Ask Him to increase your powers of sympathy: to give you more quickness and depth of sympathy, in little things as well as great. Opportunities of doing a kindness are often lost from mere want of thought. Half a dozen lines of kindness may bring sunshine into the whole day of some sick person. Think of the pleasure you might give to some one who is much shut up, and who has fewer pleasures than you have, by sharing with her some little comfort or enjoyment that you have learnt to look upon as a necessary of life,--the pleasant drive, the new book, flowers from the country, etc. Try to put yourself in another's place. Ask "What should I like myself, if I were hard-worked, or sick, or lonely?" Cultivate the _habit_ of sympathy. G. H. WILKINSON. August 22 _I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service_.--ROM. xii. 1. Thou hast my flesh, Thy hallowed shrine, Devoted solely to Thy will; Here let Thy light forever shine, This house still let Thy presence fill; O Source of Life, live, dwell, and move In me, till all my life be love! JOACHIM LANCE. May it not be a comfort to those of us who feel we have not the mental or spiritual power that others have, to notice that the living sacrifice mentioned in Rom. xii. 1, is our "bodies"? Of course, that includes the mental power, but does it not also include the loving, sympathizing glance, the kind, encouraging word, _the ready errand for another_, the work of our hands, opportunities for all of which come oftener in the day than for the mental power we are often tempted to envy? May we be enabled to offer willingly that which we have. ANON. August 23 _Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not_.--JER. xlv. 5. I would not have the restless will That hurries to and fro, Seeking for some great thing to do, Or secret thing to know; I would be treated as a child, And guided where I go. A. L. WARING. Oh! be little, be little; and then thou wilt be content with little; and if thou feel, now and then, a check or a secret smiting,--in _that_ is the Father's love; be not over-wise, nor over-eager, in thy own willing, running, and desiring, and thou mayest feel it so; and by degrees come to the knowledge of thy Guide, who will lead thee, step by step, in the path of life, and teach thee to follow. Be still, and wait for light and strength. I. PENINGTON. Sink into the sweet and blessed littleness, where thou livest by grace alone. Contemplate with delight the holiness and goodness in God, which thou dost not find in thyself. How lovely it is to be nothing when God is all! G. TERSTEEGEN. August 24 _And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares, and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection_.--LUKE viii. 14.