--Thomas Gibbons. Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again. --Luke 6. 38. My Father, preserve my soul from all selfishness. May I delight in thy teaching as I trust in thy word. I pray that I may not only speak truthfully, but that I may leave the door of my spirit open, that truth may always enter and abide continually. Amen. DECEMBER He comes--he comes--the Frost Spirit comes: You may trace his footsteps now On the naked woods and the blasted fields, And the brown hill's withered brow. He has smitten the leaves of the gray old trees, Where their green came forth, And the winds, which follow wherever he goes, Have shaken them down to earth. He comes--he comes--the Frost Spirit comes! Let us meet him as we may, And turn with the light of the parlor fire His evil power away; And gather closer the circle round, Where the firelight dances high, And laugh at the shriek of the baffled fiend, As his sounding wing goes by. --John G. Whittier. DECEMBER FIRST Dr. George Birkbeck died 1841. Queen Alexandra born 1844. R.W. Dale born 1829. Ebenezer Elliott died 1849. We would fill the hours with the sweetest things, If we had but a day: We should drink alone at the purest springs, In our upward way: We should guide our wayward or wearied will, By the clearest light: We should keep our eyes on the heavenly hills, If they lay in sight: We should be from our clamorous selves set free, To work and pray: And be what the Father would have us to be, If we had but a day. --Margaret E. Sangster. Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. --Philippians 4. 8. Gracious Father, help me to understand that my life grows out of what I put into my days. Forgive me for the unspoken words and the kind deeds which I kept for rare days, and had so few occasions to use. May I be as useful in kindness as I am in work, remembering that to thee every day is a golden day. Amen. DECEMBER SECOND David Masson born 1822. John Brown hanged, Charlestown, West Virginia 1859. Hugh Miller died 1856. The solitude of life is known to us all; for the most part we are alone, and the voices of friends come only faint and broken across the impassable gulfs which surround every human soul. --Hamilton Mabie.