Our Father, we would face this day in conscious companionship with Thee. Give us to know Thy will, to do Thy work. Help us to interpret aright Thy constant revelation of love in nature and in the experiences of life. Give us strength so to will and so to act that we may make this day rich in the joy that comes from helpful living. May divine impulse find quick expression in righteous deed. In Thine unresting effort to make this world Thine own may we join with glad hearts. Rejoicing in Thy love, strong in the consciousness of Thy presence, may we go to our day's work with unwavering purpose to do Thy will. Amen. LATHAN A. CRANDALL. July 19 _A lily grows mysteriously, pushing up its solid weight of stem and leaf in the teeth of gravity. Shaped into beauty by secret and invisible fingers, the flower develops we know not how. But we do not wonder at it. Every day the thing is done; it is Nature, it is God. We are spiritual enough at least to understand that. But when the soul rises slowly above the world, pushing up its delicate virtues in the teeth of sin, shaping itself mysteriously into the image of Christ, we deny that the power is not of man. A strong will, we say, a high ideal, the reward of virtue, Christian influence--these will account for it. Spiritual character is merely the product of anxious work, self-command, and self-denial. We allow, that is to say, a miracle to the lily, but none to the man. The lily may grow; the man must fret and toil and spin._ HENRY DRUMMOND. This morning, our God, we need Thee! Give us Thyself afresh in the holy inspiration of heart warmth and burning love, that today we may have power from above while we walk and toil with things and folks of earth. May we be the vase to hold the blossoming beauty of Thy unfolding. So may that beauty which Thou givest unfold in acts which we are led to perform, and the holiness of this day set fast character drawn from Thee. Thus may we all who are Thy children gladden the earth with unfolding beauty and kindness and shut out the things that are earthy. Amen. E. E. SMALL. July 20