NOVEMBER 10 "Now, what is the first step towards the winning of that rest? It is the giving up of self-will and the receiving of God's will as our own--and what that means is clear. It is to make our life at one with God's character, with justice and purity, with truth and love, with mercy and joy. It is the surrender of our own pleasure and the making of God's desire for us the master of our life. That is the first step--a direction of the soul to God. The second has to do with mankind. It is the replacing of all self-love by the love of our fellow-men; a direction of the soul to God through man. "These two ways are in reality one; and there is no other way, if we search the whole world over, in which we may attain rest. Simple as it sounds, it is the very last way many of us seek. We fight against this truth, and it has to be beaten into us by pain. Clear as it seems, it is a secret which is as difficult to discover as the Elixir of Life, but it is so difficult because we do not will to discover it." _The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE. The Duty of Happiness NOVEMBER 11 "I cannot think but that the world would be better and brighter if our teachers would dwell on the Duty of Happiness as well as the Happiness of Duty." Lord AVEBURY. "Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some." DICKENS. "Half the world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of happiness. They think it consists in having and getting, and in being served by others. It consists in giving and in serving others." HENRY DRUMMOND. Discontent NOVEMBER 12 "He or she that is idle, be they of what condition they will, never so rich, so well allied, fortunate, happy--let them have all things in abundance and felicity that heart can wish and desire,--all contentment--so long as he, or she, or they are idle, they shall never be pleased, never well in mind or body, but weary still, sickly still, vexed still, loathing still, weeping, sighing, grieving, suspecting, offended with the world, with every object, wishing themselves gone or dead, or else carried away with some foolish phantasy or other." BURTON. "We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves. The consciousness of wrong-doing makes us irritable, and our heart in its cunning quarrels with what is outside it, in order that it may deafen the clamour within." _Amiel's Journal._ "Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig." MARCUS AURELIUS. Self-centred People