De da'kest hour, dey allus say, Is des' befo' de dawn, But it's moughty ha'd a-waitin' Were de night goes frownin' on; An' it's moughty ha'd a-hopin' When de clouds is big and black, An' all de t'ings you's waited fu' Has failed, er gone to wrack-- But des' keep on a joggin' ind a little bit o song. De moon is allus brightah w'en de night's been long. --Paul Laurence Dunbar. Weeping may tarry for the night, But joy cometh in the morning. --Psalm 30. 5. My Father, I thank thee for life and its faculties. May I not be deceived by gratification and miss the permanent satisfactions. Make me brave that I may be courageous in affliction, and not be dismayed over humiliations and disappointments. May I be kept in harmony with thy will. Amen. JUNE TWENTY-EIGHTH Henry VIII born 1491. Jean Jacques Rousseau born 1712. John Wesley born 1703. Frederick William Faber born 1814. Workman of God! O lose not heart, But learn what God is like; And in the darkest battlefield Thou shalt know where to strike. For right is right, since God is God; And right the day must win; To doubt would be disloyalty, To falter would be sin. --F. W. Faber. Leisure and I have parted company. I look upon the world as my parish. The best of all is, God is with us. To overdo is to undo. --John Wesley. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only. --James 1. 22. Lord God, I pray for a desire to work. May I not be deceived in my convictions, and work for that of which I may afterward be ashamed. Lead me into a clear conception of right and wrong. Help me to see as thou dost see, that I may walk with confidence in thy steps. Amen. JUNE TWENTY-NINTH Paul Rubens born 1577. Baron John De Kalb born 1721. Elizabeth Barrett Browning died 1861. Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, Ere the sorrow comes with years? They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, And they cannot stop their tears. The young lambs are bleating in the meadows; The young birds are chirping in the nests; The young fawns are playing with the shadows; The young flowers are blowing toward the west: But the young, young children, O my brothers! They are weeping bitterly. They are weeping in the playtime of the others, In the country of the free. --Elizabeth B. Browning. Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. --Ezekiel 16. 20.