Gracious Father, thou knowest what I am and the condition of my life. May I seek thy will for me. Grant that I may never struggle for consolation through indulgence and indolence, but in my sorrow and failure may I reach out for thy enduring comfort. Amen. FEBRUARY FOURTH Mark Hopkins born 1802. W. Harrison Ainsworth born 1805. Jean Richepin born 1849. Thomas Carlyle died 1881. Life is not a May-game, but a battle and a march, a warfare with principalities and powers. No idle promenade through fragrant orange groves and green flowery spaces, waited on by coral muses, and the rosy hours; it is a stern pilgrimage through the rough, burning, sandy solitudes, through regions of thick-ribbed ice. --Thomas Carlyle. For all sweet and pleasant passages in the great story of life men may well thank God; for leisure and ease and health and friendship may God make us truly and humbly grateful; but our chief song of thanksgiving must be always for our kinship with him, with all that such divinity of greatness brings of peril, hardship, toil, and sacrifice. --Hamilton Mabie. Thy bars shall be iron and brass; And as thy days, so shall thy strength be. --Deuteronomy 33. 25. My Father, help me to choose the road that leads to my work, and may I not fail to reach it, by wandering away from it. Keep me in touch with the human side of life, holding in mind that "Truth and honesty are the noblest works of God." Amen. FEBRUARY FIFTH Sir Robert Peel born 1788. Ole Boreman Bull born 1810. John Muir born 1810. Dwight L. Moody born 1837. When a great man dies, then has the time come for putting us in mind that he was alive! --Thomas Carlyle. If I practice one day, I can see the result. If I practice two days, my friends can see it. If I practice three days, the great public can see it. --Ole Bull. Those who say they will forgive but can't forget an injury simply bury the hatchet while they leave the handle out, ready for immediate use. --Dwight L. Moody. But I hold not my life of any account as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish my course. --Acts 20. 24. Almighty God, if I am uncertain, and tremble at the crossroads in doubt of the right way, may I wait and be led by thee, and follow on, even if the way be dark and rough. May I be faithful and have thy presence as thou promised at the end. Amen. FEBRUARY SIXTH Queen Anne of England born 1665. Aaron Burr born 1756. Sir Henry Irving born 1838. Nothing earthly will make me give up my work in despair. I encourage myself in the Lord my God and go forward. --David Livingstone. To expect defeat is nine tenths of defeat itself. --Marion Crawford. I do not see how any man can afford, for the sake of his nerves and his nap, to spare any action in which he can partake. --Ralph Waldo Emerson.