Gracious Father, help me that I may not be thoughtless and unkind. May I be gentle and sympathetic. Forgive me for any unhappiness which I may have made, and may it be mine to know the rejoicing that comes hi lifting a discouraged life in time. Amen. DECEMBER SIXTEENTH John Selden born 1584. Francois La Rochefoucauld born 1610. George Whitefield born 1714. Jane Austen born 1775. So live that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan that moves To that mysterious realm where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him and lies down to pleasant dreams. --William Cullen Bryant. As the wind extinguishes a taper but kindles the fire, so absence is the death of an ordinary passion, but lends strength to the greater. --La Rochefoucauld. If a man die, shall he live again? --Job 14. 14. Heavenly Father, with thy help may I enter into the hope that overcomes the fear of death. May my days be full of aspiration, and through faith may my life move toward the eternal and the sublime. Amen. DECEMBER SEVENTEENTH Sir Roger L'Estrange born 1616. Ludwig van Beethoven born 1770. Sir Humphry Davy born 1779. John Greenleaf Whittier born 1807. The night is mother of the day, The winter of the spring; And ever upon old decay The greenest mosses cling. Behind the cloud the starlight lurks, Through showers the sunbeams fall; For God, who loveth all his works, Has left his hope with all. --John Greenleaf Whittier. The sun set; but not his hope: Stars rose; his faith was earlier up. --Ralph Waldo Emerson. What I am I have made myself. --Sir Humphry Davy. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: My flesh also shall dwell in safety. --Psalm 16. 9. My Father, may I never be content to pass by thy beautiful offerings and keep on in wretched despair. Save me if I may 'be inclining toward misery. Give me the spirit of repose, and help me to confide in thee as I daily seek the strength of thy love. Amen. DECEMBER EIGHTEENTH Charles Wesley born 1708. Lyman Abbott born 1835. Samuel Rogers died 1855. Sir Joseph John Thomson born 1845. And let this feeble body fail, And let it faint or die; My soul shall quit this mournful vale, And soar to worlds on high. --Charles Wesley. It were better to live an immortal life and be robbed of immortality hereafter by some supernal power, than to live the mortal, fleshly animal life, and live it endlessly. Who would not rather have a right to immortality than to be immortal without a right to be? --Lyman Abbott.