To have an ideal or to have none, to have this ideal or that--this is what digs gulfs between men, even between those who live in the same family circle, under the same roof, or in the same room. You must love with the same love, think with the same thoughts as some one else if you are to escape solitude. --Amiel. The plans of the heart belong to man; But the answer of the tongue is from Jehovah. --Proverbs 16. 1. Lord God, help me to take in the glory of life, that my spirit may never be lonely, even though I may have to be much alone. I pray that thou wilt spare me the loneliness and the solitude that may be brought on by selfishness. Make me considerate of others. May I soar above the disappointments and losses that may come to me, and stay where I may have thy companionship. Amen. DECEMBER THIRD Samuel Crompton born 1753. Sir Frederick Leighton born 1830. Robert Louis Stevenson died 1894. To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying "Amen" to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive. --Robert Louis Stevenson. There is precious instruction to be got by finding we were wrong. Let a man try faithfully, manfully to be right. He will grow daily more and more right. --Thomas Carlyle. The hero is the man who is immovably centered. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. Let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience: and having our body washed with pure water. --Hebrews 10. 22. Gracious Father, grant that I may not be content to follow through ignorance and indolence and be led to the lowly paths of life. Make my Hie positive; and from my surroundings may I look out and struggle to mount to the highest ideals, that I may be qualified to select the best in life. Amen. DECEMBER FOURTH Cardinal Richelieu died 1642. William Drummond died 1649. Madame Recamier born 1777. Thomas Carlyle born 1795. John Kitto born 1804. It is with a man's soul as it is with nature: the beginning of Creation is--Light. Till the eye have visions the whole members are in bonds. Divine moment, when over the tempest-tost Soul, as once over the wild-weltering Chaos, it is spoken: Let there be Light! --Thomas Carlyle. What in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That to the light of this great argument I may assert eternal Providence And justify the ways of God to men. --John Milton. For thou art my lamp, O Jehovah; And Jehovah will lighten my darkness. --2 Samuel 22. 29. My Lord, forgive me if I have allowed bitterness and misery to darken my life, for my soul yearns continually for the light. In thy compassion lead me to the "sunny side of the road where the beautiful flowers grow," that my path may be made bright and cheerful all the rest of the way. Amen. DECEMBER FIFTH