. For instance, God is Purity. And to be pure in thought and look, to turn away from unhallowed books and conversation, to abhor the moments in which we have not been pure, is to love God. God is Love; and to love men till private attachments have expanded into a philanthropy which embraces all,--at last even the evil and enemies with compassion,--that is to love God. God is Truth. To be true, to hate every form of falsehood, to live a brave, true, real life,--that is to love God. God is Infinite; and to love the boundless, reaching on from grace to grace, adding charity to faith, and rising upwards ever to see the Ideal still above us, and to die with it unattained, aiming insatiably to be perfect even as the Father is perfect,--that is to love God.

F. W. ROBERTSON.

April 22

_Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory_.--I PETER i. 8.

If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would be all sunshine
In the sweetness of our Lord.

F. W. FABER.

What would it be to love absolutely a Being absolutely lovely,--to be able to give our whole existence, every thought, every act, every desire, to that adored One,--to know that He accepts it all, and loves us in return as God alone can love? This happiness grows forever. The larger our natures become, the wider our scope of thought, the stronger our will, the more fervent our affections, the deeper must be the rapture of such God-granted prayer. Every sacrifice _resolved on_ opens wide the gate; every sacrifice _accomplished_ is a step towards the paradise within. Soon it will be no transitory glimpse, no rapture of a day, to be followed by clouds and coldness. Let us but labor, and pray, and wait, and the intervals of human frailty shall grow shorter and less dark, the days of our delight in God longer and brighter, till at last life shall be nought but His love, our eyes shall never grow dim, His smile never turn away.

F. B. COBBE.

April 23

_These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work_.--I CHRON. iv. 23.

A lowlier task on them is laid,
With love to make the labor light;
And there their beauty they must shed
On quiet homes, and lost to sight.
Changed are their visions high and fair,
Yet, calm and still, they labor there.

HYMNS OF THE AGES.

Anywhere and everywhere we may dwell "with the King for His work." We may be in a very unlikely or unfavorable place for this; it may be in a literal country life, with little enough to be seen of the "goings" of the King around us; it may be among hedges of all sorts, hindrances in all directions; it may be, furthermore, with our hands full of all manner of pottery for our daily task. No matter! The King who placed us "there" will come and dwell there with us; the hedges are all right, or He would soon do away with them; and it does not follow that what seems to hinder our way may not be for its very protection; and as for the pottery, why, that is just exactly what He has seen fit to put into our hands, and therefore it is, for the present, "His work."

F. R. HAVERGAL.

April 24

_Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ_.--GAL. vi. 2.

Is thy cruse of comfort wasting?
Rise and share it with another,
And through all the years of famine,
It shall serve thee and thy brother.
Is thy burden hard and heavy?
Do thy steps drag heavily?
Help to bear thy brother's burden;
God will bear both it and thee.

ELIZABETH CHARLES.

However perplexed you may at any hour become about some question of truth, one refuge and resource is always at hand: you can do something for some one besides yourself. When your own burden is heaviest, you can always lighten a little some other burden. At the times when you cannot see God, there is still open to you this sacred possibility, to _show_ God; for it is the love and kindness of human hearts through which the divine reality comes home to men, whether they name it or not. Let this thought, then, stay with you: there may be times when you cannot find help, but there is no time when you cannot give help.

GEORGE S. MERRIAM.

April 25

_Surely, I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child_.--PS. cxxxi. 2.

Quiet, Lord, my froward heart,
Make me teachable and mild,
Upright, simple, free from art,
Make me as a weaned child;
From distrust and envy free,
Pleased with all that pleaseth Thee.

J. NEWTON.

Oh! look not after great things: small breathings, small desires after the Lord, if true and pure, are sweet beginnings of life. Take heed of despising "the day of small things," by looking after some great visitation, proportionable to thy distress, according to thy eye. Nay, thou must become a child; thou must lose thy own will quite by degrees. Thou must wait for life to be measured out by the Father, and be content with what proportion, and at what time, He shall please to measure.