The fountains of joy and sorrow are for the most part locked up in ourselves.... There come to great, solitary, and sorely smitten souls moments of clear insight, of assurance of victory, of unspeakable fellowship with truth and life and God, which outweigh years of sorrow and bitterness. --Hamilton Mabie. And ye therefore now have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh away from you. --John 16. 22. My Father, may I remember that the days of my life that I give over to grief can never be reclaimed. Help me that I may not want to keep sorrow in my life, but with faith may I believe that "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Amen. DECEMBER FOURTEENTH Daniel Neal born 1678. Rev. Charles Wolfe born 1791. George Washington died 1799. Frances Ridley Havergal born 1836. Seldom can the heart be lonely, If it seek a lonelier still; Self-forgetting, seeking only Emptier cups of love to fill. --Frances R. Havergal. When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought. And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste * * * * * But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restored, and sorrows end. --William Shakespeare. The Lord Jehovah hath given me the tongue of them that are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary. --Isaiah 50. 4. Gracious Father, keep me cheerful and courageous, that I may not be given to weary murmurings. May my hours of solitude be spent profitably as they pass. Grant that I may be a help to those who are in need of sympathy and encouragement, and through the peace that is given to me help them to a tranquil life. Amen. DECEMBER FIFTEENTH Catherine of Aragon born 1485. George Romney born 1734. Franklin B. Sanborn born 1831. Yet frequent visitors shall kiss the shrine, And ever keep its vestal lamp alight; All noble thoughts, all dreams divinely bright, That waken or delight this soul of mine. --F.B. Sanborn. One small cloud can hide the sunlight; Loose one string, the pearls are scattered; Think one thought, a soul may perish; Say one word, a heart may break. --A.A. Procter. Self-scrutiny is often the most unpleasant, and always the most difficult, of moral actions. But it is also the most important and salutary; for, as the wisest of the Greeks said, "An unexamined life is not worth living." --J. Strachan. Try your own selves, whether ye are in the faith; prove your own selves. --2 Corinthians 13. 5.