Let us not always say, "Spite of this flesh to-day I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!" As the bird wings and sings, Let us cry, "All good things Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more now than flesh helps soul!" --Robert Browning. Surely goodness and loving-kindness shall follow me all the days of my life. --Psalm 23. 6. Loving Father, help me to foresee that it is what I care for to-day that determines how I will find old age. May I not bring my closing years to weariness and lonesomeness, but may I have the restfulness that comes with communing with thee. Amen. JANUARY TWENTY-EIGHTH Charlemagne died 814. Sir Francis Drake died 1596. Peter the Great died 1725. Charles George Gordon (Chinese Gordon) born 1833. He only is advancing in life whose heart is getting softer, whose blood warmer, whose brain quicker, and whose spirit is entering into living peace. And the men who have this life in them are the true lords and kings of the earth--they, and they only. --John Ruskin. Just where you stand in the conflict, There is your place! Just where you think you are useless, Hide not your face! God placed you there for a purpose, What e'er it be; Think you he has chosen you for it: Work loyally. --Anonymous. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! --Romans 11. 33. My Father, I thank thee that thou hast endowed me with a will; help me to use it aright. May I have the knowledge of what thou dost demand of my soul, that I may do my best with what thou hast given me. Help me that I may reach out for the highest ideals of life. Amen. JANUARY TWENTY-NINTH Emanuel Swedenborg born 1688. Thomas Paine born 1737. Adelaide Ristori born 1822. William McKinley, Ohio, twenty-fourth President United States, born 1843. God will keep no nation in supreme place that will not do supreme duty. --William McKinley. Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and the angels know of us. --Thomas Paine. The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another. --George Eliot. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, Upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. So shall we not go back from thee: Quicken thou us, and we will call upon thy name. --Psalm 80. 17, 18. My Father, I pray that I may be just and be given to kindness. May I be conscious of my virtues, and use them to overcome my faults. May I hear clearly thy call that I may be sure of the way as I lead others to duty and happiness. Amen. JANUARY THIRTIETH Archbishop Butler born 1774. Walter Savage Landor born 1775. Henri Rochefort born 1830.