There are evergreen men and women in the world, praise be to God!--not many of them, but a few. They are not the showy folk. (Nature is an old-fashioned shopkeeper; she never puts her best goods in the window.) They are only the quiet, strong folk; they are stronger than Fate. The storms of life sweep over them, and the biting frosts creep round them; but the winds and the frosts pass away, and they are still standing, green and straight. --Jerome K. Jerome. And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water, That bringeth forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also doth not wither; And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. --Psalm 1.3. Gracious Lord, may I not spend most in equipment and forget the tides, which may desert me on the sands, or the rocks in the channels, which may crush the finest vessel. May I be prepared for the hard knocks if they come, but may I know how to keep clear of them. Amen. NOVEMBER EIGHTEENTH Sir David Wilkie born 1785. Louis J. M. Daguerre born 1789. Cyrus Field born 1819. William S. Gilbert born 1836. If e'er when man had fallen asleep, I heard a voice, "Believe no more," A warmth within the breast would melt The freezing reason's colder part, And like a man in wrath, the heart Stood up and answered, "I have felt." --Alfred Tennyson. Faith is the deep want of the soul. We have faculties for the spiritual, as truly as for the outward world. God, the foundation of all existence, may become to the mind the most real of all beings. The believer feels himself resting on an everlasting foundation. --William Henry Channing. And they said one to another, Was not our heart burning within us, while he spake to us in the way, while he opened to us the scriptures? --Luke 24. 32. Lord God, save me from a hard and doubting heart. May I be trustful and come to thee in faith. All the days of my life may my lips sing thy praise as I unfold thy love and purposes. Amen. NOVEMBER NINETEENTH Nicolas Poussin died 1665. Albert Thorwaldsen born 1770. James A. Garfield, Ohio, twentieth President United States, born 1831. Mary Hallock Foote born 1847. Count Lyoff (Leo) Tolstoy died 1910. And son I live, you see, Go through the world, try, prove, reject, Prefer, still struggling to effect My warfare; happy that I can Be crossed and thwarted as a man, Not left in God's contempt apart, With ghastly smooth life, dead at heart, Tame in earth's paddock, as her prize. --Robert Browning. Be good at the depths of you, and you will discover that those who surround you will be good even to the same depths. Therein lies a force that has no name; a spiritual rivalry that has no resistance. --Maurice Maeterlinck. First of all, I must make myself a man; if I do not succeed in that, I can succeed in nothing. --James A. Garfield.